Please
turn with me to 2 Peter 2 - starting at verse 1.
Last Tuesday was what? Super Tuesday.
Remember these people? Of course last Thursday
Mitt Romney dropped out. Which
was a surprise.
Yesterday’s primaries and caucuses without
him were interesting.
We try very hard around here not endorse any
candidate. The
bottom line is that we need to encourage each
other to take advantage of the privilege we have
to vote and to vote prayerfully thinking through
issues and candidates from a Biblical perspective. Right?
Have you heard this? “Who is the right candidate
for the office and why aren’t they running?” There’s a
feeling that if so-and-so gets into office our
country is going to be in even worse trouble.
Having said that, I would like to make one
endorsement.
Just a thought.
There are some serious issues in our country. Yes? Our
kids are not growing up in the same country we
grew up in.
In many ways that’s not a good thing. Especially
spiritually.
Would you agree with this? The
church in America is also in trouble.
According to George Barna - 80% of church growth is by
transfer of membership - in other words church
growth is not by people
coming to trust Jesus as their Savior - church
growth isn’t by the impact we’re having in the
community - most churches are growing because
people are switching churches. (1)
Its like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. We’re
all in big trouble but we’re not dealing
effectively with the real issues.
Over the past few Sundays as we’ve been looking at
Peter’s second letter - Peter has been sharing
about the intimate personal relationship that the
Almighty God of creation desires to have with each
one of us - in which He - God supplies all that we
need to live that life - supplying even the basis
of that life - the salvation offered to us in
Jesus Christ.
It really is possible to know God - at the
core of who we are - to live life with Him. And
that life with God does on forever - eternal life.
One thing that is so cool about this letter is
that Peter not only writes about “life with God”
and the incredibleness of all that - but, Peter
writes about how to live that life in the
day-to-day stuff of our lives. Knowing
all that God offers us - what we hope for in the
future - how we can live life today.
With all that concerns us. And
there’s a lot.
There are people in this congregation -
people around us - who are seriously hurting -
physically - emotionally - psychologically -
financially.
People on the breaking point. With
all the voices that are trying to get our
attention - political - religious - philosophical
- people wanting to lead us - claiming to have
answers.
Who do we listen to? What
reassurance do we have in the midst of all that
confusion?
2 Peter 2 - starting at verse 1: But - that little
word “but” is important. Peter’s making a contrast to
what he’s written before - what we looked at two
Sunday’s ago.
Peter’s claim of why we should listen to him. Remember
this? What
the prophets spoke of - Peter witnessed first hand
- the transfiguration - Jesus in His divine glory
- the voice of God validating the ministry of His
Son. Everything
that Peter had heard from Jesus was absolutely
true - everything about life and death - about
faith in Him - forgiveness of our sins and being
right with God - and eternal life - is true. Jesus is who
He says He is. The God
and the Savior.
The - singular - means of forgiveness for
our sins - and the means of life with God. Peter
is appointed by God to point us to Jesus.
Verse 1: But - in contrast
to what it means to be a true spokesman for God -
like Peter - 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 destruction upon
themselves.
Many will follow their sensuality, and
because of them the way of truth will be maligned;
and in their greed they will exploit you with
false words; their judgment from long ago is not
idle, and their destruction is not asleep.
Let’s pause there.
Heresies is the Greek word “aireseis.” The
word has the idea of making a choice.
Back in the Old Testament false prophets were at
work even while God was speaking through His
prophets. While
Peter is writing - teaching - false teachers are
already at work secretly introducing destructive
heresies. Destructive
choices. Just
as they are today.
Teachings - which are not true - which are not
taught by God in His Bible - these teachings are
slowly introduced - not right out in the open -
but quietly brought in right alongside the truth -
until they almost sound kind of like the truth.
So, after a while - if a person had to choose
between the two - God’s truth and what sounds like
God’s truth - maybe we might choose what isn’t
true - because it sounds pretty good - not really
understanding that its a teaching that’s
destructive to our relationship with God.
The best lie is the one closest to the what? The
truth.
Eve - back in the garden. Satan
with his “Did God really say
that? Let
me clarify God’s intent for you.” “Well,
that’s helpful.
Sure.”
What Peter is giving us here in verses 1 to
3 is a warning - to be careful - how to make
the right choice of who and what to listen to. Peter
gives four
characteristics of false teachers -
these voices claiming answers for our lives - four
characteristics that we need to watch out for.
First: These
false teachers deny the Master who bought
them. Say that with me, “They deny the Master who
bought them.”
There you are - sitting at home - watching
reruns of American Idol -
minding your own business - and the doorbell
rings. And
there are these two really
well groomed young boys at the door - elder
so-and-so and elder so-and-so - missionaries
with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day
Saints. Or, these nicely
dressed people - “Jehovah’s Witnesses” - who are
interested in encouraging Bible study and would
like to share a verse or two with you from their
“translation” - and I use that word loosely - from
their New World “Translation” of the Bible.
The Mormons tell us that Jesus is a god - not the
God. The
JW’s teach that Jesus is really Michael the
Archangel - who became a man - died - and rose
spiritually - not bodily - from the dead. Salvation
- for the Mormon or JW requires a whole more from
us than faith.
Much more than God teaches us in the Bible.
When Peter writes about false teachers he’s
writing about those who present themselves as
God’s people - even those who may claim to be from
within the church.
They’re not obviously evil. They
live stable - seemingly godly lives. They
may have great wisdom. They may use all the right
words. They
may talk about Jesus with great respect.
But, ultimately they deny Jesus. Literally,
they refuse to submit their lives to Him as their
Master. They’ve
not come to Him as their Savior as God requires in
His Bible. They
don’t live by His teachings.
One of the three questions that must be asked of
anyone claiming to speak for Jesus - three
questions: 1)
What is the Bible?
2) How is one saved? And 3)
Who is Jesus Christ?
What do you believe about Jesus? Do you
believe what Peter taught? What’s
taught in the Bible? Or, do you believe what
someone else says about Jesus? Are you
relying on your own understanding of who Jesus is? Or,
have you subjected your life to Him as the Savior
and the Lord of your life?
Bottom Line:
Either a person believes that Jesus Christ
- that the One true God became incarnate - died on
the cross for our sins - that He is bodily risen
and living - being the Savior - and that we must
subject ourselves to Him - or you don’t. If you
don’t then you’re not a Christian - not in the way
that God teaches in His Bible.
The second characteristic of false teachers is
that they focus on a sensual lifestyle. Say
that with me, “They focus
on a sensual lifestyle.”
Peter’s teaching here is not just about sex. These
false teachers are preoccupied with gratifying
their senses.
Indulging in what tastes good, what looks
good, what feels good - creature comforts - lavish
lifestyle. What
matters is power - control - money - prestige. Within
all that is a lack of moral restraint - sexual
perversion.
People follow that.
Its attractive. Isn’t it? “Follow what I say about God
and God will give you everything you desire.”
Bottom Line:
Religion is a means to their end - which
has nothing to do with God’s plan for their life.
The third characteristic of false teachers is
that they discredit the truth. Say
that with me, “They discredit the truth.”
Have you ever been watching something - a TV
program - or reading something - a magazine or
newspaper - and they’ll have some so called expert
on Christianity who’s making some way out liberal
statement about what Christians believe - or the
mainstream media will hold up some religious
figure as an example of Christianity - and you
just wanted to pull your hair out and scream, “But that’s not
Christianity!”
Discredit is to the word “Blasphemeo” Which
is where we get our word “blaspheme” from. To
blaspheme is to attribute the works of God to the
works of Satan.
In other words - when people hear these people
claiming to speak for God and then watch what’s
produced by their lives - which is often this
self-serving lifestyle mixed with ungodly doctrine
- they look at the true church and we’re guilty by
association.
They assume that that’s what we’re all
about.
The one’s not knowing any different - watching all
this - blaspheme.
They say that what is ungodly must be what
is godly and so they don’t want to have anything
to do with it.
Are we together?
They discredit the truth.
The fourth characteristic of false teachers is
that they’re motivated by greed. Say that with
me, “They’re
motivated by greed.”
Long ago in a church far, far away - I was
teaching a college Bible study . One
Wednesday evening I was
teaching about the need to study the Bible for
ourselves.
Prior to the study I had prepared a Bible passage
where I had changed some of the words and phrases
in the text - just slightly - so that the
difference in wording was subtle - but very
non-Biblical.
That night the class was pretty typical - only one
person brought her Bible. Everyone else sat
there expecting me to teach them. I asked
them to open their Bibles - even though though
only one person had one - and told them where I’d
be reading from.
I read the passage I had mistranslated. Not one
person said anything. Then I
started to teach from the passage. At
first I didn’t say anything too controversial. But, I
just kept adding to the deception as I went along. After a
long time - like 20 to 25 minutes into the study -
finally one person - the girl who’d brought
her Bible said something like, “Excuse me, but what do you
mean by that?”
Way too many people in churches take for granted
that whatever the guy up front says about
spiritual things must be true. They’re
the experts.
They’ve gone to seminary. That’s
hugely dangerous.
We’re not always right. Never
risk your life and eternal destiny on the opinions
of a man or woman.
One of the consistent characteristics of cults and
non-Christian belief systems is that they focus on
a singular person and not God - not Jesus.
Leaders who have received a new
“revelation” from God. Who demand loyalty from
their followers.
Peter writes ....in their greed they will
exploit you - they will use you for their
own gain - with false
words....” The Greek
word for false is “plastois” the word we get
“plastic” from.
Fabricated.
Molded.
Artificial.
Not God’s creation but mans. They
invent words to gain control over others.
Jeannie Mills, a former member of the Jim Jones
cult and a survivor of the Jonestown, Guyana
massacre - in which 912 members of the People’s
Temple movement committed suicide. Remember
that back in 1978? Some of
you are dating yourselves.
Jeannie Mills writes this: “When you meet the friendliest
people you have ever known, who introduce you to
the most loving group of people you’ve
encountered, and you find the leader to be the
most inspired, caring, compassionate, and
understanding person you have ever met....and all
of this sounds to good to be true - it probably is
too good to be true!” (2)
Peter concludes his
warning with these words of reassurance. God’s
judgment of these false teachers is not idle. God
hasn’t lost interest. He isn't too tired from
running creation to pay attention to what’s going
on. Their
destruction isn’t asleep. God
hasn’t dozed off.
He’s not taking a nap.
God will take care of them - the ungodly - the
false teachers - those who lead others away from
Him for their own profit. And we,
need to be watchful - not to be taken in by their
teaching - not to make the wrong choices of who to
listen to - who’s word to live our lives by.
Coming to verse - 4 Peter is going to give us two
examples of God’s judgment on the ungodly and
God’s preservation of His people. As we
go through these - thinking about what
concerns us in the culture that we’re living - hang
on to God’s preservation of His people - us.
Verse 4: 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…
Let’s stop there.
Example
number one: God’s
preservation in the midst of spiritual
darkness. Say that with me, “God’s preservation in the
midst of spiritual darkness.”
Back in Genesis 6 there’s an account of angels
who had been cast out of heaven at the time of Satan’s
rebellion against God. While the Bible isn’t clear
about how all this took place - somehow they had
relations with the daughters of men and the
offspring of these unions were born as giants - as
distorted humanity.
As a result of these acts of rebellion
against God, God banished these angels to pits of
gloom and darkness - hell.
One result of this cohabiting by the angels and
mankind was a
tremendously wicked society - a world which had
completely rebelled against God - a corrupt -
distorted - an ungodly
society - spiritually in darkness. Genesis
6:5 says, “....every intent of the thoughts of
man’s heart was continually only evil.”
Noah lived in this society. But,
the Bible says that Noah “walked with God" - that
he was a righteous man - blameless in his time. We’re
told that, “Noah found
favor in the eyes of the Lord.”
(Genesis 6:8,9)
For 120 years - God waited patiently while
Noah preached righteousness and set about building
the ark. (I Peter 3:18-20) When God
judged mankind with the Flood - God preserved
Noah.
In 1947, the United States Supreme Court - in a
watershed decision - said: “The First
Amendment has erected a wall between church and
state. That
wall must be kept high and impregnable. We
could not approve the slightest breach.”
As a result of that
decision other decisions have been made by the
courts:
In 1963 the courts said, “A verbal
prayer offered in a school is unconstitutional,
even if its both voluntary and denominationally
neutral.”
1965: “Freedom of
speech and press is guaranteed to students unless
the topic is religious, at which time speech
becomes unconstitutional.”
1969: “It is unconstitutional for a
war memorial to be erected in the shape of a
cross.”
1976: “It is unconstitutional for a
Board of Education to use or refer to the word
‘God’ in any of its official writings.”
1980: “It it
unconstitutional for the Ten Commandments to hang
on the walls of a classroom since the students
might be lead to read them, meditate upon them,
respect them, or obey them.”
In one of the more interesting studies that I’ve
seen - comparing the court decisions since 1963
which move us away from God - each time our
society takes a step away from God - there’s a
very noticeable increase in cases of sexually
transmitted diseases, unwed pregnancies, divorce
rates, and a decrease in SAT scores. (3)
Back in 1980 George Gallup took a poll. He
found that most people in America today
feel trapped.
They know they’re losing their children to
an educational system that turns out functional
illiterates and fosters peer groups that destroy
the character of their youth and the family
structure. There was a sense of the
growing hand of the state closing in on our
political, economic, and religious liberty. (4)
That was back in 1980. How do you 28 years later?
“Change” is a popular word these
days. Change
what? We live
in a society which chooses to ignore God - except
when convenient - a society which lives
in increasing spiritual darkness. We need
a change in our relationship with God. Repentance
is change - isn’t it? Not many people want to go
there.
Just as in the days of Noah - our society refuses
to acknowledge that the problem is spiritual - to
recognize our spiritual darkness. That we
are without God.
We need God.
We need to turn back to Him.
Peter says, in the midst of the spiritual
darkness of his day, “God preserved Noah.” Hang
on to that. In the midst of spiritual
darkness - even if the whole world is against God
and His people - God will preserve His people.
Let’s go on - verse 6: And if 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; 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),
Example number two:
God’s preservation in the midst
of moral depravity. Say
that with me, “God’s preservation in the
midst of moral depravity.”
Peter illustrates his point by again reaching
back to
Genesis.
In Genesis 19, we read that two angels went to
Sodom to perform the judgment which God had
commanded. When
they entered the city - the angels stayed in Lot’s
home. Later
that evening the men of Sodom - young and old
alike - surrounded the house and demanded that Lot
produce his visitors so that they might have
sexual relations with them.
There are some people today - false teachers - who
would like to make plastic words out of Scripture
because of their own agendas - teachers who tell
us that the sin of Sodom was that they were
inhospitable to these two angels - that they
didn’t make them welcome.
Let’s be clear.
The sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was - among
other things - homosexuality. And God
judged them for it.
Toasted their cities. Covered
them with ashes.
Peter writes that God used their destruction as an
example for others - as a warning. We saw
this when we look at the book of Joshua. When
the people of Israel conquered the promised land -
the people that God told them to wipe out had
warned - given opportunity to turn from their sin
and to turn towards God.
The nations there were descendants of Ham. Who was
a son of who?
Noah.
The flood was a big time warning against
evil. The
cities of Sodom and Gomorrah - which were right
there - wiped out by God because of sin. These
people should have paid attention.
Some people have speculated that Israel being sent
to wander for 40 years - while that was God’s
judgment on His people - it may have also been an
act of God’s grace to the Canaanites - to the
people of the promised land - giving them more
time to repent.
Lot pleaded with the men to go away - even
offering his two virgin daughters
to them to gratify them - but they wanted
the men. That’s
how perverted this society was. Like
so many people today - they’re making a choice to
ignore and reject God’s grace.
Peter describes Lot as having seen it all -
prostitution, homosexuality, child sacrifice, Baal
worship - every form of perversion. Peter
writes that “righteous Lot was oppressed -
literally, beaten down to his knees - by the sensual conduct of
unprincipled men - by everything that he
saw and heard - his
righteous soul was tormented day after day with
their lawless deeds.” And
sometimes we feel this way - living in the society
around us. True?
In the midst of the judgment - the destruction of
Sodom and Gomorrah and the moral depravity of
their society - Peter writes that God “rescued righteous Lot.” Hold onto that. Even
if the society we live in is morally evil - and
growing more so - God will preserve His people -
us.
Verse 9: Then - since God
has done all this - then we know that - 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.
The Apostle Paul writes in 1
Corinthians 10:13: “No
temptation - or testing circumstance - has overtaken you but such as
is common to man; and God is faithful, who will
not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are
able, but with the temptation - in
the midst of whatever you’re up against
- God - will
provide the way of escape also, that you may be
able to endure it.”
Paul writes that God is faithful in the midst of
trials - “that you may be able to endure
it.” Noah
spent 120 years building an ark in a godless
society. Lot
lived for years in a morally depraved society. In the
midst of our circumstances God is providing a way
for us to endure - He is preserving us.
When Jesus - in
glory and power - returns at his second coming -
He will rescue us for eternity. But we
need to be willing to trust Him for His
preservation in all the circumstances of our
lives.
There’s a story - maybe you’ve heard this
- great story for us to be reminded of - there’s a
story about a group of pioneers who were making their
way across one of the central states to a distant
place that had been opened up for homesteading. They
traveled in covered wagons drawn by oxen, and
progress was necessarily slow.
One day they were horrified to see a long line of
smoke in the west, stretching for miles across the
prairie. It was soon evident that the dried grass was burning
fiercely and the fire was coming toward them very
rapidly. They
had crossed a river the day before but it would be
impossible to go back to that before the flames
reached them.
One man alone seemed to have understanding as to
what could be done.
He gave the command to set fire to the
grass behind them. Then when a space was burned
over, the whole company moved back upon it.
As the flames roared on towards them from the
west, a little girl cried out in terror, “Are you sure we’re not all going to burned
up?”
The leader replied, “My child, the flames cannot
reach us here, ‘cause we’re standing where the fire has
been!”
Have you heard that?
The fires of this world have already touched Jesus
Christ on the cross. On the cross Jesus endured
all of the sin and depravity of this world - even
death - for us.
He is victorious over them. If we
stand - trusting in Jesus - the fires of this
world - the society in which we live - cannot
destroy us.
What Peter writes should encourage us not to spend
so much time getting all stressed out about where
we live - who’s saying what - but to keep focused
on Jesus - His word - trusting Him with our lives.
_________________________
1. James Dobson, Focus On The Family News, August
1998
2. What About Those Dangerous Religious Groups - RBC
Publication, 1986, page 23
3. The Myth Of Separation, David Barton, pages
11,12, 209-216
4. The American Covenant, Marshall Foster,
Introduction
