Sermon: Sunday, 29th March, 2026
Speaker: John Johnstone
Scripture: 2 Peter 2:1-22
Wherever you get something good and helpful and wholesome you usually find people making fake or counterfeit imitations in order to make money. For example, in low and middle-income countries it is estimated that 10% of the medicines are counterfeit. Even in the UK, if you buy medicines from unregulated online pharmacies, that proportion jumps to closer to 50% for certain drugs. As you can imagine, this causes great damage to many people, sucked in by cheaper prices and taken in by false advertising. What should happen to people getting rich by exploiting ordinary people? We need to be continually warned about the dangers of fake goods.
This morning, Peter is flagging up a far greater danger than even counterfeit medicines and that is ‘counterfeit Christianity’. Imagine you are someone interested in finding out more about the Christian faith in Fife today. You don’t really understand much about the different kinds of churches out there so just google ‘churches in Kirkcaldy’ and up pops 20 different suggestions. It’s confusing to work out which churches would be helpful and which would be harmful. I suspect most people might assume that all of them would be helpful. Sadly, this is not the case. There are many places out there which call themselves churches and have that on their website and on their signage outside their building and yet, they are not true churches at all but are counterfeits. The Lord Jesus is not truly followed in those places. These places suck people in and cause tremendous damage to individuals.
1. False teachers still exist and remain a danger for us today
Satan has been called the ‘great imitator’. We read in Paul’s second letter to the church in Corinth; ‘For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.’ (2 Corinthians 11:13-15)
This is as true today as it was in Paul and Peter’s day. Even back in the Old Testament, you had the great and godly prophets such as Isaiah and Jeremiah and Daniel. But you also had false prophets. They were really popular because, rather than telling the truth, they told people what they wanted to hear. Their messages were easy and comfortable and popular. ‘They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace.’ (Jeremiah 6:14) The false prophets would say things like: ‘God is not angry with your sin – everything is fine – he’s a loving God after all’. And they would say this to people living any way they liked. And they gathered many followers.
Chapter 2 begins: ‘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.’ Notice something sobering here – where do the false teachers come from? The come from ‘among you’. We must not be proud and think that false teachers are on in the Mormon churches or Catholic churches or Jehovah Witnesses. They can appear anywhere. Satan is always attacking the church from outside through persecution, but he also attacks it from within through false teaching. Could false teaching arise from within Kirkcaldy Free Church one day? Of course it could! We must always be on our guard. We must always ensure that what is being preached follows the contours of Scripture. The Bible must always be our guide and not the opinions of people.
False teachers often work subtly: ‘They will secretly introduce destructive heresies.’ (2 Peter 2:1) They are wolves in sheep’s clothing. They might say many things which are true and might seem charming people on the outside, but there is a lot more going on under the surface. In fact, they will often use and twist Bible verses to back up what they are saying. Unfortunately, they are often very successful at what they do: ‘Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute.’ (2 Peter 2:2) They will make up stories to back up what they are saying.
For example, I could say something true, like, ‘God is a God of love’ and then follow that with something false like, ‘So he loves you as you are and you don’t need to change anything.’ This feels so accepting and we might like the sound of it. But it is false. Jesus says ‘If you love me then obey my commandments.’ (John 14:15) He calls us to repent of all that is wrong and follow him closely.
In Fife there are many churches which have so watered down and changed the Christian message that it is no longer Christian at all. It is just moralism. The people attending are seldom told about sin and where it leads. They are not told that Jesus is the Way and the Truth and the Life but the exact opposite – that Jesus is one way amongst many. These churches ape modern society and the truth of God’s Word has been lost. Do not be naïve. Do not be sucked in. Go to a church where the Bible is trusted as fully the Word of God and where Jesus must be received as our Saviour and King.
2. What are these false teachers really like?
Verses 2-3 speak of their depraved conduct and their greed. This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the flesh and despise authority. Bold and arrogant, they are not afraid to heap abuse on celestial beings…’ (2 Peter 2:10-11) This is not a positive description.
It’s interesting that they despise authority. Rather than submitting to God’s Word, which as we saw last time is what we are meant to be ‘paying attention to’, they reject anyone’s right to tell them what to do. They even reject the authority of Jesus himself. And they are confident that they can live without any fear of consequences. God will never catch up with them, so they think.
Take the false teachers in the prosperity gospel, for example. They falsely teach that God’s will is for us all to be healthy and wealthy in this life. Christ died to secure health, wealth, and success now, they say. But this is false. The reason Jesus died for us was to save sinners from wrath and sin, reconciling us to God. Appeals are made for money tied to promised blessing. Testimonies are given that encourage giving as a path to wealth. This is just what Peter is speaking about when he writes, ‘In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories.’ (2 Peter 2:3) They seem to conveniently ignore the Bible’s teaching that this life is actually full of suffering and that glory is mainly in the life to come, in Heaven. And yet millions in Africa and the US and other places have been deceived.
When it comes to false teachers, Peter does not mince his words: ‘Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, revelling in their pleasures while they feast with you. With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed – an accursed brood!’ (2 Peter 2:13-14) Many of them are addicted to sexual pleasure and that is why they have distorted the truth of the Bible – so that they can do what they want. They are basically addicted to sinful practices: ‘They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity – for ‘people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.’ (2 Peter 2:19) And even though they promise to help people, the truth is that they have nothing to offer people (v17): ‘These people are springs without water…’ (2 Peter 2:17)
Friends, this might not be a very popular passage of the Bible in 2026. It might not even be a popular sermon. But we need to be aware that false teachers have always existed and can arise even from within good churches. It’s not good enough to be fluffy and just say ‘they are different from us but they are harmless really and sincere’. Good parents warn their children of counterfeits, whether in terms of clothing, gadgets, medicines or catfishing and grooming on social media. Good churches will warn people against false teachers, those who seldom mention sin and the repentance and the substitutionary death of Jesus. We must keep away from them. Keep away from churches which deny that Jesus is God, or deny the Bible as God’s Word or the need for repentance and faith in Christ. They deny Jesus by living lives against Jesus’ clear commands and encouraging others to do the same.
These false teachers were never true Christians in the first place. How do we know? ‘Of them the proverbs are true: ‘A dog returns to its vomit,’ and ‘A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud.’ (2 Peter 2:22) What is the problem with the dog and the pig? Their behaviour never really changes. They return to their lives of wickedness. Their behaviour does not change because their nature has never been changed. In other words, they have not been ‘born again’. They have never really trusted in Jesus the Saviour or believed he died on the cross for them, and they have never believed that Jesus is Lord and we must submit all areas of our lives to his authority.
3. God will judge the false teachers and protect and save his people
Thinking about just how bad the church in Scotland is can be overwhelming. It’s tragic how much false teaching takes place. And it is tragic how many people just accept it. Perhaps it is because we live in such a pluralistic society where tolerance is the new god. The idea of absolute truth has been rejected by many and this makes it harder for Christians to stand up for the truth, as revealed in the Bible. But we must! Because truth has been revealed to us by God. We cannot just make up our own! Many ministers deny foundational truths of God’s Word and like just as counterfeit medicines can destroy the body, so these counterfeit truths destroy the souls of those who get sucked in. This is a serious business.
Peter wants us to know that God is in control. He has not been caught off guard by false teachers. And he will treat false teachers with the condemnation they deserve. These teachers might deny the Day of Judgment, but Peter says plainly: ‘They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done.’ (2 Peter 2:13) What evidence is there that they will be judged. Peter simply appeals to God’s track record – he is a God who will judge wickedness. He will deal with each one of them. Verse 4 speaks of God judging the angels when they rebelled. This is possibly a reference the angelic rebellion when Satan and others rebelled against God and were cast out of Heaven. Next, Peter reminds of the flood (verse 5). This was a global flood, where God judged the human race for its great wickedness, following many decades of warning from Noah, a preacher of righteousness. But the people would not repent. And the third example Peter brings is that of Sodom and Gomorrah. These were cities known for their wickedness. We read in Genesis 19 of their attempts to gang-rape Lot’s visitors.
Ezekiel gives more information: ‘Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore, I did away with them as you have seen.’ (Ezekiel 16:49-50) God eventually brought them to justice. Do you think God has lost his sense of justice now? These Old Testament events are warnings to the false teachers and all of us that God’s judgement is real. Wickedness matters to God and he will deal with it. He has done so all through human history.
Much more positively, Peter writes, ‘… the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials…’ (2 Peter 2:9) The proof of this can be seen in God’s dealings with Noah. It must have been so hard for Noah and his family to maintain their worship of God and love for God when the rest of the world had turned their backs on him. But God kept Noah and brought him into the new world after the flood. In an even greater way, God will keep us today and bring us into the new earth, where righteousness covers the earth. Be assured that God will protect all those who trust in him. That is what he does.
Further proof of this is seen in God’s dealings with Lot. Lot was far from perfect, but his trust was in the Lord and the way people lived in Sodom and Gomorrah filled his heart with pain: ‘…for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard…’ (2 Peter 2:8)
No matter how bad things get spiritually in Scotland, think of what matters eternally, and keep living lives of faith in Christ and obedience to his ways. The true church will continue and prevail, not because of our strength but because God is a keeping God who always rescues his people. Remember, you cannot domesticate God. He hates wickedness. He is a God who will both judge rebellion but who saves those who trust in him, even though it cost him the death of his only Son.