Monthly Archive for July, 1998

Page 2 of 4

2 Peter 3:1c

Published on July 21, 1998 in 2 Peter. 0 Comments
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“Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle (in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder)…”
 
 
your pure
 
“Pure” comes from two words: sun and to judge and means to judge by the sun. We get the English word “heliograph” from the Greek word for “pure.” Hel is sun and heli is sunshine. Heliograph is a system of signaling by using mirrors to reflect off the sun. In the early days of the United States, the US military used heliograph to defeat the Apaches. They defeated the Apaches by holding a mirror to the sun. “Pure” also signifies unalloyed. Greeks also used this term for mixing metals. Metal without mixture is metal without alloy. Alloyed metal is weaker than unalloyed metal.
 
Again, the Greeks used this word for unmixed substances as wine mixed with water. This would dilute the wine. It was not pure wine.
 
The word “pure” eventually came to mean genuine, unmixed. Some pottery dealers would sell defective pots by filling the cracks with wax and then painting over the wax filling. This was deception for the pottery would not perform its true purpose. If the person who bought the pot leaves it out in the sun, the wax would melt.
 
Sharp people would hold the pot up to the sun to see if there were any cracks in the pot. People judged a painted-over pot by putting it up to the sunlight to determine whether there were cracks in the pot. They tested the pot by the sunlight. God’s desire is that our lives will stand up to the judgment of the light of God’s Word. We test doctrine by the sunlight of truth.
 
The purpose of both first and second Peter is to remind believers to do pure thinking. Pure or transparent truth is unmixed, unsullied, and free from falsehood. Peter wants Christians to give doctrine the transparency test. Judge everything by God’s truth. Pure minds are minds unaffected by seductive evil influences. These minds are uncontaminated by outside influence.
 
“…that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ…” (Philippians 1:10).
minds
 
The word “minds” here is from two words: through and think, thus it carries the idea of to think through. This refers to people who are mature in their thinking. They think through things based on the Word of God and apply it to their experience. It is the follow through that counts in athletics. It is the follow through of measuring things by God’s Word and applying them to our experience that counts in living the Christian life. Do you have the ability to think through things using God’s Word as the standard?
 
God saves our minds as well as our hearts. Some who come to Christ never had a serious thought in their lives before their salvation. They never directed their minds to things that matter most. Those without Christ do not think perpendicularly. They think horizontally, not vertically. They can understand the horizontal but they cannot understand the vertical. They cannot understand anything that has to do with God, Christ, Bible or Christ.
 
“But the natural man [the man who simply has mind, emotion and will but no spirit] does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14).
 
This does not mean that we receive more brains when we become Christians. It means that the orientation of our minds change. The Holy Spirit begins to influence our thinking.
 
“For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience that we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God, and more abundantly toward you” (2 Corinthians 1:12).
 
Principle: God wants us to pass the transparency of truth test.
 
Application: We live in the day of the non-mind. People operate on their feelings. They live in subjectivity. Some preachers would rather use the gimmicks of subjectivity than truth to build believers. There is no way that we can live our lives unto the Lord without applying the truth of God’s Word to experience. That is the way we depend on the Lord. Anything else is gimmick.
 
God wants us to evaluate things in the light of the Son. He wants us to use the transparency test — He wants us to use the Word of God to determine whether something is true. He does not want us to use subjective thinking when it comes to truth. He wants us to measure things based on the objective truth of God’s Word. Are you a Christian who measures everything on the basis of the teaching of God’s Word?
 
“For we are not, as so many, peddling the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as from God, we speak in the sight of God in Christ” (2 Corinthians 2:17).
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2 Peter 3:1b

Published on July 20, 1998 in 2 Peter. 0 Comments
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“Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle (in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder)…”
 
 
in both of which I stir up
 
The word “stir up” comes from two words: through and stir and came to mean to wake up fully, rouse. In the two following passages, this term is applied to Joseph and to Jesus,
 
“Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife….” (Matthew 1:24).
 
“But He [Jesus] was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, ‘Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?’” (Mark 4:38).
 
Peter wants his readers to wake up to the truth of how the Bible can change our lives.
 
Principle: God directs Christians to wake up to the reality of God’s Word so He can change their lives.
 
Application: If we know the principles of God’s Word, we can apply those principles to experience.
 
Deceiving Christian leaders today use many gimmicks to mislead Christians from operating on the Word of God. The Bible is our only criterion for determining what is true.
 
Satan loves Christians to fall asleep spiritually. Sometimes he slips them sleeping pills. He wants to sedate Christians into lethargy.
 
The Devil would love to put us to sleep. If he could slip us a sedative, he has done his job. The Devil aims to lull Christians into spiritual drowsiness, as much as to tempt them with blatant sin.
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2 Peter 3:1

Published on July 19, 1998 in 2 Peter. 3 Comments
Read Introduction to 2 Peter

 

“Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle (in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder)…”
 
 
Chapter three introduces the subject of the Lord’s return in the light of false teaching. Three times Peter uses the word for “looking forward.” Peter wants his readers to look forward to the rapture of the church to be with Jesus Christ because apostasy will not prevail in the end.
 
Beloved
 
Peter employs the word "beloved" four times in this chapter (vv. 8,14,17). Peter loves his readers. We are objects of Peter’s love because Peter was the object of God’s love (1 Jn 3:1,2; 4:7). Each and every believer has the same amount of love from God.
 
Peter calls his readers "beloved" four times in this chapter because he treats a subject that has to do with God’s own. That subject is the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. Some Christians evidently are not aware that Jesus is coming back.
 
We answer to one name in public but we may answer to another name in private such as "sweetie" or "honey." Our wife calls us by different names than our colleagues at work. I hope that name is not "jerk!" God’s term for His own is "beloved (Ep 1:6)."
 
I now write to you this second epistle
 
Peter now explicitly states his purpose for writing a second epistle. He wants Christians to know that at the end of this age many apostates will come to deceive Christians. They also need to know that there is hope at the end of the day — Jesus will return to resolve apostate issues.
 
PRINCIPLE: The reality of Jesus’ return keeps us on the tiptoe of expectancy.
 
APPLICATION:Jesus may come momentarily. We might meet Jesus at any moment. This should keep us at peak spiritual vigilance moment by moment. 
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2 Peter 2:22

Published on July 18, 1998 in 2 Peter. 4 Comments
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“But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: ‘A dog returns to his own vomit,’ and, ‘a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.’”
 
 
This verse clenches the idea that these latter verses deal with non-Christian false teachers. God never calls His own people “dogs” or “sows” anywhere in the Bible. Non believers are everywhere called dogs, sows, goats, donkeys, foxes and wolves. The latter are unclean animals. God calls His own people sheep, lambs and oxen. God forbids a donkey and an ox to plow together because one is a clean and the other an unclean animal. God never mixes the two. 
 
But it has happened to them according to the true proverb:
 
Both dogs and pigs in the first century were unclean animals and creatures to be avoided. People did not have dogs for pets. 
 
This verse explains how a person can become thoroughly acquainted with the person and work of Christ and still not accept His message. This verse explains why false teachers are lost. 
 
 ‘A dog returns to his own vomit,’
 
Peter quotes this phrase from Proverbs 26:11.
 
Watching a dog eat his vomit is a gross sight. Most of us who have had dogs have watched this spectacle. The vomit here is false religion. The dog reverts to type. He never was anything but a dog. His dog nature determines his eating habit. Dogs eat vomit. False teachers teach false doctrine. They are true to type.
 
The Bible depicts Gentiles as “dogs.” The dog represents Gentile false teaches. A Gentile is an unbeliever. For a dog to behave any differently, you would have to give the dog a different nature. He needs something different than a dog nature. False teachers need something different than their own natural natures. 
 
and, ‘a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire’
 
False prophets are never what they seem to be and they always return to their true nature. We can clean a pig but the pig will return to his pigsty. False teachers will always revert to false teaching. The pigsty is the natural habitat of the pig. False teaching is the natural habitat of the false teacher. 
 
The “sow” represents the Jewish false teacher. He can clean himself but he will revert to his false teaching. He always goes back to his false teaching. False teachers clean up the outside. They try to reform their overt behavior but they never came to a place of personal regeneration. Without regeneration, they always revert to religion. 
 
Peter mentions a return for both the dog and the sow. When a religionist goes back to his religion before he came to exposure to Christ, he acts like a dog or sow – they always revert to type.   If you want the sow to act differently than a sow, you have to give him a nature different from a sow nature. In that case, he would no longer be a sow.
 
We are naturally born with a proclivity to hate God and love religion. We are born selfish. We want our own way. Then we become renegades by choice. We revolt against God truth. That is the way it is unless something intervenes to change our hearts (1:4). The longer we stay in revolt against God, the more difficult it is to change. We cannot change unless God changes us. Otherwise, everything in us will revolt against God.  
 
Both the dog and the sow “return” to their former state.  They revert to type. Note what Peter said in his first epistle,
 
1 Peter 2: 25 “For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”
 
A true sheep returns to his Shepherd. There is a big difference between a reformed false teacher and a true Christian. There is all the difference in the world between a washed sow and dirty sheep! One returns to his mire and the other to his Shepherd. 
 
PRINCIPLE: There is all the difference in the world between dirty sheep and a washed sow.
 
APPLICATION: It is love’s labor’s lost to clean someone who’s nature and desire is to reject Jesus as their Savior. 
 
Many ministries are in the business of washing sows and amusing goats instead of presenting an unvarnished gospel. These ministries also leave true sheep famished for spiritual food. Sheep cannot find green grass or water for their soul. False teachers trod down the grass and pollute the water with distortions of God’s Word. All they find is the “vomit” of false teaching.
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2 Peter 2:21

Published on July 17, 1998 in 2 Peter. 1 Comment
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“For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.”
 
 
For
 
Peter introduces the word “for” to explain verse twenty. These false teachers knew the truth. “They have forsaken the right way and gone astray (2:15).” 
 
it would have been better
 
The Greek syntax conveys something that we cannot see in the English. This statement [“it would have been better…”] is contrary to the fact. The statement that Peter makes here is not true although he hypothesizes it as a possibility. He states it in simple hypothesis: “It is better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, but it is.” 
 
We can render this phrase as “It would be almost better not to have known the way of righteousness than….” By returning to religion, a false teacher is more culpable to truth. The professed essence of apostasy results in deadly illusion. 
 
for them not to have known the way of righteousness
 
To receive full exposure to Christ and yet reject him is worse than being fully culpable to that knowledge. Apostasy is worse than ignorance. Apostasy takes others into error. 
 
than having known it,
 
It is one thing to know the Lord personally and it is another thing to have mental acquiescence toward him as non-Christians do. Proud natural man does not want to yield to God’s truth. They know truth but they reject it. 
 
False teachers are double losers, both in time and eternity. They will know for eternity what they missed in time. They are the prize fools of all history. They were exposed thoroughly to who Jesus is and yet rejected him. 
 
to turn from the holy commandment
 
The noble influence of the Bible acted as a deterrent for these false teachers. However, they persisted in the false teaching and reverted to type. Initial exposure to Jesus Christ does not mean that someone fully embraces Him as the Savior. 
 
To reject the message of Jesus Christ is the most tragic mistake anyone could make in life. It would be handy if we could somehow force people to receive Jesus as their Savior. It just does not work that way. Only the Holy Spirit can change hearts and make the facts of the gospel relevant. False teachers fly in the face of the facts of the gospel. 
 
2 Co 13: 5 “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.”
 
delivered to them
 
In the Greek, the action of the word “delivered” precedes the action of the Greek word for “to turn from.” False teachers were taught the truth but they turned from it. Some people can be exposed to Christianity all their lives without embracing it for themselves just as some people can get a doctor’s degree in philosophy without being educated.
 
PRINCIPLE: It is not enough to know the facts of the gospel; we must embrace the gospel itself.
 
APPLICATION: We must know the gospel before we embrace it. We can know about investing for retirement but if we do not invest then we may live as paupers in our retirement. We may know about good nutrition. We may know about vitamins and minerals but if we do not take them, we will not be as healthy as we might be. It is not enough to know these things; we must do something about them. It is not enough to know the gospel; we must make an act of commitment to believe on Him.
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2 Peter 2:20

Published on July 16, 1998 in 2 Peter. 10 Comments
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“For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning.”
 
 
For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world
 
The “they” of verse nineteen [false teachers] is the “they” of this verse. These are also the false teachers of verse one. 
 
The word “escaped” occurs three times in the New Testament and all three times in this little book (1:4; 2:18). Those who “escaped” here are people who were at one time positive to Christianity but never embraced it. They had significant exposure to the gospel but were never true converts.
 
We get our English word “miasma” from this Greek word. The Greeks used the word “pollutions” for the odors that came off a swamp. The Greeks used “pollutions” especially for cultic pollution of pagan practices. What is the nature of this sin? Some think that Christians can lose their salvation by reverting into their lifestyle before they became Christians. However, both the context and explicit statements (2:22) portray these people as those who completely reject Christ. 
 
through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
 
For a time, these people were exposed to the truth. The word “knowledge” implies that they had full exposure to the “Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” This unique word for “knowledge” means full and intimate knowledge. Ancient Greek uses “knowledge” in legal contexts referring to careful investigation and interrogation. It is amazing that these false teachers could gain a full dose of Jesus and His work and still reject Him as their Savior.
 
they are again entangled in them
 
The word “entangled” means to weave in. These false teachers relapsed back into religion. They went back to the pollutions of paganism. They forsook religion for a while when they came to an exposure of Christ and then became entangled again in it. They left religion for a time only to return to it again. 
 
and overcome
 
“Overcome” carries the ideas of subjection and enslavement. Therefore, false teaching controls them. They were enslaved to religion. Religion defeated them and they were led away into a prison of false teaching.
 
the latter end is worse for them than the beginning
 
To hear the truth and revert to religion it is worse than never hearing it at all (Mt 12:45). 
 
Mt 12: 45 “Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation.”
 
Peter’s point is that to receive a “full” exposure to Jesus and His work and to finally reject it, is a worse condition than having never heard of Jesus in the first place. They repudiate the Lord Jesus in the face of knowing fully who He is and what He did.
 
The “beginning” here is the point of exposure to salvation in Christ. The “latter end” is their condition in the corruption of reversion to paganism. To receive a full exposure to Jesus and to reject Him in the end is worse because they fly in the face of truth. The more light that we sin against, the more responsibility we carry. It is amazing how much of the Bible you can know and still go to hell. 
 
PRINCIPLE: Negative volition finds security in false teaching.
 
APPLICATION: False teachers prey on unstable people. They cannot get away with their deceptive with anyone but the naïve who where previously described as “unstable” earlier in the chapter. 
 
Not everyone who hears the gospels believes the gospel. You must believe after you hear. If you hear it and do not believe it, it did not do you any good to hear it. In fact, it may do you harm. 
 
Ac 18: 8 “Then Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his household. And many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed and were baptized.”
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2 Peter 2:19

Published on July 15, 1998 in 2 Peter. 2 Comments
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“While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage.”
 
 
While they promise them liberty
 
The liberty that false teachers promised here is freedom from moral constraint. Preaching sensual pleasure must have been popular even in that day.
 
There is an ever-recurring confusion between liberty and license. Legalistic repression is no biblical value. The Bible asserts the right of individuals to make their own decisions. However, the Bible also asserts that the decisions we make need to be responsible decisions based on the Word of God. We need to be responsible for the decisions we make. Freedom must operate under the framework of principle. We make choices based on principle. 
 
False teachers promise liberty but they cannot produce liberty. Politicians cannot produce liberty. Only God can produce true liberty.
 
Ga 5: 1 “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.”
 
God bases true liberty on the principle of grace. Legalism attacks liberty. We cannot bully people into absolutes. Taboos will not produce absolutes. Neither can social action produce spirituality. 
 
Bible freedom also must operate within overarching principles of God such as human government or the family. 
 
they themselves are slaves of corruption
 
What a contradiction! False teachers promise liberty while they themselves are under slavery to their “corruption.” Their slavery was slavery to sin. Sin vanquished their freedom. 
 
No one can promise liberty without dealing with the root of slavery – sin. They are slaves to their own “corruption.” This is why politics (liberal or conservative) cannot solve man’s problems. Eliminating poverty, establishing a minimum income or raising social security will not resolve the problem of man. The more we try to legislate to society, the more we enslave it. Politicians promise us the moon but they can’t deliver. 
 
for by whom a person is overcome
 
In the name of political freedom, people are in political bondage all over the world. If we let religious leaders “overcome” or defeat us, we become their slaves! 
 
by him also he is brought into bondage
 
The very people who say that they are giving us liberty enslave us. The very thing they promise us is the very thing they take from us. Socialism promises liberty but takes freedoms from the people to whom they promise it. Socialism ends in giving power and authority to politicians. Socialism always emphasizes the herd concept. God’s Word always emphasizes the rights of the individual. 
 
Mt 15: 14 “Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.”
 
PRINCIPLE: Where we eliminate the absolutes of the Bible we enslave ourselves to sin.
 
APPLICATION: The false teaching mode of operation is to promise liberty yet enslave their converts in sin. Religious pundits say, “We will set you free from your medieval religion. We will emancipate you from Victorian Christianity. We will free you so that you can do what you please. The puritanical morals of the Bible are passe.” What they do not tell you is that they are enslaving you to another system.
 
People eat this up. They love to hear it because it appeals to their lower nature. Little do they realize that this enslaves them to “corruption.”
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2 Peter 2:18

Published on July 14, 1998 in 2 Peter. 0 Comments
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“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.”
 
 
For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness
 
The word “speak” literally means to call out loudly. The focus is on the verbal sound rather than the content of what is said. Peter used this word of Balaam’s ass and now he uses this word for false teachers. All heresy uses pompous words. They try to impress their followers with pretentious and bombastic words
 
“Emptiness” is something futile, purposeless, transitory or worthless. The words of these false teachers were high sounding but empty. They lacked true content that came from God; thus, their teaching was deceptive and pointless. In the Greek tragedies, the gods offered a partial answer to man’s purpose for life but the plurality and mutability of the gods undermined this answer. All their grand oratory is useless for any good purpose. Their teaching was grandiose but without substance. Their verbose speak was futile in that it did not fulfill what it promised. False teaching is futile because it lacked content. All their grandiose words did was to allure like bait others into their teaching. 
 
Ps. 60: 11 “Give us help from trouble,
For the help of man is useless.”
 
This verse in Psalms uses the same Greek word as here in 2 Peter. It states baldly that human help is vain. The one and only true and living God can save us from futility. The reason we must look to God is that man offers nothing but nothingness.
 
Ep. 4: 17 “This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind…”
 
The New Testament asserts that the thoughts of the wise are empty (1 Co. 3:20). The New Testament claims of itself that if the historical fact of the resurrection is not real, then Christianity itself is a fake. 
 
they allure through the lusts of the flesh through lewdness
 
False teachers often find their victims among dissatisfied church members who never understood the grace of God in salvation. They could not tell the difference between truth and error. That is why Peter calls them “unstable souls” (2:14). Grandiose words that dazzled the mind were not enough to mislead people. False teachers had to appeal to their dark side. They took the restraints off the flesh so their followers could run wild. Unstable people can be lured into false doctrine by means of their lust patterns. They want truth to match their desires.
 
the ones who have actually escaped
 
 “Escape” means to flee away from.   New Christians flee to what they think is safety. They think that they can get acquittal from God by means of escape into religion. Their methodology is avoidance. This is the philosophy of sticking your head in the sand and hoping that reality will go away. 
 
from those who live in error
 
“Those who live in error” were contemporary pagans of that day. A pagan is someone who rejects Christianity. They heard the gospel but they rejected it. Usually they are suckers for religion. 
 
 “Error” means literally wandering. Those led astray roam here and there without fixing truth. They operate in delusion (2 Th. 2:11; Ju 11) and wander off the path of truth. False teachers caused them to wander off biblical truth and mislead them to mistaken ideas.
 
Mt 24: 4 “And Jesus answered and said to them: ‘Take heed that no one deceives you.’”
 
2 Ti 3: 13 “But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.”
 
The Bible never divides doctrine and morals by a sharp line (Mt 27:64). Distortion in doctrine is often the effect of ill-made morality (Ep 4:14; 1 Th 2:3; 2 Th 2:11). Chapter three talks of the “error of unprincipled men (3:17).” These men twist thoughts so that immorality looks like morality. What is false seems like it is true. They make a lie appear true. This is perversion of truth. 
 
PRINCIPLE: False teachers make lies appear true.
 
APPLICATION: Generally false teachers are eloquent or people would probably not listen to them. They are good speakers. People are deceived by their ability to speak rather than the content of what they say. They use insincere words (2:3) to mislead their followers. 
 
Co 2: 4 “Now this I say lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words.”
 
Most of what they say sounds so plausible, so feasible. It seems to add up. 
 
1 Jn 4: 6 “We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”
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2 Peter 2:17

Published on July 13, 1998 in 2 Peter. 0 Comments
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“These are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.”
 
 
We now come to the indictment of false teachers. 
 
These are wells without water
 
An ancient thirsty traveler would see a well far off in the distance. He anticipates the promise of water. He would hope to quench his thirst. When he gets to the well, he finds it dry. A dry well is a great disappointment. 
 
False teachers are like dry wells. We look for spiritual refreshment from these false teachers but the taste is empty in the end. We anticipate blessing but we end in cursing. People who teach truth offer the refreshment of the truth of the Word. False teachers are dry because there is no truth in them. False teaching in the end is a big disappointment.
 
clouds carried by a tempest
 
There is no stability to a cloud. The wind carries the cloud wherever the wind chooses to take it. Buying into false teaching is like being in a squall. A squall is unstable. Apostates preach one thing and live another.
 
When we see a cloud coming, we expect a refreshing shower. There is promise of rain but these clouds surrender no rain. Although they are driven by strong winds [“tempest”] and give a very powerful anticipation of rain, no rain comes. All this “tempest” is a lot of action but no substance. False doctrine often comes with a lot of bluster and high sounding hopes but, in the end, those hopes end in emptiness. These teachers are impressive from a distance.
 
Like wells that promise refreshing water, these clouds promise rain. All the promises are in vain. There is no water or rain. False teachers always promise more than they can deliver. In the mean time people buy into their promise waiting to receive what they will never get. 
 
for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever
 
God gives the vendors of false systems of belief a special reservation, a reservation in Hell. 
 
“Blackness” is gloominess. Gloom is reserved for these teachers. False teachers teach darkness but darkness is where they will spend eternity (2:1,3,12). They claim light but their teaching is darkness. They get a judgment like their teaching. Their teaching was dark so they end in “darkness forever.”
 
Mt 25: 30 “And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
 
Few people on earth do as much eternal damage as a false teacher does. Whenever we talk to an authentic physician about a quack medical doctor his blood rises. Nothing gets under his skin more than a fake physician does. When a false teacher tells his people that there is no Hell, he causes eternal casualties. People love to hear that there is no such thing as Hell. Nothing should get under the skin of a true preacher more than this. This is why Peter gives such strong descriptions of these false teachers. 
 
PRINCIPLE: Be warned that false teachers mislead and give false hopes.
 
APPLICATION: The Bible warns us everywhere about getting too close to false teachers. Separation is the order of the day when it comes to them because you cannot tell what they teach by what they say. They sound good at first but their teaching is vacuous obscured by religion. 
 
Some man-made religions today claim that there is neither a Heaven nor a Hell. Jesus spoke more about Hell than Heaven. If we reject the idea of Hell, we reject the credibility of Christ. 
 
There are many religious fairy tales out there. People love to believe fiction. They would rather believe fabricated fiction than the truth. One of the most popular television series of all time is “Star Wars,” fiction about the future. 
 
Unregenerate false teachers manufacture their own religions and claim to speak with authority but they are not consistent with biblical content. This is the opposite of Jesus who promised water that springs up into everlasting life (Jn 4:13,14) and backed up his claims by the authenticity of who He was and what He did.
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2 Peter 2:16

Published on July 12, 1998 in 2 Peter. 1 Comment
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“…but he was rebuked for his iniquity: a dumb donkey speaking with a man’s voice restrained the madness of the prophet.”
 
 
but he was rebuked for his iniquity:
 
A jackass rebuked Balaam. The Holy Spirit has a great sense of humor here. He took a jackass to reprimand and blame Balaam. 
 
“Iniquity” is lawlessness. By using his spiritual gift for monetary gain, Balaam entered lawlessness. His lawlessness continued by luring young Israeli men into a situation where young girls paraded in front of them. He said in effect, “Let nature take its course.”   He led these young Jewish men into immorality. 
 
a dumb donkey speaking with a man’s voice
 
Here a jackass is smarter than Balaam. 
 
“Speaking” here is bombastic speaking. He not only spoke but he preached a sermon. He probably preached a better sermon than most preachers preach!
 
restrained the madness of the prophet
 
Balaam was cut off at the pass when he heard the jackass speak. Balaam was “mad” because he was blinded by his love for money. 
 
PRINCIPLE: God can use any vehicle to communicate his truth.
 
APPLICATION: If God can take a jackass and turn him into a preacher, then He can use you and your message. When you think you have arrived as a great communicator, just remember Balaam’s ass!
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