I just want to spend a few minutes just going back over some of the words in 2 Peter so that as the Lord might lead you to look at it again, you will find it a cause of warning. But for the children of God, it's a cause of great blessing.

Peter's writing to a particular group of people. And listen to how he describes the people of God in verse 1 of 2 Peter chapter 1. He says, Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, and he's writing to a particular group of people, to them that have obtained, that's to just receive by lot, to receive by inheritance as it were, like precious faith with us.

The faith of every child of God in this world is no different from the faith of Peter and Paul and all the other apostles. And we have received it, we've obtained it through not anything that we did, it's the gift of God. Through the righteousness of God and our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is God, I love saying that, He is God Almighty.

Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of our God and through our Lord Jesus Christ. You might have been concerned as I read those verses about all of these things about you must do this and you must add to your faith virtue and to knowledge, temperance and to godliness, brotherly kindness.

They're the fruit of the Spirit. They are the Spirit's work in the hearts of God's people, because listen to what verse 3 says, According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life, and godliness through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue. He's done it all.

And then he works in the hearts of his people a desire that they'll add to godliness, brotherly kindness. They'll be kind to their brothers and sisters because they have like precious faith and they have a like saviour. They're members of that one body.

And then it says, If these things be in you and abound, then they make you neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge. I don't want to be barren. I don't want to be unfruitful in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind.

He's talking about the believers. He's talking about the brethren who've attained all of these things. Can we be blind? Can we be blinded? Can we not see you far off? Are there times in our lives when we just don't see you far off? What's a far off? Look as far as you like. You look as far as you like in any direction. Where do you go? You see God Almighty.

You look back as far as you possibly can and you see God Almighty. You look forward as far as you possibly can and you see the Lord Jesus Christ in his glory with all of his people sharing his glory in a new creation which is just going to make this one look like a garbage tip it's going to be it'll be so amazing but we what happens we we forget

listen to what it says at the end of verse nine we've forgotten that he was purged from his old sins that's the work of the false teacher isn't it to tell you that there's something you have to do to clean up your old sins by your activities what is it It's forgetting what the Lord Jesus Christ has done on the cross of Calvary. He said it's finished. He said it's finished. He's put away all of the sins of all of his people. And we forget. We forget all the time. We forget every time we are caused to look at ourselves and look at what I have to do to make myself right with God. We're caused to forget every time we forget what the children learned a few weeks ago that he is able. And what we learned a couple of weeks ago that Christ is all. We forget those things. And that's why Peter wants to put these people in remembrance. He wants to cause them to remember. And we remember because God Almighty has written these words down and we have They were on the Mount of Transfiguration, which is what he's going on to say towards the end of chapter two. They were on the Mount, weren't they? This voice came from heaven when, from verse 18, when we were with him in the Holy Mount, they heard God the Father speak.

They saw Moses and Elijah on a mountain having a conversation with the Lord Jesus Christ when his humanity was robed in the glory of his deity. They heard that conversation and they knew what they were talking about. Luke tells you exactly what they were talking about. They were talking about what happened on the cross of Calvary and how the Lord Jesus Christ would be successful on the cross of Calvary. The exodus that he would accomplish was the conversation. What's all the scriptures talking about? The Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified. Moses the Law, Elijah the Prophet is there and they're talking to the Lord Jesus Christ.

But listen to what Peter said. They heard this voice when they were with him in the Holy Mount. Verse 19 is amazing. We also, we have also a more sure word of prophecy. Whereunto you do well that you take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place. This is the word of God. This is the light that shines in a dark place. Until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts. That's the Lord Jesus Christ arising, finally arising in our hearts.

Knowing this first, that all this word, no prophecy, no promise in the word of God is of any private interpretation, which means that the scriptures explain the scriptures, the scriptures. We don't need to ever go outside of this book to understand what this book says. It's of no private interpretation. If we're telling the truth, it'll be the truth in Genesis 1-1, it'll be the truth in Revelation 22-21, it'll be the truth in every other place all the way through. This glorious word.

But listen to the promise, and this is why Peter is writing, this is why he is so exercised, he spends the rest of this letter, as he knows he's about to die. Imagine that. Knowing that you, in a heartbeat, are going to be in the presence of God Almighty. This is his last word. Peter, Paul writes a similar word in 2 Timothy. Jude is saying his last word to us, John says his last word to us, and they all say the same thing. God Almighty is glorious and great and reign and his victory is absolutely assured and there is an enemy. Satan and his ministers of righteousness pervade the religion of this world and they attack the children of God and they attack the churches of God.

But listen to the promise he makes in verse one of chapter two. But there were false prophets also among the people. Cain was one, we'll read about Balaam in a little while, also among them, even as there shall be, listen to this, there shall be false teachers among you who shall privately slyly bring in damnable heresies. What's the word heresy mean? A choice. That's what it means. I'll choose. I'll choose how I worship God. I'll choose how I come to God. I'll choose what the Word of God says. That's what a heresy is. A choosing from the will of man and the wisdom the man, even denying the Lord that bought them. If you want to look up that closely, it's not talking about the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ died for these people. It just means that he rules over them. Our God reigns over these people. And bringing upon themselves swift destruction.

And listen to this, and many shall follow their pernicious ways by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of every time. Every time you hear the gospel and hear the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, evil spoken of, it started in the churches. When you hear it on television and you watch it in movies or whatever else you see, or you see it on the back of cars all over the place these days, where did it begin? It began in the church. It began in a pulpit.

And through covetousness they shall, with feigned words, that's plastic words, they'll make merchandise of you. They'll make merchandise of you. It's extraordinary, isn't it? That they will make merchandise of people's souls. They make merchandise of your souls. And God gives a description of the judgment of God on these people in the next, and speaks of the angels, and speaks of Nara, and he speaks of Lot, and Solomon, Gomorrah.

But I love what verse nine says. It speaks of Lot. It's a lovely description of Lot. You'll only know about this from the word of God. You wouldn't get this from reading in Numbers about Lot being a righteous man. God said he's righteous. What was Lot's righteousness? It's got nothing to do with Lot. There's not a righteous thing Lot ever did that was recorded for us. Lot's righteousness is the Lord Jesus Christ. He was a child of God.

But listen to what verse nine says. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation and reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished. To be punished. They make merchandise of you. They've forsaken the right way. They allure, verse 18 of chapter two, they speak great swelling words of vanity. They allure through the lusts of the flesh. They promise them liberty and they themselves are servants of corruption. What a striking description it is of the false teachers. That we, according to the word of God, should see around us.

And then he talks about What's happening to this world, this world is reserved for fire, just as this world... was created, this world was created by God and this world was destroyed by the flood.

One of the things that was extraordinary, the first time I ever flew out on a big aeroplane was I flew to India. And one of the things that was remarkable, I flew over that coast on the northwestern bit of Western Australia and it was an extraordinary flight. The first time I'd been out of Australia, didn't know what I was going to be doing, but anyway. But you fly over that Kimberley coast and they say it's the oldest rocks in the world. And it looks like you're at a beach and the waves have washed up the sand and the tide has gone out. It looks so amazingly fresh and sharp. It looks as fresh as a daisy.

Then we flew along further and we flew along Indonesia and we actually flew Not over, but near the volcanoes. It was just amazing. I've never forgotten it. Anyway, there was a lot happening in my mind at the time, but it was remarkable to see God's creation. Chapter 3 says that they deliberately forget. Every time you hear someone saying that the world is millions of years old, all you know is someone who's deliberately forgetting. This world is God's declaration of His creative power. It puts people under judgment, but it doesn't bring salvation to them, it brings responsibility to them.

But this heavens and earth, in verse 7, They are reserved unto far against the day of judgment and the perdition of ungodly men. It's reserved. Look around. Everything you see is going to be burned up. This is not a place to build our nest. This is not a place to make a home. This is not a place to ensure our security. It's all going to be burned up.

They make merchandise of men's souls and they do it with feigned words, with plastic words. How many times have you heard, I heard it last week from a local church, a young fellow got up and preached and said, God is not willing that any should perish. You ever heard that? I've heard it hundreds of times. God is not willing. Isn't that nice? Isn't that really nice? God doesn't want anyone to perish. Poor God, when they do. He's not willing, but it happens. It happens to multitudes that these scriptures are talking about all the way through.

Read it with me, verse nine. Every time you hear someone quote, they generally just quote a phrase out of it. They quote the last bit, God is not willing that any should perish. Just read the verse, just read what God says. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any, who's the any? The usward, who was the letter written to? The letter's written to a group of people, listen to it. I can write you a letter and someone can look over your shoulder and read it, but it's not written to you, it's written to them, isn't it? He's writing, he says, to them that have obtained a light, precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. Are any of them going to perish? Can they possibly perish? But all, all of them should come to repentance.

These are some of the plastic words that people use to disturb souls. They make merchandise of people's souls. It's extraordinary, isn't it, that there would be people standing in pulpits that want to make merchandise of you. May the Lord protect us from such.

I want us just to read a little bit of something out of numbers I want to read some verses in Jude about the verse in Jude that we're going to look at and then we'll just I want to introduce you to this story of Balaam and then we'll come back after the break and have a look at it but it says woe unto them Verse 11 of Jude, they have gone in the way of Cain, ran greedily after the error of Balaam. So they actually run after it, these false teachers. They run, they run where angels fear to tread. And they've perished in the gainsaying, the speaking ill of, of Korah. The look at them like, so here are three extraordinary people. who stand in the place of people claiming to speak on God's behalf and are deceived.

Let me read to you some of the words of Balaam. Balaam is an extraordinary false prophet. There's not a word of Balaam's public prophecy which is not scripture. In fact, Balaam according to the word of God, is a more faithful preacher than almost everyone that you get to hear in this world today. Listen to what he says about God in Numbers 23, 19. God is not a man that he should lie. Isn't that amazing? God is not a man that he should... Neither the son of man that he should repent. Hath he said, and shall he not do it? Hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? Isn't that remarkable? That's what a great sermon that is. What a great sermon. He says, behold, I have received commandment to bless. He hath blessed. He's speaking of God, and I cannot reverse it. No one can ever reverse the blessing of God.

Isn't Balaam preaching wonderfully? He had listened to this in verse 21 of Numbers 23. We'll look at this again later, but I just want you to see how We are so desperately in need of the Spirit of God to reveal to us who is speaking on God's behalf and who is not. Listen to what he says in Numbers 23, 21. He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel. The Lord his God is with him, And the shout of a king is among them.

What's the shout of our great king? It is finished. That's the shout of the king. In verse 23 of Numbers 23, When they all get to heaven, what's going to be the cry? God did it. God did it. He did it all.

He is epitomised in three parts of the New Testament as almost the chief of false teachers. Do you reckon you can figure it out by yourself? We need, we desperately and desperately need the Spirit of God to be our teacher, to be our guide, for God to do with us as we read in Psalm 1, for us to be the blessed man. It's a blessing of God for us not to walk in their ways. It's a blessing of God not to walk in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of the scornful. It's a blessing of God to delight in his word.

Okay, let's have a break for a little bit and then we'll come back and we'll try and look at Balaam with fresh eyes and minds. So, thank you.