Good morning, everyone. If I haven't met you, my name is Andrew. It's good to see you. This is the sixth week that we've been going through 2 Peter. And it's my last week. So we're not going to get all the way through 2 Peter. But we're going to get to the end of chapter 2. So that's good. We're getting to the end of chapter 2. We've got a bit of ground to cover today too though. Alright, so we're going to read all of chapter 2. I'm going to read it out from the Bible in front of me. I'm going to get my voice though. Alright, you can see it. I can see it. Let's read it together. 2 Peter chapter 2. Referring to Christ there. They'll bring on themselves swift destruction. Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be maligned. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their judgment from a long ago is not idle, and the destruction is not asleep. For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness reserved for judgment, and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly, And if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter, and if he rescued righteous lots oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men, for by what he saw and heard that righteous man while living among them felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation and to keep or reserve the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment. That's where we finished last week and we're going to pick it up in verse 10. "...and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority. Daring, self-willed, they do not tremble when they revile angelic majesties, whereas angels who are greater in might and power do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the Lord. But these like unreasoning animals, Born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed, reviling where they have no knowledge, will in the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed. Suffering wrong as the wages of doing wrong. They counted a pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions as they carouse with you. Having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children, Forsaking the right way, they've gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness. But he received a rebuke for his own transgression. A mute donkey, speaking with the voice of a man, restrained the madness of the prophet. These are springs without water, mists driven by a storm, for whom the blackest of darkness is being reserved. For speaking out arrogant words of vanity, they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error, promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption. For by what a man is overcome, by that he is enslaved. For if after they have escaped the defilements or pollutions of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than having known it to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them. It has happened to them according to the true proverb, a dog returns to its own vomit, and a sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire. This is the Word of God. Alright, let's pray. Let's pray first and then start to consider some of this. Father, thank you for this passage. We pray that you will help us all here to understand what you want us to understand as we focus our attention on it now. Please teach us the way, the truth, and the life. Please rekindle in us, even in this passage, an admiration for Christ, and help us to grasp and comprehend in our innermost being this, your Word of God, your Word of Truth. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, there's an old ad from the 19th century. Oops, I pushed the wrong button. There we go. It goes like this. It's a bit of a long one, but it goes like this. You may have seen this before. Joy's cigarettes. They afford immediate relief in cases of asthma, wheezing, and winter cough, and a little perseverance will affect a permanent cure. universally recommended by the most eminent physicians and medical authors, agreeable to use, certain in their effects, harmless in their action. They may be safely smoked by ladies and children." Wow, what a claim! What a claim! Such promises and guarantees! But so wrong. So far off. Even madness. We can see it now. If we were living in that day, we can't expect we'll be any different to them. At least, from what we understand at the moment, it seems like madness. You never know. The advertisers here talking about things that they seem to not know about, nothing they don't understand. And the thing is, just as in the 1800s like this ad, today we are confronted with the same level or with similar misleading advertising, false claims, empty promises that are worse and far more dangerous than this. I'm not talking about food or diet or advertising on YouTube or TV. I'm talking about more important issues. Peter is talking about more important issues. The most important issues in life. And by the end of going through some of this chapter, chapter 2, I hope you'll see how Peter is really going to hit this home. He's really going to hit this home. Last week, we were in chapter... we're in verses 1 to 9, and you might recall that Peter has been warning us... danger... about... I'm not sure if... oh, yeah, there we go. I caught up. Thank you, Dina. Peter's been warning us about false teachers, danger, because they will subtly bring in destructive heresies. And destructive heresies are things that will lead us to misplace our faith and hope, to land us on a path other than Christ, the true Christ. And so as we pick it up in verse 10, I just want to frame it by asking you a question. When you were in school, or if you are at the moment, have you ever dissected a frog or a live animal? Anyone done that before? Yes? Harry, is it Harry up the back? Yes, hello Harry, I haven't met you before, but yes, some of us, yep, I didn't do it myself, but I watched it done. And it's interesting because when you do it, you actually get so much insight into the internal anatomy of a frog. And not just that, but you also get insight into just animal anatomy in general. You dissect it and you understand it. Well, that's what's happening here. Peter starts to dissect false teachers. Not physically, of course, but spiritually. And as he does this, we get a lot of insight into false teachers. Not only that, we get insight into the world. We get insight into the world's Trojan horse in the church, which are false teachers. And we also get insight into the world's Trojan horse in us, the flesh. Just to give you a fair warning, this is kind of a trigger warning, I guess you could call it. While Peter does this dissection class, what we're going to notice, and what's really going to hit us, is a real stench of spiritual decay. A stench that comes from spiritual rigor mortis. Peter, in verse 10, he calls it corruption. Corruption, we often think of that word as probably in the political realm as being like backroom bribery and shady deals, but in this context he's talking about it as decay. Corruption as decay and a spiritually decomposing corpse. So he starts this dissection, and we're going to look at some of these things. We don't have time to go into all of them, but we'll look at some of the main ones. He shows us their arrogance and irreverence in verse 10. Daring, self-willed, or self-propelled, They don't tremble when they revile angelic majesties. Now that last phrase there, it's literally the word doxa or doxas, which literally translates as glories. In other words, those who are more glorious than them, this translation has gone for angelic majesties because of context. It's saying they have little regard for those who are more powerful, who have more authority than themselves. So instead of having a humble, submissive awareness of their position in the created order, That kind of awareness would make them stop and be silent to listen and receive. Instead, they're propelled along by self-will to spurt out, to speak out all kinds of empty, ridiculous drivel that contradicts, disregards and despises those who are their superiors. Verse 11, Peter points out that not even angels who are greater in power and might do this. They don't even do it about those arrogant humans who are lesser than them. Notice what Peter is doing here. He's using angels as an example on one side of the spectrum, as examples of godly fear. They know their place. They know their boundaries. They know they will answer to God. And their words, their decisions, their actions are all done in light of that reverence, that godly fear. But in verse 12, He says these people are like this self-propelling arrogance rather than godly fear is closer to animals, the other side of the spectrum. Animals without reason. They only know to follow their corrupt instinct. which is speaking out drivel, evil, making claims about things that they actually don't understand. This is made clear in one very practical way. It's probably the main point that this really comes out, is that how someone approaches the Bible. If someone's not afraid to twist, tweak, and teach God's Word with false words, They're slandering God. They might be bunched up with this group. There are two applications right here I just want to point out. Be careful and watch out for people who offer solutions about things that they don't understand, that they can't know. who make claims and promises about things that they actually have no insight into. It might sound appealing. It might sound informed. But it's not. You wouldn't want to learn how to fly a plane from someone who doesn't know how to fly a plane. You wouldn't want to learn how to live life from a suicide bomber. And of course, you mustn't learn life and godliness from someone who's propelled by self. Someone with this kind of self-promoting, self-propelling, God-dismissing arrogance and irreverence. That's the first. The second application point is be careful of becoming such a person. Be careful of going down that path, of starting to imitate this, making confident claims about life and godliness out of your own ignorance, rather than always going to Scripture, making it out of Scripture. As the saying goes, better to be thoughtful than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. We need a godly reverence that brings us to tremble when discussing the Scriptures. We need a godly humility that brings us, like in Isaiah 55, to listen carefully to our great, sovereign, supreme God, who has spoken to us in these last days through His Son, and who we are to pay the utmost humble attention to. To do otherwise, is to emit that stench of a spiritually decomposing corpse. Peter continues this dissection of the world and its false teachers. And in verse 13, they get pleasure from reveling in their own deceptions in daytime. Now this might, this takes a fair bit of work to think about, but I'm going to just, there's a couple lines in it. I think, I read it as being, in other words, they enjoy being around the truth. They enjoy like being in a church, near. and appearing to hold to it, but not actually following it. And they have no mechanism to realize that. They're stuck in their own deceptions. And there are many people who aren't even teachers who do that in the church. Another one, as this dissection continues, I just point them out in verse 14. He looks at their eyes. Eyes full of adultery. He looks at their heart. Hearts are trained in greed and envy. And then verse 14, here's one we'll pause on. They are slaves of corruption. Verse 14, they never cease, or it can translate as they cannot cease from sin. And verse 19 matches it. He's saying, he calls them out. He says, they are slaves of corruption. This is a very potent point. If I was addicted to heroin, and I had a fellow addict, and he was promising me that he could fix me... Serious? Dude, you're right. You've got the same problem I've got. If someone had been divorced 10 times and they wrote a book about how to have a successful marriage, serious? No. And if I and my friend were stuck in a pit of quicksand, sinking quickly, and they said, that's right, I'll save you. No, I need help, but it's not from the person who's stuck right beside me. It's not from the person who's a fellow slave of corruption. We need help from someone who's free, someone who's faithful, someone who actually can. But I'm jumping ahead. We're going to get there. There's one more point that Peter is dissecting and brings out. This is madness. The madness of Balaam. The world, its false teachers, and its Trojan horse within us are promoting the same downright madness as this guy Balaam. Now, if you haven't heard of Balaam, I'll give you the briefest summary of it. His story, it's in Numbers 22 to 23, and it's basically, he wants to go down a path that he knows is against God's will. He knew it, and that he knew it would lead to his destruction. And in quite a remarkable sequence of events, God gives His donkey the voice of a man so that Balaam could understand it. And the donkey, in its animal level of reasoning, rebukes Balaam and says, What are you doing? Such foolish madness! Balaam had gone to a less ability to reason than an animal. Now, it seems so obvious. It seems so obvious here at this point. And yet, because of the Trojan horse or the fifth column within us, this madness still appeals. It has an enticement to us. None of us are exempt from this. You might even find yourself, at the moment, being enticed by it, by the false teachers or by the world, in some form or another, by the world's madness. I often do. But this passage is a powerful tool to rip those things to shreds, to expose it. If you struggle with things, like I sometimes, I sometimes struggle with scrolling addictions. This is a place to go to. Preach this passage. I preach it to myself sometimes. Exposing the madness of such addictions. Peter uses strong words. Use strong words! These are some things... I'm going to cherry-pick a few things, but the madness of Balaam, it covers so many areas, I'm going to cherry-pick a few things. The truth is, it's utter madness to surrender yourself to corrupt, instinctive desires. It's no better than a dog returning to its own vomit. It's a powerful term that he uses at the end of the chapter. It's out of madness to pursue brief titillating pleasures that are contrary to God. To seek the wages of unrighteousness, like Balaam, rather than to exercise self-control. When we come to God's Word, when it comes to how we approach God's Word, it's out of madness to neglect it, because we're addicted to video games, that's my one, or whatever else it be, or you just don't find it interesting. It's out of madness, like I said earlier, to bend, to add to, or to dismiss certain scriptures, because it doesn't quite fit your own ways and thoughts. Here's another one with unforgiveness. It's the madness of Balaam. It's the utter madness to live with unforgiveness because it promises more satisfaction than to forgive. It's utter madness to feel puffed up when you learn something and think so highly of yourself because you know something about God or something more than the person beside you. It appeals, it entices our ego. It's utter madness to see how Christian-like you are, how Christian-y you are by going to church and thinking that that gives you good standing with God. That people see how much you care for them and you think, oh well, I'm good. Here's another one, the last one that I was thinking of in terms of career and work. It's out of madness to spend your life pursuing a career that requires you to compromise your integrity or compromise your commitment to Christ. See, when the madness of Balaam meets us on the road of life, we need to call it for what it is. Call it out. It's madness. Peter uses this word, the madness. We get to verse 17, and I mean, that's a heavy slug, getting to verse 17. But when we get to verse 17, I picture Peter, I'm not saying he did this, but I'm sharing what I imagine. If Peter's been dissecting false teachers, I imagine him stop the dissection class, put down his tools, and staring at me, or staring at us, and he says, These are wells without water. I like how the New King James translates from verse 17 to 19. I'll give you a few lines. These are wells without water. They speak great swelling words of emptiness. They promise liberty, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. A well, you know, whenever you see a well, it carries with it a promise, a promise of water, of relief, of refreshment. But it's like coming to a well and there isn't any water. So beware of being enticed by the madness of those who claim to have the answers, those who promise freedom, those who promise satisfaction, those who promise fulfillment, but in actual fact they're empty wells. with no actual way of backing what they're promising. Because they're in the same quicksand as everyone else. The same utter spiritual decay and stench as everyone else. They are wells without water. But this is the question which I know you know the answer to, but we're going to go through it. Where in the world can we go? Where do we go? Who do we listen to? This is where Peter is really circling it back to chapter 1. The key to escaping the stench of corruption, the key to staying free of spiritual decay, and the key to combating its ongoing appeal and enticement. is you need to know Jesus. You need to know Jesus. And you need to keep knowing Him. You need to keep dissecting Jesus. Dissecting who He is. We've watched Peter dissect false teachers, but when we dissect and learn the true Jesus, and come to really know him, not in an intellectual, theoretical way, but in a personal, heart-deep, meaningful way, we discover not a well without water, But we discover a fountain of living water. We discover someone who has true glory. Someone who is truly goodness itself. We discover the fullness of who he is. He's not arrogant. He's not irreverent. He doesn't irreverently blabber about things that he doesn't understand. No, He knows exactly everything about everything. He knows exactly what our condition is. He knows exactly how we as humans are put together. He knows, He's diagnosed the exact reason for our corrupt decay. And there's no madness in Him. He's the true human, exalted even above the angels. And when He promises liberty, He isn't doing it as a slave himself, being a slave to corruption. He's untouched by sin and error. He was enticed by it. He went through temptation, but he stayed free from it. In fact, if you look, let's just quickly look back because it's been a while, but at chapter 1, 3 to 4, Let's read verse 2. This is how he started the letter. through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence." Get verse 4. Out of His glory and excellence, He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises. So that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. You see how Peter's done full circle here. So we see out of the fullness of who God is, His glory and goodness, He has given us everything we need for life. He's given us great and precious promises so that through them we can participate in what is good, in the divine nature, and escape the corruption that the world is riddled with. There are oodles of promises made by false teachers and they're like the world. but they're actually wells without water. God is not that. His promises are backed by His authority, His ability, His wisdom, His understanding, His faithfulness, His love, His determination, His unwavering desire to keep His promises. What will you place your faith and hope in? Seems pretty obvious. I pray that you can see that as well, and even now, reaffirm that. Just three examples. Three examples. When it comes about God's promises and this comparison. Death. When it comes to death. People in the world, they say, oh there's nothing after death. It's like, well, how do you know? How do you, seriously, how do you know? You don't know. You're just speaking out of yourself, self-propelled. But there are others in the church who say, well, that now you've become a Christian, if you just keep ticking the boxes of going to church, praying, sometimes reading your Bible, living a generally good life, that will get you through. You'll get through death. But that's madness. That's blabbering about things that they don't understand. That's enticing us to rely on our ego and self-righteousness. No, when it comes to death, don't go to those empty wells. Go to God's promise. There's a promise in Hosea. It's God promising to those who place their faith and hope in God, I will ransom you from the power of the grave. I will redeem you from death. That's a promise. Not only that, but we now know Jesus. We see the substance and the fullness of this promise in Jesus who died and was raised to life and who can now assure us, like he does in Revelation, says, don't be afraid. I'm the living one. I was dead and I'm alive forevermore. And I've got the keys to death. I know who I'm placing my faith and hope in. When it comes, here's another example, when it comes to the crippling guilt of sinfulness, many in the world try to redefine and blur the lines between good and evil in trying to remove any sense of guilt. And there are others in the church, even in the church, who admit what good and evil is, but at the same time, they try to oppressively manipulate this guilt to control you. It's very dangerous. False teaching. Listen to God's promise in Jeremiah 33. Then we see Christ dying on the cross for us, bearing our guilt. I know who I'm placing my faith and hope in. Third and last example, when it comes to the ongoing, often exhausting struggle with my own internal struggles, my heart's present condition, or really the flesh's condition. How often I'm prone to selfishness, prone to envy, prone to pride, prone to filthy things even, prone to all manner of evil thoughts, words, and actions. Listen, just listen to God's promise in Jeremiah 33. Here's another one in Ezekiel 36. And I will put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you your heart of stone and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and being careful to follow my laws. See, what great and precious promises God has given us. These aren't empty promises. God isn't a well without water. It's backed by God himself. And when you receive them, when you rely on them, and when you respond to them by faith, God will effectively, effectively change you. See, what Peter has done here is what I think of as a kind of Crocodile Dundee. Has anyone seen Crocodile Dundee? You're probably aware of him at least. I'm not suggesting you watch the movies. I've seen this clip. And Peter, this is even before Crocodile Dundee existed, Peter was like, wow, he's doing a Crocodile Dundee move. The scene in this movie is Dundee, that's Crocodile Dundee's Australian, Paul Hogan, I think it was. He and his girl are walking down the street at night and there are two thugs that jump out. You're probably aware of this scene, it's quite famous. And they pull out a switchblade on him. And they say, give us all your money. And Dundee, he's not fazed by it. He's not fazed. His girlfriend's like, oh, Dundee, you gotta give him, they've got a knife. And Dundee, yeah Rowan Dundee says, knife? That's not a knife. Pulls out his big hunting knife and goes, that's a knife! That's a knife! And the guys run away. That's right. Well, you might be thinking, what's Crocodile Dundee got to do with this? But, look, when we come to the false claims, empty promises, and madness of the Lamb that false teachers offer, and the world for that matter, we can say, promise? That's not a promise. And then we look at Christ and go, that's a promise! That's a promise. When we're enticed to pursue rainbows, and we often are rainbows or empty wells in the world that promise fulfillment and pleasure, we can say, promise? Fulfillment? That's not a promise. We look at Jesus and go, that's a promise. When it comes to someone who suggests or even you're tempted within yourself to suggest that you've lived a good enough life to get to heaven, that you're righteous enough. You can say, righteousness? That's not righteousness. It's rubbish, like Paul says. And then you look at Jesus and say, the Lord, my righteousness, that's my righteousness imputed for me. There's the promised one on whom my faith and hope rests. There he is. We see the well of salvation that overflows with water, Christ. and from which we can endlessly draw and be refreshed and nourished by. See, as we learn Christ, as we learn and know Him more and more, and as God's Spirit brings us to life and the lights are turned on, the morning star arises in our hearts, we become wooed and enticed in a good way by the sheer goodness of Christ. rather than the emptiness of the world. My prayer, my prayer this week has been that as you go out, as you leave later on today, that you will leave remembering Crocodile Dundee, the Dundee approach, saying to the world and its false teaching, promise? That's not a promise. look at Christ and go, that's a promise. He's my all. He's the one that I am wooed by.