2 Peter 1:20-2:3
Second Sunday after Pentecost - 18 June 2017
Rev. John Derme
If someone tried to sell you a drink made from the Hemlock plant, would you buy it? Perhaps you have noticed that some areas around the Truckee River have been closed, because Hemlock is growing there. Perhaps you are aware that the Greek philosopher Socrates was executed by being made to drink Hemlock. No, you shouldn't buy it, because Hemlock is poisonous! If someone tries to sell it to you, he does not have your best interests in mind. I suppose, though, that the person could be selling it, because he thinks that Hemlock contains all the vitamins and minerals that you need to be healthy. Then would you buy it? No! Even if he thinks he is helping you, he is not. No matter what he intends, Hemlock is dangerous to you.
In our Second Lesson for today, the apostle Peter warns us about something that is even more dangerous to us than Hemlock. Yet people buy it. It is false teaching. Are we going to listen to people who twist the Bible to mean whatever they want it to say, or to people who have said exactly what God wants them to say?
In our society, it can be quite unfashionable to disagree with or criticize what other people believe. There are teachers who call themselves Christians, but who change the meaning of Scripture and lose the truth of God. Should we ignore the damage they are causing, because it would be impolite to criticize them? Throughout the Scriptures God warns us about false teaching, and his apostle Peter does just that in our Second Lesson today.
Since God warns us against this, it is clear that he wants us to know about it and also to speak that warning to others. He says that these false teachings are dangerous. We usually think about differences in teaching as nothing more than different interpretations or no big deal. We like getting along with everybody. But God says that any error is serious. When you think about it, that makes sense. Since God's Word saves us, then false teaching does the opposite, putting our salvation in jeopardy.
Peter writes: "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 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."
While we are happy to say that there are many Christians in churches that teach error, and that people will be saved in spite of the false teaching that they hear, the false teaching attacks the truth that they believe. Many Christians have been led away from the faith by believing what seem to us like small differences. Even when they seem small, the Lord tells us where false teachings eventually lead: to denying the one who bought us with his holy, precious blood and to losing our faith in Jesus the Savior. False teachers may say nice things about Jesus and even call him the Savior, but false teaching always leads people away from trusting in him for full and free salvation and always introduces things we have to do to be saved.
The Lord says that he won't let them get away with it. Judgment is coming for them. With their errors, they destroy themselves and others. Don't follow the errors of the false teachers. False teaching leads to the destruction of faith and the destruction of those who believe them. If we follow them, we will be destroyed.
Why would we follow false teachings, when God speaks his truth to us? God wants to save you, and he does it through his true Word.
When St. Peter talks about the Scriptures, he had in mind what we call the Old Testament. That was the Scripture he grew up with. The New Testament of the Bible was still in the process of being written down and recognized as Scripture. Yet what he said of the Old Testament Scripture is absolutely true of the New Testament, as well.
He writes, "No prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit."
We call the process that God used to have his words written down "verbal inspiration," a term that comes from the Bible itself. "Verbal inspiration" means that God the Holy Spirit breathed into the men who wrote the exact words he wanted them to write. That doesn't mean they were like robots. The Holy Spirit used their individual talents and personalities in the process. God used them to give his words to you!
Since the words in the entire Bible are God's words, they are completely reliable. If they were human words, then we wouldn't be able to have confidence them. Human beings are sinful and make mistakes. But God is perfect, all-knowing, and completely truthful, so what he tells us is trustworthy. The Bible is one hundred percent God's Word, so you can have complete confidence in what it says. And God has proved that by fulfilling every prophecy and promise that he has made in it.
God wants you to trust his Word, because it tells us what we need to know and believe to be saved. By nature we are sinful. We know that our sins are a problem. Our natural religion is that we need to do the right things to save ourselves from them. That is why that false teaching keeps being introduced into the true Christian faith. But we can't save ourselves. So Jesus did. Jesus did all the good works that we need to be saved. Then he died to pay for all of our sins. But that is not all! Now he sends the Holy Spirit to us through his Word to give us all of the benefits of what he did in his life and death. Through his Word he gives you all the good works that he did. Through his Word he forgives your sins. Scripture is God's Word, which saves its hearers. You have heard his Word. Believe and follow it, because you are saved.
The Lord warns us that false teachers are among us. They have always been around the Christian church, and they will be around until Jesus returns to this world. Will we follow them? No. False teachings are dangerous. Rather, we have the Word of God in the Bible, the exact words that God wants us to know and believe. Do not listen to false teachers. Listen to the men who spoke from God!