Thoughts on 2 Peter – Part 2
2PET 2:1 But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
There were false prophets in the Old Testament, and Peter says there are false teachers among us. Verse one says there shall be false teachers. There is no maybe about it. There has always been false teachers and they will be there tomorrow and they certainly are here today.
2PET 2:2 And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.
We are told that not only will there be false teachers, but that many shall follow them. Many. Numbers is no validation of being right. The false teachers will often point to numbers and say see what God is doing. But straight is the way and narrow is the gate. Multitudes will follow the false teachers.
If a group is very large it is actually an indication that they are teaching error.
And verse 2 calls the ways of the false teachers pernicious.
Pernicious means, Destructive; having the quality of killing destroying or injuring; very injurious or mischievous.
If you substitute any other word for pernicious you do not have the same meaning. The ways of the false teacher are destructive in many ways. The idea of killing is also here. And we see this throughout history. It was especially bad during the middle ages.
The false teacher leads people to an eternal death in hell. They injure people in an eternal way as well as cause much destruction and injury in this life.
Because the false teachers have so much success the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.
They will turn things around so much that they will get people to speak evil of the truth. For example they will get the biblical truth of assurance to be looked down upon and called presumption.
And false teachers are very mischievous about the way they go about what they do.
2PET 2:3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.
These false teachers covet money, they covet fame, they want to be noticed and praised. They will use feigned words to entice. And they make merchandise of you. They are in it to make money. You are no more than merchandise to them. They make DVD’s and write books to keep the money flowing. Making a DVD or writing a book is NOT wrong. It is the motivation behind it. You can often tell by the price they put on them. I saw a traveling preacher one time come to church and had a table of cd’s and priced them at only $2.00. I said praise the Lord. With this man it was about getting the messages out not making a profit.
It always amazes me, especially with all the warnings in the Bible, why so many people will follow false teachers and allow themselves to be made merchandise.
We need to be careful about staying clear of false teachers.
2PET 2:3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.
2PET 2:4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;
Peter is still in the context of false teachers but is now talking about how they will be judged. Our place is to pay attention and examine a man’s message and methods and mark him as a false teacher and then stay away from him.
God’s place is to judge it and bring justice upon it. Punishment upon the false teacher is the Lord’s job. Peter uses the example of how God spared not the angels that sinned and then God uses the example of the judgment of the flood in verse 5 and the example of Sodom in verse 6.
And then Peter says God knows how to deliver the unjust to be punished.
2PET 2:9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:
All of this in the context of false teachers. The fallen angels and the flood and Sodom are examples that Peter is using to prove that God knows how to deliver the unjust to judgment to be punished. And since that is true, then you do not have worry about the false teachers getting away with their evil. God will absolutely take care of it in His time.
2PET 2:5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;
The Old Testament gives a back drop, if you will, for the New Testament. You cannot understand something without knowing the background. The Old Testament provides the background on creation, how sin entered the world, and so on. The two complement each other. The two truly make up one book with the one theme being Jesus.
And the New Testament will sometimes give extra details on what happened in the Old Testament. Here we find out that Noah was a preacher, and that he was a preacher of righteousness. This sheds extra light on the O.T. account of Noah and the flood. Noah did not just build an ark and quietly let people go to destruction. He tried to reach people. He did not preach a feel good message. He preached the truth. He preached righteousness.
Noah would have preached against sin, and he would have told people that they were sinners and on their way to destruction. I believe he preached for the entire time he was building the ark. Now Noah did not have a lot of success. Only 7 others entered the ark, and they were all family.
Somewhere along the way Noah’s wife, 3 sons and their wives got saved. So at most Noah had 7 converts. 6 if his wife was already a believer when he met her.
Noah did not preach for money, he did not preach for numbers. He did not preach because he liked the reaction he got from the people. He preached because it was the right thing to do. They were lost and someone needed to tell them. The amount of results is God’s concern. Ours is just to be faithful and do the right thing.
Next time you get tired or discouraged about handing out tracts or speaking to someone about Christ, just think of Noah who did the right thing regardless of the results.
2PET 2:6 And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;
One of the purposes for the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrha was to make them an example and it was recorded in God’s preserved word so that all that live after should not live ungodly.
This is a law of first mention situation. Very often the first time something is mentioned God will give foundational information on it. Like marriage is one man and one woman and the man is to leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife.
Other times the law of first mention applies to the first time a particular sin is mentioned. God will execute judgment upon it in a way that shows not only what God thinks of that sin but also what imediate judgment without mercy would look like upon it.
The first time God deals in justice to show the picture of what it deserves. Once this is shown forth to teach us, then God deals in mercy. God does not change His mind on what that sin deserves, but He allows patience and longsuffering and mercy.
Once the picture has been shown there is no more need to keep showing it. It has been shown and preserved in His precious word.
Another example of this principal is picking up sticks on the Sabbath. Woe to the first guy. He gets the judgment and justice upon the sin so that all can see what the sin deserved. After that you never see that picture shown in the same way again. The first guy got stoned.
Later after Nehemiah returned to the land and the people were breaking the Sabbath and doing far worse than picking up sticks you see no immediate justice like that. Why? The picture has already been shown.
Some people will look at the wickedness of our world and say if God does not strike people dead soon then He owes and apology to Sodom and Gomorrha. They are really off base. Judgment will happen on all wickedness but it will happen in God’s time and much of it will be reserved for punishment in hell forever. No one is getting away with anything.
Another example is the first time Christians lie to God in the New Testament Church. This is recorded in the book of Acts. The first two that did that God strikes dead. That showed the picture of what cold justice alone looks like for that sin. After the picture is shown and recorded in God’s eternal word then there is no need to keep showing the picture over and over.
If God kept showing that today there would be Christians dropping dead in churches all the time.
I for one am glad that God shows the picture of how horrible the sin is and what justice upon it looks like and then after that he does not keep showing that picture over and over again. This gives people the example of how they should live and gives them a chance to turn from that sin and repent and get saved.
Understanding the principal of first mention clears up a whole lot of confusion. I was talking with a pastor years ago and kept trying to get him to say that he believed the Bible and I could not get him to say it at all.
One time he finally said there is a lot of confusing things in the Old Testament. I felt sorry for him in many ways. It must be a horrible thing to stand up every week and make a living preaching a book that you don’t really believe or understand.
He had many problems but a big one is no understanding of the law of first mention. He did not see that the first time God shows what sudden justice would look like on a sin and after that you do not see God do that again because He is leaving room for repentance.
The picture of judgment has been shown and recorded in His Word so no need to show it again.
If they don’t repent, judgment will still fall. It is only delayed, many times it is reserved for eternity. If God always dealt with it like He does in the first mention then many cities would have been destroyed like Sodom was. For example San Francisco.
Understanding the law of first mention clears up what some people think of as inconsistencies in the Bible as to God’s judgment.
2PET 2:7 And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:
2PET 2:8 (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)
Lot is a great example in the Bible that salvation is not of works. The New Testament calls Lot just and righteous. But if you go back and read about the life of Lot in the Old Testament you see a whole lot of wickedness. Not much in the life of Lot can be called righteous.
He set his tent toward Sodom. And soon after he was living in Sodom and sitting in the gate. The gate of the city was the center of activity in that society. It was where trade was done, it was where leaders held their meetings. Lot was involved in the affairs of this wicked city. He had lived in such a wicked way that when he tried to warn others and tell them about God they laughed at him. Lot liked living in Sodom so much that he was reluctant to leave.
And yet the N.T. calls Lot just and righteous. This is because salvation is by grace thru faith. Lot was a believer. God’s righteousness was imputed to Lot on the basis of faith. Lot was made just based on faith. Lot was saved by faith before God gave the law. David was saved by faith after the law was given. And we are also saved by faith today. Salvation has always been by faith and it always will be by faith.
Lot was what we call a backslider. He fell into a sinful life but he was still saved. Lot did not lose his salvation, but Lot did pay a price for his backsliding. Before Lot went to Sodom he had so much that the land could not support both him and his uncle, he leaves Sodom with nothing.
His sin would not let his family believe him and some of them got destroyed. His wife longed for Sodom so much that she turned around and was destroyed. In the end Lot was living in a cave alone with his two daughters. Lot had not raised them right. Lot did not teach them the ways of God. The daughters get Lot drunk and have children by him. The children grow up to father nations that are enemies of God’s people. Lot did not lose his salvation, but Lot did pay a heavy price for his sin. And many others also were affected by his sin.
It is the same with us today. If you sin after you are saved you do not lose your salvation, but you will pay a price in this life today.
Gal 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
Saved or not, you cannot escape God’s universal law of sowing and reaping.
I know I say it a lot, but in this day of cotton candy preaching it needs to be said. A preacher that preaches against your sowing sin does so because he is concerned about your reaping from it.
To not preach against sin is to not love your people. To not care about what your people sow is to not care about what they will have to reap in this life for it.
2PET 2:9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:
You have two categories of people mentioned here. One is the godly. These are born again saved believers in Jesus and what He did to pay for their sins on the cross. When a person is saved they are declared just by God. The righteousness of Jesus is applied to their account. They are justified by a judicial act of God.
The second category is the unjust. These are those who refuse to believe and call upon the Lord with a repentant heart. Peter is now going to give characteristics of many of the unjust.
Be careful here. Not every person in the unjust group shows forth every one of these characteristics. Some might show forth only a few of them. Others might show a large amount of them.
Some might try to keep them hidden in their wicked hearts, and others will be bold about them. While all of the lost are in this group, they will not all show forth these things in the same way or the same amounts.
These characteristics are helpful in spotting the unjust and false teachers.
2PET 2:10 But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.
Some members of congress come to mind that went from being poor to having millions after a few years in congress. That shows greed, and lust, and corruption and they are presumptuous and all about self and they are looking for any opportunity to speak evil of other government officials.
Antifia, todays Democrats, and the socialist party in America are just a few of the many other groups that are showing who they really are because they operate according to 2 Peter 2:10.
The angels are used as a contrasting example.
2PET 2:11 Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord.
2PET 2:12 But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;
2PET 2:13 And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you;
Unlike the angels they have no control over their mouth and they speak evil of things that they do not understand. They deceive others and they themselves are also deceived and ultimately they will perish in their own corruption.
Justice will come. The evil and corruption that they sow they will eventually reap. It might even take years or decades, but it will come.
2PET 2:14 Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children:
2PET 2:15 Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;
2PET 2:16 But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man’s voice forbad the madness of the prophet.
2PET 2:17 These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.
2PET 2:18 For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.
2PET 2:19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.
2PET 2:20 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.
2PET 2:21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.
2PET 2:22 But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.
Verse 20 does not say that they were born again. It does not say they accepted the Lord Jesus as Savior. It just says they for a time escaped the pollutions of the world thru the knowledge of Jesus.
This is talking about people who become religious for a time. We call them religious but lost. And they will put into practice some of the teachings of Jesus and follow some Biblical morality but they never come to the knowledge of the truth of the gospel and repent and call upon Jesus to same them.
And when they get tired of religion they return to their unjust ways and they become worse than they were before.