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2 Peter 2:10-22

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10 and especially f those who indulge 1 in the lust of defiling passion and g despise authority. Bold and willful, they do not tremble g as they blaspheme the glorious ones, 11 h whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. 12 i But these, like irrational animals, j 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 k the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure l to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, 1 while m they feast with you. 14 They have eyes full of adultery, n insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts o trained in greed. p Accursed children! 15 Forsaking the right way, q they have gone astray. They have followed r the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved s gain from wrongdoing, 16 but was rebuked for his own transgression; t a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness. 17 u These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. v For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. 18 For, w speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely x escaping from those who live in error. 19 They promise them y freedom, z but they themselves are slaves 1 of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. 20 For if, a after they have escaped the defilements of the world b through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, c the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21 For d it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from e the holy commandment delivered to them. 22 What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The f dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”

2 Peter 2:10-22

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10 μάλιστα δὲ τοὺς ὀπίσω σαρκὸς ἐν ἐπιθυμίᾳ μιασμοῦ πορευομένους καὶ κυριότητος καταφρονοῦντας. τολμηταὶ αὐθάδεις, δόξας οὐ τρέμουσιν βλασφημοῦντες, 11 ὅπου ἄγγελοι ἰσχύϊ καὶ δυνάμει μείζονες ὄντες οὐ φέρουσιν κατʼ αὐτῶν παρὰ κυρίῳ βλάσφημον κρίσιν. 12 Οὗτοι δὲ ὡς ἄλογα ζῷα γεγεννημένα φυσικὰ εἰς ἅλωσιν καὶ φθορὰν ἐν οἷς ἀγνοοῦσιν βλασφημοῦντες, ἐν τῇ φθορᾷ αὐτῶν καὶ φθαρήσονται 13 ἀδικούμενοι μισθὸν ἀδικίας, ἡδονὴν ἡγούμενοι τὴν ἐν ἡμέρᾳ τρυφήν, σπίλοι καὶ μῶμοι ἐντρυφῶντες ἐν ταῖς ἀπάταις αὐτῶν συνευωχούμενοι ὑμῖν, 14 ὀφθαλμοὺς ἔχοντες μεστοὺς μοιχαλίδος καὶ ἀκαταπαύστους ἁμαρτίας, δελεάζοντες ψυχὰς ἀστηρίκτους, καρδίαν γεγυμνασμένην πλεονεξίας ἔχοντες, κατάρας τέκνα• 15 καταλιπόντες εὐθεῖαν ὁδὸν ἐπλανήθησαν, ἐξακολουθήσαντες τῇ ὁδῷ τοῦ Βαλαὰμ τοῦ Βοσόρ, ὃς μισθὸν ἀδικίας ἠγάπησεν 16 ἔλεγξιν δὲ ἔσχεν ἰδίας παρανομίας• ὑποζύγιον ἄφωνον ἐν ἀνθρώπου φωνῇ φθεγξάμενον ἐκώλυσεν τὴν τοῦ προφήτου παραφρονίαν. 17 οὗτοί εἰσιν πηγαὶ ἄνυδροι καὶ ὁμίχλαι ὑπὸ λαίλαπος ἐλαυνόμεναι, οἷς ὁ ζόφος τοῦ σκότους τετήρηται. 18 ὑπέρογκα γὰρ ματαιότητος φθεγγόμενοι δελεάζουσιν ἐν ἐπιθυμίαις σαρκὸς ἀσελγείαις τοὺς ὄντως ἀποφεύγοντας τοὺς ἐν πλάνῃ ἀναστρεφομένους, 19 ἐλευθερίαν αὐτοῖς ἐπαγγελλόμενοι, αὐτοὶ δοῦλοι ὑπάρχοντες τῆς φθορᾶς• ᾧ γάρ τις ἥττηται, τούτῳ δεδούλωται. 20 εἰ γὰρ ἀποφυγόντες τὰ μιάσματα τοῦ κόσμου ἐν ἐπιγνώσει τοῦ κυρίου καὶ σωτῆρος Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, τούτοις δὲ πάλιν ἐμπλακέντες ἡττῶνται, γέγονεν αὐτοῖς τὰ ἔσχατα χείρονα τῶν πρώτων. 21 κρεῖττον γὰρ ἦν αὐτοῖς μὴ ἐπεγνωκέναι τὴν ὁδὸν τῆς δικαιοσύνης ἢ ἐπιγνοῦσιν ὑποστρέψαι ἐκ τῆς παραδοθείσης αὐτοῖς ἁγίας ἐντολῆς. 22 συμβέβηκεν αὐτοῖς τὸ τῆς ἀληθοῦς παροιμίας• κύων ἐπιστρέψας ἐπὶ τὸ ἴδιον ἐξέραμα, καί• ὗς λουσαμένη εἰς κυλισμὸν βορβόρου.

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Know the marks of false teachers, since being ensnared will utterly ruin you Intro Scams and knowing how to spot them [example] cf Proverbs: impressing upon you the extreme dangers Calibration: the Bible speaks far more severely to false teachers (even unwitting ones, cf get behind me Satan) than we would. 1. False teachers reject authority and chase their desires (v10-16) v10 'Bold and wilful'; shameless, brazen, headstrong v10-12 Blaspheming: a big theme v10 The glorious ones? Who do we mean here. T hey don't tremble - but they should! Even angels do! They think it's no big deal, linked to rejection of authority! [i.e., throwing off limits, seeing them as bad. Illustration: road markings and traffic lights] v12 like animals, creatures of instinct. Chasing pleasure v13; adultery v14; trained in greed. I nstinct, irrational...when you throw off all authority, all that is left is appetites. Accursed children - i.e., God's curse on them! They are showing the reality of the curse, unrestrained sinful humanity. v15-16 OT example of Balaam. Animals are supposed to be restrained by humans, but this is the reverse. Loved gain from wrongdoing. 'Madness'; supposedly God's man, yet blind. Application directions cf Angry Christians who think it's no big deal to slander others; bound up with rejection of authority and limits. Examples - how early radical communism was bound up with sex-pol; that class repression went hand in hand with sexual repression, so you should fix both at once. Or evolutionary thinking ultimately makes us animals. American textbooks about negroes. German racial thinking in early 20th C. The desire to be post-human actually makes us sub-human. In grasping we fall. cf the beastly kingdoms in Daniel. Look at the contrast in Jesus. He accepts limits, even the utterly cruel and unjust limits of nails in his hands. He did not chase selfish desires and appetites, and he took no shortcuts. His desire was to give himself for his people. FCF . We are duped by a lie. Just like in the garden. We grasp at more and so become slaves. H1. Ideologies to throw off God and pursue our instincts. H2. To learn the gospel but then try to go beyond it. Extra knowledge, extra rules, makes you sub-human. Add to Jesus and lose everything. One tell tale sign, slandering and mocking the people of God. The irony when reformed types do this; yet all we have has been revealed by grace, so why then the pride? Christians who stopped repenting long ago. H2. Or, to learn the gospel as a moralistic veneer but resist actual faith and new birth, new nature. 2. False teaching promises much but delivers nothing (v17-22) v17-19 Waterless springs and mists. Promise freedom, but are themselves slaves. Irony is that they lose confidence in the Word and promise of God, only then to make promises which they are utterly unable to keep. L oud boasts of folly - allusion to Proverbs? v18-21 they prey on Christians. False teaching is inherently 'parasitic'. There is no actual fruit, in them or their ministries. The tree: you will know them by their fruit. Keep insisting on fruit, as the Bible defines fruit. v20-21 The proof that they were not in Christ is that they turned from him. You cannot truly know Jesus as Lord and Saviour and simultaneously turn away from his commands. They wanted to leave their 'old' life, but were exploited in false teaching along the way. ' Entangled'. Appearance and profession is one thing, but actions and allegiance is another. The final result worse than ever. The true believer makes every effort to grow in grace and knowledge of Jesus, 1.5-11. v21 the justice. Judged according to what you know, so by learning more and tasting more of the gospel life, and then to trash it, is worse. Cf the men of Nineveh will rise up in judgement. v21 the holy commandment delivered to them, cf 3.2. Take this to mean the gospel word of Jesus. v22 these are pictures of a fundamentally unchanged nature; both unclean animals, and ultimately return to uncleanness. [illustration: diets when the underlying longings haven't changed] Application directions: If you reject true repentance, you are (be definition) unforgive-able. Perseverance of the saints? What comfort and reassurance must we hold to alongside these sober warnings? If you're worrying, it probably is not you. But Peter's solution is in chapter 1 ; if you practise these things you will never fall. Keep insisting on fruit. God's glory. Through his gospel he actually gives freedom; he gives just what he promised. In his kindness he gives us passage after passage to help us avoid false teaching and false ministries. Person of Jesus . He offers freedom and he gives it. He welcomes the failed, ashamed revolutionaries. He tells the truth. He promises and gives. Work of Jesus . He was condemned for our sakes. He was destroyed for those who deserved to be. He went down into the gloom of utter darkness. He became the unclean sin nature, in order to buy for us the clean, holy, treasured new nature. Union with Jesus . In him we are perfectly safe and secure, as we remain in him, as we grow in the grace and knowledge of him. In him we have new birth into a new nature, a new nature we can feed and keep growing day by day. I am learning and nurturing new appetites. In him I receive, accept and honour authority and limits, and I learn to say no to ungody, selfish desires. I live the cross-shaped life of self-giving and death to self. Invitation . Come and live in safety at the real feast (Prov 9); turn from the counterfeit one. The life of repentance from beginning to end. Confrontation . Turn aside from the doorway to death (Prov 9). Stop insisting or being lured by something more. It's the way to slavery. Consolation . If you have chased more and found it a mirage, and been burnt. Here is a gentle Saviour who welcomes bruised and burned ones. Repentance looks like changing our assumptions of what Jesus is really like to the undeserving. Wrap up : Scams and how to spot them. Know the marks, since being ensnared will utterly ruin you. Throwing off restraint and chasing appetites. Promising much but delivering nothing. But Jesus promises much and delivers all the more.

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