The Debbie Taylor Williams Podcast

Debbie Taylor Williams: Hi, I'm glad you're joining me as we look at 2nd Peter chapter 2. Haven't these been exciting verses and chapters for us to look at? Today we learn that as we live by the divine nature, we must guard against false prophets and false teachers.

Peter had just written in chapter 1 through 21 that men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. He now contrasts holy men of God who spoke by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit with those who are the opposite. They are counterfeit prophets. Now, you all know the danger of a counterfeit dollar. We don't want to receive those. They're worthless. They're useless.

And so are these false teachers. They are dangerous. They are useless to the faith. They are in fact Satan posing as an angel of light, but in fact they are leading people to a dark place and keeping them in a dark place in their lives. It's very serious.

Commentator William Barclay explains—and these scriptures are as applicable to us as they were in Peter's day, perhaps more so—that at the time there were certain self-styled prophets who were insidiously persuading men to believe the things they wished to be true rather than the things which God had revealed to actually be true. They did not set themselves up as opponents of Christianity. Far from it. They set themselves up to be the finest of Christian thinking. Sound familiar?

So people were being lured away from God's truth to other men's private opinions, which is what heresy is. I mentioned earlier, does that happen today? You bet it does. Absolutely. Teachers and preachers in an effort to not be offensive and who want to be viewed as being tolerant of things the Bible teaches are sin are becoming more and more prevalent in our society.

I had mentioned a trip Keith and I took. On that same trip there was a captain of the ship and he was reading a book called Conversations with God. Sounds good, doesn't it? However, he had previously told me he wasn't a Christian. When I returned home I ordered the book and I was disheartened as I read it.

Some men apparently just started making up some feel-good conversations with God, with God answering his questions in the way the man, the author, wanted. Sin, he asked God about. No such thing, God said. Guilt. Oh, God said, never feel guilty. Jesus. Oh, one of many prophets. But this book is called Conversations with God and people have flocked to study it.

It's a best seller. Peter's warnings about false teaching is greatly needed today. So let's read in chapter 2 beginning in verse 1. Will you read with me? 2nd Peter 2, verse 1: "But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction on themselves."

Please note here that Peter's warning is the same as Paul's in Acts 20:28. Listen to Paul's warning: "Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock." Verse 29: "I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock and from among your own selves, men will arise speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them." He repeats in verse 31: "Therefore be on the alert."

Paul wrote again in 2nd Timothy 4:3: "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires." Peter's warning in chapter 2 continues: "Many will follow after their own sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned."

Did you catch the word "many"? Many will follow the false teachers. It is exactly what Jesus said in Matthew 7:13: "Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction and there are many who enter through it." We are seeing repeated biblical warnings about false teaching and how many will follow false teachers.

In 2nd Peter 2:3, he continues and he says, "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." In other words, God is going to judge today's false teachers just like he judged the following. And he's going to give three examples of righteous God saying enough. It's enough. And he's going to pronounce judgment on evil.

We have these examples in the Bible. Peter is going to say first, there were angels who sinned, which some commentators say is a reference to fallen angels who sinned by cohabitating with women, which is described in Genesis 6:1-4. Or it may be a reference, some commentators say, to angels who sided with Satan in his rebellion against God.

The second thing or point Peter is going to make is when God judged evil on the earth with a flood, and only Noah and his family were spared. And then Peter's going to give a third example, when God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for the sin of sexual perversion. So Peter's going to give these three examples of how God is going to eventually judge the false and judge evil.

So let's read beginning in 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; 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," verse 7, "if he rescued Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men."

Verse 8 he explains, "for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, Lot, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds;" verse 9, "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."

So Peter is saying to those of his day and ours who might ask, why is God allowing all this false teaching? Why is God allowing all this evil? Why doesn't God do something? Peter is responding: God's past track record proves that there is a day of judgment for these false teachers, for the evil that people are doing.

God's track record proves that God is going to rescue his own from the judgment that he brings on evil and an evil world. He spared Noah before destroying the earth with a flood. He spared Lot before destroying Sodom and Gomorrah with fire. This is all important because you remember this is one letter that Peter has written. We have it broken down, but Peter is going to eventually say and tell us about a future judgment for our earth and its destruction. We'll get there next week.

So Peter's warning in chapter 2 is important because he is warning us not to follow false teachers because they are going to be judged just like those in the past. This is such an important word, such an important warning for you and me. Let's continue reading Peter's warnings going back to verse 9.

He says, "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," we have that word corrupt again, "desires and despise authority." Continuing in verse 10: "Daring, self-willed, they do not tremble when they revile angelic majesties, whereas angels who are greater in might and power do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the Lord."

Verse 12: "But these, like unreasoning animals, born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed, reviling where they have no knowledge, will in the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed." Peter continues. It's a lot, isn't it? He is saying in verse 13 that these false teachers are going to suffer the wrong as the wages of doing wrong. They count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions as they carouse with you.

Verse 14: "Having eyes full of adultery, they never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children." In verse 15 he continues with the description of these false teachers. He says, "Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray." And now Peter refers to an Old Testament prophet Balaam as an example of someone who was willing to go astray, who was willing to go against God for money.

He says in verse 15, "Having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor who loved 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." You can read about this account in Numbers 22. It's quite interesting.

It's a warning. People will say what people want to hear if the price is right. There are a lot of people out there selling books, standing in pulpits, being in high positions and offices that are saying things. And Peter is warning us about false teachers, false teachings.

He continues in verse 17 and he says, "They are springs without water and mists driven by a storm for whom the black darkness has been reserved." He's talking about hell. Have you ever seen a dry creek and wished to see the flow of water flowing through it? It's sad. I have. We've had a creek that's dried up and we remember what it was like when it was flowing with water. That's what false teachers are, he says. They offer the opposite of what Jesus does. Jesus offers living water.

Jesus is good for his promise. Perhaps you are familiar with John 4:10 where Jesus said, "If you knew the gift of God, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water." Jesus continues in that passage and he says, "Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst. The water I give him will become in him a wellspring or a well of water springing up to eternal life."

The contrast is huge. False teachers leave you dry, thirsting, and so you try to satisfy that thirst with other things: sex, alcohol, drugs, porn, work, money, activity. Peter continues to warn you and me in verse 18: "For speaking out arrogant words of vanity, they entice by fleshly desires by sensuality those who barely escape from the ones who live in error."

Pay particular attention to Peter's next words. He warns as we continue reading this lengthy passage on false teachers. In verse 19 he says, "Promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption, for by what a man is overcome by this he is enslaved."

Hey friends, there could be no more true words. Take alcohol or drugs. Somebody might say, I just use them for a little escape. But what do they too often do? Ask anyone who's an addict. They don't give the freedom. They make us enslaved. Instead verse 19 says, "For by what a man is overcome by this he is enslaved."

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 have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than having known it to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them."

This is a very concerning verse. These false teachers have a knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. They know about him. But they've turned away. Oh, that's a dangerous place.

Verse 22 says, "It 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." He's talking about a dog's nature, a pig's nature. That's why we can't just know about Jesus, that he was a good man and a good teacher.

We have to admit our nature is sinful. We have to seek a new nature by asking God to forgive us and to come into our lives. We have to make that divine transaction. We need to have that divine conversation. Or we'll just keep doing what we do and we won't go to heaven. Sin, evil—they are not allowed in heaven.

They can't be in heaven because if they were in heaven, then it would be a repeat of earth and evil. No, instead Jesus died for our sin. Judgment was made on our sin when Jesus went to the cross. Jesus sent the promised Holy Spirit, his and the Father's divine nature into believers. We are sealed by that Holy Spirit and we are to live by that Holy Spirit. We are to guard against false teaching that sounds good.

Now in chapter 2 as we look at this, we see 20 to 30 characteristics of false teachers. He is plentiful in describing them for us. Make note of them. Number one, he says they arise from among the people. They are in our churches. They are our friends. He says two, they secretly introduce destructive heresies, their opinions. Three, they deny the Lord Jesus Christ as Master and Lord. Four, their method is they lead people by sensuality.

And so five, they malign the truth. Now Peter has told us their motive. They're greedy and their method is they exploit people with their words. But he says they are ungodly, they're sensual and unprincipled. They have corrupt desires. They despise authority. They don't want to come under this moral book. They're daring. They're self-willed, not God, your will be done. They revile who they shouldn't revile and they have no knowledge. He calls them stains and blemishes. He says they revel in their deceptions.

Their eyes are full of adultery and isn't that such the case today? They never cease from sin, it's their lifestyle. But they're not happy just to do it themselves. He says they entice unstable souls. He repeats they have a heart trained in greed. They've forsaken the right way, they've gone astray. He says because they love the wages of unrighteousness. They're in the sex industry, the porn industry, anything. But they're springs without water. They don't satisfy. He calls them arrogant and vain. Their method is to entice by fleshly desires. They promise freedom, but they themselves are slaves of their own sin. And they're entangled in and they're overcome by the world's evils.

Theologian John Henry Newman wisely stated, "Our greatest security against sin lies in being shocked by it." Hey friends, this is a problem all too often in our society today. We are no longer shocked by sin. We watch it on TV and pop-up ads. We are dangerously becoming accustomed to sin. And when that happens we fall deeper and deeper into depravity and all that is not godly.

For the good of our families, for the good of our nation, for the good of souls, we must be sensitive to, we need to be shocked by sin rather than callous to it. What is our best defense against deceptive false teaching? Know what the Bible says, and you and me stick to it. Stick to it. Not persuasive people who are enticing us to leave this.

As we close, I want to give you four words of encouragement. Number one: false teachers are not hidden from God. He sees them. And two: God knows how to rescue believers. He knows how to rescue the godly, verse 9 says, from temptation. So go to him in your temptation. Three: God is just. He is keeping the unrighteous and there's going to be a day of judgment. His eye is on them. And four: these false, they have had the opportunity. They've known the way and they've turned from it.

As we conclude 2nd Peter chapter 2, what do you want to remember? What do you need to guard against? What do you want to take home with you from these words that Peter has so poured forth from his concerned heart for believers in his day and today?

Father, you are so good to have Peter write these words of warning to us because we can slip down that slippery slope of not wanting to think our sin is so bad or thinking some teaching just might be okay. Lord, our ears get tickled and it's easy to become not as strong in our standing convictions on your word.

And so we ask for you to forgive us where we've gone astray, Father. We ask you to bring us strongly to your teachings. And we pray to be the light of truth in our society. In Jesus' name, Amen. Next week we will conclude our final study on 2nd Peter. I'll see you then.