Grow in the Grace and Knowle..

Welcome to Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. Thank you for using and sharing our resources. What you're about to hear is God's Word from one of our teaching elders. We trust that God's Word will inspire, instruct, and bless you. For further teachings or information on our ministry, please visit us on our website at cornerstonerbc.

com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. So we're going to be reading the whole book, 2 Peter, starting in chapter 1, of course. This is the words of God.

Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence, by which He has granted to us His precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your call in the election. For if you practice these qualities, you will never fall. For in this way, there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Therefore, I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are establishing the truth that you have.

I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminders, since I know that the putting off my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things. For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was born to him by the majestic glory, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. We ourselves heard this very voice born from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.

And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Knowing this, first of all, that no prophecy of scripture comes from someone's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever produced by the will of men, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. 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. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. 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.

For God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to change of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment. 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. 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. And if he rescued righteous lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked. For as that righteous man lived among them that day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over the lawless deeds.

that he saw and heard. Then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, 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, whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. 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, suffering wrong as the wage of their wrongdoing. They counted pleasure to rebel in the daytime.

They are bloods and blemishes, revealing in their deceptions while they feast with you. They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed, accursed children. Forsaken the right way, they have gone astray.

They have followed the way of Balaam and the son of Beor. who loved gain from wrongdoing but was rebuked for his own transgression. Speechless donkey spoke with him in voice and restrained the prophet's madness. These are waterless springs and mist driven by storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved.

For speaking loud boast of folly. They entice by essential passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. 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, and in them an overcome, and 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 returned to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallowing in the mire. This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them, I stir up your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires.

They will say, Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation. For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water, and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water, then perished. But by the same word, the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. But do not overlook this fact, this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is a thousand years, a thousand years is one day.

The Lord is not as slow to fulfill his promise as some count his lowness, but is patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burnt up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness? waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn. But according to this promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for this, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace, and count the patience of our Lord a salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own distraction as they do the other scriptures. You, therefore, beloved, knowing these beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. but growing the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity.

Amen. This is The Word of God, brothers and sisters. Now, brothers and sisters, as you can see there in chapter three in verse one, the Apostle Peter is giving us some important information. He says this is now the second letter that he's writing to these churches. This is the second letter that he's writing to these people.

Of course, this tells us that the audience of the second letter are going to be the same people that he wrote to in his first letter. Those churches that they are found in Pontius, Galatia, Asia, Cappadocia, and Bithynia, that which we call Turkey today, that is going to be the same audience of his first letter. We know that this is a historic audience, but also we know that by the glorious and the depths of the power of the Spirit of God, this letter is also given to us, the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ in this age of the gospel. Of course, this being the second letter of the Apostle Peter, my beloved of Christ, this letter would have been written after the first letter, of course. But also here in the letter, in the first chapter, in verse 14, we are told that the Apostle would have written this letter just a time before he died.

He says in verse 14 of chapter 1, I know that the putting off of my body, that is that he is going to die, will be soon. just as the Lord Jesus Christ made it clear to him. So that here, we have a letter in front of us, beloved of Christ, whose audience is the same audience of the first letter. These are Gentile, primarily Gentile people that are scattered in this Asia Minor region. And of course, also for us, the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And the apostle is writing this just time, not long before he is going to die. Remember that, as I said in the first letter, this would have been written perhaps 30 years after the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ, as we have it narrated and given to us in Acts chapter 1. This is, think about this, beloved of Christ, this is 30 years of the life of the apostle Peter, feeding the flock of God, as he was instructed in John 21. This is 30 years of laboring in the gospel, as we can witness his labors through the book of Acts, especially until chapter 10. This is 30 years of suffering, 30 years of persecution, 30 years of trials, as we can also see it in the book of Acts.

30 years in which he was being partaken. He was partaking of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. in his ministry. This is 30 years of growth in the knowledge and in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. And now this apostle of the Lord is presenting this second letter, not only to this audience that I mentioned, but also presenting this letter to us.

There is a sense, my beloved brothers and sisters, that I could just simply say that the The general purpose of this letter is just a testification or a testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ. But every single book of the New Testament testifies of the glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, the gospel that Paul calls the power of God unto salvation, the gospel that is the message of redemption in and through the life of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Lamb of God, the beloved of the Father, who, being His glory, decided to enter this world in the likeness of men. to live a perfect life in perfect obedience under the law, and to give His precious life, the life of the Lamb, for the salvation of your soul, for the salvation of your soul, beloved. This is the glorious King, Jesus Christ. He was in need of nothing, yet He decided out of love, to take our own nature and to go through all type of temptations and sufferings.

The apostle Peter knew of the sufferings of Christ, and we went through the glorious explanation that Peter gives of the sufferings of Christ. In his first letter, he speaks to us of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, saying that this Christ, of whom this gospel belongs, he said that this Christ committed no sin, that neither was deceit found in his mouth, that this Jesus Christ, when he was reviled, he did not revile in return, that when he suffered, he did not threaten. But rather this Jesus Christ continued to entrust himself to the one who judges justly. This is the man of sorrows. This is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

This is the beloved of the father, the one who suffered for our sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he may bring us to God. The sufferings, the deep sufferings of Christ are the means through which the unrighteous, that is your soul, might be brought close to God when we were in enmity with God, the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ. are the means by which we can be close to Him. Now, of course, brothers and sisters, among all of these revilings and accusations and all of these threats that the Lord Jesus Christ received from sinful men, there was no greatest suffering than His own death, that going to the cross. Upon His death, He was not receiving the sinful fury or anger of men.

But rather, upon the cross, the Lord Jesus Christ was receiving the infinite, eternal, and perfect and holy wrath of God, as our brother was just making us meditate upon just before. He received his wrath upon that cross. And that was against the unrighteousness of the sins of the people that he was representing upon the cross. Understand this, beloved brother or sister, if you are in Christ, your unrighteousness, your sins, your past sins, your present sins, and your sins in the future, they were nailed to that cross. Whatever your name is, whatever your life is, whatever your heart is, if you are in Christ, it is the sins of your soul that were nailed to that cross.

He was representing His church. He absorbed completely the judgment of God that we deserve. This is the greatest suffering of Christ, that He died upon that cross. And now, brothers and sisters, I know that we are so used to hear these things that the Lamb of God took away the sins of the world and the church upon that cross, and that He absorbed the wrath of God. and that He absorbed the holiness and the justice of God upon the cross.

Brothers and sisters, I think, and let me submit to you, that I don't think that we have a full understanding of the holiness of God, and not only the holiness of God, but also the unrighteousness of men. I mentioned this before to Brother Bernie, and I don't think that we are even able physically and mentally speaking to take or to absorb or to comprehend the holiness of God and also the unrighteousness that is within us. I don't think that we're able to actually be presented in an unfiltered way to the holiness of God. And of course, also not to be, I don't think that we're able to be presented in an unfiltered way to the unrighteousness of men and the fullness and the completeness of the unrighteousness that is inside of us. Actually, I think that if we were given a glimpse into a little bit of a bigger measure of the holiness of God and even a little bit of a deeper glimpse of our unrighteousness, I think that we would simply just go crazy, that our minds would just simply collapse or that we would just simply just fall down and breathe our last.

I don't think that we are able to take and to comprehend the holiness or God, the holiness and perfections of our God. and our unrighteousness, the shining glory of God, and also the darkness and the depths of our sin. And of course, I know, brothers and sisters, that through the gospel, we are not completely blind to it. Of course, I know that through the gospel, we have an understanding of the holiness of God and our righteousness and our need of a Savior. And that's why by grace through faith, we come to Jesus Christ and we're united to Him.

I understand the work of the Spirit. But what I'm saying is that I don't think that we have the ability to see the depths, the fullness, the completeness, the entirety of the holiness of God, even with our understanding, but also of the unrighteousness of men. We can, in a sense, we cannot see the depths and the completeness of the glorious exchange that took place upon the cross where God's holiness and perfection was satisfied, was fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ and the unrighteousness, the infinite unrighteousness of men in His church was made right. I imagine and I suppose that we will spend eternity at the feet of our Savior, Jesus Christ, the glorious place, the feet of Christ. just being renewed every day in eternity and amazed day by day of this glory of the holiness of God and the unrighteousness of men.

But this is our mind, brothers and sisters. This is our mind that we cannot comprehend the holiness of God and the unrighteousness of men. But Jesus, the Lord Jesus Christ, being men also, but also being God, He did have a full understanding of the holiness of God. And He also had a full understanding of the unrighteousness of men. He had a complete and entire, it lacked nothing, His understanding of the holiness and the perfections of God and the unrighteousness of men.

This means that when He went upon the cross, the suffering that the Lord Jesus Christ went through. I'm not talking about the nails, and I'm not talking about the physical body, but the fact that he knew that he was going to receive the wrath of God because of the unrighteousness of people. That means that his suffering upon that cross is simply unconceivable. just in the same way that I think that we cannot understand the completeness and the depths of the holiness of God, and just in the same way that I don't think that we are able to comprehend the completeness and the entirety of our unrighteousness. We are not able to comprehend the entirety, the fullness, the completeness of the suffering of the Savior upon the cross.

The one who understands completely the holiness of God because He is God. And the one who went through all temptations in the like manner of a man who understood completely what unrighteousness represented before the holiness of God and what He deserved. He was aware fully, completely of that contradiction of the holiness of God and the unrighteousness of men. So that means that the depths of his suffering, the depths of what he went through upon the cross, propitiating, making the work of redemption for our sins is unconceivable. You see, the cross was the moment of the pouring out of the wrath of God upon the Lord Jesus Christ.

And he only knew and now knows what that fully and completely means. So now imagine, imagine that, brothers and sisters, that our Lord Jesus Christ was completely aware and understood the fullness of that moment that was coming. He was a man just in the same nature that we are. He was a man. Imagine the expectation and the excitement of the things that were going to take place and also the referential fear leading towards that day.

Imagine the moments before the great day of redemption of our souls. Imagine those hours that were leading towards that particular moment. Thankfully, brothers and sisters, the scripture gives us details of what our Lord Jesus Christ actually did and the things that he had in his heart and in his soul moving towards that particular moment, the moment in which he was going to die upon the cross. We know, brothers and sisters, for example, that in the hours before the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, he was not so much focused on himself and so much focused on what he was going to go through, but actually he invested much of his time on his disciples. We are told in the Gospels that the Lord, in the midst of the expectation of His death and the things that were coming ahead, He humbly and incredibly, when He was spending time with His disciples, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet, giving them a glorious example of humility and what was to be a servant.

The Lord Jesus Christ, instead of thinking on himself and the things that were coming ahead, he used those last hours that he had to instruct his beloved disciples, the 12 disciples that were very close to him, and gave them the greatest of the commandments. And he said to them, you are to love one another just as I have loved you. And even he said to them, the people will know you by this, that you love one another. He, even during those last hours before his death, he taught them and explained to them about the exclusivity of his ways, that he is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one comes to the Father except through the person of Jesus Christ. Brother, just think about those last hours moving toward that particular moment of great suffering.

And the Lord, instead of thinking on Himself alone and what was going to happen, He gave these people the promise, His disciples, the promise of the Helper, the one that was going to bring consolation to these 12 disciples. It is during these last hours before his great suffering upon the cross, the one that you and I are not able to comprehend, that he gave his disciples the secret on how to glorify the Father. He says to them that if you bear much fruit and you prove that you're my disciples, you will glorify the Father. Even brothers and sisters during that last intimate time with these 12 disciples that he warns them of the things that are going to take place. And he warns them that if the world has hated the Lord Jesus Christ, the world is also going to hate them because they are not of the world, but they have been chosen out of the world.

And for that reason, the world is going to hate them. Even in those last moments, in those last hours before He went upon the cross, beloved, He prayed. He prayed for them. And even He prayed for the church, that we might be kept, that we might be unified, that we might be kept by the Father, that nothing might remove us from His hand, that our souls may be preserved. This is what our Savior, This is what our Savior did before going to that cross and to die for us.

A suffering that we do not understand, a suffering that we do not comprehend even. The Lord of glory spent the time with His disciples, with His chosen ones in communion and in fellowship, partaking of the Passover. That was the last supper, the last time that the Son of God was going to be with his disciples, the last time that he was going to drink of the fruit of the vine with his disciples, the last time that he was going to partake of the vine, and the last time that he was going to be with his followers, the ones that now he was calling his friends, brothers, and sisters. Imagine what a great moment that would have been for the disciples. Imagine after the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Imagine after he was taken up in the clouds, as we read in Acts chapter 1. This would have been a very special night for the apostles, for the disciples. Imagine they would have remembered that night. They would have spoken about that night and that last meal with the Lord when the Lord was taken and when they were enduring difficulties. Imagine when they were coming together to pray and to speak about the teachings of the Lord, they would have remembered all of these glorious things that the Lord did before.

He went to endure the suffering upon that cross for the redemption of many, for the redemption of the world. Apart from that day when the Lord Jesus Christ died upon the cross, the world will be condemned. But yet the Lord Jesus Christ gave His life, gave His life there. And He shared these last moments with these chosen of Jesus. These last hours, this last time of the Savior was given to the disciples.

They saw with their eyes who Jesus Christ really was. His teachings, His love, His mercy, His kindness, His goodness, His wisdom. This would have been a source of encouragement and strength for all of these disciples. They had the privilege of being the chosen of Jesus. These disciples, brothers and sisters, they were the ones that had been selected and ordained by the Lord Jesus Christ to spend this glorious night with Him, to be the witnesses of the things that were going to take place before the Lord Jesus Christ would die.

Some of them even were on the shoulders or the chest of the Lord, very close to Him, showing us the love and the intimacy between them. The 12, the chosen of the Lord, the pillars of the church, if you want, the ones that were in charge of bringing the message of the glorious Savior, the gospel to the uttermost part of the earth. They were the chosen ones of Jesus Christ. Yet among them, yet among the 12, Yet in the midst of all this love, in the midst of all this wisdom, in the midst of all this glory, in the midst of God in the flesh, there was one, a deceiver, a betrayer, one who had served with the Lord for a long time, yet he was the son of the devil, a false disciple. One that even received, brothers and sisters, one that even received a piece of bread from the hand of the Lord, yet he had not eaten the body of the Lord, the true bread of life.

One that ended up being the instrument of the great sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Judas Iscariot, one of the chosen disciples, one of the chosen 12, One chosen in the eternal decree of God to be part of the Twelve, yet also chosen to be the betrayer of the Lord. He was, in a sense, chosen to be an instrument through which the Lord would endure the greatest suffering. the one chosen unto ministry and apostleship, as the Apostle Peter says in Acts chapter 1, yet no chosen unto eternal life, as our brother explained to us last week. The Bible is so clear about Judas, his chariot brothers and sisters.

Woe to him by whom the Son of God is delivered up. Woe to him by whom sinners apprehended with their sinful hands, the Lord of glory. This Judas, the apostate, Judas, the one that falls away from the faith, Judas, who was filled with worldly remorse, but not with a spirit giving conviction, but rather with satanic conviction. The one whose heart was open to Satan, an enemy of Christ, yet pretending to be his friend, an enemy of the truth, a hypocrite who People thought that he was in the truth, but he was an enemy of the truth, one that was in the ministry for shameful gain, being not only a liar, but he was also a thief, a false apostle, a false prophet, a false brother, a false Christian, a false teacher, an apostate of the faith, a dissenter of the way of Christ, an enemy of the cross. one with the spirit of the Antichrist.

This is Judas is carried. This is the embodiment of betrayal to the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you see, brothers and sisters, this Judas is carried, who was a chosen to the 12th, a chosen unto ministry, a chosen unto apostleship, a chosen one to be a servant of the Lord in his ministry as an apostle. There is a sense in which he is also an embodiment of all of those who would betray the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ until the moment when he comes. All of those who fall from the faith, all of false Christians, false teachers, false prophets, false ministers of the gospel.

They are the representation of what Judas was. A person that was in the decree of God chosen to be a minister of Christ, yet chosen unto condemnation, chosen to be an enemy of Christ, chosen to be an enemy of the truth. And the reason why I'm doing all of this, beloved of Christ, is because Judas is not only the embodiment of these things, but also he's the embodiment of the message of 2 Peter. That is the message of 2 Peter. the burden of the apostle Peter, the apostle who had ministered with Judas, the one who knew him, the one who was in charge of choosing his replacement.

He knew of the destructive power of lies. Peter knew of the destructive power of Satan. He knew of the attacks of that which is not truth and that which is satanic. Against the church, he knew the destructive power of false prophets, of false teachers, of false Christians, of false ministers of the Gospels. You see, in Judas, the lies of Satan ended up with the destruction of his body when he was hanged on that tree, when he killed himself.

But more importantly, these deceitful thoughts and all of these lies that were in Judas, ended up with the destruction of his soul. This Judas, brothers and sisters, is the embodiment of the message of 2 Peter, the letter that we have just read. This letter, beloved of Christ, is a warning against the destructive power of false doctrine and false teachers and false prophets. This is a warning. It's an exhortation to the church against the utterly destructive power of that which is not true, of that which is false, of that which is a lie.

And the apostle has a burden. In the first letter, he was interested in encouraging these churches so that they will continue, they will endure through trials and sufferings and tribulations and difficulties. In his second letter, just before he is going to die, just before he is going to be taken up in glory, he is concerned with the destructive power of false doctrine. and false teachers. And this is very relevant for us, beloved of Christ.

This is super relevant for our church, for our congregation, for your soul, for my soul, for your ministry, for my ministry, for the ministry of our local congregation, that we understand these things, that we might be ready, that we might be warned, that we might protect ourselves from the things that the Bible says that will take place. So brothers, he's, and sisters, he's going to present these in a very interesting way. He presents, not sequentially, but he presents two main things in the whole letter. And the reason why I wanted to do this is just to give you these so that when we go through the letter, you will understand the things that I'm saying, not just taking them as separate things, but actually in the big picture. He is going to speak to us about this destructive power of false teachers, which is mainly all chapter 2 and the beginning of chapter 3, as all of these difficult descriptions that we heard about these false teachers starting in chapter 2.

But also, he's not only interested in describing these false teachers, but also he's interested in, of course, giving us exhortations and warnings to Christians not to be carried away by the teachings of these false teachers. Now, brothers and sisters, when I'm speaking about false teachers, I'm not talking about the Catholic. I'm not talking about those who are clearly opposite to the truth. These are people that are within the context of the church. But the first thing that I want you to see, which is going to be crucial and vital for understanding of 2 Peter, is what the destructive power for Peter is in this letter.

So if you go to chapter 2 and in verse 1, here the apostle is going to give us some important information about the destructive power of false teaching. false prophets, false ministers of the gospel, and how that can be very destructive for the souls of people and for the church. In 2 Peter 2, verse 1, he's going to give us something very important. He says, but false prophets, speaking of the Old Dispensation, of the Old Testament, but false prophets also arose among the people. just as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies.

These are not heresies that just only confuse people, but these heresies, that is the teaching of these false teachers is destructive heresies, even denying the master who brought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. Now, this distraction, brothers and sisters, is not only the swift distraction of false teachers when they entered into the ordained condemnation that they have, but this distraction is for the church because they will bring those destructive heresies within the context of the church. And this distraction is not only for them, but it's also for them that are behind them. Because in verse two, it says, and many, will follow their sensuality. This is not speaking of many people following these heresies who are outside of the church, but many within the context of the church following their sensuality or their destruction.

And because of them, the way of truth will be blasphemed. You see, brothers and sisters, the distractions is not only for the false teacher, but also for those who pay attention to them. Paul says in 2 Timothy chapter 4, that for the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. This destruction for these souls is what the New Testament calls the falling away, falling away from the faith. This is the destructive power of Judas in the context of the church.

This is the destructive power of the apostate Judah and the spirit of the apostate Judah. in the souls and in the spirits of men who become false teachers and false prophets, false ministers of the gospel. Now, when the Lord gives us time, we will go through all of these verses, but the apostle is going to give us some characteristics of these false prophets. And I want us to have this in our mind because these are going to serve us as the framework to understand the whole book as we go through them. He's going to give us six different characteristics of these false prophets who come to destroy the well-being of the church, who come to attack the church, who come to take many people to follow them, who will also go into this destruction.

You can see there in verse two, the first characteristic of these false prophets are given to us. And it says, but false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. Just as Judas was decreed in eternity past to be not only chosen unto ministry, but also chosen unto being a betrayer of the Lord. The Lord has appointed in His eternal decree and according to His providence that there will be false teachers among us. That there will be false teachers within the context of the church.

It is not of a possibility, but the Bible says that there will be false teachers among the church. That is the first characteristic that they are not the result in and of themselves of what they want and they decide, but rather they are rooted in the eternal decree of God. They have been decreed by God to be false teachers and false prophets among the church. Second thing that Peter is going to show us, even in verse two there, is that they will have certain power if you want certain type of charisma to be followed, to take the masses, to take not few, but many. In 2 Peter 2 it says, and many will follow their sensuality.

It's not that these false teachers or these false ministers of the gospel or these false prophets are powerless. But rather, they have in and of themselves a certain type of power to draw to themselves many. Many will follow their centrality. Many will follow their ways. And because of them, the way of the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ will be blasphemed.

But if you continue, even there in chapter two, in verse three, the apostle is going to give us the third characteristic of these false teachers. And not only that they are decreed by God and that they have this power to make people to follow them, but also their condemnation, their destruction is equally decreed. It says that in their greed, in verse 3, they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. Or as Jude will say it in the parallel passage in his book, that these were long ago designated for this condemnation.

It pleased God. in eternity past, it was according to the will and according to the perfect counsel of God in eternity past, that His bride, that His beloved, the one that was the object of the love in the person of Jesus Christ, will be the place and the environment where false teachers will be, will arise, and also it was His decree that this man would be created unto condemnation. That is, that Justice Judas was chosen unto ministry, and chosen unto be the betrayer, woe to the one who delivered up the Son of God, because his destiny was also in the eternal decree of God, according to His perfect wisdom. Brothers and sisters, this is not the scariest thing of the description that Peter is going to give us of these false prophets. If you go in the same chapter 2, if you go to verse 14 and 15, he's going to tell us that these deceivers, that these false teachers, that they were in the truth.

And this is going to be one of the challenging things that we're going to find in this letter, beloved of Christ, that these false teachers, that these false prophets, that these false ministers of the gospel, they were in the truth. In verse 14 and 15, it says, they have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sins. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed, accursed children. Then verse 14, 15.

forsaken the right way. They have gone astray. They were in the right way. And for a person to go astray, for a person to change direction, that person had to be in that direction in the first place. So these people that are within the context of the church, these false teachers, these false pastors, these false elders, these false brothers, these Judas in the church, they were in the right way, and they have gone astray.

They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing. They were in the way that was considered to be right. It's not that they came into the church and they were openly wrong, and they were openly opposite against the truth. But rather, they are deceptive. You cannot perceive them.

You cannot spot them. very easily. And they were in the truth. They were in the right way, but they went astray or they have gone astray. But now Peter is going to complicate things even more.

Because if you go to verse 19 and 20, it's not that these people, these false teachers were in the right way and then have gone astray, but also These people, these false teachers, they had left the defilements of the world. That is, that they had removed themselves from the corruptions of the world, that they were under the corruption of the world, which is natural for the Adamic race. And now these people have removed themselves from the corruption of the flesh and in the Adamic kingdom, and they have moved. Go to verse 19 and 20. It says, They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption.

For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. Pay attention to verse 20. after they have escaped the defilements of the world. And if we stop there, some people will say, OK, they escaped the defilements of the world, but they did it just through their own intellect. They didn't through their own abilities.

Peter says that they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. You see? These false teachers are not people that are just simply coming to oppose the truth in a clear manner. Actually, they come in clothing that will make us believe that they are completely genuine believers and genuine teachers and teachers of the Lord. And they have even escaped the defilements and the powers of corruption of this world.

And they have done it through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It means that there is a type of knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that can be given to false teachers so that they will escape from the defilements of the world. And this is confirmed with the next statement where it says, they are again entangled, indemned, and overcome. There is a word that says, again, that means that they were there, they were not there anymore, but they went again to be entangled in those defilements of the world. And they left the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The last state of these people has become worse for them than the first. These are important things that Peter is teaching us. It is not that we are just to cover our eyes and then just to put into the category of false teachers and false prophets, all of the Benny Haines of the world or the Catholic Church or whatever thing that we know clearly that it is against the truth. But the Bible, when it speaks about false teachers, about false prophets, it speaks of something that is so deceptive that it is surprising to the church, that it is so deceptive, that it is so undercover, that it is so close to what we think is true, that when it is manifested, it does not only become a worse state for the apostate, but also is a great surprise for the true and genuine church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I think there is the final category and the final point that Peter will point us to the characteristic of this false teacher that is given to us in chapter three, which I think is very important and I think is going to be definitive in the study of this letter.

It's given to us in chapter three in the first seven verses. So let me read this for you and I will make some comments here. It says, this is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. Chapter three, verse one. In both of them, I'm stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles.

Knowing this, first of all, that scoffers, that is the false teachers, will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. How would they do it? They will say, Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation. For they deliberately overlooked this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God."

They were denying the creational power, if that is a word, of the word of God, that God spoke and everything was created, but continue. Verse six, and that by means of these, the world that then existed was delidged, watered, and perished. Verse seven, but by the same word, the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and the destruction of the ungodly. These false teachers, these false believers, these false prophets, were not so much questioning things of creation and things of the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, that it is that the world is going to be kept until the day of judgment for the destruction of the ungodly. But in the root, they were doubting and they were denying the means of those truths.

The Word of God. The Word of God that brought creation into existence, and the same Word of God that, for now, tells us what is the day of judgment that is going to come for the destruction of the ungodly. This is the root of the heart of the false teacher, that they doubt the power of the Word of God. You see, they are not clearly in opposition to those things. It only takes a subtle doubt in the heart.

It only takes a questioning of the certainty and the validity of the Word of God. It only takes a minute questioning that this is the Word of God. It only takes a small minute questioning the mind of a person to open the most terrifying door that a soul can open. the door of questioning the Word of God. When a soul, when a person doubts the Word of God, it is opening the door onto condemnation, opening the door onto hell.

You see, our faith is established upon and is given through the veracity, the power, the truth, the completeness, the glory of the Word of God. And when a person opens in his or her mind a doubt to question the Word of God, then that person has fallen into the category of faithlessness. You see, faith is not that you believe 99%. Faith is not that you believe 99.9999%.

Faith is that you believe like a child. And this is the spirit given, impossible to produce for men, trust that the Christian has in the Word of God. So brothers and sisters, for Peter, there is going to be false teachers among the real church that are going to destroy not only themselves in the judgment that will come upon themselves, but also that these false teachers are going to carry with them many deceived souls. These men were in the truth. They have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of the Savior Jesus Christ.

But now they have become followers of themselves and followers of their reasoning, not being able to be like children, just believing the Word of God, but actually questioning the Word of God and the decrees and the promises of the Lord that has given in His Word. And therefore, they have gone again into the things that they have left, and their state has become worse of what they were. They are coming back to their vomit. But the apostle is not only going to give us an explanation, beloved of Christ, of who these false teachers are. He's also going to give us three main exhortations through the book.

And these are the three main exhortations that we're going to be working through by God's grace through the many weeks that we're going to be studying this book. He's going to give us three main exhortations to Christians on how we cannot or we will not be carried away by this deceitful power of false teachers. You see, the concern of the Apostle is not of the existence of false teachers. This is decreed to happen. The concern of the Apostle is that many will follow their sensuality.

It is that souls, eternal souls, will follow the false teachings of these men, these sensual men that are just looking things for their own. so the apostle is going to give us three different exhortations that basically are found two of them in chapter one and then the last one in the end of chapter three The first exhortation is just simply he's going to tell us that divine power that is in us is able to prevent us from falling. That is that the divine power of Christ in the life of the true believer in the Christian is able to prevent us from falling. That is that the power of the gospel is primarily manifested in the life of the Christian by transforming his or her life. and keeping that person until the end, that His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, in chapter 1 verse 3, and that through His promises we might become partakers of the divine nature, in chapter 1 verse 4, that we may have the power to supplement our real faith with virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly love, and charity or love, as it is given to us in chapter one.

And he says that if we practice these things, virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection and love or charity, then that we will be fruitful for God. that we will never fall. That is the divine power of Jesus Christ and the gospel in us. Then he will move and explain to us the glory. If the false teachers are liars, then the solution for the Christian is to be guided by the word of God.

Not only the divine power in us that prevents us from falling, but also the divine power of the word of God that leads us. not to fall because we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed to which we will do well if we pay attention as to a lamp that is shining in a dark place. He's going to speak to us of the apostolic authority that confirms the power of the word of God that prevents us from being distracted by the power of the heresies and the power of the lies of Judas in the church, the apostate, the false teacher, the false believer. to then in chapter three, in the end of the book, he's going to speak to us about the divine power in the day of the Lord, the coming of the Lord, the second coming of the Lord that will keep us from falling, that will preserve us, that will keep us and protect us, that will give us hope to continue moving towards the goal of the supreme calling so that he says in chapter three, verse 14, that therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for this, Be diligent to be found by Him without a spot or blemish and at peace. That is, that since we are waiting for the promise of the coming of the Lord at His day, that we are to be diligent, that we are to endure and to be found by Him without a spot or blemish and at peace.

The whole message of this letter, Beloved of Christ, can be just summarized in verse 17 and 18 of the last chapter in chapter 3, when he says, You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you're not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But this is what we need to learn as a church. This is verse 18. This is what you need to learn for your soul. This is whoever you are, whatever you are, every family of our church, every single person in our church that is now within the sound of my voice, that it is now present here, or even if a brother or sister is listening to this in the future.

This is the message that we need to have in our hearts, not to be carried away with the error of lawless people. growing the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We are to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We are to ask ourselves, am I growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ? Am I growing, brother or sister, am I growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ?

Is our church growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ? Is our congregation growing in these things? Because by growing in this, by knowing the divine power that is within us that will prevent us from falling, knowing the divine power of the Word of God that will keep us in the truth, and knowing the divine power of the promise of the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ will not only be a warning, apostolic warning given to the church, but it will also be the way to protect ourselves, growing in conformity to the person of Jesus Christ. And also, brothers and sisters, this will give us a greater light and glimpse of the love that the church ought to have, not only for the lost, but also for those who are being carried away by these false teachers. It is time that the church stops being just hyper-respectful and hyper-correct when it comes to calling error what is error, calling the things that are not, and mentioning those things because they are souls of people that are being carried away by these false teachers.

But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith, and praying in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And have mercy, have mercy on those who doubt. Save others by snatching them out of the fire. Save others!

by taking them from the fire of condemnation, by saving, taking them from the path of destruction, from the path of Judas, from the path of condemnation, to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment instilled by the flesh. This is what Jude says. Brothers and sisters, we are to be carriers of the truth. We are to be built up individually as Christians and as a congregation in the truth. We ought to stop just simply going with emotions of churches and the things that churches do.

We are to be built up in the truth, and we are to care for the truth, not intellectually. by reading books and by having intellectual opinions about things, but actually caring for the souls of people, caring for the souls of those among us that we might be built up in the truth, but also caring for the souls of the lost and caring for the soul of those who are being carried away. That was the reason of the greatest suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross. he died upon the cross to save souls to save souls that are bound to hell, bound to condemnation. He died upon the cross.

He went through the deepest and the greatest of the sufferings to save your soul, to save my soul, so that we will be ministers of the truth, fighting for the truth, contending earnestly for this faith that has been given to us. so that we will edify our souls, that we will edify the church, and then we will bring into the kingdom by the proclamation of the gospel the souls of those who, apart from Christ, are also bound to hell. Amen.