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2 Peter 2:1-15 ESV

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. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones, whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you. They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing,

I. DECEPTIVENESS OF FALSE TEACHERS (1-3)
A. False teachers infiltrate the church as Satan’s spies and quietly turn the church away from Jesus.
B. The only way to distinguish between false and real teachers is what they do.
C. False teachers almost always exploit people out of greed.

II. DOOM OF FALSE TEACHERS (4-9)
A. False teaching may be lucrative now but it will eternally costly in the long run.
B. God has never failed to punish those who have denied Him in the past & will be faithful to do the same in the future.

III. DEPRAVITY OF FALSE TEACHERS
A. False teachers are arrogant. They put themselves on par with God and other spiritual beings.
B. False teachers are despicable. They live by animal instincts rather than the Word of God.
C. False teachers are so arrogant and despicable they use the church to scout for victims.
D. False teachers have always been and always will be & are always damned for eternity by God.

IV. DANGER OF FALSE TEACHERS
A. Their teachings are empty and leave you hollow when you believe them.
B. Their teaching does not lead to moral excellence but to immoral indulgence.
C. Their teaching does not lead to freedom but slavery to sin.
D. Their teaching only leaves you worse than you were before you met them.

NEXT STEPS:
1. Anytime we deny our Master Jesus we are preachers and proprietors of a false Gospel.
2. All sin is rooted in either not believing the Gospel or presuming upon the Gospel.