WWUTT 368 The Dog Returns to Its Vomit?

Studying 2 Peter 2 to Discern True and False Teachers

Over the last few weeks, we've been studying in 2 Peter 2 so that we could know the difference between the true teachers and the false teachers, properly warned, so that we would be steadfast in the faith when we understand the text.

You're listening to When We Understand the Text, committed to sound teaching of the Word of God. For questions and comments, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com. And don't forget our website, www .tt .com.

Here's our host, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky.

And greetings, everybody. Today, we finish up our study of 2 Peter 2. If you want to turn in your Bible with me there, we're going to read once more verses 17 through 22, finish discussing this section, and kind of do some highlights of what it is that we've read over the course of the last few weeks as we've considered Peter's warning regarding false teachers.

Verse 17, he says, So, let's jump all the way back to 2 Peter 2, and we're going to look at some of the. So, let's jump back to verse 1, where Peter says,. So, these false teachers are not always going to be clearly seen.

They will secretly bring in destructive heresies, which means we must be discerning. We must recognize that the words that are coming from these men and women are not sound according to the true words of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And this is why, and I mentioned to you earlier this week, the Apostle Paul said to Timothy to encourage everyone at the church that Paul was sending Timothy to. He was sending him to be an elder in Ephesus.

He said to charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, just rattling on about insignificant things, making speculations rather than preaching the stewardship from God that is by faith.

And Paul goes on with Timothy to say the aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Certain persons by swerving from these have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make their confident assertions.

Certain teachers who have gained notoriety from writing blogs. All right. These are those who they desire to be teachers of the law, but they have no idea what it is that they're talking about, and instead they have wandered into vain discussion.

Some of those teachers include Rachel held Evans, who apparently Barack Obama thought was so much of an expert that he appointed her to some sort of religious panel. Jen Hatmaker, Sarah Bessie, Matthew Vines, Justin Lee Vines and Lee, by the way, are from that God and the gay Christian network.

Both of those men are openly homosexual, but claim that homosexuality is not a sin. Jory Micah is another one. I don't know if you have heard of Jory Micah before. More recognizable on social media, I think, than anywhere else.

She's kind of in the same area as Rachel held Evans, just not as well known a name as Evans. There is a fellow by the name of Tony Arsenal. I saw this link through Nate Pickowitz is Twitter page. So thank you, Nate.

The reformed arsenal dot com is where you need to go without the the reformed arsenal dot com. He wrote an article that was critiquing Jory Micah's master's thesis that she wrote about how there were women pastors and deacons in the early church prior to the third century.

One of the things that Arsenal points out about Micah is that she outwardly claims to be pro-life, but she is repeatedly advocated for pro-choice ideology, which makes her de facto pro-abortion. She is dangerous and needs to be exposed for the charlatan that she is.

She has repeatedly advocated the use of feminine pronouns in reference to the persons of the Trinity. She has repeatedly argued that the Bible is simply a cultural artifact reflecting the human failings of the first century.

She has repeatedly argued that the scriptures we have are a corrupted version of what was originally taught. She has repeatedly argued that God's law, as delivered in the Pentateuch, reflects a corrupt and oppressive patriarchy.

So once again, a woman who desires to be a teacher, she has no clue what she's talking about. And you can see Arsenal's assessment of her master's thesis when you go to his website, once again, reformedarsenal .com.

So there are those that have a very discerning spirit that we can rely upon to discern whether or not some of these who are claiming to be teachers really are teachers that we should be listening to. Now, of course, you have men out there who have established ministries and their credibility goes before them.

And in particular, I think of John MacArthur and R .C. Sproul. Those are our two giants of theology in our culture today, that whatever comes from those men has can be received as trustworthy. Doesn't mean we shouldn't test it because the Apostle Paul says to test all things.

That also doesn't mean that I fully agree with every single thing that they teach. John MacArthur is dispensational and I am not. R .C. Sproul is Presbyterian and I am not. But when it comes to understanding the essentials of soteriology, we can rely upon such teachers who have had established ministries and preach.

You can test it and you can hear it in what it is that they say they preach, that which flows from the gospel of Jesus Christ. Other men that I love and admire include Votie Bauckham, Al Mohler, Alistair Begg, Steve Lawson, Paul Washer, tried and true men with with faithful ministries, exalting the Lord Jesus Christ and desiring the gospel to be proclaimed, according to the sound words that we read in the word of God.

They they fall under submission, under that authority of God's word. And you won't find these men saying things like, well, the Bible is simply a cultural artifact reflecting the human failings of the first century.

You won't find those men saying such a thing. They desire to know what the word of God says according to the Holy Spirit of God and teach it accurately, falling under that authority. And it is something that we should all desire when it comes to understanding the scriptures.

So we know the Bible. We store it up in our minds and hearts. We test all teachers according to this word. We will be able to discern the sound teachers from the false teachers. And as Peter goes on, second Peter, chapter two, verse two, many will follow the sensuality of the false teachers.

And because of them, the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed, they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle and their destruction is not asleep. Even from some of these bloggers, these teachers who are bloggers.

And there's probably not anything that at least by appearances, it seems like they're gaining financially from what it is that they're saying. They still love the notoriety. There's still something that it is that they have to gain from the attention that is drawn to them over the things that they are talking about.

There's greed in that as well. And they exploit you with false words. So we must care. We must be careful. Don't I know this. I know this kind of goes without saying now, and you probably heard it 20 ,000 times just this week alone.

But don't believe everything that you read on the Internet. All things need to be tested according to the word of God. Verse four, for if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment.

If he did not spare the ancient world, but preserve Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly. If by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes, he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly.

And if he rescued righteous lot greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked, for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard.

Then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.

These false teachers will not escape the things that they say, blaspheming the way using the word of God to their own advantage, vainly discussing these things, divulging into myth and speculation instead of the good stewardship that flows from the gospel of Jesus Christ.

These false teachers will not go unpunished. And in fact, here it is saying that the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from them and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.

They despise authority, the word of God. They despise authority of the church that is committed to the sound teaching of the word of God, bold and willful. They do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones.

In other words, you have these false teachers that will claim things like, you know what? I'm strong of mind. I'm strong in will. I'm not being influenced by any false spirits. I know how to ward them off.

I'm not so weak in my mind that I could be led astray by the devil and his schemes when just in saying such a thing already that person has made themselves vulnerable to the devil and his schemes. None of us are immune.

He is crafty and he is wily. And those who are not in the sound word of God have been manipulated by the devil and ensnared by him to do his will. As Paul talks about with Timothy in second Timothy chapter two.

So to say that we are all immune to the devil schemes and none of us are ever going to fall victim to that. I can protect myself just fine. That's blaspheming the glorious ones. Exactly what Peter is talking about here in verse 10.

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.

False Teachers and Secular Pop Culture

Now, I want to I want to turn a different way with this as I read through this again. We were in this section last week, but I want you to consider something else as I'm as I'm reading again the section that goes from verses 10 through 16.

We've been studying this and we've been looking at this in terms of false teachers in the church, those who will claim they are from God, but they're really not those who claim that they are experts, but they have no idea what it is that they are talking about.

OK, that's mostly who we have been discussing as we've been exploring this chapter over the last few weeks. But this is not just limited to warning about those who will come into the church secretly bringing destructive heresies.

You can also find exactly this kind of teaching, this kind of haughtiness, this kind of claim to be from God, even in the entertainment world, particularly in music. There are musicians out there that will claim that they are Christians.

Katy Perry, for crying out loud, she claims that she is a Christian and some some might say, well, no, she's apostate. She fell away from God and she never knew God. If you if you recognize the church that she came from, which was very Pentecostal and charismatic, what kind of teachers her parents were, if you kind of look into some of that background, Perry never had it right.

But now she's even come back to a place where she's claiming God again and claiming that God is is blessing her and anointing her to do the things that it is that she's doing. She'll complete a concert.

She'll finish a show, you know, a great big, huge concert with thousands and thousands of people and say, hey, God was with us tonight as we were doing our concert. I mean, I mean, this is a woman who who is taking her clothes off before the world and claiming that the things that she has that she is doing is earning the favor of God.

So there are musicians out there, pop musicians, Jay-Z and Beyonce or another couple who will claim that they are from God, but they have no idea who God is. There is paganism all over their music. In fact, if you go and you study the ancient pagan religions and you look at the symbolism in those religions and you look at popular music today, they're doing the exact same thing as the ancient pagan religions.

There is truly nothing new under the sun. You see the exact same pagan symbolism in their music videos, in their concerts, on their album covers, so on and so forth. I mean, it's downright wicked and satanic, and it's not even being hidden or subliminal when you know exactly what it is that you're looking for.

You will see it boldface on everything it is that they do. Pagan religiosity and demonic worship all over pop music. So when you are reading this here in Second Peter, Chapter two, this could very well be describing secular pop musicians as it could be describing those who come into the church and are false teachers.

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 followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing. Remember, Balaam was going to earn money from from issuing a curse upon the nation of Israel, and the kings were going to pay him to be able to do this.

But Balaam clearly said, hey, I can't do anything except what God what God puts in my mouth to say. But he was still out to profit from being an oracle of God, though his heart was not with God. He was as pagan as the rest of the of the pagan priests.

He was rebuked for his own transgression. A speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet's madness. So beware, those who are who are in the secular pop music world are just as much in the realm of being a false prophet as as somebody that we would identify like Joel Osteen or Creflo Dollar or Paula White, any of these prosperity teachers, we would call them false teachers.

They are they are in the wrong, absolutely. But these pop musicians and some of the things that they claim and trying to entice people by making claims of believing in Jesus Christ or God, when you don't see any evidence of that faith in their lives whatsoever, they are also enticing, unsteady souls.

How many people do you see on Twitter and Facebook who will say, hey, Ben Affleck was wearing a T-shirt that said Jesus on it? Hey, Ben Affleck must be a Christian. You find people all the time that are fooled by this.

And I'm not just pulling a name out at random. There really was a thing a couple of years ago where Ben Affleck was at a gas station with a T-shirt that had Jesus on it. And and so there were like the name Jesus.

And so there were people are going, oh, look, Ben Affleck is a Christian. You know, movie stars will do this just to gain an audience to try to plug their movie. And then there are weak Christians out there that will be totally bought by it.

And they'll go see a film by a certain actor because they think that person's a Christian. I saw their picture and the Christian T-shirt that they were wearing posted on the Internet. So therefore, they must love God.

It is it is not about being able to name drop or use certain keywords here and there. Do we see the fruit of Jesus Christ, the fruit of following our Lord God in their lives, in their everyday lives, not just occasionally wearing a T-shirt or dropping the name of God or talking about praying in some kind of an interview?

The Dog Returns to Its Vomit and the Sow to the Mire

Verse 17. Now, these are waterless springs. These false teachers promise refreshing. They cannot deliver on it because the Holy Spirit is not truly with them and especially not in their teaching. They're misdriven by a storm before water even has the chance to fall on the ears of the hearts of those who are listening to them.

They are snatched away for them. The gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. If these false teachers do not repent. Where they will end up is hell, doesn't matter how nice they were, doesn't matter how white their teeth were on their televangelist program as they were preaching things so kindly and wooing people over with their soothing words, even nice people go to hell if they're not following in the Lord Jesus Christ and repenting of their false teaching 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. So you have those who who had just barely gotten away from the false teachers in this world. OK, the worldly people just barely had gotten away from them.

And now here they are as young Christians in the faith and they see these false teachers living out their sensuous passions just like everybody else in the world. And suddenly these who are young in the faith and weak in the faith, they see those teachers living, living in that way.

And they stumble right back into the practices that they were doing before they came into the faith. Verse 19, they promised them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption for whatever overcomes a person to that he is enslaved.

Nobody is actually freed from their sin. They're just continuing in the same sin that they were in before they started claiming to be a Christian. Verse 24, 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 date has become worse for them than the first, 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.

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, which comes from Proverbs chapter 26. Jesus teaching in Luke chapter 12, he says, stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks.

By the way, these two verses, Luke chapter 12, verses 35 and 36, that's how you understand Revelation chapter 3, verse 20. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with me.

OK, that's not talking about Jesus knocking on the door of our hearts. It's talking about the bridegroom returning home and those who are listening for him will open the door for him when he comes and knocks.

Luke 12, 36, verse 37. Now, blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table and he will come and serve them.

If he comes in the second watch or in the third and finds them awake, blessed are those servants. But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into.

You also must be ready for the son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect. Peter said, Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all? And the Lord said, who then is the faithful and wise manager whom his master will set over his household to give them their portion of food at the proper time?

Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. But if that servant says to himself, my master is delayed in coming and begins to beat the male and female servants and to eat and drink and get drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful.

And that servant who knew his master's will but did not get ready or act according to his will will receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know and did what deserved a beating will receive a light beating.

Everyone to whom much was given of him, much will be required. And from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more. This goes with what we read here in 2 Peter 2, 21, 21. 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.

So let us be found as faithful servants. When the master comes home, he finds us awake and waiting for him and doing the work that the master had set for us to do while he was away. Let us be those servants of Christ, anxiously awaiting the day of the Lord's return.

And when he comes, he finds us as faithful and working servants, holding fast to the word of God, the hope that is given to us, this promise of Christ Jesus, forgiveness of sins and the promise of his return.

And we are fellow heirs in his eternal kingdom. If we remain steadfast and do not lose heart, God, protect our minds and our hearts from false teachers. Keep us in the truth of your word.

In the name of Christ, we pray. Amen. You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book.

On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers. Tomorrow, we'll pick up on an Old Testament study, When We Understand the Text.