This evening we'll be continuing our series in 2nd Peter. If you'd please turn to 2nd Peter. It's on page 1208 this evening. 1208, we're looking at 2nd Peter chapter 2, and we're finishing chapter 2. So 2nd Peter chapter 2, we're going to begin in verse 10 at bold and willful, and we'll read through verse 22 to the end of the chapter. Verse 10, 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 hearts trained 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. 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 to have never 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. This has been the reading of God's holy, inspired, and true word. Brothers and sisters, we've been going through 2 Peter in the evenings, And if you recall, when we got to chapter 2, Peter is talking about false teachers. And last time, we talked about what false teachers look like. We talked about their destructive heresies that they bring into the church. And we talked about the judgment stored up for them in heaven. That God will judge false teachers and the ungodly in the same way he judged Sodom and Gomorrah. The same way he deluged the world in a flood in the days of Noah. so will he judge these false teachers. And in the same way he casts into the outer darkness and put them in chains, the evil angels, the demons that fell from heaven, so too will God put these false teachers in that gloom of utter darkness. So when we come to this second half of the chapter, what Peter is doing, again, is giving a scathing description and a denunciation of false teachers. He also then tells us in verses 17 through 19 about the deceptive ways of sin and what false teachers use to entice unsteady souls. And then he finishes describing what the apostasy of these false teachers looks like. So let us walk through this passage together. In verses 10 through 16 we have this denunciation of the false teachers and peter describes them and kind of walks in circles describing what who they are and what they do and i one pastor suggested organizing this thematically and i think it's really helpful to think about who these false teachers are and then look at what they do and see how their fruits or their actions come from their true identity It's similar to what Jesus told us about you will know a tree by its fruits. Here what we see is the identity of these false teachers is what leads to their evil, sinful habits. And by seeing those sinful ways, we can know the identity of false teachers. So Peter's helping us to see, identify, and expose false teachers. So looking at verse 12, we'll just start with Peter's identifying them. He calls them irrational animals, irrational animals. He thinks that they're irrational, not thinking in a rational way, because they say that a just, righteous, and holy God would not judge sinners. And that's completely irrational, that our just God would not come in judgment. They're denying the return of Jesus in judgment. He says that's irrational. Furthermore, he says they're creatures of instinct. These false teachers give in to their base desires. Whatever passion comes upon them, whatever lust is before their eyes, they jump on it like a rational creature, like they're instinctual, jumping at raw meat. So these false teachers are creatures of instinct. He also says that they're born to be caught and destroyed. Kind of an interesting phrase. But I think Peter's considering how all animals are prey. Eventually something will eat every other animal, even if it's the worms in the end. They're all born to be caught and destroyed. And so the identity of these false teachers is he's saying that they're reprobate. They are vessels of wrath, and they are going to be destroyed in the same judgment as animals are destroyed by other animals they are set for destruction and they live in ignorance they live like animals and they'll die like animals continuing this scathing description peter says they're blots and blemishes in verse 13 he says that they're blots and blemishes which interestingly is precisely the thing that christians are called to diligently avoid in chapter 3. Just in the next chapter, Peter says, beloved, be diligent to be found by Jesus without spot or blemish. So he's saying the very identity of these false teachers is exactly what Christians ought to avoid. And this idea of blots and blemishes is coming from Leviticus. In chapter 22, no offering can be brought before the Lord that has defects in blemishes and spots on it, but only the perfect lamb. So too with the sons of Aaron, the priests cannot serve the Lord if they are defective, if they have blots and blemishes on them. So what Peter is describing about these false teachers is that they are unfit and unqualified to serve the Lord. They cannot come before the Lord because of their sin, because they are not regenerate. They can't serve him as false pastors in the flock. Lastly, identifying these false teachers, he says they're accursed children. This means they're children of the curse, children of wrath, ultimately Satan's children and not children of God, because these are not redeemed people. So thinking of these false teachers in their identity as irrational animals, creatures of instinct, blots and blemishes, They are also accursed children. And then in these verses, Peter's also describing their actions very in detailed ways so that we can see what does this unregenerate nature look like in action so that when we see these ways, this life that people live, we can understand that's actually a false teacher. That is not a true teacher. So looking at some of the things that Peter says about these cursed children, He says, they're bold and willful. That's how we began in verse 10, bold and willful. It's kind of an interesting first couple verses. He's describing them blaspheming the glorious ones. Who are the glorious ones other than evil angels? They are the false angels that fell from heaven. That's how Jude describes them in his book. He uses that same term, glorious ones. So these evil angels, in some way, these false teachers were blaspheming them. And Peter says, even the good angels don't do that. So these false teachers are reckless, headstrong, arrogant, and presumptuous to speak against a mighty being when even the mighty and strong angels don't do that. So he's saying this is their reckless behavior. And then he talks about their reveling and deceptions in verse 13. He says, they count it pleasure to revel in the daytime, their blots and blemishes reveling in their deceptions while they feast with you. So back in this time, reveling, drinking, and partying in the daytime was seen as degeneracy, much as it is today. So these false teachers were partying and getting drunk midday. But it's interesting that he says, at these feasts with you. Now, what is the Christian feast that we share together? It's not just a Sunday potluck, but it's the Lord's Supper. And this is describing the same scenario that's in 1 Corinthians, where people are getting drunk at the Lord's Supper. They're coming to the sacrament and getting drunk on the communion wine. Now, this is deceptive pleasure because they are only having the illusion of true enjoyment. When the sacrament is before them, they're completely missing the spiritual realities, the goodness and joy that could be theirs, and rather opting for drunkenness instead. So they are deceived themselves and deceiving others, thinking that this drunkenness is better than the joy and the spiritual food and nourishment we get in the sacrament furthermore in verse 14 Peter describes them as having eyes full of adultery he says they're insatiable for sin John Owen says that this means their imaginations are possessed with a continual representation of the object of their lusts what that means is that their adultery is consuming their thoughts and their minds all day long. And they're insatiable for that sin. They're always looking around for a woman to commit adultery with. And it's insatiable because think about sexual immorality or even drugs and drunkenness. There's always this pleasure that's promised, but you never quite reach it because sin is deceptive in that way and giving false promises of pleasure. So they're insatiable in that they think that they'll reach that joy they're looking for, whatever that enjoyment is, but they never actually quite reach it. So they're always looking for more. In rehab terms or drug use terms, this is chasing the dragon, right? It's never good enough. So they're insatiable for this sin, having eyes full of adultery. let us not have those eyes brothers and sisters we also see in verse 14 that they entice unsteady souls so in their own lusts and desire for sin they're also trying to bring others into that they want to entice others and it says they're enticing unsteady souls i think the unsteady soul here is those who are in church who are maybe checking out christianity who are getting a taste or a feel for what christians do but are not firmly rooted in their faith in jesus christ but rather just sitting listening a part of the church or maybe tangential to the church and false teachers see that person and they know they're not fully rooted in their faith and that's their prey that's who they'll entice the person who doesn't believe in jesus yet so they don't have their heart regenerated to hate sin and they know they can bring them into their sensual passions along with the false teacher so that's what these false teachers are doing and it says and also in verse 14 that their hearts are trained in greed trained in greed it's an athletic metaphor, that they're almost competing, outdoing one another to be the greediest. I happened to see a video this very week of a pastor, Kenneth Copeland, talking about his watch collection and how he has almost a million dollars of watches. And he's supposedly giving a sermon talking about this. And you just think, that's a heart trained in greed, that he can brag about these things and try to bring others into this greed trying to entice others with the things of this world with sensual passions of the flesh instead of giving them the nourishment of the word so peter's conclusion in verse 15 about the identity and actions of these people is they have forsaken the way he says that in verse 15 here forsaking the right way that's the way that christians walk the way of jesus christ forsaking the right way they have gone astray they followed the way of balaam the son of beor who loved gained from wrongdoing but was rebuked for his own transgression a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet's madness so balaam if you remember is in the old testament he is the paradigm false prophet he's in numbers 22 and he's the one that he tried to go up on the mountain to curse israel but the lord restrained his tongue and all he could do was bless israel he wanted to get the paycheck from the king he wanted to get gain from wrongdoing but the lord didn't allow him but as he's on his way to go try to curse israel he's riding a donkey and the angel of the lord stands in his path and the donkey tries to turn him aside and he beats the donkey and that's when the lord opens the donkey's mouth and we read here that the donkey rebukes him and the irony is that this irrational animal was had more sense than him and restrained his own madness as he's trying to curse god's people he's saying that that's a mad thing to do to try to entice and curse God's people. So Balaam becomes, in Jewish and Old Testament lore, a picture of sexual immorality, greed, and idolatry. Because though Balaam didn't succeed in cursing Israel on that day, we read in Numbers 25 that his plan actually became to get that gold from the king he brought Moabite women into the camp and caused Israel to whore after these women caused them to follow their gods sexual immorality idolatry and greed these are hallmarks of false teachers and Peter says that's the path they're on they're no longer on the right way of Jesus Christ. So Peter gives us in verses 17 through 19 a picture of this deceitful way of sin and how false teachers use deceit to try to entice, draw away these Christians, give them false promises to try and deceive us. So let us read these verses understanding that we need to be aware of the deceit of sin so in verse 17 he says these are waterless springs 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 these loud boasts of folly some commentators would translate that as high-flown empty talk where it sounds impressive but it's really deceptive and ultimately worthless that's what it means when he says that they're waterless springs that basically means an empty or a dry well, where you'd expect someone in a pulpit, someone trying to teach you in a Christian church to have the waters of living life, right? Waters flowing up and bubbling into eternal life. That's what Jesus promised us. So you'd expect that when you see a pastor, one of these false teachers, but they're empty, waterless springs. They don't have the living waters to give to us. Rather, Peter says, that they're mists driven by a storm. They have no substance. They're vapid and empty. But they're tricky. They want to deceive you to think that they are Christians, to think that they can give you some teaching that's true. So we've got to be aware of their high-flown, empty talk, their loud boasts of folly. We've got to be aware that they use sophistry. They'd sound smart and intelligent, but really they're giving false teaching and they have nothing in them. So in verse 19, Peter continues and says, they promise freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. So it's very ironic here. These false teachers are promising what they cannot give because they do not have it. They promise freedom, but they themselves are slaves. Charles Spurgeon said, sin is false through and through. It promises pleasure, but it leads to misery. It feigns a heaven, but inflicts a hell. That's what we were talking about earlier when they're trying to entice us into these sensual passions. They have bait that hides the hook. They feign a heaven, but inflict a hell. They try to tell you that the freedom offered by sin is true freedom, but it's not. What we read here is that the freedom they're offering is actually bondage slavery because they're overcome by their passions acting like creatures of instinct they're overcome by those passions and slaves to them they're not really living in freedom they'll tell you that god's law is too restrictive they'll tell you that god's law is too controlling that the christians are too controlling and there'll be these churches that just tell you you can do whatever you want. You can live however you want. Follow your passions. Be you. Be who you really are. And that's dangerous because it's actually a lie. See, sometimes what appears to be restrictive actually gives us more freedom. Think about wearing pants. It is necessarily more restrictive than wearing shorts, but it gives you the ability to walk through brambles and briars. You can walk through bushes with pants on. So it gives you different freedoms, more freedom in other ways, even though it necessarily is restrictive. So thinking about this in terms of sexual freedom, which is often one of the main sensual passions that's wrought upon by these false teachers, they would say that marriage is too restrictive. And it's better to sleep with whoever you want. But rather, we see that this freedom that they're offering, just freedom to let your sensual passions run free, to have casual sex, to indulge in hookup culture, that actually is leading to heartbreak for the young people that are engaging in that. I read an online magazine from non-Christians. These are just the Gen Z young folks who are falling prey to this lie of casual sex and hookup culture. And they said, ultimately, hookup culture leaves us unfulfilled and empty. The lack of security, stability, companionship, and emotional intimacy that stems from a lack of commitment and romantic relationships is extremely hurtful, even if you don't notice it at first. I think that's key, not noticing at first, because the false promise is that it's freedom, but you don't see the hook of slavery, that if you just give in to your passions, you're slaves to them. Think about how God's design for marriage gives you this commitment. It gives you the security, stability, companionship, emotional intimacy, and romance that these people are seeking in the lie of sexual freedom that's the lie but god's design can give us these things it can give us that joy and trust and interdependence that brings us to new freedoms even though marriage necessarily is restricting you to one person you're forsaking all other people and committing in covenant to one person but there's greater freedoms in that than the lie of the sinful freedom offered by false teachers. Hebrews 3.13 reminds us that we need to exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. We need to be aware, brothers and sisters, that the deceitfulness of sin is tempting. The bait looks good, even for Christians. And we need to remind one another that the lie of the freedom that sin and false teachers offer is not actually the freedom and joy that God has for us. We need to remind one another and be aware that we can guard ourselves against these false teachers. We need to be aware that true freedom and escape is only in Jesus Christ. Peter ends this passage talking about apostasy, those that fall away from the church. He starts in verse 20, for if after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse than the first. So there's some people that sit in church with us, that hear God's word, that hear the preaching, they hear the law, they may even make a profession of faith, They may even be baptized, and they sit with us day by day, and God's word bears upon their consciences, so they, so to speak, escape the corruptions and pollutions of this world. They reform their lives. They live in accordance with these other Christians. They see how other Christians live, and they try to walk that path, doing their best as creatures, and they do have some look of escape, is what we see here. They escaped in some way, but the problem is that it was only external. They only know Jesus externally. These people have not truly been born again. They may live among us, but they've not been regenerated by the Holy Spirit. So that means that the root of sin is still deep in that person's heart. Because unless you believe with true faith in Jesus Christ and he gives you a new heart and the Holy Spirit, the best success you could have against sin is temporary. If the root of sin is still in your heart, then eventually that weed will grow back up and, as Peter says, will entangle and overcome that heart so we need to be aware and examining ourselves to make sure that we truly believe with true faith and this is a warning to anyone who hears this that only by true faith in jesus can that root of sin be plucked out just trying to walk the walk by your own power is most certainly not enough peter's describing that these people will always fall away sometimes it happens slowly just stop coming to church eventually lose your christian friends and just move on to the life you had before indulging in sexual immorality or sensual passions whatever it is sometimes it's a trial or tribulation that just knocks someone out of the church and suddenly they disappear think about jesus's parable of the soils those who are entangled by the cares of this world or those who believe for a moment with joy they receive it with joy but they don't have true faith in jesus and they fall away so eventually anyone who doesn't have true faith in jesus will apostatize and turn away and peter says their last state has become worse than the first it's worse than the first because they're more culpable in the same way that a lawyer ought to know the law, so when they break the law, they deserve a greater judgment. So now these people have heard the law of God, they've heard of God's mercy, they've heard of his salvation, they've been among Christians, they've seen the joy in life in the covenant community, but ultimately they turn away and they spurn God's grace. They didn't actually find sin to be noxious and disgusting and repulsive. But they still loved sin because the root of sin was still in their heart. Even if they tried to walk the straight and narrow for a time, you can't do that without the Holy Spirit, without believing in Jesus. So Peter describes this proverb of a dog returning to its own vomit and a sow after washing herself returning to wallow in the mire. now when you think of a dog here don't think of your golden doodle or your cute groomed dog at home but what peter's describing is mongrel vermin think of the mangy coyote you see on your street a gross animal and that animal for a time expels something so this is the false believer that's still an animal, expelling sin for a time, but they'd never really hated that sin. So as a dog, they come and sniff that sin once more, come around it, look at it, and their heart still desires it. So like a dog, they eat that sin up again. Or like a pig that was washed, but still has a desire for the mud i did 4-h and i can tell you that pigs are disgusting animals i raised hogs when i was younger and in peter's mind these are disgusting unclean animals now in 4-h we would raise these hogs and we'd bring them to the state fair to try to auction them off to sell them as meat for money but you'd want these pigs to look really good before the judge so that you could sell them for more now when we'd bring these pigs to the judge would clean them up we'd hose them down we would even shave the pigs and put baby oil on them so you can see their glistening muscles and it looked nice and healthy and we'd try to bring these pigs out there for some reason we'd wear all white even with hogs next to us and i'd have a spray bottle and a brush and just try to keep that hog clean, even for five minutes. But that hog loved mud. They immediately want to get their nose in whatever dirt's before them. They're constantly excreting themselves and rolling in filth because that's what they love. And that's what Peter's describing here. If you aren't truly born again, then you will still love sin. And even if you can clean up for a moment, if that's still where your heart is, you will return to that mud. You will return to that vomit. So this passage is a warning passage to us, warning us about the identity and actions of false teachers, warning us about the deceitfulness of sin and false teachers, and a warning about the apostasy that is inevitable for anyone who doesn't truly believe. So we should be aware of the deceitful tactics we should be disgusted by sin and we should not like dogs and pigs return to that sin but us christians are called to the right way to the way of righteousness to all that virtue that virtuous path that we talked about in chapter one of second peter you see we have become partakers of the divine nature and true christians have escape from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. So all those who believe in Jesus Christ and have new hearts that have the Holy Spirit can fight sin, can turn away from sin. But we need to be aware that sin will hide itself and try to deceive us. Satan would love to get all of God's people to fall into sin. But the thing is, as we heard this morning, God is protecting his people. That no one who truly believes will be this apostate described. No one who is one of God's elect will actually fall away in the end. This warning is to wake us up to search our own hearts that we do believe in Jesus, to see our own actions and own lives, to test ourselves, to guard ourselves against false teachers. But it also should be something for us to pray about, thinking of false teachers, thinking of those who have apostatized, that have fallen away, thinking of those under church discipline, thinking of those who believe heresies. We should pray for them and be concerned that they are not on the right way, but they're going the way of Balaam, the way of sin. And we need to look at ourselves and pray for others and pray that God would keep this church safe and free from this evil teaching. So let us go to God who has apostles that have given us the word that we can get the living waters, that we have wells full of water instead of empty wells, instead of mists blown about by the wind. Praise God that we have true teachers here, that we have Reverend Gordon and Reverend Contreras that teach us faithfully. Let us pray for the elders here to use church discipline to keep this church safe to keep these false teachers and wolves from among us so let us pray to God and thank him that he does give us these living waters and eternal life by true faith in Jesus Christ let's pray together Lord we thank you for this warning it's hard to hear it's hard for us to think about we ask that you would make sin so disgusting in our sight Lord that we would love your law and walk in your paths. We thank you for our teachers here. We thank you that they teach us the truth. We thank you for your word. We ask that we'd follow it diligently. We pray that you'd keep all false teaching and sin from before our eyes and hearts. Let us not be ensnared, enticed, or tricked, or deceived by the sinful ways that we've read about today, Lord. Please lead us in your paths of eternal life and give us living waters found only in Jesus Christ. We pray in his name. Amen.