2 Peter 2:10b-22 - False Teachers
2 Peter • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Good morning everyone…are you ready? Chuck Swindoll calls 2 Peter 2 one of the least pleasant chapters in all of the Bible
The arc of the whole of chapter 2 is this...
There are false teachers among you (1-3)
False Teachers will be judged and the godly will be saved (4-10a)
The nature of the False Teachers (10b-22)
These false teachers are circulating in the church minimizing the pursuit of moral living under the guise of grace/faith
As Justin put it last week, false teachers do not deny Him in the sense of not using the name Jesus, but rather they deny his Lordship in their lives
They may be teaching through instruction or simply by their example…either way, their “teaching” is present among the churches Peter is writing to.
The fruit of this false teaching is the presence of people who claim faith in Jesus, yet live lives “indulging in the lust of defiling passions and despise authority.” (10a)
We should not be surprised, it reminds us of Jesus’ warning in Matt 7...
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’
23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
Peter speaks a firm and hard word against the false teachers in our passage today…before I jump into it I just want to speak to why Peter is so worked up about false teaching?
Peter is so passionate about this because he knows ETERNITY is at stake in the midst of the church
Our works are DEAD apart from surrender to the Lord Jesus
But our surrender to the Lord Jesus for our entrance in the the eternal Kingdom (2 Peter 1:11) will produce righteous works
The false teachers claim we are free from worrying about our works whether righteous or unrighteous because they do not accept the testimony Peter described in chapter one about Jesus, that...
That His divine power has been granted to us to partake of his divine nature and escape the corruption of our fleshly desires
That the Faith rooted in the Love of Jesus will produce a continual growth of righteousness in our hearts
That Jesus has established an eternal kingdom and that he is going to return in Majestic glory.
The trouble is that the false teaching is ATTRACTIVE to the heart that is not surrendered completely to the living God
Peter says false teachers are secretly bringing in destructive heresies that put the eternal destination of those who are swayed by this teaching at risk..
We must never lose sight of the fact that our concern for one another within the church is FIRST and FOREMOST an ETERNAL concern.
SALVATION bears its fruit in SANCTIFICATION
OBEDIENCE is key in our life as a Christian
Justin challenged us to THIRST for the Word of God…to long for what is true...
This is Peter’s goal in all of this as well…if our desire and our will is not submitted to the Lord Jesus, then our desire and our will WILL be submitted to something else...
In verse 10-22 Peter goes off on the nature of the false teachers telling us three major things about them...
They minimize the reality of spiritual war
They gratify the desires of their own flesh
They promise what they do not have
False Teachers minimize the reality of spiritual war (10a-13a)
False Teachers minimize the reality of spiritual war (10a-13a)
10 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,
11 whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord.
10b -THEY = those from 10a that indulge in defiling passions and despise authority
They are bold and willful,
they DO NOT TREMBLE as they blaspheme the glorious ones (evil angels)
11 - Not even angels pronounce judgement against [evil angels]
Evil spirits are real…we are foolish to pretend we have control and authority over them and to minimize the strength of the demonic realm.
Only by the power and authority of Jesus Christ to we have authority against the attacks of Satan.
Do not boast against the spirit realm in your own strength. Boast in the strength of Jesus who defeated death and the grave.
12 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,
12a - They are LIKE irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed
WORLD: Follow your instinct, the answers are in you, etc.
12b - (They) blaspheme about matters of which they are ignorant…will be destroyed in their destruction
Wages of sin is death...
13 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.
13a - suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing
False Teachers gratify the desires of their flesh (13b-16)
False Teachers gratify the desires of their flesh (13b-16)
They find pleasure in deception (13b)
2 Peter 2:13 (ESV)
13 They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you.
They do not resist adultery (14a)
2 Peter 2:14 (ESV)
14 They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls.
14a - They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin
They entice unsteady souls
They are motivated by greed (14b-16)
2 Peter 2:14 (ESV)
They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children!
They follow the way of Balaam
15 Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing,
16 but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.
You can read the story of Balaam in Numbers 22-24, but he was hired by the Midianites to speak a curse against the children of Israel
1, 2 Peter, Jude 3. False Teachers Judged for Their Rebellion and Sensuality (2:10b–16)
We have already noted, however, Peter’s penchant for playing on words. He continued to do so here. The word “Bosor” likely derives from a pun on the word “flesh” (basar) in Hebrew. Balaam was not a man of the Spirit but a man of the flesh. The false teachers, like Balaam, were not leading God’s people in the righteous way but in the way of the flesh.96
...
1, 2 Peter, Jude 3. False Teachers Judged for Their Rebellion and Sensuality (2:10b–16)
Peter’s point here was that Balaam loved money, that a desire for material gain governed and motivated his prophetic ministry.
22 Balaam also, the son of Beor, the one who practiced divination, was killed with the sword by the people of Israel among the rest of their slain.
False Teachers promise what they do not have (17-22)
False Teachers promise what they do not have (17-22)
17 These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved.
17 - (They) are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm
For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved
18 For, speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error.
18 - They entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error.
19 They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.
19 - They promise freedom, but are themselves slaves of corruption
For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved
20 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.
20 - For if they escaped the world by the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ AND are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state is worse than the first!
21 For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.
21 - Would have been better that they had not even come to know righteousness than to turn back.
22 What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”
22 - The dog returns to its own vomit
Before we wrap up, we have to ask the question, Who are the Teachers in the church?
Certainly teachers are those who stand before groups and instruct formally. However, while I do believe Peter is referring to people in this role…teachers are not limited to those who formally instruct.
I want to point us to two passages to expand on who might be a teacher in the church...
Matt 28:16-20 - All followers of Jesus are called to make disciples...
16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.
17 And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted.
18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
2 Cor 5:16-21 - We have all been given a ministry of reconciliation to God through Jesus
16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
GO WITH THIS...
Tremble
{ READ THIS SLOWLY } ---- He caused us to be born again to a living hope
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,
Repent
We must ask the Lord to reveal whether our ways and our words are speaking a false teaching to those around us.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!
24 And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!
Do we revel in deception
Do we find pleasure in wrongdoing
Do we gaze without restriction
Do we serve our desire for wealth and security above godliness
Believe
29 “Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.
30 Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne,
31 he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption.
32 This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses.
33 Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.
34 For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, “ ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand,
35 until I make your enemies your footstool.” ’
36 Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”