Staying on Target... (5)

Wolves in Sheep’s clothing...

2 Peter is a deep book that has subjects that aren’t fun or easy to talk about, but as Christians we need to know what the Bible warns about Judgment and punishment. This isn’t to scare us but to help us realize how great God’s mercy is to those who love Him.

Last week we looked at God’s judgment on rebellious angels, the ancient people at the time of the flood, and His judgment on the people of Sodom and Gomorrah.

This is how Peter ended that section with verse 9.

2 Peter 2:9 NLT

So you see, the Lord knows how to rescue godly people from their trials, even while keeping the wicked under punishment until the day of final judgment.

Today we’re going to look at God’s judgment on those that lead others away from God, but are really wolves in sheep’s clothing.

Let’s read 2 Peter 2:10-19

2 Peter 2:10–19 NLT

He is especially hard on those who follow their own twisted sexual desire, and who despise authority. These people are proud and arrogant, daring even to scoff at supernatural beings without so much as trembling. But the angels, who are far greater in power and strength, do not dare to bring from the Lord a charge of blasphemy against those supernatural beings. These false teachers are like unthinking animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed. They scoff at things they do not understand, and like animals, they will be destroyed. Their destruction is their reward for the harm they have done. They love to indulge in evil pleasures in broad daylight. They are a disgrace and a stain among you. They delight in deception even as they eat with you in your fellowship meals. They commit adultery with their eyes, and their desire for sin is never satisfied. They lure unstable people into sin, and they are well trained in greed. They live under God’s curse. They have wandered off the right road and followed the footsteps of Balaam son of Beor, who loved to earn money by doing wrong. But Balaam was stopped from his mad course when his donkey rebuked him with a human voice. These people are as useless as dried-up springs or as mist blown away by the wind. They are doomed to blackest darkness. They brag about themselves with empty, foolish boasting. With an appeal to twisted sexual desires, they lure back into sin those who have barely escaped from a lifestyle of deception. They promise freedom, but they themselves are slaves of sin and corruption. For you are a slave to whatever controls you.

I must admit that some of this is hard chewing when we look at those who intentionally mislead and even scoff at beings that they don’t understand.

This morning, I’d like to look at four things that we can gather from Peter about these false teachers or wolves in sheep’s clothing, and I would like to end on a positive note this morning about our calling as believers.

Let’s get started looking at these wolves in sheep’s clothing,

1. Their Actions & Attitudes

2 Peter 2:10 NLT

He is especially hard on those who follow their own twisted sexual desire, and who despise authority. These people are proud and arrogant, daring even to scoff at supernatural beings without so much as trembling.

We need to be on our guard for people who follow their own desires.

They think that they are in control not realizing that the devil has his hook in them and is dragging them around. They think that they are in control of their lives, and that they are in control of their own destiny, not realizing that they themselves are deceived and living in deception.

They despise authority.

Whose authority do they despise?

The Holy Spirit’s? The leaders of the early church?

The apostles and the leaders of the early church were establishing the church. They were coming together and seeking God to set up structure and establish the doctrine of the church under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

The Gospels, the book of Acts, the epistles or the letters to the churches, and the book of Revelation were put in the canon of Scripture around 397 AD, but these were written by the leaders of the church to teach and to warn the church to stay on target, to keep the faith.

But these people were worming their way into the churches and attempting to mislead the people in the church to follow their own fleshly desires.

1 John 2:15–17 NIV

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.

They are proud and arrogant.

Here Peter says that they even

“Scoff at supernatural beings without so much as trembling.”

There’s a difference between confidence and pride and arrogance. As Christians, we are confident in God and His ability, His authority and His power.

James 4:7 NIV

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

The authority that we have did not end with the early church. We still worship and serve the same God that spoke to demon forces and commanded them to come out. He is our Commanding officer, and He gave us authority over our enemy, but we should never treat our enemy flippantly or lightly.

Some may scoff and say,

“There’s no Hell! There’s no devil! God doesn’t know what He’s talking about.”

According to commentators, it appears that these were mocking the fallen angels that were chained waiting for judgement.

Even angels don’t mock their adversaries...

Jude 8–10 NIV

In the very same way, on the strength of their dreams these ungodly people pollute their own bodies, reject authority and heap abuse on celestial beings. But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” Yet these people slander whatever they do not understand, and the very things they do understand by instinct—as irrational animals do—will destroy them.

Michael said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you.”

Any power or authority that we have comes from the authority we have in Christ.

Philippians 2:9–11 NIV

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

They blaspheme

2 Peter 2:12 NIV

But these people blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like unreasoning animals, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like animals they too will perish.

Jude used the word slander. They slander things they don’t understand. They scoff at God, they scoff at Satan, and they scoff and mock anybody that opposes them.

We need to have discerning hearts and minds as they can be very polished in their approach.

Let’s move on to,

2. Their destruction

2 Peter 2:12–13 (NLT)

These false teachers are like unthinking animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed. They scoff at things they do not understand, and like animals, they will be destroyed.

Their destruction is their reward for the harm they have done...

Sin has consequences, and these false teachers were well on their way to destruction.

Peter compared them them to animals. Do you think that a cow would want to hang around me if she thought that I was going to eat her?

Not on your life...

It’s like a friend of mine that had said about several people that passed away, “I was the last person to shake their hand.” One of my uncles said to him, “Well I’m not going to shake your hand then.”

Each person that has ever lived will stand before God. We can stand before God as forgiven children whose sins are forgiven by the shed blood of Jesus. or we could be like these false teachers who had blasphemed the only one that had the power to save them.

Hebrews 10:29–31 NIV

How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

3. They lead others astray

Not only do they live lives that are rebellious to God, not only is their attitude rebellious, but they also lead others to destruction.

Isaiah 5:20 NIV

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.

We are living in days where what we used to take for granted, we can’t anymore. What used to be right is wrong and what used to be wrong is right.

If Satan can use somebody to mislead us, he will. He fights dirty and he will do whatever it takes to mislead us and make us want to believe that evil is good and good is evil.

Peter said this about false teachers.

2 Peter 2:13–16 NLT

Their destruction is their reward for the harm they have done. They love to indulge in evil pleasures in broad daylight. They are a disgrace and a stain among you. They delight in deception even as they eat with you in your fellowship meals. They commit adultery with their eyes, and their desire for sin is never satisfied. They lure unstable people into sin, and they are well trained in greed. They live under God’s curse. They have wandered off the right road and followed the footsteps of Balaam son of Beor, who loved to earn money by doing wrong. But Balaam was stopped from his mad course when his donkey rebuked him with a human voice.

Peter said that they lure unstable people. This reminds me of a fishing lure. I used to go fishing with two friends. Mostly we used to troll, but once in a while we would sit and jig if we found a good spot.

If we were trolling, we’d use spinners. Hammered gold, or chartreuse and orange was pretty popular. We’d use live bait. A couple of summers ago, Jim, Bob Bilawchuk and I went to Fishing Lake and used jigs. I had my limit in five or ten minutes.

If the fish only knew that they would become Pastor Dave’s lunch, they’d do whatever they could to stay off my lure. They wouldn’t even look at the leach or night crawler.

As Christians, we mustn’t even give a thought to the temptations that look so good. We need to take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ.

When somebody is teaching us, we must go to God’s word to see that it lines up to what His word says, otherwise, we try to cast it down and make it obedient to Christ Jesus.

4. Empty promises...

2 Peter 2:17–19 NLT

These people are as useless as dried-up springs or as mist blown away by the wind. They are doomed to blackest darkness. They brag about themselves with empty, foolish boasting. With an appeal to twisted sexual desires, they lure back into sin those who have barely escaped from a lifestyle of deception. They promise freedom, but they themselves are slaves of sin and corruption. For you are a slave to whatever controls you.

These wolves in sheep’s clothing will promise you something they can’t offer. They want you to think that bondage is freedom, and evil is good, but they themselves don’t know what being free is.

He who the Son sets free is free indeed. Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom.

They promise freedom but are slaves to sin and corruption.

Peter draws

2 Pictures

A Dried up spring

Imagine that you are thirsty and you’re on a hike. Somebody tells you about this spring where you can get some cold refreshing water. Your Yeti is empty, and every with every step your mouth is getting drier and drier. You finally get to the spring and find out that it’s gone dry.

Empty rain clouds

Your land is crying for rain. It’s been weeks since a shower water the ground. The ground has cracks, and is parched. You look and the clouds are banking up in the west. It’s getting darker and darker. You’re hoping for rain, and it passes with just a few spits.

That’s what the empty promises are of those who want to lead you astray. They promise you all the rewards of heaven without the cost of surrendering our lives and becoming a disciple. They preach what they think itching ears want to hear,

but Jesus said,

Luke 9:23–25 NIV

Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?

Let’s take a few minutes as we close with some encouragement.

Our Hope and Calling

1 Corinthians 15:57–58 ESV

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

We have victory through Jesus Christ. Death has no sting, the grave has no victory.

It’s not as simple as praying a simple prayer and go on living our lives the way we used to. Jesus isn’t just the PS on the end of our lives.

As we deny our desires, as we learn to listen to the Holy Spirit’s voice and His promptings in our lives, God will transform us into His people.

Because you follow Jesus, and spend time in relationship, reading His word, praying, and seeking to get to know Him, you are like trees planted by rivers of water that produce fruit in season.

What ever you do will prosper. Your labour is not in vain, it’s not useless.

John 6:27 NLT

But don’t be so concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man can give you. For God the Father has given me the seal of his approval.”

You’ve probably heard the saying, “That person is so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good.”

That can be true, but let’s not be so focused on this earth and the pleasures of this earth that we forget to be rich towards God.

Let’s labour for eternal riches that will not spoil, fade, or perish.

My prayer is that we can say together,

Philippians 3:14 NKJV

I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Let’s pray!