Monthly Archive for June, 1998

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2 Peter 2:4d

Published on June 20, 1998 in 2 Peter. 0 Comments
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“For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment.”
 
 
into chains of darkness
 
The word “chains” means pit or deep hole. Secular Greek used the word “chains” for an underground granary. We get the English word “silo” from this term. This is a place of imprisonment for fallen angels until the time of final judgment. 
 
“Chains of darkness” is a place of intense gloom where it was extremely dark. This is the gloom of the world below, nether darkness, a place of punishment. This is the gloom of the nether world. Feelings of despair and foreboding accompany this place (He 12:18). This pit of intense “gloom” is extremely dark. False teachers are kept in Tartarus, a place of intense darkness [I guess intense “darkness” befits their teaching]. This is a place of eternal depression. 
 
to be reserved for judgment
 
These angels are “reserved for judgment.” When placed into Tartarus they are not yet in final judgment. God will haul them out of Tartarus for the final judgment (Mt 25:4). These angels have been in Tartarus for thousands of years yet it is still a temporary hell for them. They will be placed in permanent hell in the future. God is protecting His plan of salvation by having these rebels in this hell-jail. 
 
PRINCIPLE: God is consistent with His own character, therefore, He must judge that which is not consistent with Himself.
 
APPLICATION: It comes as a shock to the “do gooder,” bleeding heart type of person that God can be a God of judgment. This is the general characteristic of liberal thinking today. Usually these people are sheltered types. They are weak sisters who are afraid to do the right thing. They compromise absolutes. Liberalism destroys the toughness and fiber of a national entity and they destroy the toughness of Christianity. 
 
If you walk down a street and someone picks a fight with you, you have no choice but to fight that person [some of you do not know what I am talking about]. You have never lived in a situation where you had to fight to survive. You were never in a corner where you could not get out.  Some people in the world do not understand how to “communicate.” These people do not understand good manners and politeness. That is their way life. We deal with these people differently than civilized people.
 
It also comes as a great shock to some people that God is consistent with Himself. God is immutable and He cannot change His character. God has a tough side. It is a “fearful thing to fall into the hands of an angry God.” If God were to change His character, He would no longer be absolute. God has a perfect Being. How can He change that? He would be stupid to change perfect consistency. 
 
Liberals emphasize God’s love to the exclusion of His other attributes. Love is only one of God’s characteristics. Judgment is another. We cannot separate love and judgment when it comes to God. God is not free to give eternal life to everyone. 
 
Only very dumb people love everyone the same way without discretion. We have heard the phrase “fat, dumb and happy.” This is an idiom that everything is “wonderful.”  God has more than one attribute. He is more than love. Love is at His essence but He has more attributes than love. Just because you love people, this does not mean that you do not use discernment in business. 
 
Certain attributes call for different situations. If it is necessary for you to be wise and tough, you do it. If it is necessary for you to love, you do it. Liberals latch on only one attribute – love. This is distortion. It is a distortion of God for God is more than love. God can love and God can be tough [toughness is also part of His love]. God is love but He is also justice and righteousness.
 
Some organizations try to sell us on the fact that our relationship with God does not mean anything. These organizations are hard core apostate organizations. These people are often very pleasant and charismatic. They are always self-righteous and very sincere but much diluted about the Bible. So, they peddle their false doctrine of a distorted God. These people even delude evangelical Christians. Naive sheep drink from muddy water. Sheep who know the Bible do not drink from muddy water but drink from the clear springs of God’s Word.
 
For God to be consistent with Himself, He must judge false teachers. He will always judge false teachers. The goat is the false teacher. Do not look for any horns or red epidermis or forked tail! 
 
There is only one thing worse than injustice and that is justice without her sword in her hands. When right is not might, right is evil. God’s justice grinds slow but sure. 
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2 Peter 2:4c

Published on June 19, 1998 in 2 Peter. 0 Comments
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“For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment.”
 
 
and delivered them
 
“Delivered” means to give over to something else. God handed these fallen angels over to another place with a view to judgment. God will give them their due. God is consistent with His character. Either God must judge Jesus for our sins our He must judge us for not accepting His payment for our sin. 
 
PRINCIPLE: God sent Jesus to the cross in order to resolve our acceptance to Him.
 
APPLICATION: There is no judgment for the person who receives Jesus as his Savior (Ro 8:1) because Christ died for his sins (1 Co 15:3). Jesus paid in full for any sin we have committed or might commit (1 Pe 2:24). Jesus took our curse (Ga 3:13). Immediately, at the point one receives Christ’s death in payment for one’s personal sins, a person passes out from under judgment and enters eternal life
 
Jn 5: 24 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.”
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2 Peter 2:4b

Published on June 18, 1998 in 2 Peter. 0 Comments
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“For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment.”
 
 
but cast them down to hell
 
“But” is a term of strong contrast. Instead of abstaining from judgment, He judged these angels. He had to judge them. He could not overlook their rebellion. 
 
There are a number of terms for Hell in the Bible. Hades and Sheol are temporary hells. Gehenna [12 times in the Bible] is the “Lake of Fire” found in Revelation 20 [five times]. The “Second Death” is another term for Hell and occurs 4 times in Revelation. Revelation tells us of the “bottomless pit” seven times. 
 
We now come to yet another word for “Hell” — Tartarus. The normal word for Hell is Gehenna. Gehenna is what we normally think of as Hell and is the permanent Hell. Tartarus is a temporary place of torture or torment for angels (Ju 6). It is a temporary Hell. The Greeks thought of Tartarus as a subterranean place where divine judgment was meted out. It was the nether world. Evidently, this was a place of punishment for fallen angels. 
 
Tartarus is not Sheol or Hades where men go at death. Nor is this where God will place the wicked permanently which is permanent Hell [Gehenna]. Nor is this the place where men to for punishment. This is a temporary place of punishment for angels.
 
PRINCIPLE: God’s character demands that there be a Hell.
 
APPLICATION: The important thing about a highway is the destination. The Bible tells of two highways, one to Heaven and the other to Hell. “I am on a wonderful road but where does it lead me? I am on an interstate but it is not taking me in the right direction.” The road to Hell seems like a nice road but it takes me in the wrong direction. The road to Hell is all-downhill.
 
Where do you want to go? Biblically, there are only two roads, one to heaven and the other to Hell. You do not have to go to Heaven. That is your choice. 
 
Mt 7: 13 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 “Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
 
To find the road to heaven, go to this page: http://www.crusade.org/fourlaws/
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2 Peter 2:4

Published on June 17, 1998 in 2 Peter. 0 Comments
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"For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment."
 
 
Chapter two is in the minor key. It tells the dark tale of apostasy. The Bible warns that the church will go into apostasy in the latter years.
 
For if God
 
In previous verses Peter talks of false teachers. Now he gives a number of examples of apostasy. First he turns to fallen angels (Ezek 28:15; Ju 6). 
 
The “if” here assumes the reality of Peter’s proposition. It is true that God did not spare angels who sinned. Peter now compares the false teachers of his day with beings who apostatized centuries ago. This is the first of three historical comparisons with the past. The other two judgments are the flood (v.6) and Sodom and Gomorrah (v.6). 
 
If God punishes angels who committed apostasy, surely He will punish people in Peter’s day who apostatize. God will not “spare” fallen angels. God will inflict retribution upon angels. 
 
It is interesting that the “if” clause begins here in verse four and ends with a “then” clause in verse nine.  That is all one sentence. If we do not take note of this, we will lose contact with Peter’s argument. 
 
did not spare the angels who sinned
 
“Spare” carries the idea of refrain, abstain. God did not refrain with these people. God cannot refrain from His justice. God cannot abstain from justice. God cannot hold back His essence and abandon His standards. He must act according to His own character for He is immutable. There is no latitude in God so God cannot be lenient toward sin. He must judge sin or the sinner who will not accept His judgment of sin. 
 
The sin of these angels was fornication with human beings. God must judge sin no matter how high the creature might be. If God does not spare a higher order of beings, He surely will not spare human beings.
 
Who are these angels that “sinned?” These angels may be the angels of Genesis 6:1-9. This may have been a strategy of Satan to mix angelic and human natures so that when Christ came, He could not represent humanity in His death for their sin. Their sin was a sin of sex perversion. The next term for hell may support the idea that the Genesis six situation was co-mingling of humans and angels.
 
There are two kinds of angels: good and bad,
 
Mt 25: 41 “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’”
 
PRINCIPLE: God must be consistent with His own character.
 
APPLICATION: I have never seen a liberal who could not mouth sloppy sentimentalism towards God’s character a dozen different ways. Let us look at the character of God. Some of God’s attributes are absolute, sovereign, pure justice, absolute righteousness and perfect love. 
 
God is immutable in all these attributes. He does not bend His character to fit a situation. Can He get tough? You bet He can. We cannot read the Old Testament or the New Testament without getting this point. 
 
If we think we can get away with things with God, we fool ourselves. We need to flag ourselves down in time. We need to alert ourselves to our folly as quickly as possible. If we detect cancer early enough, our lives may be spared. It is the same with the gospel. If you discover early enough, you still have a chance to receive Christ. If you come to Christ, you will never come to judgment. The gospel is the good news that we are forgiven in full and free. 
 
God spares His own Son,
 
Ro 8: 32 “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”
 
If you are interested in becoming a Christian, go to this page and it will help you: http://www.crusade.org/fourlaws/
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2 Peter 2:3d

Published on June 16, 1998 in 2 Peter. 0 Comments
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“By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.”
 
 
for a long time their judgment has not been idle
 
Peter now turns to the future of religious swindlers. 
 
The “long time” is about to be explained as an event in the Old Testament.
 
“Idle” means linger. God’s judgment will not linger. Judgment is still functional in God’s economy even though these false teachers may not think so. God’s judgment is still in force. 
 
and their destruction does not slumber
 
“Slumber” means to sleep. God plans doom for these deceivers. Their ultimate end is at hand. God is not sleeping and His judgment is not dozing. 
 
Peter uses the term “destruction” four times from verse one.  It also occurs in 3:7 where it is translated “perdition” and 3:16 where it is translated “destruction.” These words describe what happens to false teachers — perdition.
 
Ro 9: 22 “What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction.”
 
He 10: 9 “But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.”
 
PRINCIPLE: The mills of God grind exceedingly slow but they grind exceedingly fine on false teachers.
 
APPLICATION: Judgment on false teachers will come. He gives them plenty time to repent but His judgment will come apace. 
 
The reason God judges false teachers is that their teaching has serious implications on the lives of people. If you undermine biblical truth, you undermine biblical ethics. No wonder there is so much immorality in our society! This is the result of a relentless attack upon the authority of Scripture that has gone on for centuries. 
 
Our generation is left without absolutes. There are few standards left anymore with the exception of murder. With abortion, even the latter standard is in the process of being undermined. With each successive generation, standards lower further and further. 
 
Collectively, our society is losing its soul. The erosion of its absolutes on our society lessens the impact of the Judeo-Christian value system. The things that shocked us a generation ago no longer shock us.  
 
God, help our generation. God, deliver us from judgment.
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2 Peter 2:3c

Published on June 15, 1998 in 2 Peter. 0 Comments
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“By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.”
 
 
with deceptive words
 
The Greek word for “deceptive” occurs only here in the Bible. We get our English word “plastic” from this word. Plastic is easy to forge. “Deceptive” means to fabricate. Like plastic, people can fabricate and fashion words so that they are so well turned that they appear real. Some people are good at making up words to fit the situation.
 
“Deceptive” was used to mold clay or wax. False teachers manipulate their suckers by molding words to suit the situation. They make up stories to mislead people. They are clever in the way they construct words and arrange words so that they can mislead people (Co 2:4). We can easily recognize a lie when a lie is set forth as a lie. However, when false teachers mask a lie as truth, the lie is much more deadly. 
 
Ro 16:7 “Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them. 18 For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple.”
 
2 Pe 2: 18 “For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error.”
 
PRINCIPLE: False teachers can sound Scriptural but they deceive by distorting truth.
 
APPLICATION: Most people are so biblically illiterate that they cannot discern phony religious leaders from true preachers of the gospel. They are so maudlin that they could not possibly believe that someone in religion could deceive them. They seem to be totally ignorant of the fact that great sections of the Bible warn against religious deceivers. 
 
False teachers can turn their words well. They make their religious wares very attractive to sell. By this they mislead, delude and cheat their followers. Their religious inventions have mere surface attraction.
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2 Peter 2:3b

Published on June 14, 1998 in 2 Peter. 0 Comments
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“By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.”
 
 
they will exploit you
 
“Exploit” means to commercialize, buy, sell, trade. We get our English word “import” from the Greek term. False teachers import false doctrine. Then this word came to mean exploit, to exploit by deception or cheating. These people take advantage of others by implying that what they offer is better than what it actually is. 
 
PRINCIPLE: False teachers are in the business of manipulating and marketing souls.
 
APPLICATION: The sad reality is that some religious leaders give people the business. They swindle their followers.
 
Every generation has its religious con men who come to exploit religious people for financial gain. They use religion for profit. They will buy your soul and then sell it down the river. 
 
These people take the wonderful things of Christ and take advantage of people with them. Today these people blatantly go on TV to make their wares known. Those who have biblical discernment can see the corruption in these religious con men immediately. They can also tell who true preachers are as well.
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2 Peter 2:3

Published on June 13, 1998 in 2 Peter. 0 Comments
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“By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.”
 
 
By covetousness
 
“Covetousness” literally means a desire to have more. “Covetousness” is a desire to have more in a bad sense (Ro 1:29; Ep 5:3; 1 Th 2:5). It is a strong desire to acquire more and more material possessions or possess more things that other people possess. This is irrespective of need.
 
Covetous false teachers want to possess financial gain for themselves. A covetous person always wants a larger portion of the pie. Religious con men grab the attention of religious people by offering them more than they now have. This is how false teachers extort others and satisfy their own greed. 
 
PRINCIPLE: False religionists make money out of their suckers. 
 
APPLICATION: We can tell a charlatan by whether they orient to greed. They exploit people for their own mercenary purposes. They turn their ministry into an exploitative marketplace.
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2 Peter 2:2d

Published on June 12, 1998 in 2 Peter. 0 Comments
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“And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed.”
 
 
will be blasphemed
 
False teachers lead many into debauchery and this brings Christendom into disrepute.   Satan spawns these false teachers to malign the truth of the Word of God. 
 
We can tell whether teaches are true to the truth by what they think of the person and work of Christ. In the first verse they “deny the Lord that bought them.” Tell me what you think of Christ and His work, and I will tell you whether you are true to the truth of Scripture. If you say simply that “He is a wonderful teacher, a profound scholar or the greatest philosopher the world has ever seen,” you miss the point. Affirming the ethics of Jesus, the greatest code of ethics the world has ever seen, is fine but it is not to the point. 
 
If Jesus is not God Almighty, He is the biggest faker on earth. If He is not who He claimed to be, we cannot believe anything He ever said. No, the Lord Jesus, the Lord of Glory, is a member of the Trinity. He is not one of three gods. He is God who exists in one essence. He is God and in His humanity he died for our sins.
 
PRINCIPLE: We learn the way of truth from the Word of God.
 
APPLICATION: We learn the way of truth from the Word of God. We would not know anything about salvation if it were not for the Bible. Man does not want a salvation that excludes other religions. He wants a salvation that includes everyone and tolerates all beliefs so he invents new religions and says, “I take my chances with my religious invention.” 
 
Christian is under attack from both the outside and the inside. It is under attack from secularists, atheists and false religionists from the outside. These groups undermine the truth of Christianity. Those who hoist their flag of false teaching and make their teaching clearly known are not nearly as dangerous as those who hide what they believe. 
 
The second attack upon Christianity is from within. These are spiritual termites within Christendom. These people still want to be called “Christian” yet they deny the essentials of Christianity. 
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2 Peter 2:2c

Published on June 11, 1998 in 2 Peter. 0 Comments
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“And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed.”
 
 
because of whom
 
“Whom” are these false teachers.  The blight of false doctrine bedevils Christendom throughout the world. For every true teacher such as Paul or Peter there are many false counterparts. Sometimes phonies who disseminate diabolical doctrine are more impressive and charismatic than genuine teachers of the Word. 
 
the way of truth
 
Note the term “way” in other texts:
 
Ac 16:17 “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.”
 
Ac 18: 26 “So he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Aquila and Priscilla heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.”
 
Ro 3:17 “And the way of peace they have not known.”
 
PRINCIPLE: There is only one truth and Christianity is that truth and way to heaven.
 
APPLICATION: People do not want to hear there is only one way to heaven. That sounds too dogmatic and exclusive to them. However, the Bible teaches plainly that Jesus is the only way to heaven. 
 
You may say that “That sounds like discrimination to me.” If we do not accept God’s way of salvation, this is discrimination against God. God’s character demands that all sin be paid by Jesus’ death on the cross. He must do this because that is the only way He can be true to His character and yet accept us into His heaven. If we reject this, we discriminate against Him!
 
Have you bought into the propaganda that there are many ways to God?
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