Take your Bibles with me and turn to 2 Peter chapter 2. Back to 2 Peter and chapter 2. We will resume our study of false teachers in that epistle. As we look at the last six verses of chapter 2 this evening, Peter began chapter 2 with a really righteously indignant condemnation of these false teachers. He is disturbed by what is going on in the churches, what is being taught by the false teachers. But this comes through perhaps most clearly in his dogmatic, in his almost harsh language towards the false teachers. We've seen through the entire chapter that he is clearly perturbed by the teachers and their teachings. And so again, his language demonstrates this. And as we said last week, we would not suggest in any way that Peter's attitude towards the false teachers was sinfully angry. Quite the opposite, actually. Peter's heart throughout this entire situation, it is deeply pastoral because Peter cares in a unique way about these believers. This is the second epistle he is writing to them. He is a fellow partaker with them in the suffering that they are facing. And so he cares deeply for these believers. He knows what they're going through and what they have endured and persevered already. in terms of physical persecution. And so again, he cares for them in a unique way. We've already worked through his first epistle to them. He is now strongly urging them in this, his second epistle, to stand firm against false teaching. The same admonishment needs to be given to believers today. We also must be ready to stand firm against false doctrine and those who profess false doctrine, those who peddle false doctrines in the church. There are two epistles of our New Testament that are primarily focused to this end. Both Jude and 2 Peter focus greatly on the need for believers to be prepared to contend for the faith. And in order for these believers to stand firm, in order for us to stand firm as believers, We need to be equipped to combat false teaching. And so through the first chapter of the epistle, Peter is going to lay out the hallmarks of genuine saving faith. And this is what we see all through chapter one. We see the hallmarks of genuine saving faith. The reality of true faith is that it produces a changed heart and life. This is a reality we cannot escape. All throughout the New Testament, we see this over and over again, that a transformed life, is the outworking of genuine salvation. True salvation, it produces transformation. And so Peter addresses this. An individual cannot at once claim to be a disciple of Christ while continuing to live in sin. These two things cannot be true at the same time. And so it is in this way that Peter calls his readers to make their calling and election sure. This is really taking up the focus of the book from chapter 1, verse 4, all the way down really through verses 10 and 11. Then in verses 12 through 15, he continues to remind the believers, he talks about his pastoral role for them, his heart for them. Again, believers should evaluate the fruit of their life to see if they are truly in the faith. Those who are truly in the faith will see a continual gradual trend upwards in their sanctification. We might say that it is the direction of your faith that should be evaluated. You may have even heard the phrase, it's not perfection, it's the direction. This is the idea here for Peter. He even says as much, if these qualities are yours and are increasing, then you can be assured you will never fall away from the faith. This is what Peter is teaching these believers. Is there spiritual growth? Is there change in their lives? If yes, that is a demonstration of the work of the Spirit. And Peter spends a great deal of time laying out these truths so that he can set in a very stark contrast, starting in chapter two, the lives of the false teachers. And so we have in chapter one really what is a very clear list of the hallmarks of genuine transformative faith. This is what a true believer looks like. And starting in chapter two, we see what false teachers looks like. What describe their lives? What describe their actions? He wants the believers to see just how dreadfully these false teachers fall short of the criteria for genuine faith. And so essentially what Peter's doing is he's laying out a template for real genuine faith and then laying the lives of the false teachers over that and demonstrating just how far off they are. They certainly do not demonstrate growth in Christ-likeness in any way. Instead, their lives are marked by selfishness. Their lives are marked by a desire to extort the people of God. They are characterized by greed and selfish ambition. Their lifestyles are not just a spiritual danger to the church. Their teachings are not just a spiritual danger to the church, but also a physical danger, as we saw last week. And we'll continue to see that truth demonstrated this week as well. These individuals, they are not just spiritually dangerous and teaching spiritually dangerous doctrines. but they are also physically dangerous. Peter tells us in verse 14 of chapter two, they have eyes full of adultery or even full of an adulterous, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. So again, we see characteristics there, but again, we also see more importantly, more severely that these false teachers are committed, not just to their sin, but to leading other people into their sin with them. This is one of their characteristics. And so again, we'll see this demonstrated as well at the end of chapter two this evening. The other element that Peter draws our attention to is really the terrible testimony that these men are outside of the church. Peter says that they are black spots. They are stains on the reputation of Christ's church. We understand that the church is supposed to be holy and blameless. Peter calls the believers in 1 Peter 1 that they are to be holy as the one who called them is holy. And so these false teachers are certainly falling short of that standard. They are far from holy instead. They are a terrible detriment to the reputation of the true believers. This is a truly serious offense. And so with this, Peter's repudiation of these men, it will culminate now in the final verses of chapter 2. We are reaching a climax of chapter 2, and we see that in verses 17 through 22. Look down with me at 2 Peter chapter 2, verses 17 to 22. Peter continues, These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. For speaking loud boasts of folly they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. For if after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. What the true proverb says has happened to them. The dog returns to its own vomit and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire. Let's begin our time together this evening with a word of prayer as we study out this final section of chapter two. Dear Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you for this stern reminder, the warning of false teaching and of false teachers. the need to be aware, the need to be vigilant, most importantly for us as believers, the need to be trained in your word and the truth of your word, that we are equipped to stand firm in our faith and to identify false teaching where we see it. Lord, I pray that we would also be careful to, again, as Peter says, confirm our calling and election, to verify that the hallmarks of genuine Christian faith are present in our own lives and that we are being transformed. The direction of our faith is trending upwards. We are striving to look more like our Savior, Jesus Christ. Lord, we know if these qualities, as Peter says in chapter one, are ours and they are increasing, we can be assured that we will never fall away. And we thank you for that reality. It is not us that is holding on to you, but you hold on to us and our salvation is secure in you. We thank you for that. truth, and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Last week, as we studied, really, chapter 2 and verses 10 through 16, I had entitled our message, Characteristics of False Teachers. It's not very original. It's right there in the text. That is exactly what Peter is walking through. These are the characteristics, what define false teachers. And I'm going to title the message for tonight, Characteristics of False Teachers, Part 2. That is exactly what this text is. And as you might have been able to tell just from our introductory reading of the passage, there is really almost no break in the thought between verses 10 through 16 and verses 17 to 22. Peter continues giving us an in-depth look at the nature and character of false teachers. And so really, if there weren't so much information condensed into these verses, we could preach all the way through this entire last section in one giant message, chapter 2, verses 10, all the way through the end of the chapter, because the entire focus remains the same. It is characteristics of false teachers. What do they look like? And so let's conclude this section in this major, major theme of Peter's second epistle. Beginning in verse 17, Peter says, Peter has spent considerable time in the beginning of chapter 2 with Old Testament imagery. You'll remember this as he begins chapter 2 in verses 1 through 3 of just very briefly giving us an overview of the characteristics of a false teacher. And then in verses four through, really verses four all the way through verse nine, Peter, what he does is he bolsters our confidence in the justice of God. These false teachers are so evil. They're so wicked. Peter promises that they will face judgment. And then in verses four through nine, he is bolstering our confidence that we can be sure that God will make good on that promise. And there's much Old Testament imagery packed into these verses that demonstrate the justice of God. In a sense, God's track record of justice speaks for itself, and so we can be confident in this. Then in verses 10 through 16, we see yet another Old Testament illustration. We have Balaam, the son of Beor, and Peter is illustrating a demonstration, he's giving us a demonstration of a false prophet who is Balaam. And now Peter is beginning this section with a colorful description of just how devastatingly disappointing these false teachers are. And so he begins to move away from the Old Testament imagery and he kind of starts to conclude this section on characteristics of false teachers. Once again, Jude uses very similar imagery to what we see in 2 Peter in verses 12 through 13 of Jude's epistle. If you want to turn over there, you can. I'll just read this for us quickly. Jude says this, they are hidden reefs at your love feasts. Essentially, they're unseen dangers. They lurk beneath the surface. They're difficult to spot. Jude says they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves. Again, they're motivated by greed. They're motivated by extorting the people of God. Jude says they're waterless clouds. They're purposeless. They provide no real service. They give no real spiritual insight, although they appear to, just as a cloud without rain would appear to bring rain, but it doesn't. They're swept along by winds, Jude says, fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted, wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame. I don't know if any of you have had the opportunity to go surfing down here or experience that. If you do go surfing, you will gain an appreciation for this imagery of a wild wave. There is something to understanding patterns in the waves And especially when you're surfing, not that the apostles are thinking about surfing as they write these things, but you're looking for a wave that is driven by the current and not driven by the wind. A wave driven by the wind is directionless. It has no pattern. There's nothing observable about it. It's not useful. You can't time the break of the wave. And so this is exactly what Jude says, describes these false teachers. They are driven by the wind. They're wild. There's no direction. There's no plan. There's no purpose to them. He says, finally, there are wandering stars for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever. Similar condemnation from Jude as what we see in Peter's epistle. And between Peter and Jude, we get a really, really detailed picture of these false teachers. And the common denominators are these. False teachers are disappointments, they are directionless, they are dangerous, they are fruitless. There is nothing about their lives that demonstrates a direction or a self-control or a guiding by the Holy Spirit or a trend towards sanctification and Christlikeness. They are completely fruitless. And I love Peter's descriptions here in verse 17 of being waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. These would have been especially powerful illustrations for cultures that lived in largely dry, arid climates. These individuals knew very well the importance of water. A well or a spring was a place that provided cool, refreshing water for weary travelers, for tired shepherds, for thirsty flocks and herds of cattle. And so to come upon a well that had run dry, this was incredibly disappointing. Again, just like these false teachers. And it really wouldn't have been just disappointing to come upon a well that had run dry. It could be dangerous as well. If you had spent a great deal of time and energy to arrive at a well only to find that it had no water, you could leave yourself in a potentially life-threatening situation. This is just not a reality for us today in a culture where if you are in dire need of water, you can walk into just about any building in the world and there's going to be running water in the building somewhere, in a bathroom, at a sink, wherever. It may not be filtered necessarily, but that just goes to show you how spoiled we are in our access to these commodities. These people didn't have this. And so they come to a well. It's totally dry. This is a terrible, terrible disappointment. It's a terrible situation. Aside from being a disappointment and potentially dangerous, a dry well serves absolutely no purpose for a community. It is a meaningless hole in the ground. You can even see how having a deep, dry hole in the ground could also be dangerous. And so because of this, a lot of times, wells, instead of just sitting there empty and useless, they would be repurposed as trash repositories. These were often referred to as cesspits, and for good reason. Human and animal waste would be disposed of in these deep pits. Household waste could be deposited there, rotting food, dead animals. These pits simply became a catch-all for any kind of filth that needed to be kept out of sight in a community. And so again, you can only imagine the filthiness of these waterless springs, and this, Peter feels, is an apt comparison to the false teachers. They're disappointing, dangerous, misleading trash pits. It's not difficult to see how the false teachers fit these descriptions. They seem to promise real spiritual rest and recovery for weak and weary individuals, but instead they are misleading and confusing. And just as dry wells would be filled with trash, these false teachers were repositories of bad doctrine. Peter also says they were mists driven by a storm. Again, these dry climates thrived on the little bit of rain that they got. And so as a mist would blow through a region, it would seem to promise the hope of rain, the hope of a torrential downpour, and the prosperity that would come with that. And as the mist blew by, they would leave the community, again, sorely disappointed. Oftentimes, these mists that would blow by and quickly blow through and go away, it would also usher in even hotter climates. And so false teachers, similar to these mists, they would appear to bring some benefit to the community. They had an appearance of spirituality or spiritual authority, just like these mists bore the appearance of a storm. But sadly, there was no real substance there. This is the nature of a false teacher. They give off an appearance of something they're not. I think it's absolutely fascinating that in Peter's view, the ultimate false teacher someone who claims to be something they're not. I don't want you to miss that. The ultimate false teacher for the Apostle Peter is someone who claims to be something they're not. And I think Peter is absolutely talking about even believers in the church or so-called believers in the church who claim to know the Lord Jesus Christ, but by their actions demonstrate they have no real relationship with him. They are a utter disappointment. This has been Peter's point from the beginning. These false teachers are in the church. Peter hasn't uncovered some mysterious underground network of false teachers that strategically deploy into churches to derail true doctrine. Of course, this could happen. I suppose that there could be some organized group of false teachers that intentionally seek to derail churches. That could be the case. This is not what Peter is writing against. Peter's bigger concern by far is simply people in the church who are claiming to be something that they aren't. They're putting on an appearance, but upon further inspection, they aren't what they said they are. They are shepherds feeding themselves, Jude says. It's important that you understand this. There will always be people in the church who claim to be true disciples, but the testimony of their lives doesn't bear out that truth. These are individuals that Peter would call false teachers. They claim to have a relationship with God. They claim to be transformed by his spirit. But as you really get close, as you really begin to inspect the fruit, they're fruitless, Jude says. Fruitless trees. And I'm not saying that to be dramatic. I'm not saying that even to scare you as a believer, but that is exactly what Peter says under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. In the beginning of chapter two, Peter says this, but false prophets arose among the people, just as there will also be false prophets among you. This is a reality. This is something we need to be prepared for. Consider the example that Peter just gave of Balaam in verse 16. Again, Balaam is not a covert operator. Balaam was a real prophet who delivered real messages from the Lord. I want you to think about that for a second. Think about how scary that is. Balaam delivers messages from Yahweh to God's people. And he's used later on in God's word as an example, a prime example of a false teacher. He becomes a striking example of a false prophet because he actively leads the people of Israel astray for his own benefit. In fact, he leads them into idolatry. He's, of course, bribed by the Moabite king to do this. And so we see even another characteristic of a false prophet, someone who's motivated by greed and selfish ambition. Balaam has no connection to the Moabite king. He has no connection to the Moabites in general. Balaam is simply an opportunist. And so he betrays the people to prosper himself. He is perfectly postured to do this because he was, by all accounts, a seemingly genuine prophet. Peter says, though, a sobering judgment awaits these individuals. He says at the conclusion of verse 17, For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved." Again, this is a striking condemnation. We must recognize, first and foremost, that the Scriptures teach us that hell is a place created primarily for the devil and his angels. Hell is not created for humanity originally. Jesus tells us this in Matthew 25, 41. Peter says that these false teachers also have a designated place in hell, though. Even though hell is created for the angels, these false teachers hold a designated place. There is a place reserved for them. His language is noticeably stronger than the previous times that he's pronounced future judgment on these false teachers. He's done this many, many times, telling us that destruction awaits these false teachers, and here his language is even stronger. He clearly says, these false teachers share in the punishment of wicked angels who rebelled against God and are cast out of heaven, and hell is created for them Back in verse four, Peter used the word Tartarus when speaking of the angels' place in hell. If you look at chapter two and verse four, Peter says, God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell. The word for hell there is Tartarus. And Peter takes it really out of Greek mythology. And it's this place that refers to one of the worst, most inner sanctuaries of hell. And it is one of the most torturous of places. And Peter says, this is where these angels are. And the Greek is actually even stronger in verse 17 when referring to these false teachers. Peter suggests that the place reserved for the false teachers, it's even worse than what the fallen angels will experience. The Greek phrase is literally translated, the darkness of darkness. And so while in verse four, the wicked angels who are cast out of heaven, they're committed to chains of gloomy darkness. In verse 17, false teachers have a place in hell reserved for them that Peter describes as the darkness of darkness. It is a very emphatic way of saying this is even worse punishment than what these angels will experience. Again, the reason for this incredibly severe punishment is unfolded in verse 18. Notice verse 18. Peter says, for speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh, those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. We should notice immediately in verse 18, the word for at the beginning of verse 18, this is a Critical logical connector oftentimes when we see that word used or the word therefore used it's being employed by the author Intentionally to draw together two sections to give purpose and meaning to the section that has come before so Peter has been unfolding in Graphic detail his frustration towards these false teachers and the condemnation that awaits them Peter really doesn't hold back And Peter wants his reader to recognize he is not just having a bad day. He is not just blowing off steam. The sin of these false teachers is incredibly egregious. And the word for in verse 18 is preparing us for why these false teachers have such a harsh judgment awaiting them. Again, in the Greek, the punishment that he has just pronounced in verses 17 would stand out as a stark contrast to what they had just read in verse four. Holy angels are cast into hell, and they are committed to chains of gloomy darkness. And in comparison with those evil angels who rebel against God, these guys get the darkness of darkness. And so Peter's saying, here's why that is. Let me explain. Speaking loud boasts of folly they entice by sensual passions of the flesh. those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. There is a lot here in this phrase, but we see again the reiteration of just how loud and arrogant these false teachers are concerning matters they do not understand. This phraseology, it almost echoes what we read in verse 10, bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme glorious ones. They're loud, they're arrogant, they're boastful, they're foolish, and this is truly a dreadful combination. If these false teachers were quiet fools, that would be bad enough, but all their bluster and arrogance, it leads weaker people, potentially even new converts, into sin. And this seems to be, without doubt, what is causing Peter the most heartache. The false teachers are preying on those who do not know enough to resist the false teaching. It's very likely that this is a reference, again, to new believers. As Peter uses this phrase, they're barely escaping those who live in error. So these individuals that are being seduced, the individuals that are being enticed, they have been dangerously close to a sinful, unbelieving lifestyle. They have just barely escaped that lifestyle. They are, by all accounts, since they have escaped error, Peter says, we can understand that they are new believers. They're very young in their faith, and Peter says they're seduced back into a sinful lifestyle by self-proclaimed leaders in the church. This seduction clearly played on the fleshly desires of the new converts. Again, Peter says they entice by sensual passions of the flesh, those who are barely escaping. Again, from everything we've seen in this book, we can imagine the false teachers had convinced the believers They could engage in sinful lifestyles without fear of repercussions and without fear of the consequences. They could abuse God's grace by espousing this libertine theology, we can live how we want, we don't need to adhere to God's commands because there's grace and so God's grace covers us and it covers our sin and it really doesn't matter how we live. In fact, some of these false teachers are teaching that if they sin more, they get more of God's grace. So don't you want more of God's grace? Well, how do you get more of God's grace? You sin more, and God gives you more grace. This is why Peter tells us from the very beginning of this epistle, grace and peace be multiplied to you, how? In the knowledge of God, our Father, the Lord Jesus Christ. This is how we have grace and peace. immoral lifestyle. It clearly runs contrary to the theology that Peter has laid out since the beginning of his writings to the saints of Asia Minor. In fact, in the beginning of chapter 1, Peter is speaking of, again, confirming our calling and election. He says in verse 4, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world, because of sinful desire. The word that Peter uses for sinful desire, it's the same one he uses here in verse 18 to speak of sensual passions. This is a sexual desire. The desire itself is not sinful. In fact, the desire is actually God-given, but when these desires dominate and control your life or lead you to immoral behavior outside of marriage, it clearly becomes a sinful and inappropriate thing. And we know this, and Peter has invested much in these believers, and so his strong language is again an attempt to pull back these new believers from serious sin. The false teachers are tempting them to give themselves over to these sinful passions, to these desires. Just the other day, I was reading a journal article written by an Old Testament scholar. The man's name is Dr. Gary Schnitger. You could look him up if you wanted to. He is an excellent Old Testament mind. He's discussing in this article that I was reading, the embarrassing texts of the Bible. And he outlines places in the Bible where potentially we read something very strong. We're not sure how to react. Maybe the Bible says something that seems almost a little bit harsh, maybe even too harsh. Dr. Schnitger writes this, the parts of the Bible of Jesus that embarrass Christians often reveal the grace of God for those who need it most. Those places where a consequence sounds especially harsh or a condemnation is stated so strongly, it often demonstrates God's desire to protect and care for the most vulnerable. And Peter's language here would certainly fall into the category of unrelenting, potentially even harsh. Peter has several times told us these false teachers, they are damned. Their eternity is secure. They will go to hell. And we have God's entire track record of justice throughout the Old Testament to verify this for us. He said there's actually a special place for them reserved in hell. He compares them to rotting cesspits full of waste and garbage. All of this strong language demonstrates God's love and care for true believers. And Peter is exercised not because of the sin of false teachers. I think in Peter's view, the false teachers will get what's coming to them. It's not so much the false teachers themselves that make Peter so upset. Peter is far more concerned about the safety of younger and weaker believers who are being led astray by those who have taken on the appearance of something helpful, something spiritually refreshing, something spiritually life-giving, like a well, They're being led astray by the false teacher's empty promises. Notice verse 19. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. What a powerful statement. This perfectly encapsulates our world still today. Promising freedom. You can be free. Do whatever you want. Live however you want. Love however you want. Be whoever you want. Do not be fooled, Peter says, these people live in terrible bondage. It's a bondage I would wager to guess some of you have witnessed firsthand. These false teachers promise freedom and yet they are completely unable to deliver because they themselves are slaves to their own sinful desires. They can't escape. This is the viewpoint that postmodernists have of religion, of God. They have identified God as the great evil in society. They've identified organized religion as the great evil of society. Any type of moral structure, they have identified as a great evil. You may have personally encountered this. Again, religion, God in particular, burden people down with restrictions and rules that cramp their style. In a biblical and Christian framework, God tells you who you can love. God tells you what you can think. God tells you what you can and cannot do. And they're repulsed by this construct. And so absolute and objective truths that are presented by the Bible are cast aside. We can have no absolute truth. We can have no objective truth. We certainly cannot have objective moral truth, moral truth that must govern my life. Those absolutely cannot exist. And freedom is touted as the new objective for life. If you pay attention to the message of our secular culture, you will see that over and over again. What is the God they want you to worship? Freedom. You can be free. You should be free. And if you don't worship the God of freedom, what are you doing? You should be cast out. You should be on the outside of society. Well, if you're not free to worship God and not worship freedom, Is freedom really the end-all be-all? It's interesting. One pastor and author writes this, when postmodernism denounces all absolute values and inherent meanings in the name of freedom, it secretly smuggles an absolute into the argument. Why, for example, is freedom so important? Why is that the absolute, unquestioned good? And who gets to define it as such? You see, this is the problem with our culture. And I believe people are waking up a little bit to see this reality, hopefully in religious circles as well. The problem is that people have made themselves the masters of their own meaning and purpose in life. And this is at the core of what these false teachers are wanting to do to the believers in Asia Minor. You can be free. I'm promising you freedom. You can live however you want. You set the agenda for your life. You determine the course. You are the master of your own fate. No one can tell you what to do. No one can tell you what not to do. No one can tell you where to go. You serve you. This is the message of our culture. One secular author writes this, it is true. I do not have an absolute purpose in life. I am not dedicated to glorifying God anymore, but I find creating my own purpose thrilling. I'm the author of a novel and the book is my life. The freedom is exhilarating. The problem with this way of living is simple. The purpose you have created for yourself is based upon completely subjective emotions. And on any given day, you might just wake up and feel as though your created meaning is no longer a valid reason to live. This is the problem when people decide, I don't need a meaning outside of myself. I am my own meaning. My freedom is my meaning. My freedom is my purpose. And the problem with that is one day your emotions change and your chosen meaning isn't good enough anymore. And I say all that to draw a clear parallel to what Peter is discussing here in this verse. The postmodernist culture in which we live parallels beautifully. Peter says, whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. Our culture is dominated by the idea of you being in charge. You set the agenda. I know it's a silly illustration and you've probably heard it before, but we see this in marketing. BK, have it your way. You rule. Not if you have high cholesterol, you don't. You don't go to BK anymore because you don't rule. You see what I'm saying? There are things in life you can't control. This idea of absolute freedom, it's an illusion. And so you'll never truly be free in life to make whatever decisions you want to make. Life doesn't work that way. There are consequences and possible negative outcomes for every decision you make. And yes, you're free to make whatever decision you want, but this is not true freedom. Consider it. By virtue of the fact that you must make a decision, you aren't truly free. You have to choose. So hopefully we see that this obsession with freedom, it's really not freedom at all. It is quite simply bondage and slavery to a different master. There are right now young men on social media platforms with very large followings that make the same promises. They encourage other young men towards similar lifestyles, towards similar teachings we see these false teachers espousing in 2 Peter. seducing them to immoral relationships. They promise that by pursuing their base desires, you will find true freedom and autonomy. And it's really foolish because for anyone with spiritual discernment, for anyone who's studied this book or really any part of their Bible, you can see that they're making promises exactly like first Peter says. They're making promises of freedom, and they're trying to draw you into something that they themselves are enslaved to. They are enslaved by their basest desires. And so, like animals, they run around pursuing whatever will satisfy their passions that they so clearly have no control over. As believers, we are freed from that futile lifestyle. Paul would say in Galatians, we are freed to live righteously. This is the purpose of our freedom. Our freedom doesn't set us free in Christ to live how we want. Our freedom actually frees us from this type of lifestyle, from a lifestyle enslaved to sin, enslaved to base desires. We are free to serve the Lord's purposes, to do His will. Peter says we have escaped the corruption that is the result of sinful desires. He says that in chapter one. It would be an especially tragic thing, however, to know the truth and choose sin anyways. We are freed from this sin as believers. We are free to serve the Lord Jesus Christ and live righteously. But what a tragedy it would be to know the truth and choose to reject it. Peter addresses this in verses 22, or excuse me, verses 20 and 21. Look down there with me. For if after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last day has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. And so all of the commentary regarding false teachers, it's now culminating in these two verses. This is coming to a head. Peter is summarizing who these false teachers are and what their destiny will be. Ultimately, these are individuals who, again, knew the truth. They knew the truth. They had access to the gospel. They knew the offer of salvation through Jesus Christ, and they turned away from that reality, becoming entangled once again in sin, being dominated by sin again. They know the offer of salvation through Christ. They know the freedom that could be theirs. Again, because these are individuals that are coming up from the church. They're within the church, Peter says. Peter says that the last state of them has become worse than the first. The end of verse 20. Why would this be? If they were sinners and they had simply rejected Christ, then that's that. But I don't think that's Peter's idea. Jesus makes this clear after his ministry to the Jews had ended. Jesus says this, the one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge. The word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. That's your judge. Your judge in eternity will be the access to the truth that you had. And Peter is espousing that same reality in this passage as well. We see yet another testament to that truth. The information you have access to will rise up on judgment day and judge your response to the truth. That is a sobering reality. That should jar you. What you're sitting here listening to right now is truth from the Word of God that you have a responsibility to respond to. In fact, I would say you will respond to it. Whether you realize it or not, you will respond to this truth. Either you walk out the door unchanged and unimpacted, or you recognize that truth needs to do something practically in my life. And so Peter says, like Jesus, And I think Peter would have had firsthand witness of Jesus saying this to the Jews. I think this stuck with Peter. The word I have spoken will judge him on the last day. And this is exactly what Peter is talking about here. If someone knows the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ, they know the gospel, they know the offer of salvation, and they reject it anyways, this is a serious, dangerous place to be. In fact, He says in verse 21, it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. Again, it's a sobering reality. Each and every person who rejects Christ and rejects his gospel will give account to God for the information they have. More information means greater accountability. The more knowledge you have of Jesus Christ, the more accountable you'll be on the day of judgment. Peter's reinforcing that doctrinal truth in these passages. These false teachers who claim to know the truth and they claim to be teachers of the truth and they claim to be spiritual authorities, they're going to have a lot to give account for on the day of judgment. Whoever had heard the true message of the gospel and become entangled in sin and overcome by sin again, their condition is worse than if they had never heard the gospel at all. This is truly a shocking truth, but we see it throughout the New Testament. Turn over to Hebrews chapter 10 and look down at verse 26. Hebrews chapter 10, just briefly. The preacher of Hebrews says this as he reinforces this understanding of judgment and being judged by truth. In verse 26, the author of Hebrews says, for if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins. but a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries." This, I believe, is exactly what happens in Jesus's interactions with the Pharisees when they attribute the miracles of Jesus and the power of Jesus, they attribute it to demonic activity, and Jesus says, what? You've blasphemed the Holy Spirit, you've committed an unforgivable sin. You cannot be forgiven of that sin. And what's the sin that they can't be forgiven of? Attributing the works of Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit to demonic activity. Looking at Jesus and all that Jesus offers and all that Jesus provides and saying, you're not the real deal. This is exactly what the preacher of Hebrews says. If we go on sinning deliberately after receiving a knowledge of the truth, what? There remains no longer a sacrifice for sins. You can't come back from that. If you reject the offer of the gospel, that's it, you're done. There is no forgiveness after that. You say, I don't want the gospel, I don't want Jesus. What else can happen to you? What more can be done to salvage your condition? Jesus is your only hope. And so this is what Jesus tells the Pharisees. This is what the preacher of Hebrews says. He goes on in verse 30, And understand clearly when I talk about this, I'm not saying that if you have ever heard the gospel before and not responded to it immediately, that that is your last chance. That's not what I'm suggesting. I am suggesting if this is your last response to the gospel, if your last response to the gospel before you die is rejection, you're done. There is no more help that can be given to your eternal condition. And this is what Jesus says as well to the Pharisees. And so Peter concludes in verse 22. Turn back to 2 Peter chapter 2. He says what the true proverb says has happened to them. The dog returns to its own vomit and the sow after washing herself returns to wallow in the mire. Again, strong, strong verbiage. Both of these illustrations demonstrate the reality that these false teachers, they are completely enslaved to their own sin, just as chapter two in verse 14 told us, eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They cannot turn off their sinful nature. They can't stop. They can't stop their wicked pattern of thinking. It's just like a dog that returns to its own vomit, Peter says. That's disgusting. I mean, we know when a dog does that, it doesn't taste good. That's not why the dog goes back. It's because it's an instinctual desire. They can't stop. A dog is a creature of instinct. Your dog is stupid. That's why it goes back to the vomit. And that's what Peter's saying. These false teachers are stupid. They're creatures of instinct. They can't stop themselves. Their sinful instinct and desires are so strong. Peter uses this image of eyes full of adultery, dogs returning to vomit, swine going back to the mud. This is just their natural bent. They're driven by sinful passions, again, because they are enslaved to them. And so they can tout themselves as having freedom and offering freedom, but in reality, they're simply worshiping a different master. And that's how this chapter ends. Peter just stops there and he lets this sink in for his readers. There is no real hope offered because, do not miss this, this lifestyle is destined for hell fire. These false teachers live as though they are accountable to no one and nothing. They serve no master and so they fancy themselves independent agents free to live however they want, and Peter warns us of the truth of the situation, again, they may not worship God, but they are absolutely worshipers of something. In this case, it's simply their most base, sinful desires. They're enslaved to them. At a famous commencement speech, a well-known author and public speaker said these words, Here's something else that's true. In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshiping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And tragically, the man who said these words took his own life just a handful of years later. I want you to consider this. Apparently, the freedom to worship whatever he wanted wasn't all that satisfying. Dear God, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the reality of truth and objective truth that can only be found in your word. Lord, I pray for these believers. I pray for each and every one of them in this room that they would understand the seriousness of the choice that they have to be true followers of the Lord Jesus Christ or to worship their own sinful passions and desires, to turn away from the truth that they have in front of them. Lord, I pray that that would not be the case for any of them. I pray that they would be genuine believers, that they would never fall away, that they wouldn't be enslaved to sinful passions like dogs, like animals, but that they would serve Jesus passionately, that their lives would point others to Christ because of the work that He's done in them, the work that He's accomplished in their hearts, not because of anything they've done, but because of all that you have done. It's in Jesus' name that we pray these things. Amen.