Do Not Be Deceived
Scripture Reading: 2 Peter 2
1 But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among
you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and
bring on themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their destructive ways, because of
whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive
words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.
4 For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them
into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; 5 and did not spare the ancient world, but
saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of
the ungodly; 6 and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to
destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; 7 and delivered
righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked 8 (for that righteous man,
dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their
lawless deeds)— 9 then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve
the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who walk according
to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority. They are presumptuous, self-willed.
They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries, 11 whereas angels, who are greater in power and
might, do not bring a reviling accusation against them before the Lord.
12 But these, like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things
they do not understand, and will utterly perish in their own corruption, 13 and will receive the wages
of unrighteousness, as those who count it pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are spots and
blemishes, carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you, 14 having eyes full of
adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls. They have a heart trained in
covetous practices, and are accursed children. 15 They have forsaken the right way and gone
astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; 16
but he was rebuked for his iniquity: a dumb donkey speaking with a man’s voice restrained the
madness of the prophet.
17 These are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness
of darkness forever.
18 For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh,
through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error. 19 While they
promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome,
by him also he is brought into bondage. 20 For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the
world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them
and 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 having known it, to turn from the
holy commandment delivered to them. 22 But it has happened to them according to the true
proverb: “A dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.”
I know that’s not a very pleasant picture but neither is what the writer is describing
very pleasant. Someone who has the knowledge of Christ but chooses to go back to
the world. What could make someone willingly give up their salvation? The same
exact thing that it took in the garden with Adam and Eve; deception. This scripture
begins with Peter warning that we will have false prophets, just as the Israelites of old
had them. 1 Kings 18:21, And Elijah came to all the people, and said, “How long will you falter
between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” But the people
answered him not a word. If you’ve read the Old Testament you have definitely heard of the god
Baal. King Ahab and his queen Jezebel, with the help of the prophets of Baal led the
people astray. Here’s something you may not be aware of. The Hebrew word Baal
means the lord. It is most likely that the people of that time had no idea how far they
had strayed from worshipping the One True God. It kind of like being in the water at
the beach. If someone says to you, “Hey, let’s go a half mile down the beach away
from our towels!” You’d probably say no. But if you start playing in the surf, the
subtle current can take you that far without you even realizing that you’re moving.
You look up and say, “How did I get this far from where I thought I was?” Well, that’s
what happened to the Israelites and, unfortunately, that’s what’s happened to the
church in many ways.
Peter says that these false teachers will come among us and secretly bring in
destructive heresies, and it says, even denying the Lord. They will use our greed
and lust to attempt to lead us to our destruction. We can definitely see some of that
with this movie on the book ‘the DaVinci Code’. They are denying the divinity and
even the very character of our Lord Jesus Christ, but that’s very obvious. It’s more
like a tidal wave. Today I want to focus on the more subtle current that’s pushing
against the church. There’s the current of tolerance. A twisting of the gospel might
give you the impression that since Jesus has paid for all sin you should be able to
just do whatever you want but that again is deception. Jesus’ blood was our sacrifice
once for all but did you know that there are no sacrifices for willful sins. Yet that
covers a large part of those who call themselves Christians today. Those who say,
“God will understand that I had to do this sin or that sin.” But those ideas are just not
biblical. We have to be prepared make the Bible the final authority in everything. Not
anyone’s opinion, the Bible alone.
There’s also the idea that God is so good that He won’t ‘send’ anyone to hell. But if
we study the Word we see that it is clear that God doesn’t send anyone to hell. Hell
was created for the devil and his fallen angels, not for man. When we die, we go to
be with whichever lord we choose. If we do not choose the LORD Yahweh through
His Son Jesus Christ, we have by default chosen satan. This scripture says that if
God didn’t spare the angels, and He didn’t spare the ancient world accept Noah and
his family, and He didn’t spare Sodom and Gomorrah, what makes us think He will
spare us if we live ungodly lives. You see how He delivered Lot out of the midst of
destruction, that’s how He will deliver the godly out of temptation. It says He reserves
punishment for the unjust and especially those who walk according to the flesh in lust
and that despise authority. They’re presumptuous and self-willed. That means that
they do what they feel like doing, they think they know, and they’re selfish. Sounds
familiar doesn’t it? Probably like a lot of the people you know. Maybe it even sounds
like yourself.
So, what do we do to keep ourselves from all this deception? How do we protect
ourselves? Well, you overcome a lie with the truth and Jesus says He is the Truth, so
it would be a good idea to keep your eyes on Jesus. Here’s another great tip, 2
Timothy 2:15-16, 15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not
need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 16 But shun profane and idle babblings, for
they will increase to more ungodliness. We must be diligent and we must rightly divide the word of
truth. So, how do we rightly divide the Word? Well, the first thing we have to do is get
into the Word. We have to read our Bibles, on our own, not just when someone says
turn here or turn there. Come on! Peter just told you there would be slick teachers
that would deceive you with their clever words. That could be me, right? You have
got to be like the Bereans and check EVERYTHING against what the word of God
says. You can’t depend on someone else to do it for you.
We talked about our spiritual basic training last week in that we must first submit to
God before anything else. Well, the next step is to get our weapons training. That
includes both our offensive and defensive weapons. We must put on the whole
armor of God. Ephesians 6:10-18, 10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the
power of His might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the
wiles of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities,
against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age,[c] against spiritual hosts of
wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be
able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
14 Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of
righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 above
all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked
one. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; 18
praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all
perseverance and supplication for all the saints
Bottom line folks; we have to each take our personal Bible study seriously because
this is serious business. It’s an extremely important part of our spiritual weapons. It’s
the belt of truth because the Bible is God’s truth. You know like a policeman has his
utility belt that has everything he needs right there. When we know God’s word we
have everything we need right there waiting to b3e used. The gospel, which is in the
Bible is like a good pair of boots to protect our feet. If you know anything about
World War II you know that a big reason the Germans lost the war was because their
boots. How, you say? Well, they went up to fight Russia during the spring and
figured they’d just kick their rumps and go home but Russia put up much more
resistance than they expected so they ended up still there in the winter and the boots
they had were just no good for the Russian winter. They lost a huge amount of
soldiers there and it really to a lot out of their punch. Then for the only offensive
weapon, we have the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God. Nuff said? Let’s
get serious. If you read your Bible daily, kept it up and make sure to dig deep in your
study, I you haven’t been reading as much as you used to, get back to where you
know you need to be. You may have drifted but you’re still on the same beach so it’s
not too hard to get back and if you don’t read your Bible at all , it’s high time you get
started. You have no idea what you’ve been missing.
Sermon by: Denise Baxley
Date: May 28, 2006