2 Peter 2:12-22
Notes
Transcript
We’re in a section of 2 Peter which is discussing false prophets and people falling away from God
People in Noah’s days, even the angels
Sodom and Gommorah
false prophets
We’ve also been talking about the consequences of this behavior and state of the soul
the ungodly in the stories were destroyed, but the Godly were saved
this is a pattern throughout the Bible
CONTEXT OF MAIN VERSES
9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished: 10 But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities. 11 Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord.
12 But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;
these natural beasts are sinners and those who have fallen away
what makes us special as humans? Different than animals?
we have what God has blessed us with, a conscience, made in God’s image
also, God gave humans dominion over the earth, to subdue it and utilize it
28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. 29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
When we live according to God’s will, it’s constructive, it builds things up
but sinners are playing into their fleshly nature, their animalistic nature
when someone is hedonistic and living according to the flesh, it’s destructive
sin tears down societies, tears down families, tears down all kinds of stuff
when people are just looking out for themselves and that’s all they care about, it’s at the expense of everyone else
Jesus tells us to be selfless, the exact opposite, and one can see how that builds each other up
BACK TO VERSE 12
“speak evil of things they understand not”
We see this a lot today in the world, with people out actively attacking the faith
often you will see that people that do this have very little or an erroneous understanding
we’ve all seen stuff like this in our lives, where someone talks about things that they don’t understand
we know though, that while the one speaking evil of Christianity think they are right, and doing something good, they are just showing their ignorance
they will also be shown to be wrong at judgement day
we have to remember though, that everyone deserves to be witnessed to
whether they take it or not is not our responsibility, it’s theirs
last part of verse - they will utterly perish in their own corruption
thank the Lord that we are saved from this perishing
13 And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you;
all of our lives we are sowing, planting
imagine each action we take is like a little seed
one day, everything will be reaped, harvested
all of our actions will either be rewarded, or they will be punished
we want to plant good seeds while we are here on earth
we could go along day by day, just getting along and not doing a whole lot
but these days add up, and you might end up one day having spent your life just getting by without planting a good harvest
all of those days turn into a lot of time, time flies, so we want to use everyday wisely
“riot - τρυφή - engagement in a fast, self-indulgent lifestyle, indulgence, reveling”
they count it pleasure, they love their lifestyle
we know that sinners often do, they don’t realize the destructiveness of their lifestyle many times
they often have a void, it’s a very unfulfilling way to live
not only is it unfulfilling, but it’s rebellious against God, playing into our fallen nature
“spots they are...”
we’re talking essentially about false teachers in this passage
Peter calls them spots, blemishes, it’s like a stain on a white T-shirt
you need to remove the stain, you don’t want the stain, the stain is an imperfection in something otherwise good
“sporting themselves...”
sporting means revel, here
so they’re reveling with their own deception, while they feast with you
often, the devil comes as an angel of light
the false teachers are blatant about what they do
14 Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children:
we must control our inside as well as our outside, we don’t want to be whitewashed tombs, which are great on the outside, and dead on the inside
we know that we don’t have to physically do something to sin, lust of the eyes in sinful
if we indulge it, it will continue to degrade us inside and our spiritual state and growth
“a heart they have exercised with covetous practices”
let’s look at what exercised means
γυμνάζω - to train, undergo discipline
so it’s as if they’ve trained their heart to be sinful
you get accustomed to a lifestyle if you live it long enough
how do we want to train ourselves
15 Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;
So Balaam was selling his prophecy to the highest bidder, so to speak
he forsook the right way, God told him to do one thing, but he ended up doing the another thing
because he loved the wages of unrighteousness
sometimes unrighteousness can be profitable, selling drugs, being a TV charlatan, unethical businessman, etc
16 But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man’s voice forbad the madness of the prophet.
The angel of the Lord personally rebuked Balaam, making the donkey speak and eventually appearing to him
we see that Balaam went astray, and Balaam received judgement
“madness of the prophet” - once you’re enlightened to the things of God, to go back to sin would be madness
we would be trading gold for trash
we would be trading constructive for destructive
we talked about being spiritually nearsighted once, only looking and living for the short term
when we’re nearsighted, we need glasses, it needs to be corrected, it’s viewed as a negative in our lives that must be fixed
how much more shouldn’t we want to be correcting our spiritual nearsighted, we need to look through life with Godly lenses.
17 These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.
12 These are spots in your feasts of charity when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
“wells without water”
imagine youre in the desert, and you’re just dying of thirst
then somehow you run across a well, and you think “oh this is great! this could save my life!” and you’re so excited for it
then you get to the well, and you find that it’s just bone dry
is this not worse than finding no well at all? you would have gotten excited, had hope, just for it to get dashed and for you to be disappointed
the same can happen with people who are looking for spiritual food
you can have someone with a true void in their life, looking for spiritual food, yearning for it
they end up under the clutches of a false teacher, who provides them no food, nothing fulfilling at all
a person who this happens to might just end up wishing they had never tried at all
same thing with clouds without water
point being is these people and teachings have no substance
false teachers and teachings cannot supply what people need, they are wells without water
God has given us so much substance in the Bible, so much spiritual food
and we need to make sure we are being serious with our doctrine, what we believe
we need to utilize the whole of the Bible, and we need to do it correctly
The Bible has more substance than any other book that will ever be written, to not utilize this is sad
let’s use what God gives us as much as we can, we want to give people spiritual food, the whole of the gospel
we don’t want to be wells without water
18 For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.
Again, the devil often comes as an angel of light
meaning he says stuff that sounds good to the ear
let’s use our easy punching bag of the “prosperity gospel”
they speak great swelling words of vanity
“oh God wants you to be rich, God wants you to have a nice car and the best job, etc”
they try to make it sound great and dress it all up as being so great sounding
but it’s vanity, it’s hollow, it’s a well without water
Peter says they allure through lusts of the flesh
we want to aim to be those who are clean, and escape from those who live in error
and we do this through Christ, and believing in the WHOLE of the gospel, and not just some of it, or a twisted version of it.
19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.
False teachers often promise liberty, but really they just sell a sinful lifestyle dressed up as something else
the only true freedom we have is in Christ, and the fullness of the gospel
2nd half of verse
if a man is overcome with sin, this sin has power over him
let’s think of alcoholism
alcoholics can be overcome with it, they drink at night, they drink in the morning
eventually they end up living their lives around it, they have to have a drink
they may take a flask with them, drink at work, not go anywhere where they couldn’t drink
so we see, what a man is overcome with, with that he’s in bondage to it, he’s a slave to it
if someone is overcome with any sin, it brings the person into bondage to that sin
if a person has a problem with lust, he’s in bondage to that
if a person has a problem with lying, he’s in bondage to that
Christ tells us that He has overcome the world, and when we become partakers with Christ, through Him we can overcome the world
with man it is impossible, but with God, all things are possible.
20 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.
So we’ve been talking about false teachers, and these are some people who have once known God, but have turned away
We see that Peter says through Christ, they had escaped the pollution of the world
pollution soils the air, and this is what sin does to the world, it’s the same thing
it’s a blemish on the world
so these people had known God, they knew about His grace, they knew about what a great God He is, they knew all of these things
and to walk away from that back to sin is so much worse, as Peter says
it’s absolute madness to know the gospel and to have once been with it, but to forsake it
we as Christians when we grow in Christ, we start to have a new view of the world
and it seems to us that “the world” is crazy, all the awful stuff going on, all the ungodliness, all of the corruption
could you imagine just giving it all up and going back to the world?
it seems insane?
Peter says that it’s going to be worse for people like this than people who never knew at all
because you knew about the gospel, you knew about the forgiveness of God, how great He is, what a loving, merciful God He is
yet you give it all up just for fleshly lusts, it’s incredible that it happens
not only is it incredible, but in a way it’s sad
this show how powerful the lusts of the world can be
this is why we need to stay close to God, and not slack off in our relationship to Him
a lot of things happen before you know it.
you might day by day be slowly slacking off from your relationship with God
what will that be like 3 years later? 10 years?
when we stay close to God, He will develop us, help us to grow, and be more resistant to the world, and help us to overcome the world through Him
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.
22 But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.
“The gospel is a medicine which purges us by wholesome vomiting, but that there are many dogs who swallow again what they have vomited to their own ruin; and the gospel is also a washing which cleanses all our uncleanness, but that there are many swine who, immediately after washing, roll themselves again in the mud. At the same time the godly are reminded to take heed to themselves, except they wish to be dogs or swine.”
