See you in Sunday school this morning. Let's take our Bibles go to 2nd Peter in chapter number 2 We'll try and finish the chapter out this morning the Lord being our helper If he can get Cody's on out of the way, he'll get the chapter finished out sometimes Sometimes Orin gets in the way. I Find the biggest hindrance in my life for the Lord doing stuff is thing ever just get me Get me moving get me out of the way. I And so, like the old preacher said, Lord, put me in the way so I won't be in the way. We get in the way with the Lord, we won't be in his way. So, all right, 2 Peter chapter 2. Man, I appreciate y'all being here this morning. It's nasty outside and cold and wet and rainy, and I appreciate you coming anyways. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I believe if you want to come to church, rain won't stop you. Amen. At least it ain't snowing, could be snowing. I just had a memory come up on my Facebook today or yesterday it was, a year ago at this time is when we had that like six or eight inches of snow come on that Friday or Saturday night. And we had a picture from last year and we built that snowman out front and such as that. So, could be worse, could be snowing. So, always something to thank God for. All right, 2 Peter chapter number 2, we're coming to the end of this chapter and we've looked for 17 verses at the false teachers. Peter just, this is the longest chapter of the book of 2 Peter and it's just a highly negative chapter. I mean, there's just not a whole lot of positive content here. He just hammers on these false teachers. But it's for our learning, our edification, and for our education, so we don't get deceived by false teachers, false preachers in the last days that are not coming, they're here. And so for 17 verses, he's dealt with the false teachers, but then we move from the false teachers to those who are foolishly tricked by them. And we find that in verses 18 and 19. We started on that last week. In verse 18, this is how they trick people, in verses 18 and 19. They trick them through this, verse 18. For when they speak great swelling words of vanity. They allure through the lust of the flesh, through much wantonness, those who were clean escaped from them who live in error. He said one of the ways that they trick people is these big flowery great speeches and messages that just, you know, it's all, there's no spirit, it's all intellectualism. Or it's all about touchy-feely, coping, hoping, sharing, and caring, and make everybody feel good about where they are. Paul says a lot about this stuff, too. This is not something that's indigenous to Peter. Paul understood this, too. Go to the last chapter of Romans, and look how Paul talks about this same exact thing. Paul was warning the Roman church of the same exact problem that Peter said was coming. Romans chapter 16 and verse number 17, Romans 16, 17. He said, now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them. Mark them. If they're causing division and offenses contrary to the doctrine of the scripture, mark them and stay away from them. They'll drag you in a ditch. Verse 18, now watch what he says. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly. Remember, Peter said over there that part of what they did is they allured through the lust of the flesh. That's what Paul's talking about. Their God is their belly, lust of the flesh. And watch what he said. And by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple. He talks so good. He smiles a lot. He don't get all red faced and spit and scream and holler and tell people to go into hell. He talks good. It's the sweetest little sweet message you ever heard. Y'all, I'll just say this. I was pondering on these verses this week. I'll just say this to you. If you listen to a preacher preach, let's just say, I don't know where to cap this thing at, let's just say a half dozen times, six times, let's just say this. If you listen to a preacher preach six times, and he don't ever tell you anything that you ought to be against, or he's against, or God's against, mark this down, he's one of these people. But he's an independent Baptist, I don't care. I don't care. Got a King James Bible, I don't care. Brother, our job is not just to tell people what we're for, it's to tell people what the Bible's against. This was Jeremiah's commission. When Jeremiah got called to preach, this is what God told Jeremiah in Jeremiah 1, 17. He said, Thou therefore gird up thy loins and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee. Be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them. For behold, Have made thee this day. This is what he told the preacher. He made him I've made thee this day a defense city and an iron pillar and brazen walls against the whole land against the kings of Judah against the princes thereof against the priests thereof and against the people of the land and they shall fight against the thee, but they shall not prevail against thee." Five times the Lord tells Jeremiah, you're to be against the whole land, you're going to preach against the kings, you're going to preach against the princes, you're going to preach against the priests, and you're going to preach against the people of the land. What a negative ministry. We'll not tolerate such. But isn't that part of what the Bible even said? Ephesians 6, that the Bible says this, we're to put on the whole armor of God that we may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. And but we're living in a church world today where people say he just all the time talking about what he's against He's against is again. Well, yeah, cuz I'm commanded to I'm commanded to be balanced enough to where I'm not always telling you what we're against But I'm also telling you what we're for but mind you you can get out of balance either way If all you do all the time is just, I'm against it, I'm against it, I'm against it, well then you're out of balance on that ditch. But if all the time you only stand up and say, we're for it, we're for this, we're for this, but you never tell anybody what you're against, you're out of balance that way. And I try my best as a preacher, and I don't know some of you that are called to preach or have done any teaching or preaching any length of time, and some of you have, I think one of the, especially myself as a pastor, that I get to regularly preach and teach to you all, I think one of the most difficult things of my life is what I used to hear my pastor say all the time. And I didn't understand it then, but I understand it more now, and that is balance. I look at the messages that I preach, and I start looking, and I'm like, Lord, I want to stay balanced. I want to preach to the sinner, but I don't always want to preach to the sinner. There are saved people there, and saved people need help. And Lord, I want to preach something devotional that helps them in their walk right where they are, but they don't just need devotional. They also need doctrinal content. I want to give them some doctrine. And Lord, I don't want to always just be preaching, you know, judgment against something. Lord, I also want to build them up and preach for something. Man, it is the constant balance, Lord, how to strike that balance. But these guys that Paul and Peter are talking about, they ain't never any judgment. There's never any. Hate speech. It's all positive, positive, positive, positive. Build them up, build them up. Great swelling words of vanity, drawing people in the lust of the flesh. Anyways, let's keep moving here. We talked some about that last week. He said they allure through the lust of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escape from those who live in error. Verse 19, now watch this. Here's another way they trick people. While they promise them liberty, They themselves are the servants of sin. Now, this ain't got to do with preaching, but this sounds like politicians, don't it? And politicians are preachers, they're just not preaching the gospel, they're preaching, you know, a political gospel. I mean, you can't say that them guys that stand up there and talk to, you know, presidents or congressmen or such as that, man, you listen to some of them talks, like, man, they'd make a jam up preacher if they got saved and got right with God and started preaching the Bible. They're just not preaching the Bible, they're preaching you know, social economics. They're preaching, you know, how to make the world a better place to live in. But this sounds like the Republican and the Democratic Party. If you'll vote for me, I'll lower your taxes. I'll make your communities a better place to live in. You know, you vote for me, we'll get you money and we'll do this and we'll do that. They promise liberty, but there ain't no liberty in what they promise. They don't ever give liberty in what they promise. And the Bible says this, talking about these preachers or these teachers, they promise liberty, but the liberty that they're promising is actually bringing them into being a servant of corruption. Another word, y'all listen to me, and once again, this is right where we're living at. Once again, this is what they promise. Just come to church, get you some religion. You know, we're going to worship, we're going to sing, we're going to praise God. And then you've got liberty, just go live however you want. You know? You can go hang out at the club, and you can drink, social drink, and still party, and run around naked, and just do what you want, and cuss, and just, you know, it ain't no big deal. You just got your church, and then go do that. I'm giving you liberty. But that ain't liberty. They're servants of corruption. Paul talked about this. Go to Galatians 5. This is a direct cross-reference for you to this part where it says they promise liberty, but they're the servants of sin. The servants of corruption, excuse me. Galatians 5 and verse number 13. Galatians 5, 13. Watch this, this goes right to the heart of the church world today. Galatians 5.13, for brethren, ye have been called unto liberty. God has called us to liberty. We're no longer servants of sin. We're no longer servants to the law. The old song we used to sing at our church was free from the law, oh happy condition. Jesus has saved, there is remission. Bruised from the fall, but Christ hath redeemed us once for all. We've been made free. He blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, took them out of the way, nailing it to his cross. And you hear a lot about freedom and we're under the grace, not under law. But y'all listen to me, just because we got liberty and we got grace in Jesus Christ, that doesn't give us liberty to live however we want to live. Y'all listen to me, we have been given liberty to do right, not liberty to do wrong. Do you understand that? The liberty that God gives, gives us the liberty to be free from the bondage that entangled us in our sin. Not liberty to run out here and now make the grace of God into lasciviousness. So watch what it says here, verse 13. For brethren, you've been called unto liberty. Only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh. but by love serve one another. Don't, don't use your liberty as an opportunity to say, well, I'm under grace. I can just live on. I'm under grace. I can do what I want to do. No, but according to Peter in second Peter two 19, these false teachers, they promise liberty, but they themselves are the servants of corruption. If that is not The contemporary modern church movement, I do not know what it is. That is it in a nutshell, brother. I mean, it looks like a rock and roll show, and it sounds like a rock and roll show, and they live just the exact same way the lost people do, but yet they have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof. These are the false teachers we're to be warned about in the last days. And then watch what he says here. While they promised them liberty, they themselves were the servants of corruption, 2 Peter 2.19. Four, of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. Say, what does that mean? Paul gives us a good cross-reference here is Romans chapter 6. Go to Romans 6. This is a good cross-reference for this. What does it mean when it says, of whom a man is overcome of the same as he brought in bondage? Romans 6, 16. Well, we'll start in verse 15 because it's got point to what we're talking about. For of whom a man is overcome of the same as he brought in bondage. What does he mean by that, preacher? Romans 6, 15. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? God forbid. Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness. So in other words, what Peter is saying is just what Paul is saying here. Whoever you yield your members, when he's talking about your members, your hands, your feet, your eyes, your mouth, your mind, the members of your body. Whatever it is that you're yielding yourself unto, that's whose servant you're going to become. It's going to become your master. And so if you're yielding all of your members, your eyes, your mouth, your life, your hands, your feet, if you're yielding all of that unto sin and lasciviousness and lust, sin, lasciviousness, and lust is going to become your master. It'll chain you up. Even a saved person, that's who Paul's writing to, to save people. You realize a saved person that has been set free from sin, born again, washed in the blood, can become once again entangled in that yoke of bondage. Well, that's tough to get busted loose from, too. There's some of y'all here today that y'all can attest. God set me free, and I ran well for a while, and I got hindered, and I got brought into bondage. And I'll tell you this. I believe this from watching it, and I believe there are people here that could give testimony to this. It is almost harder for a saved person to get that yoke broken and get back right than it was when you was lost to get saved. And I don't necessarily know why that is. But it's tough. You say, well, I got the Holy Ghost on the inside now. I know that. But according to 2 Timothy chapter 2, this is talking to save people as well. The Bible says that there are those who are taken captive by the devil at his will. And if God, peradventure, will give them repentance under the acknowledging of the truth, that they may recover themselves out of it. Be careful. Don't yield yourself servants to sin. Yield yourself servants to righteousness, and then, man, that's a good master to be under. It's a great master to be under. And so back to our text, they promise liberty, but they're the servants of corruption. And when they promise this, they serve this idea of corruption, of this false liberty, and then they get brought in bondage to it. True liberty, true liberty. True liberty, don't miss this, lives in the confines of the word of God. That's real liberty. But see, that's where a lot of Christians look and they say, it's rules or this or that and it's bondage. No, it's not. Let me ask you this, let me ask you this. Adam and Eve, did they have more liberty Living under the rule of God when God said don't eat that tree. Did they have more liberty? When they were living underneath them Hard rule of a mean old God or did they have more liberty after they just said we ain't doing what God says We're going to eat of that tree You know where they had more liberty at they have more liberty when they lived underneath the confine of what God said and The devil promised them more liberty if they would break what God said and get out from under it. But as soon as they broke what God said and got out from under it, they found out he's a liar. The devil's a liar and the father of this didn't give me more liberty, it gave me less liberty. Got me kicked out the garden. Severed my fellowship with God. Brought death into the world. This didn't give me more liberty, it brought me less liberty. And that's what you find out in your life when you start living your life outside the confines of what God said. The devil says there's liberty outside of it. He tells our young people, you know, liberty outside of doing right and living right and going to church and, you know, reading your Bible and praying and walking God. There's liberty outside of that. Them preachers and, you know, and them church people, they just mom and daddy, them rules, they just break that. Get out from under that. There's liberty. But you know what you're gonna find out? And a bunch of y'all remember when you was that age and you thought that and you tried it. And then you lived for a while in that liberty that the devil promised, and you realized, this wasn't liberty. This is bondage. That's liberty. And so that's what Peter's saying here. He said they promised liberty. That's what Satan did in Genesis 3. He promised liberty, but they themselves are the servants of corruption, from whom a man is overcome, the same as he brought in bondage. So we've seen not only the false prophets, but those who are foolishly tricked by them. And then these last three verses, what we're gonna find is this. We're gonna find their final testimony. The final testimony of the false teachers. What's the end of it? What's the end of the teachers and the end of those that are deceived by them? Well, we find it in these last three verses. Watch the final testimony of them. 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 therein and overcome. The latter end is worse with them than the beginning. Now let's read these next two verses for context sake and make some comments here. 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 you read these three verses and this is almost what you'd think. You'd read them verses and say, many people lost their salvation. They got saved and then they lost it. But that ain't it at all. Did you notice this? It said after they have escaped the pollutions of the world. Now watch this. There are several key ways that you know these people were never saved to begin with. How do you know that? It said they escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of, watch the wording, of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Watch how Peter terms the Lord when he's talking about himself and the saved people that he's writing to. Go to chapter 1. Look at chapter 1 and verse number 2. Chapter 1, verse 2. 2 Peter 1, 2. Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus, whose Lord? Look down at verse number 8. 2 Peter 1, 8. For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of who? Our Lord Jesus Christ. Look at chapter 3 and the last verse of the book. Chapter 3 verse 18. But grow in grace and in the knowledge of who? Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. These people in verse 20, he was never their Lord to begin with. They just had a knowledge of him. Do you know what these people had? They had this temporary religion. We're going to get yoked up with a church. We go to a church. We go to a Baptist church, Methodist church, Pentecostal church, Presbyterian church, Episcopal church, non-denominational church. Yet we go to church and we listen to preaching and we try and do good. They escaped some of the pollutions of the world. We don't beat our wife. We're conservative. And we know about Jesus, but do you know what that is? That ain't no different than what the devil's got. Oh, yeah. The devil's even got a knowledge of the Lord and Savior, but he's not our Lord and Savior. Look at James. Watch what James says. Go to the left here, just two books, and look at what James said over here. James chapter 2, verse number 19. James 2.19, James said, Thou believest that there is one God, thou doest well. The devils also believe and tremble. The devil knows who the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is. You've read the Gospels? How many times in the Gospels have you read when Jesus either come into a synagogue, or he was walking along in a demoniac, a fellow possessed with devils and unclean spirits approached him, they said, we know thee who thou art, Jesus, the Son of God most high. I know Jesus. Good. So? Does Jesus know you? Depart from me, you cursed everlasting fire, prayer for the devil and his angels. I never knew you. Everybody in America knows who Jesus is. I'm really not interested if you know Jesus. I'm interested, are you born again? Is he your Lord and Savior? See, I'm telling y'all, I'm telling y'all, and we're going to get to this here in just a minute, I am telling you, hell is going to be chock-slam full. And we ain't even gonna mess with the other countries in the world. We could go off on that for a while. I ain't even messing with the other countries. Let's just keep it right here in the good old U.S. of A, because that's where we all are. Hell's gonna be chalked full of good old redneck country music listening southern boys. You know, this is the country music idea of God and Jesus. You know, they say it in their songs. And I'm a country boy, and I'll be honest. If my flesh had its way, that's what I'd listen to. That and Southern Rock. If I had my way, it'd be the Eagles and Leonard Schiff, but I don't have my way. I can't just start riding down the road listening to that stuff, because brother, I'll get like, yo, I can't. I know my limitation. I don't, anyways. But I know what their God, this is their idea of God. We boot scootin' boogie on Friday night and drink a little beer in our tavern and have us a big time. We go to church on Sunday and we believe in Jesus. You go on to hell. Everybody all right with that? Says you go on to hell. God bless you, have a nice day. You know, the Bible said there are things which accompany salvation. I'm just saying this idea of this lifestyle that, yeah, I believe there's a God. I'm a good old country boy. Of course, every southern country boy believes in God. He can't farm without believing in God. No, there ain't no farmers that are atheists. You start farming for a while, brother, and watch how stuff is planted and it takes rain and stuff grows up. Man, you can't even be an atheist and be a farmer. That stuff will just blow your atheism out the water. After a while, you realize, man, there's a God behind this stuff. But that ain't enough to get a man to heaven. Just the knowledge of a God and just the knowledge that, yeah, there was a man named Jesus, that is not enough. It's just not enough. And so here in the text, we find these people, they get rid of some things. They're like Herod. Ever heard about old Herod? Old Herod liked John the Baptist. Said, I thought he had his head cut off. He did, but it weren't because of him. It's because he was a henpecked devil that listened to his live-in wife. Y'all read about it. He would have never got John's head cut off. He did it because he made an oath and Herodias and her daughter held him to it. And he was sorry for the oath's sake, it said. But it said this about Herod. It said, Herod heard John gladly and did many things. I said, what does that mean? That means Herod went and heard that fella preach, that wild-eyed woody booger Baptist preacher eating locusts and wild honey, and out there screaming and hollering about vipers and turning from the evil and there's fire coming, and preaching about a lamb coming, and Brother Carl, he listened to that, and he said, man, that guy's got something. And he started cleaning up. What was he doing? He was escaping some of the pollutions. He did many things. He actually started cleaning up his life a little bit. Oh, but when it got right down to it, Jesus was not his Lord. He was just, it sounded good, it was a means to a little bit of a better life, getting rid of some stuff, but he's just the Lord, not my Lord. Anyways, keep reading, watch what it says. Verse 20, 2 Peter chapter 2. for after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein and overcome. This is direct reference to a message Jesus preached. Sometimes you read some of these writers, especially like Peter and John, these guys that walk with the Lord, you can almost see, man, he's quoting what the Lord said. Says the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. Well, where'd that come from? That's a message Jesus preached in Luke 11. Let's take a look at that. Luke chapter 11. Watch the final end, the final testimony of these people. Luke chapter 11 and verse number 24. Luke 11, 24. This is recorded over in Matthew as well. Luke 11, 24, When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest. And finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out. And when he cometh, now my house, that's a person, it's a body. When he cometh, he findeth it. He finds this man that he went out of, he finds it swept and garnished. Now Matthew says it like this, Matthew adds a little bit to it, it says this, he findeth it empty, swept and garnished. You say, what does those words mean? Empty, there wasn't nothing in it. Swept, he'd cleaned out the trash. And garnished means he had decked it, he had fixed it up. Pictures on the walls. What is that a picture of? It's a picture of a religious man. He's empty. He does not have the Holy Ghost living on the inside of him. And he swept his life out a little bit and he's cleaned up a little bit. And he's added some religion to his life. But there's no Holy Ghost on the inside to keep him living that way. So what happens to him, verse 26, then goeth he and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself. And they enter in and dwell there. And this is direct quote from Peter or Peter's directly quoting from the Lord. And the last state of that man is worse than the first. What's Peter talking about in 2 Peter 2, where he ends up at the end saying the latter end is worse with them than the beginning? He's talking exactly about what Jesus said. These false teachers, they empty, sweep, and garnish a little bit, but they ain't got the Holy Ghost in them. They're just as lost as a billy goat. And they're full of devils. Why? You tell me some of these preachers I see on TV and some of these preachers pass through these churches up the road, they're full of devils? But I thought when somebody's full of devils, you know, my name is Linda, you know, Linda Blair, projectile vomit head spinning around on their shoulders and all this stuff. No, I'm telling you, the devil's a lot smarter than just that. No marvel for Satan himself has transformed him into an angel of light. Therefore, it's no great thing if his ministers be the ministers of righteousness. Anyways, so back to our text. What we're finding out here, these people ain't saved at all. We're going to show you more. There's even more to it than that. Verse 21, 2 Peter 2, 21. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than after they've known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. Why? Why, Lord, would it be better for a man to have never heard the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ than to hear it and then not do it? Why? Now, I'm going to tell you this, then I'm going to back it up with Scripture. I want you to hear me. This is why. Because there are different levels and degrees of punishment in hell just like there are different levels and degrees of reward in heaven. Let me back up and say this. I don't got your wheels turning, but let me back up and say this. Don't we all in here believe that there are different degrees of reward for the child of God for how you live for Jesus right now? Sure, we all believe that. Jesus said over there, talking about that fellow that was faithful over five pounds or whatever, he said, now have thou authority over five cities. Then one fellow was faithful over more and he had authority over ten cities. Then one fella didn't do anything with his stuff and he said you don't get nothing. You just have to sit here and watch the rest of them ruling, right? The Bible says that you can win a crown. There's five different crowns. The incorruptible crown, crown of righteousness, crown of rejoicing, two more. I forget them. I can pull them up in my notes here in 2 Corinthians. But regardless, there are crowns we can win. And John says, don't let any man take your crown. So evidently, there's going to be some Christians, when they get to heaven, they're going to have a crown to lay at his feet. And some Christians won't, because they lost it through living a lustful, lascivious life in this world. So just like there are different degrees of reward for the child of God there, mark this down, there are different degrees and levels of punishment there. Now look, it's all heaven and it's all the new Jerusalem and it's going to be wonderful regardless. And that's hell and that's the lake of fire and it's going to be hell regardless. But there are different levels of it. You say, prove it to me. I'll do it with scripture. I'm not just throwing stuff out to you. I'm going to prove it with scripture. Matthew 23. Matthew 23. And we're going to get to this. I'm going to say this and then we'll circle back around to it. I don't want to get ahead of myself. The greatest degree of punishment for a soul in hell? Who's it for? I know who it's for. I know who the greatest punishment's for. The prostitute, the dope dealer, you know, Hitler, Mussolini. Nope. Not even close. You'd do better to die and go to hell, a drug dealer, a drug user, a sock drunk on the street, a prostitute, you'd do better to go to hell, a liar, a cheat, a thief, than what I'm fixing to show you. What's the greatest degree of punishment? Somebody who had a religion, but it's a religion that believes I can do it myself apart from Jesus Christ. That's the greatest level of punishment. Watch it, I ain't kidding you. Matthew 23, who's Jesus preaching to the whole chapter? Scribes, Pharisees. Religious people. What did these religious people do? They knew Jesus was the Son of God and they rejected Him. And kept their tradition instead of following Christ. So what does Jesus tell them? Verse number 13. Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men. For ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. Sounds like the false teachers of where we're at over there in 2 Peter, don't it? They're not going and they try and obstruct others from going. Verse 14. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayer. Therefore, ye shall receive the greater... Greater damnation? Huh? Oh, damnation's damnation. No, there's lesser and greater damnation. I got more. Mark chapter 12. Mark chapter 12. Watch what Jesus says here in Mark chapter number 12. It's the same reference, but I'll show it to you here, and then we're gonna go back to Matthew. He gives it to you twice. Mark 12, 40. Mark 12, 40. which devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayer, these shall receive greater damnation. All right, go to Matthew chapter number 11. Matthew 11, and we'll sum it up here. Matthew 11 and verse number 20. Matthew 11, 20. Jesus has been preaching to this crowd here. and they accuse him of being a gluttonous man, a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. They had that part right. They was lying about him being a gluttonous and a wine-bibber. He was not a glutton and he wasn't a wine-bibber, but he was a friend of publicans and sinners, thank God. My friend, my friend. Verse 20, Matthew 11, 20. Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done because they repented not. He came, he preached, he showed himself to be the Son of God, and these people kept their religion instead of repenting and trusting Jesus as the Messiah. Verse 21, watch what he said. Woe unto thee, Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. Watch it, verse 22. But I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for tire and sight, and at the day of judgment than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell. For if the mighty works which had been done in thee had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day." Check it out. Watch this. But I say unto you that it shall be more tolerable for the Sodomites in Sodom It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and the day of judgment than for thee." Hold on a minute. Why is it gonna be more tolerable on the day of judgment for a bunch of perverted Sodomites than for these people in Capernaum? Because them Sodomites didn't have the Son of God walking among them that they could trust and believe in. These people did, and they chose to keep their religion instead of trusting Jesus as the Messiah. So what are you telling us, preacher? Every one of the passages I just showed you about greater damnation and being more tolerable on the day of judgment, all of them are aimed at religious people that kept their own way and rejected Jesus Christ. So do you want to know who's going to get the greater damnation and the hottest spot in hell and who's going to be tormented in the worst of ways for eternity? It will be people that, back to our text, 2 Peter 2, it will be the people that knew the way of righteousness, Turned from it. I Heard it y'all You know what this order this order scare all of us to this point now I'm saved I ain't talking about being scared that way I'm saying and when I say scared, I mean it like burden for people that have set on our pews and listen to me preach and They still lost Y'all, that person right there that did that is gonna get a hotter spot in hell than the Sodomites of Sodom and Gomorrah. See, we all think the hottest spot in hell's gonna be for them blasted flag-waving rainbow flag-waving perverts. That's the hot spot of hell. And no doubt, hey, if they don't trust Christ, they're going. But that ain't gonna be the hottest spot. The hottest spot's gonna be for them people that heard the truth and chose to keep their own way. Brother, that's tough stuff right there. I mean, there's all kind of ramifications with that that we don't have time to get into. Let's keep moving. We'll hit this last verse and we'll go. Verse 22. But it has happened unto them according to the true proverb. Here's another way you know these people were never saved. Because the dog has turned to his own vomit again and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. It doesn't say the sheep turned back into a dog and went back after the vomit. These people weren't, you know, lost people that got saved. They become the sheep of God's pasture and all of a sudden they went back into a dog again. They were always dogs. And they were always pigs. And they never had a change in their life. Now look, you say, preacher, you believe that a Christian can get messed up and get in? Absolutely, man, we've got enough passages to know and understand that a child of God, a sheep, can get astray, can get messed up. The man in 2 Corinthians 5 proves that beyond a shadow of a doubt. I mean, he's got involved more decadent sin than you and me in a lifetime. I mean, he's all jacked up, and the Bible still calls him a saved man. His soul is saved, but he's just wasting his life. But he gets right with God. But that's a saved man. These people here, it ain't like they were saved and just got messed up for a while and got back right with God. No, these people never had anything to draw them back. They got a little bit of religion, they enjoyed it for a little while, and then bam, they just right back into where they were and they ain't never coming back. Y'all understand what I'm saying? And my, my, my, I'm done right here, The Lord just doesn't think much of people without His Son. I mean, look how God looks at people without His Son, Jesus Christ. Dogs wallowing around or eating their own vomit, and pigs wallowing around in the mire. That was real flattering. Lord, you know, You know, all these Golden Globe actors and actresses in their galas, you know, that show up and they walk in on their red carpets and all this stuff. Lord, what do you think when you look at that? I see a bunch of pigs and dogs. I see a bunch of dogs puking and eating it, and I see a bunch of pigs just wallowing around in the muck in the mire. That's how God sees it. That's how God sees a man without Jesus. And if you want to talk about great love, wherewith he loved us, the fact is Jesus died for them kind of people anyways, of which I was one. An old dog in my vomit, an old pig in the mire, and Jesus Christ shed blood for a wicked, wretched soul like me anyway, and made me a sheep of his pasture. Praise God and glory. Came where I was, got down in my vomit with me, got down in the mud with me, and picked me up, washed me off, and put me in the sheepfold. Glory. Glory. Father, I pray you take the Word of God that we've heard. Let it instruct us. Give us knowledge in the things of God. But Lord, also give us a burden. Lord, there are... What I was talking about this morning, that's reality. There are really people that are deceived and really people that are lost without Jesus, thinking they're okay and on their way to hell. God, help us to pray for our families. Help us to pray for our friends. Help us not just to stop at praying. Help us to invite them. Invite them to Christ. Invite them to church. Give them a gospel tract. Tell them about Jesus. Live a life in front of them that would not hinder the gospel from piercing into their heart. God, I believe we're living in the last of the last days, and anything we're gonna do for Jesus, we better get it done. So Lord, I pray you'd make us more productive in the last day, seeing sinners snatched out of the fire. We'll give you the glory for it. Help us, God's people, not to be deceived by what's coming on the scene and the things we see today. Help us to keep our head in the word and our heart in the light. And we'll give you the thanks for it. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. All right. You're dismissed right there.