In the last message, we saw Peter telling us that these false teachers are enticing the unstable.

These false teachers are misleading the weak. These false teachers are deceiving the dopes into giving

sin a new name. Ah, but Peter also tells us something else about these false teachers. He said,

these false teachers and preachers are no rank amateurs. They are schooled in the art of

seduction. They are trained. They are brilliant communicators. Here in verse 14, he makes what must have been a very painful statement for Peter to make and for us to hear, but it's the truth and the truth sometimes hurt. He said, they are under a curse. Some of you probably have a problem with that.

Well, I have a problem with it too, but how I feel is not the issue. What God thinks is the issue.

Amen? And, beloved, I want to tell you, and I said that last message, that Western culture got

itself in the mess that it is in today is because we have ceased to think and began to only

feel.

And feeling can be very unreliable.

And that is why Peter goes on to give us an example of a good prophet who went bad. I'm going to come to him in a minute.

Some of these false teachers did not start as false teachers. They, at some point, began to think more highly of themselves than they ought. They started out

with good intentions, but their pride and their arrogance got in the way. Their pride and their

arrogance began to take over. Pride is at the very core of all strife and tragedy. Pride, when it's not disciplined and brought

under the power of the Holy Spirit, it begins to develop an unrealistic view of oneself. Pride is when you think that you are so

important, no matter what you say, people are going to follow you anyway. Pride keeps us from believing

the truth and trusting the truth of the word of God. And that's exactly where they are. Pride steals

the glory from God and place it on self. Pride stands in judgment upon the Word of God

instead of allowing the Word of God to stand on judgment of us.

I was thinking about this, and I thought a story I heard some time ago of this tourists who went to see the great paintings in the Louvre in Paris,

and she was viewing this great work of art, and she was not very impressed. So she sniffed and said, I don't think much

of these. An official of the museum was standing right behind her, and he said to her,

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