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Bro. Bill Nichols
Okay, I think I'm up and running. Is that right? Yes, sir. Everything looks good. Can everyone hear me? Yes. Okay, good. This morning we're going to be dealing with 2 Peter chapter 2. And in this chapter, there are so many items to address that will probably take us two or three Sundays to complete.
As a result, we're going to focus on just the first two verses today. And that will push us to get through. So let's begin. But there were false prophets among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
Verse 2. And many shall follow in their pernicious ways, by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. Let us pray. Most gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. And thank you for all the many blessings that you have given to us.
Thank you for providing us this platform where we can reach out and touch one another, even though we are in a time of crisis here with regard to the weather. Actually, for those of you who are out of town, the weather is broken and we're nice and sunny and warm today.
But we weren't that way yesterday. Bless us and keep us. Take us through all the services today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So I want to begin with Matthew Henry, how he introduced this chapter. In the end of the former chapter, there is mention made of holy men who lived in the times of the Old Testament, who were used as the amuensuses.
I had to look that up. That's penmen or scribes. We talked about this last week. Scribes of the Holy Spirit. The prophets, the Old Testament prophets, many of them wrote down what the Holy Spirit told them to write without understanding what it was that they were writing.
And that's what Matthew Henry is addressing. Holy men of God who lived in the times of the Old Testament and were used as amuenses of the Holy Ghost in writing the sacred oracles. But in the beginning of this, he tells us that they had, even at that time, false prophets in the church as well as truth.
False prophets in the church as well as truth. In all ages of the church and under all dispensations, when God sends true prophets, the devil sends some to seduce and deceive. False prophets in the Old Testament, false Christ, false apostles, and seducing teachers in the new.
Concerning these, observe the following. Their business is to bring destructive errors, even damnable heresies. As the business of teachers sent with God is to show the way of truth, even the true way to everlasting life.
There are damnable heresies as well as damnable practices. And false teachers are industrious to spread pernicious errors too. These damnable heresies are commonly brought in privilege under the cloak and collar of truth.
Those who introduce destructive heresies deny the Lord that bought them. They reject and refuse to hear and learn of the great teacher sent from God. Though he is the only Savior and Redeemer of men who paid a price sufficient to redeem as many worlds of sinners as there are sinners of the world.
And three, those who bring in errors destructive to others also bring swift and therefore sure destruction upon themselves. Self-destroyers are soon destroyed. And those who are so hardened as to propagate errors destructive to others self-surely and suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy.
So that's Matthew Henry's introduction to chapter 2 verse 1. There were false prophets also among the people. Now the greatest sin of those who reject Christ and the most damning work of Satan is misrepresentation of the truth and the deception that follows.
John MacArthur said this, nothing is more wicked than for someone to claim to speak for God to the salvation of souls when in reality he speaks for Satan to the damnation of souls. And then he went on to list 11 passages, several entire chapters.
But 11 passages altogether where the scripture talks about the nature and destiny of these false teachers. The first one that he lists is Deuteronomy chapter 13 verses 1 through 18. I'm going to read that one to you and make some comments along the way.
If there arise among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them.
Now let's pause a second. Don't fail to notice that this is a false prophet. Furthermore, this prophecy came to pass. This is a clear warning to be on guard so as not to be deceived by messenger from Satan posing as a messenger from God.
And that is very often the way messengers from Satan interact with people of God. They pose to be messengers from God. Even though a prophet or a dreamer's prediction comes true, if his message contradicts God's word, then God's people are to trust God and his word and not any such experience that they may have from these dreamers and prophets who will turn out to be false prophets.
So the question highlighted here is, how do you tell the difference between a message from Satan and a message from God? And you may understand this. You're going to get messages from God if you belong to him, and you're going to get messages from Satan.
I believe that most of the messages we get from God, and I say most because I can't for sure say all of them, most of the messages you will get from God, you will get while you're studying or reading his holy scripture.
And many of the messages that you get from Satan, and I won't say all of them, will come in the form of dreams and imaginations. Satan will be sitting on your shoulder whispering in your ear something.
How do you know? How do you know what's true? What's a true message from God and what is a message from Satan? Well, the answer is clear. If the message contradicts God's word, then it is a false message and it is from Satan.
God will never give you a message that contradicts his word. Satan will often. The first instance was Satan in the Garden of Eden. Why did he tell Eve, go ahead and eat the fruit. It won't hurt you. You won't die.
He contradicted God's word. She should have known. And if she didn't know, Adam should have known. And because neither of them apparently did, we're in the condition we're in now. So let's go back to Deuteronomy, verse 3, and look at what's going to happen.
Thou shalt not hearken to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God proveth you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Actually, what he's going to do is he's going to test you so that you know that you love the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul.
Verse 4. You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his word, and ye shall serve him and cleave to him. And now for the false prophet, the prophet or the dreamer who gave you instructions to do something that contradicted God's word.
And that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death because he has spoken to turn you away from the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of bondage to thrust thee out of the way that the Lord thy God commanded thee to walk in.
So thou shalt put the evil away from thy midst. And that's difficult enough to do when it is just some false teacher. But oftentimes it's someone closer to you. But if thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or thy wife, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve of the gods, which thou hast not known, nor thy father, namely of the gods of the people which are round about you, not to thee, or far off from thee, from one end of the earth, even unto the other end of the earth, thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him.
Neither shalt thou not pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him. But thou shalt surely kill him, thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hands of all the people.
And thou shalt stone him with stones that he die, because he sought to thrust thee away from the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. And all Israel shall hear and fear, and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is among you.
And as thou shalt hear say in one of thy cities, which the Lord thy God hath given thee to dwell in, saying, Certain men, the children of Beel, are gone out from among you, and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which ye have not known.
Then shalt thou inquire and make search, and ask diligently, and if thou be truth, and if it be truth, and if the thing certain that such an abomination is wrought among you, you shall surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of a sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein, and the cattle thereof with the edge of the sword.
And thou shalt gather all the spoil of it in the midst of the street thereof, and shalt burn it with fire, the city and all the spoils thereof, every whit, for the Lord thy God. And it shall be a heap for ever, and shall not be built again.
And thou shalt cleave not of the cursed thing to thine hand, that the Lord may turn his fierceness of his anger, and show mercy, and have compassion upon thee, and multiply thee, as he hath sworn unto thy fathers.
When thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord, to keep all of his commandments, which I have commanded thee this day, to do that which is right in the sight of God. And you recall, I'm sure in, you recall, I'm sure that that's what happened to Saul.
He was sent to destroy a city, and he didn't. He brought back all the spoils, and he was confronted with that. The Lord doesn't want the spoils of that city. Another little passage I'm going to read is just one verse.
But the prophet which shall presume to speak a worded by name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die. So it's not an easy thing.
That was also in Deuteronomy 18 verse 20. It's not an easy thing, an easy fate, an easy way for the false prophet. He will die. The Lord will see to it. Jeremiah, MacArthur gave us the whole passage. I'm just going to read one verse.
Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture, saith the Lord. Woe be unto them. And in Ezekiel, MacArthur gave all of Ezekiel 13. And in Matthew, the Lord says beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
And Paul said in 2 Corinthians 11 verse 12, but what I do that I will do, that I may cut off occasion from them which desire occasion, wherein they glory, that they may be found even as we. For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ, and no marvel.
For if Satan himself is transformed as an angel of light, therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works.
Okay, so there will be false prophets among you, and those false prophets can be weeded out, should be weeded out, and in the Old Testament times they were to be stoned. We don't do that now, but certainly we should weed them out and not have them be a part of our services.
Okay, back to verse 1 of 2 Peter chapter 2. But there were false prophets among the people, even as there should be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
Satan has always endeavored to infiltrate groups of believers with deceptions of false teachers. Jesus spoke to the Pharisees in John 8, 44, when he said, Ye are of your father the devil, and the lust of your father you will do.
He was a murderer from the beginning, and a bode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it. These false teachers parade themselves as Christian pastors, teachers, and evangelists, so beware of them.
Jude 4 says this,. For there are certain men crept in unawares, which were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, back to the word heresies. Heresies means self-designed religious lies that lead to division and factions. The Greek word for destructive basically means damnation. That's why it is so tragic when a church makes a virtue out of unscriptural teachings and ideas in the name of love and unity.
You can't allow false teachers to remain in the church, even though to do so would seem like it is a bow to love and unity. It's not. It will bring division and factions. And Paul tells us in 1 Timothy 4,.
Now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having the conscious seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from mates, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.
For every creature God is good, and nothing to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. False teachers sneak in, bringing with them damnable heresies, and even denying the Lord that bought them.
Denying the Lord. This phrase exposes the depth of the crime and the guilt of false teachers. It means one who has supreme authority, whether human authority or divine authority. Here, Peter warns that false prophets deny the sovereign lordship of Jesus Christ.
Though the heresies may include such things as the denial of virgin birth, deity, bodily resurrection, the second coming of Christ, the false teachers' basic error is that they will not submit their lives to the rule of Christ.
All false religions have this as a common denominator. It is the basic error, it is this basic error that leads them and those who follow them on their path to destruction. Verse 2. And many shall follow their pernicious ways, by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evenly evil spoken of.
I'm going to read that again. And many shall follow their pernicious ways, by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evenly, couldn't do it, can't do it. By reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.
Okay, finally. Matthew Henry proceeds to describe now verse 2. He says Peter proceeds to tell us the consequences with respect to others. And here we may learn, number one, corrupt teachers seldom fail many to follow them.
Though the way of error is a pernicious way, yet many are ready to walk therein. Men drink in iniquity like water, and are pleased to live in error. The prophets prophesy falsely, and the people love to have it so.
Second, the spreading of error will bring up an evil report on the way of truth. That is the way of salvation by Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life. The Christian religion is from the God of truth, as the author leads to true happiness in the enjoyment of the true God as the end, and works truth in the inward part as means of acceptably serving God.
And yet this way of truth is traduced. Now I had to look up that word. It means to make a false or malicious statement about someone in order to cause humiliation and disgrace. So what's happening here is people are making false, malicious statements in order to cause humiliation and disgrace to the word of God.
Okay, yet in this way, yet this way of truth is traduced and blasphemed by those who embrace and advance destructive errors. This the apostle has foretold us as what should certainly come to pass. Let us not be offended at anything of this in our day, but take care that we give no occasion to the enemy to blaspheme the holy name, whereby we are called, or to speak evil of that way, whereby we hope to be saved.
So our great task is to make certain that we give no occasion to the enemy to blaspheme God or blaspheme the way, or to speak evil of the way, the way by which we are saved. Many people will profess to be Christians, but deny Christ's Lordship over their lives, refusing to live as obedient servants to Christ and his word, following instead the lust of the flesh, the world, and the devil.
Such nominal Christians tragically will be included in the Lord's condemnation of hypocrites at the judgment. Turn, if you would, to Matthew chapter 7, verse 21, and let's hear what Jesus said to some of those nominal Christians.
Matthew 7, 21. Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name have cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works?
I want to pause here a second and say this. Obviously, they prophesied some things that came true, and apparently they cast out devils, and apparently they did many wonderful works, and yet, here's what the Lord is going to say to them.
He's not going to say, no, you were false prophets, you were children of Satan, you were doing this in order to discredit the way. He will simply say this, I will profess to them, I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
So even though these false teachers may have the appearance of creating miracles, of doing wonderful works, of prophesying, if their work and their words contradict the words of God, then they are messengers of Satan, not messengers of God, and we should avoid them.
In Jude chapter 4 it says this, not chapter 4, there's only one chapter of Jude. In Jude verse 4, for there are certain men crept in unawares who were before of old ordained to this condemnation. Ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
I will therefore put you in remembrance, though you once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterwards destroyed them that believed not. And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.
Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them, in like manner giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
So what did Peter say? And many shall follow their pernicious ways, by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of, denying the Lordship of God, of Christ, and of God. While at the same time claiming to be a believer not only destructively infects other people, it also discredits the gospel, the gospel, the way of truth, the way of truth shall be evilly spoken of.
The world mocks and scoffs at the gospel of Jesus Christ, because nominal Christians, who do not follow the Lord as they claim, have been unmasked as hypocrites. Okay, if I go any further, I will run way over and when I have a closing point.
Okay, let's close with a quick prayer. Most gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for this day that you've given us, and thank you for giving us the technology to reach out and interact with one another, even though we're miles apart.
Thank you for all of the goodness that you've given us, and thank you for giving us a way to discern false and true, right and wrong. The Word of God is where we need to go always, and we understand that.
We need to go to the Word of God, and the Word of God will tell us what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is evil. And that's the only true place that we can go. Anywhere else will lead us to confusion.
But if we go to the Scripture, and we go with the Holy Spirit guiding us, we will get clarity. And thank you for giving us that. Thank you for all the things that you have provided for us. Bless us and keep us through all the services today.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.