(Sunday’s message 10/15/2023) -A working progress!
In 2 Peter chapter 2, Peter describes and harshly condemns the false teachers who had entered the church. He promises their destruction, which will be brought by God. Peter also shows the impact of their lies on those who might believe them.
2 Peter 2:1 NIV “But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction.”
There were false teachers in the days of Paul and there are still false teachers today. False teachers and their lies have really affected people today.
False teachers work secretly. It isn’t that their teaching is secret, but the deceptive nature of their teaching is hidden. No false teacher ever announces himself or herself as a false teacher.
False teachers bring in destructive heresies. A Heresy isn’t harmless. A heresy often leads men and women astray. They believe a delusion, and that delusion will take them to hell.
Sometimes, false teachers are very hard to pick out. They appear to be godly and have a relationship with God Even a person who has what appears to be a godly and have relationship, but their hearts are far from God, and their lies do the most damage.
In today’s society, we better not follow any certain person (male or female)! We better be following the word of God and his Holy Spirit!
The word it says that false teachers are promised swift destruction, even though they aren’t judged fast enough in the opinion of many.
2. (2) The popularity of false teachers.
And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed.
Many will follow their destructive ways: This reminds us that false teachers may be popular. Just because something succeeds in attracting a crowd of followers, it doesn’t mean that it is of God. We know that God’s work will always bear fruit, but the devil’s work can also increase.
Just because a church is growing in numbers, and people are coming by the multitudes does not always mean God is in it. Some people like for you to tickle their ears! But at the mention of hail, or the word sin, they vanish.
False teachers always have been and always will be among Christians. The most distressing fact is that so many Christians will follow their destructive ways.
When false teachers are at work and when crowds are following them, the way of truth is blasphemed. God’s holy name and honor are disgraced.
3. (3) The strategy and destiny of false teachers.
By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.
Many false teachers, both today and in previous times, present a gospel that has self-gratification at its core. All this is presented with deceptive words because false teaching never announces itself.
God’s wrath pours out on them even in allowing them to continue, thus heaping up more and more condemnation and hardness of heart in themselves.
(4-6) The ungodly will be judged.
For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly; and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly;
God knows how to take care of both the righteous and the ungodly.
God judged these wicked angels, setting them in chains of darkness. Apparently some fallen angels are in bondage while others are unbound and active in the earth as demons.
And did not spare the ancient world: God judged the ancient world, the world before Noah’s Flood, because the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually (Genesis 6:5).
The scripture said: “And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction:” God judged the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, making them an example of His judgment, because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave (Genesis 18:20).
Making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly: These three examples of judgment show us the important principle that Peter wants to highlight.
·1. God judged the angels who sinned, so no on is too high to be judged.
· 2. God judged the ancient world before the flood, so God doesn’t grade on a curve, only comparing man among other men.
· 3. God judged Sodom and Gomorrah, so even the prosperous can be judged.
4. Therefore the ungodly have no reason to think they can escape God’s judgment. Their coming judgment is certain. As Jesus said in Luke 10:10-12, for those who reject the truth “it will be more tolerable in that Day for Sodom.”
2. (7-9) The righteous will be delivered.
And delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)—9 then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment,
Peter already told us how the Lord delivered Noah (2 Peter 2:5). Now, he shows us that the Lord delivered righteous Lot.
Lot was righteous in God’s eyes, though perhaps it was hard for others to see his righteousness. Yet the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah tormented his righteous soul from day to day.
Even as the Lord delivered Lot, He knows how to deliver us from the temptations we face, and He knows how to reserve the unjustfor the day of judgment. We can trust in God’s deliverance of the godly because it is just as certain as His judgment of the ungodly.
The unjust have reservation made for them: they are reserved for the day of judgment. But believers have no such reservation. God will deliver us from the very day of judgment, from the very time of wrath that He pours out on the earth (Revelation 3:10).
(10-11) They are fleshly and proud.
“And especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority. They are presumptuous, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries, whereas angels, who are greater in power and might, do not bring a reviling accusation against them before the Lord.”
This is A description of the ungodly among them.
They live according to the flesh, not the spirit, and are marked by uncleanness.
these who walked according to the flesh slander or exaggerate.
12-13 (Their spiritual doom is sealed.)
12 But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;
The ungodly, we’ll talk about the Christian, but they will utterly perish in their own corruption. They are caught of God.
13 And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you;
The ungodly will be “paid” for their evil – and their fleshly lives will be paid the wages of unrighteousness.
False teachers are evil men and women, who were trouble to Peter’s people and is. They lied and said that they loved and served Christ, while the things they taught and did were a complete denial of him.
Since they function in the flesh, not the spirit, they are like animals. They are fit only for destruction (made to be caught and destroyed) and they are ignorant.
The ungodly will be “paid” for their evil – and their fleshly lives will be paid the wages of unrighteousness.
When their judgement times comes they will hear depart from me I never new you! (Matthew 7:21-23)
14-17 “having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls. They have a heart trained in covetous practices, and are accursed children. They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; but he was rebuked for his iniquity: a dumb donkey speaking with a man’s voice restrained the madness of the prophet. These are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.”(NIV)
These ungodly false teachers are a dangerous and they are the corrupting presence in the body of Christ. Just like a riot in the streets, causing property damage, destruction, and death. This box, teachers lead people, astray, and called spiritual death.
False teachers are not only deceiving others but deceive themselves too.
Beware false teachers and Christian posers prey on the week! Their heart is set on the flesh, and their eyes on adultery. They prey on the unstable to join them in their ways (enticing unstable souls).
They are equipped, but not for ministry, only for selfish gain – they are truly accursed. We all train our hearts in something, either training them in covetousness and lust, or in godliness.
They are like Balaam, who was guilty of the greatest of sins – leading others into sin, and that for the sake of his own gain. Balaam had to be restrained by a donkey because he would not listen to God. (Numbers 22:31-34)
These are wells without water: These ungodly false teachers are empty – as useless as wells without water – and like clouds that bring only darkness, and no nourishing rain.
(18-19) The allure of the false teachers.
For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage.
Ungodly false teachers use thier wit and charming words to entice those who follow them. Their words are empty of any real spiritual content. They often lead by twisting Gods words follow the lusts of the flesh. People often like them personally and put them on a pedestal! Crowds of people quit reading their own Bibles and trust exactly what comes out of the mouth of an Antichrist. For example, crowds followed Jesus for entertainment, for healing, and for what they could receive of Jesus: Yet their hearts were far from him.
Jhn 6:25-27 NKJV – 25 And when they found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, “Rabbi, when did You come here?” 26 Jesus answered them and said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. 27 “Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His because God the Father has set His seal on Him.”
Scripture also tells us that fast leaders promise freedom, but freedom can never be found in the flesh, only in God’s Spirit. Freedom isn’t found in what Jesus can give us, but only in Jesus Himself. When we seek freedom in the wrong way, we become slaves of corruption (decay and death).
(20-22) The danger of falling away and following after false teachers
For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: “A dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.”
According to verse 20 a person who professes Jesus Christ, as their savior can again, get entangled in their sin. This means that once you were saved you can go back into the world and accept, receive, and return as a servant to Satan. (the prince of the air.)
It is better for a person to have never known a thing about Jesus than to hear some truth, hold to it for a seaon, and then later reject it.
Peter described a picture that certainly has the appearance of people losing their salvation.
· He speaks of those who have escaped the pollutions of the world.
· He speaks of those who at one time had known the way of righteousness.
Christians warmly debate the issue of whether or not it is possible for a true Christian to ever lose their status as a true Christian and fall away to damnation. Perhaps the best way of understanding the issue is to say that it is certainly true that those who appear saved – those who fit the description of Peter here – can end up in a place where it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness.
The agreement:
Regarding these, those with a Reformed perspective will say that they were actually never saved; those with an Arminian perspective will say that they were actually saved and lost their salvation.
Warning from God’s word:1Ti 6:4 NKJV – 4 he is proud, knowing nothing, but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words, from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions,
Finally, let’s talk about the final quote that we usually use in scripture:
A dog returns to his own vomit: The nature as dogs is displayed by the way he returns to the vomit of the flesh and the world.
He is like the brute beasts described in 2 Peter 2:12, more animal than godly because he lives for the flesh.
In other words:
The dog which has got rid of the corruption from inside its self through vomiting:it up! Just can’t leave things alone; it goes back around the corruption! Like a dog sniffing around the vomit again.”
So, a Christian who has been regenerated/reborn: has also gotten rid of corruption, and is purified. Instead of moving forward in Christ, rejects Christ and returns to its own filthy life of corruption.
So, you see, we cannot straddle the fence and we cannot be double minded as James tells us. We have to be so totally sold out and doing the will of God!
or
We are pursuing the law of the land and following Satan.
Our message today is to choose Christ. To choose life. The follow His a light. Rather than, following death and destruction.
Choosing life, is choosing liberty, choosing Jesus Christ today will ensure, an eternity with God.
Choosing death and choosing the night today will cause you to be rejected and you will suffer for eternity in a place known as hell. Where you will forever burn: for your sins and rejection of Jesus Christ.
Amen
