The False Christian Life
Notes
Transcript
ME: Examples of God’s Justice (vs. 4-8)
ME: Examples of God’s Justice (vs. 4-8)
Listen to some of the headlines this week:
“Haiti earthquake has affected 1.2 million people, says UNICEF.”
“Tropical Storm Grace’s Rain Dumps More Misery on Haiti Earthquake Victims.”
“Taliban sweep into Afghan capital after government collapses.”
“Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan sparks new fears of al-Qaida resurgence.”
These types of natural disasters and terrorist attacks seem to be happening more and more frequently.
In response, many people ask,
Where is God in all this suffering?
Why does He allow these bad things to happen to good people?
Does He not care?
Is He even real?
These are not new questions.
But they do represent an increasing skepticism about God’s justice.
Assuming God does exist,
Then He should be fair, right?
This is what Father Abraham asked back in Gen. 18:25,
Won’t the Judge of the whole earth do what is just?
When we look at the headlines,
We look at terrorists killing innocent people,
We see natural disasters relentlessly torture innocent people.
The questions about God’s goodness and righteousness understandably follow.
Is it fair that God does not seem to differ in the way He treats the righteous from the way He treats the wicked?
Unbelievers and believers alike can struggle with these questions.
The audience Peter is writing to in 2 Peter were struggling with these questions.
They were burdened by the weight of false teachers in their presence.
False teachers that brought into question God’s justice.
They would say,
Either God would condemn the righteous?
Or He would save the wicked?
Since neither is a moral resolution,
God is not just.
So, Peter addresses this lie with:
Examples of God’s Justice (vs. 4-8)
The Presence of God’s Justice (vs. 9-10)
The Depraved Get God’s Justice (vs. 11-16)
Their Doctrine Lacks God’s Justice (vs. 17-19)
Fools Doubt God’s Justice (vs. 20-22)
Pray, “Lord, protect us from false doctrine.” And listen to His response in His Word.
God is fair,
He does not discriminate,
And His justice shows immediate, practical implications for our lives.
His justice gives believers assurance of His strong help during trials,
While giving the guarantee that He will judge justly.
The end of our passage last week suggested that God is just because He promises to condemn false teachers.
Essentially telling false teachers to sleep with one eye opened,
Because God’s judgment is hanging over their heads,
Ready to drop at any moment,
Night or day.
Our passage this morning gives a past, present, and future glimpse of God’s justice.
In other words,
We can be confident that God will be just in the future because He has been just in the past.
And because of this truth,
We can trust Him in the present.
This passage is a continued portion of Peter’s greater exhortation to believers in this letter.
His exhortation was twofold,
It was first meant to warn his readers,
But it also meant to spur us to action.
The world today denies that Jesus will return.
Many deny that He even exists.
So, the promise of God’s justice is dismissed as a joke.
This denial then becomes justification to live a selfish and godless life.
The leaders of this lifestyle are false teachers.
Claiming with their mouths that they believe in God,
But doubting in their hearts the reality of God’s justice.
God’s justice is coming.
Let us begin to understand this by first looking at 2 Peter 2:4-8,
Which recalls Examples of God’s Justice;
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard);
Generally, when we want to assess how a person will act in the future,
We observe how they have acted in the past.
Peter is applying this principle to God.
So, he begins by showing examples of God’s justice in the past,
To show that His justice can be trusted in the future.
God’s judgment of false teachers has been pronounced,
And eventually it will come and overwhelm them.
God first pronounced judgment on the serpent after he deceived Adam and Eve in the garden.
Then all throughout the OT prophets, God’s condemnation of false prophets continued.
Now, in vs. 4-8, Peter continues this trend by using three OT examples of God’s Justice.
God condemned sinful angels,
God condemned the unrighteous of Noah’s generation,
And God condemned Sodom and Gomorrah.
In each of these examples,
Peter highlights how God preserves the righteous as He condemns the unrighteous.
The first example of God’s Justice were the angels who sinned.
This is a debated phrase as to what Peter is referring to specifically,
Because he does not say how they sinned or reference any particular incident.
Many think this may be an allusion to the sons of God in Gen. 6,
Where the sons of God refer to angels who were taking human women to be their wives.
Others think this may refer to the angels who rebelled with Satan in heaven.
Either way, it is speaking about angels who have fallen as a result of God’s justice.
We tend to call fallen angels demons.
Our translation says they are cast into hell.
The Greek word used here refers to Tartarus,
A place of punishment for wicked spirits in Greek mythology.
This is not the same word that is used to refer to the lake of fire,
The eternal hell,
Elsewhere in the NT.
In this place,
Peter says,
God commits them to chains.
Communicating a sense of temporary restriction and torment for particularly bad demons,
Until they face their final judgment.
There are many questions Peter’s lack of details can raise.
Answering these questions is not his focus.
Peter’s point is that since great and powerful angels cannot escape God’s judgment,
Wicked people do not stand a chance at avoiding God’s judgment.
This is the first of a series of “if” statements in these verses.
Notice vs. 4 says if God did not spare the angels.
Vs. 5 says, if he didn’t spare the ancient world,
Vs. 6, if he reduced the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah,
And vs. 7, if he rescued righteous Lot.
Then, he says, in vs. 9, the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials.
Each of these examples of God’s justice shows that God judges the wicked and spares the righteous.
So, the overarching idea is that if we follow false teachers,
Then, we will join in their condemnation.
Peter wants us to fear the power God has,
Which is shown when He executes His judgment.
God has the power to destroy demons by casting them into a pit,
He has the power to destroy the ancient world by a flood,
And the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by fire and brimstone.
So, we should fear what God can do,
And what God will do to false teachers and those who follow them.
These examples show that false teachers do not get away with it.
They may seem prosperous in this world,
But God’s justice is coming for these folks.
That is what this chapter is about,
God’s justice is coming for false teachers and those who follow them.
The second example of God’s justice was the flood.
Just like the angels who sinned,
God did not spare an entire generation that rebelled against him,
He judged them by flooding the earth.
But notice, God protected Noah and seven others from the flood.
There are three specific details we can pull from God’s protections.
First, the general idea of protection foreshadows the gospel.
Second, Peter says that Noah was protected by God to be a preacher of righteousness.
Which is an interesting statement because there is no OT record of Noah preaching.
So, Jewish tradition may have taught that Noah went around condemning sin and preaching righteousness and it was not recorded in the OT.
Or, what is more likely,
Is that it is a more general reference to his righteous service to God.
Which means that righteous service to God will stand in contrast to the rest of the world,
In the way that it calls other to repent.
Third, God’s mercy was not just granted to Noah,
But to Noah, and seven others.
The number of godly people during that generation was only 8 people.
It can feel discouraging and lonely to live godly lives in this world,
But God is faithful to preserve us all,
No matter how few there may be.
This is such a comforting thought for us.
It can be tiresome trying to remain godly in a world of sin.
It tries our patience waiting for Christ’s return.
And it is tempting to dabble in the sins of the world.
God has been just to punish the wicked in the past,
And He has been equally just to protect the righteous.
His protection of the righteous encourages us to stand upon the truth of God’s Word,
And to resist the lies of our world.
The third example of justice was the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
And the rescue of Lot.
Peter focuses in on the burning aspect of these cities,
Philo later wrote about this destruction;
“Even to this day there are seen in Syria monuments of the unprecedented destruction that fell upon them, in the ruins, and ashes, and sulphur, and smoke, and the dusky flame which still is sent up from the ground as of a fire smouldering beneath.”
Peter says that this is an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly.
In other words,
This example of God’s justice is a warning to all who would follow after ungodly ways.
The destruction of these cities is evidence of what will happen to those who live without God.
Jude 7 similarly says;
just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.
The end of our world will be fire,
The end of false teachers is an eternal lake of fire.
Sodom and Gomorrah is a picture of hell,
Fire and brimstone coming down from heaven is a picture of what hell will be like.
Just like with the example of Noah and seven others,
Peter mentions how God delivered Lot.
It is a somewhat strange that Lot is described as righteous.
Because Lot does not seem all that righteous in Genesis.
So, it is interesting,
For both Noah and Lot,
Peter seems to be giving additional information about both.
Lot must have been righteous,
Even if it is in the sense that he obeyed God’s instructions during God’s judgment.
Prior to that,
Abraham interceded that God would not wipe out the righteous with the wicked in Sodom and Gomorrah.
In response, Lot was rescued.
So, Lot’s righteousness is inferred.
The Lexham Bible Dictionary helps explains;
“Perhaps identifying Abraham’s plea for the righteous with Lot, the apostle Peter assures his readers that God can deliver the righteous from judgment just as he did the righteous Lot.”
Peter is presenting a series of if-then statements to show the example of God’s justice,
Both His punishment for the unrighteous,
And His protection for the righteous.
Peter includes the effect the unrighteous culture had on Lot in vs. 7.
He says Lot was greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked.
His exposure to this sexual culture softened his sensitivity to sin,
He was apathetic about God’s standard of righteousness.
As vs. 8 goes into further detail,
Lot was seeing and hearing lawlessness day after day after day,
And it was taking a toll on his soul.
This exposure was spiritual torture to him.
He was warn down,
And it was in this state,
Peter says,
That God rescued him.
Allow these details to serve as a warning to us.
To not become passive regarding wickedness.
Now, we will not be able to completely avoid hearing and seeing evil in our world,
It is too pervasive.
But our response to this should never be to just open our arms and welcome it into our lives and hearts.
Because the moment we do that,
Is the moment we begin closing our arms to God and denying His deliverance from evil.
Flee from ungodliness,
It will devastate you spiritually.
Do not get comfortable in an evil culture.
In our context,
The biggest threat to our faith is having it slowly dulled by continued exposure to godlessness.
Do not get worn down.
These three examples encourage us because is shows how God has acted in the past.
As He judges the wicked,
He protects His people.
Today, God has given you the Holy Spirit to discern the truth.
Noah and Lot were both surrounded by wickedness.
And God rescued them from the wickedness around them.
The examples of God’s Justice prove that God is more than capable of delivering His people,
From the destructive false teachers in our midst.
WE: The Presence of God’s Justice (vs. 9-10)
WE: The Presence of God’s Justice (vs. 9-10)
Peter shifts from past examples of God’s justice,
To the Presence of God’s Justice in 2 Peter 2:9-10;
then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones,
The presence of God’s justice assures us that false teachers will not escape God’s Justice.
The three examples that began with “if” in vs. 4-8 come to fruition at the start of vs. 9.
Peter is saying that if God judged the wicked and delivered the righteous in the past,
Then He most certainly will do the same in the present and future.
Peter’s readers were increasingly discouraged under the pressure of false teachers in their midst.
So, Peter is providing encouragement by giving reminders of God’s sovereignty.
We have the same assurance today.
God protects and preserves His people.
God is able to get us out of the difficulties of life.
Elsewhere the Bible teaches that God uses trials to grow our faith and deepen our endurance.
So, this is not a promise to never face a trial.
Rather, a complete understanding of Scripture teaches us that God uses trials to accomplish His purposes.
And He protects us in these trials by providing us the grace we need for each one.
Notice, Peter does not say the Lord will always rescue the godly from trials.
No, he says the Lord knows how to.
Based on the examples of God’s justice in the past,
We know that His justice is present.
But that does not mean He will always rescue us from trials.
Jesus’s own life was characterized by trials that He was not rescued from.
As His followers, we experience trials as well.
So, although we are not always rescued from these trials,
We have confidence that God gives us everything we need to endure these trials,
So, that we can emerge from the other side with our faith in tact.
Following Christ can bring physical harm, emotional stress, economic disadvantages, and sometimes even death.
But in all these trials,
God can provide a way out that will result in an improved eternal state.
So, Peter is telling us this to encourage us in any trial.
When false teachers tempt us to question God during a trial,
We must know that God is faithful.
So, we will be confronted with evil in this world,
And we will sin.
But take comfort in known that God will protect us from false teachers.
In essence, He will protect us from forsaking Him.
This reminder paints a beautiful picture of the Gospel.
God does not deliver us because of any inherent virtue of our own.
God delivers us on the basis of His unmerited favor.
It is on the basis of our knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
It is by God’s grace, through our faith.
Protecting the righteous is not the only thing God knows how to do.
Peter goes on in the second half of vs. 9 to show that God knows how to restrain the wicked by keeping them under punishment.
This could be talking about a preliminary torment that will lead up to the final judgment.
In other words, the unrighteous are currently being punished,
While they wait for the day of judgment when Christ returns.
The other possibility is that it is simply saying that the unrighteous are being held,
Until they are punished on the day of judgment.
It is hard to tell for certain,
But the reality is that both interpretations are true.
The unrighteous are being kept for the day of judgment,
And their temporary holding includes a limited torment.
Even if we just think about this in terms of the consequences of sin.
When people sin,
It has consequences in this world.
These consequences are a temporary punishment leading up to final judgment.
But let us not get so caught up on trying to understand the minutiae of this verse that we overlook how terrifying this statement is.
Peter elaborates on the torment of false teachers.
Describing them as those who indulge the lust.
Peter lists two particular sins for those who follow their flesh.
First, they indulge defiling passion,
This speaks of sexual immorality.
The depravity of false teachers is off the charts.
The lies they teach are empty,
And in time their true nature will be revealed.
The term, total depravity, dates back to the Protestant Reformation,
It means sins corrupts the entire human nature.
So, all people then, are depraved.
Which is why we need the redeeming work of Christ to get into heaven.
But these false teachers extend that depravity,
They abuse grace and rebel in the opposite extreme of legalism.
These are licentious teachers that simply say if it feels good, do it.
If you enjoy getting drunk, get drunk.
If you want to have sex, have sex.
Live your best life in this world to the fullest and do not let anyone get in your way.
And they are saying this is on the basis of God’s grace through Christ’s death.
Jesus died, they say, so that you can do whatever you want.
This is a disgusting lie.
It is absolutely evil.
They are indulging defiling passion.
After this, Peter says an important phrase.
Second, they despise authority,
They will rebel against God,
Against the Gospel,
Against leaders in the church,
Against bosses,
They think very little of those who are in authority.
This shows the fundamental arrogance these false teachers have.
And they do everything in their power to influence others to join them.
We see in the second part of vs. 10.
Peter elaborates on how they despise authority,
They do not fear slandering the glorious ones.
It says they do not tremble as they blaspheme glorious ones,
This seems to be speaking about supernatural beings;
Angels, demons.
But other interpreters think this may include church leaders,
Like elders and deacons.
I would lean toward this phrase more likely referring to fallen angels.
I think we can see this play out with these charismatic teachers who,
In their arrogance,
Speak as if they are bossing the devil around.
They make all these statements about the devil and demons,
And they have no idea what they are messing with!
R.C. Sproul comments;
“The false teachers apparently mocked the power of the devil and his demons. Even today, a flippant attitude toward Satan and his power can lead to spiritual danger.”
We are to have a healthy respect for these supernatural beings.
We do not worship or fear them above God.
But we must not also be proud or boastful toward them.
They have powers and principalities far beyond us that they use for wickedness.
And a false teacher who does not fear verbally bossing demons around,
Reveals a level of arrogance that will translate to other authorities in their life.
Dr. Jim Shaddix also comments;
“These heretics demonstrate audacious arrogance in their blatant disregard for and defamation of those in authority over them…False teachers have an amazing confidence in deriding authority figures, but their confidence unfortunately isn’t tempered with any wisdom or humility.”
GOD: The Depraved Get God’s Justice (vs. 11-16)
GOD: The Depraved Get God’s Justice (vs. 11-16)
Peter continues his argument about the presence of God’s Justice,
By showing that the Depraved Get God’s Justice in 2 Peter 2:11-16;
whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. 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, 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. They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.
Peter contrasts the arrogance of false teachers against the humility of angels.
Although angels are greater in might and power,
They restrain from bringing any slanderous charges.
But false teachers lack the necessary restraint because they do not understand.
Instead of being humble due to this lack of understanding,
Peter says they open their mouths like irrational animals.
What is Peter saying?
Animals operate based upon feelings or desires.
False teachers, likewise, are following their flesh,
Not their mind.
In other words,
A false teacher does not know how to stop talking about things they know nothing about.
They claim to be wise,
But they reveal that they are fools.
False teachers get way in over their heads.
In the example of blaspheming glorious ones,
Demons are leaps and bounds more powerful than we humans are.
False teachers are irrational and arrogant,
So, they name and claim their blessings.
When they have no idea what they are talking about,
And no idea what they are dealing with.
Their inability to keep their mouth shut ultimately makes them victims of their own flesh.
Just as a wild animal dies when a hunter uses bait to lure them,
False teachers will die because Satan has lured their flesh right to him.
This is truly tragic.
Fooled into doing his will.
False teachers are born to be caught and destroyed.
Vs. 13 says that they will be paid back with harm for the harm they have caused.
The result of their wrongdoing will be suffering.
Payback is coming for these false teachers.
Then, in the second part of vs. 13,
Peter goes back to the defiling passions he mentioned in vs. 10.
Showing how there is no end to their lust.
They take pleasure reveling in the daytime.
In other words, they do not wait for darkness to hide their sensuality,
In fact, they find it fun and exciting to pursue after their sensual desires in the brightness of the day.
Being blots and blemishes is talking about them being an imperfect sacrifice.
A blemish was seen as an imperfection,
A defect in an animal that made it unfit as a sacrifice.
A man with a blemish during OT times would also be excluded from the priesthood.
Christ has made His Bride, the Church, without blemish,
Because He offered Himself as a sacrifice without blemish to God.
But these false teachers offer and imperfect sacrifice,
And just like they revel in the daytime,
They revel in their deception, while they feast with you.
The mention of a feast is important because to feast together in this context a a big deal.
Feasts were meant to be a celebration or a reminder.
A love feast was a specific form of fellowship among believers.
So, these false teachers were indulging their flesh while believers were trying to fellowship.
That is why they are blots and blemishes,
They are the stain on the body of Christ.
This is harsh language because false teachers tarnish celebrations meant to glorify God.
While fellowship is happening,
False teachers are looking to indulge their sin,
Using their eyes full of adultery.
It is like they are constantly scanning for their next love affair.
They never stop looking for sin.
They go from morning, to afternoon, to night.
Then they go to sleep and wake up to do it all again.
They are obsessed with adultery,
They cannot look at something and not see it through a lens of sensuality.
They look at people and begin sizing up how much pleasure they can wring out of them.
These eyes full of adultery make the false teacher a slave to their own lust.
Like an addiction,
It becomes insatiable,
They continuously long for more,
Always pushing the boundaries,
Only to find that it becomes less and less satisfying.
So, they do it more and more just to try and satisfy that thirst that never is quenched.
Tragically, these false teachers do not like to travel this road alone,
So, they seduce unstable people.
They recruit others to join in on this unsatisfying perversion.
This seduction is like the bait that gets put on a fish hook.
False teachers lure in unsuspecting people,
Who do not necessarily have a firm foundation in the faith.
Vulnerable to the enticements of false teachers,
These people take the bait,
Suddenly they too find themselves hooked to the same insatiable sin as their false teacher.
False teachers will do anything to draw others to join them in their sin.
It is to worship the god of pleasure we see promoted in our culture.
And it is so easy to become a slave to endless lust.
Pleasure in this life is not a goal that can be attained.
Douglas Moo explains well;
“The food that used to satisfy no longer does, so we search for ever more exotic and more expensive dishes. What once entertained us now seems blase; so we demand new media, bigger TVs, more stations. The spousal sex that used to satisfy our natural urges is no longer enough; as a result, we try sex with others and explore various deviant practices to bring the excitement back. Pleasure, in other words, is a goal never reached; it is always somewhere in the distance, urging one on to new and usually more sinful practices, never quite satisfying.”
Do not misunderstand,
God did create us to find pleasure in these things,
But He did not create us to have the pursuit of that pleasure dominate us.
The problem is when we blur that line,
Because then it becomes all to easy to cross it.
Peter goes on to say they are trained in greed.
They are experts in greed.
Like an athlete trains for a sporting event,
These false teachers devote to working out their greed muscle.
Profiting off Christians their sport.
They make it a habit to exploit believers.
As a result, they are children under a curse.
Their evil has placed them under God’s curse.
They Get God’s Justice.
Peter compares their behavior to Balaam.
Numbers 22-24 make it clear that Balaam was greedy.
Balaam claimed to do what was right,
But instead, he led the Israelites to sin,
Agreeing to prophesy whatever the king of Moab told him to for his own personal gain.
Peter says that Balaam loved this gain he got for his wrongdoing,
As a result, he has become a symbol for greedy false teachers,
Because false teachers have forsaked the right way and have gone astray in the same way.
Peter continues the connection with the infamous story of when Balaam was rebuked by his donkey.
And had his madness restrained.
Using the word madness shows that you are out of your mind if you pursue lawlessness because you will get God’s Justice.
Peter does not want you to be deceived by a false teacher.
It is madness!
In the case of Balaam,
A donkey spoke more sense then the prophet of God who was greedy for personal gain.
YOU: Their Doctrine Lacks God’s Justice (vs. 17-19)
YOU: Their Doctrine Lacks God’s Justice (vs. 17-19)
Why is that exactly?
Because as we see in vs. 17-19,
Their Doctrine Lacks God’s Justice;
These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. 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. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.
When I proposed to Stephanie,
As many of the men here probably did something similar,
I got down on one knee holding a small box in my hand.
I had a speech prepared in my head to say her,
But when I officially asked her to marry me,
I opened that little box,
Revealing an engagement ring to symbolize my intent to marry her.
Now imagine, I do all of that,
Except I open the box and it is empty.
The ring is something of great value.
And when a woman sees her boyfriend down on one knee holding a small little box,
There is so much excitement,
And that little box represents there is something wonderful inside for that woman.
It can be an incredible let down to open the box and find it empty.
This illustrates the emptiness of a false teachers doctrine.
They have a speech prepared,
A whole plan and presentation in place,
And a teaching that on the outside gives the impression of something valuable, exciting, or wonderful.
But in these verses,
God’s Word shows that their doctrine is empty.
It is not only an incredible let down,
It instead produces destruction.
False teachers can talk real good,
But when you listen to their words you will find they lack substance.
Picture being thirsty in an arid desert.
So, you go to a spring to get water,
You need that water to live.
Likewise, spiritual truth is needed to nourish our souls.
But Peter says a false teacher is a waterless spring.
You go to the spring to get the water you need to live,
And you find it empty.
Likewise, there is no life in the teachings of false teachers.
You go to the spring of their teaching only to be disappointed by the thirst that remains in your soul.
Mists driven by a storm is a similar illustration.
False teachers are unstable.
They go here and there and everywhere.
That is what happens to a mist that is driven by a storm.
They do not have stability, strength, or truth.
Their teaching provides no spiritual sustenance.
False teachers make empty promises of life,
But their is no substance,
All they will do is leave you thirsty for life.
Not so with Jesus,
He said in John 4:13-14;
Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
Only in Christ can you find lasting satisfaction.
Jesus died and rose from the dead to satisfy God’s Justice and to offer life to those who trust in Him.
This life is everlasting satisfaction for your thirsty soul.
It is the joy of eternal light.
False teachers, however, have the gloom of utter darkness reserved for them.
Their punishment will be as extreme as their depravity.
Peter is talking about thick, eternal darkness.
This is terrifying because he is talking about how hell is reserved for them.
It is a dark, burning fire.
This is an extreme punishment that is waiting for these false teachers.
But their teaching lacks this justice of God.
Peter says in vs. 18 that they speak empty and seductive words.
They make their words sound great and important,
But they mean nothing,
They are hollow.
Yet, Peter says that their words have an effect on some.
God has designed our bodies to yearn for certain things and enjoy them.
The flesh,
Our sin nature,
Takes those natural yearnings and pushes them beyond the boundaries God had set for them.
So, Peter shows how these false teachers appeal to that fleshly sin nature.
They say you know you desire this pleasure,
Listen to me and I will show you how you can have it.
They are experts at this corruption,
So, they appeal with lust,
They get you excited about what you enjoy so you will follow it.
Peter says,
They entice people who are barely escaping this satanic corruption.
This is likely referring to new, or less mature, believers who are trying to follow the true Gospel.
This false teacher that appeals to their flesh comes along,
And they begin following these corrupt teachers of darkness.
Why would believers do this?
Because false teachers promise them freedom.
Think about some of the freedoms that are promoted in our culture today.
People have the freedom to determine their own gender,
People have the freedom to kill babies they do not want,
People have the freedom to have as many sexual partners as they want,
Whatever a person wants,
False teachers promise that we have the freedom to acquire it.
But this is a false understanding of freedom.
It is saying that freedom is getting to do whatever I want, whenever I want.
That is not freedom.
Jesus clearly said,
Anyone who sins is a slave to sin.
So, you are so deceived,
You are not free,
Your soul is bound up in shackles.
Ed Welch refers to addiction as voluntary slavery.
If you ask a meth addict who is without a job, homeless, and has been abandoned by all their family members,
They may acknowledge at this point that they are enslaved to their narcotic.
But if you were to ask that person when they first began smoking marijuana,
Or the first time they tried heroine,
Are they were enslaved to this?
They would say,
Absolutely not,
This is what I want,
I enjoy doing this.
Over time, they could not see the invisible chains that were being wrapped around their souls,
Because the allure of the flesh kept drawing them in.
This is what Peter is saying.
These false teachers promise freedom.
But the reality is,
They are more enslaved than anyone else.
As Peter says,
They are slaves of corruption.
They are slaves to their own moral perversion,
They shackle themselves with ever worsening virtues.
And in their slavery, they are leading others into slavery,
Pretending that this is what freedom looks like.
This is the irony of sin.
R.C. Sproul summarizes;
“The quest for freedom from God leads only to slavery to sin and self. True freedom from sin involves joyful ‘slavery’ to God.”
From their chains,
False teachers sell a false freedom.
Only Jesus offers true freedom.
As He says in John 8:36;
So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
He has set you free through His life, death, and resurrection.
He has broken the chains of sin,
He has given you life.
Real freedom is being who God made you to be,
And doing what God made you to do.
Like a bird is made to soar through the air,
And fish are made to swim in the ocean,
We too are made for a purpose.
When we do what we were made to do,
There is a pleasure, a joy, a contentment that comes from it.
And we will feel it in even greater fullness when we are with God,
In His presence in heaven.
That is true freedom,
Being who God made you to be.
WE: Fools Doubt God’s Justice (vs. 20-22)
WE: Fools Doubt God’s Justice (vs. 20-22)
Since sin entered the world,
All of us have inherited sin.
But those of us who trust in Christ have our sin put off and Christ’s righteousness put on.
False teachers claim to be Christians.
But they return to a sinful way of life showing that their claims were superficial.
They doubt God’s justice,
Because they are fools,
And that is what fools do.
As we see in 2 Peter 2:20-22, Fools Doubt God’s Justice;
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. 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. 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.”
Peter seems to imply that false teachers assume they are saved.
They have the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
But the result in entanglement and being overcome by the defilements of the world.
So, yes, false teachers have a head knowledge of the Gospel.
They know it, they understand it, they can explain it.
But their flesh has them entangled in the world.
So, this knowledge never took root in their heart.
Maybe they seemed to have a short term superficial change in behavior.
But it was not genuine.
If they had known Jesus in their heart,
They would continue their knowing of Him in a way that effected their will and desire.
So, even if they claim to be a Christian,
It is not true.
This is not saying that they were saved and lost their salvation.
God will keep all who trust in Christ.
This is evidenced by the endurance of the virtues listed back in vs. 5-7 of ch. 1.
This means walking down an aisle, professing Jesus as Lord, praying a prayer, raising your hand, asking Jesus into your heart, joining a church, and being baptized do not save you.
Enduring Christian virtues are fruit of a genuine saving knowledge of Christ.
For these false teachers,
Peter says,
It would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness.
Once you hear the gospel and you still discard it,
There is no other message that will save you.
If you have heard the gospel,
You have heard the best news ever!
But if you did not turn to the Lord in response to hearing the gospel,
It did not save you and there is no other message left for you.
This could also be implying that there is a relationship between how much truth a person knows,
And how much punishment they will receive in hell for denying it.
The more truth a person hears and still rejects the gospel,
The greater the punishment in hell will be.
It is the idea that deliberate rejection of the truth increases one’s responsibility before God.
Jesus teaches this in a parable in Luke 12:47-48;
And that servant who knew his master’s will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.
This is obviously important to Peter because essentially repeats it in vs. 21.
The way of righteousness is salvation by grace through faith in Christ.
False teachers know this is the way of righteousness,
Yet they reject it.
They know the gospel is for their good,
But they decided to pick and choose what they deem good,
And throw out the rest.
This is blasphemy.
It is to say good is bad and bad is good,
Or dark is light and light is dark.
Dr. Shaddix comments here;
“The sacrificial death of Jesus Christ, the gracious gift of repentance, the loving conviction of the Holy Spirit, and the merciful patience of God have all been spurned. Consequently, nothing remains to serve as the backdrop of righteousness by which an individual’s sinfulness can be discerned.”
Peter concludes by saying this illustrates a Proverb.
The first part of the Proverb can be found in Prov. 26:11.
The second part does not seem to be referenced elsewhere in the Bible.
But in this context, dogs and pigs are viewed as nasty creatures.
The mention of them here would create this feeling of disgust in his readers.
These creatures are not transformed,
They revert back to their nature.
A dog is compelled to eat its own vomit,
A pig is compelled to return to its mud.
It does not matter that the dog threw up something that made it sick,
And it does not matter that the pig has just been washed clean.
These creatures naturally go back to whatever it is they were supposed to get rid of.
Their nature remains.
Such is the case for people who are out of touch with God.
They hear the gospel,
They know the gospel
But they are not transformed,
They return to their sinful ways.
Their true nature was love for the sickness and filthiness of their sins.
This Proverb reveals the foolishness of false teachers that go back to the wickedness of the world after having learned about the forgiveness of the gospel.
But the reality is that fools doubt God’s justice.
They appear to be a follower of Christ,
They confessed Christ as Lord,
They god baptized,
They joined the church.
But eventually they reveal that they were never one of God’s children,
They doubt God’s Justice,
They reveal their true nature,
They return to the sins of the world.
This is a terrifying passage.
But our application from it is simple,
Pray, “Lord, protect us from false doctrine.”
And listen to His response in His Word.
Pray.