okay so 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 9 is where we're going to begin reading tonight 2 Peter chapter 2 and verse 9 to Peter, chapter 2, verse 9, we're looking again at the identicate of an apostate, which is why we have this particular slide on our screen, not so that you feel like you're in a prison. But anyway, verse 9, Peter says, 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. Presumptuous are they, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities. Whereas angels, which are greater in power, might bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord. But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not, and shall utterly perish in their own corruption, and shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the daytime. Spots they are, and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you, having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin, beguiling unstable souls, and heart they have exercised with covetous practices, cursed children. which have forsaken the right way, and are going astray following the way of Balaam the son of Bozor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness, but was rebuked for his iniquity. The dumb ass speaking with man's voice forbade the madness of the prophet. These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest, to whom 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 who were clean escape from them who live in error. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption. For of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought into bondage. For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are 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 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. So he began this particular chapter thinking about false teachers. That's Peter's theme in this book. And he began to identify for us in verses one to three, the characteristics of false teachers. He pointed out that they are divisive. that they are damnable, that they are dissenting, that they're desirable, there are things about them that are attractive, hence they draw followers and those who listen to their every word. They're damaging in the outcome of their so-called ministries and they're deceitful. And he then warned us in verse 3 that their judgment now of a long time lingereth not and their damnation slumbereth not. So he very clearly puts these people in the camp of the unsaved. Though they have ministries, though they're preaching, he talks about their damnation and their judgment. And he's making the point these people are not saved. And sometimes we're so naive about this. We assume that everybody who opens a Bible and preaches is a Christian of some kind and we have to guard against naivety because there are a lot of people who preach and teach who actually have never been born again. and we need to be aware of that. So he then proceeds to cite three Old Testament examples of judgment. He talks about the angels of Genesis chapter 6. He talks about the days of Noah and the destruction of the old world and he talks about the days of Lot and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. And you know it's well being said that if God spares today's cities from judgment he's likely then going to have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah. It seems that you know our society is just as rife with the things that incited God's judgment back then and so we would expect that God will at some point act in judgment against the things that we see in our lifetime. So in summary in verse 9 he says of all that he said so far that the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust on to the day of judgment to be punished. Now this is glad news for the saint but it's bad news for the sinner. You see the Christian is completely forgiven by the grace and mercies of God. He'll never have to face his sin in terms of judgment again. Our sin was judged upon the cross at Calvary. we never have to go back there and face that kind of judgment for our sin. Consequently the Lord's intention is to deliver the godly out of temptations and the word temptations there in the context has to do with judgment and punishment and trials so and so in that respect it's saying that you know the church is not going to be judged we're not going to be subject to the same end as those who are an unbelief. You know in He says, he uses the word temptations, or you want trials. Of course, if somebody goes to court, what's the whole process known as? It's a trial, isn't it? Somebody's on trial, and they're set before the court in judgment, and that's the idea there. So, as far as our sin goes, God's decision has been made on the work of Christ on the cross, and therefore we will not stand trial in that sense. We've been justified. If you understand what the word justified means, it's a legal term. It means that we have been legally set free. If somebody goes to court and lo and behold the jury decides that they are innocent of the charge that has been laid against them, then they're said to be justified. and they're free to go and get on with their lives. And so that's the idea of justification. It's a legal terminology that's applied to the Christian whereby we are set free before God's judgment bar. Now, excuse me, Peter uses two examples from history. He talks about Noah And of course, Noah was a just man. He found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And Noah goes through a very cataclysmic period of judgment. You think, what happened in Noah's day? But he survives it, all right? And in that respect, Noah portrays the tribulation scene. He's a type of the tribulation scene. He goes through the trials of the tribulation, cataclysmic time upon the earth. but ultimately he comes out the other side and just like Noah he enters into a whole new world. Lot however represents the church age saint because he is pulled out before the judgment fire falls on the city of Sodom and that's our excuse the pun lot. We will be pulled out before the judgment fire falls upon this old world. So that's good news for believers but it's very bad news for unbelievers because we're told in verse 9 that they have been reserved unto judgment. He will reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment. to be punished and the word reserved there means kept under guard. So the lost man is kept under guard in preparation for that time when God is going to bring judgment upon this world. In other words, he's not going to escape. The apostate is not going to escape. The one who tinkers with the gospel, the one who makes merchandise of the gospel is not going to escape God's judgment. In fact, James says that those who teach and preach will actually have a far more onerous experience of judgment than others. He says don't desire to be teachers brethren knowing that we will have a much more difficult time in judgment and be scrutinized more as a preacher. than just a regular church member. So he kind of discourages people from seeing the pulpit as somewhere to aspire onto. And in that respect, you know, we come back to this idea that those who are teaching and preaching the Bible, but doing so dishonestly, doing so in unbelief, doing so for a living, are going to be subject to the very clear judgment of God. They shall not escape. They are reserved onto judgment. I think of what Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5.3, he says, for when they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them. Now Peter is continuing to identify for us throughout this chapter those who are false teachers in the midst of the church. And to do this he employs two tools. First of all, he points us to the picture gallery. He takes us down through a parade of rogues and he shows us some pictures, some images of how he sees false teachers. Then he leads us to their charge sheet and he says, here's the things they do, here's the things they've done, here's the things they're guilty of, okay? And tonight we're going to look at that picture gallery. You know, when the government takes a picture, who ever knows when the government wants a picture of you, it's never flattering. You ever noticed that? You know, your passport. Who likes their passport picture? Nobody. You know, you go into that little booth, and in this age of technology, you'd think they'd get a decent picture of you, wouldn't you? But it's like a conspiracy of evil on the part of the government that they have to give you the most unflattering photograph possible so that when you come to the border checkpoint and the immigration officer's looking at your photograph, you're almost embarrassed to look at him, you know, and you sometimes wonder, is he gonna think that's even you? And the same with your driving license, you don't get your driving license picture taken. But here's the thing, if you were arrested tonight and taken down to the police station and charged, you might well find yourself having your photograph taken. And the thing about police mug shots is they aren't very flattering, are they? The police don't give you time to go and have a shower and a shave and brush your hair and put your teeth in and whatever else needs to be done. However you show up on that police station, However disheveled, however rag-tag you look, that's the image that's going to be your mug shot. So mug shots are really beautiful. Have a look at this lot. We'll go past the three Old Testament judgments here. The angels that sinned and then the world that was perished on Noah's day. And then Sodom and Gomorrah. But here's some of the mug shots. These are American mug shots. If you can look at some of these pictures. These are nice people as you can see Not very flattering are they they're not the kind of pictures that you'd want to put on your mantelpiece They're not the kind of pictures that you'd want to frame and say look at my kids. No like on the end. He's got tremendous There's a real teeth thing going on, but but you know what the thing is you look at those pictures They're not flattering are they all right there? You know I'm sure some of those people possibly If you scrub them up they might look alright. But they've been caught and they're just brought into the station. Pictures taken and that's it. They're stuck with those mug shots. The guy on the second end from the top there looks pretty happy about being arrested. But anyway. So Peter's going to do the same thing. He's going to give us some mug shots. They're not pretty. They're not designed to make us feel any sympathy. for false teachers. Again, with the police mug shot, it's not a portrait. They're not there like a photographer coming in on school photograph day and making sure your school tie's straight and that your hair's licked down and it shows you look nice for your mother. The police aren't interested in that. They're interested in portraying you as a villain. They've caught a villain. They want you to look like a villain, okay? They don't want you to look... Basically, want to present an image of you that almost dehumanizes you makes you like someone who's a really bad guy and some of those guys you definitely wouldn't want to meet on a dark night judging by those photographs but anyway Peter does much the same thing with these false teachers and the picture he paints is not a very pretty one the symbols he uses are very much unflattering and I noticed the first one that he references verse 12 He says of them, these are as natural brute beasts. There's what he calls them. Brute beasts. You know, sometimes people, when they behave really badly, we say they behaved like animals, don't we? They behave like animals. And in truth, we probably give a bad name to the animal kingdom because sometimes people behave worse than animals. sometimes we do things that animals would not do. And so Peter says of these false teachers that they're like brute beasts. The word brute means that they're unreasoned. In other words, they're acting on instinct. And he's indicating someone who's dull, someone who's irrational, okay? So not in the sense that, you know, he's not saying that they're brute beasts in the sense that they're worse than animals in the sense that they are guilty of the most depraved or lewd acts necessarily, though sometimes they are, but in the sense that they're living by their wits, living by their instincts. Their lives are governed by the most base passions. And by the end of this passage, when you get down to verse 22, he cites two of those kinds of beasts that he has in mind. He talks about dogs and he talks about pigs. And Jesus warned us about wasting the precious things of life on such people. He said in Matthew 7, 6, Give not that which is holy unto the dogs. Neither cast you your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you. So you know, if you had a beautiful pearl necklace, if it was real pearls, if it was natural pearls and it spilled out onto the floor, you know, everybody here would be scooping up the pearls for you, hopefully. Except for the dishonest person who would be pocketing them. But everybody else would be picking them up. But if you drop them in front of a pig, pig dunker, he's just going to tromple all over them. He's got no taste for the finer things in life, he's just going to do what pigs do. So Peter says of this kind of animal that's made to be taken and destroyed, you know, A few months ago there was a bit of a furore because in North Wales there was a dog on the loose on the M56 I think it is it goes out to North Wales and the dog was on the loose and it was going on and out of the traffic and motorists were having to swerve to avoid the dog. And there was a real risk of a serious collision. And so the police came along and they tried to capture the dog. And in the process of trying to capture the dog, the dog bit one of the police officers. And of course then they had to let the dog go. Well in the end the dog was creating such a problem on the motorway. people's lives were at such risk that the police took a decision that the only way to deal with this was to destroy the dog and they chose to run the dog over and they deliberately knocked this dog down and to kill it because they didn't have time to send for an RSPCA officer or a police weapons officer and they just ran it down and there was you know people were up in arms you know what a terrible thing you know it's kind of funny I was talking to Pastor Darren about it. He said there was somebody in Cardiff that was mounting a pavement trying to knock down people. He killed three and nobody said a thing about it. He says you kill a dog on the motorway and the whole country's up in arms. But I guess that shows where people's priorities are. But you know, this is the idea here. These teachers are certain to perish at the hand of Almighty God. God is gunning for them. He's coming for them. And Peter says they speak evil of things they understand not. Now we have a little dog, as many of you know, a little Yorkshire Terrier, and she's pretty good most of the time, but she just goes ballistic when the postman comes. She has this thing, a lot of dogs do, don't they? He's got this thing about the postman. I mean, as soon as he parks his car, she's off. She'll be yapping. He may not even be coming to our house, but she's just yapping, yapping, yapping, yapping. And you know, sometimes I'm up in my study and I hear and I'm having to say to her to shut up and then she'll be quiet. But when the postman actually comes up to drive, and he puts his letters through the letter box. That dog goes nuts. and it goes screaming out there you know it's kind of like a cartoon dog because we've got we don't have carpet in our floors so our paws are slipping on the floors and so she's kind of like a cartoon dog with her legs going like that before she actually gets a grip and takes off so there's no danger of the postman ever being bitten because he's usually about four seconds behind his arrival but nevertheless you know she goes out there and she grabs the letters and she you know rips the letters up and so on and you know what I give off to her, I've tried to calm her, I've sat with her and told her the postman's a nice person and, you know, it's gonna be alright, you know, look, I'm not upset, you know, no, take it easy, you know, he's welcome here, he's our friend. It made no difference. Why? Because, you know, I'm speaking things that that dog doesn't understand, okay? It doesn't comprehend those things. And the dog is reacting to things it doesn't understand. For the dog's point of view, the postman is, uh, is, is, is, uh, what's the word I'm looking for? Intruder. There's the word I'm looking for. He's an intruder. He's stepping onto our patch. And so she sees herself as protecting the house from somebody who's invading our territory. Okay, hence she's going mad every time the postman approaches. And she doesn't appreciate, you know, that I want to read those letters. And, you know, I don't particularly care to have holes, you know, bite marks in my letters. You know, Hazel said one time, actually she said it more than one time, that I love paper more than I love people. And she may have something there. Because I do have this thing for pens and paper. you know if I get paper it's always nice and you know it's always laid out and this dog destroys paper okay so it drives me mad if I have to open my letter and there's dog slobber on it and there's a bite mark in it or a tear in it and I'm like oh no but you know what That's how Peter sees these false teachers. He sees them barking at things they don't understand. That they have no real experience of. The false teacher scoffs at the things of God. He's like a barking dog. know he would contest the virgin birth or he'll deny the resurrection or something of that nature and he's not really understanding the reality of those matters he's deriding spiritual truth and he feels rather good about himself in doing so you know our dog when it has had that go at the postman you can tell she comes back in and she looks at you like well I did a good job and you're thinking no you did a terrible job well these people are the same They step off the platform and they feel like well I did a good job. And Peter says no you people are speaking about things you don't even understand. Look what Jude says in Jude chapter 1 and verse 10. You know Jude and 2 Peter are parallel books or sister books. They touch on the same subject matter and they often say the same things essentially. And we see that here it says, but these, in verse 10, speaking of false teachers, these speak evil of those things which they know not. They haven't entered into these truths experientially. You know, maybe intellectually they can understand them. Maybe they can, you know, articulate the theology. But in terms of experience, the gospel means nothing to them. He says, but what they know naturally as brute beasts, same term, in those things they corrupt themselves. So there's the first picture in the rogues gallery of the false teacher. He's a brute beast. The second image that Peter brings us to is spots and blemishes. Look at verse 13. He says they shall receive the reward of unrighteousness as they that count it pleasure to ride in the daytime, spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you. Now when he says they're spots, He's talking about a stain. He's not talking about a decorative spot. He's not talking about Emma Bridgewater pottery here. He's talking about a stain. You know, you get a spot on your tie or a spot on your shirt and you've got to change your shirt or change your tie or whatever. There's nothing attractive or decorative about that kind of spot, is there? I mean, if you're nothing like me, you know, I'm hopeless. If I'm a clean shirt, I'm telling you now, something's going down there. Gravy, tomato, ketchup, something is going to go down that shirt, no matter how hard I try. And, you know, Jude says much the same thing of false teachers again. Look in Jude chapter 1 and verse 12. Say chapter 1, there's only one chapter. Jude and verse 12. These are spots, he says, in your feasts of charity. When they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear. Now, the Greek word that is used here for spot is quite interesting. It's the word Spylas. And it refers to a hidden rock, to something that is a stumbling block or something that is a threat that lies beneath the surface of a thing, particularly beneath the surface of water. And that's how Peter sees these false teachers. That's how Jude sees them. In fact that word is only used in three places in scripture. Two Peter and Jude being two of those three places. We'll look at the third one in a moment. But it describes a hidden rock beneath the surface of the water. Now you think about what does a rock do beneath the surface of the water if it's hidden? What does it do to a ship? It sinks it. It'll just tear the hull out of the ship and that ship's going down. And you think about the great denominations. of this country, you know, that used to have thousands of people sitting under the sound of the gospel. And what happened? Apostates came in. False teachers came in. They came through the Bible colleges. They trained the ministers. They put them in the pulpits. And before you know it, the hull was torn out of the ship and those great denominations have sunk. You know, I was out the other day and Brian Lees, there's a Methodist church out there. took a quick look at it don't worry we're not banning it but we took a quick look at it because we we were thinking about the bible college and maybe looking maybe trying to have some kind of dooring facility or something in the future very tentative so don't fret but uh anyway we just and and brown lees is a small little village isn't it I mean there's nothing there really. Just a post office and I don't even know if there was a pub. There might have been a pub. There probably was a pub. And just a few houses. Nothing much I don't imagine. Back in the day that it was very many people lived there. And here's this huge Methodist church. I mean it's massive. I mean it was swamp orchards and I got up in the pulpit, it's absolutely falling apart, there's water streaming down the insides of the walls and it's decaying and it's ready to fall down. And I got up in the pulpit and I looked out there and I guessed it made it. There must have been close to a thousand people came to that church at one point. It was that big. And now you look at it. You know as far as I know there's no Methodist church in Brownlees. It's gone. Sunk. What sunk it? What sank the Methodist denomination largely? Apostasy. Liberalism. That's what destroyed them. You know, if John Wesley came to their pulpits today, most of them wouldn't have him. You know, I spoke to two people in recent times. One of them is John Cook and another fellow I spoke to recently. Both of them told me the same thing. They sat before a panel in the Methodist church and told them that they would preach the gospel, that Jesus Christ shed his blood for the sins of men. He died and rose again the third day. And they said, we won't have you. And they refused to give them the approval to join the ministry. That's shocking. I mean, here you are at the core of the gospel. And that's a shocking testimony against Methodism in this modern era. So, you know, Peter says of these fellows that they're like rocks that sink ships. Now, also notice what Jude says, he says they are seen at the Feast of Charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear. You know, once in a while you and I, we have a fellowship lunch here at church, you know, maybe after a Sunday afternoon, we've done it the last couple of July's, we've had the Sunday afternoon barbecue after the morning service, or we have the fellowship dinner in January or whatever. We enjoy them, you know, they're a lot of work, but we enjoy them. Okay But think about this in early church times. They used to do that on a weekly basis Okay, they did it after church Sunday morning. They would have a love feast and a gap a meal and and they would sit down and they would share food together. At the end of that meal they had the Lord's Supper and the Lord's Supper brought it all to a close and it emphasised that they were in communion with the Lord and with one another. Now most times those meals went swimmingly. There was no problem, everybody came along, the rich, the poor, they shared their food, they had everything in common just like we do. I'll bring and share a meal, you come along, somebody maybe brings a packet of biscuits and somebody else brings, you know, steak or whatever. And, you know, so you have two ends of the scale. But who cares? It's about the fellowship, isn't it? It's not about, you know, the delicacies or the brilliance of the cook or, you know, the quality of the food or those things. But back in the Bible times, particularly in Corinthians, Paul points out that there were sometimes issues at these fellowship meets. Look in 1 Corinthians chapter 11. this is the passage that just precedes the sorry chapter 10 notice we said chapter 10 verse 16. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we, being many, are one bread and one body. We are all partakers of that one bread. Behold, Israel after the flesh, are not they which eat of the sacrifices, partakers of the altar? What say I then, that the idol is anything, or that which is offered in sacrifices to idols is anything? But I say, the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils and not to gods, and I would not that you should fellowship with devils. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of the devils. You cannot be partaker of the Lord's table and off the devil's table. Okay? So he's setting the whole thing up to further discuss communion. And he come into verse 17 of the next chapter. He says, Now in this I declare unto you, I praise you not that you come together, not for the better, but for the worse. For first of all, when you come together in the church, I hear there be divisions among you. So there was a party spirit and I partly believe it. Now notice this where he says, for there must be also what? Heresies among you. If there's a division among you, there must be heresies. That was one of Peter's points in those first three verses. False teachers are divisive. They create schisms. He says, there must be heresies among you, verse 19, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you. When you come together, therefore, into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper. For in eating, every one taketh before other his own supper, and one is hungry and another is drunken. What, says Paul, have you not houses to eat and to drink in? Or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I praise you not. Now notice he says, he says in verse 21, one's hungry and another is drunken. One person is going without and the other person is eating and drinking to excess. And that was the dichotomy in that church, that's how things were working out. You know, I remember when I was a young draftsman, I used to work with this man, lovely man, David Duncan, Christian man, and he had the best lunchbox of anybody I know. I mean, that guy had a lunch. I used to envy his lunch every day. As a single man, I used to envy his lunch because I used to dash out the door, you know, typical young person going to work, you know, get out of bed 20 minutes before the job starts, throw your clothes on, jump in the car and get to work, you know, come in still bleary eyed, wondering how you got there. Typical young lad. And if I had a lunch, it was usually like just something thrown together as I was charging out the door. He, on the other hand, he had the best lunches. he had this massive lunchbox and he would open it up and he would say I wonder what my wife's made me today and he would put out these fantastic sandwiches and homemade buns and crisps and fizzy drinks and I think man he's got it made you know and now this wasn't the Lord's Supper okay it wasn't a church situation it was a work situation but sometimes I looked and I felt like man I you know he's got so much and all I've got is this piece of steel bread and jam you know and I used to couldn't wait till I got married till I could have a lunchbox like his lunchbox that didn't quite work out but anyway but nevertheless that's what I was hoping for however however my wife thought that I liked corned beef well I did like corned beef But she started giving it to me every day. Every day I got corned beef for my lunch. And this guy, David Duncan, loved corned beef. So I was able to swap my sandwiches for his on occasion. And then she found out about that later on. But nevertheless, I digress. The point is that at this church, there was this division. There was those who were gluttonous, those who were evidently carnal. And that carnality was a stain and a blemish. the church. It was a matter of shame and disgrace that's what the word blemish means there in 2 Peter when he says that there's a spot and there's a blemish that they that they are that they have spots and their blemish is sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you. See that? These people are gluttonous. They're carnal. Now I told you this word spilous The word for spot appears in one other place. Three places in scripture. Jude, 2 Peter, the other place is Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5. And look at what this says concerning the future of the church and the glory of the church. Ephesians chapter 5 verse 25. Husbands loved your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it that he might sanctify and cleanse it. with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself. A glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without what? Blemish. Without blemish. Now, if the church is going to appear before Christ with no spot or blemish, what does that say for false teachers who are described as spots and blemishes? It says they're not going to be there. They're not part of the true church. Then the next analogy, the next symbol he uses is wells without water. Wells without water. Look at verse 17. These are wells without water. Simple as that. You know, Jeremiah, he lamented that the people of his day had forsaken me, forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out broken cisterns that can hold no water. You know, the church today is facing the same problem. Apostates are leaving the churches hungry and thirsty for the truth. You know there are many Christians and I don't know how many I've met but there are many many Christians in this country who find themselves in churches where the Bible isn't taught. Many of them. I mean you would be amazed. I would hazard a guess there are thousands of Christians in this country who attend churches where the Bible isn't taught. You know, well just Sunday there, Matt Tabner and Natasha were telling me they were at a wedding on Saturday and the vicar got up to give the address. It was a woman vicar and she got up to give the address and she spoke about Doctor Who and how Doctor Who was like Jesus because Doctor Who saves the world. Friends, that's why churches are starving. You know, that's the problem that we're facing today. And there are many Christians sadly who are sitting under the ministries of people like that. Not that women should be in ministry, but sitting under the ministries of people who profess to be spokespersons for God, clergymen, clergywomen, and they simply do not feed people the Word of God. The truth is if a woman preacher fed the Word of God the way she ought to, she'd have to resign, wouldn't she? She'd have to step down and say, you know what, the Bible says I shouldn't be here. But anyway, you know, there's many people who are attending churches where the pastor is an unbeliever, is a Bible denier. And, you know, I've met many, many Christians who wish they could come to a church like this one. where the scriptures are told. But sadly those who go to churches like this one think this church is the norm. But actually it's not the norm. It's not the norm. And if people get a hold of that, maybe we should just bundle everybody up some day and take them to that church where Matt and Natasha went to. And say, sit there for three weeks and then come back and tell us why you don't come to midweek Bible study. And they'll appreciate it, you see? You see the point I'm making? But that's how false teachers are. You know, you're expecting them to give you something they're wells without water. You're expecting them to deliver something. They're like that fig tree that seemed to blossom and seemed to give Jesus the message that there were figs on it. But of course when he got there, no figs. And he cursed it. Now that's symbolic of Israel, not of the church. But nevertheless there's an application for the church. I think the Lord also curses those churches which promise to deliver but fail to actually realize the promise. And so, you know, it's a tragedy for Christians to find themselves under this kind of ministry. I remember in visitation many, many years ago meeting a man who was very disillusioned with the Christian life. He had made a profession of faith. and I chatted with him and I asked him why he didn't go to church and he says well he says it was like this he says I used to go on Sunday and it'd be like a balloon he says they'd just blow me up blow me up blow me up but all week long I was just deflated and I just have to go back on Sunday to get blown up again to face the week ahead well you know what that tells me that he wasn't in the right kind of church because the church should have been feeding his soul and teaching him to feed his own soul so that he could go daily with the bread of life and with the bread of the word and survive the week without having to depend on coming back to be puffed up on Sundays. So Peter too, he uses a cloud analogy like Jude does. You know, Jude talks about clouds without water. Peter talks about clouds with water. Look at what he says now in verse 17, the second half, he says, not only are there like wells without water, he says they are like storm clouds. They are clouds that are carried with a tempest, to whom the mist of darkness is reserved forever. Now, if empty clouds bring disappointment, which they do in the Middle East, you know, Jude talks about it. Let's go back and have a look at Jude. Actually, I didn't really cover that, did I? Let's have a look at Jude. Jude verse 12 again. These are spots in your feast of charity when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear. Clouds they are without water, carried up out of the winds, trees whose fruit withers without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots. Now notice that he says that he says of the false teachers like a cloud without water. Now you and I don't particularly care for rain clouds. Alright, we like nice sunny days like today. It's lovely today. Beautiful day, out in the garden, doing a bit of work and what have you. Gorgeous. Tomorrow, I understand it's supposed to rain. There's supposed to be rain clouds coming in tonight. And Hazel phoned her mum in the middle of the afternoon and she said it was absolutely chucking it down where she was in Northern Ireland. It was absolutely pouring out of the heavens. Now, we think that's, you know, if it's pouring down, what do we come in and say? It's a terrible day, isn't it? It's a terrible day. You have a beautiful day like this. Oh, it's a lovely day. It's a lovely day. Israel, the Middle East, exactly the opposite. A beautiful day is the day it rains. They love rain. They like nothing better than to see a cloud gathering. And they want that rain to pour on the land because it's critical to their harvest. And so whilst we are often swimming through rainwater, they are praying for rainwater. So it's exactly the opposite. And Peter, Jude says that the result of that is that you end up with fruit withered, without fruit. And notice how he describes these false teachers twice dead. What does that mean? If you're twice dead? Eternal death, it's a second death. Those who go to the lake of fire are subject to the second death. Alright, so if the false teachers are twice dead, what does that say about them? They're unsaved. Again, he's emphasising the point, they're not saved. Now, if those empty clouds bring disappointment, storm clouds, well they bring destruction. Nobody likes a storm. storms are fearful things particularly if you get in a big one and Peter was a fisherman he was often on the Lake of Galilee and the Lake of Galilee is notorious for having these sudden storms that will come and you know in Bible times would have certainly jeopardized small fishing vessels such as Peter and his friends would have used. So Peter knew the destructive power of storms. Maybe he didn't see the kind of storms that we see. You think about Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. That's a pretty powerful storm, wasn't it? Or Hurricane Sandy that hit the eastern coast of the United States some years back. I think that was the most Damaging storm of all in terms of the financial damage that was caused by that storm or other tornadoes you know they have in America the tornado season and the tornadoes come down what they call tornado alley and Hazel and I were in actually with John Jones in Trenton, Georgia and Tennessee border Chattanooga and and there was a mountain in front of us and the mountain was covered in pine forest and right through the middle of it there was this track and you thought it was a man-made track you know that was done by the forestry commission or somebody to access the forest but John was explaining that was the track of a tornado. and had just come down and cut through this forest like a big giant lawnmower. That's how it looked, just like somebody had come along with a lawnmower. It was a straight line right through this forest of mature trees. It was just amazing to see this thing. But that's the destructive power of the wind. Now apostasy does the same thing in churches. It leaves scars and it destroys lives as it goes along its path. And these clouds are harbingers of darkness and of death. Notice what Peter says at the tail end of that verse. He says, to whom the mist of darkness is reserved forever. Apostates promise to lead people to the light. But really they're leading people into the darkness, to the mists of darkness, to outer darkness. I have been reading Jim Baker's story. I think I mentioned this a couple of Sundays ago. Jim Baker, if you're not familiar, was the leading televangelist in the 1980s and 90s. I mean, he was a big, big name in the world of televangelism. In fact, he was really a pioneer. for a lot of what you see on the God channel and things like that today. Long story short, to me this book is like, it just blows my mind. It just blows my mind at the wickedness and the corruption in that world. He at one point is in trouble with his wife. They're having marriage problems. His wife's a drug addict. She's on prescription drugs. That's not why they're having trouble. That's just another essay to what's going on. And so they're having all these marital problems and he confides in a friend that he's concerned about the marriage. So the friend, who's a minister apparently, minister, twice dead probably the minister says well why don't you make her jealous have an affair what kind of advice is that to give one minister to another supposed minister and you know first he rejects it but anyway he brings him down this is his story what Baker says he brings him down there I think they're on a beach or something and he tells him to come up to this room there's a young lady wants to meet him And long story short, he goes up there, he commits adultery with that young woman, he says he was with her 20 minutes, he committed adultery with her, and then he covered up his sin. Five or six years later, it all comes out, the newspaper gets wind of it, and so on and so forth. And he winds up in prison, and he winds up in prison not for committing adultery, because you don't go to prison for committing adultery, but the courts have decided that he defrauded the people who were giving money to the TV station that he was leading. Now, I've read this book, and I've read about 350 pages of it, and most of it I think is somewhat self-piteous, but nevertheless, there's a very interesting, I showed it to Hazel today, a very interesting statement he makes. It's quite a shocking statement that Jim Maker makes. He admits to using unsaved ministers. on his PTL program, here he is now. He admits to using deliberately, well at least knowingly, using people on that program who he says were either not very intimate with Christ, they didn't have a good walk with the Lord, or in his words, they didn't know him at all. And you say, well why does he have them on? Here's why he says he had them on, because they were performing miracles. Hey, they had gifts. Now hold on a minute. If you're not saved, how in the world can you have a spirit gift? Spiritual gift? You can't give a spiritual gift if you're not saved. Alright, so these guys are casting out demons and giving words of knowledge and I say cast out demons, this is the stuff they're doing, it's a pantomime, it's a circus. But anyway, they're claiming to do all this stuff and people are suckered in by it and they're panting the money. Now, Baker, while he's sitting in prison, while he's languishing in prison, he does an interesting thing. He reads the Bible. And he's reading the words of Jesus. He decides he's just going to read the words of Jesus. And he gets to that section in the scripture where people come before the Lord and they say, you know, haven't we done many marvellous works? Haven't we prophesied in your name? And he says, depart from me, I never knew you. And it suddenly dawns on him. that that's what he and his cohorts were up to. And this is probably the only good part of the book, but here's the dramatic statement he makes. He says, I now realize I was setting people up, preconditioning them to accept an Antichrist who will be able to perform miracles. That's quite a statement. And you know, it doesn't come from somebody like me. It's straight from the horse's mouth. That's what the man said. I can take you to the book and show it to you. I was astounded. My jaw hit the floor. I thought, is he serious? I mean, I believe what he says is right, by the way. But I just could not believe that he came to that point where he realized that all of this was a great spiritual deception that he was part of and was pre-conditioning people for the reign of Antichrist. I'm glad he realised that, but yet countless thousands and millions of people, even now, sit at their televisions sucking this stuff up and they're being deceived by false teachers. Now, The next analogy, the next picture he wants to draw for us. Verse 22, Peter says, but it happened unto them according to the true proverb, the dog is turned to his own vomit again. Now, have you ever got a queasy stomach? No, I didn't do a dog vomit picture, that would not be good. All right. But it's just a picture of a dog eating grass, which is usually a prelude to it vomiting. Anyway. But here's the thing, the idea of dog vomit is just horrible when you think about it. In ancient Jewish culture, a dog was nothing but a filthy scavenger. They didn't have dogs like we have dogs as pets and breed, they look cute. You know, Pomeranians and all those kind of things. Their dogs were scavengers. They went around sniffing out rubbish in bins and doing what Peter says they did. Eating their own vomit. And the dog was viewed as something filthy, something foul. And Peter uses this picture because it's a picture of filth within. The dog is eating something disgusting and taking it inside. It's part of it's disgusting diet. Now there's reasons why a dog does what it does. For a start, it is a brute beast isn't it? So you can't blame a dog for doing what dogs instinctively are programmed to do. And the reason why a dog can do this is that dogs have a very low threshold of vomiting. In other words, it doesn't take a great deal to make a dog sick. You know, with our little dog, you change her diet, and sometimes she'll just be sick. Because you've just changed a little thing in her diet. Dogs have these very sensitive stomachs. Now, the amazing thing is, you and I, we can eat all kinds of stuff. We eat stuff that dogs couldn't eat. You know, we eat chilies. You don't realise that there's not an animal in the whole of the animal kingdom that eats chilies, but the human being eats chilies. And we love chilies. The human race, generally, not you in particular. anyway but you know here people have cast iron stomachs you know you can eat something that's even a little bit off and you know you may feel a little bit queasy but you'll manage to digest it for the most part we're usually only sick vomiting when we're actually really sick usually so you have to be really ill to do that but a dog it doesn't take a whole lot to you know get his