Good morning, good to see everyone
here this morning. In 2 Peter chapter 2, we read
of Peter's warning to his fellow Jewish believers against false
prophets and false teachers. And he declares there that many
will fall for and follow what he calls their damnable heresies. And in verse three, he goes on
to write that these false teachers shall make merchandise of you,
that is, of the many who shall embrace their false teaching.
And so with this text in view this morning, I've titled this
morning's message, Making Merchandise of You. You know, that word merchandise,
it can be both a noun and a verb. We know that as a noun, we buy
merchandise. It speaks of that which is bought
and sold in business, the commodities or the goods that are traded
or marketed. So merchandise refers to the
goods that are merchandised. And as a verb, to merchandise
means to buy and to sell. And as in business, it speaks
of a transaction, of a deal making, the completing of a trade. The
Greek word for this is the root of our English term, emporium,
which refers to like a trading post or a place for trading,
a store. And so when Peter writes here
how they make merchandise of you, he's referring to how they
engage in trade or traffic of you, and consequently they impact
on your very eternal welfare. And they do so in a way that
can be described as making or completing a deal, as in buying
or selling. They make merchandise of you.
And I'll touch on this later as we get further into the message.
But first, let's just read of this in its context in 2 Peter
2. And we'll begin in verse 1, where we read there, but there
were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall
be false teachers among you. who privily 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 the long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth
not." Now, what I want to do this morning from these verses
is just survey here in more detail what Peter exposes concerning
these false preachers or teachers, or false merchants, if you will,
And the first thing I want you to notice going back to verse
one is that they are to be found among true believers. As verse one begins, it says,
but there were prophets or false prophets also among the people,
even as there shall be false teachers among you. Now, what that means is, is that
they will come in the name of Christ. They will call themselves
Christians and shall even be found among true believers, such
as these to whom Peter is writing." Now, so this warning is folks
who consider themselves of the, quote, Christian faith. It isn't
warning then to be on guard against those who you would readily discern
as being opposed to your doctrine. Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, you
see, None of these claim nor even desire to be found worshiping
among Christians. So we're talking about teachers
or preachers who come in the name of Christ. As Christ referred
to them in the Sermon on the Mount, you may recall, he said,
they're wolves in sheep's clothing. So first know that the false
teachers he's warning us against are those who claim to be of
the Christian faith. They come in the name of Christ.
And then the next thing I want you to notice is that you would
be mistaken to assess that someone is a true teacher or preacher
of the one true gospel of God's grace by observing how well they're
received by the majority of others who claim to be of the Christian
faith. Here we see that these fault
teachers are indeed popular and they're successful in gaining
followers as men typically measure success. How many times have
you who believe the gospel of God's grace asked yourselves
this question as I have in moments of sinful doubt? I'll ask myself,
how can so many be wrong, be mistaken? Am I crazy? And yet we know from scripture
that's not how we should measure true and false. For as Christ
told us beginning in Matthew 7, 13, again in his sermon on
the mount, he said, enter ye in at the straight or narrow
gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth
to destruction. And how many go in there yet?
Many. there be which go in there at,
because straight or narrow is the gate, and narrow is the way
which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Well, likewise in our text here
in 2 Peter 2.2, which says, and many shall follow their pernicious
ways. So one characteristic of these
false teachers is that they gain a large following. They come
in the name of Christ. And so they are the predominant
voices of so-called Christianity, as many follow them. Well, the
next thing and perhaps the most important thing I want you to
notice is they can be identified, these false teachers, by their
doctrine. That is, by what they teach.
Peter calls them what? False teachers. Well, a false
teacher sets forth false doctrine. verse 1 says here they shall
bring in, he calls them damnable heresies. Now heresy is false
doctrine, but the false doctrine he's referring to here is a doctrine
that is believed upon to one's own eternal destruction, hence
it's called a damnable heresy. So the doctrine you see that
he's speaking of that is being brought in, it's not just some
minor inconsequential, non-vital, just difference of opinion, but
is speaking of those who would teach doctrine opposed to the
doctrine of Christ, to the one true gospel of God's grace in
Christ. Now listen, this is of eternal
importance to us. It's so important that we're
able to discern the true from the false. For as we're talking
John, 2nd John, Chapter 1, beginning in verse 9, it reads, whosoever
transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath
not God. He that abideth in the doctrine
of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any
unto you and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house,
neither bid him Godspeed. For he that biddeth him Godspeed
is a partaker of his evil deeds. So to be so deceived, this is
why this is so important, to be so deceived with the many,
with the masses, those on the broad way that so many go in
there at. And listen, even to view the
insistence of others that some role they perform in order to
be saved. And I'm speaking of work salvation. You see, it's real simple. The one true gospel, as we heard
in the 10 o'clock hour, is the gospel of God's grace. And all
the other notions out there that's not grace. In other words, it's
not salvation solely and fully completed by the work, the doing
and dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's a system of works. It's
that widespread popular notion that you, the sinner, You must
make the real difference in order to be saved. They may say it's
of Christ, but it's not Christ alone. And what we see from this
passage in 2 John is to treat that difference, that vital difference,
that what he's calling here a damnable heresy, as something that's not
really serious enough to divide over. And I'm speaking with respect
to religious fellowship. You see, to say, to treat such
as if they're spiritually okay, to treat them as a fellow believer,
as a brother or sister in the faith, as difficult as that may
be for us, according to God's word here, to do that, to bid
them Godspeed, is to share in their evil. And it's to share
in their end. It is to not have the father
and the son. So how then are we to judge the
doctrine we hear to be the doctrine of Christ, to be true or false? Notice verse three of our text
there tells us that it's with feigned words that they make
merchandise of you. Feigned words means pretend words,
made up words, fake words, false words. In studying this, I saw
where some interpret that phrase there, that word feign, to have
the connotation of well-turned words or phrases. In other words,
they're words that are not only feigned as in faults, but words
that are appealing to us by nature, words that make us feel good
about ourselves. You see, their false doctrine
will give room for the sinner to boast of having met the prescribed
condition of those they follow in order to get themselves saved. And as such, you know, those
are flattering words to us by nature. They tell us we can have
it our way. You can go out there in so-called
Christianity and just kind of pick the flavor of your choice.
Whichever prescribed condition you kind of say, I like that.
And you can just say, well, that suits my fancy, but here's what's
in common about them all, and that is they're all telling you
if you'll just pony up, so to speak, do your part, you can
be saved. But such notions are contrary
to God's reality and salvation by grace. For salvation by grace
says that you're bestowed favor upon by God based upon nothing
you can do to earn it, no merit found in you whatsoever. Those
are feigned or false or fake words. So again, how do you know
which preacher to believe? How do you know what is true
among this smorgasbord of so-called Christian religious thoughts
and ideas? I think the context of 2 Peter
2 helps us if we'll consider the words leading up to this
warning in chapter 2 which began back in chapter 1. I want you
to look with me there going down say beginning in verse 19. There
we read, we have also a more sure word of prophecy. I didn't
read the verses prior to this, but had you read them, you would
see he's telling his fellow Jewish brethren in the faith that they
have a more sure word than even the audible voice of God the
Father as he declared of his son, this is my beloved son in
whom I am well pleased. He's saying even as miraculous
as that was to have heard that for those who heard it, we have
something even more sure to hang our hat upon. And he's speaking
of the very gospel of God's grace, that sure word of prophecy that's
set forth in this Holy Spirit-inspired book, the Word of God. And so
he continues. He says, we have also a more
sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed,
as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day
dawn. and the day star arise in your
hearts. That's Jesus Christ, the son
of righteousness. Knowing this first, that no prophecy
of the scriptures of any private interpretation for the prophecy
came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake
as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. This is God's word. And so he continues with that
thought as we go into chapter two, verse one, where it says,
but there were false prophets also among the people. So he's
meaning in the days of the Old Testament prophets, but he goes
on and says, even as there shall be false teachers among you,
that is in this church age in which we also live. So again,
who do you believe? What preacher, what doctrine
are you to believe? believe God. That's what's being
contrasted here if we look at those verses at the end of chapter
one along with chapter two. And listen, only believe those
who speak according to God's word. So you see, you've got
to test the scriptures. You should test the scriptures
today to see if what I'm telling you is the truth the vital truth
of God's gospel or not, and you should only follow men as they
follow that. Don't fall for the feigned or
false words, but rather heed the Holy Spirit-inspired Word
of God. Remember what Paul wrote concerning
the false teachers? I know some of you will in his
letter to the Galatians in chapter 1, beginning in verse 6, he said,
I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called
you into the grace of Christ." Now there's the gospel. He says,
called you unto another gospel. That is, another way that you
imagined you might be saved. He says, which is not another.
You see, there's only one gospel. But there be some that trouble
you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. Paul says, but though
we or even an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto
you than that which we have preached unto you. Let him be accursed. That which this Word records,
this Holy Spirit-inspired Word of God records that they preached
unto them. It's the doctrine of Christ.
It's the gospel of Christ. It's the gospel of grace, and
so not of works. It is not salvation, see, based
upon some deal some transaction, some merchandising that involves
something remaining to be done by, in, or through you, the sinner,
to make the real difference in your salvation. And it really
is that simple. You know, it sometimes can be
clouded when you consider, wow, there's so many different views,
so many different opinions, but there's just one true gospel.
And it sets forth all of salvation to be by grace. And what that
means is it is based upon nothing, no merit whatsoever in the object
of that grace and the one who is saved, not if they're saved
by grace. So that means every requirement,
every condition for that sinner's salvation was satisfied by their
Savior. by the Lord Jesus Christ and
is finished, substitutionary, redeeming work on the cross,
by that perfect satisfaction to the justice of God, that's
his righteousness. That is his obedience unto death
whereby he fully paid the penalty that was due unto the demerit
of the sins for each and every one for whom he lived and died,
their past sins, their present sins, their future sins. And
you know if you take all the various religious notions together,
the various ways that men devise or mistakenly imagine that they
might be saved, just know this because it just greatly simplifies
what may seem so complex. All vital doctrine pertaining
to how God saves sinners. It just falls into one of two
categories. It is the gospel of grace. It's one that promotes salvation
by grace in Christ alone with no causal role being played by
or assigned to the hand of those he saves. Or, if there is a causal
role assigned, It is no matter how various or how different
the different notions are, if they assign some causal role
to the hand of the center, it's no longer grace and it falls
into the false religion of works, the enemy of grace. So we can
identify these false teachers by seeing how they oppose the
doctrine of Christ, the truth that Christ alone met every condition
necessary for the salvation of those for whom he lived and died.
And listen, that opposition is manifested by their teaching. Their teaching that salvation's
conditioned at least in some small way or to some small degree
on something that's done by or in or through you, the sinner.
Some will make faith that condition. That's what I once did. Others,
perseverance or keeping the faith. Others will say, you must be
baptized. Others will say, you must live
a good and moral life. And listen, we should do all
those things. Others will say, just do the best you can. Do
some combination of these. The list goes on and on, but
it matters not. If it is not the true gospel
of God's grace in Christ that sets forth how salvation's requirements
have been fully met by His doing and His dying alone, Then as
Paul described it, it's another gospel, which is not another.
There's only one way of salvation. And that way is by God's sovereign
grace in the doing and dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet,
many fall prey to the false teaching that opposes the doctrine of
Christ. And you know, one reason is because it just doesn't seem
right. to our fallen, spiritually dead,
sinful natures. And that's how we all start out.
So many, I know, upon hearing of the doctrine of the gospel,
especially hearing of the doctrine of salvation by a sovereign God
who does as he pleases, and that saves the people in Christ alone. They'll say something like this
often. They'll say, well, I just can't go there. I can't buy into
this notion that God would, of his own sovereign will, choose
some and not others to give to Christ to be saved. Because I
know that the scripture's clear that not all are saved, that
the majority shall perish. So they'll say, I just can't
buy into the fact that I don't have anything to say about it.
That just doesn't seem fair to me. And listen, that's just natural
as breathing is to us. By nature, that's the way we
think. But listen, this is our standard of truth. It's not what
seems right to us. Because as Proverbs 16, 25 puts
it, there's a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end
thereof are the ways of death. Judge according to God's truth
and only follow preachers and teachers as and to the extent
they follow and teach consistent with the word of God. It's his
doctrine of salvation. It's the gospel of grace that
sets forth how Christ, it sets forth Christ and his imputed
righteousness. And that just simply means the
merit of what he accomplished being imputed or accounted to
the sinner. And it sets forth how that's
the sinner's only hope and the sinner's sure and certain hope. And it's that doctrine that these
false teachers will oppose and they will deny by diverting your
attention elsewhere. Well, next I want you to see
in the text how these false teachers are also described by what motivates
them. It says there in the beginning
of verse three, and through covetousness, Shall they with feigned words
make merchandise of you? They're motivated by covetousness.
That's a prevailing vice among false teachers because you know
what? It's a prevailing vice among all of us sinners. And
in particular, it consumes us in that spiritually dead state
in which we begin our life here on earth. You see, we start out,
it's all about us. It's even all about us when we
first get interested in religion, because what's our first thing
we want to know is, what do I need to do to get saved? There's a presumption in that
question that I can do something, that it's really not me being
at the mercy of God. We see this in that the only
end in view is themselves. Now listen, there's a lot of
kind people. who promote this false doctrine.
I'm not suggesting they're not caring of others, but you can
see how they're self-consumed as we all are by nature as it's
reflected in their doctrine that sets forth that their very salvation
is not solely owing to God, but rather it's assumed to be due
unto what they themselves do or do not do, and that's in direct
opposition to God's true gospel of grace. They believe and they
promote that salvation is ultimately in their control. They can control
their destiny. And thereby, with this focus
on self, they attempt to rob God of his glory. And that, in
opposition to the truth of salvation, conditioned solely on the doing
and dying of the Lord of glory. Now look, in their spiritual
blindness, they like me in years past, and I'm sure many of you,
they do not see they are coveting God's glory for themselves, but
they will see, just as some of you have seen or prayerfully
will see if and when God grants you spiritual life and the faculties,
the spiritual faculties to see and to value his glory and the
glorious person and work of Christ. And as he brings you to repent,
of those notions where you dared to assume to be able to fulfill
that which took the precious blood of Christ. And that alone
could fulfill what was necessary. Now this covetousness may be
evidenced by their desire to profit financially from the ministry.
Most of the commentators I read in studying this, that's the
most predominant understanding. In many instances, ministers
who profess to be of the Christian faith, you know, they move from
church to church, and often such a move does serve to improve
their financial status. I was raised in a denomination
where it was common for pastors to move from time to time from
one church to another. They would often indicate that
they were prayerfully considering such an opportunity by weighing
whether or not they, quote, heard the call. Or they meant that
it was being impressed upon them that God was guiding them, or
leading them, or calling them to make this or that move. And,
you know, while I don't necessarily doubt their sincerity, I can't
help but remember something my dad once told me. He said, somewhat
sarcastically, he said, isn't it a strange thing that these
preachers, they never seem to hear the call to take a position
that pays less money than where they were at the time? And I'm
sure there are exceptions to that, but the fact that that
is most often the case I think is rather telling, the covetousness
by which these false teachers are known, it may go beyond financial
gain. For example, men covet all sorts
of things. They may covet fame, popularity,
influence, power, and the best way to gain that is by appealing
to the natural, sinful inclinations of fallen humanity. They'll tell
us what we want to hear. They'll tell us that there's
some good in you, that you're able to perform this, that if
you'll just do this or that, if you'll just receive Christ,
whatever, you can feel real secure and real good about yourself
because you've done what it took to get yourself saved that others
won't do. But know that those are the faint
false words whereby they make merchandise of their followers. Then Peter, he also defines these
false teachers by their ways or their MO, their method of
operation. In verse one, notice it describes
the method by which these false teachers present their damnable
heresies as it reads how they privily shall bring in damnable
heresies. That word privily means privately
as in secretly or with cunning. It tells us that their false
teaching see is disguised. It's not an open rebuttal of
salvation by grace, but their false teaching sees surrounded
by truth, and so it's more likely to deceive. As an example, in
our day, the many who are made merchandise of by these false
teachers or preachers will insist, just as their teachers do, that
they too believe in Christ as their Savior, that they too believe
in salvation by grace. But sadly, their doctrine is
a perversion of grace, for they insist that ultimately salvation
is based upon some merit found in the one God saved, something
they can do. Not that it's solely based upon
the merit of Christ's finished work, His righteousness alone.
They'll say Christ did it all, But, and there's always that
big but, that it's your response that makes what he did effectual
to the saving of your soul. Well, that's faith in faith.
That's not faith in Christ. So while they maintain that Christ
is their savior, their doctrine will often reflect that the real
difference It's not in his redeeming work, for many believe that he
rendered that work. He died for all men without exception,
even those who perish in hell. Something else had to make the
difference then, didn't it? The hell insists that the real
crowning event by which men and women are saved is their response.
In other words, what they call grace is in reality a cleverly
disguised promotion of the exact opposite of salvation by works. They privily, or with cunning
deception, bring in their damnable heresies. Then in verse two,
he wrote, and many shall follow their pernicious ways by reason
of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. Pernicious
is often translated lascivious. meaning lewd or an unlawful way. It carries the connotation of
being a wantonness, being a seduction, a seductive way while promoting
both principles or doctrine as well as practices which are destructive. There's a destruction that is
attached to the word as well. And again, we see that these
seductive, destructive, unlawful ways are consistent with their
false doctrine in that the result is, as it says there, the way
of truth, God's gospel of grace is then evil spoken of. You know, there's many ways you
could observe that. One way we see that take place
is when others tend to discount and discredit the few who would
insist upon the one way of salvation by God's grace in Christ. You
see, all who refuse to adopt the popular perversion of grace
that's so prevalent in our day. You who would deny their false
doctrine that would teach something like this, that Christ, well,
Christ made it possible, but the real determining factor now
in order for you to be saved is left up to you and your supposed
free will decision. Well, to take that stand is to
be among the few, and as the few, you'll be discredited, discounted
by the many as being some extreme or fringe group to be avoided. And thereby, their doctrine,
God's doctrine, the way of truth is evil spoken of. Well, then
lastly, they're described by their end. What's going to be
their end? At the end of verse one it tells
us they will bring upon themselves swift destruction. I would encourage
you, it tells us again at the end of verse three it speaks
of their damnation. And I'd encourage you to read
the rest of this chapter because Peter emphasizes a great deal
here in the chapter this certain judgment as he uses the examples
of Sodom and Gomorrah and the days of Noah and so forth. But
what's important for us in our consideration today is we obviously
We can't identify a false teacher by knowing their end. We don't
know that God won't do a work of grace in their hearts. But
what is important for us to notice here is how sure and destructive
that end is. It should drive home to us the
importance that we really strive to discern vital truth and error,
not according to how many, not because of how we feel, but according
to God's word. You know, those who buy their
bill of goods are made merchandise of, and if they persist therein,
they're gonna share in that same tragic end in eternal damnation. And I certainly pray better for
all who hear this message. So let me just recap real quickly
what we've seen here, that God, the Holy Spirit, through the
writing of the Apostle Peter, how he's identified these false
teachers. He's identified them this way.
First, they are found among believers. In other words, they call themselves
Christians. Secondly, they are successful. They are the predominant
voices of so-called Christianity as the many follow them. Thirdly,
they are identified by their false doctrine, which stands
in opposition to the gospel of God's grace in Christ alone,
to the truth that Christ alone met every requirement and condition
by his obedience unto death. That's his righteousness. And
he did that for each and every one for whom he lived and died,
all whom God is pleased to save. Now that's the doctrine of Christ
that God's word sets forth in contrast to these feigned words
of these popular yet false teachers. Fourthly, they are motivated
by covetousness, with the only end in view being themselves,
that being reflected in their doctrine that elevates man's
work, the creature's work, to place it in a position of rivalry
and in opposition to the very effectual redeeming work of the
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man, Creator. Fifthly,
their ways are cunning and deceptive as they privily couch their false
doctrine alongside of truth, redefining God's own terms of
salvation by grace. Sixthly, their ways are pernicious,
destructive, and seductive, for they are consistent with what
we all as fallen sinners, you see, by nature desire to hear. And then lastly, their destructive
end is sure and certain. as it is for all who persist
in following them. And listen, all of us have fallen
prey and would continue to fall prey to their pernicious, seductive
ways, if not for the grace of God in delivering us from their
false teachings by his saving grace. And he does that, according
to the scripture, through the hearing and believing of this
very gospel of God's true grace in Christ. Now, before we close,
I said I'd revisit how these false teachers or preachers make
merchandise of those who follow them. First, those who fall prey
to them are, in a sense, the goods being merchandised, and
that's so in this sense. They are sold to sin and Satan.
As Romans teaches us, we're all at this very moment, we're servants
of sin, or we are servants of righteousness. We read of that
in Romans 6, verses 17 and 18. It reads, but God bethink that
ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart
that form of doctrine which was delivered you, or the more literal
translation would be to which you were delivered. Being then
made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
See, we all start off in league with Satan and these very false
teachers. But God, be thanked, he opens
the eyes of his people and he makes them see their freedom
from sin in Christ, their substitute, who fully, fully, completely
put away their sins at the cross of Calvary. Whenever we bought
into the notion that something we sinners could do would save
us or keep us saved, we were actually in bondage to sin. You see, we were daring to imagine
that our doing, our faith, whatever, was sufficient to save us. When in reality, as sinners,
we fall miserably short of rendering what is necessary to satisfy
the justice of a holy God. It requires a perfect righteousness. That would mean that we would
have to perfectly obey all of God's reveal will, including
never having the least ill will toward our worst enemy. And that
from the cradle to the grave. if we were to fulfill the condition
to satisfy a holy God. See, a holy God requires no less,
and he will accept no less. But under God's gospel, oh, that
good news we hear, and we embrace how Christ alone rendered just
that, that very perfect obedience. And just as God imputed or accounted
the sins of his people to Christ, so he might pay the penalty due
unto their sins, sins he had no part whatsoever in committing
or producing. Well likewise God graciously
imputes or places to the account of each and every one for whom
Christ died the merit of his finished work of perfect obedience,
and that includes his death, his very righteousness, whereby
they stand in Christ before God's power of justice. And we're talking
about sinners standing before Christ without sin, for they,
as the scripture says, they're accepted in their substitute,
in their savior, the beloved. All that based on his righteousness,
not one they tried to work out by their doing, but a righteousness
they had no part whatsoever in producing. the very righteousness
of God in Christ. But in the merchandising of souls,
it's assumed and taught that this transaction really wasn't
truly finished, you see, at the cross. Their doctrine teaches
that the deal had yet to be finalized. Look back with me at the end
of verse one of our text. It says there, these false teachers,
that in bringing in their damnable heresies, they even deny the
Lord that bought them. Now look, that needs some explanation. Obviously, they're false teachers.
They're not bought by the Lord in the sense of redemption. It
does not mean these false teachers, preachers, prophets were redeemed
by the blood of Christ by which he does purchase his church.
But rather, it's referring to the temporal mercies and deliverance
which these men enjoy. That word bought there has that
meaning of delivered. And it's borrowed, I would encourage
you to study that on your own. I'm not gonna go there in the
interest of time today, but it's borrowed from the language of
Deuteronomy chapter 32. And you'll see that in that phrase
as well as other phrases further down in 2 Peter 2. You'll see
the similarities. Know that Peter, again, was writing
to fellow Jewish believers who were scattered out throughout
Asia Minor. And knowing that, we can apply
the language that was used by Moses to describe the Jews as
a people, a privileged nation, who were delivered, or bought,
as the word is used there, in the sense, again, that they were
delivered and temporarily blessed by God, as certainly that nation
was under the Old Covenant. Moses in Deuteronomy 32 is scolding
them for their ingratitude, just as Peter here is emphasizing
how the false teachers are denying the Lord. the true and living
God who had so blessed them. And look, God, he does not only
extend mercies to the nation Israel as he did under the old
covenant, but as Moses was scolding those Jews in Deuteronomy 32
six, he said something that can be said of us all. He said, hath
he not made thee and established thee? He's the creator and he's
blessed you with every breath you take. And Peter here is pointing
out how by their doctrine, they are not denying the Lord of the
universe, the creator, the one and true, the one true and living
God. Now, their temporal deliverance
is the sense of that phrase, and I don't want to suggest otherwise,
but in reading and studying that, I couldn't help but be reminded
of this truth. And that is how any and all false
doctrine that's of a vital nature, In other words, doctrine that
stands in denial of salvation by grace in Christ alone, it
actually does deny that the Lord Jesus truly did by a people.
And we know he did, as Acts 20, 28 reads and refers to the church
of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. That redemption's
a price paid in full. You see, there's no merchandising,
there's no deal, there's no transaction that remains to be completed.
But the doctrine that exposes these false teachers, it will
suggest to you that Christ's death, see, in and of itself,
it was insufficient or it was inadequate to save you. The suggestion
is, oh, thank goodness what Jesus did on the cross, but you gotta
still cut your end of the bargain by doing what the many all suggest. Whether it's walking an aisle,
or saying this sinner's prayer, or inviting Christ into your
heart, or letting him save you. You remember that song we used
to sing? The Savior is waiting to enter your heart. Oh, won't
you let him come in? Can you hear that? The mere sinful
creature letting Almighty God, the creator, save him? They'll say cleaning up your
act or getting serious about religion or you must be baptized
or you need to be confirmed or you got to agree with this catechism
or that and the list goes on. But look, don't be fooled. If
you buy into the notion that you, the sinner, must make the
real final difference in order to be found among the saved,
you have been made merchandise of. And if that's the case, look,
and if you insist on that, then all I ask is don't pretend or
talk about thank God for his mercy, because you don't need
mercy. You see, that's not mercy and that's not grace. That's
simply you needing to fulfill your end of the bargain as prescribed
by your preacher of choice and thereby save yourself. Look,
it's true. We're not denying that faith
is absolutely necessary. You must believe. You must believe
that all of your salvation is in Christ and Him alone. All
who are saved, you see, they shall believe because they've
already been saved by the blood of Christ. And none who are truly
saved believe in order to be saved. Well, I pray better for
you. I pray God will deliver someone
you from the soul merchants who would sell you such a bill of
goods. You know, all who are saved. must at some point in
time be so delivered. So resolve and pray that by the
grace of God, you will not be made merchandise of because the
deal is done. You know, with Christ, as we
heard at 10 o'clock, when he cried out on the cross, it is
finished. He meant it. So look to that
finished transaction, the finished work of Christ on the cross and
his righteousness alone. You see, for that doctrine, of
his person and finished work. That is the doctrine of Christ.
That's not the feigned words of those who would make merchandise
of you. But rather, you know, as we read from 2 Peter 1 earlier,
that doctrine of Christ, God's gospel of grace, is the sure
word of prophecy which you would do well to heed.