Know Who You Are Following Pt.3

2nd Peter 1-3
We are continuing into our study of false leaders that will rise up and have risen up in our churches today. We need to know who we are following. 2^nd Peter gives us an outline to look at and descriptions to know to spot these fake leaders and expose them in our lives, so we do not end up following someone down the wrong path, so we don’t end up losing sight of Jesus and we move away from Him rather than to Him. I had asked you to ask yourself a question, “Is the person that is leading me, leading me towards Christ or away from Christ?” If they are not leading you towards Christ then they are leading you away.

Many Will Follow Their Destructive Ways

2nd Peter 2:1-2
“¹ But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. ² And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed.” – NKJ

Along with these false teachers many are going to follow their destructive paths. We live in a society today that tells us we need to accept all kinds of religion. That we should not challenge what is true. That we should love like Jesus loved. That we should not cause waves when it comes to the Bible and not speak out about the lies that are being professed in false religions. Now a days we have to be “politically correct” in every area including the Word of God for fear of hurting someone’s feelings. So we sugar coat the Gospel message and we tailor it to fit the lives of everyone around us teaching that God accepts everybody no matter who they are or who they worship that, God is a loving god and He doesn’t mind if you go on living your life the way you want to. People do not want to cause a controversy in their family, at their jobs, or even in their churches so they follow these destructive paths and are leading others down the same path, a path of destruction.

When you read Scripture not only does it give us a description of these false teachers, but God also gives us examples and demonstrates the consequences of accepting these false teachings.

Genesis 3:1-5
“¹ Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"  ² The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, ³ but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.' "
⁴ "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. ⁵ "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” – NIV

False teachers in their destructive way will twist Scripture. They have a little bit of truth in it, but they leave out certain aspects of it or certain parts of it (but if all of it isn't true, then isn't it a lie?). Now the Bible doesn’t say that Eve knew who was deceiving her. She didn’t know it was a false teacher, she just thought that it made sense when she heard this new message. After all it did have some truth in it, but it also had just enough error in it to deceive her.

This is what God said:

Genesis 2:16
“You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; ¹⁷ but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” – NIV

God said, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden except one”, but the serpent said, “Did God really say: You must not eat from any tree in the garden”. Do you see it? There is a little bit of truth in what the serpent said, but it is not all truth. This is how false teachers come in. It sounds good, it sounds like truth, but in reality it is deception. Very cunning, very sneaky, very secretive. We are still seeing the consequences today from this false teaching.

Another example is the Ten Spies who were sent in to the land of Canaan, the land flowing with milk and honey the Promised Land. But wait, Moses sent out 12 spies? Your right he did, but only two of them were teaching truth.

Numbers 13:26-33
“ ²⁶ They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land. ²⁷ They gave Moses this account: "We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. ²⁸ But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. ²⁹ The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan."
³⁰ Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, "We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it."
³¹ But the men who had gone up with him said, "We can't attack those people; they are stronger than we are." ³² And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, "The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. ³³ We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.” – NIV

We see here that ten out of the twelve went into the land of Canaan and had seen what inhabited their promise land and they came back with a report that they cannot go in and take the land for fear of defeat. They reported that they were too small to do anything about what God had promised them. So they began to rise up and cause division. Remember God hates division among the church. Look what happened:

Numbers 14:1-4
“¹ That night all the people of the community raised their voices and wept aloud. ² All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, "If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this desert! ³ Why is the LORD bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn't it be better for us to go back to Egypt?" ⁴ And they said to each other, "We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.” – NIV

The Children of Israel listened to these false leaders and wanted to go back to the way that they were. They even wanted to kick out their pastor and get a new one. They lost the truth. They were being led astray because they had forgotten what God had promised them:

Exodus 6:2-8
“ ² God also said to Moses, "I am the LORD. ³ I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name the LORD I did not make myself known to them. ⁴ I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, where they lived as aliens. ⁵ Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered my covenant.
⁶ "Therefore, say to the Israelites: 'I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. ⁷ I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. ⁸ And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the LORD.'” – NIV

God said “I will bring you out the yoke of the enemy, out of the yoke of slavery, I will free you, not only free you but redeem you, and I will….not I might, but I will bring you to a land, not just any land, but a land flowing with milk and honey, and I….Your God….Your Lord…the King of Kings…The Alpha and Omega…I God will give it to you as your own possession! God knew who lived there and he was going to send an eviction notice with the new owners….but they had forgotten they were given one when they went into the land to check out their new real-estate! They forgot the truth!

Jesus says something that is profound and opens this passage of Scripture here in Numbers wide open!
John 8:31-31
“³¹To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. ³²Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." – NIV

When you know the truth of God’s Word and what it says you are set free from the bondage of false leadership! You are set free from the lies of false teachers! You will be able to spot a fake real quick. IF the Children of Israel would have remembered the truth, they would not have followed the destructive path of those ten leaders which caused them to delay the promise God had for them and it turned a weeklong trip into 40 years. Not only that, but only two survived out of the twelve that explored the land:

Numbers 14:36-38
“³⁶ So the men Moses had sent to explore the land, who returned and made the whole community grumble against him by spreading a bad report about it- ³⁷ these men responsible for spreading the bad report about the land were struck down and died of a plague before the LORD. ³⁸ Of the men who went to explore the land, only Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh survived.” – NIV

We need to understand that these false leaders will lead people down a road of destruction. In the New Testament in Jude, we see these warning as well. In fact Jude opens with a message:

Jude 3-4
“ ³ Dear friends, I had been eagerly planning to write to you about the salvation we all share. But now I find that I must write about something else, urging you to defend the faith that God has entrusted once for all time to his holy people. ⁴ I say this because some ungodly people have wormed their way into your churches, saying that God’s marvelous grace allows us to live immoral lives. The condemnation of such people was recorded long ago, for they have denied our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” - NLT

Jude states in his opening that he wanted to write about salvation to the church but he felt this was an important message that needs to get out. He wanted to preach one thing, but God intervened and told him to preach something else. If you continue to read throughout Jude he compares those false teachers to:

· Children of Israel who did not remain faithful – vs. 5
· Fallen angels – vs. 6
· Sodom & Gomorrah – vs. 7
· Like animals, live on instincts instead of by the Spirit of the lord – vs. 10
· Follow the footsteps of Cain – vs. 11
· Balaam who deceived people for money – vs. 11
· Like Korah who was in rebellion against Moses (Numbers 16:1-3) – vs. 11
· When they fellowship with you they can shipwreck you like a reef – vs. 12
· They bear no fruit – vs. 12
· Grumblers, Complainers – vs. 16
· Satisfy their own desires – vs.16
· Brag about themselves– vs. 16
· Flatter others to get their way – vs. 16

Jude is saying that they lead a destructive lifestyle and those that follow them will have the same destructive path and end up in the same destination. It is a warning that we need to listen to today. The time is here and now that these false leaders are rising up in the churches.

Jude 17-23
“¹⁷ But you, my dear friends, must remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ said. ¹⁸ They told you that in the last times there would be scoffers whose purpose in life is to satisfy their ungodly desires. ¹⁹ These people are the ones who are creating divisions among you. They follow their natural instincts because they do not have God’s Spirit in them.
²⁰ But you, dear friends, must build each other up in your most holy faith, pray in the power of the Holy Spirit, ²¹ and await the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will bring you eternal life. In this way, you will keep yourselves safe in God’s love.
²² And you must show mercy to those whose faith is wavering. ²³ Rescue others by snatching them from the flames of judgment. Show mercy to still others, but do so with great caution, hating the sins that contaminate their lives.” - NLT

These false leaders cause division not multiplication. Jude states they do not have the Spirit of God in them meaning they are not being Spirit led. What we as a church need to do in times like this is to continue in prayer and continue to do the work of the Lord. If we keep our eyes on God we will stay on the right path. These that are leading people down the wrong path we need to keep in prayer. We are not to go around bashing them and tearing them down, we are to pray for them. Pray that God opens their blind eyes to see that they are leading people away from God rather than to Him.