2 Peter 2 (Outline)

Sermon Style Sheet

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Sermon Text

Sermon Text: Scripture

Call to Worship

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Psalm 140:12–13 CSB

12 I know that the Lord upholds the just cause of the poor, justice for the needy. 13 Surely the righteous will praise your name; the upright will live in your presence.

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Passage:

Formation Journal Page Number: 9:36- 10:39 11:21-12:18 1:50-2:43

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

2- learn how to apply and appreciate passages that aren’t clear.

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

But not everything is equally clear. super clear - salvation all true beleivers agree on those things, and there are things that are a bit more open to interpretation, False prophets exploit that

But it isn’t the big win they think it is

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.

The Bible isn’t written to be tweets - Context

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

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.

Literary Context - what is going on in the chapters and books.

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.

Vulnearable

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.

Today’s false teaching weaponizes unclear passages to muddy clear teachings.

In today’s false teaching the biggest argument they are going to make is this - the scriptures aren’t clear everything is open to interpretation.

So let’s look at the hardest part of this chapter:

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.

Literary context -

Redemptive-historical Context - how does it fit into the Big Story of God.

So let’s remember the cosmic story.

At some point in eternity past, we aren’t told exactly when, God created angels.

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.

They were working in the day’s of Noah “"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.

But God Saved Lot

Sometimes, the persecution was outward - sometimes internal

The enemy wants to destroy the church from within. Slander, he does it with sexual sin. He wants to get us steeped in sin so that we are strained in our relationship with God.

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.

God was going to send a message - but they became strained

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.

pour churches battlegrounds where he enemy is trying to destroy us from the inside

Ok - so there is the:

Literary Context

2. Redemptive-Historical Context

3. Cultural Context - what was happening in the life of the people at the time.

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.

So there was a lot more spiritual things happening, there was more fights with demons, there was less clarity with scripture.

So we shouldn’t expect to be able to understand everything that is going on. Some issues got resolved. Things changed.

When the specifics aren’t clear, the context allows us to focus on the principal or heart of the matter-

So when we understand all its various contexts, even though we don’t know the specific definition of the glorious ones, we are able to see enough to learn, and apply it to our lives.

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.

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

We can understand the principal or the heart of the matter

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

The false teachers are empty teachers.

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 - kids, social media

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

When I was a kid - big band, new athiesm, 2%-4%

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.

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.