Well, good morning. I'm going to do something I haven't done before. I'm going to use my laptop to preach from this morning instead of paper notes. But I have paper in case this fails on me. But the reason I'm doing this is because, as you well know, you can zoom your computer up to the size your eyes need versus my paper is one size and I'm stuck with it. So hopefully that won't be a distraction to you. By the way, if you're wondering what my stickers are, Ethnos 360 is a great mission. So look it up sometime. Actually, probably some of you are familiar with missionaries that serve with Ethnos 360. It used to be called New Tribes Mission, and I think about 10 years ago they changed their name. Well, this morning the title of my sermon, as you can see up on the screen, is Recognizing and Rescuing And before I start into that, I want to do a little review. Probably it's difficult for anybody to remember. It's even difficult for me to remember because these messages that I have been preaching from the book of 2 Peter have been spread over the last year. But I wanted to start out and do a little review from 2 Peter chapter 1. First of all, as is probably pretty obvious, because the book is called 2 Peter, Peter the Apostle is this book's author. He was probably the lead disciple of Jesus during the years when Jesus was on the earth. He was also the one that stuck his foot in his mouth, like some of us do the most. But he became one of the great leaders of the church, the early church, and he's the one that wrote the book. Secondly, we saw in chapter 1 that God calls us to continual growth. and that there's a grave danger if we don't grow, and I'm getting ahead of myself here, so let's, yeah, there's a grave danger if we choose not to grow. If we just say, well, I'm pretty good where I'm at, I think I'm comfortable, I'm just gonna stay where I'm at, that's a very dangerous thing, Peter tells us in chapter one. And then the last and perhaps most important thing in chapter one is that God's written word is the most important source of truth. You may recall that Peter reminds the people of the experience that he had on the mountaintop when the transfiguration happened and Jesus was made white as snow and Elijah and Moses came down. And you think to yourself, wow, that was a great experience. That must be the greatest thing in Peter's life. And he says, no, that is not. The greatest thing is the written word of God. And so we saw all of that in chapter one, excuse me. Then last time that I preached back in October, We looked at the first nine verses of chapter two and we found out that there will be false teachers. And we're going to talk more about that today. And then secondly, we saw several witnesses to the judgments of God. And we saw one of them was how God sent a judgment on the whole earth and destroyed all mankind except for eight. There were eight people in that ark, and God provided a way of salvation for them. So not only do we see that God brings judgment on the wicked, but He also provides a way of salvation for those who will take it. And so that is a quick summary of where we went in the first three messages on 2 Peter. Today, we are going to see three things. We're going to see the wild words of false teachers, and we're going to look at the wicked ways of false teachers, And then we're going to look at the worse-off wreckage left by false teachers. And of course, I was trying to make lots of W's there, and maybe that will make it a little easier to remember. But first of all, we're going to start out and we're going to look at the wild words of false teachers. So I'm going to go ahead and read the passage here, and hopefully you can join along in your Bibles. 2 Peter 2, I'll be starting with verse 10. It says, "...this is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority. Bold and arrogant, these men are not afraid to slander celestial beings. Yet even angels, although they are stronger and more powerful, do not bring slanderous accusations against such beings in the presence of the Lord." But these men blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like brute beasts, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed. And like beasts, they too will perish. They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you. With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning. They seduce the unstable. They are experts in greed and a cursed brood. They have left the straightway and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam, son of Baor, who loved the wages of wickedness. But he was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey, a beast without speech, who spoke with a man's voice and restrained the prophet's madness. These men are springs without water, and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. For they mouth empty, boastful words, and by appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom while they themselves are slaves of depravity. For a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him. If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to have known it and then turned their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. Of them the proverb is true, a dog returns to its vomit and a sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud. Join me as I pray and ask God to guide in our consideration of this text. Lord, we thank you for your word and we pray that as we look into it this morning that we will see what you intend from it and then that we will take from it applications that change the way that we live. Please help me to remember the things I've prepared and to do a good job and not get in the way of your truth being seen. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Sheila, would you mind getting me a bottle of water? I didn't have a frog in my throat before I got up here, but now all of a sudden I do. Well, let's begin by thinking about verses 10 through 13, the first half of verse 13. And in your notes, as I've already suggested, these I'm going to describe as the wild words of false teachers. And the first question we need to answer with verse 10 is, what is the this to which Peter is referring when he says, this is especially true, thank you, of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature? So to answer that question we need to return to verse 9 where Peter tells us that God is more than able, as we just mentioned a little bit earlier, to hold the unrighteous for the time of their judgment. In other words, Peter is saying we've just seen three examples of how God brought judgment on those who were wicked. So let me tell you more. about these false teachers whom God is going to judge. The first thing Peter tells us about these false teachers is they allow themselves to be directed by the nature that we all have that is messed up because of Adam and Eve's rebellion way back in the Garden of Eden. Some translations use the term sinful nature, while others use the more literal word, the flesh. We know from other scriptures, as well as our experience, that even true followers of Jesus struggle with giving in to our sinful natures, don't we? A true believer, however, will be prompted by the indwelling Holy Spirit to realize that this is sin and ask for forgiveness. Our Heritage Kids Club students recently memorized Galatians 5.16-18, and I could call them up here to sing it, but I won't do that. So it says, Galatians 5.16-18, So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law." I encourage you and myself to use those Heritage Family Prayer Cards. that remind you of your brothers and sisters in heritage. We all need to be praying for each other that we can live by the Spirit, because it's not easy. It's a battle every day. We all have sinful natures. And of course, sometimes we'll still fail, but if a true believer asks God for forgiveness, we know that 1 John 1, 9 assures us, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to purify us from all unrighteousness. So returning to our text, these false teachers not only follow their corrupted nature, but they very much hate any source of control over them. Paul says that they are bold. Now that isn't necessarily by itself a bad thing, but when it's coupled with the next descriptive word, arrogant, now we see that that boldness is bad. These men believe that they have the authority to speak badly of beings that the NIV, that I've been preaching from this morning, translates as celestial beings. Other translations use the words dignitaries, glorious ones, or angelic majesties. These are spiritual beings created and given great power by God. Some of these beings have rebelled against God, and while these beings can only do what God allows them to do, you will not find the Bible telling you and me that we, as human beings, have any authority to command these celestial beings what they can do. Peter tells us even God's angels, who have far more power than we do, do not dare to speak badly about these beings. Yet these false teachers, Peter tells us, think that they can speak badly of them. And you may have heard someone, a self-professing believer, claim to be able to bind or rebuke demons, or even Satan himself. And perhaps you've done that yourself, thinking that the Bible gave you the authority to do so. I would encourage you to do a careful study of the Bible for yourself, as you will search in vain for commands to you that you have the authority to do that. Now, some might use Matthew 18, 18 as a basis for this. However, review of the context, which is very important whenever we study scripture, shows that it's speaking about confronting a brother or sister who has been involved in sin rather than an angelic being. Certainly we pray for God to defend us from Satan's forces, and we can ask God to bind them, but we need to remember that He alone has the authority and the power to do so. It's interesting that the book of Acts gives us an example of the danger of commanding demons without having the authority. You may recall the story in Acts chapter 19. I encourage you to open your Bible, turn your Bible to Acts chapter 19. Verse 13, we know Jesus cast out demons, and we know He gave special authority to His apostles to do this, but notice what happened when others who had not been given such power tried to do so. Again, this is Acts chapter 19, verses 13 through 16. Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, in the name of Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out. Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. One day the evil spirit answered them, Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you? Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding." Wow! Maybe we don't want to picture that, but that's what is recorded in the book of Acts when people took on themselves an authority that God had not given them. And listen to what Jude says when he speaks of men who slander celestial beings. In verse 9 of his letter, Jude says, But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a slanderous accusation against him, but said, The Lord rebuke you. So let us be very careful that we don't claim for ourselves authority which God's Word does not give us. In our notes regarding the false teachers, point A under Roman numeral 1, they slander powerful beings without authority. They slander powerful beings without authority. Well, Peter goes further on in the passage to describe the way that these false teachers speak. He tells us that they talk about things on which they're not informed. We must guard ourselves against doing that, and I'm afraid I have to admit to you that there's been too many times when I have done that, spoken as if I were an expert on some topic, and when in reality, I was not. Peter compares the false teachers to an animal that is born, follows the amazing programming that God has given it, but because this is a fallen world, the creatures eventually die. It's caught and destroyed. And as I read this, I couldn't help but think of deer. They are prolific, even in the city. I hit one on Olive Boulevard a couple of years ago. In order to keep from there being too many, many of us enjoy hunting them in the fall. Well, Peter compares the end of these false teachers to animals like that. Finally, Peter gives the ominous warning that these teachers will receive punishment which is in keeping with the bad things they have brought about by their false teaching. That should be something that catches our attention, especially those of us who teach. We had better be careful that we are carefully teaching God's Word and not just our own ideas. So point B under Roman numeral 1, they will perish like animals that are caught. Well, not only Does Peter describe the wild words of false teachers, but he also describes, as I would suggest in your notes there, if you're following along in the sermon notes, the wicked ways of false teachers. And this will take us through the second half of verse 13 into the first half of verse 18 in our passage. the wicked ways of false teachers. And Peter tells us that they are willing to behave in sinful ways without even hiding it. As the NIV says, in broad daylight. The NIV term translated corrals is also conveyed as revel by other translations. And as we read more of Peter's description, we can conclude that these teachers get involved in drunkenness and immorality. Amazingly, Peter says they even do this while they are meeting with true believers. So that tells us that we need to be on guard for false teachers even in our midst within the church. People who look like or are trying to look like they're true believers and yet they're doing these kinds of things. They constantly want more. That is, they're greedy. And that's another characteristic that we need to watch out for when we're observing teachers. If we see a person who's greedy, we should be very concerned. And sadly, we can see some of these greedy types of people on television programs, claiming to be preachers of God's word, but in reality, being in it primarily for the money. So in our notes, point number A under Roman numeral two, they are not ashamed of doing evil. They're not ashamed of doing evil. Verse 14 of 2 Peter 2 says, "...with eyes full of adultery they never stop sinning. They seduce the unstable. They are experts in greed and a cursed brood." In addition to mentioning their sinful pursuit of money again, Peter tells us that these false teachers involve themselves in sexual immorality again and again. Even worse, Peter tells us they take advantage of people who do not have a firm foundation of truth for their lives. Peter refers to these people as unstable. And this is a good time to remind ourselves what God's Word says about sexual immorality. At the very beginning of history, in Genesis 2, God defines marriage as a relationship between one man and one woman. In Mark 10, verse 9, Jesus reminds His listeners, "...therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate." And the writers of the Hebrews in chapter 13, verse 4 says, Over the past hundred years or so, our culture has been slowly but surely rejecting what God says about marriage. One of the big reasons society has rejected God's standard is because many are convinced it's not truly His Word. Nearly every public education system forces its teachers to teach a history that contradicts the Bible's history. So people realize that if the Bible's history isn't true, then the rest of God's Word isn't worth their time either. And this is one reason that we as a church regularly seek to provide opportunities for creation speakers And it's the reason that Parker and Reese are teaching our 5th through 8th graders apologetics. And apologetics is not apologizing for what we believe, it's understanding the reasons, the great evidences that we have. The Word of God is by far the best explanation of the universe in which we live, but many people don't know that, and if we don't teach that, It's not surprising. So, if the foundation of God's word is lost, we should not be surprised to see people rejecting God's standards for sexual purity. And Peter tells us these false teachers are doing that very thing. Even though most of us know this already, it's a good idea for us to remind ourselves that marriage is God's idea. It's not just a social convenience that mankind came up with to improve society. As the Hebrews passage shows us, sexuality is only to be enjoyed between a man and a woman who are married. And God intends marriage to last for a lifetime. At the same time, God is merciful and God is gracious. If we have missed the mark in the past, but are willing to repent and ask for God's forgiveness, just as we read earlier, He promises to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. In 1 Corinthians 6, Paul speaks of many sins, including sexual immorality. He says those who continually live in this way are not true followers of Jesus Christ. But then, listen to what he says after that in verse 11. This is encouraging, because we're all sinners. 1 Corinthians 6, verse 11. And that is what some of you were, but you were washed You were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. So, even if we have sinned against God in sexual immorality, if we repent and place our faith in Jesus alone, He promises to forgive us and to wash us clean. We can be right with God. This is the good news of forgiveness. Returning directly to our passage, if we see one who claims to be a follower of Jesus Christ, especially one who is preaching and teaching, but sees no problem with immorality and dragging others into it, we must urge them to repent and we must reject them as false teachers. So in our notes, point B under Roman numeral two, they drag others and themselves into immorality. They drag others and themselves into immorality. In verse 16 and 17, Peter compares these false teachers to an Old Testament character named Balaam. Now, some of us may be familiar with Balaam, maybe others are not, but he was given some form of prophetic knowledge and ability from God. The Bible makes that clear in the book of Numbers. As Peter reminds us here, he ended up using his gift from God for selfish purposes, or at least he tried to. Let's read some of the story of Balaam from the book of Numbers. So I encourage you to flip over back into the Old Testament, the fourth book from the beginning, the book of Numbers, chapter 22. And I'll be starting my reading about halfway through verse 4. Numbers, chapter 22, starting with verse 4. So Balak, son of Zippor, who was a king of Moab at the time, sent messengers to summon Balaam, son of Baor, who was at Pethor, near the river, in his native land. Balak said, A people has come out of Egypt. They cover the face of the land and have settled next to me. Now come and put a curse on these people, because they are too powerful for Me. Perhaps then I will be able to defeat them and drive them out of the country. For I know that those you bless are blessed, and those you curse are cursed." Now skip down to verse 15. Then Balak sent other princes, more numerous and more distinguished than the first. They came to Balaam and said, This is what Balak son of Zippor says, Do not let anything keep you from coming to me, because I will reward you handsomely and do whatever you say. Come and put a curse on these people for me." And by the way, the people he's talking about are the people, God's chosen people of Israel. But Balaam answered them, Even if Balak gave me his palace filled with silver and gold, I could not do anything great or small to go beyond the command of the Lord my God. Now stay here tonight as the others did, and I will find out what else the Lord will tell me. That night God came to Balaam and said, Since these men have come to summon you, go with them. but only do what I tell you. Balaam got up in the morning, saddled his donkey, and went with the princes of Moab. But God was very angry when he went, and the angel of the Lord stood in the road to oppose him. Balaam was riding his donkey, and his two servants were with him. When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand, she turned off the road into a field. Balaam beat her to get her back on the road. Then the angel of the Lord stood in a narrow path between two vineyards with walls on both sides. When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, she pressed close to the wall, crushing Balaam's foot against it. So he beat her again. Then the angel of the Lord moved on ahead and stood in a narrow place where there was no room to turn, either to the right or to the left. When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, she lay down under Balaam, and he was angry and beat her with his staff. Then the Lord opened the donkey's mouth and said to Balaam, What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times? Balaam answered the donkey, You have made a fool of me. If I had a sword in my hand, I would kill you right now. The donkey said to Balaam, Am I not your donkey, which you have always ridden to this day? Have I been in the habit of doing this to you? No, he said. Then the Lord opened Balaam's eyes, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with his sword drawn. So he bowed low and fell face down. Well, that's quite an account. If you're like me, it kind of reminds you of one of the stories which is not a true story. This is a true account from history in the Chronicles of Narnia where they have talking animals and a talking horse and there are some conversations that go on. But this is a true account from history. This is not just a fairy tale like the Chronicles of Narnia are. From my study of the Bible, there's only two animals which God has allowed to speak down through the course of history. One was in the garden, right? God allowed Satan to speak through the serpent to deceive Eve. And here we have Balaam's donkey speaking to him. After repeatedly saving Balaam's life from the sword of the angel of the Lord and being beaten for doing so, God allows the donkey to speak and rebuke Balaam. And the text tells us that God sent His angel to punish Balaam. Why was God angry with Balaam when God told Balaam to go with the men? The text of Numbers doesn't tell us directly, but Peter, writing about 1500 years later under the Holy Spirit's inspiration, does tell us the answer to that question. What does Peter say? He says, Balaam loved the wages of wickedness. So while Balaam was putting on a show of wanting to obey God, Peter tells us what was really going on in his heart. He wanted to make money based on the abilities God had given him. And Peter tells us these false teachers are just like Balaam. So we need to watch out for that. In our notes, point C under Roman numeral 2, they are willing to sin to gain possessions. They are willing to sin to gain possessions. Peter completes his description of the false teachers with the following words starting in verse 17 of our passage. These men are springs without water and mist driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them, for they mouth empty, boastful words. How bad is a spring without water? Well, actually, it isn't a spring at all if it has no water, but we can presume that at one time maybe it did have water. I recall when I was a kid watching a movie about a group of settlers who were traveling across the country. We all have that picture in our mind of the people in the wagons with the covers on them, and it seems like they were always running short on water when they were heading out across the Great West. But in the movie I remember watching, They were running low on water, but someone had told them, hey, there's a spring not far ahead, so just keep pressing on, you'll be fine. But when they got there, the spring was dry, and they were in serious trouble. Quite honestly, I can't remember what happened in the movie after that, but I do know they were in serious trouble. So by describing false teachers this way, Peter is telling us the false teachers jeopardize the spiritual well-being of people who need sound biblical truth, but instead they hear lies from these men. And Peter also describes them as mist driven by a storm. They don't produce any real rain. They don't produce anything of benefit to the farmer. Instead, they just produce useless mist. In a similar way, in Jude chapter 12, not chapter 12, verse 12, there's one chapter, 12 verses refers to the false teachers as clouds without rain. Clouds without rain. They're useless. So in our notes point D, their words contain nothing useful. So by this point, we've seen Peter's description of the false teachers. As we move into the second half of verse 18, and the remaining four verses of our passage, we will see from our notes, or as I've suggested in our notes, not from our notes, but from the Bible, we will see the worse-off wreckage left by false teachers. The worse-off wreckage. Well, hopefully that's not too silly of a statement to put in my outline, but I'll try and explain that to you as we go through these verses. Note that the second half of verse 18 says, "...by appealing to the lustful desires of the sinful nature, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error." As we work through these verses, we're going to see the terrible impact that false teachers have on a vulnerable group of people. Who are these people? Peter describes them as ones who have been in captivity. Why do I say that? because Peter says they've just begun to escape. They've been among people who are living in error. Peter's words here remind me of the city from which the character Christian in Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, if you haven't watched Pilgrim's Progress or read the book, I highly encourage it. It's a great allegory that explains a lot of the truths that we see in the Bible. But in that story, if you have seen it, There's a character, the main character, named Christian, and he's in this city that's filled with hopelessness, but he realizes there must be something better, and so he's trying to leave the city. And he does leave the city, and it kind of reminds me of that. He's escaping from a city of hopelessness. And in reality, Peter is describing any and every culture that has ever existed that has not had the knowledge of God. Instead of helping these people, Peter says that the false teachers tempt these escaping folks with things that our sinful nature desires. So point A under Roman numeral three, some escaping are led astray, and I was gonna save this second blank for later, but I gave it to you on the screen, so just ignore that for a moment. Some escaping are led astray, and then listen to what it says in verse 19, they promise them freedom while they themselves are slaves of depravity. For a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him. Peter tells us these false teachers lead those they teach to believe that they're headed in a direction of being out of bondage, while instead, they're leading them right back into slavery. The false teachers are slaves to sinful behavior, so they will sadly take their students into slavery with them. Peter highlights an important principle in this verse. If I allow something to drive my behavior, that is to control my decisions, as Peter says, to master me, then I have made myself a slave to that particular thing or activity. So filling in the second blank, which you already had on the screen before you, some escaping are led astray and re-enslaved. As I stated earlier in my sermon on 2 Peter 2, 1-9, some of the words that the Holy Spirit inspired Peter to write are challenging for us to interpret. I believe that verses 20-22 in this passage fit that category. Let's read them again. 2 Peter 2, verses 20-22. If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to have known it and to turn their backs on the sacred command which was passed on to them. Of them the proverb is true, a dog returns to its vomit and a sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud." Taken by themselves, these verses could be taken to mean that one who has placed faith in Jesus for salvation, by turning one's back on Jesus, loses that salvation. A second interpretation is the individuals of whom Peter is speaking are ones who appeared to have placed faith in Jesus, who appeared to be part of Jesus' church, but who actually never were true believers. How are we to determine Which is the correct interpretation? The answer is, as you've heard Pastor Dave say many times before, it is important for us to interpret Scripture in light of other Scripture. Are there passages in God's Word which make it clear that one who has repented and placed genuine faith in Jesus to pay for one's sins is eternally saved? Well, let's answer that question by looking at some key passages. First, turn in your Bibles to John chapter 10. John 10, and we'll be reading at verse 27. Remember that Jesus is speaking these words to the religious leaders whom He says are not My sheep. And then He speaks these words, John 10, verses 27 through 29. My sheep listen to My voice. I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all. No one can snatch them out of My Father's hand." By using the title, My Sheep, Jesus is clearly referring to those who are true followers of Him. He has given them eternal life. Jesus could not be more clear as He defines what eternal life means. At no time in the future will they perish. There is no being that can pull the true believer from the protective hand of Jesus. But in case these statements are not clear enough by themselves, Jesus adds another statement that would remove any remaining doubt. Not only can no being remove Jesus' sheep from Jesus' hand, no being can remove the individual from the firm grasp of God the Father's hand. Some will counter that one can remove oneself from God's hand. However, this requires a redefinition of what no one means. And I cannot think of a valid reason why no one would exclude the individual himself or herself. Next, let's look at God's Word, which He has given us through the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 1. I encourage you to turn there, Ephesians 1. We'll be reading at verse 13. In the preceding verses, before Paul gives these words, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he speaks of the amazing blessings that we have received as those who have placed our faith in Jesus Christ. He refers to them as those He has chosen to be holy and blameless in His sight. Paul then speaks more specifically about the believers at Ephesus when he writes in verses 13 and 14, Ephesians 1, verse 13. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having believed you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession, to the praise of His glory. One of the great blessings the true believer in Jesus receives at the moment of placing faith in Jesus is the indwelling presence of God the Holy Spirit. Paul refers to Him as a seal and a deposit. What are seals and deposits all about? Well, in at least two Old Testament passages, and I encourage you to write these down and look them up later on, Daniel 6.17 and Esther 8.8, we see that a seal guaranteed what the king has said would be done. And we even know from transactions that we make today, right, that there's a deposit. That's the way of the person who's making the purchase, assuring the seller that the transaction will be carried out. But while man's seals and deposits sometimes fail, God's never will. Paul tells us the seal of the Holy Spirit guarantees our inheritance. And Paul repeats this point in Ephesians 4.30 when he says, And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God with whom you were sealed, for the Day of Redemption. A few years ago, Pastor Dave preached through the short letter of Jude. And listen to what Jude says at the end of this letter. Verses 24 and 25 of the book of Jude. To Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy. To the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority through Jesus Christ our Lord before all ages now and forevermore. Amen. Jude commits the believers to whom he is writing, to the care of God, who is, as he says, able to keep you from falling. If it is possible for one to lose one's salvation, then Jude's statement is false because God is not able to keep you from falling. It's important to discuss, though, two passages which refer to Jesus disowning those who disown Him. I'm speaking specifically of Matthew 10.32 and 2 Peter 2.12. Doesn't Jesus disowning an individual who disowned Him mean that that individual has lost his or her salvation? Well, taken by themselves, these passages could be interpreted that way. However, once again, when we compare these with the above passages, we understand the correct interpretation is that Jesus disowning one who has disowned Him is a temporary discipline. And I believe we saw an example of that very thing in 2 Peter 1, verse 9, when we looked at that three sermons back in this series. We studied it. Peter is urging believers to grow in biblical disciplines such as goodness and brotherly kindness. But notice what he says in verse 9, 2 Peter 1, verse 9. He warns us. but if anyone does not have them, speaking of those characteristics that we should be growing in, but if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins. If a true believer disowns Jesus by ceasing to grow in godly characteristics, that one, Peter says, will forget that he has been cleansed. But the good news is, the passage does not say the individual is no longer cleansed. No, it says that the individual has forgotten that he or she has been cleansed. We could read many other passages which I believe make it clear that our salvation is based solely on the finished work of Jesus, which He accomplished when He died on the cross, shed His sinless blood, and then rose again from the dead. And even though some would argue that this passage by itself teaches that one can lose one's salvation, I believe we can see the opposite as indicated in verse 21. So back to our passage now, 2 Peter 2, verse 21. It would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, then to have known it, and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. Notice they knew the way of righteousness, but they turned their backs on the sacred command. What is the sacred command that Peter is speaking of? I believe it's very reasonable to believe that it is what Paul commands us to plead with people in 2 Corinthians 5.20. Some of you have memorized this verse, and Pastor Dave quotes it often. In 2 Corinthians 5.20 it says, "...we are therefore Christ's ambassadors As though God was making His appeal through us, we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. The sacred command is make yourself right with God, or to say it another way, repent and place your faith only in Jesus. Those who reject or turn their backs on this command of God after having seen the gift God is offering them face a greater judgment. Thankfully, for those who obey the sacred command, a gift is received which is in no way dependent on anything that we ourselves can do. No individual merit of my own can give me this gift. We can and we should give thanks to God for this reality because if it was in any way dependent on me or on you, any sustaining work of our own, we all, without fail, would lose it because we're all imperfect, sinful people. In our notes, point B under Roman numeral 3, the escapees who obey the sacred command are eternally saved. Well, I've spent a good deal of time on this part of our passage because I believe it's very critical for us to have an assurance that our salvation is secure, if indeed that is what the Bible teaches. The writer to the Hebrews in chapter 6, verse 18 through 20, and I encourage you to turn there once again, Hebrews 6, verse 18, speaking of those who are recipients or heirs of His promise. He says it in a way that we're about to read here. Hebrews 6, verse 18. God did this so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. Now verse 19. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf. He has become a priest, a high priest, forever in the order of Melchizedek. Notice the writer refers to the hope as firm and secure. If one could lose one's salvation, the hope would only be conditional and insecure. Let's give thanks to God that for every one of us who has repented and genuinely placed our faith in Jesus alone, our hope of salvation is firm and secure. While we can be thankful that this is true, our passage leaves us with a sobering truth. As Jesus said in Matthew 7.13, most of the people around us are on the broad road that leads to destruction. Peter tells us that some of these people have moved in the right direction with regard to the evil of this world system. They're trying to escape. He even says that they know our Lord and Savior to a degree, but not to a saving degree. Because of the false teachers, their escape is only temporary. Peter states in several ways this leaves the individual in a worse condition than before their temporary escape. He tells us that it would have been better for them not to have had the short-term release from the world's ways. Why is this so? I believe we find the answer in Jesus' words in Matthew 11, 21-22. There He says, If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on that day of judgment than for you. While we may not be able to fully explain it, Jesus indicates that those who have received a greater opportunity to hear God's truth, as the people of Chorazin and Bethsaida did, and yet they have refused to believe, they will have a more severe judgment on God's Day of Judgment. And I believe it's reasonable to understand Peter to be saying something similar about those who have come into close contact with the knowledge of Jesus But if they were not going to place genuine faith in Him, they would have faced less severe judgment than if they had never heard the truth. I believe this is why God the Holy Spirit had Peter write these words down for us. He wants us to recognize these false teachers so that we can avoid them. And remember, some of them may come from the outside, but many of them are going to come from inside the church. Not only should we avoid these false teachers, but we need to help steer other people who are escaping from the world system away from these false teachers so they can come to genuine faith in Jesus Christ and be eternally saved. In our notes, the last point, point C under Roman numeral 3, those escaping need rescue from false teachers. Now it's important to note, and it's been noted to me, that ultimately we cannot rescue anybody. Now that's true. Only God can rescue the sinner, but God has chosen to use us, as we read earlier in 2 Corinthians 5.20, to be His ambassadors. So we have a job that's been given to us. We may not choose to do that job, but God has given us that job. Well, as we go back through, I just wanted to do a quick review of what we've seen here today. We've seen the wild words of false teachers. They slander beings without authority, and they will perish like animals that are caught. Then we saw the wicked ways of false teachers. They're not ashamed of doing evil. They drag others and themselves into immorality. They're willing to sin to gain possessions, and their words contain nothing useful. In our third point, we saw the worse-off wreckage left by false teachers. Some who are escaping are led astray, and then they're re-enslaved. Escapees who obey, though, the sacred command are eternally saved, but those escaping need rescue from the false teachers. Well, as I thought about this topic, I thought of an illustration that kind of helped me to think about. So I don't know, some of you probably sit out on your porch at night. And if you're out on your porch, you got a roof, but it's raining. The rain's not raining on you and maybe got a light on your porch and you see these these bugs. And I was thinking of moths in particular, they're out in that rain, and they're just fragile little creatures. So if they get enough rain on them, crash to the ground, and they're destroyed, and they're done. But, the light, they see the light, and they come to the light, and they fly up under the porch, and they're rescued, or they're not rescued, but they're escaping, right? They're escaping from the rain. But then, what's up on the porch? Uh-oh, there's spiderwebs near the light, right? They fly too close to the light, and they get caught in the spiderweb. And even though they were escaping, now they're destroyed. Now, I don't know if you're like me. I'm silly enough that sometimes I see that bug in the web and I think, I see the spider come, I'm going to rescue that bug. And it's like, that's really silly. It's just a bug. You got plenty of bugs. And most of us don't like bugs anyway. So that's kind of a silly example in a sense. But When we are talking about human beings who are made in God's image and to whom God has made us ambassadors, may we have compassion on them. May we seek by God's grace to rescue them from the influence of these false teachers so that they can be reconciled to God by repenting and placing their faith in Jesus Christ. So I'd like to challenge myself and each one of you to think about some possible applications from this passage this morning. And I am not suggesting that you need to give this answer to me or anyone else. This is really between you and God. Am I watching out for false teachers? They're gonna be amongst us. Some of you have pointed out to me there's false teachers amongst people that we think, wow, that person's really doing a good job, but we have to watch out because false teachers can come from among us. Am I warning those around me about false teachers whom I observe? If you know that somebody is teaching false things and you allow your friends to just think that that's okay, that's not good. We need to be thinking about that. Number three, is there at least one person that I'm actively seeking to help bring to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ? I can't rescue them ultimately, only Jesus Christ can, but am I seeking to be that ambassador? And am I willing to risk my reputation to share the gospel with someone that God has placed near me? Am I willing to risk my reputation?" And it's possible that you're listening to this message this morning or you're listening to it online And you're saying, well, what is this gospel? And so just to put it simply, the good news is that we are all separated from God. We all deserve to spend eternity separated from God. But Jesus Christ came to this world 2,000 years ago. He lived a perfect life. He never sinned, and yet He was put on a cruel cross. He was unjustly put to death, but He did it to pay the penalty for my sins and your sins and the sins of the whole world. And the Bible says that any person who will admit to God that they've broken His laws, which is to repent, and who will place their faith only in Jesus, will receive the gift of eternal life. It sounds so simple that it sounds too good to be true, but that's what the Bible teaches. And so, if you have questions about that, please talk to myself, or Eric, or Fred, or any one of the members here. We would love to try and share with you more from the Bible what that means. Let's close in prayer. Lord, thank you for this passage that we've been able to study this morning. Thank you that you give us warnings about things that we need to avoid. And thank you that you've made us your ambassadors, help us to be thinking about how we can rescue others from the false teaching that could take them from being ones who are trying to escape and yet only to be re-enslaved and made more worthy of your judgment. We pray that you'd use us, even though we're very imperfect people, that you would use us, that you'd motivate us, that you'd quicken us to go out and seek to rescue those who need to be rescued. And I pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.