Under the Judgment • 2 Peter 2:2-9
18:16 Teaching begins
Notes
Peter wants his readers to be have abundant entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. One of the dangers barring our entrance is the temptation of false teaching that appeals to our natural self- centeredness.
The danger of false teaching is that it comes out of the Bible. But it’s not all the truth of the Bible, and it is aimed at your selfishness. False teaching doesn’t change you. It actually leaves you under punishment for the day of judgment.
Let’s read 2 Peter 2:1-9
1. False teachers pick and choose what they teach in the Bible.
A. The word “heresy” comes from a Greek word meaning “choice”. We think, what does choice have to do with it?
1. Truth has to be complete or it’s not true. If you only get part of the truth then you are missing something vital that you have to know.
2. The heresy comes from the picking and choosing from the truth that distorts the truth. It’s what they don’t teach that is so misleading.
3. Classic example from the second century is Marcion. He threw out the Old Testament because he thought the God of the Old Testament was inferior to the God of the New Testament. He thought Paul was the only authentic apostle because he rejected law as a basis for relationship with God, the others were too Jewish. He rejected the Acts of the Apostles because it approves of all the other apostles. He kept the Gospel of Luke because Luke was associated with Paul, and he kept Paul’s epistles, but he edited out the Old Testament references because they were irrelevant in his thinking.
4. Imagine a Bible with no Old Testament, no references to Judaism. You lose all the prophecy that establishes that Jesus is the Saviour promised by God. Marcion erased the foundations of Christianity and he was rightly declared a heretic. He picked and chose what suited his false beliefs.
B. Peter says false teachers’ motivation is covetousness. They want to exploit you with deceptive words.
1. The Apostle John says about false prophets: 1 John 4:5 They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them.
2. John says how the world thinks: 1 John 2:16 For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.
3. So these false teachers speak in a way that the world pays attention to: covetousness. God wants to bless you, He wants you to prosper even as your soul prospers. He wants you to be healthy and wealthy.
4. And if you support this ministry, God is going to bless your seed faith. Plant one and get thirty, sixty, hundred-fold in return. These false teachers exploit their followers for their own gain.
5. It’s the word of God!
C. Now, who in the world wouldn’t want blessing and happiness? That appeals to what every person wants. Peter says many will follow these teachers’ destructive ways.
D. Because of these people the way of the truth will be blasphemed.
1. It’s obvious that these false teachers are about themselves and about money.
2. People look on and say, you see? It’s all a scam, they’re fakes. They’re all hypocrites.
3. That makes it harder on legitimate followers of Jesus. Oh, you’re one of them, are you? So you’re in it for the money?
4. That blasphemes Jesus. He is the truth, the way of truth, and these false teachers make Him look like a false way, a deceptive way.
2. The whole message of the Bible is sin, righteousness, and judgment.
A. Peter speaks about judgment. Judgment is because of sin.
B. God created a perfect universe. When He finished He said it was all very good.
C. You might run into people who say, well if God created everything why is there pain and sickness and death? Why is life so miserable for so many people? If there is a God, He must be the devil.
D. God says, no, angels and men have sinned against God and are liable to His judgment. It’s sin that has ruined God’s creation, not any fault in God. The terrible reality is that God will judge all angels and men. All of life is headed to this great and final judgment.
E. This judgment is not idle, it’s at work now. It doesn’t sleep, is inactive. It is terrifyingly real. God has shown He is in earnest by already carrying out judgment on both angels and men.
3. Angels rebelled against God and committed great crimes of wickedness.
A. The highest angel of all God’s creation rebelled against Him. Two places to read about him are Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28. I’m quoting from
1. Ezekiel 28:15 You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you.
2. Ezekiel 28:17 “Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor; I cast you to the ground; I put you before kings, that they may see you.
C. Here’s an angel that could see God and His glory. And yet this angel was carried away by his own beauty. He turned away from God to worshipping himself. He would not exalt the Eternal God, he would exalt himself to be God.
D. This angel became the devil. Revelation 12:4 shows that the devil drew a third of God’s angels to follow him in his rebellion.
E. Verse 4 refers to what happened in Genesis 6:1-6
1. Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. And the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
2. Jude refers to this Jude 1:6 And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day;
3. What these angels did was turn away from worshipping God in heaven to looking at women on earth, lusting for them, and having relations with them. The Greek myths are full of gods coming down to earth to sleep with women. Their children were the demigod heroes, like Hercules. The crazy thing is those stories are still with us today in a modern form, the Percy Jackson book series, several of them. The demigod heroes are the product of gods sleeping with humans.
4. These angels made like they were gods and used their glory and power to take wives for themselves of all they chose. They got their way. It was basically the rape of helpless women far below them. It was sick and vile.
5. Peter says God did not spare those angels. He was not gentle, He did not treat them with tenderness, because they did not treat their victims with tenderness. God does not let these angels run free. They misused their freedom and they abused their power and glory. So God has imprisoned them in darkness, in the lowest place until the last judgment. On that day they will be thrown into the lake of fire that burns forever.
4. God also judged the ancient world.
A. Genesis 6 says Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. So people are only using and abusing everyone around them for their own advantage. The whole earth is violent, oppressive, wicked. People have made calculations of what the world’s population would have been at that time, given that men lived centuries before the flood. They figure there could have been 7 or 8 billion people in the world, just like now.
B. God preserved Noah because Noah listened to God. He did what God told him to do: build the ark, and tell everyone that God was going to destroy the world for their wickedness, and that they should repent. He did this for 120 years.
C. The world ignored Noah and went on with normal, everyday life until Noah entered the ark. Then God broke up the fountains of the deep, flooded the entire world, and killed everyone who ignored his warning. The punishment fit the crime. Because the world ignored God, He ignored them when He judged.
5. God also condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.
A. These cities would not serve God. They were self- serving, serving one's own interests in disregard of the truth or the interests of others.
B. God explained their sin in Ezekiel 16:49-50 Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughter had pride, fullness of food, and abundance of idleness; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty and committed abomination before Me; therefore I took them away as I saw fit. That word “abomination” is used in Leviticus 18:22 You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination.
C. The irony is that these people did not want to serve God, but now they serve God as an example of what happens if you serve your own interests in disregard of the truth and the interests of others, you will also perish.
6. The reason false teachers will bring swift destruction upon themselves and upon those who follow them is that false teaching doesn’t tell the truth about sin and judgment.
A. The truth is supposed to cause you to turn around, to stop you running away from God, and to be reconciled to Him before the judgment.
B. But false teaching keeps you self-centred, focused on your own satisfaction, it doesn’t change you at all. It keeps you under punishment for that great day of judgment.
6. So what?
A. The danger of these times is that we don’t want to hear the truth about ourselves.
1. We think, hey, I’m okay, just a few things to be removed that mess my life up. But other than that, I’m good. We don’t want God to mess up our lives.
2. 2 Timothy 4:3-4 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.
B. We need our lives to be radically plowed up. We need to be transformed according to the word of God. If we don’t hear the whole truth, we will be concerned only with this life and our own pleasures. We won’t be thinking about being pleasing to God. We will stay the same and be judged like the angels, the world before the flood, and Sodom and Gomorrah.
C. God knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations. He delivered Noah and three other families. He delivered Lot. Jesus taught us to pray, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
D. As we pray the Holy Spirit will lead us to the cross of Jesus. There our old life is put to death. Our sins are paid for. We don’t have to live according to them anymore. There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ. The Spirit leads us to live with Jesus raised from the dead. We want to be led by the Spirit.
Let’s pray.