Chapter 2. Second, Peter Chapter 2. Ben,
lead us in prayer. So, we give you all the praise.
We want to settle the matter. for a little while. I'm going to pick back up in
verse 10. And Peter continues. to expose false preachers. That's
what he does here. It would be nice if all our preaching
and messages were of the promises of God and just uplifting, but
we need warnings too, don't we? We need to be warned of these
men, these false preachers and teachers come along and they
arise. Many of them will arise out of
the church. They're always mingled in with
God's people. And I've seen it over the years.
I've seen it. I've seen men come and profess to believe the gospel
and say that God's calling to preach. And then their message
takes a different turn after a while. But they'll always be. They'll always be. Now Peter
had been speaking here of judgment. He said there in verse 4, God
spared not the angels that fell. He spared not the old world.
In verse 5, he turned those cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes. but he delivered, he delivered
just lot. He knows how to deliver his people
out of, out of these troubles and, and out of judgment. He knows how he says in verse
nine, the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation,
temptations, plural, many, and reserve the unjust until the
day of judgment to be punished. But chiefly, He's going to zero
in on these false prophets. But chiefly, them that walk after
the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise government, presumptuous
are they, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak
evil of dignities. Now, it's evident that these
false preachers deny the true gospel. They claim to preach
the gospel, but they deny the gospel of God's glory, the gospel
of redemption. They deny it. They deny it through
their preaching another gospel. That's how they deny it. They
preach another gospel. And Peter identifies these, these,
uh, these men. And the first thing he says here
is they walk the flesh you know walking denotes
a way of life this is their way of life they walk after the flesh
I thought of Romans chapter 1 chapter 8 in verse 1 there there is therefore
now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus it doesn't
stop there though does it he identifies one he's talking about
who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. These,
Peter says, they walk after the nature of flesh. That's how they
walk. They do not walk after the Spirit
of God, but after the nature of the flesh. That's their way
of life. They spend their life and their ministry giving attention
to their flesh. Now what does he mean, flesh?
They walk after the flesh. Well, we have appetites, don't
we? The flesh has appetites. You know the spirit, those who
are born of the spirit are spirit, it has an appetite too. The appetite
of the spirit is the bread of life, the water of life, the
Lord Jesus Christ. We have an appetite for Christ.
He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life. We have a real interest in the
Lord Jesus Christ. We really do. These have a real
interest in the appetites of the flesh, in the lust of the
flesh, and fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind.
You know, when we speak of lust, it's not always sexual. A lot
of times it can be lustful material for gain. It can be lust for
power. It can be lust for recognition.
You want to be recognized. It's a lot of different things.
But all of it, all of it, it falls under flesh. They walk
after the lust of the flesh. They give attention to the flesh.
It's more concerned with the appetites of this flesh than
their souls. They're not interested in their
souls. Not really. They're all fixed up. They're all fixed up. They have nothing to worry about.
Now let's just go fulfill the lust of their flesh. If you turn
on, and it's been a long time, I've been a long time since I
have watched any evangelical preaching on television. He's
a televangelist. It's been a long time. I can't stomach it anymore. But
what do they emphasize? What do they emphasize? Healing. You turn them on, isn't most
of it the emphasis on healing? People want to be healed, their
bodies. They want their bodies to be healed. Well, it's good
to have a sound body. It's good. I won't deny that.
But it's far greater to have a sound mind and soul. My spiritual well-being is infinitely
greater than my physical well-being. That's what's greater. But they
put the emphasis on healing the body. And then, secondly, they
emphasize this, entertainment. They entertain the crowd. You
know, Pentecostalism, just to pick one out, it's full of entertainment. It's excitement of the flesh.
They just get you excited, and it's all revved up, and God's
not in there. God's not in there. This is why
you see all these so-called churches building these gymnasiums. We
want to just give our young people something to do to keep them
off the streets. Give them the gospel and leave them in God's
hands. Give them the gospel and leave
them in the Lord's hands. Don't know. And I say this with,
I say this with understanding and I know you understand this.
Don't you, and I know other people hear this. There was almost 1,400
downloads last month. So I know that not just you are
listening to what I'm saying. There's a lot of people, a lot
of other people that listen to what's being said. And I'm going
to say this, don't you try to get them saved. Sit them under the gospel and
pray for them and trust that the Lord will save them just
like he did you. And if He doesn't, we bow to His sovereign will,
don't we? We bow to it. We bow to the sovereign will
of God. But they walk after the flesh. Their ministry, the emphasis
of it, is on healing. It's on entertainment. It's on
having going to church fun. All these things, activities,
they keep people busy. That's why I told you here in
a message, I think it was Thursday, One of Satan's great tools is
to keep us busy, busy, busy, busy, busy. You don't have time
to sit down and think and meditate on what you just heard, the Word
of God. And they despise dominion. They
despise authority. They despise, now here's what
they despise, God's authority. You know, if there is a just
authority set up, and to despise that is to despise God's authority. God set it up. God set up government,
and I know it gets corrupt, but it's God's authority. But they
despise authority. What was it the Jew said to,
I think it was Pilate, we will not have this man to reign over
us. We naturally do not like anyone
to tell us what to do. And it comes at an early age.
I know. I know by experience. We will
not have this man to reign over us. And here's something else
they promote. Free will, man's free will. I
went to Clayton, North Carolina here a couple of days ago. I
passed two so-called church buildings, and it was Free Will Baptist. I thought, you're gonna be blatant. Yeah, I guess if you're gonna
be that way, you might as well be blatant about it. But it's
Free Will Baptist. Man's will's not free. It's under
the dominion of his corrupt nature. Nature dictates what we do. The
nature we have dictates. It'll dictate what you and I do. And they are enemies and
they do not believe in the absolute sovereignty and authority of
Jesus Christ. He's the Sovereign Christ. Jesus
Christ is the Sovereign Christ, is He? He's not this Jesus that
wants to do something if you'll let Him. He's the Sovereign Christ
who does as He will with whom He will. No man knows the Father
saved the Son, and He, to Whomsoever the Son will reveal Him. To Whomsoever
the Son will reveal Him. He's Sovereign. But I tell you something else
that's dangerous in the preaching of these false preachers. It's
not only what they're saying, it's what they're not saying.
It's what they're not saying. The truth. They're not saying
the truth about God, Christ, ourselves, and salvation. They're
not saying the truth. And that's just dangerous. These
men refuse to preach the absolute sovereignty of God and salvation,
the absolute Lordship of Jesus Christ. It's always accept him
as your Savior, your personal Savior, your personal Savior. How about Lord? You know, it
comes in this order. He is Lord and Christ. He is Lord and Savior in that
order. in that order. If you hear someone
preaching all the time about Him being the Savior, the Savior,
the Savior, and they leave out His Lordship and His authority
and who He is, you'd better turn and leave that place. Christ
is not in that. Because I'm telling you the truth,
His Lordship comes first. NO SINNER IS SAVED THAT DOES
NOT FIRST BOW TO THE LORDSHIP OF JESUS CHRIST. I KNOW THIS
BY EXPERIENCE. I KNOW THAT WHEN THE LORD GAVE
ME A REAL UNDERSTANDING OF THE GOSPEL, AND THE GOSPEL CAME TO
ME IN POWER, THE FIRST THING I FEARED WAS THE SOVEREIGNTY,
NOT THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD, GOD WHO IS SOVEREIGN. I KNEW HE DIDN'T
HAVE TO SAVE ME. I'm telling you this, that's
when you will worship God. A.W. Pink said no one will worship
God until they worship him at his sovereign throne. They've refused to preach the
lordship of Christ. Henry made this observation I
thought was good. And they never, he says here,
they never emphasize the authority of the man in the home and the
church. If they leave that line, they
tear that page out. They'd lose half the crowd. They
would. They never preach or rarely preach
the authority of the local church. They're always in a association
or something. It's an association of churches.
An association of churches makes the decisions. They send this
pastor here, this one there. They leave the will of God, the
sovereignty of God, out of it. An association of churches, a
committee, didn't send me here. God did. God did. He made you to recognize it and
made me to recognize it, and we came together. It was God
who did this, not an association somewhere. God did it, but they
ignore that. And he says here, they are presumptuous.
That word means daring. They're very daring. And you
know what they're very daring about? Speaking against the things
of God. speaking against God. They're
very bold to do that. They are very, very flippant,
very flippant in the way they use the name of God and the way
they use the word of God. They're very flippant in the
way they use it. There's no reverence for God.
No, no fear of God. You know, when there's a real
fear of God, there's a real carefulness. in the way you use God's name
and the way you talk. When you talk about God, Christ,
the Word of God, there's a real reverence there. You don't just
flippantly say things. They have no reverence for God.
And they are, and Peter puts it right here, they are self-willed. I'd like to go and just, those
two places I passed, I'd like to tell their pastor, here's
the correct way to put that, self-willed Baptist church. It's
not free will, it's self-will. If you want to be honest, if
you want to be scripturally right, put self-willed up there instead
of free will, because that's what they are, self-willed. They
ignore the will of God. They ignore the will of God in
salvation concerning Jesus Christ, and they ignore the will of God
in the life of a believer. They're self-willed. And here's
what they do when they're self-willed. They promote themselves. If you
are self-willed, here's how you tell someone is self-willed.
They promote themselves. They do. They promote themselves.
And they're not afraid to speak evil of dignities. They're not
afraid to speak evil of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I believe it was Ralph Barnard,
I heard Henry say this, I believe it was, after he preached a message,
a woman came up to him and said, you're God's a devil. Barnard
says, you better get ready to meet a devil then. But you're
God's a devil. not afraid to speak evil of dignities. There's no greater dignities
than God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and they're not
afraid to speak evil of them. When they deny that Jesus Christ
actually redeemed a people, that's speaking evil of them. They're
not afraid of that. They'll speak of Christ So flippantly, they don't call
him Christ. They don't call him Lord. They
call him Jesus all the time. He's always Jesus. He's never
Lord Jesus. They address him all the time
as Jesus as if he were just there. Me and Jesus got a good thing
going. What's that commercial? Jesus
gets us. It's not the Lord. They're so flippant about Christ
as a man. Just this buddy-buddy thing.
He's our Lord. He's our Lord. He is a friend
of sinners. But He's the one who created us. All things were
created by Him and for Him. We have a holy reverence of Him. But they're not afraid to speak
evil of dignities. If you let a person talk long
enough, and I learned this some time ago, if you let a person
talk long enough, you'll find out who they are. When they just start using that
name so loosely and so flippantly, they don't know him. They don't
know him. And he says here, and he brings
the angels, the angels, the elect angels that have not fallen.
The elect angels who have authority and power that's far greater
than you and I can imagine, some of them have authority over kingdoms
on this earth. But whereas angels, which are
greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against
them, against who's them? Against the fallen angels. They
don't even bring railing accusation against those that fail, because
I'll tell you why, they know. Michael Gabriel They know if
the Lord hadn't chosen then They'd be right there with they know
that This is not something they don't know They know that if
God Almighty had not chosen them to keep their first estate They
would be right there with Satan and the rest of them that fail
They know that But in knowing that, they don't bring a railing
accusation, a charge against those that fail. Don't you know
better? Don't you know better? They fear. They have a real awe and fear
and understanding that God chose them to not fall. God didn't
let them fall. He's not going to let them. You
know, all that God created, He has done so on purpose and for
a purpose. everything he's created there's
not it's not like it's all a failure no even in the angelic host there's
an elect angels and among the sons of Adam there's an elect
race there's an elect people of God if not all of it would
be gone it all be gone and I am NOT going to try to explain in
detail why God has done what he's done only God knows that
I know that what God does is right. I know that. What he does
is right. I can't comprehend right. Not
that level. I can't do it, but I tell you
this, I can just trust the one who's doing it. I can trust him. But these, he says in verse 12,
these as natural brute beasts, that's what they're like. They
are like natural, brute beasts, stupid, ignorant of God. They are ignorant of God. They're
religious, and they have an idea of God, and they have fashioned
this idea of God in their minds, and that's who they worship.
If we do not worship the God of this Bible, we do not worship
God. We can't just say, well, I don't
believe God's like that. Well, take me to the Word of
God and prove it. Show me by the Word of God that
God is like what He's like or what He's not like. But not,
this is how I think He is and that's the way it is. We see like a blind man and we
hear like a deaf man until God saves us. And to see and eye
and to hear and ear, the scripture says, is of God. It's of God. And these is natural brute beast
made to be taken and destroy what you know he said natural
brute beast are made to be taken killed and consumed and then
what we do with animals God's gonna destroy these people someday
that's what he's saying God's gonna bring judgment on them
and he gave us examples of God's judgment earlier in the chapter and he says here in 2nd Peter
here in 13 14 and they shall receive the reward of unrighteousness
the wages of unrighteousness you know the scripture says the
wages of sin is death now if you want to talk about work salvation
God will pay up it's called death that's the wages of it and shall receive the reward
of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot. You
know, that word riot here has the meaning of delicacy. It has the meaning of luxurious. It's not riot like you and I
think out in the street. It's actually living luxuriously.
That's what it is. You see, they count it pleasure
to live luxuriously in the daytime. Right now, right now, it's daytime. The end of the world hasn't come.
Judgment hasn't come. It's daytime. It's daytime. And he says here, they are spots.
Spots they are and blemishes in your love feast. You know, you get a spot on your
coat or something like that and you try to get it off and just
can't get it off. They're spots. and their blemishes
is what they are among you, among God's people. Sporting themselves,
and that word is reveling, enjoying, rolling, reveling themselves
with their own deceivings. You know, a person can actually
tell a lie long enough that they actually believe it. They can. They can tell a lie long enough
they actually come to believe the lie. But it's not so. You know, a lie is a lie and
truth's a truth. Spots they are in blemishes,
sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast,
while they partake of your love feast. You know, that's what this is
around the gospel. When the gospel's preached and
God's people come together, this is a love feast, isn't it? We love the one being preached.
The bread of life. If you're really a child of God,
you're feasting on the bread of life. You're drinking the
living water. You you're really doing it spiritually. You're
really doing it. But they're going to get their
reward, he says here. Their interest is in living luxuriously. Comfortably. But the night cometh. Doom is coming, judgments come. These people claim to be in the
body of Christ. They claim the name of Christ.
They claim fellowship with the believers. But he says they're
just spots in your feast. That's all they are. Which have
forsaken the right way. They have forsaken the only way.
Christ said, I'm the way. I'm the way, the truth, and the
life. They have forsaken that. They've forsaken it. And they've
gone astray. They've gone out of the way.
They've taken a curve. They're going down the road with you and they just can't go that way
with you. Can't do it. And here's why they
can't do it. They're of the same spirit as
Balaam. Sarah says following the way
of Balaam, which was the way of of unrighteousness. It was
a way of being paid wages. Following the way of Balaam,
the son of Bosur, who loved the wages of unrighteousness, if
you go back in Numbers 22, you can read the story of Balaam.
And he entertained these these men, you know, when they came
to him, they wanted him to curse Israel. As a prophet, he claimed
to be a prophet, but as a prophet, he should have said, no, what
are you talking about? Get out of here. It was like,
well, let's talk about this. Let's talk about this. Let's
see how much money, let's see, let's see. You know, he tried
to figure out a way to do it. Twice, twice he went and he prayed
and he was trying to figure out a way to curse Israel and get
paid and be made rich off these guys by doing so. God wouldn't
let him do it. He wanted to do it. He wanted
to do it. But God wouldn't let him do it.
And he says they're just like him. They're basically his children. They're of the same spirit. But Balaam was rebuked for his
iniquity. The dumbass speaking with man's
voice forbade the madness of the prophet. And these people
are mad too. They're mad with greed. They're
mad with materialism. They have forsaken the right
way. And I tell you what, when a man or woman especially one
who stands in the pulpit, when they forsake the right way, they
will go any other way, but they will remain religious. They don't become atheists. They
don't become atheists. They remain religious, and usually
they become more religious, and they have more religious show
about it. They become more vocal about
it. As Henry said one time, he said, the less one has on the
inside, the more they have to show on the outside. That's when
they start wearing all these religious trinkets and these
shirts that have all these sayings on it. Anything that will make them
appear religious. How about a meek and quiet spirit?
How about that? That's the best evidence, one
of the best evidence that you can have as a believer, meek
and quiet spirit, love of the brethren, faith and hope in Jesus Christ
alone. That's the best evidence. These
are wells without water. They're empty. Oh, you know,
a well, you know, you say it or take a thirsty person. They
see this well. They see this beautiful well,
this nice dressed well. And they're looking for water.
You know, man by nature is religious. He's looking for something. He's
looking for something to satisfy that craving that he has that
he doesn't know what it is. He lost God in the garden. He
lost the way, the truth and the life in the garden. And he's
looking for something to fill that void. That's what he's looking
for. And he sees this well, this evangelist,
and this evangelist promises him all kinds of things. Health,
wealth, happiness. That's not what true salvation
is about. It's about forgiveness of sins.
It's about being made one with God. And our true joy and our
true happiness is in the Lord. But he promises them these things
and they fall for it. They fall for hook, line and
sinker. And they find out they're just as empty as ever. That well
is empty. There's no spiritual truth in
that well. There's no spiritual hope coming
out of that well. It's empty. It's just a hole in the ground,
dark hole in the ground. That's where wells are, in the
ground, in the earth. There are wells without water.
They're clouds carried with the wind. You know, you see, it's
been dry. We need rain. Here comes a cloud,
here comes a hope of rain, and all of a sudden, you know, the
wind just blows it right on over. No blessing out of it, no spiritual
blessing out of it, no lasting blessing out of it whatsoever.
It's just a cloud. You know, I have flown several
times, some of you all have, and you've flown through the
clouds. You know, I don't want to fly through a mountain. That's
solid. You don't want to be hitting
a mountain with a plane. But you could fly through a cloud
all day. It has no substance. Not solid like a mountain. You
could fly through it all day. And that's the way these men
are. They're empty. They're empty. He says here, there are wells
that water clouds that are carried with a tempest to whom the mist
darkness is reserved for it's what judgments waiting on waiting
on when they speak great swelling words of vanity you know what's
great swelling words of vanity well first of all it's a multitude
of words he's speaking here they're just they're very wordy very
wordy but a great swelling words are words with no substance they
cannot be backed up by the Word of God can't be Words of no substance. And they allure through the lust
of the flesh. They know you. They work on your
flesh. The people they preach to, they
work on their flesh. They work on their appetites.
You know, you put a chocolate cake out in front of me and I'm
in trouble. I'm telling you, I'm in trouble. I have an appetite
for that chocolate cake. And they put all this, they just
put a buffet of religious promises out there that has no substance
to it. And the people fall for it. They
fall for it. They take advantage, now listen,
they take advantage of the ignorance of the people they're preaching
to. The spiritual ignorance, they take advantage of it. And
they know it. They know it. While they promise, they're looking
at verse 19, while they promise them liberty, they themselves
are the servants of their own corruption. For of whom a man
is overcome of the same as he brought into bondage. He's brought
in bondage. They use flattering words. They
promise liberty, but they themselves are in bondage.
And listen, they make the people they preach to in bondage. They
don't give them liberty. They give them bondage. You know
what? Here's something else they make them, and I'm going to wind
this down. Here's something else they make them. They get a profession
out of them. They make them twofold the children
of hell. They now have a false refuge. They have a false refuge built
on self-righteousness, built on words that have no substance,
no biblical background. You're better off to have zero
refuge than to have a false one. It's hard to get somebody to
listen to you who has false refuge. They won't listen to you. They
won't listen to you. And now I close here in verse
20 through 22. For if after they have escaped the pollutions of
the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ, that is, they made a profession, they heard of Him, they made
a profession, empty profession, they are entangled therein and
overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.
It's better not to know the truth than to know it and turn away
from it. And it's better, listen, it's better not to know the truth
than to make a profession that you know it and then leave it.
That's been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness
and after they've known it to turn from the holy commandment
delivered unto them. But it's happened. It's happened sooner
or later. It's happened under them, according
to the true proverb, the dog is turned to his own vomit again.
That's awful. I've seen that. I just got turned
around. It's like that is so sick. But they do it. That's a sick comparison. It's
a gross comparison, but it's a true comparison. And the sow
that was washed, she goes back to her wallowing in the mire
because that's its nature. It's going to go back to what
it is. It has to. But they don't, like I said,
they don't quit being religious. They stay religious. They got
to have that hope somehow, even if it's a false hope. But they
leave the true gospel. They lead the true gospel. There's no getting rich in the
true gospel. There's no getting rich. And that's not what we're after.
We're after the truth. We're after Christ. All right.