Sunday School: False Teachers Like Irrational Animals (2 Peter 2:11-14)

You are listening to the teaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on this podcast, we feature 20 minutes of Bible study through a

New Testament book. On Thursday is a study in the Old Testament and then we answer questions from the listeners on Friday.

Each Sunday we are pleased to share our sermon series. Here's Pastor Gabe. This is 2

Peter 2, beginning in verse 10. Daring, self -willed, they do not tremble when they blaspheme, glorious ones, whereas angels who are greater in strength and power do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the

Lord. But these like unreasoning animals, born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed blaspheming where they have no knowledge, will in the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed, suffering unrighteousness as the wages of their unrighteousness, considering it a pleasure to revel in the daytime.

They are stains and blemishes reviling in their deceptions as they feast with you, having eyes full of adultery and unceasing sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained on greed.

They are accursed children, forsaking the right way. They have gone astray having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness, but he received a rebuke for his own lawlessness, for a mute donkey speaking out with a voice of a man restrained the madness of the prophet.

Let us pray. Heavenly Father, as we look at your word this morning,

I pray that we continue to see a warning against those who would do unrighteousness, that we would not follow the ways of those false teachers who preach unrighteousness, but we would continue to seek after those who preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and that which flows from the gospel leading to godliness.

May we heed these warnings and may we also understand and trust in God, seeing that judgment will come upon the ungodly as we endure wickedness, evil in these present days.

We know that you are not slumbering in the judgment that is to come, but that all things are working out according to your perfect timing and that we will see the gloriousness of Christ when he comes with the glory of the

Father and with holy angels, rejoicing on that day to see our Lord. Scripture says that on the day that Christ returns, it will be a day of dread for those who do not know

Christ. So I pray that we would be diligent with the gospel to share with those who do not believe that they may come to faith in Jesus and so live.

It's in the name of Christ that we pray and all God's people said, amen. So I wanted to share something with you here at the very beginning that seems a little bit off topic but it still goes with our study of what we've been looking at in 2

Peter. So there is a, of course you've probably heard about different investigations and things like that going on into election fraud because of the, just all the questionable things that happened with the election here at the end of 2020.

So there's some of that investigation that's even going on here in the state of Texas and in one of those hearings regarding election fraud, there was a woman that stood up to testify and she wasn't an elected official.

She just works with the Republican Party. But this is to kind of illustrate that false teaching exists even among Republicans, folks.

It's not just among Democrats, okay? So the woman stood up before the congressional committee and she said the following,

I believe this is God's work, this investigation that's going on into election fraud.

She said, I believe this is God's work. And there's a wonderful scripture about the security of elections that I want to read and that maybe some of us have never heard before.

It's 2 Peter 1 10, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure.

For if you do these things, you shall never fall. I love that scripture because this is what our watchers do.

Does that scripture have anything to do with testing elections in America? No. Look back with me, if you will, to 2

Peter 1 10. Now, if you're reading in the NASB or the LSB, those two translations don't even use the word election.

It's in the ESV that we see the word election used. But as we read it in the New American Standard, it says, therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and choosing sure election in the

ESV. For in doing these things, you will never stumble. For in this way, the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our

Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you. If only she had read on to the next verse, she would have seen this doesn't have anything to do with elections.

This is almost kind of like, you know, doing that word study where you type in the word election and you're looking for something in the

Bible about election. Oh, I found it. And this speaks exactly to the election fraud investigation that we're currently doing.

So, we must be careful in the ways that we use the scriptures that it is according to what God says and not according to what we want it to say.

And this is the warning that Peter is giving to the churches that they would understand these false teachers are not speaking the message of God.

These false teachers are saying what they want to say. They are appealing to the flesh. They're telling you what you, according to your flesh, might even want to hear.

And I speak to you this morning as somebody that is not so righteous in this that I have not been led astray by false teachings.

There were seasons in my life where because of what I wanted in my flesh, I was looking for those teachers that would tell me exactly what

I wanted to hear so that I might go after the thing that I wanted in my flesh. And Peter is warning about those false teachers here in chapter two.

He first presents the true apostolic testimony in chapter one, and then contrast that with the false teachers that we're reading here, reading about here in chapter two.

So last week, we read how these various examples that Peter gives of false prophets in the

Old Testament and how God protected the godly, the righteous, from trials.

So consider in verse nine, the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, especially those who go after the flesh in its corrupt lust and despise authority.

So now we go from here back into Peter describing and talking about those false teachers and even those who would follow after them and the lusts that they have in their flesh, which they go after to their destruction if they do not repent.

Here in verse 10, Peter says, daring, self -willed, they do not tremble when they blaspheme the glorious ones.

Now just consider that description first, those first two descriptors that we have of being daring and self -willed.

Like sometimes one expression that we use is they have the gall, right? They have the tenacity to dare to say something against God.

They have no fear of God before their eyes. It's the way Paul puts it in Romans chapter one.

So they're daring, bold enough in their deception to say something against God.

They are self -willed. They do not follow after the will of God. They follow after the wills of themselves, going after their own sensuous minds and not seeking the mind of God.

Now oftentimes when we think of these false teachers, we think of like the most depraved, right? And certainly

Peter does describe here teachers that are very depraved, going after sensuous passions of their own flesh.

We would be talking about sexual immorality there even in that description. But as we talk about self -willed, it doesn't necessarily have to be somebody that we look at and observe being just like the most depraved of individuals that we might categorize here within our own culture, like Democrats that I've already mentioned, right?

The leftists, they're really the most depraved. But as we've seen by the example

I started with this morning, even Republicans can be very, very depraved. Even those that we would categorically put on the political right can be very depraved.

Consider an example that we have of Peter in Matthew chapter 16. Somebody who went after his own mind instead of the mind of God.

Now at first in Matthew 16, Jesus asks his disciples, who do people say that I am?

He's basically asking his disciples like, what's the scuttlebutt? What's the cooler talk?

What are people saying about me out there? What have you heard? It's not that Jesus wants in on the gossip.

He's wanting the disciples to think about what they've heard people saying about who Jesus is.

They're saying, well, some people out there think that you're one of the prophets, like Jeremiah or Elijah.

Have you ever visited with a Jewish family during Passover and they have like a meal set up at their table and you might go to the table and you try to sit down in a certain seat and somebody at this

Jewish tradition would stop you and say, no, no, no, you can't sit there. Why can't

I sit there? Nobody else has claimed the seat because that's the seat of whom? Anybody know?

Elijah, right, that's the seat of Elijah. Elijah is coming to sit with us at our table. So there's a

Jewish tradition that believes there's going to be this return of Elijah, of course, because that's what was prophesied.

Isaiah prophesied that Elijah would come as a forerunner to the Messiah. Well, that was a prophecy concerning who?

John the Baptist, right? So John the Baptist was the one that was the fulfillment of that prophecy regarding Elijah coming to make way the paths of the

Lord. So John the Baptist was the fulfillment of that. But you still have Jews that did not see that John the

Baptist was the one that was the fulfillment of that prophecy. Jesus revealed it to his disciples, but not everybody else knew.

And so they are still thinking that Elijah is going to show up.

In fact, the disciples say to Jesus, some think you're the reincarnation of Elijah. Like Elijah's or the reincarnation of John the

Baptist. I'm sorry. That's what I meant to say. He's the reincarnation of John the Baptist because John the Baptist was just beheaded.

Herod took care of that guy. But then Jesus is out there saying the same things John the Baptist said.

And the people are going out to hear Jesus just like they went out to hear John the Baptist. So a lot of...

Man, I'm getting all my names mixed up this morning. Herod is now stirred up by this and going, he's come back from the dead.

I thought I took that guy's head off. And now here he is speaking again. And so the disciples say to Jesus, some think you're

John the Baptist. And Jesus says to them again, but who do you say that I am?

Now he puts it on them. Not just what you've heard, but who do you say that I am?

And what was Peter's response? You are the Christ, the son of the living

God. And Jesus says to Peter, blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you.

But who? My father has revealed this to you. My father in heaven has revealed this to you.

Peter responds with the mind not of man, but the mind of God. Skip forward a few verses.

Jesus is now telling his disciples exactly what's about to take place. This is right ahead of the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, that which we celebrate on Palm Sunday.

Jesus says to his disciples, here's what's going to take place. We're going to go into the city. I'm going to be exalted.

Then I'm going to be persecuted. I'm even going to be put to death, but take heart because three days later,

I'm coming back. Like Jesus even lays out, here's exactly what's going to happen here in Jerusalem.

And how does Peter respond to that? The guy who gave the Sunday school answer just a few verses before, the guy who's right there, you know, kind of elbowing the disciples,

I got the answer right, you know. Jesus asked the question. I said, you're the Christ, the son of the living God. He gave me credit for that.

And now Peter turns around to Jesus and says, no, no, you're not going to go. This isn't going to happen to you.

Far be it from you, Lord, for this to happen to you. I will never let this happen to you.

And now how does Jesus respond to Peter? Get behind... It's a famous response.

We know this answer. Get behind me, Satan, for you are not thinking with the mind of God, but with the mind of man.

And Peter was incredibly religiously devout, right? Left all that he had to follow

Jesus. And yet this was a man who was following after his own mind and not the mind of God.

If Peter had gotten his way, we would not be saved.

Can you imagine that? If Peter got what he wanted, Christ would not have gone to the cross, and we would be dead in our sins, even as we sit.

So you look at a person who's even religiously devout, a person who's upstanding and proper in all of his way, looks completely moral.

Even those persons can still be false teachers. Now, God had mercy on Peter, absolutely.

It was just recently. I can't remember who pointed this out to me, but just recently it kind of dawned on me that between Peter and Judas, you had two disciples who denied

Christ. Judas betraying Christ, Peter denies him three times. Their sins are virtually the same.

But Jesus says of Peter, the devil is asking to sift you like wheat, but I will pray for you that after all this is said and done, you will strengthen your brothers.

And he's talking about how Peter's going to help lead the other disciples after Christ's death and resurrection.

He doesn't say the same thing to Judas. Jesus never offers to pray for Judas.

Isn't that interesting? And that's not necessarily permission for us to not pray for our enemies, for Jesus told us to in the

Sermon on the Mount as we've been going through that. But Jesus knew that Judas was the son of destruction that had been prophesied about, who was going to turn the son of man over to his enemies to be crucified so that the predestined plan of God would be fulfilled.

That Christ would be crucified for our sins so that all who believe in him will not perish in our sins, but we will have everlasting life.

So even Peter, who at one point was a false teacher, if you think about that,

Peter, who at one point denied Christ, was shown mercy by God. He repented of his sin, even wept bitterly over his sin.

He was restored, as we read about in John, was it 20, 20 or 21?

There toward the end of the Gospel of John, where Jesus reinstates Peter, asking him three times,

Peter, do you love me? Then feed my sheep, feed my lambs, go intend my flock. And Peter did so and becomes the first to preach the gospel there in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost.

There are men who could look very religiously devout and yet also be false teachers, so we must beware, we must be careful.

Even a man who looks morally upstanding can be speaking from his own mind and not from the mind of God.

His words must be tested, they must be weighed with what we read about in Scripture.

Do we see a man who is self -willed or do we see a man who is submissive to the will of God according to his word, according to what we read about in the

Bible? So we come back to that description again here in verse 10 of the false teacher being daring and self -willed.

Is he following his own mind or has his mind been conformed to Christ?

The false teacher is self -willed, they do not tremble when they blaspheme the glorious ones.

Now, we might be tempted when we read that to think that they're talking about or Peter is talking about here blaspheming angels, especially as in verse 11 it says, whereas angels who are greater in strength and power do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the

Lord. So we might be thinking, okay, the glorious ones are angels. More specifically to the point, the glorious ones in verse 10 are actually fallen angels.

Glorious ones in verse 10 are fallen angels. They're not the holy angels of God that serve those who will inherit salvation as it says in Hebrews 1.

These are fallen angels. Why would they be described as glorious ones? Well, we tend to use that word in a holy perfection sort of a descriptor and that's fine, that's great.

I believe how we should use the word. But the way the description is used here and as it was the vocabulary of that particular time, glorious ones is simply a reference to spiritual beings who are greater in power than we are.

Because notice what it says next in verse 11 about the holy angels. It says, whereas angels.

So now these are the holy ones of God who are greater in strength and power.

So we're talking about those who do the bidding of God that comes from God's throne.

They are greater in strength and power, they do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the

Lord. In the book of Jude, Jude says that Michael, when he was contending with Satan over the body of Moses, said, the

Lord rebuke you. Michael had the strength and the power to strike down Satan if he wanted to, but it was not

God's will that Michael would overcome Satan in this way. So Michael simply says of Satan, the

Lord rebuke you. So here we see that the angels themselves, those angels that serve

God in heaven, they have greater strength and power than the demons, but even those angels do not bring a reviling judgment against the demons before the

Lord. Now, so how are we to understand this now? How is it that the false teachers blaspheme the glorious ones when even the angels don't blaspheme the glorious ones?

As the description goes, what is this supposed to mean? It basically means that the false teachers think that they're greater than demons, that they're more powerful than demons or the schemes of Satan.

Satan can't touch me. Satan can't do anything with me because I'm greater than they are.

And my friends, to have that perspective about demons is actually to blaspheme them.

It's just a strange description because we're used to that word blasphemy only being with regards to how we talk about God, right?

If we go our own way instead of God's way, or we use the Lord's name in vain, or we take

God's name and use it as a curse word, that's the way we're used to thinking about blasphemy. But God has actually appointed demons even for a particular purpose.

He is accomplishing through Satan something that God is going to do, even bringing those who are in unrighteousness into judgment, as Peter is talking about here in this particular section of 2

Peter 2. They have great strength. They have great power. The apostle

Paul talks about in 2 Corinthians chapter 11 that false teachers are disguised just as Satan disguises himself as a what?

An angel of light, right? Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

Satan has great power. He is very, very strong. He is what in the

Garden of Eden? What do we see Satan as in the Garden of Eden? A serpent, right? How is he then described in the book of Revelation?

From a serpent to a what? A dragon. Meaning what?

His power and his influence has grown. The dragon is described in Revelation as that ancient serpent.

So he's gone from the serpent that he was in the Garden of Eden to now a dragon with even greater power and influence.

And it says in Revelation that God gives him authority to lead people astray.

And the dragon will even attempt to make war on the saints, but he will not be victorious in that battle.

So God has indeed allowed Satan to have this power, to have this strength.

And when people say something like, Satan's got no power over me, I am stronger or more powerful than Satan, they actually blaspheme the glorious ones.

And what they do, in fact, is they've made themselves susceptible to the schemes of Satan rather than see themselves as being over the schemes of Satan.

They blaspheme the glorious ones, whereas angels themselves who are greater in strength and in power do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the

Lord. So you'll hear often among like the charismatic, the miracle movement, health and wealth, will say things like,

I bind Satan. We bind Satan in Jesus' name. They'll give people instructions. You need to name it and claim it.

They won't say that. That's usually what we say to make fun of them. We say, name it and claim it, believe and receive.

They'll say, you need to name it. You need to say, I bind you in Jesus' name and Satan has no dominion over you.

Jesse Duplantis, if some of you are familiar with him, he came out of Louisiana. That's a huge mansion in Louisiana, but one of those prominent health and wealth gospel preachers along with Kenneth Copeland.

They've flown their private planes together and all this other kind of thing. Anyway, I remember hearing one of my first exposures to Jesse Duplantis was him playing the piano and singing a song and the lyrics were just over and over again.

The devil and I had a tussle and I won. It's like, no, you didn't.

But this is very common among the charismatic movement to say that we have strength or power over Satan and you can bind

Satan to echo the response from Votie Bauckham. If you guys are binding

Satan, then who is it that keeps letting him go? So many people binding Satan, but he's still out there causing trouble.

Anyway, so nobody's binding Satan and he probably finds it funny to hear people standing in churches and making such claims.

I always chuckle at the T -shirt too that says, not today, Satan. Anybody ever seen that T -shirt?

It's like, I'm sure Satan's not in the least bit quaking in his boots over that T -shirt. In fact, he's probably looking at it going, thanks for wearing my name today.

You know, none of that is accomplishing anything but that we turn to Christ and we hold fast to Christ.

Even when Paul was tormented by an agent of Satan, we read about in 2

Corinthians chapter 12, he says, there was a thorn in my flesh, an agent of Satan to torment me.

He says, three times I pleaded with God to take it away from me. And who would have more authority than the apostle

Paul to bind Satan if we could do that, right? He pleads with God to take this away from him and God's response to him is this, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

And then Paul says that I'm going to boast all the more in my weaknesses for where I'm weak, Christ shines,

Christ is strong. God did not take away the thing that was tormenting

Paul, but taught him, my grace is sufficient for you, that Paul would cling to Christ.

And going back to what Paul said at the very beginning of that letter in 2 Corinthians chapter 1, he says, these things were to remind us to rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.

So whenever we're faced with false teachers, whenever we're faced with oppression that might even come from those who teach falsely, these things might happen to us that we would cling to Christ.

As James says in James 4, draw near to God and he will draw near to you.

Resist the devil and he will flee from you. We don't rebuke the devil, we resist the devil.

And then the devil flees from us because we've drawn near to Christ. The power here is Christ, the power is not ours.

If we think that we have more power than Satan, he will have power over us and we will be deceived and led astray.

So it's these false teachers that think they're stronger than Satan, I'm more wily than he is, I'm smarter than he is, and yet self -willed, going by their own minds rather than submitting to the will of God, they blaspheme the glorious ones and are led astray into Satan's schemes instead of away from them.

Verse 12, but these, still talk about these false teachers, these like unreasoning animals born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed, blaspheming where they have no knowledge, will in the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed.

The destruction that would come upon other things that exist here on this earth when the judgment of God comes, they will likewise be destroyed with the rest of the world, is what

Peter is saying here. Now, it's interesting that we just went through Matthew 7, verse 6 last week, right?

That was the verse that Pastor Tom focused on in the sermon. And we heard that the instruction from Christ not to cast what is sacred before dogs or throw our pearls before what?

Swine, right? Because then they'll just trample underfoot and then they'll turn to attack you. It's exactly these kind of animals that Peter is talking about here.

These like unreasoning animals, like dogs and swine, born as creatures of instinct, they're doing what is in their nature to do.

And when I was younger and I was trying to understand the concept of a sinful nature, because we talk about how we as children of Adam, born under the federal headship of Adam, we're born into sin.

We're all recipients of Adam's sin nature. We have his sin nature when we're born. As I was trying to understand that as a kid, as my dad was teaching me that,

I remember there was a pastor who gave me an illustration that kind of helped me to understand it a little bit better.

An animal only does what is in that animal's nature to do.

Cows eat grass because it's in their nature to eat grass. They don't go kill a rabbit and eat a rabbit.

That's more like a coyote, okay? A coyote does what is in his nature to do.

He goes and kills a rabbit, eats a rabbit. He eats what God has created his digestive system to eat.

As an apex predator, he goes after those animals that God has given to that predator to eat.

A cow doesn't do that. A cow eats grass. So a cow does what's in its nature to do. A coyote does what's in its nature to do.

And likewise, we as human beings, we do what is in our nature to do. And when we are physically born, we're born with a nature that is in rebellion against God.

Can we, as free -thinking creatures, willfully decide to follow

God? No. Why? Because we don't believe in free will?

Because somebody taught us Calvinism and so that's why we say that a person doesn't have the free will to go after God?

No, it's because the Bible says he doesn't have a nature that even wants to go after God. That's why that man can't choose that.

He can't choose to follow Christ because he doesn't have a nature that even wants to follow

Christ. We don't follow Christ until we're given a new nature, one that is born again, right?

We were born the first time physically alive but spiritually dead. And when we're born again, when we hear the gospel, turn from sin to Jesus Christ, now we have a new nature that praises

God instead of rebels against God. That new nature only comes to us, as it says in John 1, 13, not by the will of man, not by the will of flesh, but of God.

Because we didn't have the will to go after it anyway. God gives us that new nature and now in a new nature, we desire

God instead of want to rebel against God. Peter is talking here about those who are not born again.

And so therefore, they don't go after the will of God, they go after their own wills like unreasoning animals born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed because that's ultimately what's going to happen to these false teachers.

They're going to be captured, they're going to be destroyed. They blaspheme where they have no knowledge. They will in the destruction of those creatures, the judgment that's going to come against all that has been created, they will also be destroyed.

So this is once again reminding us that God's judgment is not sleeping.

He is not slow in his anger as some count slowness or slow to do what it is that he has promised as some count slowness, which is what we read in chapter 3.

He is slow to anger, but he's not slow to fulfill his promises. His promise to judge those who do wickedly will come.

Verse 13, suffering unrighteousness. Now, notice this now about these false teachers and about those who follow after false teachers, those who follow after the passions of their flesh instead of after the will of God.

They suffer unrighteousness, verse 13, as the wages of their unrighteousness, considering it a pleasure to revel in the daytime.

They are stains and blemishes reveling in their deceptions as they feast with you.

Isn't it interesting that their unrighteousness there is described as suffering unrighteousness?

They suffer unrighteousness as the wages of their unrighteousness.

If you would, very quickly turn to 2 Thessalonians 2. Turn to the left a few books to 2

Thessalonians 2. I'm going to begin reading in verse 7.

2 Thessalonians 2, starting in verse 7. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work.

Only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. And then that lawless one will be revealed whom the

Lord Jesus will slay with the breath of his mouth. Now, that's good news. When the devil is taken out, he's going to be taken out like that.

All God has to do is say the word and the devil's gone. So, compared to the power of Christ, Satan compared to our power has way more power than we have.

But Satan compared to the power of Christ is nothing. He will be gone with an utterance. So, that's good news.

The Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of his mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of his coming.

Verse 9, whose coming is in accord with the working of Satan with all power and signs and false wonders and with all the deception of unrighteousness for those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth and so be saved.

Consider that once again, that Satan comes with all the deception of unrighteousness for those who perish, for those who do unrighteousness to their judgment because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.

Verse 11, and for this reason, God sends upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth but took pleasure in unrighteousness.

So, they loved their unrighteousness to their own destruction. So, we have unrighteousness described here as they took pleasure in their unrighteousness.

What did Peter say about their unrighteousness in 2 Peter 2 .13? Let's go back to 2

Peter. Chapter 2, verse 13, it says there, they suffer unrighteousness.

They have pleasure in it, they also suffer in it. Why do they suffer in it? You look at people who do unrighteousness and it feels good for a season, right?

In fact, the Bible even says sin feels good. That's why people go after it. We like it.

We sin because we like it. In the book of Hebrews, chapter 11, it says that sin is fleeting.

The pleasures of sin are fleeting. So, they're there, they're pleasing, but they're fleeting. It's going to make you feel good for a time, then it's not going to be there anymore, and you're going to go after chasing that next high again, just like a drug user goes after the next fix to get that high back again.

So, there's pleasure in it, but then there's suffering. I felt good, and now

I have to face the consequences of the evil that I just did. So, there's both. There's pleasure in unrighteousness, and there's suffering in unrighteousness.

And they suffer in their unrighteousness as the wage of their unrighteousness. What does

Romans 6 .23 say? The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our

Lord. So, there's pleasure in unrighteousness, there's suffering in unrighteousness, and it comes as the wage of their unrighteousness.

Considering it a, and here's that word, pleasure, to revel in the daytime, they are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions as they feast with you.

And as we read in 2 Thessalonians 2, God gives them a delusion so that they would believe what is false in order that they might be judged who did not believe the truth, but they took pleasure in their unrighteousness.

People follow after false teachers, and false teachers are given as a judgment upon those who love unrighteousness instead of the truth so that they would believe what is false and continue in their unrighteousness to their judgment.

For as it says in the book of Romans, so that God would be justified in all

His ways, that it would be seen and we would know and we would understand that God is holy and we are not.

And so, God brings them into judgment that His gloriousness might be displayed even upon those who do evil.

Verse 14, they have eyes full of adultery and unceasing sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed.

They are accursed children. This is their craft, folks. This is what they do.

They're experts in this. This is why we see so many false teachers rolling in the money, because this has become their trade.

It's their economy. They know how to deal out false teachings and get paid for it. They have hearts that are trained in greed, and they exploit you with their false words.

And so, we must be on guard, we must continue to hold fast to the truth, and we must recognize those false teachers are serving a purpose, that God is bringing those who love unrighteousness into judgment.

We must continue to hold out the truth so that those who are being deceived by the lie would hear the truth.

As I heard R .C. Sproul say just recently, there is nothing that fights the lie better and more effectively than the truth.

And so, we must come with the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ so that those who are following after the lie would understand that this lie is going to lead to my destruction.

It's leading me to unrighteousness, which is going to take me even to my own destruction if I do not repent.

So, we hold forth the word of life, the gospel of Jesus Christ, that they may hear the truth and repent of their sin and so live.

Next week, we're going to come back to this passage, and we're going to read about Balaam, the son of Beor, who listened to the voice of a donkey.

Any questions or comments as we finish up the lesson today? And as many times as I stumbled there in the very beginning, apparently,

I finished up rather thorough. Go ahead. Yes, that passage right there.

So, let's look at that again. So, verse 12, these like unreasoning animals...

Oh, I'm sorry, I'm a little bit further up. Verse 10, so daring self -willed, they do not tremble when they blaspheme the glorious ones.

Verse 11, whereas angels who are greater in strength and power do not bring reviling judgments against them before the

Lord. So, therefore, sharing with your friend that passage and saying, if angels can't bind

Satan, and you can go to Jude as well, that passage where Michael says, the Lord rebuke you, he doesn't rebuke, nor does

Michael even strike down, though he has the power to, but not the authority to. And so, if Michael and the other angels don't have the authority to bind or strike down Satan, then neither can we with our words.

Our desire should instead be with our prayer that we would draw near to God and that he would draw near to us, and that we would have the will of God to resist

Satan. Because then, as it says in James 4, resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Not rebuke the devil, and the devil goes, oh, you rebuked me, and then scurries away. But resisting his schemes, then he moves on.

Helpful? Okay. Yes. Well, yes, I'll certainly pray for you in that too.

Got time for one more, one more question. Oh, yeah, the hedge of protection.

I did a what video on that? Yes, I did. So, there's a 90 -second answer for that somewhere online.

So, hedge of protection, that is actually a scriptural term. So, you go to the book of Job where Satan comes before God, and God says to Satan, have you seen my servant

Job? You know, look how faithful he is. And Satan goes, well, it's because you've put a hedge of protection around him.

That's Satan's response. If you were to tear down that hedge and something bad were to happen to that guy, he would curse you to your face.

It was basically Satan's argument with God. So, when we pray for a hedge of protection, it's an

Old Testament term that when you had a man who was wealthy, who had lots of property and had lots of animals, maybe doesn't have the wealth and the resources to build a giant wall around his property, but he grows a hedge.

And so, the plants and shrubs that would surround what it is that he owns would keep out basic predators like coyotes, wolves, things like that that might come in and devour the flock.

So, that's what we refer to as a hedge of protection. So, you're taking that Old Testament terminology and then asking,

God, would you put a hedge around us to protect us from the devil's schemes? And I don't think it's necessarily wrong to pray that.

Although, personally, if I'm going to pray for God's protection, I want a great big giant fortress with a moat, some cannons on top.

That's the kind of protection I want. A mighty fortress is our God. So, yes.

Well, we're hitting 1045 here. People are going to start coming in. So, let's pray and we'll be dismissed. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your goodness and we thank you for the word that you have given to us that we might be warned of the devil's schemes.

We see the way he works, the teachers that he works through, to lead us away from God and into our own unrighteousness.

I pray that you would draw us all the more to you, that we would cling to Christ, that we would have our eyes fixed on his ways and his holiness, so that we would not be fooled by the devil's schemes.

And likewise, that you would give us wisdom and the right words to say to those who have been led astray, that we might, like somebody did with us, show someone the truth, so they would turn from sin to Christ and live.

Lead us in paths of righteousness. For your name's sake, may your name be glorified in all the earth.