WELLS WITHOUT WATER

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The description of these false teachers is terrific! They are slaves to their brute instincts.
They are as abusive as they are ignorant. They destroy and will be destroyed.
They feast daintily in the broad daylight, instead of leading abstemious and sober lives.
With them, the very church feasts were occasions for self-indulgence.
Their eyes never ceased from the sin against which the Lord warns us in Mat 5:28.
Balaam is an awful example of such, torn, as he was, between the celestial vision of his spirit and the sensual appetite of his soul.
The will of man, as in Balaam’s case, is always poising itself between its knowledge of good and evil and its strong bias toward evil.
Only the help of God can correct this. Let us “who are just escaping,” 2Pe 2:18, R.V., from the meshes of the world, beware lest we be caught in the guiles and nets of false teaching, which would drag us back into the evils of the worldly life. It is in our heart-felt union with the Lord Jesus Christ alone that we can be permanently secure.
a frightening fact that many people who are now zealous members of cults were at one time attending churches that at least professed to - Believe the Christian gospel. They participated in the Communion service and saw the death of the Lord Jesus portrayed in the loaf and the cup. They even recited the Apostles' Creed and the Lord's Prayer. Yet today, these people will tell you that they feel free now that they have been"liberated" from the Christian faith.
AT the same time, you will meet people who have rejected all religious faith and now profess to enjoy a new freedom. "I used to believe that stuff," they will boldly confess, "but I don't believe it anymore. I've got something better and feel free for the first time in my life."
Freedom is a concept that is very important in today's world, yet not everybody really understands what the word means. In fact, everybody from the Communist to the playboy seems to have his own definition. Nobody is entirely free in the sense of having the ability and the opportunity to do whatever he wants to do. For that matter, doing whatever you please is not freedom--it is the worst kind of bondage.
The apostates offer freedom to their converts, and this bait entices them to abandon their true faith and follow the false teachers.
promise them liberty, but this promise is never fulfilled; the unstable converts only find themselves in terrible bondage. The freedom offered is false, and Peter gave three reasons that explain why it is false.
1. WELLS WITHOUT WATER (II Peter 2:17-18)
Faith is only as good as the object. A pagan may have great faith in his idol, but the idol can do nothing for him. I have a friend who put his faith in a particular investment scheme and lost almost everything. His faith was strong but the company was weak. When you put your faith in Jesus Christ, that faith will accomplish something because God always keeps His promises.
"There hath not failed one word of all his good promise" (1 Kings 8:56).
Peter used three vivid illustrations to emphasize the emptiness of the apostates' promises.
(1) "Wells without water" (v. 17). The Greek word means "a flowing spring" rather than a tranquil well. It is the word our Lord used when He ministered to the Samaritan woman (John 4:14) and that John used in describing the satisfaction the saints will experience for all eternity (Rev. 7:17; 21:6). A spring without water is not a spring at all! A well is still called a well even if the water is gone, but a spring ceases to exist if the water is not flowing.
There is in mankind an inborn thirst for reality, for God. "Thou hast made us for thyself," said Augustine, "and our hearts are restless until they rest in thee." People attempt to satisfy this thirst in many ways and end up living on substitutes. Only Jesus Christ can give inner peace and satisfaction.
"Whosoever drinketh (present tense, "keeps on drinking"] of this water (in the well] shall thirst again," said Jesus, "but whosoever drinketh takes one drink once and for all of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst" John 4:13-14). What a contrast!
You may drink repeatedly at the broken cisterns of the world and never find satisfaction, but you may ate one drink of the Living Water through faith in Jesus Christ, and you will be satisfied forever. The false teachers could not make this kind of n offer because they had nothing to offer. They could promise, but they could not produce.
(2) "Clouds that are carried with a tempest" (v. 17b). The picture is that of clouds of fog or mist being driven by a squall over a lake or sea.
Clouds ought to announce the possibility of rain, but these clouds only announce that a windstorm is coming. Jude's description is "Clouds they are without water, carried about of winds" Jude 12). Again, there is noise. motion, and something to watch, but nothing profitable happens. The former sees the clouds and prays they will empty rain on his parched fields.
The false teachers have nothing to give; they are empty.
(3) "The mist of darkness" (vv. 17c-18). The word translated "mist" means "blackness, gloom," so "the blackness of the darkness" would be an accurate translation (see 2 Peter 2:4). These apostates promise to lead people into the light, but they end up in the darkest part of the darkness (see Jude 6 and 13)! The atmosphere of hell is not uniform: Some places will be darker than others. How tragic that innocent people will be led astray by these apostates and possibly end up in hell with them.
2. TEACHERS WITHOUT FREEDOM
Since these false teachers have nothing to give, how can they attract followers? The reasons are found in 2 Peter 2:18.
First, the teachers are eloquent promoters of their doctrines. They know how to impress people with their vocabulary, "inflated words that «y nothing" (literal translation). The average person does not know how to liven to and analyze the kind of propaganda chat pours out of the mouths and printing presses of the apostates. Many people cannot tell the difference between a religious huckster and a sincere servant of Jesus Christ.
Do not be impressed with religious oratory. Apollos was a fervent and eloquent religious speaker, but he did not know the right message to preach (Acts 18.24-28). Paul was careful not to build his converts' faith on his words or wisdom (1 Cor. 2:1-5). Paul was a brilliant man, but his ministry was simple and practical. He preached to express and not to impress. He knew the difference between communication and manipulation.
The apostates are so successful because they appeal to the base appetites of the old nature.
This is part of their bait (2 Peter 2:14)!
We must not think of "the lusts of the flesh” only regarding sexual sins, for the Resh has other appetites. Read the list given in Galatians 5:19-21, and you will see the many kinds of bait the apostates have available for baiting their traps.
For example, pride is one of the sins of the flesh, and apostate teachers like to appeal to the human ego. A true servant of God will lovingly tell people that they are lost sinners, under the wrath of a holy God, but the apostate minister will try to avoid "putting people on a guilt trip." He will tell his listeners how good they are, how much God loves them and needs them and how easy it is to get into the family of God. In fact, he may tell them they are already in God's family and need to start living like it!
The apostate avoids discussing repentance because egotistical men do not want to repent.
The third reason they are successful is that they appeal to immature people who have “ recently escaped" from their old ways. The apostate has no message for the down-and-out sinner, but he does have a message for the new believer.
A pastor friend assisted some missionaries in the Philippines by conducting open-air meetings near the university. Students who wanted to decide for Christ were asked to step into a building near the square, and there, they were counseled and also given follow-up material to help them get started in their Christian life.
No sooner did a new convert walk out the door and past the crowd than a cultist would join him and start to introduce his religion! All False the apostates had to do was look for the people carrying follow-up material!
This procedure is often used at large evangelistic crusades: The false teachers are ready to pounce on new believers carrying decision packets.
This is why it is essential that soul-winners, pastors, and other Christian workers ground new converts in the faith. New Christians need to be protected, fed, and established like newborn babies before they can be turned loose in this dangerous world. Peter wrote this letter to warn the church to care for the new Christians because the false teachers were out to get them! We cannot blame new believers for being
“Unstable” (2 Peter 2:14) if we have not taught them how to stand.
The freedom the apostates offer is false because it is based on false promises. There is a second reason why it is false.
You cannot set someone free if you are in bondage yourself, and these false teachers were in bondage. Peter made it clear that these men had temporarily disentangled themselves from the world’s pollution, but then they went right back into bondage again! They professed to be saved but had never really been redeemed (set free) at all!
The tenses of the verbs in 2 Peter 2:19 are present: "While they promise them (the new believers liberty, they themselves (the apostates) are the servants of corruption" (italics mine). They claim to be the servants of God, but they are only the servants of sin. It is bad enough to be a slave, but when sin is your master, you are in the worst possible condition a person can experience.
Reviewing what Peter has written so far, you can see the sins that enslave the false reachers. For one thing, they were in bondage to money (2 Peter 2:3, 14). Their covetousness forced them to use every kind of deceptive technique to exploit innocent people. They were also in bondage to fleshly lust (2 Peter 2:10, 14). They had their eyes on weak women whom they could seduce. (Given what Peter and Jude wrote about Sodom and Gomorrah, perhaps we should also include weak men and boys.)
They were also enslaved by pride (2 Peter 2:10-12). They thought nothing of speaking evil of those in places of authority, including the angels and God! They promoted themselves and derided everybody else.
Sad to say, some people admire this kind of arrogance who follow these proud men and support them.
It is interesting to compare the three men Peter named in this chapter Noah, Lot, and Balaam. Noah kept himself completely separated from the apostasy of the world of his day. He boldly preached God's righteousness and was faithful in his walk and witness, even though no one but his family followed the Lord.
Lot knew the truth and kept himself pure, but he did not keep himself separated; he lost his family as a result. Lot hated the wickedness of Sodom, yet he lived in the midst of it and, by doing so, exposed his daughters and wife to godless influences.
Balaam not only followed the ways of sin, but he encouraged other people to sin! He told Balak how to seduce the nation Israel and his plan almost succeeded. Lot lost his family, but Balaam lost his life.
Beware of "the deceitfulness of sin" (Heb. 3:13). Sin always promises freedom but in the end brings bondage. It promises life but instead brings death. Sin has a way of gradually binding a person until there is no way of escape, apart from the gracious intervention of the Lord. Even the bondage that sin creates is deceitful, for the people who in bondage think they are free! Too late, they discover that they are prisoners of their own appetites and habits.
Jesus Christ came to bring freedom. In His first sermon in the synagogue at Nazareth, our Lord sounded forth the trumpet call of freedom and the advent of the "Year of Jubilee" (Luke 4:16ff). But Christ's False Freedom / 85
mating of freedom is different from the apostates, as is His method for accomplishing it.
In the Bible, freedom does not mean "doing your own thing" or "having it your way." That attitude is the very essence of sin. The freedom that Jesus Christ offers means enjoying fulfillment in the will of God. It incans achieving your most significant potential to the glory of God. The Quaker loder Rufus Jones, paraphrasing Aristotle, said, "The true nature of a thing is the highest that it can become." Jesus Christ frees us to become our very best in this life, and then to be like Him in the next.
The apostates brought their followers into bondage by means of lies, but our Lord brings us into freedom by means of truth. "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32). He was speaking, of course, about the truth of the Word of God. "Sanctify them through thy truch," He prayed; "thy word is truch" (John 17:17). Through the Word of God, we discover the truth about ourselves, our world, and our God. As we face this truth honestly, we experience the liberating power of the Spirit of God. We cease living in a world of fantasy and enter a world of reality, and through the power of God, we are able to fulfill His will, grow in grace, and "reign in life by one, Jesus Christ" (Rom. 5:17).
Those who live by God's truth enter into more and more freedom, but those who live by lies experience more and more bondage, until "the latter end is worse with them chan the beginning" (2 Peter 2:20). This reminds us ofour Lord's parable in Matchew 12:43-45, the truch of which parallels what Peter has written. Temporary reformation without true repentance and rebirth only leads to greater sin and judgment. Reformation cleans up the ourtside, but regeneration changes the inside.
Sinful tendencies do not disappear when a person reforms they metely hibernate and get stronger. Holiness is not simply refusing to do evil things, for even unsaved people can practice self-control. True holines is more than conquering tempration: It is conquering even the desire to disobey God. When my doctor told me to lose weight, he said,
"I'lI tell you how to do it: Learn to hate the things that aren't good for you." His advice worked!
You can expect nothing but "False freedom" from false Christians who offer false promises. But there is a third reason why this freedom is false.
3. SLAVES WITHOUT THE SPIRIT - IT INVOLVES A FALSE EXPERIENCE (2:21-22)
Peter called these apostates "natural brute beasts" (2 Peter 2:12) and then ended the warning by describing them as pigs and dogs! But he was not simply showing his personal disdain for them; rather, he was teaching a basic spiritual lesson.
We must understand that the pronoun "they" in this entire paragraph (2 Peter 2:17-22) refers to the false teachers and not to their converts. It is also vital that we remember that these teachers are not truly born-again people. Jude described these same people in his letter and stated clearly that they were "sensual, having not the Spirit" (Jude 19).
It is not profession of spirituality that marks a true believer but possession of the Spirit of God within (Rom. 8:9).
But these apostates did have a "religious experience"! And they would boldly claim that their experience brought them into fellowship with the Lord. They would be able to explain "he way of righteousness" and would use the Word of God to support their teachings. If they had not experienced some "religious conversion," they would never have been able to get into the fellowship of the local assemblies.
But their experience, like their promises, was false.
Since Peter wrote both of his letters to the same group of believers, we may assume that chey had the doctrinal foundation presented so clearly in his first letter. Peter emphasized the new birch (1 Peter 1:3, 22-25).
He reminded his readers that they were "partakers of the divine nature* (2 Peter 1:4). In his first letter, Peter described the believers as sheep (1 Peter 135: 5:1-4). Our Lord used this same image when He reinstated Peter into the apostleship after his denials John 21:15-17).
There is no indication that the false teachers had ever experienced the new birth. They knew salvation and could use the language of he church, but they lacked that true saving experience with the Lord.
At one time they had even received the Word of God (2 Peter 2:21), but then they turned away from it. They never trusted Christ and became His sheep. Instead of being sheep, they were pigs and dogs- and remember that the dogs in that day were not pampered pets! The Jews called the Gentiles "dogs" because a dog was nothing but a filthy scavenger who lived on garbage! It was hardly a title of respect and endearment!
These men could point to "an experience," but it was a false experience.
Satan is the counterfeiter. We have already seen that Satan has a false gospel (Gal. 1:6-9), preached by false ministers (2 Cor. 11:13-15), producing false Christians (2 Cor. 11:26- "in perils among false brethren"). In His parable of the tares, our Lord taught that Satan plants his counterfeits ("the children of the wicked one") wherever God plants true believers (Matt. 13:24-30, 36-43
Matthew 13:36–43 KJV 1900
36 Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. 37 He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; 38 The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; 39 The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. 40 As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. 41 The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; 42 And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
What kind of "experience" did these false teachers have? To use Peter's vivid images, the pig was washed on the outside but remained a pig; the dog was "cleaned up" on the inside but remained a dog. The pig looked better and the dog felt better, but neither one had been changed. They each had the same old nature, not a new one.
This explains why both animals returned to the old life: It was part of their natures. A pig can stay clean only briefly and then head for the nearest mudhole. We do not condemn a pig for acting like a pig because it has a pig's nature. We would be concerned if we saw a sheep heading for the mire!
When I was a youngster, one of our neighbors owned a scrubby black mut with the imaginative name of Blackie. He had the habit of eating what dogs should not eat, and then regurgitating somewhere in the neighborhood, usually on our sidewalk. But that was not all. Blackie would then return to the scene of the crime and start all over again! Dogs have been doing this for centuries, for Solomon mentioned it in Proverbs 26:11, the text that Peter quoted.
Certainly, the dog feels better after emptying his stomach, but it is still a dog. "Having an experience" did not change his nature. Quite the contrary, it only gave further evidence of his dog nature, because he came back and (just like a dog) lapped up his own vomit. It is a disgusting picture, but that is exactly the response Peter wanted to produce.
In my ministry, I have met people who have cold me about their "spiritual experiences," but in their narratives I detected no evidence of a new nature. Like the sow, some of them were cleaned up on the outside.
Like the dog, some of them were cleaned up temporarily on the inside and actually felt better. But in no case had they become "partakers of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4). They thought they were free from their problems and sins, when really they were still in bondage to an old sinful nature.
According to 2 Peter 2:20, these apostates "escaped the pollutions of the world." Pollution is defilement on the outside. But true believers have
"escaped the corruption that is in the world through (because off lust"
(2 Peter 1:4). Corruption is much deeper than defilement on the outside: It is decay on the inside. True believers have received a new nature, a divine nature, and they have new and different appetites and desires. They have been transformed from pigs and dogs into sheep!
Imagine the disappointment of the person who chinks he has been delivered, only to discover that, in the end, he is in worse shape than when he started! The apostates promise freedom, but all they can give is bondage. True freedom must come from within; it has to do with the inner nature of the person. Because the true nature of a thing is the highest that it can become, a pig and dog can never rise higher than their nature.
I realize that some believe that these apostate teachers were ONCE believers who, in turning from the knowledge of Christ, forfeited their Salvation. Even a casual reading of 2 Peter 2 and Jude would convince the impartial reader that these teachers never had a true experience of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. Peter would never have compared them to Swine and dogs had they once been members of the Lord's true flock, nor would he have called them "cursed children" (2 Peter 2:14).
If they were true believers who had gone astray, it would have been Peter's responsibility to encourage his readers to rescue these backsliders James 5:19-20). Still, Peter did not command them to do so. Instead, he condemned the apostates in some of the most forceful language found in the New Testament!
Now we better understand why chis "freedom" offered by these teachers is a false freedom, a "freedom" that only leads to bondage. It is based on false promises, empty words that sound exciting but have no divine authority. It is offered by false Christians who were involved in a false experience. From start to finish, this "freedom" is the product of our adversary, the devil!
We can appreciate Peter's admonition in 2 Peter 1:10-"Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure." In other words, "Has your spiritual experience been genuine?" It is a startling fact that many people in our churches have never truly been born again, but who are convinced that they are saved and going to heaven! They have had "an experience," and perhaps look better like the sow) and feel better (like the dog), but they have not been made better as "partakers of the divine nature."
Perhaps Peter recalled Judas, one of the twelve, who was never born again. Up to the very end, the other disciples did not know the truth about Judas and thought he was a spiritual man!
The apostates appear to have successful ministries, but in the end, they are bound to fit The important thing is that you and I have the assurance of a true experience with the Lord, and that we have nothing to do with these counterfeit ministries, no matter how popular they may be.
Christ is "the truth" John 14:6) and following Him leads to freedom.
The apostates are liars and following them leads to bondage. There can be no middle ground!
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