Pastor Jeff delivered a powerful sermon focusing on the dangers of false teachers, emphasizing their imminent and comprehensive destruction as warned in Scripture. He delineated the characteristics of false teachers, describing them as arrogant, ignorant, indulgent, adulterous, and immoral, highlighting how they over-promise and under-deliver while ultimately leading people away from the true message of Christ. Pastor Jeff reminded the congregation that true believers experience a change in nature through repentance and faith, which leads to genuine transformation in their lives. The message concluded with a call to seek God wholeheartedly and allow Him to change hearts and lives, underscoring the importance of discerning authentic faith from self-serving teachings.
Sermon Transcript
Our Father in heaven, we give you all the glory, honor and praise for who you are. And Lord, we thank you that we've been able to gather as a church family today to sing praises to you because you are worthy of all of our praise and all of our honor and all of our joy. And we are here today to seek you. We thank you that you hear our prayers and that you respond in the ways that you think are best, and we love you for that. And Lord, we thank you for your living and active word, because we as a people believe that every time it is faithfully and accurately proclaimed that you are speaking.
And Lord, this morning our prayer is speak, Lord, for we want to hear what you have to tell us. And Lord, we believe that in a room this size and on all our campuses, not only can talk to us collectively, but individually, you can speak to each and every heart. And so now, for all those who have gathered, who desire to hear the Lord Jesus Christ speak directly to you, who will believe what he tells you and who will, by faith, put into practice what he shows you, will you agree with me very loudly this morning by saying the word Amen. Amen. Have you ever seen one of those interviews with somebody who's committed a heinous crime and it's now years later, and they're interviewing the person to find out what their motivation was and why they did what they did, and why was it that they thought that they could get away with what they are doing?
I find it sometimes fascinating if I'm at somebody's house that has one of those shows on. It's not normally a show I would watch, but it's so interesting when somebody starts talking about an event that you knew took place in the past, and it was wicked, it was evil, and now it's been time that's passed, and they're sitting down chair to chair, usually in a jail cell or something like this, and they're beginning to talk to that person about what caused you to do that, what was your life like growing up, what motivated you to act like this? What were you thinking while you were doing this? And as it unpacks, you begin to think, wow, how could somebody think like that? And how could somebody act like that?
And how could they be doing that while at the same time living like this? So nobody else knew what was even going on. I believe when we get into the second chapter of Second Peter, this is really how it's reading. Last week, we began that study by taking a look at identifying false teachers. And what a False teacher is and how false teachers are so prevalent in our society.
10 things to look for in a False Teacher. And we unpacked all that. But as Peter continues this section, he's really talking about, he's answering the question of what does God think about them? Is he just going to let them get away with all this? And what's their motivation behind doing what they do?
And ultimately, why is this so bad that they're doing it? What's the big deal about being able to spot and understand what a false teacher is about anyway? And that's really what this whole section is about. And as I've read through chapter two of Second Peter this week, like over and over and over again, I had intended to break it up even more. But the more I read it, I believe that through the Holy Spirit, Peter's trying to make one big argument as to what false teachers are.
And so what I wanted to do today is go through the entire chapter of Second Peter chapter two from where we left off last time, starting in verse four, and make our way through so you can see what his argument is. Because if you can understand the motivation behind a false teacher and you know how to spot them and you understand what God thinks about them, it's only going to help you in your walk with Christ. And it's going to help you as you're discipling other people so that they know how to spot a false teacher, so that they true can get the pure, unadulterated word of the Lord. So today we're going to talk about three truths about false teachers and what they look like and what their outcome's going to be. So if you have your Bible today, I encourage you to open your bible up to 2 Peter chapter 2, 2nd Peter chapter 2.
We're going to begin in verse 4. But while you're turning to 2nd Peter chapter 2, verse 4, I'll just bring you up to speed by reading those first three verses that we took a look at last week. He says, but false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift judgment upon themselves. Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned, and their greed, they will exploit you with false words. Their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.
And we talked about five points from that last week. And really the truth is, false teachers are real. God sees them. They're among us. We need to be able to spot them.
The way of the truth is maligned because they deny the lordship of Christ. Greedy. They're sensual. They entice you with their words, and their judgment is coming. And right there is where we're going to pick up and begin our study today to take a look at what Peter has to say about them.
And I'm going to give you three truths when it comes to false teachers today. And the first is this, that when it comes to false teachers, their destruction is imminent and it's comprehensive. Their destruction is imminent, and it's comprehensive. God sees them, and I promise you they will be judged comprehensively for what they do. Notice what he says.
He says, for if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness reserved for judgment, and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness with seven others when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly. And if he condemned the city, condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter. And if he rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men, for by what he saw and heard, that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds. Then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment. And especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority.
Here's what he's saying. It's a long if, then sentence. If this, and if this, and if this, and if this, then this. It's one big thought. And he's really talking about if as a first conditional class sentence.
So he's really saying since. Since he judged angels and since he flooded the world, and since he judged Sodom and Gomorrah and saved Lot out of it and saved Noah's family out of it, then he's also able to save righteous people out of corruption. And he's also able to hold the unrepentant for a day of judgment. God sees the whole world. That's his argument.
So just taking a look at this, you need to understand, when it comes to false teachers, they don't get to go on forever. There's an end to what they do. And not only is there an end in this life, but destruction for them is Imminent, it's coming soon. And when it comes, it will be completely comprehensive. Notice how the apostle Peter paints a cosmic, then a global, then a specific situation of judgment.
Notice what he says. He says, for if he did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell, committed them to pits of darkness reserved for judgment, even angels that God created powerful, mighty beings that saw him when they sinned, when they rebelled, he kept them in pits awaiting the day of judgment. Now many Bible scholars will argue back and forth as to which angels did God do that to. And that's a fun discussion and it's a fun debate. But the point of this is we need to realize it's not Satan, because Satan's running around wild right now.
And Satan has helpers. And if you don't believe that Satan is alive, you haven't opened your eyes. He is alive and well and he is doing evil in this world. A lot of people believe that this took place in Genesis chapter six, in the first four verses where you see angels leaving their places of abode. Some people say that that's angels.
And they came and had relations with women and produced offspring. And because they left their abode, that's what happened. Some people believe it was the angels. Some people believe the angels took over men's bodies. Whatever it was, it ticked off God because human beings are the crown of God's creation.
Men and women are the crown of his creation. Do you not realize the Bible says you will judge angels? So when angels left their dominion and went after that, which wasn't their domain, God held some of them. He's held some of them in pits of darkness in Tartarus, really the lowest places of hell one day awaiting judgment. And it's interesting if you read through the New Testament, do you remember that time where Jesus cast the many demons legion out of the the man, and they begged him, don't send us to the abyss, don't send us to the pit.
So he sends them into pigs, and 2,000 pigs rush off the side. They had that Bay of Pigs invasion and plop right in there. Remember that? Well, what would happen? He didn't send them to the pit.
They were begging not to go there. But apparently for some angels that sinned against God, that's where they are, awaiting judgment. And just so you know, God created a plan of salvation for human beings. God did not create a plan of salvation for the angels. He didn't.
Angels are in the presence of God. They're mighty beings who saw God. And when they rebel, there is no chance for them to turn. There is no hope for their redemption. Right?
Human beings, we have a plan of salvation through Jesus Christ. And so Peter's making the case that don't miss this. Even the angels that were the mighty ones of God that stood in his presence, that sinned against him, many of those who are in pits awaiting darkness don't think false teachers will get away with it. Then he talks about not only a cosmic judgment, but a global one. And he said he did not spare the ancient world, but preserve Noah, a preacher of righteousness with seven others when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly.
In Genesis, chapter six, we see that God's heart was grieved that he had even created man, because the thought of man at that time was only intended upon evil. Well, God would never destroy the world. He's already done it once. He flooded the world, it was a global flood. It covered the entire Earth.
It wasn't just a local flood. And if you study science, there is evidence all over the place of God's flood. Just look at our mountains. Go out to Utah, go down to Arizona, go to the Grand Canyon. There's evidence everywhere.
I remember being at the Grand Canyon with my kids a few years ago when I was teaching the Book of Genesis. And I remember they were talking about rocks that were in Appalachia were now cemented to these rocks in Arizona. And I remember asking them, how did they get there? How did they travel from Pennsylvania to Arizona? And the guy said, millions and millions of years.
And my son, who was young at the time, is like, tugging. I'm like, dad, tell them that's a lie. Tell him it was the flood, right? Cause it was. And there's evidence all around but that God rescued Noah and his family out of it.
His wife, his three sons and their wives. And while he preached for 120 years to that wicked society, and nobody but them repented, and nobody came into the ark except them and the animals. God flooded it all. And if God was willing to do it cosmically, we also saw that he was willing to do it globally. And then we see that he's willing to do it specifically.
And what he mentions is the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. And notice this. And he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter. Now you can study this story in Genesis 19, and you'll see the wickedness of that city that Wickedness was so bad that Abraham prayed for that city when God told him he was going to destroy it. And he pleaded with the Lord and he begged the Lord, and he humbled himself before the Lord, and he said, nah, I'm just a man.
But you know God, if there's at least 50 righteous people there, would you spare the city? And he said, yeah, for 50, I'll do it. Then he began to think, well, Lord, wait, wait, wait. What about. And he begins to count all the way down.
He gets all the way down to 10. Lord, if there's just 10 righteous people, which will you spare the city? And you know what God said? Yes, for 10 people, I will spare the city. You know what that means?
He couldn't find 10. There wasn't anybody there. God sends two angels to Sodom and Gomorrah. They enter the city. They're going to sleep in the town square.
Lot says, you don't want to be there. Those wicked people come into my house. When Lot brings the men in the house, the men surround his house and ask Lot, hey, send those men out to us so we can have sex with them. And Lot doesn't seem like a righteous person when I read about him in Genesis, because you know what he says? Hey, I have two virgin daughters.
Why don't you just take them? That doesn't seem righteous to me at all. But he's trying to protect these men and their hospitality. Eventually, the angels blind the people. They get Lot, his wife, his kids out of the city and tells them, don't look back.
And Lot and his kids escape. Wife looks back, she turns to a pillar of salt as God rains fire down on Sodom and Gomorrah. Now, many people today will be like, well, there was never really a city called Sodom and Gomorrah. You can't find it anywhere. Duh, it turned to ash.
I mean, it's just ashes. You can't find it anywhere. Why? Because God thoroughly, completely destroyed it. And what Peter is trying to say, God has given judgment.
Cosmically, God gives judgment. Globally, God gives judgment specifically. And no one can escape God's judgment. However, notice what he says. But even in this global judgment, he was able to rescue Noah and his family.
Even in this judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah, it refers to Lot at least twice as a righteous man. Now, it doesn't seem like his behaviors are righteous. So what is righteousness? Righteousness is believing God. It's trusting God.
When I hear that God calls Lot righteous, it gives me a lot of hope. It means my righteousness is not based upon my behavior. My righteousness is based on my righteous standing with the Lord Jesus Christ. And in the New Testament, I'm declared righteous by repenting of my sin and turning to God. And he's the one who declares me righteous.
And the Bible says the Lord knows those who are his. And the Lord sees my righteousness, and even in the corrupt generation, he is able to save me out of it because of his mercy and grace. Is that not good news?
See, it's easy to look at the world around us and say, oh, what a horrible place. What a horrible this. What a horrible. God is able to see those who are righteous, who are wanting to live righteously. And it says it troubled Lot's heart every day because there was nobody righteous in that city.
But instead of just destroying the city and taking Lot two, he's like, I can take Lot out of that. My judgment will be specific to individuals. And know this. When God comes, no one will escape his judgment. Not one.
There's not going to be some trial where Jesus stands there and people plead their case and he's like, okay, yeah, it's over when he gets here. Now is the time to repent. Now is the time to get right. Now is the time to live righteous. So that when the Lord comes, he will say, well done, good and faithful servant.
Amen. So what's he trying to say here? He's trying to say there's an end game to these false teachers. They're teachers. Their destruction is imminent.
God sees them, and it will be completely comprehensive. And if the Lord knows how to rescue you, the godly, from temptation, he also knows how to keep the righteous ready for a day of punishment, especially those who indulge the flesh and its corrupt desires and despise authority. What's the message? If you call yourself a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and you're not telling the truth, here's the message. You better repent today.
You better stop speaking on behalf of the Lord today, and you better find your way into a church where the word of God is being taught and sit in front of the pulpit rather than behind it and grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the message. Because judgment is imminent and it is comprehensive. No doubt about it. Now, let me give you a second one.
The second one is this. Understanding false teachers. When it comes to false teachers, their description, how the Bible describes them, is insidious and carnal. It's insidious and carnal. And here's where you see their motivations as he begins to unpack that starting in the middle of verse 10.
Here's what he says about them. Daring and self willed, they do not tremble when they revile angelic majesty. Whereas angelic Majesties who are greater in might and power do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the Lord. Here's one truth about false teachers. They're arrogant.
They're arrogant. They're brazen. They're cocky. They're pompous, they're rebellious. Listen to me.
When God anoints a shepherd for his service, he anoints a shepherd for his service. But the shepherds he anoints are simply mere men. That's it. There's nothing special about them. Yes, we can be thankful if we're in a church where a man of God is under the authority of God, is anointed by God to bring the word of God.
But that man is not superhuman. That man is speaking on behalf of the God man, Jesus Christ, who is God. Amen. And here's the truth. What these false ones do is they're arrogant enough and self willed enough to even revile angelic Majesties.
Angelic beings. Now it's interesting. In the book of Jude, there's only one chapter, so it's Jude, chapter one. But in verses nine and ten you read about even at the death of Moses, when the archangel Michael and the devil were arguing over his body. Listen to what happened.
It said, but Michael the Archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment. But said, said the Lord rebuke you. But these men revile the things which they do not understand and the things which they know by instinct, like unreasonable, unreasoning animals. By these things they are destroyed. Even the Archangel Michael, one of those powerful beings that God created in the universe, would not rebuke the devil, but said the Lord rebuke you.
Can I just tell you something? We are not called in Scripture to bind Satan. You do not have the power to bind Satan. You can't bind him. What power do you have?
Christ can. When we pray. Here's how we're praying. We're not praying because we have authority and we're asking God to do what we want. We're praying because Christ has authority and we're seeking him because we're depending upon his power to do what he wants.
That's what prayer is about. We are seeking Him. Oftentimes false teachers will talk like they have some supernatural power. They have power over angels, they have power over demons, they have power over. There is no human being that has supernatural power.
Only Jesus Christ has supernatural power. And we seek him in prayer for his supernatural power to do what only his supernatural power can do. Make sense. Even when God gives people man, that person can preach or that person really has a gift of compassion, or that person has a gift of healing. Who's the one doing it?
Christ in them to the hope and glory of God. Amen. False teachers will always talk like they're special, like they're better than. Like they're different than. Like they have a special relationship to God that you don't have.
And they have authority that you don't have. And they have power that you don't have because they're arrogant. Can I say one other thing while we're on it? When you listen to a good preacher, they shouldn't have an original thought. Their main thought should come right out of this book.
Amen.
This does not mean they can't illustrate a point with a story. But if you hear someone preach and they're a great storyteller and they have these incredible mysteries that they're unfolding, but they've never brought up the Bible one time. And then even at the end, if they say trust Jesus and you say, well, they must be a Christian, think again. Your thoughts should come out of this book. It's the daring, self willed, arrogant, brazen, pompous, cocky, rebellious, ungodly people that preach the other way.
And when you see them, just know. It's insidious and it's carnal. Here's a second truth about them. They're ignorant. They're totally ignorant.
He says this in verses 12 and 13, whereas he says, but these like unreasoning animals born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed, reviling, which means blaspheming where they have no knowledge, will in the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed. Suffering wrong as the wages doing wrong. Here's why they're ignorant. They blaspheme God with incredible confidence. Because what they believe that they are doing is they are hunting for an audience.
They are hunting for people that will listen to them. They are hunting for a crowd who will affirm them. And what the scripture is trying to make clear, that while they are not speaking on behalf of God, God is hunting them and their destruction is going to be certain because what they're speaking is not true.
Right? And you see this all over the place in our Culture. You see, the ignorant try to do this. They don't realize that God is the one who they're supposed to be speaking with. And if they're not holding up the word of God and they're not speaking this book, here's exactly what they're doing.
They are telling stories and they are telling vignettes and they are telling little ideas and little bits of wisdom so that people are like, oh, so good. What was good? That one about the puppy, it was incredible. And you closed about and it's like, well, what was the point? I don't know.
But he's really spiritual. False. Because what they're saying is God. While I stand here. Shut up.
Nobody wants to hear you. Everybody wants to hear me. I want all your glory, so I want people to hear me. That's exactly what they're doing. But they won't say that.
They'll trick you into believing that what they have to say is really true. They're ignorant. Third, you'll know this because they're indulgent. They're indulgent. They're super, super, super deceptive.
Because they're indulgent. They count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions as they carouse with you. These people are hedonists. They live for themselves.
They indulge in pleasure. They're pleasure seekers. First and foremost. They want to use the ministry that they've created for themselves for their own pleasure. Now, there's nothing wrong with enjoying life.
The world is the Lord's and everything in it. Enjoy the things that God's given you and be blessed by it. These people are using their platform to indulge in the flesh so that here's what they don't teach. They don't teach holiness. They don't teach repentance.
They don't teach heaven, they don't teach hell. They teach that you're good and they come alongside of you, act just like you. They'll say stuff like this, I'm the cool pastor. I get to do what you do. We're all the same.
You know, let's just hang out. Let's be good. Let's. Because they don't want to call people to holiness because they themselves aren't holy. They don't want to call people to repentance because they themselves aren't repentant.
And all they care about is keeping a crowd that thinks that they're just like them so that they can both journey to Hell together. That's what it means to be indulgent. I'm living for me. I'm living for you to like me. And guess what?
Here's what God is all about. God's all about your prosperity. And here's what they teach. They teach the very things that every unregenerate person wants. They teach health.
I mean, if I was to ask you this. Who doesn't want more health? Who doesn't want more money? Who doesn't want more freedom? Who doesn't want more happiness?
I want all those things. But they teach that as a bedrock and foundation of the truth. If you love Jesus, you'll have more health. If you love Jesus, you'll have more wealth. If you love Jesus, your relationships will improve.
If you love Jesus, everything about you will be better. If you love Jesus, you'll have more influence. Everything about life is good. If you're not experiencing that, that's because you don't have enough faith. Just trust God a little more, give a little more money, then you'll have everything.
It's a lie. Here's the truth. You follow Jesus, I promise you, you'll experience more persecution, more tribulation, more hardship, more difficulty. All those things. But here's what I'll also tell you.
You'll enjoy life a whole lot more because your hope will be set on something that's coming rather than right here. Amen. False teachers don't talk about what's coming because they don't believe it. True teachers will tell you if you repent and believe Jesus, the day is coming, you'll be part of his kingdom. If you refuse to repent and believe Jesus, you will die in your sins.
And your sins will drag you to an eternal hell where you spend all eternity. True teachers teach that because they love God and they love you enough to tell you the truth. But they're indulgent. Let me give you a fourth one. They're also adulterous.
They're also adulterous. Notice verse 14. Having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin. Enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children. Trained is the word we get our word gymnasium from.
It means they work at greediness. They see an audience in front of them as a way to fleece them and make money from them. They never stop sinning. There are adulterers. Most cults are filled with adultery.
Most men that have are false. Teachers see women as objects and use the relationship they have from the front to have bad relationships with women who are Weak. And even more than that, they are spiritual adulterers because they won't teach the truth of God's word. They won't teach what God wants. They won't say the hard things because deep down they don't care about God.
They. They don't care about walking with God. They don't care about the hard things. All they care about is enjoying their life and being sensuous with the people that they're with. And friends, that's a false teacher.
That's a false teacher. And I'm not just talking about someone that's fallen before Christians can fall. There's times where God can convict anybody's heart. You've been too greedy or you shouldn't look at that. That's not what I'm talking about.
I'm talking about an ongoing practice of adulterous lifestyle and ongoing practice of greed. And then finally this. This really sums it up. They're immoral. They're immoral.
Notice this. Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness. They love the wages of unrighteousness. But he received a rebuke for his own transgression. For a mute donkey speaking with the voice of a man restrained the madness of the prophet.
They're immoral. They are immoral. Balaam is listed in the New Testament as an example all the time. Not to follow. If you go back to numbers, chapter 22 and following, you can read about this story.
Balaam was hired by Balak, the king of Moab, to tell him to curse Israel. And he told is he told Balaam. He goes, I can't say what God doesn't want me to say. So in some sense he wasn't a false prophet, because every time that he went to curse Israel, God spoke to him and he blessed Israel, which made the king of Moab really, really mad. One time when he set out to go curse Israel, he's on his donkey that he rode all the time.
And the pre incarnate Son of God is standing there in front of him, and he doesn't see it, but the donkey does. And the donkey tries to go one way, the donkey tries to go another way, and finally gets to a place where the only way for the donkey to go forward is to come in contact with the living Christ. And the donkey's scared and he drops down and Balaam beats him three times, at which time the Lord empowered the donkey to speak. And the donkey looked back over his shoulder and he said, what have I done that you beat me three times? And what's even funnier is Balaam begins to have a conversation with the donkey, like, well, what are you talking about?
Finally, God opens Balaam's eyes and he sees him, and then he doesn't do what is wrong. However. However, as the story continues, we see the heart of Balaam. Because the heart of Balaam is, you know what? I wanted to get paid by the king.
I wanted to get paid by the king because money means everything to me. So I can't speak bad about Israel, but here's what I can do. So he told the king, if you can just get Israel to act immoral, they'll follow you that way. You can take them out that way. And that's exactly what he did.
He was a prophet for hire. He was a shepherd for hire. He cared about money more than he cared about the message. That's what a false teacher is, not that pastors shouldn't get paid. Pastors should get paid.
Nothing wrong with that. I'm talking about pastors that fleece people and tell people that they owe them a certain amount of money to be able to do what they do. It's wrong. It's wrong in every single way. And that's what Balaam was doing.
Balaam was immoral in every way. He led God's people into immorality. And even though he didn't speak wrong, he. He trained people how to live wrong. So when you have arrogant, ignorant, indulgent, adulterous and immoral people, that's how God sees them.
It's not good. And sometimes we don't see that because most of these charlatans dress really nice, are very good speakers, hold a Bible, have some truth in what they say, and when you hear them, you think, what a nice person. If that quote, nice person is immoral, arrogant, ungodly, and not letting God speak. They are some of the most evil people on the entire planet, according to how God sees them. We talked about last week how rat poisoning is 95% nutritious.
FALSE Teachers don't come and tell you, curse God, worship Satan. You wouldn't listen to them. They come as wolves in sheep's clothing and get you to believe that they are special, they're unique, they're not like anybody else. They have some new ideas about God. Nobody's ever thought about this before.
This is good. If they have new ideas about God that didn't come from that book, they didn't come from God. The canon's closed. My job is not to give you new ideas about God. My job is to tell you this is who God's always been.
This is who God will always be. And my job is to tell you about him so you can relate to him rightly. Amen.
So he teaches us this. He says their destruction is imminent. It's comprehensive. He tells them they're insidious as they're being described, they're carnal. And then finally he says this.
When it comes to false teachers, their delivery is invalid and corrupt. The way that they share their message and live their message, it's invalid and it's corrupt. It's not doing it the way that God wants. Notice what he says in verse 17. They are springs without water and mists driven by a storm, for whom the black darkness has been reserved.
Springs without water. You ever been really, really, really thirsty? Like really thirsty? Like so thirsty you just can't wait to get a drink of water. These are people that over promise and under deliver.
They're promising refreshment, they're promising water, but there's nothing there. They promise a cold shower from the cloud on an arid or hot day, but they don't deliver. They do not deliver what is promised. And here's what it says. The blackest darkness is reserved for them.
You think about the most heinous criminals that you've ever heard about. False teachers are worse. Do you know why? Because no matter how many people a criminal, a heinous murderer kills false teachers. Kill everybody eternally, and take them all with them.
And from God's perspective, that is what he says. That is why he says, those of you who think that you are going to preach and teach on my name, you will be judged more harshly. You better think about it. And for those of you young men that are called to preach and teach the word of God, be certain in your soul that is something God called you to. Make sure you can't do anything else and find satisfaction.
Wrestle with that over time. It doesn't mean you are inept. It doesn't mean you can't work in the business world or can't coach or can't teach or can't be an attorney. It just means if you did that, your soul would be screaming that I must do this. And if you're compelled to do that, then do it in such a way where you sit Jesus right here and let him listen to every single word you're saying and make sure he's pleased with what you're communicating.
That's what it means. False teachers don't do that. They promise all this good for you, they promise all this refreshment for you. They promise all this wonderful life for you, but they can't deliver on any of it. Do you know why?
Because they're not God. They're not sovereign. If you just pray, you'll be healed. Maybe, maybe not. If you just pray, God will provide that job.
Maybe, maybe not. If you just pray, you know that person will come around. Maybe, maybe not. I mean, you don't get to control what other people do. That will save you a lot of time in the counseling office.
You can't even control what you do. I can't even control what I do. Sometimes biblical truth is, here is where your refreshment comes from. Your help comes from the Lord who made the heavens and the earth. And no matter what you are going through, he can help and he can be present and he is there for you.
Amen. That is biblical truth.
Because they're arrogant. Because they promise a certain life. And if you listen to these people, here's what they talk about all the time. They're always talking about the here and now. That's all they talk about.
They talk about everything every unregenerate person wants. They want a prosperous life here and now. It's not that God doesn't prosper. God does prosper. God's blessed me beyond my wildest imaginations.
God's a good, good God. But it doesn't mean that everything goes my way and it doesn't mean that it continues to go my way. And one of the ways that you know that you're maturing in the Lord is when things don't go your way and you still love the Lord. And I've asked you to pray for my wife. I've asked you to pray for her this week if she has surgery.
As a family, we prayed. Many of you have prayed. Thank you so much. And as I've been praying for my wife, I'm praying don't let it be cancer and let everything go well and make sure everything comes out of her body that needs to and all this stuff. And Lord, I want her wholly, fully healed this side of heaven and quick and get her back on her feet.
And that's all I know how to pray. But, Lord, if you have another plan for my wife that I can't understand and I don't see, I will never stop loving you because I know you are the best and you have my heart, regardless of what you choose to do. Amen. That is how we pray and we trust and we believe God for his best. But we also believe God knows best better than we know what we think best is.
And when it doesn't go our way, which many times in my life, it hasn't gone my way and will still not go my way, Persevering with the Lord through those things is what grows our faith and helps us look forward to the coming kingdom. Amen. That's what biblical truth is. These guys here that preach like this, they're springs without water. There's overpromise under deliver.
This is your life. It's always gonna be good. It's always gonna be great. And when it's not, they're like, well, just keep praying more. Just keep believing more.
It will be someday. No, it won't. They over promise they under deliver notice. What else they do? For speaking I'm in verse 18 for speaking out arrogant words of vanity.
There's that word arrogant again. They speak their own words. They entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error. So they entice you. They speak arrogantly.
They use their words so that they're winsome. So you may not love Jesus, but you'll really like them. You may not defend Jesus, but you'll really defend offend them. Promising them, that's promising their congregations, promising the people that they're talking to, promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption. For by what a man is overcome by this, he is enslaved.
Here's what I would say. You can't deliver what you don't have. If somebody needs $50 and you only have 25, you cannot give them what you don't have. If somebody needs freedom from their sin, but you are not freed from your sin, you can't offer them freedom because you don't know what freedom is. These people can't teach the truths of God because they are not living in the truths of God.
These people can't tell you how to walk in the truth of God because they are not walking in the truth of God. They can't teach you what identity in Christ looks like because they don't have an identity in Christ. They can't teach you how to live authentically because they are not living authentically. They can't tell you how to grow in Christ like character because they don't have Christ like character. They can't tell you how to be engaged in the mission of Christ because they're not engaged in the mission of Christ.
They can't deliver on anything that they're promising because they don't have anything that they're talking about. That's what he's saying. And when I read this, I think Peter is just as passionate as I am. Galatians 5:1 says, it's for freedom that Christ Jesus has set us free. John 8, 30, 31 says, if you continue in my word, then you're truly my disciples, and then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
Freedom in Christ is one of the greatest truths of the Bible. That you can be freed from the penalty of sin the moment you repent of your sin and you don't want your sin. And you're like, God, take my sin, and you take that to the cross. And you believe that Jesus Christ, the God, man who's always existed, who put on flesh 2,000 years ago, died for all your sin, was buried and rose from the dead. And you repent of your sin and trust Christ, you're freed from the penalty of sin.
It means when God comes back, he will not judge your sin. It's already been paid for. You don't know anything else. But you can also be freed on this side of heaven from the power of sin. Did you know that?
Whatever's trapping you right now, whatever. I just can't seem to get over this. I can't get beyond. Oh, yes, you can. You may not be able to, but Christ in you can.
If you really don't want to live that way anymore, you can confess to the Lord. I can't stop. I can't change. I've tried. It's not working.
Matter of fact, even when I'm praying this and I'm saying I don't want to, in my heart I'm like, but I'm going to do it today. My flesh is saying, let's do it again. So, Lord, you have to change me, because I can't even change myself. But I do want to be free, but I don't know how to be free. So, Lord, help, because I'm having a real hard time here.
And you start praying authentic prayers like that. And you watch what God does. He will begin to deliver you from things that are a stronghold in your life. And then it gets even better. One day we're going to be delivered from the presence of sin.
One day our bodies will be transformed. We won't have sin in us. Nobody around us will have sin. You meet somebody, it's going to be the most beautiful relationship you've ever had. Because nobody has sin.
Nobody's trying to benefit from each other, nobody's trying to be greedy from. I mean, everybody will get along. Church people never laugh when I say that every church member will get along. I mean, it's going to be unbelievable because we won't have sin in our lives. I mean, it's going to be amazing.
And this is what God wants us to do. This is what God wants us to live. But listening to false teachers teach about this is like listening to a 400 pound man sell diet books. It's just gross. The problem is we can't see it with our eyes.
You have to discern it spiritually because some of these false teachers, if they were £400 and they were as gross physically as they are spiritually, you'd never listen to a word they have to say. But you have to realize that what Satan loves to do is he loves to pick people that he can use to win people over in churches. People that are slick, people that are enticing, people that can tell good stories, people that can lead people into thinking that what that person has, I want what they have. And they write books and they speak and they're great. But deep down, here's what they don't have.
They don't have a heart of repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. They don't have a desire for his holiness. They don't want to walk in obedience. They don't want to walk in truth. And they care more about keeping a crowd than they do proclaiming the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Stay away from them. Stay away from them. And when these people get interviewed on CNN and Fox and msnbc, you'll hear them backpedal all sorts of things. Well, how come in your church you really don't talk about sin? And how come in your church you really don't talk about repentance?
And how come your church you don't talk about hell? And how come in your church you don't talk about holiness? And well, you gotta understand, you know, people get enough of that in the world. We just want to be good to people. We want to build people up.
I'm like, what? Put me on those channels, I'll say the same truth there that I'm saying right here. Because it's the gospel and I'm not ashamed of the gospel. It's the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes. And that's true.
Amen. And then notice how he wraps up. He says in verse 20, for if after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome. The last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to have known it to turn away from the holy commandment handed down to them.
Here's what he's saying. He's like, you know what's even worse than not knowing Christ? Which is horrible. If you don't know Christ, you die in your sins. You go to hell.
You know what's even worse? What's worse is having the opportunity of hearing the truth and knowing who he is and then not responding to it. It would be better if he never even heard it. I mean, when we talked about Judas Iscariot, it would have been better for that one to not even been born. He had been in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He had seen his magnificence and still betrayed him and hung himself. See, here's the problem. The problem is we think that when people profess Jesus, oh, they're a Christian, because they said Jesus. They scored a touchdown, they thanked Jesus. They're a Christian.
Oh, they hit a home run, they thanked Jesus. They must be a Christian. They wore a bracelet that said wwjd. They must be a Christian. They said God in one of their songs, they must be a Christian.
No, maybe. But that doesn't make somebody a Christian. What makes someone a Christian is somebody who has humbled themselves through repentance and faith and believed in Jesus and is living for him. And they're growing in their fruitfulness and faithfulness. The Bible says, do not love the world or anything in the world.
If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life is not from the Father, but from the world. The world is passing away, and also it is lust. And the one who does the will of God lives forever. I mean, you would have to know somebody for a while to see man.
Do they really love God or do they just talk about him? Is he really preaching about Christ or do they just talk about him every now and again? You see what happens when we become believers. The Bible says we get a new nature, that old things have passed away. Behold, all things have been made new, that we're not the same out externally.
We look exactly the same the moment we get saved. Internally. Everything has been fundamentally Altered, as if you've been recreated from the inside out. Everything. If you've been born again, one of the evidences that you're born again is that the sins that you used to sin so easily, if you sinned them again, you would feel shame and embarrassment and guilt and hurt.
And it would bother you because you would wonder, why did I do that again? I don't want to do that. I want out of that. If you can sin the same sins, you've always sinned in the ways that you've always sinned them, and nothing changes, except now you go to church and you feel a little better because of that. Here's what I would say.
Examine yourself to make sure you're in the faith. I know my sin. I know how I used to sin. I know how I sin now. I know if I went back 30 years ago and was sinning the same sins, I sinned them.
It's possible, but it would break me. I pastored long enough. I've been counseled enough couples to know that when there's been adultery in a marriage, there's two different ways it goes. And there's a couple that's not repentant, and it kind of looks like this. You sit down and you start talking to them.
And perhaps it was the guy that had an affair. And when you're talking to him, here's what he says. Well, you know, you just don't know my wife. You don't know what she's like. She hasn't been meeting my needs.
She hasn't been doing this. She's tough to talk to. She's difficult. She's this. You just don't understand.
To which I always want to say in my best Christian voice, shut up. Right? But when you meet someone who's had an affair and is genuinely repentant and you're talking to them, they're broken. And here's what they'll say. They'll say something like this, it was all me.
It was my fault. I got too caught up in these other. I know it's me, and I was wrong and I feel guilty and I want to be freed and whatever the Lord wants to do. And if she wants to leave me, I totally get that. But I don't want her to go.
And I want to earn her trust back, and I want to make it right. And you just tell me what I need to do. And I don't care who finds out. I just want to do the right thing. It's repentance.
And when there's Repentance, there's a chance for repair. And here's how you know if you're a Christian. There's ongoing repentance in your life. There's ways in which you've grown and things that you're repenting of, which early in your Christian walk you wouldn't even have thought were wrong. And now God's continuing to do it.
I find the more I walk with God and the closer I get with him, the more aware I am of my sin. Not the less, the more deeply depraved I know my soul is and how grateful I am that Jesus Christ died for me. Amen. And notice what he says. Look at how he concludes.
He concludes with two proverbs. He says it's happened to them, according to the true proverb, a dog returns to its own vomit and a sow after washing returns to wallowing in the mire. Two very depictive word pictures, ones that you don't really want to think about, but you think about it. Here's why. Because a dog's nature is to do that.
Now, we think of dogs in our generation in America as puppies and cute and all that. In the first century, dogs were scavengers. They went around eating trash and garbage. Nobody had dogs as pets. When you think about a pig and how it wallows in the mire and does all this, here's the point he's trying to make.
Here's how you know if you're saved. You've been given a new nature. You've been born again. You've been given a new title as saint. You're not the same as you used to be because your nature is different.
And when I preach, I'm not preaching to your behavior. Perhaps your behavior needs to change, but it's the nature of who you are in Christ that will get you there, not changing your behavior. If you have an anger problem, you can work on anger for the rest of your life. It won't go away. If you're looking at porn, you can say, I'm not going to do it.
I'm not going to do it. It won't go away the day your nature changes and says, because I'm in Christ, this is not who I am. I don't want to be that Jesus. Change me. Give me your heart for what you love, give me your heart for what you hate, and let me live your way.
Everything begins to change because your nature has changed. I mean, picture like this. I mean, imagine you had two animals. You had a pig and a cat. Two very different animals.
And you could reach inside the pig and you could reach inside the cat, and you could pull out their nature and you could switch it. And so the pig had the cat nature and the cat had the pig nature, but nobody knew their natures had been switched. Do you know what that would be like on the farm? I mean, you might go down to the pig pen and you would see a pig kind of up on the fence, you know, the sty. Kind of trotting around, wiggling, wanting to rub up against you.
And when you went up to see what was wrong about this deranged pig, it would lean in and go, brr. You know, and you would think, what in the world is going on with this pig? His nature had changed. And then you'd hear screaming from the house and be like, get in here. Get in here.
There's something wrong with our cats. You know, and the cats would be going to the bathroom everywhere and rolling in and oinking and all this different stuff. And you'd be like, what happened? Well, their nature was changed. They look the same, but their nature is different.
And what he's saying is, if your nature hasn't been changed, you can go to church for your whole life, and you can pretend to do the things that the pastor's talking about, and you can follow what other Christians are singing and how they're praying. But if your nature hasn't changed, you are not changed. And you will go back to what you were originally. That is what he is saying. You need a new nature.
You don't need Christ to just pay for your behavior. You need him to pay for your nature. You were dead. He needs to make you alive. And if he has made you alive, you need to live out that nature.
You are different when you see people 10, 20, 30 years from when you became a Christian, like I have had the privilege of doing now, people shouldn't recognize you because you are not the same as what you were when you didn't have the same nature. Because God changes nature. I'm preaching to your nature. Dr. James Vernon McGee, who's a Dallas seminary grad, is now with the Lord.
Listened to him online on the radio many different times. I don't even want to talk. His Southern accent and the way he did it. But he used to say, you know, if you take a pig and you dress it up and you give it a bath and you put a bow on its head and you brush its teeth with Pepsodent, it may look good for a little while, but that thing's going right back to the mud because its nature says that something has to be changed. And what Peter is saying here is the problem with false teachers is their nature hasn't been changed.
The problem with false teachers is they've never been regenerate. They've never been born again. The Holy Spirit's never come into their life. So what they are doing is they are teaching principles on how to make this life work better, which is no different than an unsaved person doing the same. These people aren't saved.
They don't know the Lord. They're up there telling Jesus to be quiet while they give their greatest efforts as to what it looks like, rather than talking about the worthiness of our Savior. Friends, false teachers are a danger. But don't worry about it. False teachers will be judged for what they do and when they are.
Here's the truth. God recognizes those who are His. And if you belong to the Lord, you have nothing to worry about about the coming judgment. Nothing if you've never repented and believed. Every day you should think about the terror that's going to happen when the sky breaks open and Jesus Christ comes back or you die and meet him face to face.
And here's the other truth about false teachers. The reason they're motivated in all their arrogance and all their different things is because they don't know the Lord. All they know is how to tell good stories. And all they know is how to tell people to live the lives they want to live, because all they know is how to do that themselves.
So here's my call. Let God change your nature. Let God change who you are on the inside. If he changes your nature, your behavior will catch up over time. If you let God change the entirety of who you are, your behavior will catch up.
Your language will catch up. Your thoughts will catch up. Everything will catch up. And then as you continue to journey with him, he'll show you more and more and more about your nature. And he'll show you more and more and more about his love and all that he died for on the cross for you.
Friends, if you're here today, do not leave this place. If you're listening online, do not leave this place without making Jesus Christ the Lord and Savior of your life and being ready for his coming. And if you're struggling in a sin and you know that, you know the Lord, be thankful that you're in a place where the word of God is being preached. Be thankful that you heard a hard word this morning. Be thankful that it's God telling you I can change you.
You can't change yourself. You've been trying too long. But I can change you. Will you let change you this morning? Because that's what he wants to do.
Would you stand with me today, Father, as we come before your throne this morning, we just ask you to touch every single heart that's listening to these words. And if you're listening to my words and you've never made Jesus Christ the Lord and Savior of your life, why don't you make that right now you know he's calling you to himself and anybody that comes to him, he will never turn away. And here's how you can pray. You can pray. Lord Jesus, I know I'm a sinner.
I know I'm under your judgment because I know my nature has never been changed. I've always tried to change my behaviors, but I've never let you change me. So Lord, today I repent of my sin. You can have it in exchange for all your life. Come into my life.
Make me new. Forgive all my sins. And Lord, for those of us who are believers whose natures you have changed, who are still on a journey, still growing, not perfectly, but increasingly, Lord, show us those areas of our life that are sinful instead of us trying harder to fix them. Remind us today that we need to turn that over to you so that we can live out our identity and see you change us. Lord, you are so worthy.
You're worthy of everything. You're worthy of our highest honor, our praise, our glory and our thanks. And it's you and you alone that we celebrate today in Jesus name, Amen and amen. Can we give God praise for who he is today?