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2 Peter 2 says, But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. So the Bible tells us here that there shall be false prophets and false teachers among us. And I want you to see how it uses those terms interchangeably. It says there were false prophets among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you. A lot of people have this idea when they hear false prophet that we're talking about somebody making a prediction that didn't come true. But throughout the Bible, the word prophet or prophecy is not just used to predict the future. It's often just preaching the Word of God. It's not always a foretelling. It's often a forthtelling, you know, just preaching forth the Word of God. It doesn't have to be a prediction. And there are many examples of what the Bible calls prophecy that are clearly not a prediction about the future. Like, for example, in Proverbs 31, it says the words of King Lemuel, the prophecy that his mother taught him. And she's just basically preaching to him about alcohol and about not falling into the trap of a strange woman, how to find a virtuous woman, et cetera. So these false teachers or false prophets are people who creep in amongst God's people. They do it privily. They do it secretly. And their intention is to bring in damnable heresy. And these people do not believe in Jesus Christ. It says they deny even the Lord that bought them. Now, of course, they'll say that they believe in Jesus Christ. Otherwise, how are they going to privily creep in? They'll give lip service to the truth. But inwardly, they're ravening wolves. They have a sheep's clothing. They look like a Christian. They act like a Christian. They talk like a Christian. But inwardly, they are ravening wolves. They are there to devour and to destroy and cause problems. They're there for various motivations, whether it be to steal from the church, like Judas Iscariot, or whether it be just to defile and destroy and to harm the innocent. The Bible talks about people that are motivated by just that. They don't even close their eyes at night and go to bed unless they've caused someone to fall. That's their whole life. It's what they live for. So the Bible says that these false teachers will bring in damnable heresies. And this is interesting, even denying the Lord that bought them. Now, these are people that are clearly not saved because it says that their damnation, if you look at the end of verse 3, their judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. They're compared to the angels that were sent to hell. They're compared to the old world destroyed by the flood. They're compared to those of Sodom and Gomorrah. These are clearly unsaved people, yet it says they deny the Lord that bought them. You know why that is? Because Jesus Christ paid for the sins of everyone. Jesus Christ did not only die for those who are saved. He did not only die for the elect. He died not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world. The Bible says he tasted death for every man. So Jesus Christ died for everybody. We don't believe in limited atonement. We believe that Jesus died for all people. But it doesn't do them any good unless they receive the gift of eternal life. But there are people who, what, deny the Lord that bought them. So even though Jesus Christ paid for their redemption, they didn't accept the free gift. It wasn't mixed with faith in them that heard the gospel, so therefore they're doomed. So verse 2 says, many shall follow their pernicious ways. So these people who creep in, the false prophets and false teachers, they don't make a small impact. They make a huge impact. Many people follow them. People flock to them. Many will follow their pernicious ways by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. Now, there's so much in this one verse. So let's just go with a few of the obvious things right on the surface, is that if you have a wicked person and they get caught being wicked, like let's say they get caught stealing the church's money, or let's say they get caught defiling the flesh as Sodom and Gomorrah, as it says a little bit later on, you know, when you have these Catholic priests who in the name of Christ are a pedophile, or other denominations where you have pastors or Sunday school workers or whatever that end up being an adulterer or a pervert or whatever, when they get caught doing that, it causes the way of truth to be evil spoken of where they say, oh, this is what Christians are like. And they'll point to the Jimmy Swaggarts. They'll point to the Ted Haggards, right? They'll point to these disgraced preachers who ended up being perverts or drug addicts or whatever they ended up being, being with prostitutes, whatever. And it causes the way of truth to be evil spoken of. Remember when King David committed adultery with Bathsheba, Nathan the prophet said, you've given great occasion for the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, where they can say, oh, that's what you guys are like over there that worshiped the Lord over in Israel. Look at your leader. Look at your King. Look at the man after God's own heart. You know, that gives them a way to speak evil of the way of truth, okay? And of course, David was a saved man who fell into sin. He was not one of these people that we're reading about here. But how much more these people who do even worse things, you know, they do horrific things and they cause the way of truth to be evil spoken of. And it says, and through covetousness, but hold on, let's not even move on from that yet. There are other reasons why these phonies cause the way of truth to be evil spoken of. How about this? When you have all these liberal phony preachers alluring through the lust of the flesh and preaching what people want to hear, then when a real guy gets up and actually preaches what the Bible says, they say, oh, he's mean, he's hateful. And then when you try to sell him, well, this is what the Bible says. Oh, yeah, well, we found a bunch of preachers who say that that's not what the Bible says. We found a bunch of preachers that are fine with the homos or we found a bunch of preachers that are fine with, you know, getting divorced and remarried 50 times. You know, we found preachers that said it's all fine. We found preachers that condone of drinking, you know, we found preachers. So when you start preaching hard against sin, then all of a sudden they'll say, well, you know, that's not what Joel taught me. You know, that's not what T.D. Jakes taught me or that's not what this preacher or that preacher. So they cause the way of truth to be evil spoken of because they preach a watered down alternative that makes people feel good and then it makes the real preaching seem harsh or mean even though it's just biblical preaching, okay? So there are multiple layers of meaning in verse 2. They really cause the way of truth to be evil spoken of because many follow their pernicious ways and then they'll say, well, you're not preaching what the majority of Baptists are preaching or you're not preaching what the majority of Christians are preaching. Well, the majority seem to be following these false teachers that creep in with all their lies and they do it for filthy lucre's sake. They fly around in the private jet, they wear the Italian suits, they live in the fancy house with the air conditioned doghouse, they drive the fancy cars and they through covetousness, verse 3, shall with fainted words make merchandise of you. Folks, false prophets say things they don't believe. You know, I get so sick of this attitude that says, well, I heard that guy say that he believes in the Trinity or I heard that guy say that he believes salvation by faith. They do it with fainted words, with feigned words, folks. How could they privily creep in unawares if they don't claim to believe in Christ, if they don't claim to believe in the Trinity, if they don't claim to believe in salvation by faith? Of course they're going to give lip service to those things. How else do they creep in? So we see here that these people use fainted, fainted simply means fake, feigned. They're faking it. That's the sheep's clothing. They don't actually literally put on a sheep outfit. The sheep's clothing is what they say. It's how they act, okay? Verse 3, with fainted words they make merchandise of you whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not and their damnation slumberth not. The making merchandise of you ties in with their motivation which is filthy lucre, which is the same motivation that Judas had, stealing money. Verse 4, for if God spared not the angels that sinned but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment, this is what we know as devils or demons. They started out as angels, right? Lucifer himself was an angel and then the angels that followed him became devils and demons. And so it says here that he also spared not, verse 5, the old world, but saved Noah, the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly. And when he calls Noah the eighth person, it's simply saying that there were eight people on the ark, so he's the eighth. Then it says in verse number 6, and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly. Folks, that is our biblical ensample in 2019. What's the example for people that want to follow that homosexual lifestyle? I'll tell you what it is. It's Sodom and Gomorrah. That is the example. You say, oh, it's the Old Testament. Really? Because last time I checked, 2 Peter's in the New Testament. Last time I checked, it's pretty far to the right in my Bible. It's hard to get much further to the right. Well, let's see how far we can get the right. We get to Jude and find the exact same thing, because Jude and 2 Peter chapter 2 are parallel passages, or we could go just a little further to the right where God's burning it all down and turning the water into blood and raining fire and brimstone from heaven. How New Testament do you want to get, folks? 2 Peter chapter 2 says that Sodom and Gomorrah is an example to those that afterward would live ungodly. So you say, well, you know, Christ didn't really talk about homos. Well, here's Jesus Christ's right-hand man. And he's preaching what Jesus taught him and saying, you know what Christ thinks about sodomy, about the homos, it's Sodom and Gomorrah. That's the example. He burned it all down. He rained fire and brimstone. He turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes. He condemned them with an overthrow. And he made them an example unto those that after should live ungodly. That's the people of the United States today that are following that wicked death style. And it says in verse number 7, and he delivered just lot vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked. And, you know, this is a word that needs to come back in the vocabulary of Baptist preachers today. Filthy. Filthy. Why don't we hear that about the LGBTQ? It's the FLGBTQ, the filthy lesbians, the FLFGFBF, filthy transvestites, filthy lesbians, filthy faggots. That's what the Bible says. It's filth. They're filthy. It's gross. It's disgusting. But preachers are afraid to say that. And I was even told in Bible college, well, you know, everybody's got one in their family now. That was in 2005. And they said, well, you got to be careful, though, because everybody's got one in your family. Well, you know what? You and your faggot uncle can go hit the road. I don't care how many of them you have in your family. They're filthy. You can like it or lump it. It's filth. It's disgusting. It's gross. And that's the kind of language that we need to use, biblical language, instead of falling into the world's brainwashing language of, well, you know, it's alternative lifestyle. Well, they're gay. They're not gay. Gay means happy. You know, when you're with the Flintstones, you have a gay old time, okay? We don our gay apparel for a Christmas party, friend. Gay is not the right word. Use the Bible's word and say, oh, you mean these bunch of filthy dreamers, these filthy perverts, filthy sodomites. Just use the adjective filthy. Call them whatever you want as long as it has the word filth in it. Say, I don't like the word faggot. Okay, call them what you want. Call them a homo as long as they're filthy homo. Call them a lesbian as long as it's a filthy lesbian, right? Call them a transvestite as long as it's a filthy transgender, a filthy queer, filthy. Say, I don't like that word. Well, you know what? It's God's word. And, you know, maybe if we called it filth and filthy, then maybe we'd have the right attitude toward it. We have a biblical attitude toward it instead of handling them with kid gloves and being soft on it and just allowing it to take over our country and to pervert the minds of our young people, folks, because how can you even take your kid to the store and allow them to see transvestites, right? I mean, if you went into the store and see a transvestite, you're pretty much gonna walk out of there, right? Or at least cover their eyes and say, hey, let's get away from this. Let's get away from this business because it's too gross. And we don't want these perverted images being burned in our young children's mind. They'd be corrupted and perverted from an early age. And you say, well, I don't think it matters. I mean, what's the big deal if we see the trannies and the homos out and about? Well, what's the Bible say? Verse eight, for that righteous man dwelling among them and seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds. So it's vexing to have to look at them and you say, well, who are they hurting? They're not hurting anybody. They're hurting my eyeballs and they're hurting my eardrums with their faggoty lisp, okay? And when I see and hear them, I'm vexed. And you say, well, I'm not vexed. That's because you're not righteous. If you were righteous, you'd be vexed like Lot was vexed, okay? That's what the Bible says, the filthy conversation of the wicked for that righteous man dwelling among them and seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds. Look, I'm happy living in Arizona. I'm happy living in Phoenix. I'm happy living in the United States of America. But the reason why is because I don't see trannies on a daily basis. That's why. But can you imagine if just everywhere we looked, everywhere we went, every time we went to the store, there's just one everywhere, every restaurant where they're just in total drag, total drag at the store. And look, we've seen it from time to time, right? I've seen it at the grocery store. I've seen it at a restaurant. I've seen it, you know. But if it were just, if it were a daily thing, at that point, it'd be like, we got to get out of here. You know what I mean? So look, I don't want to, why don't we get them out of here? You know, instead of us saying, oh, well, I guess we have to leave because it's getting too perverted, you know, why don't we send them back into the closet by preaching some hellfire and damnation from the pulpits of America, and then we don't have to look at their filth. We don't have to see and hear their filthy deeds, right? So that's why we need hard preaching to basically put the fear of God back into this country and put the, get the Christians out of the closet and put the queers back in the closet. The Christians are in the closet about what they believe. They're in the closet about hating sin. They're in the closet about being disgusted by this stuff. They need to come out bold and in the open and send the queers back in the closet. That's what, you say, well, I don't know, just shut up and do what the Bible says. Look at verse nine. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished, but chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise government. Presumptious are they, self-willed. They're not afraid to speak evil of dignities. So here he's talking about how there's this principle of God delivering the godly out of temptations, which is talking about how he got Lot out of Sodom and Gomorrah before the judgment came. So he knows how to deliver the godly. He preserved Lot, okay? But then he also knows how to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished. So even if people seem like they're getting away with things right now, they have a reservation in hell with their name on it, right? Just as he reserved for the, he reserved unto judgment in verse four the angels that sinned. He reserved the old world. He told them the flood's coming and it's on its way, build the ark and so forth. And then these people today that are following the example of Sodom and Gomorrah and other wickedness, they are reserved unto judgment. They are reserved unto the day of judgment to be punished, but especially, chiefly means what? Especially those that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness. So he's saying, you know, especially these perverted types, these people who are defiling their flesh through this filth. And he said and despised government. Now what does that mean? They despise government. This means they hate authority. Okay. Government is just another word for authority. It's saying that in general, these people hate authority. Remember in Romans one, when it talks about what the sodomites are like, it says they're disobedient to parents. They hate authority. They don't want to listen to their parents. They don't want to listen to God. They don't want to listen to the pastor of the church. They don't listen to their boss at work. You know, the companies don't like hiring homos because they're bad employees. But they have to be an equal opportunity employer and everything like that. But there are many employers who make a point, even though they don't even have a Christian slant at all, they don't even believe the Bible. They try not to hire homos because homos are social justice warriors. Okay. Homos are obsessed with being a homo. That's their whole identity. That's their whole life. Just like Christ is our life, that's their religion. So they don't just be a homo in their personal life. They're like this evangelist for sodomy everywhere they go. And they're a social justice warrior. They frequently will sue their employer, be a pain in the neck to their employer. So bosses don't like hiring them for that reason because they despise government. They don't listen to authority. They hate authority. They hate God, who's the ultimate authority. They despise his government. They despise all authority or government. That's what it means to be governed is to be ruled over. They don't want any authority whatsoever. And so it says they despise government and they are presumptuous, right? Presumptuous is again, hand in hand with despising government, right? Is when basically you take liberties being presumptuous is one who would take liberties and do things that aren't allowed. Like for example, when the children of Israel were told you can't enter the promised land and they say, well, we're going to the promised land anyway. It says they went up presumptuously, you know, we're going to do what we want to do and we're going to get away with it and whatever. They're presumptuous. They're self-willed. And again, this also ties in with despising government. They don't want to obey the will of their parents or their boss or God or whatever. They're self-willed and they're not afraid to speak evil of dignities. Boy, the blasphemies just roll out of their mouth. It's easy for them to blaspheme. Whereas angels which are greater in power and might bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord, bring not railing accusation against whom? The dignities. But these as natural brood beasts made to be taken and destroyed speak evil of the things that they understand not and shall utterly perish in their own corruption. Now I don't want to do this a lot for sake of time, but let's keep our finger here and just flip over to Jude. We really could go to Jude at every stage of this chapter because Jude and 2 Peter 2 are parallel passages that you should really study in tandem. You know, if you want to go home and really do a thorough study of this chapter, you really need one finger in Jude and another finger in 2 Peter 2 and really go back and forth, compare scripture with scripture. I don't want to do that for sake of time because I've preached so much on the book of Jude. I've done a little bit less on 2 Peter 2, so I'd rather emphasize 2 Peter 2 tonight, but I do want to make a few comparisons just to kind of show you the connection. Look at verse number 8. It says, likewise also these filthy dreamers, did I mention the word filthy, defile the flesh, watch this, despise dominion. So do you see how despise government became despise dominion? Dominion means lordship or rule or authority, okay, so that's what we're talking about. He says they despise dominion and it says that they speak evil of dignities. Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not, that means he dared not, bring against him a railing accusation but said the Lord rebuke thee, but these speak evil of those things which they know not, but what they know naturally as brute beasts and those things they corrupt themselves. Now we're talking about Sodomites because it says even as Sodom and Gomorrah, the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Likewise also these filthy dreamers, defile the flesh, despise dominion and speak evil of dignity. Same subject folks, right, the same ones who defile the flesh in the way that Sodom and Gomorrah defiled the flesh, okay, but is that what we started out the chapter talking about? No, we started out the chapter talking about what? False teachers, false prophets, privily creeping in. You say, well, when did the gear change happen? How did we go from speaking about false teachers creeping into the church and now all of a sudden we're talking about Sodomites? Well guess what? Because they're both reprobates, they're both the same person. False teachers are often Sodomites, they're often reprobates, okay? Now here's the thing, not all reprobates are Sodomites, yet, because if you read Romans chapter one, there's a process of rejecting God and becoming a God hater and a reprobate, the type of person that would want to creep in and damage and steal from the Lord and damage his people. To become that kind of a reprobate, it doesn't just necessarily happen overnight. It's a process, okay? And Romans chapter one details that process and being a homo is at the end of the process. It's the final step. So there are people who've already been given over because it says three times God gave them up, God gave them over, God gave them over. There are people that get to the first God gave them up or the second God gave them over, but they're not yet to the third God gave them over, okay? So they're on their way to becoming one who has vile affections, one who is a Sodomite. But there's a process to get there. So just because we say somebody's a reprobate, we're not necessarily saying that they're a Sodomite or a homo, but they're on a road that will eventually take them to that destination. And a man lusting after another man or a woman lusting after another woman, this is the product of the reprobate mind the Bible tells us in Romans one. And it is something that is a punishment from God. It's vile, okay? It's something that's so disgusting, you know, it's the worst punishment that God could do to you is to just give you the heart and mind of a beast, of an animal. Now here's the thing about that. You know, if I were to be punished by God, I would rather have any part of my body damaged than my brain. How about you? I mean, you know, if I did something bad and God were going to bring some kind of chastisement or punishment, I mean, I'd rather lose a finger or a hand or a foot or a kidney, right? I mean, I'd rather lose any part of my body than to lose my mind. I mean, losing your mind, that's the worst punishment. I mean, you know, being made a eunuch would be rough. I'd rather do that than to lose my mind. I mean, losing your mind is the worst possible thing that could ever happen to anyone. It's the number one worst punishment. And God talks about striking people with delusions, madness, astonishment. He makes people go crazy and it's the worst possible thing that could happen, right? Now thankfully, obviously, as saved Christians, we will never be given over to the reprobate mind because he'll never leave us or forsake us. Nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, okay? So we're never going to be given over to those vile affections, okay? But unsaved people who reject the Lord and hate the Lord, this is the punishment they get where God destroys their mind. He gives them over to a reprobate mind and the worst form of that is where he gives them vile affections where they actually desire these unnatural unions with the same gender or even with a beast or with other things, you know, whatever. All the things that God mentions in Leviticus 18 and Leviticus 20, you know, that people do that's wicked, he'll give them over to those desires and it's the worst possible thing that could happen to anyone. And that's why the sodomites are so miserable. That's why gay is a stupid name for them, okay? The reason that they look all happy and fruity is because they're putting on a facade. That's part of their feigning happiness. They pretend to be so happy because they're overcompensating for the fact that they go home every night and cry about the fact that they're a filthy pervert and they wish to die. That's why their suicide rates are through the roof because they know how disgusting they are. I've talked to a sodomite that was crying and saying, well, it's not my fault, I can't change or whatever. Well, you know what? You should have thought about that before rejecting Christ and hating God and rejecting even the Creator because you get to a point where it's too late, unfortunately. You say, well, don't you feel sorry for these people? I don't, no, but I feel sorry for the past them that used to be a normal person, you know, and I wish we could have reached them back then, you know what I mean? And gotten them saved and yeah, absolutely, you know, I could use my imagination and say, man, I wish we could have got to this guy or gal back before it was too late. But at the point where they become this God-hating monster, at that point, it's just like, you know what? Their damnation is just at that point. So it's, no, I don't sympathize with that, you know, and neither does the Lord. He'll laugh at their calamity, he said in Proverbs 1. He'll mock when their fear cometh. You say, well, I don't know if I agree with this. You know what? You need to read the Bible cover to cover because it's people that haven't read the Bible cover to cover that they're like, I don't know what, I've never heard any of this. Well, did you read Proverbs 1? Did you read Romans 1? These both start with a 1, so we're not asking you to get real deep into these books, okay? Did you read Jude? Did you, I mean, did you read Jude 1, right? Did you read 2 Peter 2, all right? So these aren't that deep into the Bible. Did you read Genesis, the first book in the Bible? Did you get to chapter 18, chapter 19? Folks, it's there, it's all over the place. It's not my fault if people don't read it and then they want to call me names and say that I'm hateful or bad or, you know what, I'm preaching the Bible and God is love and I'm preaching the word of God, so that makes me a loving guy, all right, because I am speaking the truth in love. You know, I love people. You say, well, but you don't love reprobates. Well, I loved them before they were reprobates. You know? So let's keep going. I don't want to get too tied up into that, but it says in Jude, are we still in Jude? What I wanted to just kind of show you the parallel about the speaking evil of dignities, I think in Jude it's a little clearer what's being referred to in specific when it talks about how Michael, he didn't even bring a railing accusation against the devil himself, okay? These people will speak evil of the things that they know not, so a warning would be we don't want to blow off our mouths about the devil and demons and things that we don't know about. And you'll hear a lot of these false prophets and false teachers in the charismatic movement. They'll talk about this demon and that demon and they talk about things that they understand not and they will like yell at the devil and call the devil names and you know what I mean? And they'll fight, you know, to hell with the devil, right? Isn't that a Christian rock song from the 80s? But you know, you'll hear them sometimes like just kind of blow off their mouth about the devil or Billy Sunday would invite the devil to come fight him. Come fight me and everything. Folks, that goes directly against scripture. You know, it's foolishness to speak about the things that you don't understand. And the devil's a lot more powerful than you are. He's a lot smarter than you are. He's a lot smarter and more powerful than I am. We don't want it. We don't want to get in the ring with the devil. He'll wipe us out. You know, we want God to protect us from the devil and not deliver us over to Satan because he'll destroy your flesh, buddy. He'll tear you up. Okay. So anyway, be careful not to blow off your mouth about the devil, this demons, this. And there are people who get really into the demonology and, you know, they're speaking about things that they understand not okay. So that's a sign of a false teacher when they get super into talking about angels and the devil and demons and just going real deep into things that the Bible doesn't go deep. But they, they're going to tell you all their names of all the demon. There's this type of demon at this time, you know what I mean? And then they'll, and you guys know what I'm talking about. It's out there. But anyway, let's keep going here. It says, uh, let's go back to second Peter chapter two. I just wanted to point that out in Jude cause it's a little clearer in Jude, but it says in verse 13 of second Peter two and shall receive the reward of unrighteousness as they that count it pleasure to riot in the daytime spots. They are in blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you. So there are two types of people in verse 13. There are the people who count it pleasure to riot in the daytime. These are the people that are just openly sinful. Does everybody understand openly homos, openly sinful, openly drunk, openly a fornicator, openly an adulterer, just openly wicked there. They're the ones who count a pleasure to riot in the daytime. Whereas remember the people that we're talking about are people who are doing this secretly, right? Cause they're privily creeping in and that's why it says here spots. They are in blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you. So these are people that are, they're feasting with you. The Bible said in Jude, these are spots in your feast of charity when they feast with you feeding themselves without fear. So these are the crept in unawares types, but basically they are going to get the same punishment as the people who riot in the daytime basically, right? Same people. One of them does it openly. The other one creeps into church and pretends to be a godly person inwardly. They're a ravening wolf inwardly. They're a pervert or whatever. And look, do not be naive and think, Oh, this would never happen at our church folks. He said they shall be among you. Okay. It's funny. On Sunday, the reporters that were here from Sweden, I said to one of them, I said, Hey, you know, go ahead and put your camera equipment in my office and I'll go ahead and lock the door cause they were going to leave and have dinner. And I said, let's leave that in my office because I don't want it to get stolen. And he's just like at church, like it's going to be stolen at church. And so then I told him, I said, well, you know, I don't know how well you know the Bible, but you remember how Jesus had a disciple named Judas that was stealing from him. That was stealing money from Jesus. So the first church, Jesus was the pastor and there was a guy stealing in the first church. I said, do you think it's any different in 2019? And he said, no, you know, you're, you're probably right. Yeah. I will lock it in there. Right. And, and, and here's the thing. People have stolen stuff even from this building and you're like, what in the world? But people will steal church property. Now there are certain things that we, that we give away. We give away the song books, we give away the DVDs, the CDs, we give away the Bibles, all that stuff's free. And there are certain things we want you to take home. Okay. And there are other things where you're stealing if you take them home, like if you take our vacuum and just take that home and that's your vacuum now and you never bring it back, that's stealing at that point, right? You know, you just, you just start stealing various pieces of equipment, computer equipment, camera equipment, musical instruments. You know, if you just take stuff that belongs here without asking, you're stealing. And guess what? It does happen. I mean, we've had bikes get stolen from here. We've had all types of things be stolen from here. It's out there folks. And, and it's wrong. And I'm not saying everybody who does it as a reprobate, you know, there could even be people that just, they, they justify stealing in their mind, however they justify, you know, people have a way of justifying things or not just stealing from the church's property, but also just stealing from other people. You know, someone leaves something laying around and then somebody could take your wallet or whatever, you know, and so, or your phone and just steal it. I mean, people steal things and there are going to be people. Now look, if people steal from me, you know, I have the serenity to accept the things that I can't change. And so I'll pretty much just say, hey, you know, the Lord gave, the Lord took away, blessed be the name of the Lord. But you know, one thing that I don't want to fall into the wrong hands is my children. You know, if somebody steals money from me, well, so what? You know what? God will take care of me. If somebody steals my bike or somebody steals my stuff, somebody steals my lunch, big deal, right? Somebody steals money or a wallet. I mean, it's bad. It's wicked. God's going to punish it, but it's not really going to ruin my life. But I really want to make sure that my children don't fall into the wrong hands. And you know, that's what we need to be protective of. And a lot of people have this foolish attitude that says, oh, we're at church so I can trust my children with other people. And they'll let their children go to sleepovers at other, I'm talking about young children to go sleep over at other kids' houses. And they'll just let their children be babysat by somebody just because they're from church. Even a one-year-old, two-year-old, three-year-old, four-year-old, five-year-old, and they'll just send them to be watched by church people. Well, how do you know they're not going to be the next 2 Peter chapter 2 case? How do you know they're not one of the wolves that have crept in? I don't think that's smart in 2019 to leave your kids with anyone that you don't have total confidence in because of the fact that there are so many creeps out there and infiltrators and perverts. And look, churches today, typically, you'll show up the first Sunday, you don't know anybody, and the first thing they do is say, okay, now send your little kids into that room with Brother So-and-So that we've never heard of. Or, oh, send them to the nursery, send them to Children's Church. That's why, if you look around, you'll notice all the babies and children are in the service here. That's why we don't do that. We don't want to separate kids and send them off with other people. We want to keep everything out in the open, everything on the up and up. And it's dangerous, folks. Just Google it if you don't believe me. Google school bus driver pedophile, right? School teacher, molest, coach, molest, PE teacher, molest. Sunday school, molestation, church, bus, molest, church, molester. Folks, it's all over the place. It's just, it'll be so many stories, you can't even read them all. And nor would you want to read them all, because I would prefer to focus on the things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and a good report than to sit around thinking about perverted stuff like that. But I'm not the one that needs convincing, you do. I don't need convincing. I don't just leave my children with people that I don't know or just leave them with church people, okay? But you need to read up on that stuff if you think that the danger's not real. You say, well, God's going to take care of me. Okay, well then, you know what, why don't you just go walk across the freeway and why don't you just go outside when it's 120 and just hang out outside all day with no shade and no water and just let God take care of you? You know what, you still need to take care of yourself too, okay? And you know, maybe God took care of you by allowing you to go to a church where the preacher warned you to be wise and to watch your kids. Maybe this is God taking care of you right now by having the pastor preach 2 Peter 2 to you so that you would realize that perverts exist in churches, even sodomites themselves. We just, you know, I just talked to a pastor friend of mine. He just threw a sodomite out of his church like a couple weeks ago. This dangerous pedophile and he turned him over to the authorities for being a pedophile. This is in the last two weeks. Why? Because they creep in to do damage and thankfully this guy got exposed fairly soon after coming to the church before any damage was done. We've exposed and thrown out perverts and pedophiles, folks, and you say, well, that's weird. Really? Because the Bible said, don't think it's strange. He said they shall be among you. Now I'm not saying that we need to go on a witch hunt or be just wary of everyone. My motto is suspect no one, trust no one when it comes to my kids. You know, I'm not out suspecting everyone, but you know what? I'm not going to trust people with my kids. You know, I have my mom watch my kids. You know, if I want to go somewhere and I need to leave my kids to somebody, I'll trust my mom. You know, I'll trust people like that, but I'm not just going to trust church people. Well they've come here for a long time. Well, you know what? The Muslim went there for a long time too, but he turned out to be a rotten infiltrator, didn't he? And so these people sometimes are very patient. They're what's called the persistence predator. In fact, that sounds like a good idea for a sermon. In fact, I already preached it and it was called the persistence predator. So there you go. Where were we? Second Peter chapter two. What, what, what verse are we in? Yeah. Well, yeah. Cause verse 13 was about how there's the people who ride in the daytime and then there are the people that are hiding it and they're the worst kind because it's better the devil you know than the devil you don't know. Okay. He says in verse 14, having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin beguiling unstable souls. That's your children by the way. That's new believers by the way and heart. They have exercised with covetous practices, cursed children, which have forsaken the right way and are gone astray following the way of Balaam, the son of Bozor who loved the wages of unrighteousness was rebuked for his iniquity. The dumb ass speaking with man's voice for bad the madness of the prophet. These are wells without water clouds that are carried with a tempest to him. The mist of darkness is reserved forever for when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh through much wantonness. Those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. Now again this chapter you can apply the principles of this chapter to the Sodomites because he talks about Sodom and Gomorrah and that they do these filthy things. You can also apply it to false teachers, false prophets. You can also apply it to people like Judas who creep into a church and do all these things. So this chapter is obviously applicable to a lot of different situations. That's why I'm kind of hitting a lot of things tonight. I'm kind of talking about these freaks over here, these reprobates over here, these infiltrators here, the Judas over here, the Balaam over here. But if you remember the main point of the chapter, the main context is what? False teachers and false prophets. But we can apply the principles to a lot of things. But let's kind of home in on what the chapter is actually primarily dealing with. The false teachers, let's do a quick review up to this point focusing on them and then let's cover this latter portion here. What are the false teachers? They say the right things, they have feigned words, they want to make merchandise of you. And isn't this coming up over and over again, this money issue because like covetousness, merchandise, they love the wages of unrighteousness. I mean it's going on and on about the money issue as a major motivator for false preachers. Titus talked about this. First Timothy talked about this where it says, you know, teaching things they ought not for filthy lucre's sake or that a pastor should not be greedy of filthy lucre, okay. So these people, they're perverts, they're false teachers, false prophets, they bring in damnable heresies. Not only do they pervert doctrine, they also pervert the flesh like Sodom and Gomorrah. They prey on unstable souls whether that's physical children or babes in Christ but people that are not rooted and grounded and mature in the faith or in general. They're like brute beasts, they're filthy, they're evil, they blow off their mouths and then he says this, and of course they're adulterous, but then he says this, that they speak great swelling words of vanity, verse 18, and they allure through the lust of the flesh. So think about false preachers, false prophets. They speak great swelling words of vanity. What does it mean to be swollen? When you're swollen, you're larger than you should naturally be, right. So my arm is typically a certain size, if my arm is swollen, it's larger than usual, right. Now is that good? No, that's a bad thing, right. So if something is swollen up, it's superfluous, it's too much, it's bigger than it should be. They basically speak great swelling words, so they are puffing up their language, okay. So they're using big words, fancy words, big fancy language, so whether big as in a lot of letters or a lot of syllables, but I think also these swelling words are more like flowery language also, just over the top eloquence or whatever. So they use these great swelling words of what? Vanity. Vanity means emptiness, so it's all hot air, it's all fluff, do you see that? Great swelling words of vanity. There's no meat on the bone is what he's saying, and isn't that how so many false teachers are? I mean you can listen to Joel Osteen for hours and it sounds great, sounds great. He's a TD Jakes and man, something's about to happen, I mean he's excited, right, I mean he's like woo, I mean he gets the crowd riled up and I mean he's eloquent. TD Jakes, Joel Osteen, John Hagee, I mean these guys are eloquent and they get up and they say things that sound great, they wax eloquent, but what are they saying? At the end of the day, what doctrine do you take away? Little to no doctrine. It's a lot of fluff, because Joel Osteen wants to be listened to by all types of Christians so he's not going to actually get specific on doctrine because then he would only be listened to just by the Baptists or just by the Presbyterians or just by the Lutherans or just by Catholics, he wants everybody to listen so he just keeps it all fluff. And of course you can see the money issue with him because he's a multi-millionaire, he may even be a billionaire by now, who knows. But anyway, the great swelling words of vanity, so they say a lot without actually saying anything of substance, not a lot of doctrine or meat on the bone. And they allure through the lusts of the flesh, right, so they say things that make you feel good, they tell you that it's okay to do things that you want to do, they will even have sensual music, sensual personalities and singers up there, scantily clad women sometimes will even be on stage to allure you, it's like a rock concert in many places. And so they allure you through the lusts of the flesh, they even just through their words allure you through the lusts of the flesh by saying things that those that have itching ears want to hear, you know, and it makes you feel good. But it's all vanity, it's all lies, it's all fluff. The reason that they're doing it is not because they have a desire to expound the Bible, but because they have a desire to make money and to destroy souls. It's their two-fold motivation according to this chapter. So it says that they allure through the lusts of the flesh those that through much wantedness lived in error. And then it says in verse 19, while they promised them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption, for of whom a man has overcome of the same as he brought in bondage. So these people will often talk about being free in Christ, and they'll teach that as a license to sin, saying, well, we're free in Christ, so it's okay to drink, it's okay to take drugs, it's okay to fornicate, it's okay to get a tattoo, it's okay to... And you know what? You say, well, come on, nobody says it. Yes, they do. There are preachers who get up and say that it's okay to go to bed with someone before you're married. There are preachers that will say that. It's out there. There's a lot of that out there. Sometimes it's called hyper-grace, too, where they say there's no such thing as sin anymore. You just follow the Spirit, follow your heart, and there's no such thing as sin if you're saved. That teaching's out there. They get up and they teach them it's okay to commit all these sins that the Bible condemns. They promise them liberty. And they say, oh, man, don't listen to those independent fundamental Baptists. Those guys are legalists. Those independent fundamental Baptists, man, they're so legalistic, they're so strict, they're like the Pharisees and all the do's and don'ts. It's a relationship, bro, you gotta get free, bro. But the thing about that is that we do believe that the law of God is perfect and that Christ has commandments and that we should obey the Lord. Does that make us a legalist? What does legalism mean? Belief in the law? Okay, I'm a legalist then. I believe that God's law exists and that it's for our benefit and that God has laws that he commands us to keep. But if legalism means belief in the law for salvation, then I'm not a legalist because I'm not saved by works, I'm saved by faith in Christ. But these people will call Christian liberty, that's their code word for if it feels good, do it, okay, giving you a license to sin instead of telling you, hey, now that you're saved, God wants you to be a good Christian, what we talked about in Chapter 1 about adding to your faith virtue. So then he goes on to talk about the people that they deceive and this is a really interesting scripture because remember it says in verse 18, so don't lose sight of the subject here because it's kind of a long thought. In verse 18 it says that they allure through the lust of the flesh through much wantedness those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. So who are the victims of their deception? Follow this carefully, I'm almost done tonight and I want you to follow this thought carefully. The victims of their deception, the people who come to their churches, mail them a check, follow their pernicious ways, okay, it says that they are those who threw much, I'm sorry, they're those who had clean escape from those who live in error. Verse 19, while they promised them liberty, who are they promising liberty? The people who were clean escaped from error, right? The people that they're alluring. Verse 20, for if they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Now here's where people misunderstand this passage. They think that the they of verse 20 is talking about the false prophets. That's not who it's talking about. It's talking about the people that are being tricked by the false prophets, okay? Verse 18 is talking about who are they fooling, who are they alluring? For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of Christ. Now look, what does it say at the end of verse 18? They are alluring those that were what? Clean escaped. So who's the victim? The one who was what? Clean escaped, that's the victim of the false prophets. And then in verse 20 it says, for if after they have escaped the pollution. So do you see how that's the victim we're talking about? Because some people got confused when they read this chapter because they said, well, you know, we're talking about the false prophets, but then at the end it doesn't seem like it's about the false prophets. You're right, because it's not about the false prophets anymore. It's about the victims of the false prophets. It's about the people that are deceived and lied to by the false prophets. And it talks about how if after they've escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they're again entangled therein and overcome. The latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it has happened unto them according to the true proverb, the dog is turned to his own vomit again and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. Now I'm going to take you to another scripture to help you understand this concept that Peter is giving us in second Peter two. Go to Matthew and let me try to think what chapter this is in. I want to say it's in Matthew chapter 12, yep, Matthew chapter 12, Matthew chapter 12 verse 43. And I think this is the key to help you understand second Peter two in addition to Romans one. Romans one is another key that will help with this. But look at Matthew chapter 12 verse 43, when the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places seeking rest and findeth none. Then he sayeth, I will return into my house from whence I came out. And when he has come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself. And they enter in and dwell there and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation. So what's the Bible saying here? The unclean spirit goes out of a man. He wanders around and comes back and he says, I'm going to go back to that guy that I was in previously. When he gets there, he finds his home empty, swept, and garnished. Then he goes and gets seven other spirits more wicked than himself. And they enter in and dwell there and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Now what are we talking about here? Basically an unsaved person cleans up their life. So let's say they were even possessed of an unclean spirit, the unclean spirit is gone and they clean up their life. They're empty, swept, and garnished. So they clean up their life. They reform themselves. And look, people do this all the time without actually getting saved. They hit rock bottom. They get to a point where they say, man, I need to get off the drugs or I just can't gamble anymore or I just can't live this life of debauchery anymore. A lot of people get to a point where they hit rock bottom and they say, I'm going to clean up my life. And at this time, you know what they often do at that time is they turn to God. They turn to the Lord. They turn to Christ. Does that necessarily mean they get a clear presentation of the gospel or does that necessarily mean that they actually get saved? No. You know, I think of Prince, the artist formerly known as Prince. You know, here's a guy who's living a wicked debauched life. Super wicked, right? Well, he got to a point in his life where he wanted to seek after God. He wanted to seek the Lord. You know what I mean? He got to realizing, hey, I'm looking for something here. I need something. I've got a problem here. You got a lot of problems, buddy. But anyway, so hey, he's got a buddy that worked with him in the music industry who's a Jehovah's Witness. And his buddy says, hey, you're seeking the Lord. Come on over, man, let's do a Bible study. And then Prince gets sucked into Jehovah's Witness religion. Well, he just went out of the frying pan and into the fire. Okay, but how many times does someone hit rock bottom and say, man, I need to seek the Lord. And they end up in the charismatic movement. They end up Catholic. They end up Mormon. They end up going to Jehovah's Witnesses. And here's the thing. When they add false religion to their life, they're actually going to end up worse than the way they started, unfortunately. Even though in the beginning they might have been sincere and actually wanted to clean up their life. Now, here's the thing about that. Cleaning to clean up your life does not necessarily equate love for Christ, right? I mean, look, there are people who want to clean up their life because they're like, I'm miserable. The drugs are making me miserable. The fornication is making me miserable. The drinking is making me miserable. There are people who want to clean up their life because they're miserable. They don't like it, but it doesn't necessarily mean that they love Jesus or that they love the God of the Bible. They're just looking for something to clean up their life so they seek after Jesus or they seek after the Lord in some way, shape, or form. And they end up cleaning up their life, reforming their life. The devil goes out of them. But see, in the long run, though, they're still susceptible to the devil coming back with six of his buddies, seven of his buddies, right, and dwelling there. And they could even end up worse in the long run. Does everybody understand what I'm saying? So what Jesus is warning about, Jesus is warning about cleaning up your life without getting saved, reforming yourself and getting religion and getting religious without actually getting saved. You better actually, truly seek Christ. And look, if somebody actually seeks Christ, they'll find him. The Bible promises, ask and it shall be given to you, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you. It's not that Prince was just really seeking Christ and he just got a bum deal because some Jehovah's Witness got to him. Prince was not truly seeking Christ because if Prince had truly been seeking Jesus Christ, he would have found Jesus Christ. He was seeking something. He was seeking religion. He was seeking a God, whatever he wanted God to be or whatever he was going to use God for or whatever he was going to use to clean up his life or whatever through the knowledge of Christ, through the knowledge of the word of God. But he was like this guy right here where the seven unclean spirits are going to come. Now go to second Peter two, I'll finish up here on that note. And of course we know that with Romans one, when they knew God and glorified him, not as God, then they go down that downward spiral. They get worse than if they hadn't have even known him. Okay. So these people who get sucked in by false teachers, these people who clean up their life, okay, they've escaped them that live in error. They've escaped the pollutions of the world. They quit drinking. They quit the drugs. They settled down. They got married and they're like, okay, I clean up my life now. I'm going to see God now. Oh man, Joel Osteen sounds good. Oh, I'm going to see God now. Hey, TD Jake sounds good. Oh, I'm ready to see God now. Oh, you know, victory outreach is, is, is sounding good, right? Oh man, I'm going to see God now. Oh, Jehovah's Witnesses, Latter-day Saints, whatever, whatever bogus, cheap substitute they accept instead of following true prophets of God, instead of following the true word of God, the true gospel, the true plan of salvation, they instead get mixed up in false religion. And if after they've escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and savior, Jesus Christ, they're again entangled there in meaning that if they end up going back to the drinking, if they end up going back to the drugs, back to the fornication or adultery or whatever, they will end up way worse for having done that religious stent because they went from having one devil in them to having seven devils in them, right? You see the difference there? So he says then the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. Very similar to what Jesus taught in Matthew 12, same wording almost for it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness that after they've known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it has happened to them. According to the true proverb, the dog has turned to his own vomit again and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. Now I believe that the primary context of this passage is talking about unsaved people that never got saved. They basically just, they cleaned up their life. They listened to false religion and then they ended up turning back to the life of sin and being way more debauched and reprobate than ever before because they went from the one devil to the seven additional devils, right? That's what I think is the primary application. And that's why they're referred to as a dog and a swine and everything else. Now I do think that you could take a secondary application of this and say like, okay, now let's apply it to believers. Okay, let's apply it to an actual believer who basically cleans up their life. Let's say they actually get saved, right? They actually do get Christ in their heart, so there's no devils that could ever possess them because a Christian cannot be demon possessed, okay? But basically let's say they do clean up their life, they quit drinking, they quit the drugs, they quit the fornicating and they actually get saved, but then they eventually go back to those sins. Well here's the thing, they are going to be punished far more severely than if they had never known the way of righteousness, right? You can take that as a secondary application here that, you know, if somebody actually gets right with God, cleans up their life and actually gets saved and then goes back to a life of sin, the latter end of them is going to be worse than the beginning, meaning that God's going to punish them more severely because to whom much is given of him shall much be required, you know? So think about yourself right now, right? So let's say you, because we know that even though this passage is not primarily dealing with that, the Bible's deep, there are secondary meanings and there are other passages that clearly teach this about Christians, that they're going to be punished severely for their sins as well. So let's say you, think about yourself, you know? Let's say you have a sinful past. Now some of us grew up in a Christian home, thanks be to God, but those that have a really sinful past, think about you, you've cleaned up your life now, you're in church, you're living right, but let's say in the past you did drugs. Let's say in the past you lived a life of fornication, drunkenness, whatever. If you go back to that, it will be so much worse for you because now you've been in church, heard the preaching, and if you're saved, you get way more punishments. You know what I mean? Because whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourges every son whom he receiveth. So if you really want to destroy your life big time, get saved, come to church, clean up your life, and then go back to the life of sin. I mean, you're going to really screw up your life. Now you'll still be saved, the Bible teaches, even if all your works are wood-hand stubble, yet he himself shall be saved, yet so is by fire. But you know what? You will be punished severely, and you'll completely destroy your life. And if you're a young person who's born and raised in church, and you know all these things, and you've escaped in that sense that you never even went down that route, folks, if you go to those things, God's going to punish you more severely. I promise you that God would punish me way more severely if I went out and got drunk than if the average person went out and got drunk, or even the average Christian went out and got drunk, because I'm a pastor. So I'm going to receive the greater condemnation if I go out and do those things. If I were to go out and commit adultery, I would get punished so much more severely than the average unsaved person, or even the average Christian, because I grew up in a Christian home, because I had so many people preach and teach me the Bible. I got great doctrine, and I, you know, am a pastor. And so I'm being entrusted with this ministry. So unto whom much is given of him so much be required. So that's a personal application that you can take away from this. You don't want to be like the dog that returns to his vomit, or the sow to her wallowing in the mire. Now, the actual unsaved person who adds false religion to their wickedness becomes a twofold child of hell. They're an actual dog, or an actual sow. The Bible refers to reprobates as dogs and swine. But we don't want to be like the dog that returns to his vomit, or like the sow that returns to her wallowing in the mire. Even though we're not dogs or sows because we are born again children of God, okay, we're not beasts, we're not animals, okay, we are going to live eternally with Christ in heaven. But we don't want to be like the dog, or like the sow, we don't want to destroy our lives and have the latter end of our life be worse than if we'd never even gone to church in the first place, right? Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, thank you for this chapter warning us, Lord God. I pray that you would just wake Christians up, Lord. I don't know what to do to wake up Christians in America who just, they just sit back and just let the perverts take over and they just, they just go to liberal churches and listen to great swelling words of vanity week after week. You know, they don't even stop to think about why the pastor is a millionaire and why he's living in the lap of luxury. They don't even stop and question why there's no doctrine, they just sit there and listen to vanity and swelling words of fluff. They barely even open the Bible, Lord, they think that sodomites are okay, they tolerate it, they look at it, they listen to it, Lord. Please just wake up our nation that we would get right with God, Lord, as your people and that you would allow Christians today to experience revival in America and become a productive servant of yours, soul winning, living for you, Lord. Help us to just escape from the traps that the devil has out there and Lord, just preserve us from the false prophets and false teachers and Lord, even when they creep in among us, please just expose them and keep us safe from them, protect us from them and especially protect our children, Lord. And it's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.