2 Peter 2:1-22, The danger of false teachers

• Review:
• 2 key words to describe the unbeliever (ignorant and foolish)
• Ignorant: doesn't know the facts (or truth)
• Foolish: doesn't want to know any different
• 2 key words to describe the non-growing believer (blind and nearsighted)
• Blind: does not see his own faults
• Nearsighted: only focuses on the things around him/her; selfish; pre-occupied with here and now
• What is the key message of 2 Pet 1:1-11? We need to be growing in the word of God
• … of 2 Pet 1:12-21? The most important thing that Peter can pass on is to be growing in the word


2 Peter 2:1–3 (ESV) — 1 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.


• What is Peter referring to as he starts out the passage?
• OT and false prophets in those days
• What is the promise of verse 1?
• There will be false prophets among you
• What will be characteristic of false prophets?
• Secretly introduce destructive heresies
• Even denying the sovereign Lord
• Follow shameful ways
• Bring the way of truth into disrepute
• Greedy, sensual (sexual lusts)
• Are they believers?
• No: There are certain aspects that suggest, like OT false prophets, that they are not (especially denying the Master)
• Yes: It says they were "bought," but …
• 1 Timothy 2:4–6 (ESV) — 4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.
• “False teachers are better known for what they deny than for what they affirm.” (Wiersbe)
• Word for "false words" is plastos (we get the word plastic), meaning fabricated, molded, formed, …


2 Peter 2:4–10a (ESV) — 4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; 5 if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; 7 and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked 8 (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, 10a and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. 


• One long complex conditional sentence (4-8 form the condition; 9-10a the conclusion). What is Peter's two main points?
• God can rescue the godly man from trials
• God will bring judgment on the ungodly
• Peter uses three examples. What are they and what do they show? (Constable)
• Angels who sinned. An example of how the devil works
• The world in Noah's day. An example of worldview or world culture
• Sodom and Gomorrah. Example of the flesh (sexual lust and greed)
• Was everyone except Noah and his family a false teacher?
• Was everyone in Sodom and Gomorrah false teachers?
• Was everyone affected by false teaching?
• Yes -- they were party to the judgment
• Note: The angels experienced a spiritual judgment, but Noah's day and the story of Sodom and Gomorrah experienced a physical judgment


2 Peter 2:10–12 (ESV) — 10 and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones, 11 whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. 12 But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction,


• What are some additional characteristics (or conduct) of false teachers?
• Bold (they are not afraid) … Teaching is a great responsibility and trust
• Arrogant (obstinate and perversely self-willed, also stubbornness)
• Slander celestial beings
• It is possible that their blaspheming was the teaching that lustful indulgence is angelic and that God wills man to live under no restraints whatever. (Gangel, K. O. (1985). 2 Peter. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 2, p. 872). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.)
• Blaspheme in things they don't understand
• Brute beasts, creatures of instinct -- means that their appetites control their behavior
• If it feels good, do it
• If it's fun, then it's okay
• … (what are some similar statements today)


2 Peter 2:13–16 (ESV) — 13 suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you. 14 They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! 15 Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, 16 but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.


• What is the promise for false teachers?
• Paid back wrong for the wrongdoing -- but what is the wrong?
• The word adikeo, means hurt, but also unjustly
• One thing that is not always understood with the use of the word "destruction" is that it does not always mean eternal or spiritual, but can also mean physical. In Hebrews, the warning is not about losing salvation for going back to Judaism, but a physical destruction (accomplished a few years later when the city is burned to the ground)
• Galatians 6:7 (ESV) — 7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.
• What is different about the false teacher's sin?
• Revel in the daytime (most people hide their sin … meaning what?)
• They have justified their actions
• What is the way of Balaam? (Num 22-25)
• Balaam was a believer
• Balaam was a prophet of God
• Balaam ultimately obeyed God (He did not verbally course Israel), although with the wrong attitude
• Balaam was not supposed to go with Balak (King of Moab), but the prospect of riches convinces himself to go and maybe make a fortune (with his spiritual gift)
• Also, there is some indication, that Balaam told Balak how to destroy Israel through inter-marriage (essentially using the women and sex to cause Israel to participate in idolatry and immoral practices)


2 Peter 2:17–19 (ESV) — 17 These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. 18 For, speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. 19 They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.


• What does the imagery of waterless springs and mists driven by storm suggest?
• Promise of something good (spring), but there is nothing there that truly satisfies (sounds good, but it isn't)
• You think you are going to get rain, and the mists just blow by
• Jeremiah 2:13 (ESV) — 13 for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.
• What do they, false teachers do?
• Loud boasts of folly
• Entice by sensual passions young believers
• Promise freedom (a form of Gnosticism, and also Satan's trick of Eve)


2 Peter 2:20–22 (ESV) — 20 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. 21 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. 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.”


• If you are saved, how can you be worse off?
• From an earthly point of view, your life will be hell
• Not just guilt, but now the conviction of the H.S.
• Also, you will struggle with insecurity regarding your salvation.
• Am I really saved? How can I know for sure? Etc.