2 Peter 2

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Sermon Text: Scripture

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Formation Journal Page Number: 9:36- 10:39 11:21-12:18

2 Peter 2:1–22 CSB

1 There were indeed false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, and will bring swift destruction on themselves. 2 Many will follow their depraved ways, and the way of truth will be maligned because of them. 3 They will exploit you in their greed with made-up stories. Their condemnation, pronounced long ago, is not idle, and their destruction does not sleep. 4 For if God didn’t spare the angels who sinned but cast them into hell and delivered them in chains of utter darkness to be kept for judgment; 5 and if he didn’t spare the ancient world, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others, when he brought the flood on the world of the ungodly; 6 and if he reduced the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes and condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is coming to the ungodly; 7 and if he rescued righteous Lot, distressed by the depraved behavior of the immoral 8 (for as that righteous man lived among them day by day, his righteous soul was tormented by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)—9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, 10 especially those who follow the polluting desires of the flesh and despise authority. Bold, arrogant people! They are not afraid to slander the glorious ones; 11 however, angels, who are greater in might and power, do not bring a slanderous charge against them before the Lord. 12 But these people, like irrational animals—creatures of instinct born to be caught and destroyed—slander what they do not understand, and in their destruction they too will be destroyed. 13 They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. They consider it a pleasure to carouse in broad daylight. They are spots and blemishes, delighting in their deceptions while they feast with you. 14 They have eyes full of adultery that never stop looking for sin. They seduce unstable people and have hearts trained in greed. Children under a curse! 15 They have gone astray by abandoning the straight path and have followed the path of Balaam, the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of wickedness 16 but received a rebuke for his lawlessness: A speechless donkey spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness. 17 These people are springs without water, mists driven by a storm. The gloom of darkness has been reserved for them. 18 For by uttering boastful, empty words, they seduce, with fleshly desires and debauchery, people who have barely escaped from those who live in error. 19 They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption, since people are enslaved to whatever defeats them. 20 For if, having escaped the world’s impurity through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in these things and defeated, the last state is worse for them than the first. 21 For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy command delivered to them. 22 It has happened to them according to the true proverb: A dog returns to its own vomit, and, “A washed sow returns to wallowing in the mud.”

Opening Illustration:

A time where I was lead astray - given bad directions? Diez y Tress

If we don’t know the truth - we will get bad directions

if you don’t know what you are looking for, you are going to get bad directions

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Getting into the Sermon

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Chapter 2 is a hard one to preach, because there isn’t a great way to chop it up on the one hand, but it is incredibly complex, and confusing on the other hand. This is a really difficult passage.

So here are my 2 goals for this sermon: I have two - I want you to have confidence in verse 9: 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment

So one of the things we encourage you to do when you read the bible is to look at the context - everyone say context - of the passage.

In Soap - we call that observation. What is going on.

Some passages are really easy to understand. It’s super clear. This is actually one of the principals of scripture - its called perspicuity of scripture. if you are taking notes you should right this down.

Perspicuity means that the what’s needed for salvation is clear. Anyone, can read the bible and know exactly what is needed for salvation.

I met a man who was in Jordan and he heard the name of Jesus and so he goes looking it up and he finds a Bible and he reads the Bible, and just in reading the Bible he came to understanding the gospel and got saved. I know another, who was in prison, didn’t know another Christian, got saved reading his Bible.

The Bible is the most powerful thing we have and it clearly teaches us how to get saved.

But not everything is equally clear. The problem with the clarity of scripture is that the world today is not like the world when things were written. Their are customs we don’t really know.

There were issues that were happening in the churches and the apostles wrote letters to them and then the problem got solved. It didn’t carry on for 100 or 200 years, so we don’t know exactly what they are referring to.

So you have cultural differences, you have specific situations that we don’t have details about.

And second, I want you to get some tools for your personal bible reading, answering this question - how can we apply scriptures that aren’t clear to our lives?

So let’s look at the context of this chapter - Peter has just established that the scriptures give us light. Just like Corey said last week, in his illustration, they were huddled in the darkness and they were waiting anxiously for the hope of the sun.

They have that hope but there is something else going on- there were false teachers that had popped up and were starting to cause problems.

Look back at verse 1

2 Peter 2:1 CSB

1 There were indeed false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, and will bring swift destruction on themselves.

So that’s the immediate context. There is the church and there are false teachers coming into the church. Notice it doesn’t say they might come- they will come.

Look at verse 3

2 Peter 2:3 CSB

3 They will exploit you in their greed with made-up stories. Their condemnation, pronounced long ago, is not idle, and their destruction does not sleep.

This is going to happen. People are going to be led astray. You will be exploited at some point.

Sometimes, its a little bit. You start to get to know someone and you believe the best but then you start noticing things. Things aren’t what you thought they were. And more and more, things start to turn south.

So on the one hand you will be exploited. You will be cheated at some point. It’s going to happen. Every long-term Christian I know has some stories.

The natural response to this, is to become cynical. We start to doubt the church. We start to doubt anybody. We don’t want to open our hearts to anyone.

That happens because we don’t feel protected. We feel vulnerable. Peter knows that. He knows that’s what’s going on so he is trying to reassure them that, even though they will be exploited, God will punish. They are being protected.

we can continue to love because God will vindicate us in the end.

And this is the choice we face, to love is to risk. You will be hurt. But you are protected.

OK, so we have some of the immediate context. False teachers are exploiting the good nature of Christians.

And the biggest argument they are going to make is this - the scriptures aren’t clear everything is open to interpretation.

But that doesn’t explain everything. Things are going to get weird. So we have to zoom out a little bit.

2 Peter 2:10–11 CSB

They are not afraid to slander the glorious ones; - the question is what does that mean? Who are the glorious ones?

We have to take things and understand how this fits into our larger worldview. To understand difficult passages, we need to understand how they fit into the cosmic story.

So let’s remember the cosmic story.

At some point in eternity past, we aren’t told exactly when, God created angels. And we don’t have a lot of knowledge about angels, that’s not really our story, but the angels are for the time being greater than us and spiritual creatures. They work for God.

At some point before Adam and Eve ate the fruit, there was a rebellion in heaven where one angel (the devil) lead a revolt against God and easily lost the battle.

They were no match to God. Remember that. The devil is not God’s equal. He isn’t the dark to God’s light. They aren’t on the same level. God infinitly higher than all his creation, so God is as much challenged by the devil as he is an ant. It is not challenge to him.

So the devil was cast down and his demons came with him. This is what is referenced in verse 4

2 Peter 2:4 CSB

4 For if God didn’t spare the angels who sinned but cast them into hell and delivered them in chains of utter darkness to be kept for judgment;

So they are defeated but they aren’t destroyed yet. Their final judgment is coming. It’s guaranteed. But we got to remember, they are still active in the world in a lot of ways.

In a lot of ways, the war in heaven continues on earth today. Even though victory is sure. We know we are going to win.

But the devil doesn’t want the kingdom of God to reign and he has been working to subvert things forever.

He was at work in the hearts of men during the days of Noah. The old testament says that people were so bad in those days that "every inclination of the human mind was nothing but evil all the time"

But God was able to save Noah out of that.

The devil was at work in Soddom and Gomorroah. If you read the story in Genesis, it was a place of great sexual sin, you could say, profound sexual sin.

Abraham was praying for the city because he loved his nephew Lot - but God was able to save Lot out of the city even though he punished the sin.

Sometimes, the persecution was outward. Direct attacks on the church and the people of God. but sometimes, he did a more subtle approach. He worked to destroy the church and the kingdom of God from the inside.

Look at verse 15 and 16

2 Peter 2:15–16 CSB

15 They have gone astray by abandoning the straight path and have followed the path of Balaam, the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of wickedness 16 but received a rebuke for his lawlessness: A speechless donkey spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.

So here’s the story he is referring to. During the time of the exodus, there was a mysterious prophet named Balaam. And a king was afraid of the people of Israel so he asked Balaam to come and curse them. Now, Balaam, was allowed to go but he was only supposed to say what God wanted him too. Because otherwise he was a prophet for hire. But God knew Balaam’s heart and there was a point where God sent an angel to kill Balaam (probably really just to scare him). God allowed the donkey to see it and the donkey is trying to save Balaam, but Balaam keeps kicking it.

Finally God preforms a miracle to allow the donkey to talk and basically he is like - listen fool - there is an angel there ready to kill you! Watch yourself!

So balaam didn’t curse the people and the king got angry and wasn’t going to pay him. But Balaam wanted money. So he has this problem. He wants money but he isn’t allowed to curse them. So what does he do?

Because even then, God knows how to save the righteous, and he knows how to punish are enemies. He knows how to punish the people who try to destroy us.

He uses his knowledge of the holiness of God to destroy them from the inside. He encourages the king to send over some of the pretty ladies of his kingdom to the Isrealites and to intermarry with them. And they did it. But they weren’t supposed to do it. So God brought his judgment down.

Now, Balaam didn’t get away with it. He is eventually killed in the invasion because he was the reason why so many others died.

So you see a pattern here, right. When direct attack doesn’t work (either because it’s not allowed to happen or whatever) the enemy uses another tactic - he tries to seperate people from God and destroy the church from within.

That’s what was happening.

So the early church was caught up in this cosmic battle, and the enemy was sending in false teachers to lead them astray. That’s true then, that’s true now. There are still false teachers that come in.

So what did it look like? Here’s where things get weird.

Look at what it says in verse 10 and 11 -

2 Peter 2:10–11 CSB

10 especially those who follow the polluting desires of the flesh and despise authority. Bold, arrogant people! They are not afraid to slander the glorious ones; 11 however, angels, who are greater in might and power, do not bring a slanderous charge against them before the Lord.

There is a lot of difficulty around what that means. Who ware the glorious ones? Why is this such a big deal?

Now here is why this is important - it’s important because the false teachers will latch onto these difficult texts and they will say - well look, everyone has a different interpretation of what it means, so whose to say what the Bible means.

Everyone has their own interpretation. Maybe you are right, maybe someone else is right. Whose to say?

So maybe, Jesus isn’t the only way to salvation. Maybe Jesus isn’t really God. Maybe there is no hell. Maybe God has no sexual ethics.

The false prophets take the things that are unclear in the bible to try to muddy the things that are clear. That’s one of the big marks.

This is why perspicuity is important - we all know things can be difficult. Peter knows it too

In Chapter 3 he is talking about Paul’s letters and says

2 Peter 3:16 CSB

16 He speaks about these things in all his letters. There are some things hard to understand in them. The untaught and unstable will twist them to their own destruction, as they also do with the rest of the Scriptures.

So we understand things can be difficult, but that doesn’t mean everything is difficult. That doesn’t mean that everything is confusing. That doesn’t mean everything is up for debate.

Generally, we think of it like this: What are the things of first importance - these are the things that are most clear. Then as you go out, there are things of secondary importance, and so on. There are some things that aren’t important at all.

So let’s take a look at this passage. Who are the glorious ones?

The fact that we can’t nail that down, is really not that problematic. No denomination has ever separated over who the glorious ones are. It’s just not that big of a deal.

But you can still apply it for your life and it is still for your edification. It’s to help you grow.

So let’s focus in on that. Remember, we have to understand the context of everything.

The early church did not have the bible the way that we do today. It was still being written. So they relied on the teachings of the apostles who had walked with Jesus and on the trainings of the people that they apostles trained.

They also had prophets who would speak from the Lord, in those days. That was part of their services. That all started to diminish the more they had the Bible, so that eventually, you don’t see that practiced in the early church.

Ok so let’s pause there. We have the Bible, they didn’t. They probably had a lot more flash points with demons and all of that. They were taking new ground for God, and that’s usually where you see demonic activity most clearly.

So their day to day looked very different than ours. They were facing issues that we don’t face. And a lot of those issues were resolved. So it shouldn’t surprise us that the exact meaning of hyper local issues would get lost in history. The issue is resolved.

So then, how do we apply it. Well, there is enough specific and clear teaching that we can fully understand it’s application.

2 Peter 2:10–11 CSB

Bold, arrogant people! They are not afraid to slander the glorious ones; 11 however, angels, who are greater in might and power, do not bring a slanderous charge against them before the Lord.

What are they called? Bold and Arrogant! They are slandering and speaking of things that are above them.

we can understand the heart that would do this

See the false teachers don’t want accountability. They act like they are bigger than they are. They are doing things that even the angels wouldn’t do!

We are supposed to live in humility and trust in God. Not in oursleves, in God.

But it goes on in describing them

2 Peter 2:13–14 CSB

13 They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. They consider it a pleasure to carouse in broad daylight. They are spots and blemishes, delighting in their deceptions while they feast with you. 14 They have eyes full of adultery that never stop looking for sin. They seduce unstable people and have hearts trained in greed. Children under a curse!

Carouse in broad daylight - even in sodom and gomorrah they did their sin at night - I was in Alburqure and they are just doing all their stuff right there. There is no accountablity. There is no stakes. They just do whatever they want.

Eyes are full of adultery and they never stop looking for sin.

It says that their hearts are trained in greed. Like they are really good at greed. They are working for the devil, just like Balaam and they are happy to destroy the church from the inside if they can get anything out of it.

We can understand this - that we should live in humility to God and in accountability to his word and others

But look at what it says about these people in verse 17

2 Peter 2:17 CSB

17 These people are springs without water, mists driven by a storm. The gloom of darkness has been reserved for them.

People gravitate towards these false teachers because they are desperate. They want something. They want hope, but they are still in the process of growing in the Lord. So they are confused.

They are confused like I was trying to find house 13. If you don’t know what you are looking for you are getting bad directions.

So how do we react to this: oftentimes, we can become afraid and cynical. We are cynical because we’ve been hurt and we can start to believe that they have free reign.

We can become afraid and think that we are going to lose. We get really afraid for our children. There are social media influencers. There are tv shows. It’s not wrong to have boundaries, to keep your kids from false teachers - being influenced - that’s not bad. We do it. I do it for myself. I’m careful with I watch and listen. Because we are all able to be inlfuenced.

But Peter is calling us to conifdence in God - God know how to save the righteous.

When I was a kid, there was a lot of fear around kids believing in the big bang and having it taught in school. The idea was, that if you were taught that the universe was created by an explosion, unguided and unprompted by God, than there would be a rise in atheism. Right, that’s the basic idea. It didn’t need God.

Then this fear was reignited because of the rise of new athiesm in the early 2000’s and people that this was going to be a big deal.

There was a study done in 2021 by Pew- Do you know what percentage of americans are athiests? Don’t believe in God? 4%. All that fear, all their best efforts and what did it get - 4%. There was a rise in atheism by 2%.

Why is that - because false teachers are springs without water. It doesn’t answer the deep questions. It doesn’t engage in their hearts. It leaves them empty.

we don’t have to live afraid - because God knows how to save and he knows how to punish.

Just like there are revivals where large numbers of people come to Christ, there are times when there are new and big heresies and false teachings and people get afraid. But here’s the deal - God knows how to save the righteous. He knows.

He knows how to save your kids. He knows how to save you. He knows how to save the church.

How does he do that? He gives us his word and his spirit. Listen, we need to grow deep in the word. That’s part of our mission statement. Grow deep. This chapter alone had several specific OT references. We need to know it.

How do they teach people to spot a counterfeit - they teach them the original.

so when they try to seduce us - it doesn’t work, because we are in love with something else. IT doesn’t capture our imagination because its capture by God. - Romancing your Child’s Heart

But it isn’t just head knowledge. That’s just part of it. We need to experience him in our hearts. We need to drink from the springs with water. That’s what we need.

We need our hearts and our imaginations captured by God and his glory. - Enjoy God

The gospel invitation

In 2026, we are going to start two new initiatives - Prayer and Presence, and we are going to expand our book club as part of the institute. Why so we can know his knowledge and so that we can know his presence.

But maybe you don’t have his presence because you have never given your heart to God.

Big deal - and it’s bigger than just what happens in our little church

So why does this matter - the enemy is attacking. We need to trust that God knows how to save us.

And the world around us is dying of thirst, desperate for springs of water. They don’t know the question so they get bad directions.

Why has politics grown so divided and angry - because people are looking for political answers to a spiritual problem.

Why has the world grown so greedy- with hustle culture and all that - because people are looking for financial answers to a spiritual problem.

Why is there so much perversion with hookup culture and only fans and all that - becuase people are looking for romantic and sexual answers to a spiritual problem.

Why? Because they don’t even know the right questions. They are running around looking for house 10 & 3 not thirteen.

But church, this is what we are about. We grow, we get strong in our faith, we love even after we get exploited, we love again. Why? Becuase people are desperate for springs of living water and they will only get it, if we bring it to them by sharing our faith, praying for them, engaging them, loving them, so let’s do all of that together.

Lord’s Supper:

On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 

Benediction:

The LORD bless you and keep you;

the LORD makes his face shine upon you and be gracious to you:

The LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.