NOTE: There will be no audio streamed during our evening time of prayer, audio will resume when the message commences.

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Psalm 146
• Hymn — We Gather Together (#363)
• Catechism — Shorter Catechism Q&A #5
• Hymn — Hallelujah, Praise Jehovah (#57)
• Pastoral Prayer
• Sermon
• Hymn — The Church's One Foundation (#347)
• Benediction

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Sermon Title: False Teachers in the Church — Dishonoring Evil, Acting on Instinct, and Tainting the Body

Scripture: 2 Peter 2:10–16

I. False Teachers Dishonor Evil

A. Peter describes false teachers as bold and willful, blaspheming "the glorious ones" — likely the fallen angels referenced in 2 Peter 2:4

1. The holy angels, though greater in power, do not pronounce blasphemous judgment against fallen angels before the Lord
2. To "blaspheme" here does not mean worship — it means to fail to respect their dangerous reality

B. The Greek word for blaspheme in this context carries the sense of mocking or dismissing a real and present danger

1. Illustration: dressing up as evil spirits at Halloween, using Ouija boards — treating evil as a game
2. We are to pray as Christ taught: deliver us from evil — or literally, from the evil one (Matthew 6:13)

C. The reality of Satan and fallen angels has been evaporated from modern church language

1. Spiritual battle has been replaced with primarily psychological categories
2. Even the concept of evil has become archaic in many congregations
3. Those who treat evil with mockery and arrogance, Peter warns, will be destroyed

II. False Teachers Act on Instinct

A. Peter compares false teachers to irrational animals — creatures of instinct born to be caught and destroyed (2 Peter 2:12)

1. Their animal-like instincts are evident in sexual lust: eyes full of adultery, echoing Christ's words in Matthew 5:28
2. Their revelry occurs in the daytime — a shocking boldness even beyond that of common drunkards

B. Peter invokes the example of Balaam (Numbers 22–24)

1. Balaam, hired by Balak king of Moab to curse Israel, was rebuked by his own donkey when he failed to see the angel of the Lord
2. Unable to curse Israel directly, Balaam devised a plan to destroy Israel from within by enticing them into sexual immorality and idolatry with the Baal of Peor — 24,000 Israelites fell as a result
3. The false teachers in Peter's day similarly seek to destroy the people of God by enticing unsteady souls

C. Peter's use of Balaam carries a pointed irony: a donkey proves wiser than the false prophet

1. Those who follow their lusts and greed are more foolish than the most foolish animal
2. The world calls Bible-believing Christians irrational — Peter reverses this: unbiblical living is irrational and dehumanizing
3. Sin dehumanizes; conformity to Christ as image-bearers of God is what is truly rational and human

III. False Teachers Taint the Church

A. Peter calls the false teachers "blots and blemishes" — a stark contrast to the imagery of Christ as the spotless Lamb (1 Peter 1:19) and the call to be found without spot or blemish (2 Peter 3:14)

B. These false teachers are feasting with the body of Christ — whether in love feasts or the Lord's Supper — actively present within the congregation

C. They prey on "unsteady souls" — those not grounded in the faith

1. Christ's parable of the thorny soil applies here: the cares of the world and deceitfulness of riches choke the Word and make it unfruitful (Matthew 13:22)
2. Such thorny confessors may nod assent to gospel truth but inwardly lust for flesh and money

D. Peter calls them "accursed children" — children of the curse, not of blessing

1. Jesus similarly addressed false teachers in John 8, calling the Pharisees and scribes children of Satan
2. Balaam's method — leading 24,000 into idolatry and sexual immorality — mirrors what these teachers do within the church

E. Application: The church today faces the same infiltration

1. The ordination of practicing homosexuals and the normalization of gender confusion in major denominations reflects the bold and willful rebellion Peter describes
2. The church must publicly and clearly denounce such teaching — this is not incompatible with love for sinners outside the church walls
3. Peter's strong language — "accursed children" — is a model for public ecclesiastical pronouncement against false doctrine
4. Christians are called to love all sinners, invite them into relationship, and share the gospel — but this must never translate into the church upholding wickedness as good or right