The Dangers of False Teaching

Female: Hey, Porch. Join us as we read God's Word together from the book of 2 Timothy, chapter 3, verses 1-9.

"But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.

Avoid such people. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men." Now the fourth message in this series, 2 Timothy.

Kylen Perry: Amazing. Porch, how are we doing tonight? Are we doing okay? It's great to see you. I'm so glad you're here in the room. I am eager to get into this text. It is always such a joy to get to gather in this space and to have you here with us, but not just those of you who are here in this room with us (and those of you who are walking in right now, welcome; so great to have you) but also all of those who are tuning in wherever it is they might be watching this message.

People are watching with us tonight, but people will be watching this in the future. So, we're just grateful that you would give up the time that you are to be a part of what God is doing here at The Porch. Special shout-out to Porch.Live Wheaton, Scottsdale, and Fort Worth.

Just a few months ago, our son Kash finally started crawling around our house. We were elated when he started to do it, because we had been anticipating this moment when he would begin to inch around. You see, he was kind of a late bloomer to the whole thing. We didn't know if it was just because he was content to be carried around (I'd be down for that) or if it was just because his belly was so big he actually couldn't get himself up off the ground, but eventually, he started making some headway navigating around our house.

As he did so, we realized there was a whole new world set before him, but not just him; there was a whole new way in which we were seeing our world as well. As soon as he started crawling around our home, not only was he seeing the world in a new way; we were too. Where we once thought our home was this perfect little starter set for a family of three new to the Dallas area, now we realized our house was a virtual death trap. He had exposed every baby-proofing deficiency and every danger our home happened to present.

We're not unwise or naive parents. We had done some research and begun to set up our home to prepare for a child who might move about, but he was exposing things the likes of which we had never even thought. Like, he would be crawling across the ground, and because he's a hungry little boy, he'd find a leaf that had blown in and pop it into his mouth. "Man, you probably shouldn't eat that thing."

He would pull himself up, and we were like, "Oh my gosh! He's pulling himself up," until he pulled himself up on the toilet and started to drink out of the bowl. That's not good. Or he decided, "Man, I'm going to start swinging open cabinets, but not moving my hand, and just closing my hand in there as well." We also saw that he would slobber all over his hands, and then he would slap electric outlets. That seems like a really bad idea.

Or he made his way into our bathroom, and we were getting ready, and he found our medicine cabinet and started pulling out pill bottles and shaking them like rattles. It was like, "That's not a good idea, because that's not a baby toy in the slightest." He had exposed that our home was so much more dangerous than we expected.

So now our home isn't just baby-proofed; it's Kylen-proofed. Every electric outlet is covered. Every single cabinet is locked. Every single sharp edge has a bumper on it. It is now set up for his protection. The reason why is he had exposed to us some dangers that we didn't expect to be true of that space.

Now, why do I tell you that? Because for many of you, if you look at your life, like we looked at our home, you look at it and think, "Man! This is really well set up. It's accommodating for my comfort, it's relatively predictable, and it's set up for my success. I've prepared it the way I like." For lack of a better word, what you're saying is that you feel like your world is safe, which isn't an uncommon experience for you. It's actually a common interpretation people have all across the world.

I thought this was really interesting. Gallup's 2025 Global Safety Report showed that 73 percent (three quarters) of adults worldwide feel safe when walking alone at night. Do you feel safe walking alone at night? Three quarters of the world would say they do feel safe when walking at night. The reason this is so significant is because this is the highest mark that this annual survey has ever reported over the course of the last 20 years.

It's crazy to think that people look at their life and think, "Man, I feel so safe." It begged for me the question…Why is that? Why is it that people look at their world and think it is safe to exist within? There's a lot we could say, but if you read through the research, what it boils down to is they feel safe and secure within the structures and satisfaction of their communities.

They look at the people they rub shoulders with day in and day out, those they see at the water cooler in the office, the friends they have when they go out on the weekends, or the neighbors they pass by when they're walking their dogs, and they think, "Man, this is a safe environment for me to dwell within." They don't see any suspect of danger at all.

What if I told you that, like our home, your world isn't as safe as you think? What if I told you the people and the places you feel safest in, your community, are actually more dangerous than you would expect? Well, that's exactly what the apostle Paul wants to talk to us about tonight as we continue in his letter to his protégé, Timothy. If you have a Bible, you can grab it. We're going to be in 2 Timothy, chapter 3.

As you're turning there, I'm just going to catch you up, because maybe you're here for the very first time, and you're sort of injecting yourself into the middle of this series like you would the middle of a movie, so some background would be helpful for you just so you can understand what we've been talking about.

You have to understand this is Paul's final letter to his son in the faith, the guy he has invested his life pouring into and raising up, this young man named Timothy. Timothy is like you. He's a young leader in a materialistic sort of culture, one where society really commends success. Paul is writing to him and telling him, "Hey, there are some attitudes you need to adopt as you walk within this world." That's what the first chapter and a half was about.

When you get into the latter half of chapter 2, he starts to tell him about all of these activities he needs to begin to adopt as well. He's going to pick those up as we continue next week. As we turn the corner into chapter 3, Paul is going to turn Timothy's attention away from himself and onto the world around him. He wants to prepare Timothy for what he's to face in the midst of this very secularized society.

For lack of a better term, what he's going to do for Timothy is what my coaches would do when I played high school football. He's going to hand Timothy a scouting report. Why would my coaches do that for me? Because they wanted to set me up for success. They wanted to prepare me for that 6'4", 300-pound-plus, East Texas, farm-raised, corn-fed young boy. That's what they were trying to get me ready for. They knew, "Hey, you're going to need all the help you can get, because that guy outmatches you in some pretty material kinds of ways."

Paul is looking at Timothy, and he's like, "Hey, the world you're walking into is one that is filled with danger, and I want to prepare you as well as I can. I want to set you up for success. I need you to understand what is awaiting you." What he's going to describe to Timothy are some dangers that Timothy wouldn't normally expect. As he does so, we're going to learn of three specific dangers that we would not normally expect within our own lives. We're just going to dive into them. I'm going to roll them out for you little by little.

Starting off, chapter 3, verse 1: "But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty." Before we keep going, we need to understand what he means by the last days. You might read that and think, "Does that mean, like, the end of the world?" That's not what this means. Just to give you the shortcut to it, the last days is representative of the church age, the age between when Jesus ascended into heaven… He died, rose, and ascended back to the Father. It's the time between that bookend to when he returns at the end of time. Those are the last days.

What Paul just said is that it's in the last days that difficulty will come, which is important for us to understand, because if you consider the last days, that's this moment right now. That's the moment you live in. We're a part of the church age. Jesus ascended. We're waiting for him to come back. What Paul just said is there is difficulty coming your way. So, what is the difficulty, then? Well, he tells us. He keeps going and says in verse 2:

"For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God…"

Do you feel the list go on and on and on? Paul is desperately trying to communicate just how difficult the days ahead will be, just how difficult the days at hand are. It's fascinating. When you read this, you realize that the difficulty of our modern moment is not the product of war or calamity or disease or natural disaster. It's not the product of any of those things. What is it the product of? The difficulty you're going to face today is the product of people. We have a people problem. That's what Paul is unpacking here. He wants you to know the first danger that you would least expect is…

1. People will exchange godly truth for worldly wisdom. As Paul is going to tell us, these aren't just any people; these are people within the church. He says so in verse 5. He says they have the appearance of godliness. Anytime he uses that word godliness over the course of the Pastoral Epistles, it's representative of Christianity. So, they will be Christians. They will appear as Christians, have godliness, but they will deny its power.

You see, Paul is speaking about a people who know God's truth but exchanged it for the world's wisdom instead. Why? Why would they do that? Well, why do you ever go get a second opinion? Because you didn't like what you heard at first. It didn't necessarily appeal to whatever sort of outcome you were wanting, so you decided, "You know what? I'm going to ask this person instead." And maybe that one doesn't work, so you get a third opinion.

That's what's happening right here. These people in Timothy's day, as well as people within our present day, know what God says, but they don't necessarily like it. So, what they do is they punt on that, and they choose for themselves what the world wants to recommend instead. They'll look for teachings and advice and recommendations that ultimately promote their self-interest.

Paul says it like this in the exact same letter. He says in chapter 4, "For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions…" Do you hear it? They're going to exchange God's truth for worldly wisdom, which fits their own desire. "…and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths."

They're going to have itching ears. They're going to be like my dog when I was a boy. I had a Golden Retriever. The minute I would come outside, he would get as close to me as he could. If I didn't pet him, he would get even closer to me until the point at which a big dog is now sitting in my lap, and he's desperate for me to itch his ears, to pet him behind the ear.

So, if I'm not doing that, what's he going to do? He's going to get up from my lap and find the next suitable person who will give him what he wants. That's what Paul is describing. He's like, "Hey, there are believers, people who have the appearance of godliness, who are ultimately going to behave like that. They are going to run wherever it is they can get the kind of attention they're wanting."

Now, here's the thing you have to know. Even though we live in a day where if people don't like what the Word has to say, they'll just go to the world instead, the teachings we face now, the false prophecies that are prevalent in our current culture, are admittedly somewhat different than what Timothy was facing in his time. There are certainly ones that are similar, but there are certainly ones that are different.

Yet here's what you need to know. Though the false teachings of today don't necessarily match the false teachings back then, the results are nonetheless the same. People stop walking in godliness and start walking in godlessness. That's what happens, to the point that Paul gives you this laundry list of descriptors, these false virtues that accord with these false teachings.

Now, I was really torn about how to teach this specific section, because it's 18 different words, and we don't necessarily have the time to unpack the Greek behind every single one of those words. If you want to learn that, you should go pull up an interlinear commentary and understand what these words specifically mean.

But what I thought would be most helpful to you is to take some of these descriptors and help you identify the actual false teaching that leads to their development. I'm not going to give you all of them, but I do want to give you some, because I think it's important that we realize there are false truths being propagated in our culture that so many of us are subject to, and we don't even know it. So, let's just take a couple of them.

First, what makes someone a lover of self? It would be a false teaching like, "If it doesn't serve you, then let it go." This is classic self-help gospel, this idea that you matter most. "If your commitments are really wearing you out, then just drop those things. You don't have to do that." Or "If your job is not fulfilling the way you expected, you can just quit. You can move on. You can do something different." Or "Hey, if you don't want to go to that thing because you thought those people were going, but they're not going any longer, then just make up a little lie and dip. That way, you don't have to go and do something you don't want to do."

This is classic self-help gospel. "You matter most, so if it's not serving you, then don't worry about doing it." Yet here's the thing: That's so un-gospel, because we don't serve ourselves; we deny ourselves. We're not a people who seek to serve ourselves; we're a people who seek to serve others even at great cost to ourselves. This is a false teaching, and it's one that some of you are believing.

How do you become proud? Well, it might be by way of a false teaching like, "God won't give you more than you can handle." No. God actually will give you more than you can handle. Do you know why? Because he doesn't want you relying on your own strength. He doesn't want you rolling out of bed every morning and being like, "You know what? I've got this thing. Don't worry. Life's hard, but I'm tougher."

That's not the perspective he wants you to have. He wants you to know, "Hey, this world is going to be a lot to handle; so much, in fact, that you can't handle it by yourself, but I can handle it for you. You don't have the strength it takes, but I have the strength it takes."

How do you become arrogant? You believe something like, "God helps those who help themselves." I remember I had a roommate who had that phrase, "God helps those who help themselves," on a poster hung in his college bedroom. I remember looking at it and thinking, "Man, that is extremely motivating. 'God helps those who help themselves.'"

Then I realized it's extremely wrong, because God doesn't help those who help themselves; he helps those who cannot help themselves. When we were dead in our trespasses and sins, then he made us alive together with Christ. Do you see how that works? You don't do anything to contribute to the ultimate salvation you receive from Christ. You trust in him wholeheartedly. You can't help yourself. You are, in fact, helpless, but we know where our help comes from.

How do you become disobedient to your parents? Some of you are like, "Don't worry, man. I've already got that one." This is not talking about parents in specific. What this is talking about is how we become disobedient to authority in our lives. The way that happens is we subject ourselves to the false teaching of "Your way is the right way." Like, "Hey, man. You do you, bro. If you want to be furry, go for it. You want to trust in horoscopes to predict your future? Right on, man. Whatever you want. You think the world is flat? Don't fall off."

This is the way we think about our culture. We let people follow their own way. The reality is we know there is only one way, one truth, and one life, and it is Jesus. So, you don't get to follow whatever course you set for yourself and, thus, become disobedient to authority; you ultimately need to choose to follow the right way, which is God's way.

This is a total aside. I just think this is crazily the original sin. Have you thought about that? Like, "Hey, you know what? Did God really say…? No, you can go your own way. You can do your own thing." Yet the truth is when we could not work our way back, Christ came and made a way instead.

How do you become heartless? You buy into the lie that "Nobody's perfect, and neither are you." That's true, but we don't say it in a way where we're agreeing with God; we say it in a way where we present an excuse for our sin. How about slanderous? Something like, "Hey, it's healthy to process out loud." But it's not healthy when your processing becomes gossiping, because gossiping isn't healthy; it's actually hurtful. It tears people down. It doesn't build them up.

How about without self-control? "Just listen to your heart." That's a horrible piece of advice that the world is propagating and we have accepted within our church. The truth of the matter is so many people are following their feelings as opposed to taking captive their thoughts, mastering their flesh, and disciplining their bodies.

How do you become someone who doesn't love good? You buy into the lie that "You've got to be a little bad to have a little fun." We do this. Our generation is notorious for this one. We feel like we can't go out on the weekends unless we're going to bend some rules. We lament going to weddings if there is no alcohol.

We listen to music that dehumanizes women. We're willing to watch TV shows that absolutely have nudity. "But you know what? What good TV show doesn't have that nowadays?" We're willing to be a little bad to have a little fun. In the process, we entertain the very sin that Christ went to the cross to die for.

I'll give you one more. How do you become a lover of pleasure? You buy into the idea that God wants you to be happy. I actually don't disagree with this. I genuinely believe God does want you to have life and have life abundantly, but he cares deeply about where you're finding your source of satisfaction, where it is you're finding your happiness. He's not wanting you to find it by way of the American dream.

It's not going to be found in owning a big house and wearing fancy clothes and having a great job and hooking up with an amazing wife or husband. That's not the way this is going to work. You're not going to find happiness in those things. Can those things contribute to your satisfaction? Certainly, but only so far as they lead you to delight in the God who gave them to you. That's the only way God can make you happy.

Again, these are just some examples given from Paul's list. We could go through all of them again. If you want to understand what the false teachings might be behind some of these others, you can come find me after service or drop me an email. I just want to put them in front of you, because sometimes we read about false teaching and think, "Man, that's a thing of the past. That's something that happened in the Scripture. Jesus and Paul and Peter were big on false prophecy, but that's not really something we deal with right now."

No, we certainly deal with it right now, and if you haven't clued in already, that's what this entire talk is going to be about. So, let's just keep going, because the second point continues in verse 5. He says, "Wicked men or women will have the appearance of godliness, but they'll deny its power. Avoid these people."

2. Christians can look the part but lack the heart. The key word there is Christians. Christians can look the part but lack the heart. It's interesting. When Paul is writing to Timothy in this moment, he's actually writing a piece of prophetic literature, because he's not speaking about the problems Timothy is facing in his current day but the problems we will face in our current day. When he talks about the last days, he's talking about our days.

Do you know what the problem is? There will be wicked men and women who have all of the markings of a Christian, but they will have none of the makings of Christ. They will look exteriorly like him, but they will not look interiorly like him. That's what Paul means when he uses the word appearance right here.

That word appearance is the Greek word morphe. It's where you get words like morphology, the study of shape and structure, which is actually what morphe represents; or ectomorphic, endomorphic, and mesomorphic, the idea of different structural body types; or metamorphosis, which is probably the most accessible word in this room, the idea that a tadpole becomes a frog. What happens? That creature changes its structure. It adopts a new shape.

What he's really trying to get you to understand is that there will be people in this life who have the shape of a Christian but lack the substance of a Christian. They will be like a perfume bottle filled with water. They will look beautiful on the outside, but there will be no beauty on the inside. They will appear believable, but they don't actually believe. According to Paul, this is the greatest threat facing modern Christianity, the greatest threat there is.

The greatest threat is not religious persecution, though that certainly happens in our world; it's not social exclusion, though you will face some of that as people push you to the wayside because of your belief; and it's not personal deconstruction, though some of you are in the midst of that right now. It's none of those things. The greatest threat facing modern Christianity is hypocrisy. That's it. It's those who appear one way but act another way. It's as much a danger in this room as it is in any.

I'll just level with you. There is something within people, particularly young adults, that cares more what the world sees of them on the outside than what the world sees of them on the inside. If you don't believe me… This is why we embellish stories. We find ourselves in moments where we're telling a story, but it doesn't feel like the truth is sufficient, so we stretch the truth and make a fish tale out of it, because we really want to impress the people around us. You do this. I do this. This is something we do. Why? Because we want people to like us.

Or maybe it's not that. Maybe it's why we pad our résumés. Anybody applying for a job? You've probably padded your résumé some, because you want it to come across someone's desk and impress them. That makes complete and total sense in the eyes of our world. Or maybe it's why you casually slip that really good thing you did, that super-Christian thing you did into conversations, even though we weren't really talking about that, but I guess now we're talking about that because you want us to talk about you.

Maybe it's not that. Maybe it's why you tell half-truths. You don't want to lie, but you also don't necessarily want to be perceived as bad, so you just offer some of the truth, but you seem to withhold what isn't true in the hopes that it preserves your reputation. For some of us (I think this is hilarious), we change the way we talk depending upon the group of people we're with. We adopt a different accent or tone of voice depending upon which crew we find ourselves within. The reason is we just want to look cool. We just want to be adopted by them.

There are endless examples I could go through, but here's the thing. I want you to catch this point. We care a lot about what people think of us externally, but do you know what God cares about? He tells us. In 1 Samuel 16, he says, "But the Lord said to Samuel, 'Do not look on his [Saul's] appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.'"

He looks on the heart. It doesn't say he might look on the heart, so maybe you could be in the clear. Maybe he won't check you out. It doesn't say he will look on the heart, so you have some time to clean yourself up and get yourself ready. It says he does look on the heart. So, let me ask you, Porch… What does he see when he looks on yours? When he looks on your heart, what is it that God sees?

Does he see someone who is passionately engaging in worship or does he see someone who is passively singing along? Does he see someone who's praying in secret or does he see someone who only prays in public? Does he see someone who is serving the church or only someone who is hoping the church will serve them?

Does he see someone who is recognizing opportunity to do good or does he see someone who only recognizes opportunity to be seen? Does he see someone who's reading the Word by themselves on Wednesday morning or just someone who's reading the Word when we're all reading the Word here on Tuesday night? Does he see someone who desires more of him rather than someone who just desires more from him?

Here's the thing. I know as I ask questions like this it can feel pretty offensive. It can feel like I'm trying to target you. That's not what I'm doing. I'm not trying to be offensive to you. I'm not trying to put you on the defense in any kind of way. I'm trying to be honest with you. When the Scriptures talk about false teachers, it is elevated to a place of priority, so much so that Jesus' last public sermon was about this specific topic. He cared that much when speaking to the masses that we would get this.

It's here in Paul's final letter that he's addressing it in what is one of the concluding sections. This stuff matters. I'm not trying to put you on the defense; I am trying to be honest with you. When Paul says something as serious as, "They have the appearance of godliness, but they deny its power," that should cause us to do some internal investigation.

So, listen to me. I love you enough to say this, because I think Paul is saying the same. Some of you in here think you're Christians, and you're not. I know the minute I say that in a room like this, defenses go up. Some of you are deeply concerned about what I just said. The reality is for those who feel offended, it's often those who need to do some of the deep inner searching, because I've never met a believer where this question has been raised where they've been confused or concerned about reconfirming their confidence in Christ.

Every believer who is asked, "Hey, do you actually think you're saved?" is like, "Yeah, man. Let me reevaluate. Absolutely I am. I know where my help comes from. It doesn't come from me; it comes from him." So, let me be abundantly clear. You're not a Christian because you have morals. You're not a Christian because you grew up in a family of faith. You're not a Christian because you got baptized as a baby. You're not a Christian because you do right by people whenever you walk around the world.

You're not a Christian because you think Jesus was actually real. You're not a Christian because you think God is true. You're not a Christian because you vote Republican. You're not a Christian because of any of these reasons. The only reason you're a Christian is you have come to believe that Jesus Christ did, in fact, live, die, and rise from the dead that you might place your faith in him and be forgiven of your sins, and you are committed to following him as the Lord of your life for the rest of your days. That's how you become a Christian.

As I say that, I know some of you are sitting here, because I have talked to some of you sitting here, who are actually confused on this point. Do not be confused on it any longer. This is where the power that backs up the godliness that Paul is talking about comes from. It doesn't come from you; it comes from him. It's nothing you bring to the table; it's everything he brings to the table. That's why some Christians feel like a force of nature. Do you know what I'm talking about?

Have you ever been around someone where they love God so much it stops you in your tracks, it stuns you in that moment? Some Christians are a force, but others are just a flash. It's like the difference between fireworks and dynamite. Like, one goes off. It's a big flash. The other is dynamite. It goes Boom! There's a force, and it leaves an impact. That's what we're aiming at. That's what God is asking of you. That's what true believers appear as.

I have been in so many rooms where I've seen both, not just people in the crowd but people who stand on stages. I've seen people who have all the flash in the world. They are great and well-produced. They are great and well-spoken, yet there's no force or weight or might or power behind them because there is no Spirit of God within them.

But there are some who when you come in contact with them you're marked because they are marked. They are marked as men and women who have been around the King. There's something in them that is weighty, sobering, heavy, and powerful, and it is nothing they bring; it is only imbued by the Holy Spirit of God.

That's what Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 2. He says, "My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words [with flash], but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power [with force], so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God's power." Can you remember ever having met someone who struck you as this? The quality of their faith challenged you.

They didn't just speak the right way; there was an authority whenever they spoke. They didn't just treat people the right way; there was a sincerity to the way they treated them. They didn't just pray the right way; there was an intensity to the way they prayed. That doesn't come from the world; that comes from God. That's what it looks like to have the appearance of godliness as well as its power, those things united by those who are united to God.

I know people will hear me describe this and will think, "Man, Kylen, that is just personality based. It's because they're an Enneagram Eight. It's because they woke up and ate their Wheaties. It's because they listen to the Jocko Podcast. It's because they read Atomic Habits. It's because they're just extroverted and I'm not; I'm introverted." Listen. I am introverted, yet the reality is it's not because of any of these things; it's because they walk closely to their King. That's why. It's because they have set their gaze on him and are content to push out any other distraction and move in step wherever it is he goes.

I'm praying some of you would move into this kind of Christianity. Jesus wants that for you. He doesn't just want you to look the part; he wants you to have the right heart. Yet here's the reality: not everybody will, and we need to be on the lookout for them, because, as Paul says, they pose a risk. In our final few minutes, I'm going to try to fly, but I think this final point is important, so let's read it together. Verses 6-9:

"For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men."

3. Persuasive voices are not always reliable people. It's interesting. When I was getting into teaching (it was last week and this week) where Paul begins to talk about false teachers, it occurred to me that I've never actually given a talk on false teaching, which is odd, because this was a matter of great importance to Jesus and great importance to Paul as well as the other disciples.

It began to cause me to reflect on the church, and what I realized is we live in a modern moment where the church says a lot about the enemy outside our walls, but we don't say much about the enemy within our walls. We say a lot about the snake, but we don't say much about the wolves. What you need to know is Paul says much about the wolves within. He wants you to know how to find them, how to track them, and ultimately how to avoid them. That's what he gets into in this section.

He starts talking about these two guys, Jannes and Jambres. I'm not going to go into full detail about who these are. These are the magicians Moses would have faced when he came into Pharaoh's court during the book of Exodus. What he says is there are men like them who oppose the truth, are corrupted in the mind, and are disqualified in the faith. Paul cares so much about this topic he wants to help you track down men and women like that. So, in the final few minutes, I want to give you the tactics of false teachers, how it is they target the vulnerable. There are five points you need to know. You can track these with me.

1. They target the unlearned. That's what Paul means when he says they creep into households and capture weak women. Now listen. I know those feel like fighting words, ladies, but before you throw the first punch, we need to understand the context of what he's talking about here. What you need to understand is in ancient Greco-Roman culture, women were not offered the same sort of opportunity for education as men, which made them more susceptible to believing an error. That's what he's pointing to. So, this is less a comment about a gender discrepancy and more about an educational constraint that women were particularly subject to.

With all that said, what is Paul's point? He's saying false teachers target the unlearned, the uneducated. Here's the thing. If you're in the room and are new to the faith or you're just beginning your theological journey or you have big questions and are seeking answers, that is so good. Get answers in the right places. Don't look to TikTok. Don't go to Instagram. Don't even listen to your favorite podcast, though there are some amazing podcasts out there to help you get your answers. You look in the church.

The reason why isn't because this is where I work and I want you to listen to me. No. This is God's appointed institution to equip the saints. The church is the place where you can listen to not just people of approvability but people of credibility. As they teach you, you can know they didn't just hop up on a platform and begin to teach. They had to be approved. They had to be vetted. Thus, they can be trusted.

So, if you want to learn, learn from the right people in the right places. Learn from God's church. The beauty of it is if ever someone like me… If ever I do say something wrong, heretical, or concerning, you can hold me accountable, because there are people around me you can report me up to. This is how God protects his people. He makes sure we're equipped in an environment where there are good checks and balances. So learn here. Don't learn somewhere else.

2. They will wait until your defenses are down. Paul says that these false teachers creep into households. I love this word creep, not because of how we modernly interpret it but because, in the Greek, the word creep is actually rooted in the same idea of a word used for the setting of the sun. How does the sun set? Very, very slowly. That's how these men, these false teachers, creep into the lives of people. They move very, very slowly.

Have you ever tried to exit a room while everybody else is sleeping? Like, you got up at the crack of dawn for whatever reason. You couldn't stay asleep, so you were like, "You know what? I'm up. I've got to get out of here." So, you began to make your way out of that room, but you didn't want to wake other people up. How did you move through that room? Slowly, shrewdly, subtly. You were meticulous about every single movement you made.

My wife Brooke, my son Kash, and I were all in Charlotte over the weekend. There was one morning I was getting up earlier than the both of them. I did not want to wake up my son, but we were in a hotel room, which means we were all within the same confined space. I'm not the biggest guy in the world, but I'm also not the smallest guy in the world. So, I got out of bed and was tiptoeing around, and I could feel every single board move. I could hear every single creak echo. The reason was because I was trying to creep along, to go slowly.

False teachers are not going to walk up to your door and knock really loud and ask you to let them in. No. They're going to go to the back. They're going to sneak inside, and they're going to make themselves comfortable on your couch. That's their goal. They're going to try to make themselves at home with you.

Second Peter 2 says, "But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction." The way false teachers will try to creep into your trust is they will try to appeal to you in some way. Maybe it's how compelling they sound. Maybe it's how intelligent they seem. Maybe it's how cool they dress or attractive they are, how funny they can be. I don't know what it will be, but they will try to appeal to you in some way that garners trust from you, and then they will begin to teach you lies.

3. False teachers will prey on guilty consciences. These women Paul is speaking of were burdened with sins is what he's saying. The idea there is that they have a shame complex. They have done things they shouldn't, so now, because they are ashamed of their behavior, they have a sense of spiritual inferiority to these men who are teaching them who seem to be a godly sort of representative.

This is why it is so important to understand that in the gospel you're liberated from both the penalty and the power of sin. That's the glory of the good news of Christ: you're no longer trying to overcome your sin, for it has been overcome. I remember sitting with a dear friend of mine when I lived in College Station, Texas. He was struggling with pornography, so we were praying through a recent misstep he had made.

I'll never forget. He was praying, and he was like, "Jesus, would you help me to beat my sin?" Then he stopped, and he prayed instead, "No, you've already beaten that sin. It's already defeated. It's already dead and in the ground. You've overcome it. So would you help me to live like it?" I thought that was so powerful, because he understood the gospel as he was applying it to his life. When we got up off the ground, rose from our knees, that brother was light. There was a sense of freedom in him.

How do you feel whenever you confess your sins to Jesus? Are you filled with relief by the end of it or are you filled with regret and remorse? I'm not saying you shouldn't feel regret or remorse for your sin. We know godly grief leads to repentance. Paul tells us that. But what you need to know is that when you get up, the gospel is transformative to the spiritual state. It impacts your soul. It changes your eternity, and it should liberate you into a kind of lightness that leads you to move on.

4. They'll appeal to aimlessness. That's what Paul means when he says they were led astray by various passions, these women in this story, but it's true for all of us. If we are uncertain of our purpose in life, then we have no sense of permanence to stay focused in that general direction. We'll follow whatever impulse we have. If someone appeals to something we like, we're going to chase that down. If someone catches our feelings, we're going to go after that instead.

That's what happens here. These women are aimless. It says they have various passions, so as long as one of these false teachers can engage one of those passions, they can lure one of these people away. The same is true for you. You're going to have passion in life. What I would tell you is let them not be varying; let them be unifying toward the purpose of knowing God and making him known. Let that reality that your purpose is to glorify God and enjoy him forever… Let that be the thing you pursue for the rest of your days.

5. They seek to persuade. That's what they'll do. That's their goal. They want to persuade people who are "always learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." False teachers want to convince you that the Bible has been corrupted. Like, "Oh man, that's an archaic text. It's got some good ideas, but you really shouldn't trust it." Or they want to convince you that something as controversial as homosexuality isn't even in the Bible. "So I don't know why we're referencing the Scripture as a point of proof to that topic."

They're going to want to speak to you in a way that convinces you Jesus is just a man. "Man, he's a moral example. He was a powerful revolutionary. He was someone who might have even performed miracles, but I don't know that he's the Son of God. That feels crazy. It doesn't say that anywhere in this book." No, it does, in fact, say that in this book.

They're going to want to convince you that you shouldn't apply old truth to modern problems. "Why would you reference something so old and outdated when we have all this new science and all this brooding evidence? There are new things today that can solve the problems of today. You don't need to look into this book." But you need to know this is a timeless text and one that's not archaic in any kind of way.

So, what do you do when you're confronted with these kinds of people? You hold fast to the gospel. You cling to the truth you know. The truth is they may make you out to look like a fool because they're smarter than you. They may make you out to look so ignorant because they've done more research than you, but you cling to what you know, because even an ounce of this truth is truer than anything they might tell you. You hold fast to him. You don't follow them; you follow Christ, because ultimately, he came for you.

It's such a powerful thought that the last days were commenced at the coming of Christ so that, as we live through these days, we can always call back to him and find our hope, find our assurance, find our truth in the midst of a confusing and chaotic world. Some of you here don't know him. I'm praying you would. I'm praying that you wouldn't journey through these difficult days on your own but you would journey with a God who traversed every known difficulty to get to you.

I'm praying that you wouldn't face the dangers ahead by yourself but you would do so with a King who has faced all known danger, that great danger in sin and death, so victoriously. I'm praying that you wouldn't try to stand by your own strength but you would stand with him, he who stood strong enough while all alone, and he will stand strong enough with you wherever you are. If you don't know Jesus, this is the appropriate place, the right time to come to know him, because he wants to know you. Let me pray that you would.

Jesus, thanks for tonight. Thanks for this text. I've even felt some intimidation in my own life, thinking about teaching on false teaching, knowing that it can feel inaccessible. God, I just pray that the people in this room… God, as I look out at them, I pray for the people in this room, every one of them, all across the spectrum of spirituality, some having amazing days and some who are having horrible days.

But every one of them here, God, I pray they would know the relevance of this, that the days are dark, but we don't have to face the darkness alone, for the Light of the World has come. May we cling to you, Jesus, who is the way when there was no way, who is the truth in a world filled with lies, and who is the life for those who have none. We love you, and we sing to you now. It's in your name, amen.