The Greed of the False Proph..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Second letter of the Apostle Peter to the church. And we are going to be addressing Beloved of Christ.

Verse number three in the second chapter. And there the spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ through the ministry of the Apostle Peter says that these false prophets in their greed will exploit you, the church, with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle and their destruction is not asleep. That is the verse that we're going to be addressing together, I hope, by the grace of the Holy Spirit. But beloved of Christ, let's read together the whole chapter two to get the context and what the Spirit of Christ is saying through the Apostle Peter.

So please join me as we read together with much reverence and paying attention to each one of the words by the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's read together. Second, Peter Chapter two. I'm reading from the English Standard Version of the Bible. It says, But false prophets also arose from 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 sleep. For if God did not spare angels when they seemed, but cast them into hell, and committed them to change and of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment, and 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 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 they wage for the wrongdoing. They counted pleasure to revel in the daytime, their plots and blemishes reveling 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, forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, but was rebuked for his own transgression.

A speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet's madness. These are waterless springs and mist driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. For a speaking loud boast of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. They promised them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption.

For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. For 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 soul, after washing herself, returns to wallow in their mire. Amen. This is the word of the Lord. What a fearful passage, right? What a fearful passage, so difficult even to read.

I don't think that there is one other portion of scripture that will contain these heavy thoughts and these heavy words. Perhaps, you know, the parallel passage in Jude and also some very difficult words there in Matthew chapter seven, which is a similar passage or parallel passage to say, computer chapter two, that beloved of Christ, even just to think about some of the things that we have just read. Sometimes, you know, reading some other portions of the Scripture, you can see encouragement and you can see exhortation and consolation in those passages of the Scripture. But when you read 2 Peter, it is very heavy. If we just think about, you know, the words that are just used here, just pay attention to verse 12.

It says in verse 12, but these like irrational animals, So imagine just even in these days, people is speaking of other human beings and calling them irrational animals. Try to do that and you will see what happens in our contemporary society. Creatures of instinct born to be caught and destroyed. Very difficult words. What about what do you have?

The apostle comparing these false prophets to dogs or to swine or to pigs that return to their own vomit. Beloved of Christ, this is a scripture. This is the Holy Spirit describing with inspired words a reality that is going to take place within the context of the church. And what fearful words, but more fearful that the words that we have just read. is the reality of false teachers and false prophets in the context of the church.

All of these words are scary and very difficult to even think about them. But more fearful than that is the reality of false prophets within the context of the church, and even more fearful than the fact that there's going to be false teachers within the context of the church. It is who they are. because they are represented not only here in 2 Peter 2, but in the whole Bible as people who seem to be Christian, who externally seem to speak the words of Christ and speak the words of His scripture, and who externally seem to be those who are walking in the ways of righteousness. The false prophet in Scripture, beloved of Christ, is defined as those who have forsaken the way of truth, those who have deviated or departed from the faith, those who have fallen from the faith.

That's what the apostle says. See there in verse 15, for instance, he says, forsaken the right way. It's not that they were in a wrong way, but he says, forsaken the right way, they have gone astray. But what if you go to verse 20, speaking of these same false teachers, for if they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, again are entangled in them and overcome. The last state has become worse for them than the first.

They have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And once they have escaped that, they have entangled again in the ways of the world. Or what about verse 21? For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness. They have known the way of righteousness according to Scripture, and they have left, they have forsaken the way of righteousness, they have departed from the faith, they have fallen from the faith.

Beloved of Christ, more fearful than the words that we have in 2 Peter chapter 2 is the reality of these false teachers. in the context of the church, in the context not of the church that is clearly not the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, but the apostle says, you, in the midst of the professing Christian church. And what is more fearful than the judgment that will come upon these false prophets is that many will follow them. Not speaking about a church that it is completely opposite to truth, but that many within the context of the Christian church will follow their pernicious ways, that many will follow their sensuality, that many will follow their destructive ways. And we were very close and narrow minded to think that everyone that is going to follow them are just simply false believers.

There is a reason why the apostle is given this exhortation to the church, because many of those who are called to be Christians, professing Christian, will follow these hypocrites and these false teachers. More fearful than that, beloved of Christ, is that these false teachers, these false prophets of the new covenant, who have departed from the faith, who have forsaken the truth, who have entangled again in the ways of the world. We are told in a parallel passage in Hebrew chapter 6, that they had been enlightened, that they had been partakers, that they have tasted the goodness of the word, that they have shared in the Holy Spirit. Imagine that, that they have been partakers of the Holy Spirit, that they have tasted the goodness of the word, as I said, and also the powers of the age to come. All of those things that we will completely attribute and give to genuine believers, these false teachers, false prophets of the church, they have experienced and they have received And many of those who follow them would also have experienced and received and have all of those things that were told in Hebrews chapter 6.

I don't know if this is fearful to you, but it is certainly very fearful for me. And when I read that, You know, there was a sense in I even had told Brother Bernie that I'm going to try to preach this chapter two in two or three sermons and just to go through it very quickly because it seems to be, you know, repetitive in some of the concepts. But beloved of Christ, even for the sake of my soul, it's very important that we study carefully the characteristics of those who will fall away, those whose judgment is already kept and preserved, and those whom will have a follow of many before and after them, thinking that they are following Christianity and the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember that when I say false teacher, I'm not speaking about the one that is going to teach about Buddha or about Allah. We're talking about the one that will continue to preach about Jesus Christ, the one that will continue to hold a Bible in their pulpit.

I'm talking about that person. And that person is the one that is going to draw onto himself or themselves People that will follow them even be partakers of all of those characteristics that the New Testament attributes only to a genuine believer. That's why, beloved of Christ, the burden of the apostle is so great. He's going to die. Imagine just the spirit of God working in the life of an apostle.

This is Peter, who knows who is going to die. And then he sees the faces of young people and elderly people and families in front of him. And he knows about the church and he knows that he's going to depart and that he knows even by the power of the spirit that among them many Wolves will come many of these false teachers. This is the burden of the apostle That's why he says when you go again to second peter chapter 3 for the purpose of this letter in verse 17 you therefore you therefore beloved Knowing this beforehand Take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people And lose your own stability. You know what the what the word literally means and lose fall away.

So it says, it says, you therefore beloved, speaking to Christians, knowing this beforehand, take careful heed, or take heed, that you will not follow the errors of these false prophets, that you will not lose your stability, or that you will not fall away, but growing the grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. But I want you to see the progression there. It says, knowing this before Knowing these beforehand, you can take care and you can take heed that you will not follow the pernicious, the destructive, the sensual ways of false prophets. So that means that for us not to think that we are strong and that we are firm, less that we fall. We are supposed to know these things beforehand so that we are able to discern biblically and not to be carried away by these errors, beloved of Christ.

I think that, I don't know, eternity, but I think that there are plentiful of souls that were seated in chairs in churches, that when they died, they found their surprise, not only of Matthew 7, you know, I never knew you, but that were just simply following false instruction, false teachers, and they did not know. They did not know all of the instructions given to us in the Scripture. Beloved of Christ, it's very important, it's mandatory, it's very important that we as a church will strive to know these things, not in a shallow way, but in a deep, in a depth, with deftness, with profoundity, that we will know these things so that we will protect each other as a church. We live in times in which Western Christianity is generally and sadly, and generally speaking, biblically illiterate. We live in times in which Western Christianity, in general, do not know their Bibles and the people of God perish because of lack of knowledge.

We live in times in which Christianity is only an appendix to your life, to the life of a person, on something that you do on Wednesdays and on Thursdays and on Sunday, and it's just a prayer before you eat. We live in times in which Christianity just simply is something additional to our lives. And it's not the important thing that defines the eternity of our souls, beloved of Christ. So if the church, generally speaking, lacks knowledge, how is the church going to take heed that we are not carried away by the error and the lawlessness of false teachers? Beloved of Christ, we live in times in which Hebrews chapter 6 verse 12 onwards, which is the preceding passage to Hebrews chapter 6, is a reality that when we ought to be teachers of the things of God, we are in need of someone teaching us the basic principles of the oracles of God.

When we are supposed to be eating solid food, that we are in need of spiritual milk because we are immature. Because we spend years and years of Christianity with shallowness, and then we have lives that are shallow, spiritually speaking. And I don't have to just give you examples. Many of you have been Christians for years and been in Christianity long enough to prove and to attest to that. Beloved of Christ, we're speaking about serious, very serious matters.

And the false prophets and the false teachers are a reality in the context of the church. So the burden of the apostle is that we will know these things beforehand so that we will take careful, that we will be careful, take heed that we will not follow the errors or the lawlessness of these people being taken and carried. by them. Important because, beloved, if we do not know the Bible and if we have a shallow understanding of all of these things, how on earth are we going to set parameters of orthodoxy and unorthodoxy apart from that which is given to us by a systematic theology? How are we going to define spiritually and how are we going to define biblically that which corresponds to the right way of the Lord Jesus Christ compared to that which is heresy and that which is an error apart from someone telling us from church history if we do not know our Bibles?

How are we going to define that which is an error that we should not be carried by, that we should not be taken by, if we are not aware of the things beforehand? I hope that you can see the seriousness for our souls. If your soul And the souls of those who are sitting around you are important to you generally before the Lord. So then you will see the importance of the things that I'm just saying. And it's not just simply a ceremony and blah, blah, blah on a Sunday that is completely forgotten.

It will be a serious matter for the heart of the person who listens and for the one who preaches. Because, beloved of Christ, in verse three, we're told something even more fearful. We are told that these false prophets will exploit the church. Verse three, it says that in their great day, will they, speaking of false teachers, that they will exploit you and the you is the church. The false teachers will exploit the church.

Think about that, beloved of Christ. Those who by grace through faith have been inserted into the body of the Lord Jesus Christ and are called the church, they will be exploited. Exploited is the word. They will be exploited by the false prophets. Those who have been purchased by the blood of God, those who have been purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ without blemish, without a spot, they will be exploited by false prophets.

Those who have been redeemed, those who have been reconciled to God the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ, they will be exploited by false prophets. Those who, when they come together in spirit and in truth and they worship the Lord, they are the temple of God individually and covenantally. They are the house or the dwelling place of the living God. They are the buttress and the foundation of the truth, the dwelling place of God, the church, They will be exploited by false prophets. But beyond that, beloved of Christ, and this is what actually pierced my mind and my heart when I was just thinking about this passage.

It is that the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ. the help meat, just as Adam had a help meat in the garden. The church is not only the body, but it's the spouse, the wife, the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ. She's a rose of Sharon. She's a lily of the valley in the eyes of the Savior, the beautiful one, the beloved one, the one whose beauty is behind the veil.

And the beloved one is approaching her because he loves her. The bride of God will be exploited, abused, taken advantage, used for the purpose of self-advancement. The bride of Christ will be used in this particular way by false prophets. Beloved of Christ, why would these men do that? Why would false prophets who had been enlightened, who had been partakers of the things of the Word of God, who had been partakers of the Spirit of God, who had tasted the heavenly gift and the goodness of the Word and the powers of the age to come, or the things that are to come, how would these men, false prophets, who know the Scripture, who know the character of God, who know the character of Jesus Christ, who may have read or heard that God is a consuming fire.

If they know that this church, these people are, and together they are the bride of Jesus Christ, why on earth they will decide to willingly to exploit, to abuse, to take advantage of the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ. If sinful, wicked men in their sins, when they love their wives, when they love their brides, when they love their spouses, they will never allow that anyone will come to exploit or abuse or take advantage of their wives. How on earth a false prophet, a false teacher who knows the character of God, the power of God, and even has been enlightened as I've said now many times, how will that person dare to exploit and to take advantage and to abuse you? the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, the people of God. Beloved, I feel tempted just to go and speak about their judgment now because this is a horrible thing.

They are aware of these things. They know of these things. It's just like Felix, you remember that when the apostle Paul was just preaching to him about the judgment that was to come, self-control and unrighteousness, that he was alarmed. that his heart was pricked in a sense, but then he will just simply let that go and continue in his evil and wicked ways. What a fearful thing.

What a fearful thing it would be for a man, not only to receive the judgment of God because of his sins, but also the righteous judgment of God because they exploited, abused, and took advantage of the bride of the Lord, Jesus Christ. But the text gives us a hint, or at least tells us, the characteristics of this exploiting, if that is a word, of this abuse of these false teachers. We are told in verse 3 that it's in their greed. That it's in their greed. that they will exploit or that they will abuse you.

It is in their covetousness. It is through their covetousness. It is through their greed that these men will exploit the church. It is in their Sinful, because greed and covetousness is a sin, is in a sinful desire to obtain and to do something to satisfy self. That is what greed and covetousness is.

A strong, sinful desire in a person to obtain, to have, or to do, or to have someone, or to be something so that they will please themselves. The only reason why a man who knows the dangers that are before him and the judgment of God that is to come because of the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ, the only reason why a person will do and continue to exploit the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ is just if that man finds sufficient fulfillment and satisfaction in doing so. That it is only if by doing the exploiting of the church and if abusing the church provides to that person satisfaction and fulfillment in his sinful, limited, and erroneous perception that it is greater of what he could receive because of doing so. And you can see the sinful nature of this whole thing just in that and beloved of Christ. Think about that.

Greed, covetousness, according to this passage, is that which is driving the abuse of false teachers to the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if you do not understand or if you have a shallow view of the love of Christ towards his bride, you will not see the depths of what they are actually doing. But think about that. It is the greed and is the covetousness that is in them that which is moving these false teachers to abuse and to exploit the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ. Satisfaction, self-satisfaction is that which is very important for us to understand the nature of covetousness and greed.

The Bible speaks and prevents us and calls us not to fall in covetousness or in greed from the Old Testament through the New Testament. And greed is that which is moving these men to do that which they are doing to the church. You might remember the 10th commandment in Exodus chapter 20, remember? You shall not covet, you shall not covet your neighbor's house, you shall not cover your neighbor's animals, you shall not cover your neighbor's wife, you shall not cover your neighbor's servant, you shall not covet any of the possessions of your neighbor. In other words, you will not try to satisfy yourself by having that which your neighbor owns or has.

You are not to try to find satisfaction in the things that you think that you don't have, in this unsatisfaction that you have, trying to satisfy it by having the things that other person has. That is the heart of covetousness, of greed, that a person tries to find satisfaction and fulfillment in something or someone or to be something that they do not have and that they are not. And it's very dangerous, beloved of Christ, because spiritually speaking, covetousness is equivalent to a dissatisfaction, if that is a word, to a dissatisfaction with God himself and the will of God for the life of a person. You see, beloved of Christ, when we read the 10th commandment, you shall not covet the possessions of your neighbor, you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, and you shall not covet your neighbor's house and all of the things that he has. The commandment is actually intrinsically saying you are to be satisfied with what you have.

You are to be satisfied with your house. You are to be satisfied with your animals. You are to be satisfied with your servants. You are to be satisfied with your wife. You are to be satisfied with all of your belongings, so that by being satisfied, your heart will not be sinfully moved to possess that which other person has, and you will not be trying to find fulfillment in the things that belong to another person.

And spiritually speaking, beloved, what God was calling his people, not only in the old covenant, but also in the new covenant, preventing them from greed and from covetousness was to be fulfilled and satisfied with God himself. God's will for that particular person. That is, that whatever or whoever God is and whatever God decides and gives and provides unto the life of a person, those who are in the people of God, either in the Old Covenant or the New Covenant, that is meant to be sufficient and satisfy the soul of that person so that person will not have to go and try to covet anything else, any other source, beloved of Christ, satisfaction of the soul found alone in the person in God himself and that which God has for our life. Beloved covetousness and greed, which is that which is moving these false teachers to exploit the church, is a commandment and a warning that is given not only in the old covenant, but also for Christians. The Bible calls Christians to be careful for greed and covetousness because upon covetousness and greed, the wrath of God will come.

Everything comes down to the satisfaction of the heart, spiritually speaking. That is what happened in the garden. That is what happened with Adam and Eve. They had everything that it was required. They have everything that it was required for them to live, to sustain themselves and to be satisfied.

Every single thing that they needed to eat, even the presence of the Lord was provided unto them so they could be fully satisfied. But they were tempted. They were questioned. Oh, the character of God and his word was questioned, and they were tempted to obtain something that will satisfy them more, that will make them wise and that will make them like God, something that they were not. It's in the moment with Adam and Eve do not find full satisfaction in who God is and the will of God for them and everything that God had provided for them.

The same enters into the world through the disobedience of one man and through the disobedience of one man. Death enters into the world and we all sin because we are in Adam. Beloved of Christ, I'm talking about a spiritual characteristic of the soul of a person that defines the way that we relate to the world and that we relate to heaven. It is only when God, who He is, and what He has done, and His will for our lives is the fountain of our satisfaction and our fulfillment, that we are not taken captive by the things of this world. Because the only way that we can be satisfied with God and who He is, is when love abides in your heart towards God Himself.

You cannot be satisfied with someone whom you do not love. You cannot be satisfied with the things that this person that you say that you love is doing for you or the will of that person for your life. Satisfaction in the heart of the person only happens when the heart of that person genuinely loves the Father. Because when there's no love in the heart of that person, then that person will be easily turned away from God the Father into the things of the world, and the love will be manifested for the things of the world. And the heart of that person will be filled with covetousness, greed, and desire to have things that are passing away, just to satisfy yourself temporarily.

That is what the Apostle John says in 1 John chapter 2, right? That's what he says, that if you love the world, that if you love the world, the love of the Father is not in you. And he defines the love of the world as the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life, all of those things that are passing away. Covetousness in the heart of a person will take to love the things of the world in a greater extent than God himself, and to believe that there is satisfaction and fulfillment in those particular things. That is, in a sense, beloved of Christ.

You know how sin is so nuanced and has just different angles that you can see sin? In a sense, all sin is just simply covetousness, sinful covetousness for things that are opposed to God. He's trying to find satisfaction. not in the presence of God himself, nor in the will of God unto our lives. When the heart of a person is fully taken in love to the Lord Jesus Christ and to God himself, then we can count everything as joy when we fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of our faith produces patience.

How on earth is a human being who derives satisfaction from temporary things, how on earth is going to be a soul able to count all things joyful, even when you are in the midst of various trials, if that person is ultimately deriving satisfaction and fulfillment from things that are passing away, if there's been covetous or just greedy of things that are temporal in nature? Impossible, because human beings cannot even find fulfillment in themselves. People fight for fulfillment, temporary fulfillment on things that please them, self-centered in things that nourish and feed them in their ego and in their soul. But they will never find satisfaction and fulfillment and genuine joy in and of themselves. That's why we continue to try to have and have and have, accumulate and obtain and to progress and to have in all of these things.

The root of it, beloved of Christ, is the absence of genuine love for the giver. the root, the substance of it is absolute absence of genuine love to the one who decides what you are, decides who you are, decides the things of your life, decides the will for your life, absolute absence of love towards him. And if there is absence of love towards him, there is lack and absence of something very important. And that is faith. Because we're told that in Jesus Christ, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails for anything, but only faith that is energized, that works through love.

Pay attention to this. The substance of genuine faith is genuine love towards Christ. Not only saving faith, but the faith that keeps us being like Jesus Christ. The substance of genuine faith is genuine love to the person of Jesus Christ, because it is in love that there is fulfillment of all the requirements of the law. It is love being the substance of faith, and that is going to make a faith that works obedience and that produces things.

Beloved of Christ, the situation with the false prophets and the reason why they can do something that seems to be so unreasonable and stupid. Namely, exploiting and abusing the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ when they know that the judgment that is to come is because their hearts are deprived or their hearts do not have genuine saving faith, and therefore they lack genuine love towards God. The only way that a person can be blinded to the judgment that is to come and to the heaviness of the statements that are given in Scripture against those who do anything against the bride and the church of the Lord Jesus Christ is if a person is completely blinded from the majestic power and glory of God that is only given to a person through saving faith. Beloved of Christ, they can be enlightened. They could have partaken of the goodness of the Word, even the heavenly gift.

They could have partaken of all of those things, but if genuine saving faith is not present in the heart of these people, they will never be able to love the one who is the lover of the soul of his people." And the connection between or the union that we have with Christ is a connection that is not only legal, but it's established upon love. No one can separate us from the love of God. We are united to God himself, not only by a legal instrument of faith, but we're united in the person of Christ and that is in love. Beloved of Christ, these people have absence of genuine love in their hearts towards God.

And every manifestation of covetousness and greed in our lives is a manifestation of a love that is decreasing, that is what's called or that is just simply disappearing or that is not there as it should be. Every manifestation of Loving the things of the world, the things that are passing away. Every manifestation of I'm more concerned and my heart and my soul is more taken by the things of this world than God himself is substantially a manifestation of lack of love in your heart towards God. And this is when we have to be absolutely careful, beloved, just simply and let your conscience just simply judge you. Even right now, when you're reading a scripture, when you're praying, where you're speaking about Jesus Christ, when you are in the church, when you are partaking of the Lord's table, when you're doing that, where is the inclinations of your heart compared to the inclinations of your heart when you do that thing that you love, when you watch that thing that you love, when you go to that place that you love, when you speak about those matters that you love.

Where is the inclination of your heart and your love towards God when you compare that in your soul? Because beloved of Christ, This will tell us very much where we're setting our minds and our eyes on things that are passing away in loving the world, or the things that are eternal, the love of the Father. And the lust of the flesh, the pride of life are just simply slowly taking part of who we are. These men have no hope. These men have no hope.

The false prophets, they have been ordained to be condemned. They have been created for this particular purpose. That's what Proverbs 16, 4 says, that the wicked has been made for the day of evil, for the day of doom, for the day of judgment. These men have been made for that particular purpose that we may know. What is that which is moving them to do those particular things to the church?

Because when a person does not have his or her heart, his or her eyes placed in the person of Jesus Christ, then that person necessarily will try to build and construct their own empire. They are not anymore working for the kingdom of God, speaking of these false prophets. But now they are trying to build their own kingdom. They are trying to build their own empire. They are trying to build their own brand with their name.

So they will put their name to their ministries because they're trying to build their own thing, not unto the Lord Jesus Christ. Beloved, these men are workers of self. They are concerned about self-advancement. They are concerned about obtaining the things that will provide satisfaction for their souls, because Christ and His love and what He does unto them does not provide any type of satisfaction or fulfillment. They don't care about the judgment that is going to come upon them.

They are just simply taken by the powerful satanic power of covetousness and greed. And being this a satanic influence, what it will come out of their mouth will be false words. Because there is no other way in which false teachers will be able to accomplish the things that they want to accomplish other than through lies. And covetousness being essentially a satanic thing inside of the person is going to be manifested in satanic words, in lies. And the Bible tells us that how this is manifested.

It is just through a very short word, something that is very powerful and that the Bible calls us to be very careful about. And that is money. When the Bible speaks about the manifestation of the covetousness and the greed that is in the false prophet, in the exploiting or in the abusing of the church, in the taking the church for self-advancement and onto themselves to obtain things for themselves, the scripture defines that as manifested better in money. If you go to 1 Corinthians or 1 Timothy better, you can see the parallel passage to this. 1 Timothy chapter 6, it says in verse 3, If anyone teaches a different doctrine, this is speaking of these false prophets and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing.

He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions. Just think about the teachings of people that produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain. But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.

But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. Speaking of the false teachers. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. It is through this craving, the craving, the covetousness, the greed. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

This is speaking, beloved of Christ, of false teachers. that, as I said before, they will never find satisfaction or contentment of fulfillment in godliness, that it is in those things that are from God and come from God. But not finding satisfaction in those things, they're going to move to those things that are passing away. And money, it is A root of all evils that takes a person that gives them access to temporary things, to the things of this world, to the things of this world that temporarily please them, that temporarily gives them something just to continue in the race of accumulating and having more things unto themselves, pursuing their own agendas rather than that mission given by the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ says that no one can serve two masters.

You remember in Matthew chapter 6? That no one can serve two masters because you will either love one and hate the other. And he says, no one can serve the Lord God, and no one can serve money. Think about that. Money, that which empowers a person to pursue the things that are passing away, can be a master.

Just as the Lord Jesus Christ can be our master, our Lord, then money and that which money can give and produce into a person is also a master that moves that person to pursue the things that are passing away, manifesting his intrinsic or internal love to the things of the world. and not love to the Father. This is, beloved of Christ, this is really fearful. Because when you open your eyes and when you see the things that are and the things that we touch and the things that we smell, all of them are things that are passing away. And in a sense, all of them are needs or satisfy people in a particular sense.

And all of them have the power to take captive the heart of a person and to have any type of dominion over a particular person. The root and the substance of it, as I said in the beginning, is genuine love to God. Genuine, ever-increasing. This is the word that you have to have in your mind for your love to Christ. Ever-increasing, always in fire, ever-increasing love for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Never be contempt with having loved Him once, but rather in His presence and by the power of His Spirit, ask that the Spirit of God may come upon you and that His love may be shed into your hearts, that your love to the Savior might be ever increasing. Because in the moment that the love to the Savior is cold, indifferent or dull, Then when you open your eyes and then you see the things that are passing away, they may have something that just simply takes you and they simply makes you fall in love with things that are completely passing away. Fire will come to all of these and all of these will be destroyed. Yet our hearts seek a way to pursue the things that are passing away." Beloved of Christ, it is the same exhortation for the church.

But what a horrible situation for these false teachers. Because when you go back to 2 Peter, there in chapter 2, we are told something very specific there in 2 Peter, in verse 14. It says they have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts that are trained in greed.

Their hearts are trained in greed. Accursed children, the apostle says. Their hearts are disciplined to covetousness. The Apostle Paul says to Timothy to discipline himself for the purpose of godliness. The same word is here.

The heart of the false prophet is trained, is disciplined for greed and for covetousness. That is that the heart of that person loves so much the things of this world. that they are seeking with all their might and power to accumulate unto themselves things that will please self and that at the cost of the church. They don't care. They don't care about the bride of Christ.

They don't care. Beloved, that's why these false teachers would do these things. But the question is that we need to ask ourselves is once again, why would Christ allow this to happen to his bride? If, as I said before, if sinful men, wicked men, in their sins, when they love their wives, when they love their brides, when they love their spouses, they're willing to give their lives, they're willing to kill, to destroy. They're willing to do whatever to protect their wives, their spouses and their brides.

If they're willing to do that, why would Jesus Christ allow that that would happen to His bride? Beloved, the question or the answer better to that is that He does not. Look what the verse says in verse 3. It says, Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not sleep. The Lord Jesus Christ temporarily allows His bride and His church to be exploited and abused and to be taken advantage of by these men.

But this is with a purpose, a purpose not only of purifying the church as these people do those things, not only bringing blemishlessness and unholiness to the church and purifying those who are from those who are not, but also to treasure up wrath. for the day of wrath for those who had been in eternity past decreed to be in the context of the church as false teachers, whose judgment is reserved and kept." The Bible speaks of the genuine Christian that salvation is ready to be revealed, that salvation is there for us, already there. For the false prophet, condemnation and judgment is already reserved." There's no escape.

There's no gospel proclamation that will save them. Think about that. There's no gospel proclamation that will save the false teacher who exploits the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, but rather the certainty and the assurance that a lake of fire is awaiting. That judgment is awaiting. that just as salvation and heaven is ready for those who are the children of God, hell is ready for these men who are temporarily used for a purpose, not only for them to accumulate right unto the day of wrath, but also, as I said, for the purification of the church.

My beloved of Christ, this is not the only reason why God would allow this particular thing to happen temporarily, speaking to the church. There is another reason. And that is that God wants us to do something in the midst of the reality of false teachers. And that's perhaps the most important thing that I want to share with you, that there is something that God wants us to do as a church. through this reality of the existence of false teachers and false prophets who will exploit the church.

You see, in the parallel passage in Jude, when Jude is writing about this particular the same matters, he says that he was going to write to the church about their common salvation. I was going to write to you about our common salvation, but I found it necessary to write to you, exhorting you, to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints." And that is connected to false prophets because he says, "...for because certain men had crept into the church unnoticed and unaware, whose condemnation from long ago was already decided, so that we are to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints." in the midst of the reality or through the reality that there are men who have been made with the purpose of their eternal judgment and with the purpose of them coming in the midst of the church to abuse and exploit the church, we are called to contend earnestly for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints."

Not the individual faith that saved us, not our common salvation, but I found it necessary to write to you to contend earnestly for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. the faith of the church. We are called to contend for the church or for the faith given to the church. And that contending, beloved of Christ, it is indeed a military word. We are called to contend, contend for the faith as if we were in war.

And we are. That even though there's going to be false teachers in the context of the church that are going to exploit the church, Christians and churches are called to contend earnestly for the faith. to make war against those who are false teachers, to make war against those who teach other ways, and to make war against those who teach crooked ways. Contend earnestly for the faith. I want to bring to your attention, to your mind, three ways, at least that I have seen so far.

There might be more in the Bible. You tell me if there is more. But at least three ways that I've seen in the scripture in which the church is called to contend for the faith. to fight for the faith, three ways in which the church is called to contend for the faith. The first one is one of defense, is one of that we are to defend the faith, that we're to protect the faith through defense.

And that is what I've mentioned before, and even I preach on in 1 Peter 3, verse 15, that we are always to be ready, right, to make a defense or to give an answer for the hope that is within us and that we are to do it with gentleness and meekness with the spirit of Christ in us. We are to always to be ready to give a defense or to give an answer for the hope that is within us. Even when we are persecuted for righteousness sake, we are to be ready to give an answer, to provide a defense for this hope. And this is a way of contending for the faith. When we are reviled with false accusations, when Christ is reviled and when our faith is reviled and the hope that is within us is attacked, we are to be ready to give a defense for the hope that is within us.

This is a defensive way. But also, beloved of Christ, there is a way in which we are to attack, that we are to actually use the weapons and whatever the Lord has given us and the gifts to attack, not only to be ready to give a defense, But we are called to fight the good fight of the faith. That is what Paul calls Timothy to do, that he will fight the good fight of the faith. If you go to the same chapter, you can see the comparison there in first Timothy, chapter six there after the apostle has spoken about the false prophets. After the apostle has spoken about these false prophets.

In chapter six, It says, comparing in verse 11, it says, But as for you, once I have spoken about these men that pursue money and all of these things, that you don't have contentment. But as for you, men of God, flee these things, pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness, fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. Fight the good fight of the faith. And if you go to Second Timothy, if you just cross the page, this is how the apostle defines his life as a Christian.

If you go to chapter four in verse seven, he says, I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. That is, I endure until the end. I preserved until the end.

I have fought the good fight of the faith. And the one that is instructing his disciple to fight the good fight of the faith says to him in chapter 2, It says to him in Chapter 2 of 2 Timothy, pay attention to this. He says, You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Now pay attention to the language.

Sharing suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits or in the things of this world, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him, that is Jesus Christ, that is calling him Timothy, a soldier of Christ, the one that is to fight the good fight of the faith. And he does that by the proclamation and the passing of truth. So just as I have taught you, my child, in the faith, you are to pass the things that you've heard and the things that you have received unto other faithful men, unto other soldiers who will be able to proclaim the truth. Because remember that we know the crooked way, not by studying the crooked way or the unrighteous way, but we know that which is crooked by knowing that which is true.

So pass on to others that which you have received from the lips and from the heart of the apostle." So we have been called not only to be ready to give a defense for the hope that is within us, but through the church equip soldiers of Christ who will go to the world to proclaim the truth, discerning that which is right from that which is evil, discerning from that which is crooked from that which is straight and according to the ways of the Lord. This is the offensive way of those who are in Christ. But there is another way, which is the one that I want to emphasize the most in your hearts, beloved Christ. And that is if you go to Jude there in the passage that I'm using to make this point, if you go to Jude, I said to you there that Jude is not only a parallel passage, Jude is not only a parallel passage to the second Peter, but it's also the one that is calling us to contend earnestly for the faith.

It says in the ESV in verse three, it says, Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints, to contend. the point that I have just made. For certain people have crept in and noticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, and godly people who pervert the grace of our God in centrality and deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ. From there, the Apostle, or Jude better, will start just to speak about these false prophets, and he will call us to something very important. If you go to then go to verse 17 after he has spoken in a similar or written better in a similar way to Peter, it says in verse 17.

But you must remember, beloved, the predictions or better the words of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you in the last time there will be scoffers following their own ungodly passions. You see, we're seeing the same topic of second Peter. It is these who cause divisions, worldly people devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith.

Remember what I said to you, faith and love, 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 pay attention to this. And have mercy on those who doubt.

Save others by snatching them out of the fire. To others show mercy with fear. Hating even the garment stained by the flesh. If you go to a similar passage before I speak about this, go to James chapter 5, please. Quickly go to James chapter 5 before I speak about this.

James chapter 5, verse 19, the last two verses. It says, my brothers, If anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. Jane calls us to bring back those who wander from the faith into error. And Jude calls us here to have mercy on those who doubt, save others by snatching them out of the fire. Beloved of Christ, We content earnestly for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints by yes, providing a defense, an answer from the hope that is within us, being always ready with the heart of Christ to speak of the hope and the faith of Christ that is in our hearts.

Also by fighting the good fight of the faith by proclaiming the truth, but also by rescuing the souls of those who are following those many false teachers, by rescuing those souls of the many that are carried away because of their lack of knowledge, by having compassion for those who profess to be Christians and are Christians, we will be very ignorant and loveless to think that in every single heretical church that no one is saved. or to think that everyone who does not agree with our theology, that they are simply not in Christ. Beloved, we are called to contend earnestly for the faith, having compassion for the one that has wandered in error, for the one who has taken a different path. And that requires boldness, not to be a coward, that when you hear about a Christian who you know that is in a place that it is not a good place, that you should simply shut your mouth in order not to have any controversy, because that's loveless. but rather to speak in love to bring those who may be indeed in Christ to the ways of righteousness.

And I'm not saying that you need to bring them to our church. You need to bring them to truth, whatever that means. contending earnestly for the faith once for all delivered to the saints is I were against unrighteousness and the devil and the workings of the devil not only in the context of the church but also in the souls of those believers who did not know and my people perished because of lack of knowledge and because they did not know they were not able to take care or take heed not to be carried away I know that you know many people who you know that they are saved And they are in the clothes, I think is the word you have in English, or in the hands of false teachers, of false crooked doctrines. Beloved of Christ, we are not called to love and to be among the ones who believe and think the same things that we do, but we are to be Christ to the world. And he came to his own, and his own did not receive him.

He came to his own people. He came to the lost sheep of Israel, the one that rejected him and the one who sent him to the cross. Yet he came in much love to save the world through the Jews, who were the ones that, being the people of God, rejected the ways and the righteous way of God. So he saved the world through the Jews." And there is a sense in which God is going to save the world by saving the church.

Because, beloved of Christ, there are many people who are genuinely in the person of Jesus Christ who are, as I said, going after the ways of false prophets and false teachers. The Bible speaks about that reality. And we have been called to contend earnestly for this glorious faith of the Lord Jesus Christ in a manifestational love towards others, and towards the souls of those who have wandered in error, that we would have done everything that is possible to rescue our brothers and sisters from deceitful ways. Think about that. I was just so convicted about this this morning.

I drive to Brisbane to preach to the lost, and this should be done. This should be done. The gospel should be proclaimed to the one that is lost. We have been called to do so. Yet I know so many people that are professing Christians who are in crooked ways and my mouth has been shut many times.

Just simply to preserve peace and then just to simply continue we are all Christians. That this may not be the heart of the soldier of Christ. Being a soldier has a price and we have to pay for that price. And many times the price of making mistakes and errors is more worth it than the price of silence, cowardice, and just ignoring things. So beloved of Christ, may the Lord give us the grace that is needed to content earnestly for the faith, which was once for all delivered, not only to you individually, but to the saints.

Amen.