Waterless Springs Part III 2 Peter 2:10-22

False Teachers Promise Big but Do Not Deliver

This world it is common for people to deliver big promises but not deliver. I remember when I was in college my favorite college football team the Minnesota Golden Gophers we probably have some Gophers fans here right.

They hired a new coach named Tim Brewster. Brewster promised to bring Gophers football back to prominence and some of you might think were they ever good to begin with. And the answer is yes. They used to be very good.

It was just all before we were born. Before 1960 the Gophers football actually won seven national championships. Their final national championship was in 1960. So the bragging rights I have over Wisconsin fans is that how many national championships do you have.

Well the answer is zero. But I won't rub that in. So in in 1962 that was the last time the Gophers were in the Rose Bowl which is that as one commentator said that the granddaddy of them all all bowl games that is when Tim Brewster was hired he made big promises.

He told the fan base I'm going to leave the Gophers back to the Rose Bowl. I remember as a fan feeling excited finally a coach that has a vision that is going to deliver big. Well it didn't start off too good.

The first season was a 1 -11 campaign. The second year showed some promise. They went seven and six and played in a bowl game. The fourth year was supposed to be the big year right. This is the year you're supposed to really move forward.

Well it was mediocre six and seven six wins seven losses. Then in the fourth year this is the year where you're really supposed to get going. The bottom fell out. They started off the season one and six and they lost to the powerhouse of South Dakota.

Then they proceeded to have a disaster which was the fourth season. Of course in his less than four seasons as a coach he finished with a 15 and 30 record and he was fired and he went down. He has gone down as the second worst coach by winning percentage in the history of Gophers football which by the way goes back to the late 1800s.

He promised a Rose Bowl. But really what he sold the fan base was a bill of goods. Now this is sports. In the whole scheme of things sports are not very important. There are more serious examples in the business world of men making lofty promises to people and not delivering and causing tremendous problems as a result one example of this that happened over a decade ago not too far from here in the Twin Cities is the story of Tom Petters.

Petters once owned the businesses Fingerhut Polaroid and Sun Country Airlines. Petters promised great gain from clients who invested in his companies. What was discovered is that he was the architect of a 3 .5 billion dollar Ponzi scheme.

Overnight people found out that they were being sold a bill of goods and they lost thousands upon thousands of dollars. Some people hundreds of thousands of dollars. Some people were close to retirement and they lost all of their retirement.

Petters was sentenced to 50 years in jail for this massive business fraud. This world is full of people like this. It doesn't matter what arena you go in whether it's business whether it's sports whether it's the music industry whether it's the art industry whether it is churches this happens.

People promise big but they do not deliver. The Bible describes people like this and where we are in our sermon series through 2nd Peter and 2nd Peter chapter 2 there's a specific group of described that this describes.

Well and that is false teachers. So this time I encourage you to turn with me in a Bible to 2nd Peter chapter 2. We're gonna look at the end of chapter 2 verses 17 through 22 and this is part 3 of our sermon titled waterless Springs.

And if you don't have a Bible we do have those red Bibles that you can follow along in. And we're gonna begin by reading these six verses. 2nd Peter 2 verses 17 through 22 where Peter writes. These are waterless Springs and mists driven by a storm.

For them the gloom of utter destruction has been reserved for speaking loud boasts of folly. They enticed by sensual passions of the flesh. Those who are barely escaping from those who live in air they promise them freedom but they themselves are slaves of corruption.

For whatever overcomes a person to that he is enslaved. For if after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ they are again entangled in them and overcome the last state has become worse for them than the first.

For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the Holy Commandment delivered to them. What the true proverb says has happened to them.

The dog returns to its own vomit and the sow after washing herself returns to wallow in the mire. Here a big idea over this three Sunday sermon is this realize that false teachers are revealed through their corrupt actions.

And thus far we've seen seven immoral character traits. And I'm going to go through all of these at the very end of the sermon. But the eighth immoral character trait and this is in your outline is this.

They offer life but provide only death. And he mentions this in verse 17 when where he writes once again these are waterless Springs and mist driven by a storm. What Peter does in verse 17 is he uses these two metaphors.

Waterless Springs miss driven by a storm. And as people who live in Minnesota we call it Minnesotan. We know water better than most people around the country. Over the last three months we have received plenty of water from the heavens haven't we.

We live in water land. But not everyone in America lives in this environment. This the state of Maryland does not have one natural lake in it. They have about a hundred man-made lakes but not one natural lake in the state of Maryland.

Now in Minnesota where I'm from Minnesota right. We have 11 ,000 natural lakes. And if you use the metrics that the DNR in Minnesota uses for lakes Wisconsin has over 5 ,000 lakes. And some people some Wisconsinites will say again I think I'm picking on Wisconsin people.

They I love Wisconsin. Okay don't get me wrong here Wisconsin they say we have 17 ,000 legs. Well guess what a lake is in Wisconsin. It's a half acre. Guess what a lake is in Minnesota. 10 acres. Okay so there's a little bit of a difference there.

But we live in water country. We live where there's ponds there's creeks or creeks rivers lakes. And in Eureka for our drinking water we don't have city water. Thankfully we get our water from water sources below the ground from what we call a well but it's also called a spring.

We live in an area with an abundant water source but in the region where much of the Bible events took place they did not have much water not near what we what we have where we live. Of course the Bible was written in the Middle East this is where the people lived.

Water was hard to come by. It was a precious commodity. And what a disappointment it would be when people came upon a well or a spring hoping to find water only to find that it was all dried up. The other metaphor that Peter uses are mist driven by a storm.

In the region in the Middle East where the Bible took place that valued so much water. The people would see clouds coming in the distance and maybe they haven't had rain in weeks and they would see these clouds coming in.

That would look promising. We're finally going to get the rain we need. But the problem is what would happen at times is that a fast-moving storm would drive these clouds right on by where the land would receive little to no rain.

So what Peter is doing here is he's comparing these two realities from nature to false teachers. They are miss driven by a storm that look promising but they don't give much rain. They are like these springs that look promising but really they're all dried up.

False teachers offer a precious commodity but they never deliver. They promise big but sell people a bill of goods. In previous weeks I've mentioned prosperity teachers. Prosperity teachers promise that if you follow Jesus you will be healthy and you will be wealthy.

What has been said about prosperity teachers is that the only people they get wealthy are them as they collect all the money from all the people that they make these big promises to think about all the false religions out there that do this as well.

That promise big but do not deliver. False religions ultimately lead people to hell. A false religion will not lead anyone to joy now enjoy forever in heaven as the Bible promises. As we read this morning in Psalm 16 in your presence there's fullness of joy at your right hand our pleasures forevermore.

This is what we want. We want to be fully happy forever. But only the Bible can deliver. But this is what false religions promise. You're going to be happy and it's not going to die if you just follow me as these teachers say.

And we see this in religions like Islam and Mormonism and the Jehovah Witness religion. They promise heaven but they are in darkness and lead people to darkness. Some of you have experienced Jehovah Witnesses coming to your door.

They think they are the answer for people. Some of you have seen them down in St. Croix Falls in the scenic overlook area by the dam. They think when they go to someone's door they are leading people down the path to heaven.

Recently they came to our door. Whenever they come to our door I'm not home but Brianna is the one who gets to greet them and talk to them. And as they talk to Brianna Brianna was loving but she was also firm.

And that's what we need to do with them. We need to stand on the word of God. We need to tell them that what you believe is wrong and send them on their way. They need to know from us that Jesus is God.

He's fully God he's fully man. They do not believe he is fully God. They believe he's the first created being which is an outright heresy. These false teachers are lifeless and those they lead are led to a waterless destination as well.

Now what Peter writes at the end of verse 13 is that for them that is these false teachers the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. They promise eternal life but really with them is he only eternal death.

Hell is their future and also the future of everyone who follows them. But for those who follow Jesus it's the opposite. I love the conversation that Jesus has with the Samaritan woman in chapter 4 in verses 13 and 14.

This is what Jesus said to her as they sit by this well of water. Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.

The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water. Well enough to eternal life. Isn't that wonderful. False teachers promise satisfaction to one soul but never deliver. But Jesus promises it and always delivers.

To believe in him means that you will be satisfied in him fully and forever. In your presence there is fullness of joy. At your right hand is pleasures forever more. At Psalm 16 11 this is the desire of every human heart but it only can be found in Jesus Christ.

So realize that false teachers are revealed through their corrupt actions. And the eighth immoral character trait is that they offer life but offer in reality only death. The ninth immoral character trait is this.

They try to deceive prospective followers. Okay they try to deceive prospective followers. Verse 18 where Peter writes for speaking loud boasts of folly. They entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in air.

What we must understand about false teachers is that there is a certain kind of people that they target. And the reason they target these people is because they're successful. Going after these types of people when we could go.

We looked at verse 14 where we read that false teachers love to go after vulnerable women. That verse says that they have eyes full of adultery insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed.

Now in verse 18 we read that they entice by sensual passions of the flesh. The NIV translation says that false teachers work by appealing to the lustful desires of the flesh. Once again the kind of people they prey on are the vulnerable.

In verse 14 it was vulnerable young women who were given easily to flattery. And in this verse it's unsteady people in general. As Peter writes at the end of verse 18 they entice those who are barely escaping from those who live in air.

The way that Peter writes this is kind of confusing but one author writes a clear way to say this. The preferred translation is this trying to escape. So they entice those who are trying to escape. Escape from what.

Escape from the world. The sinful world system that leads people down a bad path. The people that these false teachers go after aren't believers. They may succeed with young Christians for a time but their ultimate target audience are those who are bearing the negative consequences of their sinful choices and they are looking to improve their life.

So they've gone down the sinful path. They found that it doesn't lead to happiness. And so this religious person comes along. He makes promises and but you know what he tells them you can still stay in your sins.

But you'll be happy if you go down this path. When I was working in retail at a running store in college one of my co-workers was an open book and he told me his whole life story every problem he had.

And he was not only tell me. He was not only quick to tell me his problems. He was quick to tell me the problems of his mother with whom he lived. And I'll never forget about what he said about his mother that describes so many in this world.

He said she is always reading self-help books but never finds the answer never escapes her problems. There are lots of people out there who are looking for an answer. We're looking for a new start. But they're not interested in truly following Jesus because that means giving up what is precious to them their sin.

So what false teachers do is they offer religion that still allows someone to satisfy their sinful desires. So there is some religious truth. You can also satisfy your selfish desires because people love their sin.

False teachers are highly successful in gaining a big following as they appeal to people's selfish desires. This kind of false teaching even happens in more broad evangelical churches. In these churches the pastor does people a great disservice because the Bible is not presented in full.

He avoids certain controversial areas that might make someone feel uncomfortable. And let me tell you this should unbelievers feel comfortable in church. The answer is yes and no. They should feel comfortable in the sense that the people are warm and welcoming.

We're we're happy you're here. But they shouldn't feel comfortable when it comes to their sin. None of us should feel comfortable first. John 3 9 says no one born of God makes a practice of sinning which means no one born of God is comfortable in sin.

The Holy Spirit doesn't want to leave people comfortable in their sins. So if people want to come to church and still keep sinning well guess what week after week you're gonna be convicted. That's just gonna be the reality.

But some some churches they try to avoid these certain things and what they're actually doing is they're doing a great disservice because they're leading people down a Christianity. That's not true unadultery adulterated biblical Christianity.

So realize that false teachers are revealed to their corrupt actions. And the ninth immoral character trait is that they try to deceive prospective followers. Okay the tenth immoral character trait is this.

They promise freedom but they are slaves themselves. Okay let's see this in verse 19 they promise them freedom but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person to that he is enslaved.

This verse is similar to verse 17. In verse 17 we saw Peter described false teachers as waterless springs and mist driven by a storm. In other words they promise life. They promise big but they never deliver.

And what we see here is that they promise them something that is related to life. Of course if you have life what else do you have. You have freedom. They promise them freedom. We as Americans know what freedom is.

We're born in the land of the free and the home of the brave. The United States Constitution is the foundation of a wonderful government. If followed it creates a government that honors the citizens God-given rights.

As the government follows the Constitution the people of this land have lived and will live in a wonderful place of freedom if it's followed. Now the main focus of freedom in Scripture is the freedom that comes from following the Lord John chapter 8 verses 31 and 32 Jesus said this if you abide in my word you are truly my disciples.

And you will know the truth. And the truth will set you free. What freedom is Jesus talking about. He is talking about freedom from and sins power. The Apostle Paul describes this freedom in Romans 6 verses 12 through 14 he says.

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life.

And your members to God as instruments for righteousness for sin will have no dominion over you. This is your position as a Christian. The sin that was dominated you the sin that was once your master is no longer your master once you become a follower of Jesus.

That's the truth. That's what the Bible teaches. And it's a wonderful truth not to be a slave to your sin. And the Bible describes that everyone is a slave. But the question is to whom. Are you a slave.

Are you a slave to your idols your sins. Or are you a slave to Jesus Christ. If you're a slave to Jesus Christ then you truly have life. You truly have freedom. If you're a slave to sin and idols you are in bondage.

And if you're a slave to sin you're a slave to Satan. He is your father. And you are a part of the sinful world system. And the end of that is death. And Peter writes in the second half of this verse a very sobering comment for whatever overcomes a person to that he is enslaved.

Oh boy that's convicting because we all know what this is like in this room. I know who I'm talking to. I'm talking to people who need a savior. It doesn't matter what human you're talking to on planet earth.

Everybody knows what this is like. Everybody knows what it's like to be in bondage to a sin or different sins. And we need to be freed from this. And it only comes through Christ. But these false teachers they were slaves to their own sins.

I guess what they're leading people to be slaves to their sins as well. This is what false teachers did. They're teaching people to obey their master. And their master is not Jesus. It's some sinful selfish lustful desire that is in their heart.

That's where they're leading people to sin promises satisfaction and freedom but it never delivers. And I've used this illustration before but I'll use it again. Some of you remember watching those cartoons growing up.

At least when I at least if you were watching cartoons in the late 80s and early 90s like I was I remember there was there would be this well of water in the distance as this cartoon character walks in the desert and he sees this well of water and he's thirsty and all he wants is water and he's walking towards this well in the distance and guess what he gets there and it's not there anymore.

It's a mirage. It's a mirage. That's what sin is. Sin promises freedom and happiness and joy and security and everything. It promises everything that you have in Christ. But the only difference is. And this is a huge enormous difference is that Christ delivers and sin never does.

Sin only leads to pain. Christ leads to joy and happiness forever. These false teachers not only teach false doctrine but they also live in a moral lifestyle. They are slaves. They are slaves to their teaching.

They are slaves to their immoral living. And how can they possibly deliver someone when they themselves are slaves to their own sinful desires to realize. The false teachers are revealed to their corrupt actions.

In the 10th immoral character trait is that they promise freedom but they are slaves themselves. And here's the 11th immoral character trait. They place themselves in a position to be judged more severely for rejecting the truth.

They place themselves in a position to be judged more severely for rejecting the truth. In verses 20 and 21 Peter writes. For if after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ they are again entangled in them and overcome the last state has become worse for them than the first.

For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. The Bible doesn't mince words. It tells it like it is.

And this is one of those places. The false teachers that Peter is describing are not so much those other religions that are different from biblical Christianity. Okay let me explain this like Islam Hinduism Buddhism.

I mean there's lots of religions like that. Some are bigger than others. This is not Peter's focus. Peter's focus is the false religions that have the Christian veneer to that to it that they know the Christian lingo.

But really they're teaching something false and accompanied with the false teaching is the false living. So Peter had these people in his day and guess what they're here in our day. And what he's describing is these people who were never truly drawn to Christ because they were sinners in need of a Savior.

That's not why they were truly drawn to Jesus. True conversions in Christ always involve a deep sorrow over one's sins. Okay let me say that again true conversions in Christ always involve a deep sorrow over one's sins.

Sometimes people superficially come to Christ. I just want to go to heaven or he's gonna prompt I'm gonna get something for following Jesus. Sometimes it's intellectual and this is where apologetics. People involved in apologetics need to be very careful.

Just because someone is intellectually persuaded that Christianity is true doesn't mean that person becomes a true Christian. The most important thing when we talk about conversions to Christianity is that people need to understand the weight of their sin the guilt of their sin their great need for Jesus Christ the fact that they are deserving of hell apart from Christ.

This is what people need to understand. But many are drawn to Christ and Christianity on their own terms not the terms of Jesus Christ. Christ wants all of us. These people that Peter is describing saw Christ as attractive but never gave themselves to him but only came on their own terms.

In John chapter two Jesus says many believed in him. But then it says. But Jesus did not give himself to them for he knew what was in man. He knew he could read their minds he could read their hearts.

And he knew that these people who believed in him for the wrong reasons were not truly his. And in our text what showed over time with these people that Peter is describing is that they never truly follow Christ.

And this is shown both in their false doctrine that these false teachers eventually taught and their immoral lifestyle as we have seen described in such dark detail in this chapter. What Peter describes is what is known as apostasy.

Apostasy abounded in Peter's day and it abounds in ours. Hebrews 10 verses 26 and 27 describes apostasy. When someone walks away from the faith writes. For if we go on sitting deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins but a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.

Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God.

And as profane the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified. And as outraged the spirit of grace. For we know him who said vengeance is mine I will repay and again the Lord will judge his people.

And this is the this is the sobering part. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Apostasy is a sad reality that happens all the time in our in our day there's actually a term that's been attached to it.

It's called an ex-angelical. They used to be an evangelical not anymore. And they go and tell the whole world about their D conversion story. In fact I have a good friend named Adam and Adam told me that he actually went to a church in Nashville that was a D conversion church where they're talking about the spiritual journey.

Okay you get all dogmatic. You get to become one of those fundamentalists you know that really believes the Bible. And then you're set free. So the freedom is pretty much walking away from the Lord. But they don't say in those terms you pretty much what happens is you form your own Christianity that you can handle.

There's churches out there like that. So Adams going to church on a Sunday morning in Nashville thinking we're gonna take in a nice church service. And that was his experience. Ex-angelicals first John 219 describes apostasy.

They went out from us but they were not of us. For if they had been of us they would have continued with us. But they went out that it might become plain that they all are not of us. My brother and I went on a hike recently and we were talking about 20 years ago when we were in youth group and all the people we used to know who are no longer following the Lord.

And this verse really hits home as it describes those people and you can see their lives are bearing negative consequences. You see broken relationships you see unhappiness in their lives. The path they chose did not leave them anywhere good.

But they go down that because that's where their sinful heart wants to go. And remember what verse 13 of this chapter said about those who go the wrong way. They are suffering wrong is the wage for their wrongdoing.

They're not happy going down this path. And some of these people who walk away are like the people that Peter is describing false teachers. False teachers sometimes I should say I should say that sometimes when people leave leave religion altogether.

But sometimes when people walk away from true sound doctrine in biblical Christianity they become their own teachers. And so they become false teachers. So they're still very religious but it's not biblical Christianity.

Those who walk away from a true Christianity but still hold on to the Christian veneer love what religion offers but they don't love the true religion of following Jesus Christ. So they invent their own.

They still say they follow Jesus. But all they're doing is serving their own sinful agenda and leading others to follow them. Now to have this full access to the truth as these false teachers had is bad news for them because the more exposure you have to the truth if you reject it the judgment day is going to be ugly for you.

That's what scripture teaches. That's what we just saw in Hebrews 10. It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. And Jesus said in Luke 12 verses 47 and 48 that to those who had less there will be a lesser beating.

In other words a lesser judgment in hell. And to those who had more access to the Bible more access to the truth and rejected it after having all that information they will receive a more severe beating.

So this is the place of these false teachers. They started out looking like true Christians. They started out even teaching true Christianity. But over time they show their true colors. And what Peter is telling us is that this is not good news for them.

The last state has become worse for them than the first judgment will not be pretty for them. So realize the false teachers are revealed to their corrupt actions. And the eleventh immoral character trait is that they place themselves in a position to be judged more severely for rejecting the truth.

Okay here's number 12. We finally got here to the last one the 12th. The 12th immoral character trait that Peter describes is in verse 22 what the true proverb says has happened to them. The dog returns to its own vomit and the sow after washing herself returns to wallow in the mire.

In the previous point I explained that false teachers start out interested in Christianity but then over time the true character shows they were interested in aspects of Christianity but only for what it could do to satisfy their own sinful desires.

The end of the story as we just saw is that they depart from true biblical Christianity. And what Peter is doing in this verse is he quotes an Old Testament verse Proverbs 26 11 that says like a dog that returns to its vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.

Many in this room presently own a dog. Or maybe you owned a dog at one time in your life. And you know this is true. Right. Do dogs eat their vomit. But they're so cute and precious. And and yet they do that they eat their vomit.

And and guess what. None of you probably own a pig a female pig which is a sow. Right. I just learned that. No I'm kidding. Yeah pigs they love to wallow in the mire. If you go to the Polk County State Fair you'll see lots of pigs there.

And this is what they do. Right. They love to wallow in the mud something that we would never want to do. But that's what pigs do. So what Peter's doing is here is he's comparing false teachers to pigs who go in the mud and wallow in the mire.

And these dogs that return to the vomit that they vomit out. They were born sinful as we all are. Then as they got older instead of truly receiving Christ as Lord Savior and treasure. These false teachers pursued Christ for selfish reasons at the beginning making it look like they were truly following him.

And over time what they do is pursue their own sinful desires while keeping the Christian title. They started out in evil and they ended in evil. They started out in sin in bondage and they end in bondage to sin just as dogs return to their vomit.

So realize that false teachers are revealed through their corrupt actions. This is our big idea over this three Sunday sermon and we've seen twelve immoral character traits and I'm gonna go through with them one by one here as we close.

They have a lustful passion for the wrong things. They reject true biblical authority. They are like foolish animals in their treatment with the demonic realm. They are entangled now and forever because of their wicked actions.

They act out godliness while living evil lives. They take advantage of unsteady women to satisfy their own lustful desires. They commit the same sins as the wicked prophets of the past. They offer life but provide only death.

They try to deceive prospective followers. They promise freedom but they are slaves themselves. They place themselves in a position to be judged more severely for rejecting the truth. And as we have just seen they start out in corruption and end in corruption.

So that puts a cap on this really intense and dark chapter that we've seen concerning false teachers. Jude talks about the book of Judas is fully devoted to false teachers and there's a lot of overlap between Jude and 2nd Peter 2.

But this puts a cap on 2nd Peter 2. Now in the next section you might say okay Peter's gonna tone it down a little bit. That's right. We just had an intense chapter about false teachers will guess what he actually ramps it up.

He's gonna talk about the destruction of the universe. You can't get more intense than that. And so we're gonna look at that Lord willing next Sunday. And the sad reality is that most of the world is willfully unprepared for what is to come when God brings this present world to a close.