Do Not Be Fooled

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered on Sunday, the 11h of June, 2023, at Pilgrim Reformed Church.  Our YouTube streaming channel is: 

https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch1992/streams.]

Family, today we’re going to finish with the Apostle Peter’s two letters to the early church.  The Christian church was established at Pentecost, shortly after Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension back into heaven.  Peter wrote his first letter when the church was only about 33 years old, and his second three years later, in 66 AD.

Thanks to the Apostle Paul’s missionary trips, and to all the apostles sharing the Gospel everywhere they went, the church quickly spread throughout the known world, all around the Mediterranean region.  These Christians were both Jewish converts and Gentiles who came to believe after hearing the Good News from the apostles.

The church experienced rapid growth and expansion, but it was also scattered all around because of persecution.  The early church suffered at the hands of the Romans and the Jews who refused to accept Jesus as the Messiah, as well as from the Pagans in the lands where they came to live.  So the believers scattered and then met in hiding.  Peter offered them reassurance, reminding them of God’s love and grace.  In fact, the main theme of his first letter is the grace of God in the life of a believer.  His second letter, though, turns to a more serious and spiritually deadly topic.

So we’re going to close out Peter’s second letter by listening to the stern alarm he raises.  We all need to pay close attention to this, because what he warns us about is happening all around us in the world today.  Just to jog your memory, Peter closed the 1st chapter of this 2nd letter by talking about the prophets of the holy Scriptures, those holy men who spoke the word of God for God.

Please listen and follow along as I read from the 2nd and closing chapter of Peter’s 2nd letter, from the Modern English Version of our Holy Bible…

1 But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. 2 And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 And in their greed they will exploit you with deceptive words. Their judgment, made long ago, does not linger, and their destruction does not slumber.

4 For if God did not spare the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness to be kept for judgment; 5 and if He did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, making them an example to those afterward who would live ungodly lives; 7 and if He delivered righteous Lot, who was distressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked 8 (for that righteous man lived among them, and what he saw and heard of their lawless deeds tormented his righteous soul day after day); 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the Day of Judgment, 10 especially those who walk after the flesh in pursuit of unclean desires, and despise authority.

They are presumptuous and arrogant, and are not afraid to slander the angelic beings. 11 Whereas angels, who are greater in power and might, do not bring slanderous accusations against them before the Lord. 12 But these people are like irrational animals, born to be captured and destroyed. They speak evil of the things that they do not understand, and in their corruption they will be destroyed.

13 They shall receive the wages of unrighteousness. They count it a pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes who revel in their own deception while they carouse together with you. 14 They have eyes full of adultery that cannot cease from sin. They entice unstable souls. Their hearts are trained in greed. They are cursed children! 15 They have forsaken the right way and have gone astray. They follow the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness, 16 but who was rebuked for his iniquity. The mute donkey speaking with a man’s voice constrained the madness of the prophet.

17 These men are wells without water and clouds that are carried by a storm, for whom the gloom of darkness has been reserved forever. 18 For when they speak arrogant words of vanity, they entice by the lusts of the flesh and by depravity those who barely escaped from those who live in error. 19 Although they promise them freedom, they themselves are slaves of corruption, for by that which a man is overcome, to this he is enslaved. 20 For if after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. 21 For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to have known it and then turn back from the holy commandment that was delivered to them. 22 But it has happened to them according to the true proverb, “The dog returns to his own vomit,” and “the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mud.”

--2 Peter 2 (MEV)

Let us pray…  Almighty God, Your word, spoken by Your prophets, saved for us in our Bibles by holy men and women… Your word is the truth, the only truth.  Your word is eternal and unchanging.  But Father, there are people out there who will say Your word is subject to our interpretation, that it must change with modern times.  There are preachers and teachers who lead believers and potential believers astray.  Thank You, God, for giving us the truth in Your word.  And thank You for giving us the faith to believe in Jesus, Your ultimate Word.  Father, please help us recognize lies when we hear them.  Help us discern the truth in a sea of untruths.  Shield us from those who serve Satan by spreading his lies and making a mockery of the truth, even while calling on the name of Jesus.  Remind us of Peter’s warning and keep us safe and secure in our belief and our knowledge of Your word.  And Father, please keep us strong in our faith, of one mind and one purpose in our love, worship, and service, and healthy and safe in the days ahead.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit within us and better understand the message You have for us this day.  Please have Your Spirit warn us when an untruth is being presented to us as truth.  Help us remain steadfast in our faith, that we might better serve You.  This we pray in the precious name of Your Son, Christ Jesus our Lord.   Amen.

Back in 1980, a Reader's Digest article noted that, "If you're planning to vacation in Zambia, beware of the street-corner ‘emerald vendors’.  And if you're driving, be prepared for some confusion in the streets, owing to stolen traffic lights.”  These two warnings were related.  The traffic light thieves were smashing the light lenses and selling the green glass chips to unsuspecting tourists who thought they were getting bargain-basement emeralds.

And then in 1991, Bits & Pieces magazine reported that, “Once, when a stubborn disputer seemed unconvinced, Abraham Lincoln said, ‘Well, let's see, how many legs has a cow?’  ‘Four, of course,’ came the reply disgustedly.  ‘That's right,’ agreed Lincoln.  ‘Now suppose you call the cow's tail a leg; how many legs would the cow have?’  ‘Why, five, of course,’ was the confident reply.  ‘Now, that's where you're wrong,’ said Lincoln.  ‘Calling a cow's tail a leg doesn't make it a leg.’”

We can be so easily deceived, especially if we want something bad enough.  Our greed and our pride overcome our good sense and rational thinking.  Calling a cow's tail a leg doesn't make it a leg, no more than calling broken chips of a traffic light rare gems make them rare gems.  Not unless that's what we want them to be.  We’re all too willing to believe what we hear when it’s what we want to hear.

So Peter closed the 1st chapter of his 2nd letter saying, “For no prophecy at any time was produced by the will of man, but holy men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” (2 Peter 1:21 (MEV))  And then opened the 2nd chapter with, “But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.”  (2 Peter 2:1 (MEV))

The destruction Peter speaks of is not necessarily delivered in this life, but definitely in the next.  Swift destruction simply means the deceivers are condemning themselves quickly with their deceptions.  And for our benefit, to warn us, Peter points out that there are still false prophets among us, even today.

One very troubling point he doesn’t mention is that not only are these false teachers condemning themselves, but they are leading other people to their own condemnation!  There are people who are gullible enough to believe anything a person of some important sounding authority will tell them.  And there are those who will readily accept anything that matches up with what they believe is correct and true, regardless of the actual truth.

There’s a modern saying that too many people fail to heed:  If it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn’t.  When they don’t listen to that sage advice, they fall victim to the predator hiding behind the smile and fancy title.  If they’re lucky, they’ll only lose their money, and not their spot in heaven. 

Peter goes on to assure us that these false teachers and preachers, these people who spew their own brand of religion, who claim to speak for God but turn His words to their own purposes, they will not escape judgment.  For God did not spare even the angels who sinned against Him, who He cast into hell until the Day of Judgment.  Nor did He spare the ancient world that He washed clean by the great flood, except for Noah, the righteous man, and his family.  The entire cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and all who dwelt in them, destroying them by fire from heaven, except for Lot – another righteous man - and his children.

If God would perform these mighty acts to punish the wicked and keep them bound in punishment until the day of reckoning, then these ungodly false prophets will also be held for eternal death and condemnation.  These will receive the wages of their unrighteousness.  The worldly pleasures they now get from their deceit and lustful living will vanish in a heartbeat when they face judgment from God and suffer forever in the lake of fire.

Peter uses a very colorful phrase to describe these people: wells without water.  What good is a well if it has no water?  Can it serve a purpose for anything more than anguish and disappointment?

Compare that to Jesus.  Remember the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well?  Jesus said, “I am the Living Water.  All who come to Me will never thirst again.”  An endless supply, or a well without water… which would you rather have?

But then Peter closes out this chapter and his letter with a dire warning.  These false prophets are doomed by their own words and actions.  And the people they sway with their clever lies may be eternally doomed too.  

Even believers, even those who know Jesus as the Christ, our Lord and Savior, even they can be condemned if they allow these liars to turn them away from Christ Jesus and back to the ways of the world.  If we know the truth, but then turn our back on it and accept the false doctrines because they just sound better to us or make more sense to us, then it will be worse for us than if we’d never known Jesus in the first place.

We must not return to our sinful ways once we have been washed clean of our sin by the precious blood of Jesus!  The Apostle Paul confirms this in the 6th chapter of his Letter to the Romans, in verses 1 through 14, when he says…

1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may increase? 2 God forbid! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? 3 Do you not know that we who were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him by baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

5 For if we have been united with Him in the likeness of His death, so shall we also be united with Him in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man has been crucified with Him, so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we should no longer be slaves to sin. 7 For the one who has died is freed from sin.

8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death has no further dominion over Him. 10 For the death He died, He died to sin once for all, but the life He lives, He lives to God.

11 Likewise, you also consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13 Do not yield your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but yield yourselves to God, as those who are alive from the dead, and your bodies to God as instruments of righteousness. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law, but under grace.

--Romans 6:1-14 (MEV)

There are false teachers and preachers that will try to convince us that good is evil and evil good.  We see this every day, don’t we, on our TVs, in the movies and magazines?  Some have even gone so far as to call Christianity a fringe extremist group, labeling Christians as domestic terrorists.

There are many who will try to get us to serve them instead of God.  They don't care about us, only themselves.  The only concern they have for us is in what we can do for them.

We must not let them fool us.  We must not follow them down the road to perdition, to destruction, to eternal doom.  For we have been washed clean by the blood of Jesus.  And we must not return to our old sinful life and become soiled again, for then the dirt will not wash off.

Be wary, be cautious, do not be fooled.  In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord, the Living Water, our only salvation.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Almighty God, thank You for breathing Your truth into holy men and women who saved Your word for us in our Bible.  Your word is true, infallible, unchanging, eternal.  There are some who will try to convince us that You didn’t really mean what You said, or that what You said only applies to a time long ago, that we must look at things in a more modern way now, reinterpreting what You told us.  Please help us recognize these false prophets, who claim to speak for You but certainly don’t.  Help us see through their cleverly devised plans and schemes, for they have nothing good for us.  They follow only their own agenda.  Please forgive us when we are fooled by them, start listening to them, or even give them credit for having a valid argument against Your word.  We know better, for we know Jesus.  But Father, we are sinners and sometimes we just get swept away by the flood of fast talking and reasonable sounding lies.  Forgive us those times, please Father.  Shield us from the false preachers.  Help us be better servants, glorifying You in all we do so that the world can see You in us, through our deeds, in how we live.  And help us remain strong, faithful, and true to You in all things, no matter what the world throws at us or holds out before us.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more obedient to Your commands, and seeking Your help to do so…

Lord Jesus, You allowed Your own precious blood to be spilled that we might be washed clean of our sin and reconciled with God.  Thank You, Lord, for making so great a sacrifice on our behalf!  Please help us stay clean.  Help us discern the truth from the lies that others try to pass off on us.  Shield our minds and our hearts from words of deceit and untrue promises.  

And Jesus, please help us be faithful and true to You, putting all our trust in You, all our hope in You.  Please heal the hurts that separate and divide us one from another.  Help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and the needs of others rather than on anything this life might offer.  This we pray in Your blessed name, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior.  Amen.