Lesson begins in verse 10. The
title of the lesson is two great errors of false teachers. And,
you know, I wish that we didn't have to talk about false teachers,
these errors and things that we confront, but it's important
that we do. It's important that we do talk
about them and understand them because scripture warns us about
these men. It's just like parents. We don't
like to talk to our children about the dangers that they face
from strangers and people who would prey on them. But we do
talk to them about it, even though we don't like it, for their own
protection. And this is much the same way.
We may not like to talk about these matters, but it's important
that we do for the protection of God's children. We need to
be taught about these men. We need to be taught the Scriptures
because it says, Peter says in verse 14, that they beguile unstable
souls. It's important that we not be
unstable, but that we be grounded and settled in the faith. Now
the lesson ended last week in verse nine, where Peter said
that the Lord knows how to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment
to be punished. And in verse 10, he says, but
chiefly, chiefly, the Lord knows how to reserve the unjust, these
false teachers. Chiefly, he knows how to reserve
them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and
despise government. Presumptuous are they, self-willed. They're not afraid to speak evil
of dignities. Now, one day, these false teachers
are going to be punished. The Lord is going to deal with
these men. But until then, they're going to run amok, and we need
to be aware of them. And there are common characteristics
of false teachers. They may come under some different
headings and they may show themselves in some different ways, but there
are common characteristics. First and chiefly, every one
of them, in one way or another, deny the glory of Christ in redemption. Either all of it or part of it.
It may be very open, it may be very subtle, but every one of
them, they deny the glory of Christ in redemption. And Peter
lists two errors that's common amongst all of them, and they
might come in some different forms, but they fall under these
two errors. This is their motivation. They
walk after the flesh and they despise dominion, authority.
They walk after the flesh. Their main concern is the well-being
and supply of their flesh, not the souls of sins, not feeding
the sheep, not feeding the souls of God's people. You just look
on TV, people who walk after the flesh, get into the ministry
because there's big money in it. Those people you see on TV
are wildly wealthy. They walk after the flesh. Their
goal is to provide for their flesh, for their financial well-being,
for the joys and comfort of their flesh so they can gain a reputation
and fame, you know, in the community. And everybody would like to have
those things. I understand that. But that's
not the goal of God's pastor. That's not why, you know, you
might welcome a little extra money or something. That's not
the goal of God's pastor. God's pastor, his goal is the
glory of Christ and the salvation of sinners. To feed the sheep.
That's what we looked at a couple of weeks ago here in Peter. To
feed the sheep. They walk after the flesh. And
second, they despise dominion. They respect man's free will,
but they don't respect God's sovereign will. They'll promote
man's choice, but not God's electing love. They'll deny the authority
of Scripture when they don't understand it, or they'll deny
the authority of Scripture when it crosses their will. Well,
if it doesn't agree with my doctrine, well, I'll just cut that out
or say, well, I don't mean that. God's Word always means what
it says, exactly what it says. But when it crosses their will,
they despise dominion and they deny the authority of Scripture.
They deny other legitimate forms of authority when it crosses
their will. With them, there are no absolutes. Nothing. Nothing is right or
wrong. They're not going to call it
what it is if it's going to cost them dollars, if it'll cost them
supporters. Whatever somebody does, it's
okay. As long as you're not talking bad about them to try to undermine
their financial resources, because that's all they care about. There's
no absolutes. They despise dominion. They're
presumptuous, Peter says. They're very full of themselves
and they're never afraid to speak flippantly of holy matters. Or they're never afraid to speak
of these holy matters in just a smart aleck offhand way. They're
presumptuous. Peter says they're self-willed.
They're quite pleased with themselves. And what they want to do is they
want others to admire them and fan the flames of their ego. And they'll do what it takes
to get it. They know how to manipulate people, beguile people to get
them to promote themselves because they walk after the flesh. Their will is to promote themselves. And they're not afraid, Peter
says, to speak evil of dignities. They are not afraid to speak
contrary to God's Word. They're just not afraid of that.
They're not afraid to withhold glory from the Lord Jesus Christ. They're simply not afraid of
it. It could be something as open as they speak of the Lord
as Jesus, just as a man, just Jesus. They don't give Him all
the glory for everything He's done for His people. He's not
the Lord. He's not the Savior of His people.
They're not afraid to speak evil of men who are dignities. The
old pastors or the old writers. And you know why they're not
afraid to speak evil of them? Because they're in competition.
They feel like they're in competition with these men for the hearts
of the people. And they don't really care about
the hearts of the people, they care about the wallets of the people.
Because they're walking after the flesh. Reverence and humility. are the marks of every believer,
every one of them. And we beware, just, you'd be
wise to beware when those traits aren't easily found in a preacher. Because I tell you this, someone
who knows the Lord, who knows the Lord, is reverent. And they've
been humbled. They've seen the Lord. But this
is the mark of the false preacher. Now, he goes on, verse 11, he
says, 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 they shall utterly perish
in their own corruption." Now angels, I don't know a lot about
angels, but I'm pretty sure they're a whole lot more powerful than
what we know. They have regular audience. with
God Almighty. And they never bring these railing
accusations against the fallen angels and against these false
preachers. They never do that. And I read
that and I thought, well, why not? I think I can tell you why. They know full well who the Lord
is. They know full well He knows
everything. They're not going to tell Him
something He doesn't know. They know full well he's on the
throne, and these things are working after the counsel of
his will, and he will deal with them in his time. So what they
do is they just serve the Lord in the way that he's put them.
Look over in Jude, verse 9. They don't bring these railing
accusations to the Lord. Jude, verse 9. Yet Michael, the
archangel When contending with the devil, he disputed about
the body of Moses. Durst not bring against him a
railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee. But these,
these false prophets, they speak evil of those things which they
know not. But what they know naturally
is brute beasts, and those things they corrupt themselves. These
angels who are so much more powerful than men, they don't dare speak
of these things. But these false prophets do.
These men do. And in comparison to angels,
they're just dumb beasts, just brute beasts. They're never afraid
to speak about the things that they don't understand or they
don't love. Now, they sound very, very religious,
but they're speaking of things they do not understand. And when
they do that, and we call them dumb beasts, they're an insult
to dumb beasts everywhere. I'll show you that in Isaiah
chapter one. They're an insult to dumb beasts
everywhere. Isaiah 1, verse 2. Hear, O heavens, and give ear,
O earth, for the Lord hath spoken. I have nourished and brought
up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his
owner, and the ass his master's crib. But Israel doth not know,
my people doth not consider. They're not even as smart as
the ox or the ass, just dumb beasts. And their end is to perish. That's what's going to happen.
The Lord's going to deal with them and they'll perish. In verse
13, in our text, he says, they shall receive the reward of unrighteousness
as they that count it pleasure to ride in the daytime. Spots
they are, blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings
while they feast with you. Now, these false teachers, they
are interested in living a life of luxury for the flesh, supplying
luxury for the flesh. And they'll enjoy it for a time.
They're good at what they do. They will enjoy it for a time
because everybody's religious. Everybody wants to find something
to cling to. But judgment's coming. Now, the
Lord's going to judge them one day. But till then, Peter says,
there are spots. I look that word up. It means
something that defiles or a moral blemish. It's something that's
defiled God's creation. They're a moral blemish on God's
creation. And judgment's coming. God's
going to cleanse that away. He's going to cleanse that blemish
away. But until then, Peter says, they're
sporting themselves with deceivings. This is sport to them. Just sport. Now, I love sports. Look at me
watching an Ohio State football game and you think this is more
than just sport. But at the end of the day, it's
just sport. I mean, you know, nobody's life's
hanging in a balance or anything, maybe except mine. You know,
my blood pressure goes through the roof or something. It's just
sport. That's what this is to these
men. They're sporting themselves with deceivings. It's deceivings,
plural. They'll go about to deceive people
in many different ways. They're good at this. It's just
sport to them. It's a game to them to see who
can get the most, who can get the most money, who can get the
most supporters. It's not life and death to them.
And I'm telling you, the terror of opening God's Word
and speaking about God's Word in front of people, this is life
and death. Now, I'm telling you, what we
do here every Sunday and Wednesday is life and death. He that believeth
the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the
Son shall not see life. It's life and death. I'm telling
you, it's not a sport. But Peter says they're sporting
themselves with their deceivings while they feast with you, probably
getting a free meal at your house, because that's their goal, supplying
the flesh. He goes on in verse 14, he says,
having eyes full of adultery that cannot cease from sin, beguiling
unstable souls, and heart they have exercised with covetous
practices, cursed children. Their eyes are full of adultery. Lust for everything. It's like
living the life of a rock star. It's drugs and women and gluttony
and money. It's the life of a rock star.
And their eyes are always on the lookout for what their heart's
full of. The eyes and the heart are connected. See, all these
problems and these errors come from having Adam's heart. From
never being given a new heart of faith. That's where all these
problems come from. And they're preaching their methods
in the pulpit. Now the pulpit matches what's
in their heart. It's covetous practices. They
preach what people want to hear. They interact with the flock
out of the pulpit out of a motive of covetousness to get more,
to fleece the sheep because they're never satisfied. They beguile. They trick through subtlety unstable
souls. And that's why it's so important
for us to teach the Word, teach the Word over and over and over
again so that our hearts are established with grace. If our
hearts are established with grace, rooted and grounded in God's
Word, then we won't be unstable. But if you're just standing on
one foot, you're unstable, easy to knock you over. Peter says
they're cursed children. You know, cursed children are
children who are brats. They're difficult to be around
because they've never been taught to act any better. They've never
been spanked. If you just spank them when they
were little, they probably never would have got to be a cursed
child. But this is what happens when we don't discipline our
children. And one day, the policeman and
the judge are going to deal with them because they're cursed children.
That's what happened to these men. The Lord and His providence
have let them go unchecked. Now, the Lord disciplines His
children. Paul said in Romans, he didn't discipline the bastards,
but he does his children. He leaves these cursed children
alone. And one day, the judge of all the earth is going to
deal with them in justice. Now verse 15, he says, these
are those which have forsaken the right way. They're 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 a man's voice forbade the madness of
the prophet. See, their way is madness. They've forsaken the right way.
The way of righteousness, the way of life, the way of truth,
the way of peace, they've forsaken that. Well, why would somebody
do that? Why on earth would somebody forsake
the way of righteousness and peace and truth? Covetousness. That's the way of Balaam, his
covetousness. Now look over Numbers chapter
22. Now the story of Balaam covers quite a few, two or three chapters
anyway. We're just going to read part
of this story in Numbers 22. The way of Balaam. This king Balak saw Israel come
out of Egypt and come to his land. He was afraid they were
going to run him over. So in verse 5, he sent messengers therefore
unto Balaam, the son of Besor. to Pithor, which is by the river
of the land of the children of his people, to call him, saying,
Behold, there is a people come out of Egypt. Behold, they cover
the face of the earth, and they abide over against me. Come now,
therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people, for they are
too mighty for me. Peradventure I shall prevail,
that we may smite them, and that I may drive them out of the land.
For I know that he whom thou blessest is blessed, and he whom
thou cursest is And the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian
departed with the rewards of divination. These are the rewards
for the prophet. They got all wagons full of them,
the rewards of divination in their hand. And they came unto
Balaam, and spake unto him the words of Balaam. And he said
unto them, Lodge here this night, and I will bring you word again,
as the Lord shall speak unto me. And the princes of Moab abode
with Balaam. And God came unto Balaam, and
said, What men are these with thee? And listen to this answer. Balaam said unto God, Balak the
son of Ziphor, king of Moab, hath sent them unto me, saying,
Behold, there is a people come out of Egypt. Now, Balaam knows
this is Israel. This is God's people. So he thinks,
well, maybe I'll fool God by not calling them Israel. He kind
of tries to hide who they are. Behold, there is a people which
come out of Egypt, which covereth the face of the earth. Come now,
curse me then, for adventure I shall be able to overcome them
and drive them out." See, Balaam's trying to make it sound like
this would be a good idea if he go do this. And God said unto
Balaam, Thou shalt not go with them. Thou shalt not curse the
people, for they are blessed. You cannot curse what God has
blessed. So Balaam rose up in the morning
and said unto the princes of Balaam, Get you into your land,
for the Lord refuses to give me leave to go with you. And
the princes of Moab rose up, and they went unto Balaam, and
said, Balaam refuses to come with us. And Balaam sent yet
again princes, more, and more honorable than they. And they
came to Balaam, and said unto him, Thus saith Balaam the son
of Zipporah, Let nothing, I pray thee, hinder thee from coming
unto me, for I will promote thee unto very great honor, and I
will do whatsoever thou sayest unto me." I mean, he's got his
ego, right? I mean, just, I'll do whatever
you tell me to do, I'll just do it. I'll not say a word, I'll
just do it. Now come therefore, I pray thee,
curse me, this people." Well, that sounded good to Balaam.
Balaam already knows the answer. But Balaam answered and said
unto the servants of Balak, If Balak would give me his house
full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord
my God to do less or more. Now therefore, I pray you, tarry
ye also this night, that I may know what the Lord will say unto
me more. And God came unto Balaam at night, and said unto him,
If the men come to call thee, rise up, and go with them. But
yet the word which I shall say unto thee thou shalt do. And
Balaam rose up in the morning and saddled his ass and went
with the princes. Balaam got up before these fellows and saddled
his ass. He didn't wait for them to come
to him and ask him again. Like the Lord said, he got up
and saddled his ass, he's going. And God's anger was kindled,
because he went, and the angel of the Lord stood in the way
for an adversary against him. Now he was riding upon his ass,
and his two servants were with him. And the ass saw the angel
of the Lord standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand.
And the ass turned aside out of the way and went into the
field. And Balaam smote the ass to turn her into the way. And
the angel of the Lord stood in the path of the vineyards, a
wall being on this side and a wall on that side. And when the ass
saw the angel of the Lord, she thrust herself into the wall
and crushed Balaam's foot against the wall, and he smote her again.
And the angel of the Lord went further and stood in a narrow
place, where there was no way to turn either to the right hand
or to the left. And when the ass saw the angel
of the Lord, she fell down unto Balaam. And Balaam's anger was
kindled, and he smoked the ass with his staff. And the Lord
opened the mouth of the ass, and she said unto Balaam, What
have I done unto thee, that thou hast smitten me these three times?" There's no awe and shock to Balaam
that his donkey is talking to him. You'd think this would be
one of the first clues But he doesn't even act surprised. He
just carries on a conversation with this donkey. And he said
unto the ass, Because thou hast mocked me, I would therefore
there were a sword in my hand, for now I would kill thee. And
the ass said unto Balaam, Am I not thine ass, upon which thou
hast ridden ever since I was thine unto this day? Was I ever
wont to do so unto thee? And he said, Nay. Then the Lord
opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the Lord
standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand. And
he bowed down his head, and fell flat on his face. And the angel
of the Lord said unto him, Wherefore hast thou smitten thine ass these
three times? Behold, I went out to withstand
thee, because thy way is perverse before me. And the ass saw me,
and turned from me these three times. Unless she had turned
from me, surely now also I had slain thee, and saved her alive."
Now don't you think Balaam would say, I'm going home. Balaam said,
I, the angel of the Lord, I have sinned, for I knew not that thou
stoodest in the way against me. Now, therefore, if it displeased
thee, I'll get me back again. The angel had the sword drawn
in his hand to kill him because his ways perversed. Is there
any doubt that this displeases the angel of the Lord? Balaam's motive is to stay as
close to that money as long as he can. If it displeased thee,
now I'll go back, but if not, I'm going to go with him. And
the angel of the Lord said unto Balaam, Go with the men, but
only the word that I shall speak unto thee, that shalt thou speak.
So Balaam went with the princes of Balak." And over the next
couple of chapters what happens is Balak brings Balaam up to
look at all the children of Israel. He says, Now curse the people.
And Balaam says, Well, build me seven altars. I'll go up here
by myself and offer these sacrifices and see what the Lord will tell
me. The Lord's already told him twice he's not going to curse
his people. He went and sought the Lord, and he came back and
told what the Lord told him. He didn't curse the people, he
blessed them. And Belich said, don't bless them. He says, well,
come over here. We're just to another mountain
where you just see part of the people, and you'll curse them.
Balaam said, well, build me seven altars, and we'll offer seven
sacrifices, and I'll go over here by myself to see what the
Lord will tell me. Well, he did, and he came back, and he blessed
the people. And Belich said, don't talk anymore. Don't bless
them, don't curse them, don't talk anymore. Just depart from
it. Well, why does Balaam keep going over there trying to see
what the Lord is telling him? He's trying to find a way to
say something that will sound like a curse to Balaam so he
can get the money. He's trying to stay as close
to it as long as he can. It's covetousness. That's his
motive, to get all the money of the king, to be promoted in
the honor that the king could promote him to. It's covetousness. He's willing to say anything
for money, even if it's to curse Israel. Now, that's shocking,
but he's willing to say anything for money. He's willing to make
a shipwreck of the faith. Now, this week on Tuesday, we
had that freezing rain. I was coming home, and there
was a wreck in Russell. Come down the viaduct into Russell,
car slid off that thing, slid across the embankment, hit a
train that was parked there. Car parts all over the place.
Traffic backed up for a mile this way and more than a couple
miles this way. Just everywhere. Wayne was down
in Russell. Couldn't get in, couldn't get out, could you?
The destruction and misery that that wreck caused went for miles. Just miles. That's the effect
of shipwreck making shipwreck of the faith. There was destruction
here and the misery spreads for miles. But he didn't care. It's the money. Show me the money. So, verse 17, Peter says, Now
these are wells without water, clouds that are carried with
a tempest, to whom the mist of darkness is reserved forever. They're wells without water.
They're great black rain clouds that just blow by without ever
dropping any rain. Well, what good are they? Without Christ, the water of
life is useless. Utterly useless. They're deep
wells. I mean, they're deep. They're
impressive looking. But there's no water. They're
big, thick, black clouds that never drop any rain. They have
a form of godliness. They have a form that looks impressive
to men. But there's nothing there. They're
empty. Nothing for the sheep. Verse
18, Peter says, for when they speak great swelling words of
vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much
wantonness, those that are clean escaped from them who live in
error. They sound impressive. I'm telling you, they're impressive.
They use big religious words, but for all their great swelling
words, it's just vanity. It's empty. There's no blessing.
You think that sounds impressive. That sounds well thought out
and well studied, but there's no blessing there because there's
no water. That's why there's no water.
They use these words to allure people, to lure them in so they
can fleece them. They make people feel important.
They puff them up just so they can get the money from them.
It's a fisherman luring the fish in. They got the bait. And there's
a hook in it. Every time there's a hook in
the bait to hook them and catch them and pull them in. And they
act very religious, but they live in error. They live in doctrinal
error and they live in error of conduct because of it. Verse
19, Peter says, while they promised them liberty, they themselves
are the servants of corruption. For of whom a man is overcome
are the same as he brought into bondage. They promised liberty. But they can't produce it. They
can't produce liberty because they can't tell people where
to find it because they're still in bondage themselves. They use
the word liberty because that's a scriptural term. But when they talk of liberty,
they don't mean the liberty of God's children that you read
about in God's word. They mean something different.
And it goes one of two ways. And I read this. in from John
Gill. This didn't just start happening
yesterday. This has been going on forever. It's either fleshly
liberty or it's legal liberty. Now fleshly liberty is just a
reformed life. You can talk somebody into not
living a life of sin in the bars and the brothels and places.
You can talk them into actually not committing adultery or at
least being careful enough when they do it that they don't get
caught so people don't think they're doing it. You can talk
them into showing up at the church building most Sundays and putting
their money in tithe, you know. You can talk them into not cussing
in public and not acting up in public and you can say, well,
you're free from sin. You're at liberty. Well, you
might have some freedom from the outward motions of sin, but
you're not at liberty from sin because you still have a heart
of sin that's captured you. And somebody that's in this fleshly
liberty, they're still at bondage. They're still under the power
of sin. Matter of fact, I bet you it's all they can think about
because it's all they can think about to keep it from busting
out on them. It's fleshly liberty. Then there's legal liberty. Legal
liberty is telling somebody, well, you're free from the law
as a way to earn righteousness. And their message stops there.
Well, it doesn't matter what you do. It doesn't matter how
you conduct your lives, because in your wallet you've got a get
out of jail free card. See, they look at the blood of
Christ as a get out of jail free card. Something you can buy for
$50 in a Monopoly game. But that's not liberty. That
is not liberty. You're still not enjoying the
liberty of children. Liberty in Christ is being free. from the controlling power of
sin. It's free from the condemnation of sin. It's free from the power
of sin. The prisoner is set free at liberty to serve God as a
son and a daughter, not as a slave, not as a prisoner. In verse 20,
I'll quit. For if after they have escaped
the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ, and they are again entangled therein and
overcome, The latter end is worse with them than the beginning.
For if it had been better for them, for it had been better
for them, not to have known the way of righteousness, then, 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 has turned to his own vomit again, and the
sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire." It's worse to hate
the gospel. than hate the law. A state of
apostasy is worse than ignorance, than to have given some mental
assent to the truth of the gospel and turn away from it, like a
dog returning to its vomit or the pig returning to the mire.
Why does a dog go eat vomit? That's his nature. Why does a
pig, after you washed her up for the county fair, go back
and wallow in the mud the first time you let her out of the pen?
That's the pig's nature. Why does a false teacher turn
from the truth and preach a lie? That's his nature. That's the
nature he's born with. God ain't giving him a new one.
And that's sad. It's sad. It's a sad thing to
have to talk about. It's a sad thing to have to beware
of. But Scripture warns us about
that. Now, next week, we'll have a lesson that's I hate to say
more of a blessing because it's all God's Word, but it'll be
on a more positive note, let's put it that way. All right, the
Lord bless you.