2 Peter 2:10-22 (Beware Enticing Snares)

Introduction

Haven’t you ever wanted more from Christianity? I have.

When I was a new Christian (about 25 years ago), I heard some preachers talk… and I read some authors who wrote… about their experiences with the supernatural – some claimed encounters with God or angels, others with demons, but their stories were fascinating to me. I wanted to be the sort of super-Christian they seemed to be, and I wanted to have personal experience with the supernatural as they had done. This seemed to me the height of spiritual maturity and strength.

So too, at various times during my Christian walk, I’ve also wanted more from Christianity regarding my sin. Like Christian in Pilgrim’s Progress, I’ve climbed the fence to take the “easier” path that seemed to go right alongside the King’s Highway. I wanted to “believe in Jesus” and also indulge my sinful desires.

Friends, have you ever wanted more from Christianity?

Have you wanted some experience that church just doesn’t give you?

Have you wanted a greater sense of or encounter with the supernatural?

Have you wanted a freedom that doesn’t designate your sin “off limits”?

Well, if you have or if you do, there will always be preachers and authors and podcasters and even “churches” that will promise such things to you.

Preachers will tell you all about grace and peace with God, and they will never call upon you to give up your sin.

Authors of “Christian” books will tell you all about their experiences with personal and supernatural assurance or direction or affirmation, and they’ll tell you how you can experience a higher Christianity than others.

“Christian” podcasters will delve into the occult, they will make audacious claims, and they will tell you all about their new and unique take on Christian doctrine or ethics… denying the Christian faith and practice of the last 2,000 years.

And, friends, I know of at least three “churches” within 3 miles of here that will happily affirm your profession of faith in Christ without any curiosity to know what you actually believe or any call to repent or turn away from your sin.

If we think that false teachers, false gospels, and false promises of God’s blessing are a thing far away from us, then we are dead wrong. These enticing snares are in our own backyard, they’re on our screens, and they’re likely the celebrated teachers and assumed beliefs of many of our friends and loved ones.

Today, we’re continuing our study through 2 Peter, and our text today is a continuation of the warning Peter began to outline at the beginning of ch2. He warned that false teachers would arise from within the ranks of Christianity, and his purpose was to urge his reader to beware and to stay faithful to the gospel they’d already received and to the Savior they were already trusting and following.

Scripture Reading

2 Peter 2:1-3, 10b-22 (ESV)

1 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 And in their greed they will exploit you with false words.

Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep…

10b 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. 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, 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. 14 They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children!

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. 17 These 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. 19 They promise them freedom, but they themselves are 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. 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.

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.”

Main Idea:

Christians already have all that they need to believe, to persevere, and to grow in Christ, but there will always be a temptation to seek more from those who promise what they neither have nor can deliver. Therefore, beware!

Sermon

1. We Have All We Need

Christians already have all that they need to believe, to persevere, and to grow in Christ.

Before we get into our main text for today (v10-22), it seems good for us to be reminded of what Peter’s been saying that leads up to our passage (esp. in ch1). What we have here is a warning about false teachers – their bad character and their emptiness or futility. But all of this follows Peter’s affirmation that Christians already have all they need to believe, to persevere, and to grow in Christ.

Christians already have all they need to believe in Christ.

Peter began his letter by identifying himself as “a servant and [an] apostle of Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 1:1), and he identified his reader as “those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 1:1).

If you’re a Christian, then you’ve already obtained – you already possess – the same faith as the Apostles!

There is no greater faith.

There is no higher belief.

There is no more exalted status of Christianity!

If we simply believe, then we now possess the righteousness of Christ, which is what God requires of sinners like us.

In addition, Christians have already been granted all things that pertain to life and godliness!

Peter says, “His [i.e., God’s] divine power has granted to us ALL THINGS that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence” (2 Pet. 1:3).

Friend, do you want life?

Do you want godliness?

Then, consider the knowledge of God, which He’s already given to us in His word and by His Spirit!

It follows also that Christians have already become partakers of God’s own “divine nature.”

Peter says, by this “knowledge,” God “has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them YOU may become partakers of the divine nature…” (2 Pet. 1:4).

Brothers and sisters, do you sometimes lack a feeling that you are “in Christ”?

Then stop relying on your feelings!

Consider the precious and very great promises!

Read them… think on them… tell your feelings what God has promised to those who simply believe or trust in Christ!

Christians already have all they need to persevere in Christ.

After Peter says that Christians already have all they need to believe, he then tells them that they already have all they need to persevere.

He says, “Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 1:10-11).

And remember what “qualities” Peter listed – faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love (2 Pet. 1:5-7).

If you simply practice the qualities of godliness, then you will never fall but will surely enter into Christ’s eternal kingdom.

Friends, if you want to persevere in Christ, then make it your aim to live in keeping with (i.e., strive to apply) the qualities of godliness.

Don’t look for some secret knowledge.

Don’t try to adapt your Christianity to the culture around you.

Just make an everyday effort to stay faithful to Jesus and get yourself regularly around others who are doing the same.

Christians already have all they need to grow in Christ.

This is what Peter was getting at when he said that “the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 1:16) is not to be found in “cleverly devised myths” or even in personal experience (2 Pet. 1:16).

Peter was himself an eyewitness of Christ’s affirmation from God the Father on the mount of transfiguration.

But that personal experience is not what Peter said was the ground and light of Christian faith.

No, it is the “prophetic word more fully confirmed” (2 Pet. 1:19)… it is the written Scripture, which was handed down from holy men “as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Pet. 1:21).

It is to that “word” we would “do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts” (2 Pet. 2:19).

Friends, do you want to grow in Christ?

Then pay attention, give your eyes and ears, set your focus on the written word of God!

Brothers and sisters, we already have all that we need to believe, to persevere, and to grow in Christ.

We already have (if we believe or trust in Jesus) a faith of equal standing with the Apostles.

We have already been given all things that pertain to life and godliness.

We have already become partakers of God’s own divine nature.

We already have the qualities we need to grow in Christ, and we are simply to make our effort to progress in them.

And we already have the written word of God, which is a lamp to our feet, a light to our path, a roadmap for growth and perseverance in Christ.

But (Peter warns) false teachers will arise from within your own ranks (2 Pet. 2:1), and they will deceive many (v2), exploiting them with false words (v3).

Here is the warning, and this is what our passage is all about today.

We must know what to watch out for.

We must consider the emptiness of the temptation to seek more from those who promise what they neither have nor can deliver.

And we must beware enticing snares… because they are surely nearby, and because many will fall prey to them.

2. Bad Characters (v10b-16)

There will always be a temptation to seek more from those who promise what they do not have.

Our main passage today describes both the character and the empty promises of false teachers. And the passage can be divided into two sections – v10-16 describing their character, and v17-22 describing the emptiness of their promises. Let’s consider their bad character here.

False teachers are often bold blasphemers (v10-13).

These first few verses are a continuation and expansion of Peter’s judgment against false teachers that they “despise authority” (v10).

Since they rebel against God’s chief authority, it is no surprise that they “do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones” (v10).

I take this to mean that they speak slanderously of angels, but others have thought Peter was referring to other humans.

Either way, the character of false teachers is such that they are foolishly bold in their assumption that they have an authority and/or a status greater than it really is.

It’s been said that the difference between cats and dogs is that a dog sees his master bringing him food and water, and the dog thinks, “My master must be God because he cares for me.” Cat’s, on the other hand, they think, “I must be God, since this human lives to serve me.”

The main takeaway here is that cats are bad, and false teachers are like cats.

No, really… the idea is that false teachers presume and claim more than what they actually have.

They are bold in their blasphemy.

They are ready and eager to speak “false words” (v3) about “matters of which they are ignorant” (v12).

Friends, we can see this everywhere if we just know what to look for.

Bible teachers will come up with some doctrine or practice that is not in the Bible.

Pastors will urge people to believe or to do something which the Bible neither describes nor commands.

Christians will make some claim on a subject that they’ve not studied, and the more follow up questions you ask the more obvious it is that they have no idea what the Bible actually says on the subject they are speaking so confidently about.

Brothers and sisters, there are two kinds of Bible-folk in the world – one kind owns a Bible but they think they probably already know what God says, and so they speak and act without restraint (and without fear or reverence); the other kind wants to be sure about what God says (because they fear God more than they fear what others think), and so they restrain their words and actions until they have studied the Bible and are fairly certain that they are in keeping with God’s word.

False teachers are often eager and boastful sinners (v13-15).

Peter goes on quite a bit here about false teachers’ eager pursuit of sin.

He says that they are “creatures of instinct” (v12), and the brute desires Peter emphasizes here are those of eating, drinking, and deviant sexual activity.

Peter says, “They count it pleasure to revel [or “riot” (KJV) or “carouse” (NET) or “party”] in the daytime” (v13).

In other words, they enjoy partying and leisure during the hours when they ought to be doing good and honest work.

Peter says, “They… revel in their deceptions, while they feast with you” (v13).

In other words, they take pleasure in your bounty of food and drink (i.e., the gift of God’s blessings), and all the more since they are taking advantage of your gullibility.

It’s also quite possible that Peter is particularly referring here to the “feast” of the Lord’s Supper, which would make the false teachers even more treacherous – they know that they ought not partake of the Lord’s table, but they enjoy doing it anyway… and they even delight in presuming upon God’s grace and Christians’ sympathies.

Peter says, “They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin” and “They entice unsteady souls” (v14).

In the context here, Peter is likely talking about the way false men entice vulnerable women in the church.

What young woman does not enjoy the attention of a complimentary and seemingly confident young man?

Ladies, don’t fall for it!

If you’re a single woman, then invite godly men (your dad or another good Christian man) to help you evaluate the character of the boys who interest you.

And how many times have we seen this very thing play out in our own experience – a pastor or preacher exposed as a womanizer long after he was already exposed as a one who downplayed sin and repentance, who taught of things he did not know, or who exploited his hearers with flattery and sentimentality?

Friends, sexual sin and all sorts of liberties with other sins… these often accompany false teaching and false teachers.

This is why it’s so important for local churches to follow Scripture in evaluating who we should and should not elevate to the role of pastor or elder among us.

The bad character of false teachers is directly opposite of the good character which the Bible requires for those who aspire to or seek the office of pastor/elder.

The Bible says, “If anyone aspires to the office of overseer [or elder or pastor], he desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive… He must not be a recent convert… [and] he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil” (1 Timothy 3:1-7).

False teachers are under God’s curse, not His blessing or grace (v14-17).

Peter is clear that false teachers are “Accursed children” (v14).

They are “waterless springs” (v17).

They are “mists driven by a storm” (v17).

And they are headed toward the “gloom of outer darkness [that] has been reserved” for them (v17).

Friends, this might be the most important part of my whole sermon today.

I don’t know exactly what it is about our culture or our experience or our natural tendencies… but we are far more likely to make excuses for false teachers, to plead for charity and grace, and to give them time to sow their seeds of deception and destruction among us than we are to confront them and call them out.

Churches and Christians wait and wait until a false teacher or a false Christian is undeniably destructive and hostile to Christianity before they are willing to confront their sin or error.

But this is no way to deal with such things!

If we note that a person has questionable character, we should not give them any influence upon our beliefs or practices.

If we see that a brother or sister might be enticed by someone with bad character or false words, then we ought to come to their aid with a baton and at least some aggression.

It may be that the one in question is just an immature sheep, but there may also be a wolf under that coat of fake wool.

Friends, there will always be a temptation to seek more along with those who promise what they do not have. And we ought to beware!

We ought to beware the empty promises of freedom outside of God’s commands and prohibitions.

We ought to beware of our own tendencies to want our ears tickled and our backs scratched.

And we ought to beware the confident and shameless sinners who would seem to love nothing more than to pull us into the mire with them.

There are bad characters out there, and we ought to beware.

3. Empty Vessels (v17-22)

There will always be a temptation to seek more from those who promise what they cannot deliver.

Peter’s whole point in this warning here seems to be that the false teachers who would entice “unsteady” and vulnerable Christians are themselves empty vessels who cannot deliver. They promise freedom, but they are themselves slaves of sin and error. They promise refreshing water, but they are themselves dry and parched. They promise a feast, but all they have is regurgitated leftovers.

The warning is not only “Don’t listen to these guys!” or “Don’t follow these guys!” but also “Why in the world would you give up the buffet of Christ’s righteousness, of Christian freedom, and of God’s own blessings… for the defilements, the bondage, and the condemnation offered by those false teachers?!”

Friends, Christ has lived and died in the place of sinners… so that we might have His righteousness… and so that we might increasingly put on in His righteousness… so that we might “escape the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (v20).

Don’t you want true righteousness and holiness? Don’t you want to avoid the consequences of sin and ruin and destruction?

If you do, then don’t seek some alternative route through false promises and false teachers. Simply look to Christ, consider His life and teaching, and trust and obey His words… as we find them in the Scriptures.

Brothers and sisters, God gives us real freedom in the gospel and in His good commands… so that we will escape error… so that we will not be enslaved anymore… and so that our own sinful desires and inclinations toward false belief will not overcome us.

Wouldn’t you rather work and play and live within the boundaries God has provided for you?

When we tell our kids not to play in the street or touch the hot stove, we are not limiting their freedoms, but directing them away from injury and harm. So too, when God tells us “This is the right way” or “Don’t do that,” He’s not taking away our liberty or stifling our joy.

God offers us true freedom, not freedom to sin, but freedom to obey… and this freedom (found in “the way of righteousness” [v21]) leads to our good, to our joy, and to our blessing.

Finally, friends, consider the two alternative ends or destinations that show up in this apostolic letter – one is the end of “gloom” and “darkness” and “destruction” and God’s “curse,” whereas the other is the end or destination of “life” and “godliness” and “glory” and Christ’s “eternal kingdom.”

There will always be a temptation to seek more from those who promise what they neither have nor can deliver. But Christians already have all that they need to believe, to persevere, and to grow in Christ.

Therefore, beware enticing snares, beware false teachers and false words, and make every effort to set your focus and your hope on the true and trustworthy and ordinary means of God’s grace – namely the Scriptures which teach us who Christ is, what He has done, and how we might be both united to Him and follow as His disciples.