BEWARE A PSEUDO-SALVATION (2 PETER 2:20-22)

The Jonestown Massacre

“As Jones talked over the loudspeaker on the beauty of death and the certainty that everyone would meet again, several hundred cult members gathered around the pavilion. They were surrounded by armed guards, and a vat of Kool Aid mixed with cyanide was brought out. Most cult members drank it willingly—others were forced to.“They started with the babies. At least 80 infants and children were fed the deadly potion, and then the adults took it. Everything was calm for a few minutes, and then, as the cyanide-induced convulsions began, it got all out of order. Children were screaming and there was mass confusion. Shortly afterward, everyone was dead.”

Unfortunately, this is the end course of those who follow the Jim Jones of this world. This is the heart-breaking finality of those who follow the deceptions of the world with its false teachers. This is the disaster that will be to those who fall for what the world can offer, even when it is wrapped in the shiny paper of the prosperity gospel.

We have been traveling through the second chapter of Peter’s second epistle and it has been just plain hard. Yet, it confronts us with things we need to heed. Remember that the Word of God has some tough, truth and we cannot treat it like a Golden Corral buffet heaping up what we like and ignoring the parts we don’t like. The hard parts of 2 Peter concern the warnings about false teachers and how to avoid being taken in by them. The problem with false teachers is that there are people who listen to them and are subsequently led astray.

The text before us today will reveal three warnings against false teachers and their attempts at offering a different albeit disastrous salvation. Today we are called upon to beware a pseudo-salvation peddled by wolves disguised as sheep-the false teachers. [read text]

They Return to the Pollutions of the World (2:20)

The first question we must answer is, “Who is Peter addressing these verses to?” On the one side there are those who hold that Peter is addressing the false teachers, who have been the subject of chapter two. On the other hand, there are those like me who see those being addressed by Peter as new believers who are vulnerable to the deceptions of the false teachers. This is based upon the immediate context of verses 18-19. To make matters worse, the Greek structure of these verses allow for either position. However, I also admit he could be referencing both, although I do not myself see much evidence of a hope the false teachers would repent.

In this verse Peter is addressing recently redeemed people. They are saved people who have repented and believed the gospel as per the instructions of Jesus in Mark 1:14-15. The first part of verse 20 is a reference to surrender to Christ. These have escaped the defilements of the world because of knowledge. This is one of Peter’s favorite words. Grace and peace come from knowing God through Jesus Christ (1:2). Those who know God have everything they need for a godly life. The focus of verse 20 is on the knowledge of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

Biblical Principle #1: Only the Gospel Can Deliver Us from the Corruption of the World

This is a specific knowledge being referred to here. It is not mere head knowledge. It is a heart knowledge because of surrendering to the truth that Jesus Christ is both Savior and Lord. That is why 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

Coming to Jesus does not make one perfect. However, coming to Jesus does make you different. It is not determining to do better. It is not about “turning over a new leaf.” It is about being born again (John 3:3, 7). It is not about doing better by our own self-will. It is about being made better by Jesus Christ. Only the grace of Jesus Christ through the gospel of Jesus can deliver us from the bonds of sin. That is the good news. Now, for the bad news.

Notice the second part of verse 20. This verse is not saying that these had salvation and then lost it. They never had genuine salvation in the first place. Their knowledge was an assent to Jesus Christ and the gospel because of head knowledge. They did not have the heart knowledge that would lead to transformation and genuine salvation. Peter says that “the last state has become worse than the first.” The first state refers to the time before their empty confession of faith in Jesus Christ. The last state is their repudiation of that salvation. That situation has made their spiritual situation even more precarious. I believe that David Walls is correct when he writes in the Holman New Testament Commentary, “These were not true followers of Jesus Christ. Their knowledge of Jesus was merely a head knowledge, not an intimate knowledge of the heart.”

Biblical Principle #2: Mere Confessors of Christ Lacking the Transformation of Heart Will Ultimately Return to Their Former Lives

Transition: Beware a pseudo-salvation that tempts you to return to the pollutions of the world.

They Reject the Purity of Christ (2:21)

This verse is the explanation of the condition of these with a pseudo-salvation in the previous verse. The Bible says that it would have been better for these never have known the truth of Jesus Christ. The head knowledge of knowing Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord had no effect. Therefore, they would have been better off not knowing that truth in the first place. The phrase, “the way of righteousness” is a way of stating a believer’s freedom in Christ. This is a description of the moral life demanded of those who belong to God. The righteousness of God equals God’s saving power (1 Peter). That saving power leads to a transformed life (2 Peter). The “holy command” further describes the “way of righteousness. The term way is intentional because “the way” was a reference to Jesus as the Way (John 14:6) by which the early believers were known. Thus, the Christian life is a command to live a new kind of life.

The distinction between those who are genuine in that new kind of life and those who are playing at it is never more clearly distinguished than in Psalm 1. The genuine follower of Christ is declared to be blessed (inward joy is theirs). They avoid fellowship with the world and they are fruitful. In context it refers to the blessings of God’s Word to be strong, stable and to endure. The passage goes on to say that the wicked, or those who reject the purity of Christ are not so. Everything said about the godly in verses 1-3 is missing from the wicked in verses 4-5. The reason is that God “knows the way of the righteous.” Christ blesses the new kind of life that is lived for Him.

“Pastor, I am struggling.” My response, “Good. It is good you are struggling.” The struggle is proof of our genuine calling in Christ. I am not bothered by that fact that you are bothered by your sin. I am bothered by the fact of those who are never bothered by their sin. The just man might fall but the just man will allow God to pick him back up. We do not just lay there. We do not live in it. We learn wisdom because of it. We repent of it, and we get up and keep moving forward.

I have seen people get all excited about Jesus and by all external indicators they are on fire for Jesus. Yet, they go up like a rocket and fall like a rock. They do not study their Bible, so they know precious little about it. They do not have a prayer and devotional life because they never spend any time with God. Therefore, they are “bait” for the false teachers and start believing their nonsense. They are weak, unstable and increasingly spiritually insane. They proclaim one thing and live another.

That is why we need to get on our faces before God and thank Him that in His Sovereignty, He has given pastors who are sold out to preach the Bible, not spiritual wimps who sell out to the demands of the culture. Any pastor who apologizes for the authority of biblical truth is a coward. If you were to call one hundred churches in the Fayetteville area, most if not all of them would say they preach the Bible. Go ahead and what you will discover is that a growing number of them are really preaching themselves. Ask some of these guys if they ever preached through 2 Peter and see what kind of answers you get. How many preach the Word of God verse by verse, line by line, phrase by phrase, word by word and syllable by syllable. The truth is that type of preaching and preachers is a dying breed because people would rather have the spiritual syrup than they would a Holy Spirit led T-Bone steak. Give me steak over Skittles any day.

Truth is offensive but truth that offends leads to conviction and conviction is the on-ramp that gets you to the highway of spiritual transformation. So, you can either get mad or you can get right. I know of believers right now who are living in anger and bitterness because they got offended by truth and have pushed away from the table of conviction that God has set them a seat at.

Transition: Beware a false salvation that rejects the purity of Christ.

They Reveal the Putrid-ness of Their Nature (2:22)

This verse is not for the weak-stomached. Both dogs and pigs were considered unclean animals to the Jews. Dogs often roamed in packs, scavenged from garbage, and were not considered pets. The proverb referenced is from Proverbs 26:11. We are informed that dogs return to that which is disgusting and unclean. They sniff and eat their own vomit. The origin of the second proverb is unknown. It is parallel to the first. Pigs, after washing themselves, run back to the closest mud hole to wallow living. They just love mud living. Thus, Peter gives two sickening analogies. There is the analogy of a mangy dog returning to eat its vomit and a cleansed pig returning to the mud hole.

Why do dogs and pigs do these sorts of things? They do so because it is in their nature. They do so because their nature has never been changed. That is the way it is with some who claim to confess Christ. They have a pig nature or a dog nature because their nature has never been changed. Some are trying their hardest to be a Christian. For them it is impossible. It is impossible because their nature has never been changed.

It is interesting that not one time in all the Bible is a genuine follower of Christ called a pig or a dog. You cannot keep living your old life and call yourself a Christian. When you come to Christ you are given a new nature so that you don’t continue to wallow in mud living.

Biblical Principle #3: There is a Difference between a Profession of Faith and a Possession of faith.

There are many who profess faith in Jesus Christ, but they do not possess Jesus because Jesus has not possessed them. The evidence of such a possession is missing in many who claim Christ. If your God is not big enough to show from the inside out in your life, you God is not the God of the Bible. This church is to be a life transformation center not a mere behavior modification station.

Transition: Beware a phony salvation that reveals the putrid-ness of your true nature.

Conclusion

Beware a pseudo-salvation. Pseudo means false and God is warning against the false pseudo-salvation that many people possess. Such a salvation returns to the world, rejects the purity of Christ and will ultimately reveal the true nature of such a person.

In a sermon delivered in 1531 concerning spiritual warfare, Martin Luther said, “Christendom must have people who can beat down their adversaries and opponents and tear off the devil’s equipment and armor, that he may be brought into disgrace. But for this work, powerful warriors are needed who are thoroughly familiar with the Scriptures and can contradict all false interpretations and take the sword from false teachers-that is, those very verses which false teachers use, and turn them around upon them so that they fall back defeated. But as not all Christians can be so capable in defending the Word and articles of their creed, they must have teachers and preachers who study the Scriptures and have daily fellowship with it, so that they can fight for all the others. Yet each Christian should be so armed that he himself is sure of his belief and doctrine and is so equipped with the sayings from the Word of God, that he can stand up against the devil and defend himself when men seek to lead him astray.”

Beware pseudo teachers who are peddling a pseudo salvation. Hold to the true and trusted paths of the Lord Jesus and His Word.