In the heat of the summer of 2020, a tragedy occurred outside of Rockwall. David Bridges, a well-respected jurist, died in a traffic accident. It was an accident that did not need to happen.

A car driven by Megan Smith was going the wrong way when she hit Bridges car. Such is the danger of being on the wrong road. When Peter writes the second chapter of his second letter, he waves a warning

sign about being on the wrong road. He warns of the false teachers.

“But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even deny- ing the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.” (2 Peter 2:1, ESV)

Yet, in today’s lesson, we find that the false teachers ignored the warnings and remained on the wrong road.

One great truth emerges. When you stay on the wrong road, it is the road to perdition and death.

Peter wants us to see the tragic effects of the wrong road.

The Road

The Bible is replete with stories of man’s sin.

In the Garden of Eden, we watch as Adam and Eve take that first bite of the forbid- den fruit. It altered the trajectory of human history.

In 2 Samuel 11, we stand in a dark hallway as Bathsheba leaves David’s chambers. It will be a matter of a few weeks until she is his wife, gained by illicit means.

These pictures are familiar, yet, in this lesson, the concept is darker, blacker. It is not merely sinning we meet. It is evil as it courses through life. There comes a time when sin changes into something worse—depravity.

Peter opens this lesson by continuing his thoughts from the last lesson.

“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,” (2 Peter 2:10, ESV)

He speaks of those who “indulge” the lust. The picture is of making a journey. These false teachers are continuing a journey into the deepest pits of human depravity. It leads them somewhere.

They Stopped Fearing the Fearful

Many beings are more powerful than men. When you read the Bible, you find an- gels coming into the lives of men. When they do, it brings fear and trembling.

Yet, these teachers have lost respect for all things holy and godly.

“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, whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord.” (2 Peter 2:10–11, ESV)

Peter uses words of frightening consequences. They spit in the face of authority. They are audacious about their power and do as they please without fear of consequences.

When the angels came up, they slandered and derided.

Something happens when you lose your fear and respect for God and the holy realm. You become your own god.

It is not something to lose. Children who lose respect for their parents become wild and unruly. We’ve witnessed crowds who could care less for law and order with predictable results.

Once it happens to a moral life, when there are no restrictions and fear of the Almighty disappears, life becomes trash.

What follows is the next tragic step on that journey.

They Lost All Sense of Shame

The saying goes that “there is honor even among thieves.” When Paul confronted the Corinthians about the blatant incest in the church, he said it was a form disdained even by pagans.

When you fall below the standards of a sensual society, you are coming toward the bottom. But that’s what the teachers have done.

“But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and de- stroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction,” (2 Peter 2:12, ESV)

Peter compares them to an animal and “creatures of instinct.” They have no morals, no standards. They operate on what they want to do at the moment without thought of morality or decency. That’s what animals do.

When my youngest daughter finished her education, she got a job in research involving monkeys. For most people, monkeys are curious and cute. But they are monkeys. My daughter would describe coming into the lab the following day, and monkeys would have fought. Many lost eyes or fingers. They were cruel beasts, something that Peter had in mind.

They have no reasoning. The teachers never ask, “is this right?” Questions of con- sequence never arise. They are animals who destroy themselves with their own life- style.

Peter adds to this sordid picture.

“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.” (2 Peter 2:13, ESV)

These false teachers get payback (probably a reference to their desire for money) from their evil. They revel in the daytime. It was a shocking accusation.

Even in degenerate Roman society, it was scandalous to commit evil acts in the day. It was reserved for the cover of darkness.

Dio Chrystostom represents Alexander the Great as feeling that other men “had all been well-nigh ruined in soul by luxury and idleness and were slaves to money and pleasure”

Their sensuality, so unbridled as to have no bound, is the foundation for the Eng- lish term “hedonism.” It is the pure pursuit of pleasure without regard for right and wrong or even society’s judgment.

In recent events, the name of Jeffrey Epstein has arisen. He is the kind of character who will stoop lower than the low to commit rape on the most innocent.

This was the road the false teachers traveled.

Their pride did not drive them from the church but entrenched them. They came to the love feast, the first century setting for the Lord’s Supper, and sat there without shame. Peter calls them blots and blemishes on the feast. Their lifestyle is cancer that disfigured the body of Christ.

But Peter is not finished with the dark black brush.

“They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children!” (2 Peter 2:14, ESV)

They employ the Playboy philosophy that sees every woman as a sexual conquest. Women were something to be used and disposed of.

This kind of rampant immorality coaxes those who do not have the spiritual stability to know what to do. The teachers bait the hook and catch others in their own debauchery.

They have gone to the spiritual gymnasium and developed the ability to be wan- ton, to lust for more and more. More money. More power.

No wonder that Peter ends with the exclamation that they are under God’s curse.

The Bought Life

In the 1960s, American culture convulsed under the constant bloodshed of an un- popular war and the call for utter freedom. Today, we have the same kind of thought— we ought to be free to do as we please without anyone dictating what to do.

This was the philosophy of the false teachers. Since the spirit is all that matters, we have complete freedom to do as we please in the physical realm.

Yet, the truth is inescapable. Those who believe they are free are in heavier chains —the chains of self.

While these men’s greed pursued what they wanted, the reality was they were bought and held by their own need.

To describe this best, Peter goes to the book of Numbers of his illustration.

“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.” (2 Peter 2:15–16, ESV)

He reminds them of Balaam, whose story is told in Numbers 22-25. He was a hired gun, a prophet for a price. Balak, the king of Moab, hired him to curse the Israelites. Once a king’s ransom was agreed upon, Balaam made his way to do the deed.

But something happened on that road. An angel came to turn him back. But Balaam, who professed the gift of prophecy, could not see him. But the donkey on which was riding could. The donkey stopped. Angry, Balaam began to beat the donkey, for he had turned to the rock side and caught Balaam’s foot between beast and rock.

That’s when the donkey talked. Peter says that even the donkey could rebuke him. Something seemed to be lost on Balaam with others.

God refused to let him speak the curse. Instead, he blessed Israel, creating a furious Balak.

But Balaam was not finished. He found an alternative plan. He knew that if the people forsook God, they would be punished. So he concocted a plot where the women of Baal-Poor would entice the young Israelites into adultery.

This brought swift retribution on both the offenders and the Moabites. And Bal- aam could not escape either. Numbers 31 makes clear that they “also killed Balaam.”

When people give their lives over to this kind of depravity, they forge their own chains of slavery.

They lose any influence. Peter uses two images to describe them:

“These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved.” (2 Peter 2:17, ESV)

He calls them waterless springs, a place where those parched would come only to find nothing to quench their thirst. They are mists driven by a storm, never doing the good that mists could do.

When people choose to listen to these teachers, they will find their lifestyles and teaching devoid of anything good, positive, and helpful.

God has a special place in hell for these people. The reason is they have put the rigid chains of hell on themselves.

“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 over- comes a person, to that he is enslaved.” (2 Peter 2:18–19, ESV)

Despite their boisterous professions, they can never overcome the desires of sensual life. They keep preaching freedom, but they are actually slaves.

It is an observation that is clear in so many ways.

Seneca said: ‘To be enslaved to oneself is the heaviest of all servitudes.’ Persius, the Roman satirist, spoke to the corrupt and immoral citizens of his day of ‘the masters that grow up within that sickly breast of yours’.

The greatest freedom is self-discipline, something these men will never experience.

Think of people you have known. I visited with a man who said he was not an alco- holic. The problem was the behavior he described was that the drive to drink was los- ing him his family, cost him two jobs, and caused his driver's license to be suspended once. Yet, he said he had the power to quit when he wanted to.

It was apparent that he thought he was free when he was actually a slave. It is something that a life headed down the road of sin creates.

Conclusion

Peter wants to make it clear that as enticing as this teaching and lifestyle seems to be, it has a dark underbelly. It destroys lives and creates slavery.

This chapter has a single theme. Those who depart from God’s way and take a journey on a different road are headed for trouble and destruction. No matter their smooth words or their grand promises, departing from God’s way brings a life of depravity.

For that reason, he leaves a single lesson lingering.

Before you follow someone, know where their life is going to lead. Pay attention to the road you choose will determine your destination.