to fellowship with God's people. There was a time when I did not know if I would ever
be here again. But owing to the mercy of God, I stand before you. We were looking in the book of
2 Peter several weeks ago. And we'll continue there as the
Lord enables us. This is 2 Peter chapter 2. But there were false prophets
also among the people. Even as there shall be false
teachers among you, who privilege shall bring in damnable heresies,
even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves
swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious
ways, by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken
of. And through covetousness, shall
they with feigned words make merchandise of you, whose judgment
now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth
not. For if God spared not the angels
that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into
the chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment, and spared
not the old world, but saved Noah, the eighth person, a preacher
of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the
ungodly, and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes,
condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example unto those
that after should live ungodly, and delivered just lot, vexed
with the filthy conversation of the wicked. For that righteous
man dwelling among them in seeing and hearing vexed his righteous
soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds. The Lord knoweth
how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve
the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished. 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. Whereas angels,
which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation
against them before the Lord. But these as natural brute beasts
made to be taken and destroyed speak evil of the things that
they understand not and shall utterly perish in their own corruption
and shall receive the reward of unrighteousness as they that
count it pleasure to riot in the daytime. Spots they are and
blemishes sporting themselves with their own deceivings while
they feast with you. Having eyes full of adultery
that cannot cease from sin, beguiling unstable souls, and heart that
have they exercised with covetous practices, cursed children. which have forsaken the right
way and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam, the son of
Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness, but was rebuked
for his iniquity. The dumb ass speaking with man's
voice forbade the madness of the prophet. These are wells
without water, clouds that are carried with the tempest, to
whom the mist of darkness is reserved forever. For when they
speak swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts
of the flesh through much wantonness those that were clean escaped
from them who live in error. While they promise them liberty,
they themselves are the servants of corruption. For of whom man
is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. For if after
they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge
of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled
therein and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the
beginning. For it had been better for them
not to have known the way of righteousness than after they
have known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto
them. But it has happened unto them according to the true proverb,
The dog is turned to his own vomit again, and the sow that
was washed to her wallowing in the mire. Now these are some pretty. These are pretty strong words
that Peter delivers in this chapter. But he is, as an apostle of the
Lord, and the Lord gave him an understanding of the nature of
men and also the ways of the dangers of light that come
into the world and come among God's people to lead them away
from the truth. He understood that and he knew
that the day would come when there would be even greater numbers
of these. We live in an age when the word
of God has been corrupted so many times that in many cases
it's hard to even recognize it among those that claim to be
the followers of the Lord. And so we're not surprised at
this because the Lord spoke of it. And he warned his disciples
of it. And Peter here is warning the
churches of this very thing. He said there were false prophets
among the people. That is in time past. There's
always been false prophets. And there will always be false
prophets. Because that is the nature of
man. Man is a religious creature.
And men are drawn to religion in many various forms and fashions. The one religion that religious
men hate is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, you know, we often hear
in government situations and various things about all the
different faiths and people that are, you know, we're all of one
big group of people following on, you know, in the way of the
Lord. And we just don't understand
one another and all of that kind of stuff. But the truth of the
matter is that God has a people that he's called out in the earth,
and he has called us out of darkness and into the light. And there's
only one source of light that is given to men in this world,
and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, I am the light of the
world. And if any man would know the
light or walk in the light, they must know Jesus Christ. Now some
people say, well that's very narrow view. It certainly is.
The Lord said, straight is the gate that leadeth unto life eternal
and few there be that find it, but broad is the way that leadeth
to destruction and many go in there at. And so, With that in
mind, we warn the people of God because there are those that
will take the gospel and the grace of God in the gospel, and
this is primarily what he's talking about here, and turn it into
lasciviousness. Paul dealt with the same thing.
In fact, he was accused of it in the beginning by the Jews. They said Paul's teaching that
we may sin, that grace may abound. He said, God forbid. That's exactly
the opposite of what we're saying. We're not in any wise saying
to men, well, just do whatever you want to do, it's all right.
No. What we preach is that the grace
of God constrains the hearts and minds of His people to follow
Him. Now if there had been a law given
that could have taken away sin, then we would be glad to walk
in it, would we not? I mean, that would be the way. But there is no law that can
take away sin because the law convinces us of sin. The law
shows us what sin is. And so it's folly for a man to
think that he can find comfort and help in the law of God. because the law of God has a
purpose, and it is to reveal the sin of men. Now, do we overthrow
the law? Absolutely not. The law is just,
holy, and good, and we see it, but we see it for what it is,
and we understand that, by nature, we're contrary to the law. Everything
that I desire in me is contrary to that which the Lord said.
He said, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
with all thy soul, with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself. Now that's a noble quest, is
it not? But we don't find any natural
desire within ourself toward that because at every turn we
would go away from that. We love ourselves more than we
love our brethren. And we certainly love ourselves
more than the way of God by nature. And so the gospel is that which
constrains the hearts of men. By the grace of God, those who
are called upon to believe The Spirit of God works in them,
both willing to do of his good pleasure and he draws them unto
himself and he gives them a desire to follow on to know him. Now at the same time, and this
is the place where many men go astray, at the same time that
that is true, At the same time, when there is a heart of belief,
and we believe Him with all of our heart, at the same time,
within our flesh, where dwelleth no good thing, there is an evil
heart of unbelief. How can these things be? It can't be, except by the grace
of Almighty God. Now, you know, it would be nice
if I could stand up here before you and say, you know, you brethren
who be called by the Lord, you're gonna get better and better until
the day of the Lord. And you're gonna overcome all
your sin and you're gonna just be going down the road singing
and have no troubles at all and everything's gonna be great.
But we know that's not true. Paul said the good that I would,
I do not, and that which I would not is what I do. Why is that? Because the Lord gives his people
a willing heart. He writes his law upon their
heart and they desire to walk in the way of God. But they find
in themselves. that flesh that is contrary to
that. And so Paul said, who shall deliver
me from the body of this death? See, he said, he didn't say this
body of death, he said the body of this death. Because it is
sin that brings death. And we can smell that death,
can we not? Just like Lazarus, when he came
forth from the tomb, I mean, he was wrapped in grave clothes,
and he had been in that grave long enough that he had started
to decompose. Now, you can imagine what he
smelled like. I mean, his sister said, Lord,
don't open the tomb. I mean, by this time, he's thinking
this is gonna be terrible. The Lord said, roll the stone
away. And he said, Lazarus, come forth. And he brought Lazarus
forth wrapped in stinking grave clothes. And he said, loose him
and let him go. But I would venture to say this,
that all the days of Lazarus' life, he never forgot that smell
when he woke up in that tomb. See, he didn't know anything
that was going on. It's just like during my recent surgery
when I Went in that operating room, and I was there. And the
next minute, I was back in my room. I mean, I didn't know anything. I didn't know what happened.
No, I didn't know how long I'd been there. I didn't have any
understanding of the passing of time. Same boy with Lazarus. He was there, but he came forth
from that grave because the Lord raised him. And he came forth
in those grave clothes. The Lord loosed him, but he never
let him forget what he smelled like. Dear brethren, that's the
grace of God, working in men not to let us forget what we
are by nature. See, sometimes you might get
thinking that you're doing pretty good. And you think, you know,
I've kind of laid that sin by. And then the Lord will bring
it to your mind. And he'll say, you still have the stench of
death upon you, but I love you. The Lord said, I saw you when
you were in your blood. He said, and it was the time
of love. And I said unto thee, while thou
wast in thy blood, cast out as an infant that was discarded. And he said, I saw thee. And
he said, and I love thee. You know, he reminded, I believe
it's in the book of Ezekiel, he reminded the nation of Israel
who he said, you know, I'm gonna bring you out of the darkness,
I'm gonna deliver you, I'm gonna set you up, and you're gonna
be my people and I'm gonna be your God. But then he said, and
we ought to always remember this, he said, but I'm not doing this
for your sake. He said, but for my name's sake. He said, for my name's sake,
I am bringing you out of this. The Lord has saved his people
for his glory. You know, that's the reason that
the Lord saved his people. Now, a lot of people think that
the Lord saves men because He sees something worthwhile in
them. No, He doesn't see anything worthwhile in you or me or anybody
else, but for His name's sake. You
see, the Lord Jesus Christ is our Savior, not for our sake,
but for His, that He might have the glory. And that's the thing
that I believe Peter actually gets at the heart of when he
says, there shall be false teachers among you, who privilege shall
bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought
them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. These damnable
heresies, and the word heresy means schism. It's a division. Now we think of heresies as false
doctrine, and it is, but the result of false doctrine is division. And that's why he uses that word
heresies. And so anything that men come
bringing to us that is not The gospel of the glory of Jesus
Christ cannot be the gospel. Because Christ will be exalted
in every one of his people. He'll be exalted in every preaching
of the truth of God. He will be exalted. And when
men start to depart from the truth of God, they do it by departing
from that. You know, they've moved back
from the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world to
save a people for his namesake because he said, you're my people.
See, we didn't say you're our God until such time as he said,
you're my people. He said, you're going to be my
people, and I'm going to be your God. And we rejoice in that. Oh, thanks be unto God that he
is a God of grace and mercy and kindness that saves those that
call upon him. But who calls upon him? Those
that are made willing in the day of his power. Oh, you know,
we live in a day and age and I face it every day on sometimes
in discussions and things. Well, what about free will? You
know, didn't God give every man a free will? Well, you know,
that's a tickly subject. Now we can be sure that there's
a measure in which a man does have free will. I mean, I decided
this morning that I'd put these shoes on and these socks and
all this stuff. I did that and I did that as
I chose to do it. But where free will fails is
when it comes to choosing the way of the Lord. See, you can
choose pretty much anything in the world. Of course, we understand
that God's the one that orders all things, and even your supposed
free will is really the result of his work according to the
good pleasure of his will in the earth. But you can choose
anything, but the one thing you will never choose is to follow
the Lord on your own. He just won't do it. The Lord
said so. He said, there is none that seeketh
after God. No, not one. So why is it that
some men do seek God? Because we do see that men seek
God, do we not? What he was saying, they don't
seek him by their, according to their own power. But he said,
my people will be willing in the day of my power. What a glorious
God he is. to call men out of darkness and
into the light. Now, the pernicious ways and
these things, these false teachers that bring in damnable heresies,
even denying the Lord that bought them. They say, well, we sought
the Lord. I mean, we found out that there
was this formula out here that a man could find comfort and
help with the Lord, and we sought him. We did that. Gotta be something for men to
do. I mean, surely, you know, that the Lord doesn't just sit
back and, or doesn't just sit back and let men not do what
they want to do. We do what we want to do every
day. But the one thing we won't do, is seek the Lord, unless,
according to his mercy, he causes us to. Why is the word of God
precious to us? I mean, there's probably more
Bibles in the world than any other single book. But it's probably
the least cherished book in all the world. Now it's cherished
by the people of God, But men see the Bible and they read those
words and it doesn't mean anything to them. But you know, those
in whom the Lord works, when they hear the word of God, it's
precious to them. It's that which they delight
in. They want to know more about it. I remember as a young man,
I mean, I was raised to read the Bible. In fact, they used
to have a card that you filled out every Sunday as to whether
or not you had actually read your Bible. Did you get your
daily Bible reading? And sometimes, you know, I fudged
a little on that because I didn't always read it. And when I did,
I just kind of read it and that was, you know, I didn't think
much about it. And I can't explain it, but one
day, I wanted to know what this Bible
said. And one day, it became precious
to me. And one day, the Lord wrote it upon my heart. And He did it for His name's
sake. He did it for His glory. And I'm made forever grateful
that he did. Even denying the Lord that bought
them and bring upon themselves swift destruction. Now we think
of swift as something that happens fast. But when the scripture
speaks about swift destruction, it doesn't necessarily mean that
because a man stands up here and he tells a lie, that the
Lord's just gonna strike him down. I mean, if he did that,
I mean, we'd be rid of the false prophets pretty quick, would
we not? He doesn't mean he'd bring swift destruction in that,
thinking from a time standpoint, but it is sure and certain destruction. It is swiftly carried out. It
is not a thing that the Lord will forget. He brings it to
pass. And so it is that why, while
we don't see, we see these false prophets rise and flourish. Now why is it that false prophets
rise and flourish? Because men would rather believe
a lie than they would believe the truth. Because you see, if a man comes
telling you what you already believe, you say, man, that guy
knows it. Don't you? I mean, if a guy comes
telling you, well, it's all according to you, it's up to your free
will, you believe that your whole life. See, you was born believing
you had a free will. That you could choose God or
not choose God according to your good pleasure. And so it is that men are. by
nature, they want to believe a lie. So it's not amazing, dear
brethren, that a false prophet should come along and gather
up many followers. Because men are already going
that direction, they're already in that direction. And many shall follow their pernicious
ways by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken
of. The way of truth is evil spoken
of by those who do not see or understand or care that God does
all things for his glory. Some people find that disconcerting. They say, well, that doesn't
seem right. He said, I will not share my
glory with anybody. He says, you don't understand
anything about me. He said, I dwell in the light
to which no man can approach. He's immortal, he's invisible. And yet he has made himself quite
visible unto his people, has he not? How could we have ever
known him but by the grace of God? And he did it all for his
name's sake. And the people of God are thankful
for that. I mean, I find what a glorious
thing that the ruler of the universe who had needed nothing, didn't
need anybody. I remember when I was a kid,
they taught us, well, the Lord was lonesome and so he created
men. How foolish. How foolish. The Lord didn't create men because
he was lonesome. He created men for the glory
of his name. They might demonstrate the grace
of God in the giving of his son as a redeemer of sinners. Oh,
what a glorious God he is. And we can never begin to comprehend
these things. I'm not telling you these things
because you're supposed to know all the ins and outs of this.
I'm just saying we stand in awe. I remember a song that we used
to sing years ago. I stand amazed in the presence
of Jesus the Nazarene and wonder how he can love me. a sinner
condemned, unclean. Oh, how marvelous, oh, how wonderful.
And my song shall ever be. For he is that one who does all
things according to the good pleasure of his will. And it
is the good pleasure of his will to call his people out of darkness
and into the light. And that's why we're where we
are, by the grace of God. And Peter said, don't ever forget
that it is the Lord that bought you. Because there are some who
go about to try to make it some other way. Christ died for his
people. He paid the exact price for his
people's sin. Not one more, not one less. Because
it seemed good in his sight. And I rejoice. I rejoice because
I know if he did it for his name's sake, dear brethren, it shall
be done. See, it's impossible that any
of God's people should ever be lost. Because he didn't save
them for their sake, he did it for his own self. Oh, what a
glorious God we serve.