Trinity Baptist Church

 

In these verses, Simon Peter continues his diatribe against the false teachers. This chapter may be the most severe, scathing denunciation in all of scripture, exceeding perhaps only by the "Woe" chapter in Matthew 23 which came from the lips of our Lord.

 

The question arises, "Why in the world are we taking our time to study something so very negative?" Keep in mind the overall context. In the first chapter we set forth the positive, "The Real Faith, the Genuine Faith." In chapter 2 he sets forth the negative, he warns us about the false faith.

 

There is a balance in the teaching of God's Word. You have the positive, of course, but you also have the negative. You have to understand the negative if you are going to understand the positive. There is a balance of Bible teaching.

 

So the answer to the question, "Why are we studying something like this?", is because to misrepresent the Christian message or to misrepresent the Christian lifestyle is probably the worst thing that you can possibly do because when you distort the message and when you display an incorrect view of the Christian lifestyle, then you are helping people go to hell. There's nothing worse that a person can do than to help somebody go to hell. 

 

 

 

 

That's why the Apostle Paul in Galatians 1, verse 8, said, "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed," let him be anathematized.

 

What you have here is a description primarily of the false teachers. But as you expand this passage of scripture, you can also see that what you have here is somewhat of a picture of the culture in which we live today. It pictures for us intellectually and morally and spiritually where we are as a culture, and it also describes a kind of church member who is doing great damage to the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what we are going to study about this morning.

 

I want you to focus in on the little phrase right in the conclusion of verse 14 where he says, "Accursed children," that is, children of the curse. According to the Bible there are two families in the world. There is the family of God and there is the family of the devil.

 

We are born into this world with our physical birth. We have a physical nature. Then we begin to grow. In Ephesians 2, verse 2, it talks about those who become the children of disobedience. At some point in your life, at some point an individual comes to the place of choice. Will they receive the Lord as their Savior or will they reject Him? If they reject Him they become a child of disobedience and they are indeed a child of the curse. 

 

A child of God. A child of the devil. A child of grace or a child of the curse. 

 

He is describing what he calls the "the children of the curse" in these verses of scripture, and as we work down through these verses I want to organize them in this way. First of all, we see that children of the curse are

 

 

In the middle of verse 10 he says, "they are presumptuous; self-willed." The word presumptuous means bold and daring, not in a good sense but in a bad sense. They are bold enough to abuse their intellect and to reject the thought of God. They are bold enough to blaspheme the holy things of God.

 

You will notice that he says, "They are not afraid to speak evil of dignities," or glories. In other words, they abuse their intellect. Anybody with normal intelligence has to know and has to believe that there is a God. You cannot look at the physical creation and not know that there is a God. You abuse your intellect when you deny the existence of a God. 

 

Yet there are some people that the very mention of the Lord or the very mention of spiritual things causes them to ridicule and mock and blaspheme. That seems to be something of the society, the culture, in which we live today. 

 

Mich of literature and entertainment today mocks and ridicules anything that is holy. They are presumptuous.

 

Then he says that they are self-willed, that is, they live for their own selves, they exalt themselves. 

 

What you have here intellectually are those who dethrone God and they enthrone themselves. That is exactly what secular humanism is. Humanism takes God off the throne and puts man on the throne.

 

In verse 11 it says that even the angels won't even do that. 

 

In the book of Jude we are told about Michael the archangel. In verse 9 it says, "Yet Michael, the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, 'The Lord rebuke thee.'" He's saying that even the angels wouldn't dare to go into that realm. Yet there are those today who so abuse their intellect that they dare to make fun of spiritual and holy things.

 

In verse 12 he says that they abandon their intellect. He says they are like natural brute beasts, that is, they are like irrational animals. When a person abandons their intellect, they no longer think as a human being. They live their life down on the level of the animals, "Brute beasts." They abandon their brains and they follow after their passions.

 

When you eliminate the belief in God and when you eliminate belief in spiritual things and you take the spiritual out of the elements of life, then what you do is you lower your life down to the level of animals. 

 

They become unthinking like animals, and he says that they are made to be caught and destroyed. 

 

 

 

What he means by that is that when they adopt the animal lifestyle for their lifestyle, they place themselves in a position where they are going to be caught and destroyed by sin just like an animal is caught and destroyed.

 

He says in this verse, "And shall utterly perish in their own corruption," that is, they will be corrupted literally. He's saying they will be corrupted in their own corruption. It's saying there that sin carries with it the seeds of destruction.

 

People begin to live the sinful lifestyle and they go in that direction and it seems to be enjoyable for a while. But then the very sin itself has the seeds of destruction. They are corrupted by their own corruption.

 

Take a person who begins to drink. They drink more and more, and they lose that buzz that the drinking used to give them; and, yet, they are now addicted. They are now hooked. They go on and on and further and further, and they find themselves corrupted by their own corruption.

 

As the old preacher said, "Sin will take you further than you want to go. Sin will keep you longer than you want to stay. Sin will cost you more than you want to pay."

 

When you defy your own intellect and remove from that which will tell you better than what you are behaving and better than you are practicing, you are headed for your own destruction.

 

 

 

He says in verse 13, "And shall receive the wages of unrighteousness." That means that sin will never pay you. Sin will rob from you. Sin will never reward you and give you a happier life. Sin will rob you of the happiness that life is intended to bring to you. "Cursed children." They are intellectually daring.

 

Secondly he says children of the curse are

 

He says in verse 13, "As they that count it pleasure to carouse in the daytime." He's talking here about a particular kind of church member.

 

The majority of church members love the Lord and they try to live for the Lord and they are serving the Lord, and yet he tells us something that we all know to be true here. 

 

There is a kind of church member who brings great reproach upon the name of Christ, who brings great discredit upon the name of the Lord. When you go out visiting lost people, very often they will bring up these kinds of church members to you. When you invite people to come to the services of your church, many times they will mention these kinds of church members to you because they are so morally disturbing.

 

He says that they count it pleasure to riot in the daytime. What it's saying is that they are so morally disturbing they dissipate themselves by the way they live. They riot in the daytime, and it means the kind of luxury living that tears down ones moral strength. 

 

It says that these kinds of people get to the point in their life that they make fun of their own lifestyle. They laugh at their own lifestyle, and they do in the daylight now what they used to hide in the dark.

 

We are witnessing in our day now something that is absolutely amazing. We see people now brag public about things that used to cause them to be ashamed. 

 

Think about the public nudity in our day. People brag about it. Think about the obscene T-shirts people wear today and they boast about it. People now riot in the daytime and they take pleasure in it. Homosexuality and adultery are now bragged about. Having children out of wedlock is bragged about. 

 

That's the day we're living in. It's not always those who claim to be lost. Sometimes it's those who claim to be saved who take pleasure in their riot in the daytime. They dissipate themselves.

 

They not only dissipate themselves, but they disgrace the church. "Spots and blemishes." The words spots and blemishes mean filthy sores and scabs. You could translate it as eye sores and puss pockets on the body of Christ. I'm talking about people whose names are on the rolls of our churches.

 

I am here to tell you today as the pastor of this church that we need a revival of morality. We need a revival of holiness among the people who call themselves the people of God. There are those today who are eye sores and puss pockets on the body of the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

If I wasn't going to live for the Lord Jesus Christ I would get out of a church and I would get out in the world where I belong, and I would quit bringing the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to open shame and open sorrow in the body of the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

He says, "They feast with you." They go through all of the emotions of worship, and yet they disgrace the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

We come to our little services now and people want to hear all that goody goody and friendly friendly, everything's alright, I'm o.k., you're o.k. sermons. Then just run out and live as you please.

 

He says that they spot themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you. They come and yet it's not real. They disgrace the church.

 

Not only that. You will notice also that they delude others. Verse 14 says, "Having eyes full of adultery." Literally that means eyes of adulteresses. There is that kind of member who just comes and they come because they are looking for another sexual partner.  Always on the prowl, on the hunt.

 

Verse 14 says, "That cannot cease from sin." They are hooked on their sin. The only hope for them to get unhooked from their sin is the Lord Jesus Christ. It continues by saying, "Enticing unstable souls." That means to catch with a bait. 

 

These kinds of children of the curse are very skillful in what they do. They are very tricky. They can trick people into thinking that you can live just any old way you want to live, and everything is alright. 

 

"You are saved by grace and you are going to heaven when you die. It really doesn't matter how you live. Come along now and go with us. Come on and do the way we are doing today." 

 

There are churches cropping up all over this country which are basically sending out a message to people that all you've got to do is show up for one Sunday service on Sunday morning about an hour in length and then you can go on out there and drink your liquor and carouse around and you can have your sexual affairs and everything is fine. Those are the people who are deceiving the people of God and deceiving lost people today.

 

"Cursed children." Verse 14 continues by saying "They have a heart trained in covetous practices." 

 

The word traineded here means gymnasium. It's used in a positive way in I Timothy. In I Timothy 4, verse 7, it says, "But refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thy self rather unto godliness." That means to get yourself in shape to be godly. Get yourself in shape for godly living. That's the positive picture.

 

But here in II Peter there is the negative picture. They have exercised their hearts. They have gotten their hearts in shape with covetous practices. These are trained athletes for the devil. These are trained enticers, seducers. They know how to wrestle your conscience and to pin it. These are trained, skillful athletes for the devil. They know how to confront your spiritual inhibitions and knock it cold. They are seducers, morally disturbing.

 

 

Let me show you how they operate in verses 15 and 16 because in those verses he talks about Balaam. One of the most fascinating characters in the whole Bible was Balaam. He was an enigma. 

 

Balaam, you will recall, was that hireling prophet who was hired by the King of Moab to curse the children of God. He was on his way to curse the people of God, the children of Israel, and as Peter refers to the Old Testament passage, the Bible says that the Lord opened the mouth of his donkey and his donkey talked to him. You remember the story of Balaam and his talking donkey.

 

You say, "Preacher, do you really believe that donkey talked?" Of course, I believe it. The Bible says it and I believe it. In fact, I will be honest with you. I would just as soon hear Balaam's donkey talk as some of these modern preachers preach as far as I'm concerned.

 

God wouldn't let Balaam curse the children of God. Balaam decided that if he couldn't corrupt them, then he would compromise them. He basically said to the children of Israel, "You can sin and get by with in."

 

In Revelation 2, verse 14, it says, "But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication." 

 

He taught them that idolatry was alright. He taught them that immorality was alright, and he deluded them morally.

Number three, I want you to notice these children of the curse are also

 

In verse 17 of this passage, Simon Peter uses two graphic illustrations. 

 

The first graphic illustration he uses is that the false teaching that people are hearing today in some of these feel good, fuzzy churches is like a well without water.

 

There are some people today hearing this feel good, live as you please, everything's going to be alright gospel. You are going to get to some times in your life when you have a real crisis and you are going to go back to some of that teaching you have fallen for and you are going to drop the bucket of your need into the well of that teaching and it's going to be a dry well. How disappointing.

 

Then it says that this kind of teaching is also like being clouds being carried about with a tempest. The picture here is that there is a drought on. There hasn't been any rain for a long, long time. The ground is parched and the crops are wasting in the fields. Then one day some clouds begin to form in the sky and hope arises. 

 

Some thunder rumbles across the sky and the animals look up expectantly. The farmer goes out and looks with anticipation. "We are going to have a rain." Then all of a sudden those clouds just begin to dissipate and they move on. They are clouds without water. How disappointing.

 

So it is today. There are people who listen to the false teacher. There are people who buy into that kind of stuff that's going on in many churches today, but the day will come that they will have a drought in their life. They will look up hoping to find some rain, and they will discover that they have been following clouds without rain.

 

There are some of you sitting here that can think of people who have belonged to this church and this is their story.

 

Wells without water and clouds without rain. Peter said, "To whom the mist of darkness is reserved forever." They are headed for a black hole in hell.

 

Let me ask you a question. Have you truly received the Lord Jesus as your Savior? You say, "Preacher, I belong to a church." That's not what I'm talking about. Have you truly received Jesus as your Savior? Do you know you know you know that you've been saved? If you haven't, according to the Bible, you are a child of the curse. You are under the curse. But I've got real good news for you. Jesus, we're told in Galatians 3, verse 13, redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. 

 

The good news of the gospel is that you don't have to be lost. You don't have to be a child of the curse. You can receive Christ as your Savior and become a child of the King, a child of grace. He'll change you on the inside and He'll start working on the outside. He'll give you a joy and a peace and a fulfillment and a life that is full of joy and glory and love like you never could imagine.