Review Doctrine from False Teachers, Part One. TEXT: 2 Peter 2:10b–22 TEACHER: Mark Driscoll RELEASE DATE: June 28, 2009 False teachers invariably follow three steps that lead to heresy...

Step #1: Pride (2 Pet. 2:10b–13)

False teachers are:

• Bold and willful, their confidence is compelling.
• Arrogant, believing they have greater spiritual authority than the angels.
• Shameless, sinning in broad daylight.
• Blasphemers, renouncing and denouncing the truth.

Combat pride with humility (1 Pet. 5:5). Five common areas of pride:

• Intellectual pride: Do you think you're smarter than (nearly) everyone--nobody can teach you anything?
• Moral pride: Do you think you're a better person than most people?
• Spiritual pride: Do you think you're closer to God than others (e.g. because you speak in tongues or adhere to a specific kind of theology)?
• Creative pride: Do you value innovation over biblical faithfulness? It's okay to be creative with methodology, but not theology.

Step #2: Idolatry (2 Pet. 2:14–20)

• False teachers love things (often money and sex) more than God (Num. 22–25).
• False teachers bring false promises and false hopes, like wells without water, rain clouds without rain, enlightenment without light.
• We either worship the Creator God or created things (Rom. 1:25). Idols are often good things turned into god things.
• If you idolize someone or something, you have to demonize everything else.
• Idols lie: they promise freedom but deliver slavery.

Step #3: Apostasy (2 Pet. 2:21–22)

• Those who entertain false teaching are vomit-eaters (Prov. 26:11).
• Apostasy is practiced by those who know the truth but abandon it, deny it, and walk away from it. (Judas, for example, knew the truth but loved money more than Jesus).
• Apostates do not lose their salvation, they were never saved, never regenerated, never born again to begin with. Their nature is the same, even if their behavior may get cleaned up.

Closing Exhortations

For parents in general, and fathers in particular:

• Lead your family spiritually. Read your Bible in front of your kids, read your Bible with your kids, pray with them and for them. Recommended reading: The Jesus Storybook Bible and Pastor Dad.
• Carefully, prayerfully choose a church and Christian friends with whom your family can live in community.
• Pursue humility and address pride in your children (intellectual, moral, spiritual, creative). Repent of sin to your kids.
• Be on watch for idolatry. Does your family value TV, sports, or appearance more than Jesus?
• When people you love go astray do not follow them.
• Submit to spiritual authority. Don't always trust yourself; let other people speak into your life.