2 Peter week 5 Evil Impostors Ps 1; Jer 12:1-4; Matt 24:3-14; 2 Pet 2:10b-22

Background https://youtu.be/neBWMDjDGvA

This is the second sermon on the false teachers in 2 Peter chapter 2, last time[1] I gave a present-day context for preaching on this passage. That is, how in February this year, against public objections at an ordination, the Anglican archbishop went ahead with ordaining two men whose sexual history contrasted with the teaching of scripture, and whose ongoing lifestyle indicated that they could not be accepted as disciples of Christ[2]. At the time of the protest the recording of the ordination was turned off, and when it was resumed the archbishop made reference to the report of her examining chaplains that there was no obstacle to ordination. These are men and women appointed by the archbishop to advise her. As far as I am aware, none of these persons are “conservatives”, people whose primary source of authority is the Bible[3]. Candidates for ordination in the diocese of Perth are required to complete university degrees through the University of Divinity[4]. Beyond that, inquirers must undergo study and Formation at Wollaston Theological College, two of their senior lecturers I ran into at last year’s synod as they were manning the College’s booth. Firstly, let me introduce Dr. Mark, he stood out from the crowd because he was wearing a large rainbow scarf, he is a past student of mine and his speciality in the area of religious studies is the acceptance of LGBTQ+ people in Pentecostalism, which is his faith background. Some of the brothers, unfairly in my opinion, label him the “heretic”[5]. Also present at the Wollaston display Dr Mike, showing his new book on the Gospel of Mark, he is, as far as I can work out[6], an atheist interested in understanding the early Jesus movement solely through the material conditions of first century Palestine[7]. It is into this dire situation that 2 Peter speaks with urgency today as the life and death of the Church is at stake.[8]

Exposition

vv.10b-16

“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. 12 But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, 13 suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing[9]. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, revelling in their deceptions, while they feast with you. 14 They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! 15 Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, 16 but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.

What a dreadful picture. The false teachers specialise in crossing boundaries established in the order of creation. It seems like these men were so puffed up with their own sense of self-righteousness and authority that they were in some way critical of holy angels in their mission of judgement[10] whereas in obedience to their Master these divine beings hold back their judgment in the false teachers in submissive patience until the Lord’s appointed hour. For Peter, these apostates are no better than “brute beasts” (v.12 KJV) whose end will be the final judgment, a truth articulated by Jesus, the apostles and the creeds[11] but which false teachers spend so much of their energy denying[12]. Those who have a superior attitude to things beyond themselves are punished now by God (Jude 10) by being debased to a subhuman level in their thinking and acting[13]. (Part of the punishment is blindness to it.)

Peter describes the false prophets as “blots and blemishes, revelling in their deceptions, while they feast with you” (v.13). He elsewhere describes Jesus as “a lamb without blemish” (1 Pet 1:19) but these men have no desire to imitate the moral purity of the Saviour[14]. When he describes them as at “feast with you” he refers to the common meal that in those days accompanied the Lord’s Supper, their behaviour at the holy meal reveals they have lost all inhibition.

“Accursed children!” [15] Peter calls them this because he sees that they suffer under the curse of God[16] for their blatant wickedness in intentionally going off the straight way of the Lord  and so are taken onto the way that “leads to destruction” (Prov 2:13; Matt 7:13)[17]. To cap things off Peter compares these men to the Old Testament false prophet Balaam (Num 22-24; Rev 2:14) who was so intoxicated by his money-for-prophecy scheme that he was rebuked by an irrational animal who saw more clearly into the spiritual realm than the man riding him.[18] If inspired scripture calls this false prophet “mad” [19], God alone knows what Peter would say about the ever increasing irrational moral “wokeness” of our culture. The problem has a spiritual foundation rather than primarily an intellectual, political or even moral one. But the chief of the apostles hasn’t finished his vehement attack on those who abuse the word of the Lord.

vv.17-22

17 These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved[20]. (Special place in hell is not for paedophiles as such, who definitely can be saved and forgiven, but for false prophets!) 18 For, speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. 19 They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.

When Peter describes the words of these people as “waterless springs” he means that they say many things but none of them mean anything[21]. (JY experience with DY at a UWA graduation;  of being “entertained”, like most of the empty hours of television watching for most of us!) They promise spiritual refreshment (Acts 3:17) but deliver nothing (Jer 2:19; 14:13). They make loud boasts empty of substance leading people astray to do whatever their passions and desires point to. Some years ago there was a popular bumper sticker, “If it feels good, do it.”[22] This is the ethos that was threatening the Church both in Peter’s day and today.

They “promise them freedom” is much like what can be called “expressive individualism”[23] today. Be yourself/be authentic is the cry.[24] It is easy to be offended by such things, especially when they cross every conceivable sexual boundary, but we must be alert to the sin of pride in our own lives. A little while ago I sensed the Spirit of the Lord correcting me from some bad habits I had during my early morning prayer walks, in the dark I would sometimes hop fences or cross boundaries which were unsafe[25]*. Since those nudges I have repented of “being me” rather than being more like Jesus.

The first words of God to Adam, “You are free” (Gen 2:16) were spoken within the bounds of a holy covenant in which can be found inexpressible delights[26] The so-called “prophet of the cross” puts the issue well when he says, ‘The first duty of every soul is to find not its freedom but its Master.’ (P. T. Forsyth)[27]

20 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.

21 For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. 22 What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”[28]

What a statement! But is Peter’s language any more severe than the warnings of Jesus, who spoke of “false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” (Matt 7:15) and who called the scribes and Pharisees to their face, “You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being condemned to hell” (Matt 23:33). Or, remember his words concerning Judas at the Last Supper, “For the Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.” (Mark 14:21)[29].

These false teachers were people who in the past had been through some sort of repentance from wickedness[30], but were later entangled in sin in an even worse way than before (Rom 6:12-19; Tit 3:3); by rejecting the authority of Jesus in their lives it would have been better that they had never heard and responded to the gospel in the first place.

Conclusion

This section of 2 Peter is one of the heaviest parts of the whole Bible. We need to hear it, because, to quote Paul, “bad company destroys good morals” (1 Cor 15:33) and we are warned, in scripture, not to avoid sinful people in the world, but the wilfully immoral folk inside the Church[31]. The  sort of gravity unashamedly used by Peter is necessary for the sake of our eternal health. The last time I saw my G.P.  he spoke to me in a way I will never forget because he spoke to me in the name of Jesus with a warning that put the fear of God into me and changed by lifestyle on the spot[32]. If such language is necessary for mere physical well-being how indispensable is the sort of stern tone and solemn warnings in 2 Peter when it comes to our eternal spiritual well-being[33].

As far as those outside us are concerned, the world needs the church to be the church so that the world might know that it is the world and salvation from sin is a real thing…John 3:16. Blessing e.g. same-sex marriages, in the name of a vague non-judgemental deity cannot heal those who are under the curse of rebellion[34] against the all-holy God revealed in the cross.

In the next chapter Peter will talk of the Second Coming and the Last Judgement, because, to quote someone, “It is an inevitable hallmark of no longer believing in the second coming that ethics becomes a matter of private choice and taste. Key issues become self-fulfilment and self-expression rather than purity and obedience.” (Christopher Green) Let us fall to prayer for the state of the Church and of the world around us.