...The More They Stay the Same
Preached by Jason Abbott
January 31, 2016
There will always be false teachers in the church, wolves of unholy doctrine: who were and who are and who are to come. So Peter reminds his readers of this. There were fake prophets in the old days “just as there will be…among you” (v. 1). I truly believe his warning is meant for those in the congregation he wrote to then and to every other congregation since—until Christ’s return.Thus, as far as false teaching in the church goes—the more things change, the more they stay the same.Peter just finished speaking about the Bible—its reliability and truth for us. He calls it the prophetic word, because in it “men spoke from God as…carried along by the Holy Spirit” (1:21). Now, he warns us of the opposite—men speaking by their own sinful wills and calling it Scripture—saying that it’s authoritative. Well let’s look at what he has to say. (See the brown Bibles page 1167.)
2 Peter 2
1 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; 5 if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; 7 and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked 8 (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones, 11 whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. 12 But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, 13 suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you. 14 They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have heart strained in greed. Accursed children! 15 Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, 16 but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet's madness.17 These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. 18 For, speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. 19 They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. 20 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21 For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. 22 What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”
Well, this is a whole chapter, a long passage, but Peter’s really just saying two basic things in it. (1) Peter’s warning the church against these false teachers, and (2) Peter’s revealing the character of these false teachers. That’s basically it. So let’s begin with his…
1. Warning about false teachers in the church (vv. 1-10a)
What’s the nature of his warning? What’s he arguing against here?Recall that the false teachers were likely saying that Jesus won’t come back and Jesus, therefore, won’t judge us. They argued there isn’t a future punishment for unrighteous living now so we ought to live for sensual pleasures—eat, drink, and be merry. Something of that sort with just a little church culture sprinkled in!So here Peter counters such teachings. At the very points Christ is attacked, Peter argues that the reverse is actually true. He says look:
These are lies—“destructive heresies” (v. 1), “truth…blasphemed” (v. 2), and “false words” (v. 3).
There will be punishment—“swift destruction” (v. 1), “condemnation” that “is not idle” and “destruction” that “is not asleep” (v. 3).
In a nutshell, in the first three verses of today’s passage, Peter cries: “Foul! No way! Not so! That’s garbage!” To those who’d say Jesus isn’t coming back; Peter says Jesus is coming back. To those who’d say there won’t be any judgment; Peter says there will be judgment. To those who’d say do whatever you please; Peter says do whatever pleases God.I have five young kids, so I hear lots and lots of arguments that degenerate into something like this, some kind of back and forth: “No, I’m not! Yes, you are! No, I’m not! Yes, you are!”These kinds of arguments epitomize how selfishly irrational we tend to be. There’s no evidence brought to the table. There’s no honest search for the truth. We simply dig our heels in and repeat our positions over and over and over again as if doing that will eventually somehow make them true.Friends, this shouldn’t be how Christians go about disagreeing with others. We must not mindlessly repeat our position without any context or any reasoning. We must not simply repeat our position louder and louder when opposition arises against us. Rather, we should engage people with a firm faith and sound reasoning, just as Peter does here.You see, Peter doesn’t simply say these teachers are wrong and I’m right. Instead, he says that they’re wrong and he’s right because history is on his side, because biblical history is on his side, because redemptive history is on his side. Look at what he says following verse three.
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority (vv. 4-10).
Here, Peter ventures back to the very beginning chapters of history to show that God does judge and punish the wicked. He recounts some history in Genesis: judgment of rebellious angels (Gen. 6), judgment of a rebellious world (Gen. 7), and judgment of a rebellious city (Gen. 19).If you’re a skeptic, you may protest that that’s mythology—not history. However, that’s an article of your faith. For Peter was writing to Christians here. He was writing to those whose faith takes the Bible to be the most accurate history in the world. He was reasoning well within the rules of the game. He says to those, who called themselves Christians, “If God doesn’t judge us then what do you make of all this judgment?”Yet, if you don’t believe, if you reject what the Bible says about judgment, then please, at the very least, recognize and admit that you’re in a predicament. Don’t dodge the problem you face by dismissing the Divine Judge. See, when you (as Peter’s opponents here were doing) dismiss God’s judgment of right and wrong then you’ve also just dismissed the idea that there’s any ultimate right or wrong—any real good or bad. You see, in the end, without God’s judgments:
What is is right. In other words, might makes one right.
And/Or
All judgments about right and wrong are merely personal judgments concerning what is right and wrong.
All that I’m saying is that our beliefs should inform the way that we live. They should have consequences. So, if you’ve chosen to mount and ride a mule, don’t act as if you’re riding a stallion. I hope that that makes sense.Let’s move now to the second thing Peter reveals, namely the true…
2. Character of these false teachers in the church (vv. 10b-22)
First, Peter tells us that these teachers presume arrogantly to know far more than they really do. Look at what he says:
Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones, whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you. They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have heart strained in greed. Accursed children! Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet's madness (vv. 10b-16).
We’ve all had times where we’ve witnessed someone’s ignorance revealed while boasting as if they have great knowledge. That’s what Peter says the teachers are doing here—arrogantly boasting about divine things they haven’t a clue about.I’ve been approached by people, more than once, who say they have a word from God about something. Often what they say is vague and difficult to discern—as being from God or not from God. One time a couple told me that God revealed to them that the church in which I was serving was the place he’d called them to. Yet, when they didn’t get something they wanted afterwards, they abruptly left, went to another church, and began doing the same things. Did they have a word from God? I really don’t think so. But if they did, they disobeyed him, or, maybe, God couldn’t exactly decide where he wanted them!Friends, be wary of those who say such things in the name of Christ Jesus. Test everything by what the Bible says. God will say nothing that conflicts with it. Furthermore, God isn’t vague and difficult to discern; Satan is! Since this is so, don’t be led astray by ambiguous half-truths.On the flipside, speak only on things you know. Don’t try to impress others by boasting about things you don’t really know. Rather, walk humbly in the Spirit. In this way, you will simultaneously image and worship Jesus.So, what else does Peter say about the character of these false teachers?Well, Peter tells us that these false teachers try to win slaves for themselves with their lies. Yet, they don’t recognize that they, themselves, are actually slaves to their desires. Look at the last few verses:
These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. For, speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire” (vv. 17-22).
There’s a Bob Dylan song called “Gotta Serve Somebody” where he sings: “You're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed / You're gonna have to serve somebody, / Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord / But you're gonna have to serve somebody.” 1 Bob isn’t always right, but he is here.No matter what you do, you will have a god of some sort reigning over you. Maybe it’s beauty or popularity or fame. Maybe it’s romance or love.Or maybe it’s money. Once, Jesus met a rich young man who seemed to be in complete control of his life. Therefore, he’s often called the “rich young ruler.” He is, however, no ruler. Rather, he proves to be enslaved to the things he owns. You see, when he wants to follow Jesus, his possessions possess him.2In our text, Peter points out that these false teachers are similarly enslaved. They are slaves to their passions and desires. They are owned by their appetites. They think they are free—living for the world’s temporary and fading pleasures—but they are actually enslaved by those pleasures.Friends, don’t be fooled. Don’t think longingly back on those good-old-days before you served Christ. Don’t imagine those days were a better and freer time. They were not good or free! You were a slave to that which could not satisfy! Returning to those days would be like returning to vomit thinking it can satisfy.Look:
This is why the porn addict needs something a little different.
This is why the drug addict needs a little bigger hit each time.
This is why the shopping addict needs another sale and another.
And so Bob sings on: “You're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed / You're gonna have to serve somebody, / Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord / But you're gonna have to serve somebody.”
I wonder—do you know what slavery to God is called? It’s called gospel; it’s called good news; it’s called true freedom. For:
God treats his slaves with kindness and respect and love.
God makes his slaves heirs—his own sons and daughters.
God gives his slaves himself—even when it means dying for them.
If you’re a believer, don’t, for a moment, think about returning to the vomit, or the pigsty, of your life before Christ. It will not satisfy you!If you’re a non-Christian, don’t wait any longer to entrust yourself as a slave to Jesus, for only when he is your master will you experience true freedom. Amen!
1Bob Dylan, “Gotta Serve Somebody” on Slow Train Coming, 1979.
2See Matthew 19:16-30; Mark 10:17-31; Luke 18:18-30.
