Role Models For Going To Hell - [2 Peter 2:10b-16]

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Listen in as Pastor Mike preaches from 2 Peter!

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.
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No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the
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Apostle Paul said, But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.
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In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.
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By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her
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King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Every once in a while I get a postcard in the mail, and it's from a local church advertising what they do in their church, and trying to get new folks to come and introduce the ministry.
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Back in California there was one, and it says this, this is what the postcard says, Hi neighbor, at last, a new church for those who have given up on church services.
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Let's face it, many people aren't active in church these days. Why? Too often the sermons are boring and don't relate to daily living.
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Why'd you just laugh? Many churches seem more interested in your wallet than in you.
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Members are unfriendly to visitors. You wonder about the quality of nursery care for your little ones.
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In bold letters, do you ever think attending church should be enjoyable? Well, we've got good news for you. At our church you can, one, meet new friends and get to know your neighbors, two, enjoy exciting music with contemporary flavor, three, hear positive practical messages which uplift you each week, like how to feel good about yourself.
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I'm not kidding either. How to overcome depression. How to have full and successful life.
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The secrets of family living. How to overcome stress, and learning to handle your money without it handling you.
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Why not get a lift instead of a let down this Sunday? Well, the most interesting thing is what is not on that list.
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And one of the things that has to be taught in a local church is that there are false teachers out there, and they want to consume you, and you need to be on guard.
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And it might not feel good, you might not think it uplifting, but it is good and right.
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Please turn your Bibles to Matthew 7 before we get into 2 Peter, and I want you to see with our Lord Jesus' own words the importance of understanding false teachers.
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My responsibility as a pastor is not to pick and choose what's in the Bible and then teach you. What do you like to hear?
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What should you want to hear? My job is to discharge my duty and teach the whole counsel of God, from Genesis to Revelation.
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And many times in the books of the Bible there are discussions and exhortations about false teachers.
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And like it or not, feeling good about it or not, thinking it's uplifting or not, we need to come face to face with the fact that since there is the real prophet who's greater than Moses, the
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Lord Jesus, and he has a real message about real salvation and real eternal life through real forgiveness, through real trusting in the
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Lord Jesus, there are going to be phonies, fakes, and scams. And Jesus says in Matthew 7, the greatest preacher who ever lived, maybe the greatest message ever given, the
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Sermon on the Mount, says, verse 15, Matthew 7, 15, the
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Lord Jesus, beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
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You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes?
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No. Or figs from thistles? False. Jesus said these false prophets come to you and they look nice.
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They look happy. They're well mannered. They're well manicured. They're kind and nice in their speech.
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They are not coming to you with pitchforks, horns, accompanied by black angels of death with sickles and Damocles swords.
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Wolves, they're soft and fuzzy and fluffy on the outside and nice, but on the inside, what's the text say?
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They're like a ravenous wolf. You know what? Just how ravenous can a wolf be? For some of you who know about wolves, this is nothing new, but wolves can be up to about 100 pounds.
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They are apex predators. They have been given scent glands on their toes, which leave a little trace chemical marker so they can travel far away and know how to come back to their area.
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But it's their teeth that seem to be impressive to me. Their long canine teeth that can deliver up to 1 ,450 pounds of square inch pressure and they just crush and they bite and they eviscerate and they tear.
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One of the things they do is they'll find a moose or any other kind of prey and they begin to tear at its haunches.
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And it only takes about three tears of about 15 centimeters till the moose or the other animal goes about 100 meters and then falls over dead.
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They know right where the windpipe is. They know where the jugular is and they love to bite where it counts.
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And they especially love feeding on an animal while it's still alive. Wolves are ravenous.
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Why would Jesus call a false teacher like a ravenous wolf? On the outside, fine.
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On the inside, ravenous wolves. They're in sheep's clothing. You see what Jesus said? They're in sheep's clothing.
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Now, it's not like they put a sheep's skin up over their head and drape it over themselves, right?
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You've seen pictures of a wolf with a sheep's hide draped over.
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But they are dressed in sheep's clothing. What do shepherds wear, by the way? And if you answer polyester, you would be wrong.
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They wear wool. And so they're dressed like a shepherd. But on the inside, they're not to care for the sheep.
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They're to slaughter the sheep. They're to use the sheep. And the Lord Jesus warns us about false teachers.
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And I'm positive, aren't you, that Peter never forgot that message? How could you forget such a graphic message?
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A wolf in sheep's clothing? Peter didn't forget it. Even our society knows the lingo, does it not?
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Inwardly ravenous wolves. Satan does the opposite of what
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Jesus does. John 10, Jesus comes to shepherd the sheep, to lay down His life for the sheep, to make sure
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He abides with the sheep, and to make sure that He buys the sheep and He guards them and He rescues them.
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And Satan comes along to attack the sheep and to slaughter the sheep. And here's what
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Jesus said in 716, and this is my introduction to 2 Peter. You will know them by their fruits.
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This morning in 2 Peter, we're going to see the fruits, the corrupt, rotten fruits, the worm -laden fruits of the false teachers, so that you will know them.
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God wants you to know about false teachers, so that you can recognize them, so that you can denounce them, so that you can give them a wide berth, and so you don't get sucked into their vortex and then do what they do.
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What do they do? Well, they speak evil about Jesus. Hell, He's not going to come back, He's not faithful, you can't trust
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Him, He's not the only sin -bearer, there are many ways to God, and the list goes on and on and on. But when you believe those kind of things, it affects the way you live.
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And then you live licentiously, and then you live like, well, there's going to be no judgment day, so I'll live it up.
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What you believe determines how you act, both positively and negatively. You will know them by their fruits.
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They might talk with the right vocabulary, but different definitions. But you'll know them by their fruits.
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I heard the story of a New York couple, and they got two Broadway tickets of a smash Broadway hit.
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Remember Broadway? It's still a street, but nothing's going on there. Mailed two tickets, for free, no explanation, no identification of who sent them.
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Well, the night showed up, and they decided they would go, and they returned back home after a wonderful night on the town, and their house had been broken into, and all their furs are gone, and their jewelry's gone, and it's all just been taken.
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Oh, but there was a little note on the pillow. Had three words. Now you know. And one man said, like that nameless thief, false prophets and false teachers know what people want to hear.
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So take your Bibles, please, and turn to 2 Peter, chapter 2. If you're new to the church, we just march through books of the
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Bible, and we go verse by verse through books, similar to our Old Testament reading. Next week will be
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Exodus 34, no surprise there. And we are just going through books of the Bible in a sequential way.
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When you read a book, you don't just jump all around, right? If you have war and peace, you want to read it sequentially, because you'll see the context, and it's no different when it comes to reading a narrative like Exodus, or reading a letter called an epistle, called 2
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Peter, chapter 1, 2, and 3. And so chapter 2 is essentially understanding false teachers based on their fruits.
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To see them in the true light. You've all looked at yourself in the mirror before, think James 1 language, and you think you look pretty good.
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Not too many blemishes, not too many hairs out of place, not too many hairs.
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And you turn on the light, and you're like, with that magnifying glass and that light, I now see in reality what
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I really look like. And while on the outside they're like shepherds, sheep's clothing, the light x -ray goes on, as it were, so now you get to see what's on the inside, so you say,
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I cannot participate with them. Basically, what
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Peter does in chapter 1 is, he just says, you know what, in the midst of chaos and false teachers, you're safe.
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Because we already know what judgment day is going to be for you, Christian. You've been given the righteousness of Christ Jesus in chapter 1, verse 1.
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And that righteousness will withstand your life, it will withstand judgment day, and if you're a Christian here today,
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I know what's going to be said to you on judgment day, when every thought, word, and deed has been judged.
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Here's your judgment day verdict, dear Christian. Not guilty. I already know in the future it will be not guilty, because I have in the presence the righteousness of Jesus.
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I have nothing to pay for on judgment day. I might get chastened, of course, as a Christian, but that judgment in eternity past has been brought forth into time, justified by faith alone in the finished work of Jesus, trusting in his life for me, his death for me, confirmed by the resurrection, and I know there's no more judgment, so Peter is saying at the very get -go, you're safe, you're secure, and by the way, once God saves you, justification by faith alone doesn't end there, you begin to live a holy life.
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You want to say no to sin, that's called mortification, yes to righteousness, that's called vivification, our undone new life, and he talks about working hard in verses 5 and following for virtue in your life as a
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Christian, as fruit, as evidence. God's given you power and promises, and so live that out.
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And now he comes to chapter 2 with false teachers, and we saw last time, did we not, that God doesn't spare sinners.
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For those who think that God is asleep at the judgment wheel, is he? You might think, well, he hasn't judged for a long time, but remember chapter 3, a thousand years is like a what?
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A day, and a day is like a thousand years. So God's not on our timetable, chapter 2, verse 3, their destruction is not asleep, their condemnation from long ago is not idle,
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God's in control, he judges sin, and God doesn't change, therefore he's going to judge sin, and everything's going to be fine, rest, take heart,
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Christian, in a world full of wolves that look kind, they're going to be judged.
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And God gives some demonstrations, does he not, verse 4, he didn't spare the demons, right, when they sin, the angels, he didn't spare the ancient world, verse 5, he killed everybody on earth, man, woman, and child, it was like a cancer on earth, and he wiped them all out except 8,
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Noah and his wife and his three children and their spouses. God's not asleep at the wheel, remember what he did to Sodom and Gomorrah in chapter 2, verse 6, he condemned them to extinction.
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But in the middle of all this, you might say, I might get caught up in the judgment of God, there's so many pagans around me, will
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I get out alive? And verse 9 says of 2 Peter 2 and 9, then the
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Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment.
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You don't have to worry. The angels were rebellious, he judged them. The people during Noah's day, ungodly, he judged them.
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Sodom and Gomorrah, lawless, he judged them. And you say, why did he judge them? They were sinful, yes, he judged them for their sin, but it's because they were so opposite of the
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Lord Jesus, so opposite of holiness incarnate. I read of the Lord Jesus, things like this in John 15,
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I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love. I mean, who does that?
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I've kept, I've always kept, I've never disobeyed my father one time. So of course, if law keeping is commended by the father, by the work of the son, law breaking is going to be judged.
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If God commends the work of the Lord Jesus, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased, of course he's going to punish law breakers.
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Jesus said to them, John 8, while you have lifted up the son of man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing of my own authority, but speak just as the father taught me.
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And if you go running your mouth about false things about Jesus and false things about the father, you're going to be judged because the holy living is what
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Jesus just did. I speak as the father taught me. And Peter is saying at the end of chapter one,
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I'm telling you what the spirit of God told me to say. These false teachers tell you what they think you want to hear.
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And so now we come to chapter two, verse 10B. Why do I say 10B? Because verses four through 10A is one sentence and you see the period, maybe even in some of your
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Bibles, you'll see a big space there. So we're going to hit the second half of verse 10B and we'll work our way down.
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We didn't quite make it to verse 16, first service, and we're going to look at this section of scripture.
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And I want to make sure you recognize who these people are. So you don't believe them and you don't follow them.
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I think it was 1993 that Charles Barkley got in a lot of trouble. Remember Charles Barkley?
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He was an NBA basketball player. And in 93, I think he won the MVP of the
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National Basketball Association and he lost in the finals to the Chicago Bulls in a no name named
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Michael somebody. And Barkley got into tons of trouble for what statement?
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What was Barkley's statement that got him in tons of trouble? I'm not a role model.
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Of course, we have some ushers who are up on all kinds of pop culture and I'm not a role model.
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Quote, I'm not a role model. I'm not paid to be a role model. I'm paid to wreck havoc on the basketball court.
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Parents should be role models. Just because I dunk a basketball doesn't mean I should raise your kids. I thought role models, that was a term coined by the way in a sociologist writings.
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His name was Robert Merton and he said, you know what, there are people, usually younger people who look up to folks and they say,
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I want to emulate them. I want to be like them. I want to do what they do and what they, you know, their success
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I want to follow. And so I looked up five qualities of positive role models, ability to inspire, clear set of values, commitment to community, acceptance of others, ability to overcome obstacles.
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The five best qualities that the world says should be for role models. But in our passage today,
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I'm going to give you some role models and what they do, but they're not going to be positive. They're going to be negative and to flip this so we can think about it and just to change the pace here,
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I'm going to give you role models and what they do. And so if you'd like to go to hell, you follow them and be like them.
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Role models for going to hell. That makes sense. So far I got your attention. Nobody's sleeping.
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And by the way, I can see your eyes and your faces. Some of you, five negative things about false teachers that should make you say whatever they do,
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I'm going to do the opposite. If they're lawless and Jesus is a law keeper, well, whatever they do here too,
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I'm going to follow in like sequence five descriptions of what false teachers say or do or are that should make you say,
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I need to identify them, size them up. And if I see this kind of stuff in my life,
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I should say, you know, Lord, forgive me. And I, and I repent. Number one, how to go to hell.
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Follow this role model. No fear of the Lord versus 10
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B and 11. False teachers have no fear of the Lord. What do
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I mean by that? Verse 10 B 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
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Lord. They think they're in charge. They think they're at the top of the theological food chain.
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They think they are the apex predators and they'll do what they please. Thank you very much. You don't tell us what to do.
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We have no authority over us. This man will not reign over us. And so we're bold and willful. The Greek word is where we get the word audacious.
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They have the audacity to say as a created being and not even an angel being right.
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So you think kind of a class is you've got God who's not really in a class, right? He's God himself. He always is.
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I am who I am. And then you've got an angel created order and you've got men and women, right?
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And so these false teachers, of course, they don't have any fear of the Lord, but they don't even have any fear for God making angels.
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And what do they do? They blaspheme and they don't tremble when they're talking about the glorious ones.
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Now, the glorious ones could mean a variety of things. Some people think it's the government magistrate and they're like, well, you know what?
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People just against authority. And these are a bunch of people that say, I will never submit to you. And we want to just go against the government.
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That's a minor view. Another view is they say that these are people in the church, right? They're among you and they don't follow the leadership of the church.
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They don't follow the pastors and elders. Well, that's true of these false teachers. When's the last time you called me a glorious one?
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It would be fun. It would be better than Pope, our bishop.
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But he's talking about angels, glorious ones, the angels. And he's not even talking about good angels.
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He's talking about bad angels. There are false teachers that run their mouths and don't stop talking when they're even discussing fallen angels.
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You say, well, how'd you get that? That turned to Jude. Jude, remember, is a parallel book to 2nd Peter. When you buy a commentary on 2nd
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Peter, Jude comes with it because they're dealing with the same thing. And of course, the Holy Spirit is the ultimate author of both.
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And you'll see many similarities. If you ever have trouble understanding 2nd Peter, the best thing to do is read
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Jude and vice versa. You don't say Jude 1 .8
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because there's just one chapter. So Jude 8. Yet in like manner, these people also relying on their dreams.
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They're not the under the authority of God, they think. They defile the flesh. They reject authority and blaspheme the glorious ones.
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Sound familiar? You know, a contrast. But when the angel
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Michael contending with the devil was disputing about the body of Moses, he, the angel
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Michael, the archangel Michael, did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment but said, the
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Lord rebuke you. Good angels like Michael, the archangel, when it comes to demons, he doesn't say things like these false teachers do.
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I rebuke you. I cast you. I send you. I declare. I stop you. I make you cease and desist. And you go to this dungeon.
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You do that. You know what good angels do who are under the authority of God? Lord will take care of it.
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The Lord will rebuke you. Back to 2nd Peter, please. They're slandering the glorious ones.
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Yes, they're fallen people. I mean, fallen creatures, the angels. But the MO for a godly person who doesn't want to follow false prophets and teachers must never be
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Frank Sinatra, I Did It What? There you go. More pop culture. Did he write that song, by the way?
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Good. Don't ask Siri. I remember one time I was up, not here, but preaching somewhere else.
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And I said something about the Assyrians. And what did Siri do? Ready and waiting.
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So, don't say Assyrians. They respect no one.
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They're not under anybody's authority. They do what they want, when they want, as often as they want. That sounds a lot different than the incarnate son who says,
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I only do what the Father has sent me to do. My will is to do the work of the Father. I mean,
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I guess I could probably say this. You want to see a false teacher? Watch the person and work of Jesus and just say, the very opposite is what a false teacher does.
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You don't even need to know a lot of the details to make that assessment if you know who Jesus is. That's why
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I think every issue, whether it's in marriage or struggling with contentment or anything, anything about anything, three anythings, it's a
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Christological issue. Who is Jesus and how do I walk by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me?
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These people, they don't say, well, let's just leave the judgment to God.
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And I have seen time after time watching different TV shows, watching people, false prophets, say things bad about demons and cast them and send them and excise them and all these other things.
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And I just think that's above your pay grade, friend. They're daring. They're self -willed. They do what they want to do as often as they want to do it.
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And I can say it this way. There's no fear of the Lord before their eyes. The beginning of wisdom is what?
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The fear of the Lord. It doesn't say that in the passage, but that's how you size them up. If you'd like to know the theological center of the book of Job, 42 chapters, it's
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Job 28, 28. And it is the fear of the Lord is the beginning of what? Wisdom. They don't even have the start.
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They're not even in the gate yet because they don't fear the Lord. They have no reverence for the
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Lord, no humility before the maker, before the great redeemer of sinners. They disregard him.
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I remember Paul said of an unbeliever, there's no fear of God before their eyes. That's the false teacher.
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Remember the thief that was penitent getting crucified next to the unpenitent thief next to Jesus and the penitent thief said to the unrepentant thief on the cross, don't you fear
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God? John Murray said, the fear of God is the soul of godliness.
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If we are thinking of the marks of biblical piety, none is more characteristic than the fear of the
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Lord. Now, in the old days, if you met a Christian and you said, well, what do you believe?
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How do you identify yourself? I almost said, how do you self -identify? How do you identify yourself?
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I'm a Christian. I'm an evangelical Christian. I'm a fundamentalist Christian.
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I'm an evangelical fundamentalist born -again Christian. You know what we've lost really for defining
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Christians that in the old days was modern parlance. That person is a God -fearing man.
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That person's a God -fearing woman because they realize creator, creature, distinction, infinite, finite, holy, sinful.
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My only hope to bridge the gap of holiness and sin is not to me get better and to do more and to be more pleasing to God and to do more better than bad and all these other things.
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It's simply to say, Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner, because it's the just Jesus sent for the unjust that he might, what?
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Bring us to God. And knowing that, that we can't save ourself or keep ourselves safe, it should humble us.
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Well, they're not only having no fear of the Lord, but if you want a role model for the wrong thing, secondly, found in 2
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Peter 2, verse 12, is there's no real knowledge of salvation. They're ignorant.
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That's the word that you'll see in this section. Don't follow false teachers. They don't even know what they're talking about.
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I mean, you would never say, I'm going to turn on the cooking channel by a guy that only knows how to open up a can of Chef Boyardee.
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Would you? I'm going to learn from that guy, that gal. No, you wouldn't do that.
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So don't do it here. These, but these, verse 12, like, okay, he's going to say it.
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There's a simile there, I know, but he's going to call false teachers, animals, politically incorrect. Yes. Like irrational animals, creatures of instinct born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they're ignorant will also be destroyed in their destruction, suffering wrong as the wage of their wrongdoing.
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There's a payday one day for these people who should rationalize image of God, created angels, holiness of God, creature creator distinction, future judgment,
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Jesus is going to come back, but no, based on instinct and the basis natures of a person,
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I'm just going to do what I want to do. My hormones will control me. My feelings will control me. I want to be controlled.
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I won't think like irrational animals, creatures of instinct. I mean, as much as I want my dog to be in heaven, some people say, well, it's not going to be heaven without my dog there or my cat.
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And I think, well, if you're a Christian, you get there, you will quickly think that's not true.
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But my dog, while I might love my dog, there's no soul or spirit breathed into my dog.
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It's just an animal. And while I attribute human things to my dog of kindness and compassion and loyalty and all that, she operated by instinct.
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She was a creature. She wasn't thinking through, well, I have self -actualization, self -acknowledgement, it's just like, no, that's what a false teacher is like.
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They're not thinking people. They operate irrationally. They don't even know the basics.
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And instead of saying, you know what, maybe I should take my cue from a good angel and be obedient and submissive.
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I think I'll take my cue from an animal and do what I want to do. That's what these false teachers do.
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One man said, trapped through their eagerness to satisfy their own appetite. So self -indulgence betrays these men to their ruin.
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You just go by instinct. We're not even going to do what supernatural beings, angels do.
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We'll do what subhuman things do, animals. And what do animals do?
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Well, like cows and sheep and goats and stuff like that, they're born to be destroyed.
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They're just born to be eaten. When I was a kid, I remember we'd go to the stockyards, probably fifth grade
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Omaha, Nebraska, field trip, and instead of going to the Louvre, or instead of going to the
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Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, we would go to the stockyards. And, of course, you get a goat, and the leader goat, it knows to have all the other goats and sheep follow it up to the slaughter area, the pen slaughtering area.
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But at the last second, there's a little shoot that goes out, and he can get out and go back and round up some others. And what do you call that goat that goes out at the last second that leads the other goats and sheep to slaughter?
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Answer? Judas goat. I know. I agree.
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Wow. Where's the thunder when I need it,
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Lord? Years ago, we had the snow on the roof, and just in the perfect time, it came down.
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It was like Sinai in here. Law. The problem is, animals, when they die, they're done.
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Annihilated. No soul. No anything else. When false teachers die, and those that want to follow and believe what they say, there's not just destruction on earth.
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There's what? Eternal destruction. And that eternal destruction is going to come to every false teacher, because Peter said,
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Jesus will keep his word, and he's going to come back soon. Be ready. And some people say, well, you know, you're calling them animals.
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I'm going to say, like animals. Yeah, but they're nice, and they're friendly, and they talk about unity, and can't we all be one?
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They're bad role models, dear Christian. They're going to be destroyed. If you see
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Korah and his family, and the earth opens up, and begins to take them down to the bellies of the earth,
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I don't think you're going to run up and try to peek over. I think you're going to be running backwards. That's the point. Thirdly, for a bad role model, not only is there no fear of the
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Lord, and no knowledge of anything, they're just ignorant, base people. Number three, there's no sense of shame.
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Role models for hell, no fear of the Lord, no real knowledge of salvation, and no sense of shame, no conscience.
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Key word here, revel. Notice it. Verse 13, they count it pleasure to revel, not even in the nighttime, disobeying
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God at night, and they do their deeds at night, because their deeds are evil. No, no, in the day. I don't care who sees me.
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There are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you. You know what's probably happening? You have the
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Lord's Supper, and before you have the Lord's Supper, you have the Lord's Feast Meal, 1 Corinthians 11. The church all gets together, we eat together, we dine together.
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Isn't the Lord good? How can we be male, female, Jew, Gentile, Greek, slave, free, white, black, etc.,
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etc., and we're all here sitting around a table, worshiping the same Lord? It's the Lord who did it. Praise Him, who
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He is, and what He's done. Thank you. We enjoy a meal together, like we're enjoying a meal with the Lord Jesus, and now we're going to be reminded of the communion cup, and the communion bread, where it's all the work of the
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Lord Jesus. I stand before God, He's not angry with me, He loves me like He loves His Son, and we're just to enjoy one another, and enjoy the great goodness of God, and they're with you, feasting with you, and if you're not careful, feasting on you.
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I don't want to be close to that. This is like a camera that zooms in really close, and gets a tight picture of somebody's face, and you go, nastiness up close and personal.
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They don't want anything to do with godliness. The Jerusalem Bible translates it this way, they amuse themselves deceiving you, even when they're guests at a meal.
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They revel, they don't care about sin, they don't care about judgment. There was a book written in 1973 by a psychologist, whatever happened to sin?
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We can say sin anymore. Disease, bad influences, syndromes, they're not going to talk about sin.
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Where are the people that are going to talk about sin, and then the sin bearer? I've said to people many, many times, if you could get to heaven by being good, why did
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Jesus come and die? Why did the Father punish the Son in Calvary? It's the most awful thing ever, it would be unjust.
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But since we can't get to heaven on our own, and we need a Savior, that's why that happened. Show me false teachers, and I'll show you people that sidestep sin, that sidestep hell.
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Now, I don't often say, there's a TV show episode that I've watched, and I haven't watched the whole thing, but I watched the end.
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Remember the NBC TV show called ER? And I've watched it recently, and remember the time where the man was dying, a bad man dying, and the female chaplain of the hospital comes in for the last words before this man dies.
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Remember the scene? It is breathtaking. And this man said to the chaplain, how can
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I even hope for forgiveness? Chaplain, I think sometimes it's easier to feel guilty than forgiven.
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Which means what? Well, that you maybe have guilt over your death, and that's become your reason for living.
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Maybe you need a new reason to go on. I don't want to go on, said the dying man. Can't you see I'm dying? The only thing that is holding me back is that I'm afraid.
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I'm afraid of what comes next. Chaplain, what do you think that is? You tell me.
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Is atonement possible? What does God want from me? Well, she said, I think it's up to each one of us to interpret for ourselves what
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God wants. So people can do anything? They can rape, they can murder, they can steal, all in the name of God, and it's okay?
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Well, that's not what I'm saying. Then what are you saying? Because all I'm hearing is some new age, God is love, have it your own way deal.
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No, I don't have time for this now. You don't understand. No, you don't understand. I want a real chaplain who believes in a real
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God and a real hell. I hear you're frustrated, but you need to ask yourself.
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No, I don't need to ask myself anything. I need answers. And all your questions and all your uncertainty are only making matters worse.
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I know you're upset. God, I need someone who will look me in the eye and tell me how to find forgiveness because I'm running out of time.
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E -R -N -B -C. What would you say if you were there, if you were the chaplain?
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What would you say? Well, I hope you would say, I'm sorry you're in this predicament, but I have some good news for you.
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I'm not sure you recognize how sinful you are, but then let me tell you about the sinlessness of the
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Lord Jesus who justifies ungodly people, who rescues sinners. And just like the thief on the cross rescued on his deathbed, the power of God is enough to save you from your sins and make you right with God.
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And let me tell you, you don't have to be better. You don't have to do anything. You don't have to be baptized, catechized, irrigated, consecrated.
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You need to believe is what you need to do. Believe right now. Give me some good news.
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I need someone with answers. And by the way, you get somebody like a Joel Osteen on Larry King, and are homosexuals sinning?
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Do you have to do this, that, or the other? And he will not give an answer. Give me some men who know some answers, right?
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And ladies too. Well, fourthly, found in 2
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Peter 2, there's no fulfillment or satisfaction or ultimate joy in what they're selling.
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Key word, insatiable. They're insatiable. Verse 14, they have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin.
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They entice unsteady souls. You're probably saying to yourself, could false teachers get any worse?
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Yes. The onion layers are being peeled, and we're getting to the center of it. And now we're seeing into their very souls.
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Eyes full of adultery. These false teachers, and it's their MO for every false teacher, sex and money, power, and they look at a girl, and every girl's a mark.
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Every time they see a girl, they begin to size her up. One man said they cannot look upon a woman without evaluating her as a possible sex partner.
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They don't care that Jesus said you look on a woman with lust, and it's committed adultery in your heart. They don't care about that.
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They just look at every person. They look at your mothers. They look at your daughters. They look at your wives, and they say, hmm, could be.
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I'd like it to be. On a side note, I regularly, when tempted, think of this verse.
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If I'm tempted to look, and I shouldn't be looking, I regularly think, you know what? It is the false teacher that has an eye full of adultery, and I do not want that to be the case in my life.
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This is good advice for men, and ladies as well. Who wants to be like a false teacher where you just size up every single person that you see?
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Their eyes are full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They can't get enough sin, and the wages of sin often is more sin.
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How unlike they are to Job, Job 31. I've made a covenant with my eyes.
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How then could I gaze at a virgin? I, with you men here at the church, and you ladies, we don't want to be like these false teachers.
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We want to be like Job. False teachers are unsafe. They're like a wolf running around.
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And Peter had a job before he was an apostle, and his job was what? A fisherman.
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So it shouldn't shock you that he uses fishing language here. If you're a fisherman, you can understand this word here, enticing.
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And it means to catch with bait. It means there's a treble hook, and you don't throw that in the water. You put some bait around the treble hook, and they're enticed.
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They don't think. They don't realize bait could be hooked. Be careful. Be, you know, aware. And so they're enticed, and that's the language here.
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Fisherman language. They're not going to think ahead of time, because they're irrational. They're bold. They're willful. There's no self -restraint.
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They're just doing what they want, and they want that now. How unlike something like Galatians 5.
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But the fruit of the Spirit is what? Love and joy. And you can think satisfaction.
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They just don't know what they're doing. They're just on to the next thing. And then lastly, found in verses 14 and following, there's no real obedience.
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No real repentance. They forsake the way. That's the key word, forsake. False teachers. No fear of the
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Lord. No knowledge of salvation. No shame. No real fulfillment. They're insatiable, and they're not obedient.
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Verse 14. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children. Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray.
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They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, but was rebuked for his own transgression.
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A speechless donkey spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet's madness.
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Now, there's a lot to say about Balaam and numbers, and so we're going to have to look at that next time we come back.
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But I want to remind you, dear church, about false teachers. Let me ask you this. Is it ever appropriate for a pastor to say, this is a false teacher congregation, this is a wolf, watch out for that wolf by name?
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I hope you say yes, because if you read in the
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Bible, particularly 1 Timothy, Paul charges Timothy to watch out for two men named
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Hymenaeus and Alexander. Paul writes to Timothy in 2 Timothy of a man named
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Philegius and Hermogenes. You ought to be careful. There are certain people that fall into these categories that maybe some of you like, and you ought to reconsider that.
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There's a thing going on in evangelicalism that if you are a pastor and you want to write a book that sells a lot, you have to have a last name that's either
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O or M, because now you'll be at the bookstore between Joe Osteen and Joyce Meyer, because that's where everybody goes.
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If you don't know Joe Osteen as a wolf, he's after you.
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Jesus came that we might have more abundant life. He came to carry our weaknesses, our sicknesses, our pain, so that we can walk in total freedom, peace, power and purpose.
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To be successful in your walk with God, commit to honor God with your finances. When you commit to give the
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Lord the first 10 % of your income, God promises he will pour out blessings you cannot contain. Tithing is the first key to financial prosperity.
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It's on his website. He's a word of faith teacher.
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We have to conceive it on the inside before we're ever going to receive it on the outside. He doesn't preach about sin nor repentance, and you ought to be careful of he,
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Joel, the apex predator. You say, well, you said Joyce Meyer. What about her? Is this person a false teacher?
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You tell me. Jesus stopped being the son of God at the cross. She gets her teaching directly from God.
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She said, I stopped sinning. Quote, all I was ever taught to say was I was a poor, miserable sinner.
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I'm not poor, I'm not miserable, and I am not a sinner. That, Joyce Meyer said, is a lie from the pit of hell.
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That is what I were, and if I was still then, Jesus died in vain. And that Christians are, in fact, little gods.
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She's coming for you. If you think because Elevate Church has good music and Stephen Furtick is legit, you're following a false teacher.
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I do not want you to follow false teachers. Stephen Furtick doesn't even understand the
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Trinity. He said when Jesus was leaving the earth, and he was going to send the Holy Spirit, Jesus essentially said to his disciples, quote,
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I'm not leaving you, I'm changing forms. There are not three forms of the
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Godhead. Eternal Son, Eternal Father, Eternal Holy Spirit. The power of God, Furtick said, was in Jesus.
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The healing power of God, the restoring power of God, the same power that made demons flee was in Nazareth. But Jesus could not release it because it was trapped in their unbelief.
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And there's one thing that even Jesus can't do. One thing that even the Son of God can't do. Even Jesus can't override your unbelief.
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Period. That's a false teacher. And most explicitly, he said that Jesus broke the law of God for love.
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That is a bald -faced lie from Satan himself. Because Jesus didn't abolish the law, he fulfilled it.
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If you think that living out, which is now promoting gay Christianity, is legit, you're following false teachers.
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You'll know them by their fruits. We've got this thing now in Christianity, we don't say things like a gluttonous
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Christian and a drunkard Christian and an adulterous Christian. We have a category now called gay
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Christian. Obviously, if you have those propensities and you're saying no to them, there are struggles of sin, yes, but that's not what they're saying.
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They say things like this on their website, Living Out. We'd be crazy to deny the good and permanent, stable, faithful, same -sex, sexual relationships.
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This is a Christian organization. This is a Christian organization that wants to come and audit this church to say, are we open and affirming to people?
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No one needs counseling, they say, quote, because they are gay or same -sex attracted. They suggest that a same -sex couple who commit their lives to Christ should live as celibacy, as friends, and, quote, share the parenting of any children who are there too.
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This is going to split the Presbyterian Church of America. When the wolves are in.
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You don't need to be told on a website if you struggle with a kind of sin that you should visit naturist beaches, i .e.,
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nude beaches, visit gay bars and nightclubs without the intention of sexual intimacy. This is being taught by people.
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And then lastly, I want to say that these people aren't necessarily false teachers, but this is a false teaching.
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If you are buying into evangelicals' headlong thrust into promoting woke theology, critical race theory,
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Marxism, white privilege attacks, race -baiting, power structures, systemic injustice promoted by men from the
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Gospel Coalition, Nine Marks, Southern Baptist Convention, Tim Keller, etc., that is false teaching.
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When James Cone said, the black man's response to God's act in Christ must be different from the white man's because his life experiences are different, you ought to say to yourself, wolf, wolf.
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One lady said, white Christianity's very design exists to maintain false piety and sear the consciences of white people against the oppression and exploitation of blacks.
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Mark and avoid. The social gospel isn't the gospel, it's law.
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Social gospel isn't good news, it's law. And it's not even God's law, it's a made -up law.
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And it's sad that Christians seem to follow the world. And the way Christians follow the world is one step beyond and twice as poorly done.
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And whatever the world is selling, that's what the Christians just eat up. Be careful of power structures and oppressed and marginalized identities and white patriarchal heterosexual male hegemonies.
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That language you should be thinking, that's called liberalism. That will tear a church in half like a wolf will tear a sheep in half.
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You say, well, I kind of don't even want to know about that. I don't want to really deal with that.
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I would like to have a kind of positive thing going on. Well, so would
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I. Or to say it in New England, so don't I. It is not wrong to be a discerning
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Christian. It's a command of God. And the brands were commended. And not only should you discern what
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I say here, but when people begin to give you this kind of talk, I want you to know it's going to show up in the next generation or in their lives with ungodly living, just like it did in the emergent church.
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Just like it did with Brian McLaren. Just like it did with Rob Bell, who now teaches
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There's No Hell. Just like it did with Bart Ehrman. Jesus isn't the Son of God. It is connected.
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And so we give wide berth. And if you could do one thing to counteract all this, is enjoy reading the
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Gospel of Jesus according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Because when you see Jesus for who he is, the fakers are obvious.
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And so when you say, I'd like to feel up at a church, the way I feel up is,
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I feel armed and ready. I feel ready to say, you know what, whatever comes our way, the
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Scriptures are sufficient, and I can rest in the Lord Jesus and his word. Their destruction is not asleep.
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Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for your word. It is difficult. It is hard. It is direct.
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We do not want to be duped by Satan. We do not want to be sheep for some wolf slaughter.
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I pray that if we know people who are false teachers, teaching falsely, you would give us courage to be like Peter and Jesus who would rebuke.
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And Father, for those that are just caught up in some of these things, and dear people, would you help us to be kind and compassionate and winsome?
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But help protect us. Help protect Bethlehem Bible Church from what the world is selling, especially division based on critical race theory, especially based on word -faith theology.
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We realize that our life is one of suffering and then glory, and all the false teachers in unison want it the other way around.
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So guard us, and I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.
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Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life -transforming power of God's word through verse -by -verse exposition of the sacred text.
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Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 10 .15 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston.
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You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.