Streams Without Water

Right now in the Bassett household, Eden is on a bit of a Frozen kick so we listen and sing quite a bit of the hits of Queen Elsa, Princess Anna and Olaf the Snowman at night before bed and there’s one song in Frozen 2 called Some Things Never Change and the end of the song goes, “Some things never change, turn around and the time has flown. Some things stay the same though the future remains unknown. May our good luck last, may our past be past, time's moving fast, it's true. Some things never change and I'm holding on tight to you.” And there is some truth in that song. Time does often seem to fly by and there are some things that just never change and while I don’t believe that Queen Elsa is the premier theologian of our day, what we will see this morning in 2 Peter 2:10-22 is that when it comes to false teaching and their teachers, the methods really do never change. The color of the paint may change but it is still the same engine underneath. We have a lot to get through this morning so let me give you a map as to where we’re going. We’ll divide our verses this morning into 4 sections: Distorted methods, Distorted gain, Distorted Hope, and a Distorted Gospel. Let’s pray and then we’ll dive into 2 Peter 2:10-22.

2 Peter 2:10–22 (NASB95)

and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority.

Daring, self-willed, they do not tremble when they revile angelic majesties,

whereas angels who are greater in might and power do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the Lord.

But these, like unreasoning animals, born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed, reviling where they have no knowledge, will in the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed,

suffering wrong as the wages of doing wrong. They count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, as they carouse with you,

having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children;

forsaking the right way, they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;

but he received a rebuke for his own transgression, for a mute donkey, speaking with a voice of a man, restrained the madness of the prophet.

These are springs without water and mists driven by a storm, for whom the black darkness has been reserved.

For speaking out arrogant words of vanity they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error,

promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved.

For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.

For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them.

It has happened to them according to the true proverb, “A dog returns to its own vomit,” and, “A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire.”

Distorted Methods (Verses 10-15a)

While the methods that these false teachers use are seen throughout this chapter, Peter fits a whole lot in verses 10-15a. Really, not just the methods are seen but the mindset of false teachers. As I said earlier, these mindsets don’t differ much between the 1st and the 21st century. The first thing we notice in these verses is the arrogance and the pride of false teachers. Peter describes them as daring, self-willed, and they do not tremble when they revile angelic majesties. They are boldly arrogant in their ways. They are so confident in themselves that they feel like they can charge hell with a water pistol. And where does this boldness come from? It doesn’t come from the living God. No, it comes entirely from themselves and their own puffed up opinions of themselves. At the end of verse 10, where we see that they do not tremble as they revile angelic majesties, based on the context of the very next verse, these false teachers are so self-confident that they’re willing to go toe to toe with demons. The angelic majesties at the end of verse 10 is likely a reference to the fallen angels. Now this is such a false confidence. Man void of the Holy Spirit cannot go toe to toe with the devil. Just take a look at Acts 19 with the seven sons of Sceva the chief priest. These seven unconverted men felt that they could cast out demons totally void of the Spirit simply by naming and claiming Jesus over the evil spirits. We read in Acts 19:15–16 “And the evil spirit answered and said to them, “I recognize Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?” And the man, in whom was the evil spirit, leaped on them and subdued all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.” Look if you go into a fight and you leave that fight with less clothes than what you went in with, you did not win that fight. That is a picture of an unconverted man or woman thinking that they can take on the forces of evil without the ultimate force of Good! It’s a complete losing battle and yet these false teachers have no issue reviling the demons. They are so self-confident that they are doing something that even the good angels don’t do. Verse 11 we see that the angels who are greater in might and power do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the Lord. We see a picture of what this looks like in Jude 8–9 “Yet in the same way these men, also by dreaming, defile the flesh, and reject authority, and revile angelic majesties. But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”” What Peter and Jude is saying is that the angels recognize that all authority and judgement belongs to God and God alone. Justice is mine, thus says the Lord and He will repay. Notice in verse 12 the strong language that Peter uses to describe these false teachers. He compares them to unreasoning animals that operate purely on instinct whose sole purpose is to be captured and killed. John MacArthur puts it like this, “Spiritual pretenders, dishonestly presenting themselves as true teachers, exhibit an animal-like ignorance, reviling where they have no knowledge. They ridicule divine truth and heavenly authority, including things they do not even understand. Like animals, they make no positive contribution and would actually serve others best by being dead.” Make no mistake about it, those that mislead the sheep shall be destroyed. False teachers, as appealing as they may be to man, will not escape the eye and judgement of the God-man Jesus Christ. Peter points to the inevitable destruction of not just the false teachers in the 1st century, but the destruction of false teachers throughout every century. So, what is it that they are doing? Well Peter says that they count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime. That which most would be embarrassed to do at night, they gleefully boast about in the middle of the day! They don’t just hide away their deceptions, they boastfully proclaim them! And they are doing it amongst believers! At the end of verse 13 where Peter says, “as they carouse with you” is a reference to the feasts that Christians would have in the 1st century. It was common at this time for their to be a meal for the church as they celebrated the Lord’s Supper together but these false teachers are coming to these feasts with the purpose of deceiving and causing troubles. They’ve got their eyes on the Church Potluck! What Peter is saying is that you need to be looking out for these people because they are dwelling among you! There are tares growing right alongside the wheat! What these false teachers do for the most part is eye the weaker brother or sister. They aren’t looking to take down the spiritual juggernaut, at least not at first. No, they are looking for the low hanging fruit. They are looking for the one’s who don’t know their Bibles. They are looking for the one’s that are spiritually unstable. They are looking for the one’s that don’t know any better yet because they haven’t learned more than a few basic facts of Christianity. They may even be looking for the one’s in church that are unconverted. Remember you can be a member of a church and be unconverted. You can be part of a church without submitting to the Chief Cornerstone of the Church. Peter says that their eyes are full of adultery and that the never cease from sin. They are looking with lustful intent towards those that are weak. Their hearts are devoted and trained in greed. They want to profit off of you in whatever way shape or form that might be. Now if you think that Peter is talking about something that is only relevant for the first century, take a second and look at the prosperity Gospel movement. How much of that is motivated by pure greed? How much of that is motivated by resources? And who is it targeted towards? Do we not see these alleged faith healers targeting weak individuals that seem to be just reaching out for someone to help them? Don’t we see men like Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland, TD Jakes, all profiting off of others weakness? There ministries are more than just dishonest, they’re damning! How many souls have latched onto their gospel and their false teachings in the hope that they will be helped only to be let down in the end? No, these teachers are solely focused on gain but it’s not gain for you, it’s gain for them.

Distorted Gain (Verses 15b-16)

Peter gives a visible example of this at the end of verse 15 and into 16 by referring to the false prophet Balaam. Now we don’t have the time to go through the entire narrative of Balaam but for those of you who aren’t sure who it is that Peter is talking about, you need to take a journey to the book of Numbers. In Numbers 22-24, Balak the king of Moab sees what God is doing through Moses and the Israelites and he is absolutely terrified of them. So what does he do? He decides to send for a prophet by the name of Balaam in the hopes that Balaam will come and curse the Israelites and Moab will be able to destroy them. Balak sends messengers to Balaam and Balaam says, “Nope, I’m not coming.” Balak sends more messengers and Balaam eventually says, “I’ll come but I will only say that which God tells me to say.” Balaam gets on his donkey and he goes to Moab but we read in Numbers 22:22a “But God was angry because he was going, and the angel of the Lord took his stand in the way as an adversary against him.” Why was God angry? God actually told Balaam to go so why was he angry? Because he knew Balaam’s heart. Balaam was only going for the wealth that the king promised him. Even though Balaam blessed the people of Israel instead of cursing them, it is this very same Balaam that would later lead the people of Israel to sin by convincing the king of Moab to offer the Israelites women that would lead them into sin. Back to 2nd Peter 2, Peter tells us that these false teachers have followed the way of Balaam who loved the wages of unrighteousness. That which these teachers are doing profit them nothing but unrighteousness. They are only doing what they do to benefit themselves in ways that are totally contrary to the Lord. As you may find yourself surrounded or hearing the words of false teachers, ask yourself what it is that they are profiting off of? Do they have a shepherds heart? We’ll touch more on this in just a bit. Turn now to 2 Peter 2:17. Read that again and look at the distorted hope that these false teachers offer: “These are springs without water and mists driven by a storm, for whom the black darkness has been reserved.”

Distorted Hope (Verse 17)

What these false teachers offer is nothing more than distorted and false hope. They act like they know the way, the source, but they don’t. They offer nothing of value, they offer nothing for the good of anyone. Peter describes it like finding a spring without water. In the desert climate that many of Peter’s original readers were in, you relied on those springs. You relied on those springs for your life. Now imagine if you were marching through the Sahara desert and death is creeping in on you. All you need is one drop of water and in the distance you see what looks like a spring of water. With the last bit of life that you have in you, you crawl and you crawl and it turns out that it was only a mirage. There is no water just as in the teachings of these teachers, there is no hope. Peter also uses the imagery of mists being driven by a storm. In this climate, it was normal for a sea breeze to bring in a mist and with that mist was the hope that rain was coming but sometimes storms would come and drive the mist and the rain away leaving the land parched and barren. We see total dryness and destitution in the teachings of these false teachers. It’s the total opposite of what Jesus offers to us in John 7:37–38 where Jesus says: “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” John Piper said, “O what a need there is in the church for discernment between waterless springs and springs of living water! The one bubbles up unto eternal life. The other sinks down into the gloom where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. We must become a deeply discerning people.” Now let’s say that you might be thinking that surely no one in the name of the God of Christianity would do this today! Look at what the Pope said on a recent trip to Singapore while speaking to children. The Pope just a few weeks ago had the audacity to tell children and really people all over the world that all religions lead to God. Here is this man that is claiming to represent Christ and he is leading people away from Christ! I was fuming when I saw this! When I saw that, I knew firsthand what righteous anger looked like. Jesus Himself says in Matthew 18:6 “but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.” Yet here is this antichrist telling children all paths go to God. No they don’t. Jesus is not a way He is THE way, THE truth, and THE life. NO ONE comes to the Father except through Him.

A Distorted Gospel (Verses 18-22)

All these teachers do is offer a distorted gospel and they offer it primarily to those whom Peter describes as, “those who barely escape from the ones who live in error.” Peter says in verse 18 that these teachers use arrogant words of vanity and by a variety of means, they entice those that are not committed to Christ yet. These are the seeds that fall on the rocky soil and on the side of the road that the birds eat and are taken away. These are the people that say, “I want to know about Jesus.” But they aren’t quite committed to Jesus just yet. They want to know about what this Christianity thing is all about but then comes these false teachers that completely butcher and push them away from Christ and who He really is. They promise them the world but they get nothing in return. They say you can have Heaven in a different way. They say you can have all the gifts without the giver. They say you can have all the blessings without the need of obedience. They are empty promises that lure many away from the Gospel and we should not be surprised that this happens. This is the natural setting of false teachers and that is why Peter uses the proverb of the dog returning to its vomit and the pig returning to the mud. You can wash a pig all you want but you know the moment it’s clean, it’s going straight back to the mud to dirty itself up again. What’s so painful is knowing that many of those that are brought into this get so entangled with the false teachings that by the time the Gospel is presented clearly to them, it is so hard for them to come back. Brothers and sisters, what do we do about this? How do we protect ourselves from this? Because make no mistake about it, false teaching and its teachers are bound to find you. You can’t go practically anywhere without bumping into things that are antithetical to the Gospel that all claim to be Christian. It may go without saying that if you want to stand against false teaching and false teachers, you need to know true teaching. You need to know your Bible. Not just the bits you like either. You need Old and New Testament because it’s all God’s Word. We need to be like the Bereans of Acts 17 and take everything and examine it with Scripture to see if it’s true. Those that are most susceptible to false teachings have dust covered Bibles. Look if your favorite book of the Bible is Jesus and your favorite verse is “God helps those who help themselves”, you’re prime for deception. Don’t just read the Bible, study it, devour it. You don’t just read this book, it reads you! It brings you before the throne of God! You meet the Lord, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, the God of your salvation within these pages. Would it be wise to neglect it? The problem is so many of us feel like we have met the mark in our spiritual lives without reading Scripture. We say, “I went to a Christian movie, I watched a Christian show, I read a Christian book so I’m good” but we neglect the Bible! Charles Spurgeon in his own day said this: “You know more about your ledgers than your Bible; you know more about your magazines and novels than what God has written; many of you will read a novel from the beginning to the end, and what have you got? A mouthful of foam when you are done. But you cannot read the Bible; that solid, lasting, substantial, and satisfying food goes uneaten, locked up in the cupboard of neglect; while anything that a man writes, a best seller of the day, is greedily devoured." You need to know Scripture. You need to love Scripture because the greater our knowledge of Scripture, the greater our allegiance to the One that inspired Scripture, the easier it will be to discern right from wrong. We read in Hebrews 5:13–14 says, “For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.” The next thing we need to do is hold pastors and teachers accountable. What is it that those that you are under the influence of are really teaching? Can it be affirmed throughout the entirety of Scripture? How are they living? Are they living lives that are consistent with Scripture? Are they living lives that are holy and pleasing to the Lord? I thoroughly believe this: A church will rise no higher than its pulpit. If there is a weak man at the pulpit, there will be weak people in the pews. You can tell so much about the spiritual lives of the church by the one that is leading them. A weak shepherd will lead weak sheep. The greatest threat to the church is most often the pastor. They can either preach falsely or they do nothing when false teaching shows up. They don’t want to offend or make people uncomfortable. It has been said that Robert Murray M’Cheyne once said, “My people’s greatest need is my personal holiness.” I understand and I pray to God that He would keep me faithful. As we see pastor after pastor falling because of moral failure, I just pray that God would keep me faithful. That God would allow me to be faithful in my life and in my doctrine. Those that endure to the end will be saved and those that endure in the truth are the one’s that are truly set apart for the work of ministry. John says in 1 John 2:19 says, “They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.” You need to hold us accountable. You need to hold Wayne and I accountable for every word we utter from this pulpit because the last thing that I want to do is lead one of these sheep astray. God keep us faithful! May we not be weak men with weak messages but may we both boldly proclaim the God of Scripture. As John Calvin said, “The office of teaching is committed to pastors for no other purpose than that God alone may be heard there!” Judgement is coming, Peter says this in 2 Peter 2:3, but it also comes to the house of God first. If Christ were to walk through these doors today, I pray that He would find us faithful. I pray that He would find us as doers of the Word and not just hearers. I pray that He would find a church that was devoted to doctrinal integrity and not personal preference. I pray that He would find a church that was committed to the Word of God. Church is that us? And if it’s not, may it start with me. I know I may not be THE pastor here but I am A pastor and if I can shepherd you in any way, I would love to. My library is an open door, my heart is an open door, my knowledge, the little that I have I want to offer to you. May we grow together in the faith and may we know Him that is Truth. I want above all to see Christ glorified and strong sheep that know the way. As we close, I want to offer the Truth to each and every person in here. You don’t have to get entangled with falsehood, you can truly know Jesus Christ. You can be saved this day. The Gospel is not hard to understand but the truth of it is often hard to swallow. Do you know Christ? Not just head knowledge, has your heart been illuminated to Christ? Know that you can know the way of righteousness today! You may be in a sea of false teaching right now but there is Christ! As Peter says in 2 Peter 2:9, the Lord knows how to rescue, won’t you let Him rescue you this day! Don’t wait until tomorrow! Come to faith in Christ today and together let us as the church help you as you grow in your sanctification and we grow in ours. Don’t get lost in the springs without water, come to Him who offers living water without price. The price has already been paid through what Christ has done. Come to Jesus now while there is still time. Let’s go to the Lord in prayer.