Grace OPC Sewickley PA

Sermon Series: 1 & 2 Peter

Sermon series by Pastor Geoffrey Willour on 1 and 2 Peter.

Growing in Grace and Knowledge

About this sermon

Peter closes his letter by warning believers, since they know beforehand that the ignorant and unstable twist Paul’s letters and the other Scriptures, to take care that the error of lawless people does not carry them away and lose their stability. Stability in the faith requires vigilance against false teaching. Peter’s last command is “Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Believers grow by clinging to Christ alone and using the means of grace: the word, the sacraments, and prayer. The letter ends by ascribing glory to Christ both now and forever.

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Sermon transcript

verses of the very last chapter, 2 Peter, chapter 3, verses 17 and 18. You’ll find that on page 1209 in your Pew Bible. I’m going to begin reading at verse 13 to fill out the context a little bit, but again, please give your reverent attention to the reading of God’s holy word. 2 Peter, chapter 3, beginning at verse 13. But according to His promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by Him without spot or blemish and at peace. And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given to him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters.

There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction as they do the other scriptures. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. Grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Please join me in your hearts as we pray for the Lord’s blessing upon the preaching of His word. Our Lord and Father in heaven, we recognize that we all need to grow. We recognize that in this present life our sanctification, while progressive, is not complete in terms of progressive sanctification.

And so, Lord, we ask that you would give us grace as we consider this portion of your word to see how it applies to our lives, to our situation. We pray, Heavenly Father, that you would open our minds and our hearts to behold wondrous things from your word. And we would ask that you would grant to me, your unworthy servant, the grace to declare and speak forth your word with clarity and power for the edification of your saints, the salvation of the lost, and most important of all, for the glory of your holy name. Hear us, we pray, Heavenly Father, and bless our time in your word this evening, we pray in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said. Amen. You may be seated. As you can see, the title of my sermon tonight is Growing in Grace and Knowledge, and if it helps you to keep track of key words, there are a number of key words listed on your sermon outline that you can be listening for in my sermon tonight.

Well friends, one of the activities that Sharon and I enjoy doing on my day off and when the weather permits, of course, is riding our bikes on one of the bike trails in the area. And speaking of riding bikes, it has been said that the Christian life is like riding a bicycle. Unless you keep moving, you fall off. So writes the biblical commentator Michael Green. Well dear friends, as the apostle Peter brings his second epistle to a close, he’s essentially urging us to keep on peddling and to stay on the trail. Remember friends that Peter had begun this epistle by exhorting his readers to make every effort to grow in their faith. We read that back in chapter one at the beginning from verse three through verse 15. Peter then reminded them that the apostolic gospel that he preached was grounded not in clever mythology, but rather was grounded in historical events and eyewitness apostolic testimony.

We saw that at the end of chapter one in verses 16 through 21. And then in chapter two, Peter warned his readers about a real danger to their faith, namely the presence of lawless false teachers in the church, false teachers that we would, the theologians would call antinomians. And the reason they were called antinomians is because that word antinomian literally means against the law. And apparently they were called, they were antinomians because they seem to have taught that God’s free grace gives the believer a license to freely sin, which of course is what grace does not do. Grace transforms us as well as it justifies us. It sanctifies us as well. At the beginning of chapter three, Peter reminds us of the promise of Christ’s second advent. And that promise was apparently either downplayed or downright denied by these lawless false teachers, these antinomians.

Our Lord’s future second coming is to be a great motivation in our pursuit of holiness and godliness as we learn in this chapter in verse 11 and so forth. And finally, in the closing verses of this passage, the apostle Peter brings his letter full circle by once again warning us as believers to be on guard against false teaching and also by urging us to grow in our Christian faith. I think Dr. Simon Kistermacher offers a helpful summary of our passage for this evening with the following comments. He says, With the dual exhortation, Peter encourages the believers first to be on guard against lawless men and second to grow spiritually in Jesus Christ. The first exhortation relates to external influences, influences coming from the outside through these false teachers and the second to internal development. In other words, we need to be on guard from false teaching on the outside and we need to, by the grace of God, strive to grow in the knowledge and love of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

And as we consider our passage for this evening, I direct your attention first of all to verse 17. We notice in this verse that stability in the faith requires being on guard against false teaching. Stability in the faith requires being on guard against false teaching. In verse 17, Peter writes, You therefore beloved, now let me pause. There’s two words to notice so far, the words therefore and the words beloved. You therefore, in other words, Peter is saying based on what I’ve been saying up to this point and probably based on what has been said in the immediately preceding context in view of all of this, therefore beloved, notice how he addresses them. He addresses them not as, hey, you people, he addresses them as beloved. Again, the pastoral tone is pulsates throughout this epistle, this letter that Peter has penned to these believers.

He says, you therefore beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. Knowing this beforehand, take care. Knowing what beforehand? What’s Peter getting at here? Well, here Peter may be pointing to the experience that his original readers had already had with false teachers. If that is the case, then these false teachers that Peter is speaking of in his epistle had already come onto the scene. They had already infiltrated the Christian community that Peter has been writing to with their scripture-twisting agenda. However, this wording here is not here may also suggest that this advice was given before the advent, before the arrival of these false teachers, or more likely it refers to the fact that Peter’s readers are being alerted before this teaching has actually reached them, as pointed out by commentator David Wheaton.

Whether the threat of the false teachers had already arrived onto the scene or whether it was a threat that was on the way, God’s people are called to be on the alert against false teaching lest they lose their own stability. And he says this, take care that you are not carried away with what? With the error of lawless people. The antinomians, these false teachers, were teaching error, error that would have the effect of carrying God’s people away from their grounding in Christ and their grounding in the gospel. The lawless people that Peter had in mind clearly must be the antinomian false teachers whom he had described in the second chapter, described quite extensively as we saw. Brothers and sisters in Christ, we are all prone in our fallenness, in our sinfulness, we are prone to being carried away into error, and sometimes error can be very subtle.

And so we need to be careful, we need to be on the alert, we need to take heart, we need to take warning. We are all capable of being deceived. And so therefore, brothers and sisters, Peter is urging us, or I should rather say the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Peter is urging us as followers of Jesus Christ to be aware, to take care, to be alert. Beware of false teaching and of false teachers, especially those who would lead you away from trusting in Christ and Christ alone for your salvation. Oh, beware of any teacher, Bible teacher, professor, theologian who would say, yes, of course we’re saved by faith in Christ alone, but you know, maybe they redefine faith a little bit to kind of sneak in some works. Beware of that and beware also of antinomian false teaching that would lead you away from submission to Christ’s lordship and thus away from your pursuit of a godly life of obedience out of gratitude for God’s gift of salvation to you in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Take care, lest you be led astray. And what would be the effect of being led astray? Well, Peter writes, you therefore beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and what? Lose your stability, lose your stability. The New King James Version translates it as steadfastness. This is not talking about falling away from salvation or falling away from the faith, beloved. After all, the Bible clearly teaches that true believers cannot fully nor finally fall away from their faith. Rather, it would seem that Peter is warning his readers against falling from a secure faith and a holy life under the influence of these lawless false teachers. Now, of course, while it is true, the genuine born again believers in Christ cannot lose their salvation. After all, God, our gracious heavenly father, he keeps us secure in Christ.

He keeps us secure in our faith. At the same time, the scriptures reveal to us, brothers and sisters, that God uses means to preserve his people in their faith. One of the means that God uses to preserve us in our faith is the warnings of scripture, warnings such as what we have in this passage. Divine preservation does not in any way negate or nullify our responsibility as believers to continue clinging to Christ and Christ alone for our salvation and persevering by the grace of God in seeking to live under his lordship. On the contrary, it is God’s sovereign preservation that guarantees our perseverance in faith and holiness. Brothers, and sisters in Christ, by the grace of God, let us not allow ourselves to fall from our secure position. Let us take care and be on guard lest we lose our own stability in the faith.

We also notice next, not only are we to take care and be on guard against false teaching, we see here in this closing verse of 2 Peter, the call to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. We have here, beloved, the call to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, verse 18, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our lord and savior Jesus Christ. Notice how he describes our savior. He is our lord and savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. So again, notice the call to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ. I think David Wheaton, the commentator, hits the nail on the head when he writes this. He says, the best precaution against being infected by the false teachers and carried away by them is to be making spiritual progress.

He says, but grow. Now, negatively speaking, be on the alert against false teaching, but positively speaking, we’re to do something, we’re to do something against falling from our stability. That is to say, we are to grow in the grace and knowledge of our lord and savior Jesus Christ. Now, this exhortation to grow in the knowledge and love of our lord and savior Jesus Christ raises the issue of sanctification. Do you sanctify yourself? No. Do you contribute to your own sanctification? Ultimately, no. It is the Holy Spirit who sanctifies us. We don’t sanctify ourselves. So how can Peter say, grow in the grace and knowledge of our lord and savior Jesus Christ? While the sovereign Holy Spirit of God is the one who alone sanctifies us, he does so by his grace alone. He does so in union with Christ alone.

At the same time, the Spirit’s work does not negate our responsibility to get growing, if you will. But instead, in a mysterious, indeed in an inscrutable way, that work of the Holy Spirit, that union with Christ actually guarantees and enables our responsibility and actually enables us to do what Peter is here exhorting us to do, namely to grow in the grace and knowledge of our lord and savior Jesus Christ. In the words of Dr. Kistermacher, Kistermacher raises an important question here. And the question is basically, look, is Peter saying that we believers ought to grow in the grace and knowledge that Jesus grants to us or that believers should grow in the grace and the knowledge that they already have about Jesus Christ? He says, because grace and knowledge originate with God and through Christ are given to the believer, commentators admit that both interpretations are possible.

They generally prefer the first explanation. Peter urges the believers to appropriate, that is to take to themselves, the spiritual qualities of grace and knowledge that Jesus grants to them. And so we are to grow in the grace and knowledge of the lord Jesus Christ. The grace and knowledge that we have already in union with Christ, we are to grow in that grace and knowledge that the Holy Spirit through union with Christ has worked within us by his sovereign grace. And notice the order here. We are to grow in grace and knowledge. Notice the close connection between the grace of Christ and the knowledge of Christ. We are not connected to God’s grace unless we know something about Jesus Christ. And the kind of knowledge that’s being spoken of here, I believe, is the saving knowledge of Christ.

It is quite likely that Peter’s exhortation to grow in the true knowledge of Christ is meant as a contrast to the false teachers who in Gnostic-like fashion seem to claim to have a special secret knowledge. Instead of the false so-called knowledge promoted by the false teachers, we believers are to grow in true knowledge. And where do we get that true knowledge? Well, that true knowledge is grounded in the person of the lord Jesus Christ and his work. It is grounded in his word and in his gospel. And he is described here, it’s interesting, Peter uses this description of Jesus, our lord and savior, Jesus Christ. Why does he describe Jesus as our lord and savior? Well, the false teachers denied Christ’s lordship, or at least they denied the ethical implications of his lordship. Back in chapter two, verse one, Peter describes these false teachers as even denying the master who bought them, who’s, and that probably is a reference to Christ, although some have suggested it’s a reference to God in general who bought them in the sense of provided for them, but that’s an exegetical issue that we’re not going to deal with tonight.

But the point is that they were not willing to live under the lordship of Jesus Christ. To counter the false teachers denial of Christ’s lordship, Peter underscores the truth that our savior Jesus Christ is our lord. And throughout this epistle, you’ll notice if you read second Peter carefully throughout this epistle, Peter repeatedly emphasizes Christ’s lordship. And let’s just take a very brief tour through this epistle once again. Go back to chapter one, verse two, and notice how in the beginning, uh, uh, salutation, uh, Peter describes Jesus. Notice how he describes Jesus in chapter one, verse two. May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our what? Jesus our lord. And then skip down to verse nine. For whoever lacks these qualities, the qualities that he’s been mentioning in the previous context, whoever lacks these qualities are, is so near sighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.

I’m sorry, verse eight. I meant to point us to verse eight. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of who? Our lord, Jesus Christ. And then skip down to verse 11. For in this way, there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our lord and savior, Jesus Christ. And then again, I would point you to, uh, verse 16. For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of who? Our lord, Jesus Christ. But we’re eyewitnesses of his majesty. And then again, I already mentioned it, but chapter two, verse one, but false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.

And then chapter two, verse 20, it says this in verse 20. Let me just find it here. For if after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of whom? The knowledge of our lord and savior, Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome the last state has become worse for them than the first. And then of course, chapter three, verse 15, which we considered last Lord’s day, but it says in verse 15 and count the patients of who? Of our lord. That’s a reference to Jesus. Count the patients of our lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you. And then finally, the very last verse of this epistle, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our lord and savior, Jesus Christ. Do you see how Peter over and over and over and over again emphasizes that Jesus is curious.

He is Lord, not only in the sense of being God. He is that he is the God man, the word made flesh, Emmanuel, God with us, but he is master. He is sovereign. He is our lord. So how do we grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ? We do so by the grace of God through faith in Christ, by seeking to add to our faith the virtues that Peter mentioned back in chapter one. If you go back to chapter one, let me just read quickly verses five through 11. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue and virtue with knowledge and knowledge with self control and self control with steadfastness and steadfastness with godliness and godliness with brotherly affection and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our lord Jesus Christ.

For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election. For if you practice these qualities, you will never fall. For in this way, there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our lord and savior, Jesus Christ. That is how you grow in the grace and knowledge of the lord Jesus Christ. So brothers and sisters, let us keep clinging to Christ and Christ alone as our lord and savior and let us continue to diligently use the means of grace, the word, the sacraments and prayer. As the Holy Spirit blesses these means of grace to our use, they will help to give us the strength to add Christian virtues to our faith, all out of gratitude for God’s amazing gift of salvation in Jesus our lord.

And that brings us full circle. That brings us to the conclusion of this marvelous epistle as we find here at the end of verse 18, a closing ascription of glory to Christ the lord. This is the final point in your sermon outline. We have a closing ascription of glory to Christ the lord. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. Now that should raise the question. A good Bible reading requires that you ask good questions of what you are reading. So who is the question that should come to your mind as you read this very last sentence here? It says to him be the glory. Well, who is the him in this to him? Well, is he talking about God the father? Is he talking about God triune? Or is he talking about Jesus?

Well, to answer that question we have to look at what? The context. You know the saying, I know maybe it’s a cliche but it’s a true cliche. A text without a context is a what? A pretext, right? In the context of this passage to him is a clear reference to our lord and savior Jesus Christ who was just mentioned in the previous sentence. This religious ascription of glory to Jesus Christ is an unmistakable assertion of his deity. This glory is to be ascribed to Christ we are told to the day of eternity, literally the day of the age. In other words, forever. The day when Christ returns in glory at the end of this age will be the day which will usher in eternity. And glory is to be ascribed to Christ throughout eternity. Again, this language clearly implies the full eternal deity of our lord’s divine nature.

Beloved, we serve a savior who is not only fully truly human, though he is indeed true man, but we serve a savior who is also fully truly divine. He is true man, both body and soul. He has a human body and a human soul and truly divine in one divine person. He is the god man, the theanthropos as the theologians put it, the god man, the word made flesh, Immanuel, god with us. This is the savior that we serve and this is the savior whom we worship. You know, you sometimes hear skeptics out there in our culture saying, well, the earliest Christians didn’t believe that Jesus was god. That came later at the Council of Nicaea, to which I would say Bologna. That’s about as crass as I will get here behind the pulpit. I could say it a little more emphatically, but that’s just simply nonsense.

All you have to do is read the New Testament. The New Testament repeatedly and emphatically proclaims Christ’s lordship. It ascribes religious devotion to him. That’s what this closing ascription of praise does. To him, that’s to the lord Jesus Christ, be glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. Let us worship and serve and praise him both now and forevermore, for he is god. He is our lord and savior. He is worthy of all worship and praise and adoration. Dear listener, have you confessed and trusted Jesus Christ as your lord and savior? The word of God says that if you confess with your lips Jesus is lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. And all of God’s people said amen. Let’s pray. Heavenly father, we do indeed praise you and thank you, Lord God, for your goodness and mercy to us in Christ.

We thank you for Jesus, our lord and savior. We ask that you would give us the grace to indeed to take care lest we are carried away with the error of lawless people and lose our own stability, but instead give us the grace to grow in the grace and knowledge of our lord and savior Jesus Christ and lord. With Peter, with the Holy Spirit who speaks through Peter, we say to him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. And all of God’s people said amen. Well friends, let’s close our time of worship this evening by rising and we’ll sing together number 488, May the mind of Christ my savior, 488.

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May 11, 2025
Hastening the Coming Day

About this sermon

Since God will dissolve the present heavens and earth, Peter asks what sort of people believers ought to be: people of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming day of God. Christ’s return is a motive for holy living. The danger is not being too heavenly minded to be of any earthly good but being too earthly minded to be of any heavenly good. According to God’s promise, believers wait for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells, as Isaiah 65 and 66 foretold, and that hope encourages faith and diligence.

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Sermon transcript

Well, please remain standing for the reading of God’s Word as we continue our study and consideration of 2 Peter. We are nearing the end of this marvelous yet short epistle, and tonight we’re going to focus on 2 Peter 3, verses 11 through 16, although I’ll begin reading at verse 10 and read through the end of the chapter, but our focus again will be on verses 11 through 16. So friends, let us hear God’s Holy Word. You can find that, by the way, on page 1209 in your Pew Bibles. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they are burned?

But according to His promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by Him without spot or blemish and at peace. And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity.

Amen. Let’s pray for the Lord’s blessing upon the preaching of His Word. Immortal, invisible, God only wise, you are indeed glorious. You dwell in unapproachable light. You are a God of infinite, white-hot holiness. And yet, Heavenly Father, you have revealed yourself to us in your Word and supremely in your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the living Word, who is our Savior. We thank you, Heavenly Father, that we can approach your throne of grace because of Christ our great High Priest, who died for our sins and rose again for our justification, that we might receive the gift of eternal life. And we thank you, Lord, that in your sovereign grace you have effectually called us unto faith in Christ and that we are united to Him. And we thank you, Lord, that you continue to build us up in our faith and to strengthen our union and communion with Christ by your Spirit and through the Word.

We ask, Lord and Father, that you would do so this evening as we consider this portion of your Word. We ask that you would edify us, strengthen us, encourage us, challenge us through this portion of Scripture. And Lord, equip us through the Word tonight that we might serve you well in our daily callings and vocations in the week ahead. Once again, be with us and bless us and set a guard over my lips, Lord, that I might speak only that which is faithful to your Word. We pray these things in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said, Amen. You may be seated. If you’re following along in your sermon outline, there’s six words you can be listening for in my sermon this evening. And the title of my message tonight is Hastening the Coming Day.

And it’s interesting, it’s providential that we consider this portion of 2 Peter this evening because it ties in well with what I preached on this morning. We see that the theme of the Day of the Lord is a very common theme in Scripture in both the Old Testament and the New Testaments. Well, dear ones, the Bible teaches that one day, one day, our Lord Jesus Christ will return in glory. He will not come the second time in secrecy or obscurity. He will come in the clouds of glory for all the earth to see. And He will usher in the new heavens and the new earth wherein righteousness dwells. This return in glory that we believe in, this future return of Christ is known as the doctrine of Christ’s second advent or the second coming. On the last Lord’s Day evening, we learned that the apostles predicted that scoffers will arise in the last days and deny the second coming.

In the context of our passage, the particular scoffers that the apostle Peter probably had in mind were the false teachers that he was warning his original readers about in this the antinomian false teachers that we learned about back in chapter 2. In verse 4 of chapter 3, Peter tells us that these scoffers would point to the observation that thus far in history, things have gone on as usual since the beginning of creation, which led these scoffers to wrongly assume that as things have continued ever since creation up to this point, things will continue to go on in the natural course of events into the future. And so if you look at verse 4 of this chapter, Peter says, they will say, these scoffers will say, where is the promise of His coming? Forever since the fathers fell asleep, probably referring to the patriarchs, the ancient fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.

And isn’t it the case that even today, friends, in the context of our contemporary culture, there are multitudes of unbelieving scoffers and non-Christians who would use the same kind of reasoning as these first century scoffers that Peter counteracts here in his epistle. Today’s scoffers might say something like, hey, listen, Christians, it’s been 2000 years since the time of Christ. If your savior is really going to return in glory as you claim that he will, then what’s keeping him? Why has he been delaying so long? Why has he not come back yet? Well, of course, in verses 5 and 6 of this chapter, Peter responds to this by pointing out to these scoffers, scoffers in his day, and this could be pointed out to scoffers today, that these scoffers deliberately forget God’s supernatural interventions in the past.

And as two examples of such past supernatural divine interventions, Peter mentions the creation of the universe in the very beginning by the word of God’s power, and he also mentions the flood judgment, the destruction of the ancient pre-Diluvian world by the flood judgment that took place in Noah’s day. Peter’s point is that just as God was able to work suddenly, supernaturally, and catastrophically in the past, so he is indeed able to do so again when Jesus returns in glory to usher in the new heavens and the new earth wherein righteousness dwells. The return of Jesus will be a surprise. It will not be expected. It will be just another day like today, but he will return in glory when it is time for him to return. But then Peter goes on to remind us that the reasons for the delay in our Lord’s second coming are that God is, first of all, God views time differently than we do.

His ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts. His ways are high above our ways. And his view of time, because he is above time, is different from our view of time. And also, God is patiently giving sinners time to repent. He is waiting until all of the elect are gathered in from the four corners of the earth. As it says back in verses 8 and 9, it says, but do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. In other words, God’s perspective on time is not your perspective or my perspective on time. And then he goes on to say, the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise. Just because he’s been delayed doesn’t mean that he will delay indefinitely.

The Lord is not slow to fulfill the promise of his return, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. Nevertheless, nevertheless, the day of the Lord is certain to come, even though it has been delayed for gracious purposes, as it says in verse 10. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. It will be unexpected and sudden. And then what will happen? Then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Well, friends, in our passage for this Lord’s Day evening, the Apostle Peter, having affirmed the doctrine of the day of the Lord and our Lord’s second coming, having affirmed that doctrine in our passage for this evening, the Apostle Peter turns our attention to the moral and ethical implications of believing in Christ’s second coming and believing in the final day of the Lord.

See, believing in the doctrine of the second coming is not just a matter of checking off a list of orthodox doctrines that you affirm and making note of that intellectually in your mind. Certainly, we must believe a sound doctrine, but we don’t just believe sound doctrine for the sake of believing sound doctrine. is something that is meant to grab hold of us and impact us, impact our lives, beloved. So Peter’s point is that if we really believe that our Lord Jesus is coming back, and indeed he is coming back on that final day, on that day of the Lord, in order to destroy this present world order and in order to usher in the new heavens and the new earth wherein righteousness dwells, if we really believe these glorious truths, this blessed hope, well then we ought to be a people who live godly, righteous lives in this present age.

Lives that anticipate the holy and righteous lives that we will enjoy with the Lord in the new heavens and the new earth. And so as we turn our attention for our text for today, for this evening, consider first Christ’s second coming as a motivation for godly living. Christ’s second coming as a motivation for godly living. It says in verse 11, since all these things are thus to be dissolved. He’s been speaking of the day of the Lord when Christ returns and the old heavens and earth will be dissolved. And we, you know, I spoke a little bit last Lord’s Day about different views about what that’s going to look like. Is there going to be a total discontinuity between the present creation and the new creation or is there going to be continuity? Is it going to be more of a renewed, purified new heavens and new earth?

With that issue aside, since there’s going to be a radical transformation, a radical change when Jesus returns in glory, since all these things are thus to be dissolved, he asks a very pointed question. And this is a question that each and every one of us needs to take to heart. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, since Jesus is coming back, we know not when, but since he’s coming back and since he’s going to usher in a new heavens and a new earth where in righteousness dwells, the question is what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness? Now, of course, this applies to us individually. This is a question that we as individual believers need to take to heart. But this is also addressed to the church.

We as the church are to consider what sort of people are we to be as God’s people in this present age as we anticipate the blessed hope, the return of our Lord. And it goes on to say, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God. Notice the day of the Lord, the day of Christ’s return is called the day of God. Christ is God incarnate, Emmanuel, the word made flesh. You know, perhaps you’ve heard the complaint on the lips of unbelievers, sometimes unbelievers and skeptics and those who are cynical about Christianity or who have had perhaps an unpleasant experience with the church. They will often say things such as claiming that Christians are allegedly too heavenly minded to be of any earthly good. You ever heard that before? Are you Christians? You’re too heavenly minded to be of any earthly good.

And some professing Christians and some professing Christian churches have reacted against that that kind of what I would call a false accusation by by by going into the social gospel and so forth. And that’s not the right way to respond to such observations. But the allegation is there that Christians are often too heavenly minded to be of any earthly good. We’re thinking so much about the future and about Jesus’s return that we neglect to fulfill our responsibilities and duties that God has given to us in this present life. Now, of course, in one sense, it is possible that for Christians to be guilty of this at a certain level. It is possible for Christians to be hyper pietistic. That is to say to be so focused on future heavenly realities that they neglect their present earthly duties.

But you know, when you think about biblical heavenly mindedness, we are called in scripture to be heavenly minded. And if you are biblically heavenly minded, it’s not going to lead you to neglect your earthly duties, your worldly responsibilities. Indeed, it is going to incentivize you and motivate you all the more to live your life for the glory and honor and praise of the Savior who died for you, who rose for you, who reigns for you and intercedes for you and who is coming back for you on that final day. And so when you think about the saying too heavenly minded to be of any earthly good, a false saying, at least when it comes to genuine biblical heavenly mindedness. And so we should not be so concerned about being too heavenly minded to be of any earthly good.

Instead, from a biblical standpoint, we as followers of Jesus Christ should be more concerned about the danger of being too earthly minded to be of any heavenly good. And this is what I think Peter is addressing here. He’s saying, look, since Jesus is coming back, how should that impact your life here in this present age? Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, since a new world is coming, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of what? Holiness and godliness. What does this imply about earthly mindedness? Well to be earthly minded is to set your mind on things that have no lasting eternal value. Things which will ultimately be dissolved, be destroyed as we learn in verse 11. All these things are thus to be dissolved. And so we should not be obsessed with and we should not be focused on loving the things of this earth, especially the things of the world as a fallen system.

Now don’t misunderstand to clarify what I’m saying. This is not to say, beloved, that the things of this earth are somehow bad or that we should not have any concerns about practical daily living. After all, we are Christians. We are not Gnostics. The Gnostics believed that the material world was at the very least inferior to the spirit world or were indeed evil. They say the body is evil and so the goal of salvation for the Gnostics was to get rid of the body because the body is bad. But that’s not what God says. God is the creator of the body. God created a good creation in the very beginning. God created all things and what was his assessment of what he created? He says it’s very good. God created a good creation. The things of this earth were created in the beginning by a good God and are themselves, at least in and of themselves, good.

And scripture calls us to be good stewards of the blessings of earth that God has given to us. But when I’m speaking about being earthly minded or worldly minded, I mean loving the things of the world more than loving the things of God. And especially loving the world in the negative sense of that term, in the sense of the world system that is under Satan’s influence, which is in rebellion against God. We are not to love the things of the world, especially the world system, in rebellion against God. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, thus, in other words, in the way described in verse 10, the created order, while good as originally created from the hands of God has, of course, been impacted and corrupted by sin and needs to be purified and refined by God’s holy fire so that all sinful and corrupted things will be burned away.

Beloved, the things of this fallen world system are only temporary and are ultimately to be burned up in God’s righteous and holy judgment. So to be worldly minded and to live a worldly life, a life that’s focused only on this present age, a life that is dominated by love of the world, the flesh and the devil, to be worldly minded and to live a worldly life is ultimate foolishness. It involves valuing that which God abhors and inverting the true priorities of an authentic life. It is to opt for that which has no ultimate future, that which is perishing, that which is doomed to destruction. Instead, what should our mindset be? We sang that beautiful hymn earlier in the service, May the mind of Christ, my Savior, rule my heart in everything. It’s a beautiful hymn.

We should have the mind of Christ, not worldly mindedness, earthly mindedness, but the mind of Christ. And one of the ways that we have the mind of Christ is by setting our sights on what the Lord has planned next on the schedule of redemptive history. And so we learn here in verse 11 that belief in the second coming of Jesus Christ should produce holy and godly living. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of what? Holiness and godliness. In view of the destruction this sinful fallen world is headed for, we should live as those whose citizenship is in heaven. Because brothers and sisters, if you belong to Christ, if you are in Christ, your ultimate citizenship is in heaven. Turn with me if you would to what Paul says about this in Philippians 3 verses 17 through 21.

Paul writes these words, and he’s exhorting, and remember Paul is writing this from prison. Paul is in prison for the gospel of Christ, and he says this to the Christians that he writes to. He says, brothers, join in imitating me and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us, for many of whom I have often told you and now tell you, even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. He’s burdened by those who oppose the gospel and who walk as enemies of the cross of Christ, and he goes on to say, their end is destruction, their God is their belly, and they glory in their shame with, notice this, with minds set on what? Set on earthly things. That our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

Dear listener, are you living as a citizen of heaven, or is your life worldly and earthbound? In fact, let me ask you, are you a citizen of heaven? Is your ultimate citizenship in heaven? Only as you trust in Christ by the grace of God, only as you turn to Christ, offer to you in the gospel in true faith and repentance can you be assured that your citizenship is in heaven. Repent and believe the good news tonight. Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us take to heart our identity as a people of destiny. As Peter goes on to say in verse 12, we are to be waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and heavenly bodies will melt as they burn.

Beloved in Christ, we are to be a forward-looking people. We are a people with a destiny. We are a people living between the times, between the time of our Lord’s first advent and his glorious future second advent. By God’s sovereign grace, we are a people destined for glory. We are destined for glory. This is not our ultimate home. We’re simply strangers here. We’re pilgrims on the way. And we are called as pilgrims to wait for and hasten the coming of the day of God. Now waiting for it is one thing. We’re all waiting for Jesus to return. But this terminology of hastening the coming day of God is more active in its focus. The NIV translates it as speeding its coming. We are to speed the coming of the day of God. What does that mean?

It makes it sound like we can make Jesus return or we can shorten the time of his return in some way. Dr. Kistermacher, who is, again, he is a Reformed Bible commentator, but he says this in his commentary about this. He says, this is a startling statement, a statement of hastening the coming of the day of God. This is a startling statement indeed. Peter is saying that we have a vital part in shortening the time set for the coming of God’s day. Did you realize that? You say, well, how does that make sense? And how do we do that? How do we hasten the coming day of God? How do we speed the time of our Lord’s return? Well from the context of this passage and the overall context of 2 Peter, indeed the overall scriptural context, we hasten the coming of the day of God.

We hasten our Lord’s return through such things as godly living, missions and evangelism, prayer and worship through these spiritual means. But of course, some would say, wait a minute, pastor, I thought we were Reformed here. I thought we were Calvinists. We believe in God’s absolute sovereignty. And so we know that in terms of God’s sovereign decree, the return of Christ, the day of Christ’s return is fixed from eternity. So how can we hasten the day? How can we shorten the time for our Lord’s return? And of course, there is great mystery here. Of course, the day of our Lord’s return has been fixed by God’s sovereign decree. And of course, Jesus is certain to return precisely when the Father intends for him to return at the preordained time. But at the same time, in terms of the historical process leading up to our Lord’s return, there is a sense in which we participate in hastening the Lord’s return.

And that’s why it’s legitimate for us as the church to pray, Maranatha, come Lord Jesus. We pray for the Lord’s return. We pray for the Lord to hasten his return. This is not contrary to God’s sovereign decree, but it is an outworking of that decree in the mysterious plan and purposes of God. Remember, God uses means to accomplish his purposes. And so, for example, some of you have non-believers, unbelievers in your life, you’re praying for their salvation. We know that if they are elect, they will be saved in God’s timing and according to God’s way. But we’re still encouraged to pray for the lost, aren’t we? Our prayers for the lost to be saved and our attempts to share the gospel with them and bring them to church and encourage them to use the means of grace do not contradict God’s sovereign plan or purposes, but are part of how God carries out his purposes.

And the same thing when it comes to hastening the day of our Lord’s return. And that brings me to my next point as we move along. These last two points will be brief. Consider the promise of new heavens and a new earth as an encouragement to faith and hope. In verses 12 through 13, we see the promise of new heavens and a new earth as an encouragement to our faith and hope. It says in verse 12, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn. But according to his promise, there’s a promise, according to his promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. When God makes a promise, does he keep his promises? Of course he does.

We wait his promise, even as we hasten the day of the Lord. Now the Old Testament background for this reference to the new heavens and the new earth in which righteousness dwells is, of course, the book of the prophet Isaiah is one passage, Isaiah 65, 17 through 25, which was read earlier in the service and also Isaiah 66, 22 to 24. I’m just going to read that passage very briefly, Isaiah 66, verses 22 to 24, it says this, For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me, says the Lord, so shall your offspring and your name remain. From new moon to new moon and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, declares the Lord. Again to quote from Dr. Kistimacher, he says with the word new, Peter teaches that this new creation will come forth out of the old creation.

In other words, and again, this is disputed among some, even among some reformed scholars, but I agree with Kistimacher here. It’s not that God’s going to totally annihilate, totally get rid of the present creation and start all over. It’s not new in the sense of brand new, fresh from the hand, the creative hand of God, rather as Kistimacher says, the word new, with the word new, Peter teaches that this new creation comes forth out of the old creation. That is, the old has given birth to the new. And then he quotes from Henry Alford, who compares the new creation, the new heavens and the new earth to the new world that arose after the flood of Noah. Alford says the flood did not annihilate the earth, but changed it. And as the new earth was a consequence of the flood, so the final new heavens and earth shall be of the fire.

So it will be a purifying fire. Believer, let the truth of the coming new heavens and new earth encourage your heart as you fight the good fight of faith. Let it strengthen your faith and your hope as you look forward to the promise of his coming. But finally, remember that the Lord’s patience means salvation. We learned that in verses 14 through 16. Again, Peter addressing his readers in a very pastoral tone. He says, therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, what are they to do? What are we to do as we wait for the return of our Lord and the day of the Lord? Be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish and at peace. In other words, continue to walk by faith and pursue godliness and holiness as you await the coming of the Lord.

Not only that, he says, and count the patience of our Lord as salvation. Count the patience of our Lord as salvation. Again, Christ is not returned yet because he’s being patient. He’s being patient as the gospel call is going out and as the elect are being called into the kingdom and to faith in Christ through the call of the gospel. And so count the patience of our Lord as salvation. And oh, how patient he is. How patient he is. If you look back in your life, believer, you can look back on times when your faith has been shaken, when you’ve had ups and downs, and perhaps you’ve had times when you’ve wandered far from the Lord, but he’s been patient with you and he’s drawn you back. The Lord is incredibly patient. He’s slow to anger.

He’s abounding in steadfast love and covenant faithfulness. Don’t take his patience for granted. Don’t presume upon the grace of God, but rejoice in the patience of the Lord because the patience of our Lord is salvation, as Peter says. And not only that, Peter also brings the apostle Paul into it to confirm what he’s saying. He says, just as our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given to him, which by the way indicates the wisdom given to Paul, that’s Peter’s recognizing the fact that Paul’s writings were given by divine inspiration, divine wisdom coming from the Lord. Verse 16, as he does in all his letters, when he speaks in them of these matters. And then he goes on to say, and if you’ve read Paul’s writings, I think you can resonate with this.

He says, You ever find that when you’re reading Paul? There are some things in Paul’s writings that are hard to understand. Even Peter thought so. So don’t be discouraged when you have trouble understanding Paul at times. But there are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction as they do the other scriptures. By the way, this language of the other scriptures implies that Peter recognizes the divine inspiration of Paul’s apostolic writings. And so again, Peter reinforces what he had already said in verse nine, he reinforces that in verse 15, as he talks about the patience of the Lord. And he also, and the apostle Paul again, taught similar things. And by the way, this verse, verse 15 and 16 puts to rest any theories that would see a tension between Paul’s teachings and Peter’s teachings.

Peter and Paul were both apostles of Jesus Christ, and they were united in their doctrine. And again, notice that Peter regards Paul’s letters as being on the same level as the other scriptures, which implies that the apostles recognized each other’s official apostolic writings as holy scripture. And so should we as well. So friends, as we hasten the day of the Lord Jesus, the day of his return, let us remember that the Lord’s patience is salvation. And let us praise God for his incredible patience toward us and his goodness to us. Amen. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you and praise you that Jesus will one day return in glory. We thank you for your patience toward us. We ask that you would grant us the grace to be patient toward others, especially towards those who are yet outside of Christ.

May we bear patient testimony and witness to the good news of Jesus. And we pray that by your spirit, you would give us the grace to hasten our Lord’s coming. Lord Jesus, come. Come quickly. In your name we pray, all of God’s people said, Amen. Let’s close our time of worship by rising and we’ll sing as our closing hymn, number 281. Rejoice, the Lord is King, 281.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

May 4, 2025
In the Last Days

About this sermon

Peter warns that scoffers will come in the last days, asking, “Where is the promise of his coming?” They deliberately overlook that God created the world by his word and judged it by water, and by the same word the present heavens and earth are kept for fire and judgment. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness; with him one day is as a thousand years. He is patient, not wishing that any should perish but that all should reach repentance. The day of the Lord will come suddenly, like a thief.

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Sermon transcript

Amen. Well, please remain standing for the reading of God’s Word. We are heading towards the close soon of our study of 2 Peter, and this evening we consider 2 Peter chapter 3, verses 1 through 10. You’ll find that beginning on page 1208 in your Pew Bibles. 2 Peter 3, and I’ll read verses 1 through 10. 2 Peter 3, verses 1 through 10. Dear friends here, with reverence and awe, the Word of our God. This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them, I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing following their own sinful desires.

They will say, where is the promise of His coming? Forever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation. For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the Word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word, the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God endures forever. Let’s pray for the Lord to bless the preaching of His Word. Our Lord and Father in heaven, we consider tonight a passage from your Holy Word containing sobering yet hopeful truth. We would ask, Lord, that by your Spirit you would illuminate us and open our minds and our hearts to behold wondrous things from your Word this evening. And we pray that once again that you would grant that your Word would find a lodging place in our souls and that it might transform us.

May we be transformed by the renewing of our minds this evening through the proclamation of your Word. And we would ask that you would give me aid and assistance by your Spirit to declare and speak forth your Word in a manner that is clear, in a manner that is blessed of you for the salvation and sanctification of your people and the glory of your name. We pray these things, Heavenly Father, through Christ our Lord, in all of God’s people said. Amen. You may be seated. Once again, if you’re looking at your sermon outline, I’d encourage the children to listen for the following words. There’s a lot of words to keep track of, some of them rather long words, but the words are Well, dear friends, have you ever been mocked? Have you ever found yourself on the receiving end of ridicule?

How does it feel to be ridiculed? Well, certainly it’s not a fun thing to experience, is it? No one enjoys being ridiculed or mocked, insulted, taunted, or verbally torn down by others if in the way that the tongue can be used to tear others down. Well, dear friends, in Christ, that being the case, we are warned in Scripture that as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, we can expect that we will likely encounter unbelievers who ridicule the truths revealed in God’s Word, the truths that we love, the truths that we embrace, the truths that we confess, and who perhaps will mock us as well as being foolish or naive, childish, ignorant, uneducated for simply believing in the Bible and its divinely revealed truths. Well, dear ones, our passage for this Lord’s Day evening is one such passage that predicts the presence of scoffers and mockers in this present age, an age of redemptive history which Peter describes here in verse 3 as the last days.

Now, there are many details in this passage that we could consider this evening, and I really won’t have time this evening to draw out all of the truths that are jam-packed into this passage of Scripture. There’s so much here to be uncovered and to be explained, so we’re going to try to just give you a brief overview of this passage. But that being the case, in the light of the overall context of 2 Peter, one of the things that we should not miss about this passage is that these scoffers would arise not only outside of the church in the context of the unbelieving pagan world that exists outside of the world of the visible church. Friends, the apostle Peter indicates in this passage that such scoffers would even arise from within the professed people of God, in other words, within the visible, organized church.

This happened under the Old Covenant with false teachers, false prophets arising among the people, and it will happen today with false teachers in the church who end up mocking and scoffing at the truth of the faith once for all delivered to the saints. The heretical false teachers that Peter warns his first century Christian readers about in this particular epistle, and whom he had described in great detail back in chapter 2, were just such scoffers, and these false teachers had arisen from among the people, as remember what Peter says back in chapter 2 verse 1, he says, but false prophets also arose, he’s speaking there of the Old Testament times, false prophets also arose among the people just as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them, and so forth.

Now friends, again, remember where we are in this epistle, remember that Peter had begun this letter with an earnest exhortation for his readers to grow spiritually, to grow in godliness and virtue, that opening exhortation was found back in chapter 1 verses 3 through 15, and then at the end of chapter 1, Peter had reminded them that the gospel that he had preached to them was not based on cleverly devised myths, but rather that he and the other apostles had been eye witnesses to the majesty of the Lord Jesus Christ as we’re told back in chapter 1 verse 16, Peter also urged them to pay close attention to what he called the prophetic word, that’s how he describes the Old Testament scriptures back in chapter 1 verse 19, in other words, he urges them to pay attention to the written word of God, the written scriptures, all of which pointed to and were fulfilled in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, that’s why the Old Testament scriptures are called the prophetic scriptures, they prophesy of and point forward to and are fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ, and then as we saw in our study of chapter 2, Peter gives an extensive warning and an extensive description of these false teachers and no doubt Peter specifically had in mind the particular false teachers that were endangering his original readers, his original audience.

Well that brings us to the closing chapter of this epistle, as Peter had begun his letter with an exhortation for us believers to grow in faith and godliness and virtue so he will end this letter with a similar word of exhortation, he begins to wrap up his epistle at the beginning of this chapter, he begins to wrap up this epistle by reminding us of the promise of our Lord’s glorious second advent, his future return at the second coming. Peter presents Christ’s future second coming as an additional motivation for godly living, but before his closing exhortation at the end of this chapter, chapter 3, Peter pauses to emphasize the certainty of our Lord’s return and the day of the Lord and to explain the reasons why Christ’s return has been delayed for so long, even in the first century some of the believers were wondering well Jesus promised to come back, why hasn’t he come back yet and here we are 2000 years later and our Lord still has not returned, so this is a subject that is very relevant to us as Christians living as we do in the 21st century in the year of our Lord 2025.

With all this in mind let’s turn our attention to the details of our text for this evening and the first thing I want us to notice as we take as a chunk chapter 3 verses 1 through 7, consider that last days scoffers and the certainty of final judgment, consider what Peter says here about last days scoffers and the certainty of final judgment, the two key words from this first point are scoffers and judgment. In verse 1 Peter begins this chapter by saying this is now the second letter that I’m writing to you beloved, so he says that there has been a previous letter that has been written to them, now many scholars believe that the first letter to which this is a sequel or second letter is of course the canonical book of first Peter and that is indeed a possibility though some commentators would dispute this even Bible believing commentators, some would say that well first Peter is written perhaps to a different audience, a different set of Christians and churches than is second Peter and if that’s the case then the first letter would have been a letter that we no longer have access to, a letter that is no longer available to us, but whatever the case may be I lean towards the view that the second letter, that the first letter to which this is a sequel, the second letter is first Peter, but whatever the case may be Peter is writing to these believers and he’s writing with earnestness, remember he knows that his time on earth is limited, he knows that he will soon go to be with the Lord and so he wants to make sure that they have a word of remembrance that they can remember the truths that he has been teaching them and notice how he addresses them, he says this is now the second letter that I am writing to you beloved, beloved, the Greek term is agape toy, agape love, Peter is not writing to them simply some formal theological treatise or tome, he’s writing to them, yes he’s writing them theology and doctrine but he is doing so with a pastor’s heart, he is doing so as an apostle of Jesus Christ who cares for the sheep for whom Christ laid down his life, so Peter addresses his readers with tender pastoral affection and he says, he gives us the reason why he has written this second letter, he says in both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, he’s telling us what he’s been doing here in these letters and in this letter in particular, he is doing what stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, now focus on the terms, focus on sincere mind, that language of his readers having a sincere mind, this would be in contrast to the false teachers who were phonies, he’s saying I am writing to you to stir up your sincere mind, he doesn’t want them to depart from their sincere mind but to have the mind of Christ and continue to fill their mind with the truth of God’s word and he wants to stir up their sincere mind for what purpose, by way of reminder, he’s reminding them and I know that you folks if you’re familiar with the scriptures, if you’ve ever read through the Bible in its entirety or you’re familiar with the big picture of the Bible, one of the things that should strike you is the fact that throughout the scriptures we have repeated exhortations and calls to remember, we’re called to remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, right, God’s people were called upon in the law of God, the law of Moses to remember the Lord, to not forget what the Lord had done for them and to remember his holy commandments and so forth, Jesus in giving the Lord’s Supper he says do this what?

In remembrance of me as a memorial of what he did for us and for our salvation, we as God’s people often need to be reminded about the truths and commands of God’s word and especially about the gospel, the good news of our Savior Jesus Christ, why? Because we are so prone to forget and this is from the standpoint of how it benefits us, this is why we gather week in and week out, every Lord’s Day, Lord’s Day after Lord’s Day, this is why we believe in the importance of attending the public worship services, not only because to do so is an act of obedience to God, that’s the most important reason of course, we gather because we’re commanded to, we’re not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, but we also do so, it benefits us to do so because in the in and out of our week it’s so easy as we get bogged down in the details of daily life to forget the things that matter most, to forget our roots, to forget who we are in Christ, to forget the gospel and how it applies to us and so we come together week by week to remember God’s mighty works and what he has done for us and for our salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ.

So Peter is writing them to remind them and he goes on to say in verse 2 that you should remember what? The predictions of the holy prophets, the holy prophets there, very most likely referring to the Old Testament prophets who predicted the coming of Jesus, the promised Messiah, but then he also goes on to say and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles. The predictions of the holy prophets in the overall context of this passage, these predictions as I said seem to refer especially to the Old Testament predictions about the last days and we covered a passage in Isaiah this morning that spoke to that, that speaks to that reality. Now some interpreters say that the holy prophets that Peter’s referring to here were New Testament prophets and in the apostolic age there were prophets that God raised up in his churches as the New Testament scriptures were being written but nevertheless the more natural way to understand this terminology is to understand it as Peter referring to the Old Testament prophets.

But what about this language of wanting to remind them of the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles? In what sense what’s he speaking of specifically there? Is he speaking about the gospel? Is he calling the gospel a commandment? Well I mean and if he’s doing that is that a contradiction of the truth that the gospel is good news, that it’s about grace and not of law or command? Well friends again the commandment of the Lord and Savior, this terminology probably refers specifically to the teachings of Christ himself especially as those teachings are contained in the gospel accounts and especially he might have, he seems to have reference to the gospel message and its ethical implications. The gospel message is good news, it’s promise, it’s grace but that grace has ethical and moral implications.

We are saved by grace through faith apart from works of the law but we are saved unto good works, unto the commands of discipleship laid out for us in the New Covenant scriptures indeed laid out for us in all of the Word of God. We’re not saved by keeping the commandments but we are saved unto the commandments of our Lord and Savior and these commandments were conveyed to us, have been conveyed to us in the church through your apostles. The message of Jesus Christ was entrusted by Christ to his apostles and the apostles were Christ’s official appointed spokesmen and they were eyewitnesses of his ministry and especially of his resurrection and so in what sense are they your apostles? Well I think what Peter is doing here by describing the apostles to his readers as your apostles he’s saying look the false teachers they’re not your teachers, the apostles are your apostles.

In other words what he probably is conveying here by this language he is probably saying the well-known apostles, the apostles that you know to be true apostles, the apostles who were known to Peter’s original readers and were trusted by them including Peter himself for he himself was an apostle and then he goes on to say in verse three and he prefaces this this warning here in the first two verses but then in verse three he gets to the warning he says knowing this first of all that scoffers will come in the last days following their own sinful desires. He’s saying this is something that you already know. He’s reminding them of what they already know. We need to be reminded often of the truth that we already know. We need to hear the truth over and over again not only because of our tendency to forget it and drift away from it but because we need to grab hold of it and we need to know it and apply it by the grace of God to our situation.

Knowing that what? That scoffers will come. It can also be translated mockers. The presence of unbelieving scoffers should not surprise them. He’s saying don’t be surprised this crisis with these false teachers that shouldn’t surprise you and notice how Peter describes these scoffers. He says they follow their own sinful desires. Well isn’t that what we learned about the false teachers in chapter two? The particular false teachers that were threatening Peter’s original readers. They were antinomian heretics. They were promoting the idea that God’s grace in Christ excuses human sin. You know God God forgives you in Christ and so you’re free to send up a storm. After all sin is taken care of. Grace covers it all so don’t worry about sin and the idea that grace excuses us from our moral responsibility so that we can pursue our sinful desires and in particular what these false teachers seem to have been promoting was sexual license.

That seems to be the particular teaching that they were promoting using the grace of God to excuse their own sinful desires and thus they would scoff at any aspect of the truth of God’s word that put upon believers and puts upon people the responsibility to walk in obedience to the commandments of the Lord to walk in holiness and sanctification. And so again this is what he says knowing that scoffers will come. When will they come? They will come in the last days. They will come with scoffing. The presence the fact that Jesus the Messiah has arrived onto the scene of history. The fact that Jesus has come does not mean that scoffers are automatically done away with. They’re still going to be here. Now what are the last days? Well the last days this is the period of redemptive history between Christ’s first and second advance.

In other words now this present age he’s saying that this is going to be a reality even in this present messianic age. This age between the ages. This age between the first and the second advance of our Lord. And so friends then he goes on to say in verse four he describes what they will say. These scoffers they will say where is the promise of his coming? Now why would these particular false teachers want to mock at and scoff at the second coming of Christ? Well because the second coming of Christ means that Jesus will return and will hold each and every one of us accountable for every thought word and deed. And these false teachers these scoffers didn’t want that. They wanted the liberty to live according to their own sinful inclinations and desires.

So they would mock at the idea of a final judgment of a return of Christ. And even today we find that don’t we? We find folks who ridicule our belief in the second coming of Christ in the day of final judgment because they don’t want to be subject to God’s judgment. They want to be autonomous. They want to do their own thing. Chart their own course. Be the captain of their own destiny. The master of their own fates. But that’s not the way it goes. And so they scoff at the idea of the second coming and it goes on to say forever since the fathers fell asleep all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation. In other words there’s been no divine intervention really. Everything’s just there’s this kind of hyper uniformitarianism that they seemed to embrace and promote.

That just as things continue in the natural order it’s just going to continue that way indefinitely into the future without any supernatural interventions of the Lord. They say everything’s continued ever since the fathers fell asleep. What does he mean by the fathers? Probably he has reference there to the the Old Testament patriarchs. For long ages of human history the sun rises the sun set the years come and go the decades the millennia come and go and things are still the same as they always have been. Forever since the fathers fell asleep all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation. But then how does Peter refute them? He says for they deliberately overlook this fact that the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.

So again these scoffers deny God’s active intervention his active supernatural intervention in human history and therefore they deny the second coming of Christ and the final judgment because they deny their moral accountability to their creator. But as Peter points out they deliberately forget they are intentionally obtuse they suppress the truth and unrighteousness they’re not they’re not innocently ignorant they willfully forget they willfully forget what they deliberately forget that God has already supernaturally intervened in the past and he gives two examples in particular they deliberately forget that in the very beginning God created the universe ex nihilo out of nothing he did so by his supernatural creative word they also forget the flood judgment of Noah’s day the judgment that destroyed the human race the world that then was the world that had existed in the ancient pre-deluvian world of Noah’s time and that was a judgment of immense supernatural proportions and in which God supernaturally intervened to judge what Peter describes in verse six as the world that then was and I would have you note by the way that clearly Peter regarded the flood judgment of Noah’s time to be a real historical event not a myth not a parable but a real historical event and then it goes on to say in verse seven but by the same word that same word that brought creation into existence out of nothing that same word that brought the flood judgment upon the world of the ancient pre-deluvian world the world that then existed by that same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up not for water but what for fire being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly here we see Peter underscoring the certainty of the final judgment in the flood judgment God had destroyed the world of humanity by means of water but in the final judgment the heavens and earth in other words everything the entire universe that now exists are these things are stored up for fire a fire which will have the effect of destroying the ungodly and by the way when he uses this term destruction of the ungodly he’s not teaching the heresy of annihilationism he’s not saying that the ungodly will be destroyed in the sense that they will be snuffed out of existence and Peter the apostle has clearly affirmed back in chapter two the reality of hell of eternal damnation in hell so he is speaking here of destruction not in the sense of annihilation but in the sense of eternal judgment and punishment a couple points of application I want to make first of all Christian remember the truths of God’s word that you have been taught remember who you are in Christ remember how he wants you to live as a disciple of Christ secondly be prepared to encounter scoffers and mockers don’t be surprised when the unbelieving ridicule your faith it shouldn’t surprise us it’s offensive yes but let us remember that those especially those outside of the church those who do not know better as those inside the church should know remember that they are held captive to their own delusions they’re held captive to Satan and we need to pray for them and seek their repentance and conversion and those within the church who prove to be scoffers we need to call them to repentance and when necessary exercise loving church discipline to bring them into line and bring them to their knees in repentance but let us not be surprised let us be prepared to encounter scoffers and let us know the faith well so that when we do hear their scoffing we know how to answer their ridicule with the truth of God’s word also friends be comforted and motivated for godly living by looking forward to Christ’s second advent Jesus is returning he will right all wrongs and indeed he is bringing in a new heavens and a new earth wherein righteousness dwells but why hasn’t he done it already well that leads me to my next main point as we consider the reasons for the delay of Christ’s return in verses eight and nine we have reasons for the delay of Christ’s return it says in verse eight but do not overlook this one fact beloved that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness but is patient toward you not wishing that any should perish but that all should reach repentance but the day of the Lord will come like a thief and so forth let’s focus especially on verses eight and nine there’s two reasons that Peter gives here in verses eight and nine for the delay of Christ’s return and you know you know we wonder oftentimes Christians throughout history have wondered when’s the Lord coming back and some have fallen into the trap of trying to read the signs of the times and predict when Jesus would return and Jesus himself says that that’s a fool’s errand because no man knows the day or the hour Jesus said we know that he’s coming back someday we know that he calls us to be prepared for his return but it’s not for us to know times or seasons which God the father has set by his own sovereign purpose and decree but one of the reasons for the delay that Peter mentions in verse eight is God’s perspective on time God views time differently than you and I do since God himself exists outside of time and is himself the creator of all things including time he does not view time as we do the Lord is transcendent over time he’s not bound by time like we are we live on a continuum of past present and future we all we are because we are creatures of God we are limited by time and we will be forever it’s not that when when the new heavens and new earth comes that that we will exist in the same realm of eternity that God exists in the sense that we won’t experience a succession of events we will forever experience past present and future because we are creatures we’re not the creator we are bound by time God is not and so again he is transcendent over time whereas we exist within time and so he says do not overlook this one fact beloved with the Lord one day is this a thousand years and a thousand years as one day one day a thousand years to the Lord it’s there’s hardly any difference now I want to make a an important point here this statement that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as as one day there were some in the early in early church who used this language to form a a doctrine of the millennium in their interpretation of the millennium of revelation chapter 20 but this statement does not provide any justification for speculating about a doctrine of the millennium nor does it address the question of how we are to understand the length of the creation days of genesis 1 as important as those issues are from an exegetical and theological perspective instead in the context of this particular passage Peter is addressing the question of why Jesus hasn’t come back yet and the reason he hasn’t come back yet is look he’s not he’s not delaying unnecessarily his view of time is different from our view of time his point here is that God’s perspective on time is different from our perspective on time but then he gives another reason for the delay of our Lord’s return and that is God’s provision of sufficient time for the elect to be brought to repentance it says in verse 9 the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness I mean two thousand years to us that seems like an awful long time for the Lord to delay his return but the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness his promise of returning is still certain it is still sure but he’s not slow in fulfilling his promise as we might count slowness but rather is patient toward you not wishing that any should perish but that all should reach repentance now many friends many of our non-Calvinist and Arminian friends will appeal to this verse to support the idea of a universal saving will in God since after all it says God is not wishing that any should perish but that all should reach repentance but is that a doctrine that we can legitimately derive from this particular verse now don’t get me wrong the scriptures I believe do indicate that God indeed has a general attitude of benevolence toward all of humanity and as Ezekiel tells us the Lord does not desire the wicked the destruction of the wicked but would rather that they repent and live but at the same time we need to remember that in the context of first Peter I’m sorry second Peter chapter 3 in the context of this passage Peter is writing to believers notice again what he says in verse 9 the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness but is patient toward who patient toward you in other words you believers he’s writing to believers he’s saying God is giving enough time for all of the elect to be brought to repentance and faith in Christ through the spread of the gospel so the implication of this passage is that God is not willing for any of the elect to perish and without hearing the gospel and being brought to faith and repentance even the elect would perish but rather that all of them should reach repentance and of course we know in God’s sovereign decree all of his own will indeed reach repentance but what do we learn from these verses well first of all dear ones let us trust in the Lord’s timing it is not for us to know times or seasons but to trust that Christ will return at just the right time are we ready for his return ready to welcome the Savior and dear listener by God’s grace have you reached repentance have you turned to Christ in repentance from your sin and trusted him alone for your salvation from sin he who died to pay the penalty for sin and rose from the dead so that whoever believes in him might not perish but have everlasting life may God give you the grace this night to reach repentance to come to Christ in faith and repentance but finally our passage for this evening leaves us with a reflection on the suddenness of the day of the Lord and the transformation that it will bring and this is my faith and my final point this evening consider the suddenness of the day of the Lord and the transformation that it will bring we’re told this by Peter in verse 10 but the day of the Lord this is the the final day the day of Christ’s return when he returns in glory raises the dead and judges humanity at the final judgment the day of the Lord will come like a thief it’ll be unexpected it’ll take the world by surprise and then what will happen then the heavens will pass away with a roar and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved Peter here is reflecting Old Testament prophetic language of cosmic upheaval that there will be a total transformation to the creation and it says and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed the works of the earth probably refers to human works will be exposed laid bare and perhaps destroyed now some of your translations instead of translating it as exposed or laid bare we’ll translate it as burned up now this is a a textual issue some of the ancient manuscripts have a reading that could be translated as exposed or laid bare other ancient manuscripts read burned up and there’s debate among Bible believing scholars about what exactly Peter is meaning Peter is meaning to teach by this language of cosmic upheaval some suggest that Peter is saying that when Christ returns he’s going to absolutely completely destroy the present universe by a mighty conflagration every atom every molecule will be destroyed in this present creation and he will immediately create a brand new heavens and earth in other words according to this view there will be absolutely no continuity between this present creation and the future new creation that Christ will bring in on the day of the Lord but others believe that the fire Peter is referring to is not a fire which destroys the cosmos as such but a refining fire a refining a a fire which will radically purify renew and glorify the creation so that it can be spoken of indeed as a new heavens and a new earth in other words is this a fire which destroys so that there is basically no continuity between the present creation and the new creation or is it a fire which radically refines so that there is some continuity my personal view is I favor the latter view because after all is Jesus’s body risen body glorified body with the nail prints and everything is that going to exist in the new creation well that’s continuity Jesus was raised from the dead in the same body that was put on the cross and he bore the he bears forever the marks of his cross in his glorified resurrection body so there’s continuity between Christ’s earthly body and his glorified body which will live on forever in the new heavens and the new earth same thing with our bodies when we are raised from the dead so there will be some continuity just like there is continuity between between a seed and the plant that grows from the seed though there is discontinuity and difference as well but you know whatever the case may be the point is the day of the Lord will be sudden it will radically transform the entire cosmos and everything will be put to rights all wrongs will be righted the wicked will be judged and destroyed the creation will be purified and we will have the privilege brothers and sisters to live in a new heavens and a new earth wherein righteousness dwells may this glorious truth cause us to cry out Maranatha come Lord Jesus come quickly and all of God’s people said amen let us pray our Lord and father in heaven sovereign and eternal God we thank you and praise you that you promise to bring in a new creation we thank you that Jesus will return for us and that he will right all wrongs and that he will bring us to be with him forever we thank you and praise you for this good news we ask that these truths would comfort us we ask that they would put a healthy fear of you within us and cause us Lord to bear fruit for your kingdom we pray these things heavenly father in Jesus name and all of God’s people said amen as we close our time of worship tonight let’s rise and we’ll see

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April 27, 2025
Slaves of Corruption

About this sermon

Peter calls the false teachers waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. With loud boasts they entice new believers back into sensuality, promising freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption, for whatever overcomes a person enslaves him. Those who knew the way of righteousness through Christ and then turned back are worse off than before; it would have been better never to have known it. Scripture teaches degrees of punishment, and those who abandon clearly known truth face the heaviest. A merely intellectual knowledge of Christ without a changed heart does not save.

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Sermon transcript

Well, friends, please remain standing for the reading of God’s Word. We continue to make our way through 2 Peter, and this evening we will be in 2 Peter chapter 2 verses 17 through 22. That’s 2 Peter chapter 2 verses 17 through 22. You’ll find that on page 1208 in your pew Bibles. Let’s hear God’s holy word, 2 Peter 2 beginning at verse 17. Peter describing the false teachers that he is refuting, he says, these are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. For speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.

For if after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. What the true proverb says has happened to them. The dog returns to its own vomit and the sow after washing herself returns to wallow in the mire. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Let’s pray for the Lord to bless the preaching of his word this evening. Our gracious Lord and Father in heaven, we thank you that you have given us in the scriptures your God-breathed, inerrant, infallible, authoritative word.

We ask, O Lord, that we might be guided and directed by this word. We ask that by your Spirit you would make us teachable, malleable, and we pray, Heavenly Father, that you would bless the word as it goes forth this evening, both the word that was just read and also we pray that you would grant unto me, your unworthy servant, the grace to declare and speak forth your word in such a manner that it finds a lodging place in our souls and bears spiritual fruit in our lives. Be with us now, Lord, and Lord Jesus, be glorified and magnified in the proclamation of your word this evening. And we pray all these things, Heavenly Father, through Jesus, your Son, our Lord, and all of God’s people said, Amen. You may be seated. As you see, the title of my sermon this evening is Slaves of Corruption.

And there are six key words that you can be listening for tonight. The words teaching, nourishment, knowledge, conversion, reformation, and regeneration. Well, my dear friends in Christ, one of the saddest, most tragic things for a follower of Jesus to witness is professed converts to the Christian faith who end up eventually turning their backs on their once professed faith and reverting back to their old non-Christian or secular beliefs, or perhaps turning back to the pagan godless lifestyles of their pre-conversion days. Perhaps you know folks in your own circle of relationships or from your past who would fit that description. And when you think of it, it’s tragic. It grieves our hearts to see those who once professed faith fall away from their faith. Or if they don’t abandon Christianity entirely, they abandon an orthodox biblical understanding of the Christian faith in favor of a heretical, modernistic, or so-called progressive version of Christianity.

A version of Christianity which by biblical standards is no real Christianity at all. Again, perhaps you can think of individuals in your own circle of friends or family or acquaintances who once seemed to be zealous followers of Jesus. Zealous followers of Jesus who were committed to living godly lives, committed to pursuing holiness, but who eventually ended up deserting an orthodox biblical understanding of the gospel or turning back to the godless lifestyle of their pre-Christian days, or perhaps both. Now some would describe this kind of movement away from faith as a de-conversion, a reversal in other words of one’s professed conversion. A more fashionable label that is sometimes used today to describe this kind of movement away from the historic Christian faith is the word deconstruction, although it’s my understanding that that word is used in different ways depending upon the context.

But friends in reality from the standpoint of God’s word, it is just good old fashioned apostasy or falling away from the faith. In his second letter, the apostle Peter is seeking to warn against and to counteract the influence of false teachers who had themselves been guilty of such a falling away and who were apparently targeting new converts to Christ with their false teaching and seeking to draw others away with them. Now these false teachers would still profess to be Christians, but they held to a heretical understanding of Christianity and really they were what we could describe as moral apostates. In terms of the setting of our passage for this evening, in 2 Peter chapter 2, the apostle Peter has been warning his readers about these false teachers. He had been describing their character and he had also been predicting their ultimate destruction and judgment.

Again the particular false teachers that Peter warns his original readers about could be described as antinomians, in other words the word antinomian means against the law. They were those who were against God’s law in the sense that they were moral libertines. In other words they seemed to teach that being saved by God’s grace gives the believer a license to indulge in sinful passions and the sinful passions in view were probably sexual sin in particular. And so these false teachers justified a secular sin under the excuse of well you’re saved by grace so it doesn’t matter what you do with your body. These false teachers could be described as I said as moral apostates since it seems that they would claim to be Christians but they denied the moral implications of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Does this sound like something that would be relevant in our situation today in the 21st century? Well friends again I would assert to you this evening that Peter’s warning in his second epistle is still very relevant to us today in the 21st century for today there continue to be many false teachers and many different varieties of the antinomian heresy. In our text for this Lord’s Day evening Peter continues to describe these false teachers. Here he highlights their character, their destiny as well as their moral condition. At heart they are as he describes it in verse 19 they are slaves of corruption. Slaves of corruption who have resolutely turned their backs on the true gospel of Jesus Christ and its ethical implications. They haven’t just stumbled or fallen into sin. True believers may stumble into sin even serious and scandalous sin like King David did for example and like Peter himself did when he denied Christ three times on the night before Jesus was crucified.

But no these moral apostates these false teachers had willfully and resolutely turned their backs on the moral implications of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now in the course of describing these false teachers Peter reminds us that false teachers and false teachings are simply unable to provide us with any real spiritual nourishment for our souls. False teaching can present itself as a very exciting new insight and it’s easy to get caught up into the excitement of new ideas and new teachings novel teachings. But in the end they prove to be empty and they do not satisfy the hungry soul. We also learn here of the mortal danger of having a mere intellectual knowledge of Christ that is devoid of genuine heart conversion. We also learn about the ultimate uselessness of a mere external or outward profession of faith and a mere external reformation of life that is without the basis in an inward regeneration by the Holy Spirit and a genuine conversion of the heart to faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

So with all of this in mind let’s dive into our text for this evening and the first thing I want to point out as we turn our attention to verses 17 through 19. Consider first the inability of false teaching and false teachers to provide lasting spiritual nourishment. The inability of false teaching and false teachers to provide a lasting spiritual nourishment. Let’s start with verse 17. Notice how Peter describes them. He says these are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. Waterless springs, what’s that talking about? It basically points to the fact that these teachers and their teaching is unable to provide refreshment. As one commentator puts it and we find here in this language a picture of cruel deception. The thirsty traveler comes to the spring expecting cool refreshing water but finds it dry.

So the false teachers promise satisfying truth but in reality have nothing to offer. I remember I have a memory in my mind of a time when I was I think I was in junior high school and I was outside I think I was jogging out in the high school track and it was a sunny day and I realized I’m really parched I was really desperately thirsty and there’s a water fountain outside and I run to that water fountain and I turn the handle and nothing comes out. How disappointing I was and how desperate I was to get hold of some water and to quench my thirst and I was so relieved when I finally was able to get to a water fountain. But these false teachers and their teaching is like a waterless spring or springs without water it promises refreshment it promises to quench your spiritual thirst but in the end it leaves you dry and empty.

What about the image of mists driven by a storm? I like what Dr. Kistermacher says about this he says what a disappointment to people who having endured a drought finally see storm clouds from which they expect abundant rain but the storm pushes along swirling clouds that are waterless so the heretics cause excitement in the community but offer nothing that is substantial and worthwhile. This would be language that would especially be meaningful to to those who were farmers for example and you’ve got you’ve had a dry season and you desperately need rain to water your crops and you see a cloud and you think oh the rain’s finally coming but then it ends up being merely a mist that is driven away by the storm that doesn’t leave water to water your fields. And what does he go on to say about these false teachers who are incapable by their false teaching to provide spiritual refreshments he says in verse 17 for them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved.

The NIV translates it blackest darkness is reserved for them. Their false teachings bring others into spiritual darkness so it is only just for God to reserve for them the gloomiest blackest darkness of hell forever. The darkness of hell will even surpass that supernatural darkness that was experienced by the Egyptians in the ninth plague where God sent a plague upon the people that of darkness that could be felt. Let’s turn back briefly to Exodus chapter 10 Exodus 10 verses 21 through 23 as Moses writes of this ninth plague it says this then the Lord said to Moses stretch out your hand toward heaven that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt and notice how this darkness is described it is a darkness to be felt. So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven and there was pitch darkness in all the land of Egypt three days they did not see one another nor did anyone rise from his place for three days but all the people of Israel had light where they lived.

That’s how God made a distinction between his people his people had light but the Egyptians had nothing but pitch black darkness for three days. Imagine being going three whole days without seeing a glimmer of light. This was obviously a supernatural darkness but the blackest darkness of hell will surpass even that kind of darkness. I’ve never been diagnosed with this and some of you can relate to this but one of the most difficult times of the year are the winter months when it’s very gray and you know that kind of gloomy dark gray for days and days and days and it just it really saps my mood. I think they call it seasonal affective disorder perhaps some of you have experienced that or suffer from that. In other words it’s very difficult for me to go through periods of time where I don’t see the sun for a lengthy period of time.

I can only imagine the darkness of hell that is described here in this passage something much worse than what is experienced by those who suffer from seasonal affective disorder and the like and so they are destined for the gloom of utter darkness because they by their false teachings bring others into spiritual darkness. But notice also how they are described as we move on to verse 18. It says for speaking loud boasts of folly they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. Now what’s what’s he talking about here. Let’s go through this. He says that these false teachers speak loud boasts of folly. In other words false teachers tend to be characterized by an arrogant boastfulness a bravado a boldness and that’s one of the things that makes them so attractive and makes their teaching so attractive they seem so confident so certain of themselves.

Some of you may remember and if you don’t it’s okay but some of you may remember Harold Camping. He was a I’ll say it honestly he was a false teacher he was a Bible teacher on family Christian radio for a time he had been orthodox in his views but he developed some very unorthodox ideas but the thing about Mr. Camping he had this radio show and people would call in with their questions and they’d say Brother Camping what does this passage mean or what does that passage mean. And he would speak with such confidence and he would offer in many cases very weird and strange interpretations of passages of scripture that no one would have dreamed up prior to him and he would speak with great bravado great confidence. He didn’t speak in a loud voice but he seemed so calmly assured.

I can assure you that his teachings were far from what is found in the word of God. Well these particular false teachers they not only spoke with confidence they spoke loud boasts but their loud boasts were loud boasts of what? Folly. Their teaching was at heart and at its foundation nothing but utter spiritual folly foolishness and again because their particular brand of false teaching was again antinomianism which excused sin under the umbrella of the grace of God it goes on it says that they entice by what? By sensual passions of the flesh this is probably referring to sexual sin they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. Again these false teachers promoted a version of antinomianism which excused sin and it says that they went after as their potential converts those who are barely escaping.

Who’s he talking about there? Through this language Peter is describing the victims of these false teachers as new converts who have barely disentangled themselves from their former pagan associations they’ve just been rescued from their former pagan associations they’re just setting off onto the way of holiness the way of discipleship and then these false teachers come along and try to entice them back into error through their sensual passions and so forth and in verse 19 we’re told this they the false teachers promised them the potential converts they promised them what? Freedom freedom free from the law oh blessed condition you can send all you want and still have remission right? Sort of that antinomian that antinomian proclamation but it says they offer them freedom but they themselves these false teachers themselves are slaves of corruption they promise freedom but they can’t deliver what they promise and then he goes on to say for whoever over whatever overcomes a person to that he is enslaved again they cannot give what they promise they cannot give true freedom since they themselves are slaves of corruption the world thinks of freedom as the freedom to do whatever you want to do or to be more specific the freedom to send up a storm without consequence but that’s not true freedom that’s actually bondage quote unquote freedom to sin is actually bondage slavery to your own sin nature slavery to your own corruption so-called freedom or liberty to sin is actually in reality the deepest bondage of all and it says for whatever overcomes a person to that he is enslaved you know even the Roman pagan philosopher Seneca is reported to have said this he says to be enslaved to oneself is the heaviest of all servitudes that coming from a pagan to be enslaved to oneself is the heaviest of all servitudes brothers and sisters in Christ there are multitudes today who are slaves to their own sinful selves and only the gospel of Jesus Christ and the power of the spirit can break that bondage can break that slavery a couple points of application here first of all beloved it’s vitally important for all believers but especially for new converts to the faith and for those who are young in the faith to be well grounded in their faith to labor to be well grounded in their faith your listener are you well grounded in the gospel of Jesus Christ and the truths of God’s holy word parents are you seeking to ground your children your covenant children in the truths of God’s word so that they are not picked off and enticed away from the narrow path that leads to life through the influence of false teachers like the ones described by Peter in his second epistle let us strive by the grace of God to ourselves be well grounded in the gospel and the truth of God’s word and let us strive to help those who are new to the faith those who are young in the faith to get established and mature in the faith we also learn here that Christ delivers true believers from their slavery to the corruption of sin I’m reminded of what our Lord teaches back in the gospel of John chapter eight verses thirty four through thirty six if you want to turn there you’re welcome to do so John chapter eight verses thirty four to thirty six we read these words Jesus answered them truly truly I say to you everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin the slave does not remain in the house forever the son remains forever so if the son sets you free you will be free indeed true freedom is freedom from the dominion and bondage of sin when Christ saves us he not only justifies us praise God he does that he not only delivers us from the guilt and the penalty of our sin he not only declares us righteous in his sight because of the righteousness of Christ credited to us and received by faith alone but he also sanctifies us he begins to sanctify us and clean us up on the inside he not only declares us to be righteous in the courtroom of heaven but the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within us and begins cleaning up inside and fitting us for glory dear listener has Christ set you free from the bondage and corruption of sin now true believers do sin we do fall into sin in fact there’s a sense in which we all sin all the time you say pastor what are you talking about well let me ask you this God’s word God’s law requires you and me to love the Lord our God with all our heart all our soul all our mind all the time does that describe you if you’ve been born again by the Holy Spirit you do love God the Lord has worked within your soul a disposition to love God you love God though you fail him daily you still love him and you long to be righteous you hunger and thirst after righteousness though you fall short but if you do not at this very moment love God perfectly with your entire being then you are at this very moment sinning that’s me and that’s you but the difference between a regenerate sinner in an unregenerate sinner is the regenerate sinner has the Holy Spirit he has been given a new heart a new spirit a new disposition that turns away from sin and toward Christ and though we continue in this present life to struggle with the remaining presence of sin we don’t feel comfortable in our sin any longer we desire to be fully free from it we desire that day when we will love the Lord our God with all of our heart with all of our soul with all of our mind with all of our strength and when we will truly love our neighbor even as we love ourselves we long for that day and that day is coming praise God Christ has set us free from the domination of sin that’s why we fight sin that’s why the spirit fights against the flesh does this describe you well this leads me to my next point consider next the danger of a merely intellectual knowledge of Christ without genuine conversion to Christ as we move on to verses 20 and 21 it says this for if after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ they are again entangled in them and overcome the last state has become worse for them than the first for it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandments delivered to them now who is the they referred to here in verse 20 well this is probably a reference to the false teachers not to those whom these false teachers are seeking to deceive and it says it’s interesting language that Peter uses here he says in verse 20 that they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge he says if after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ they are again entangled in them and overcome the last state has become worse for them than the first in what sense had these false teachers escaped the world meaning the fallen world system and in what sense had they possessed the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ now some look at passages like this and they believe that Peter is here saying that these false teachers had once been true believers that they had once possessed a true saving knowledge of and a true saving faith in Christ but that they ended up falling away from their faith by their own free will and thus losing their salvation however if that was what Peter is saying here then Peter would be contradicting other parts of the Bible and we know that God’s word does not contradict itself the Holy Spirit does not speak different messages the Bible is a unified divine revelation and so as we compare scripture with scripture we see in passages like John 10 27 to 30 and Romans 8 verse 1 there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus we see from the scriptures that God’s word declares the absolute security of the true believer in Christ how then are we to understand passages like this which speak of these false teachers as having a knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and having in some sense escaped in the past from the world well friends I would suggest to you that the better way to understand what Peter is saying here is that these false teachers had at some point come to an intellectual knowledge of the gospel they had at one time professed their faith in Christ and they’d even escaped the world for a time in the sense of outwardly reforming their lives and living an external Christian life they cleaned themselves up on the outside however in reality they had never truly been born again and truly converted to Christ after all if they had they would not have abandoned the true gospel nor gone back to their previous pagan lifestyle this is confirmed by passages like first John 2 18 and 19 if you would turn there briefly to first John chapter 2 verses 18 through 19 now John in his epistle is dealing with a different kind of heresy than is being dealt with by Peter in second Peter but nevertheless John describes false teachers and heretics as well who had ended up leaving the church and he says this he says in verse 18 children it is the last hour and as you have heard that antichrist is coming so now many antichrists have come therefore we know that it is the last hour and notice how he describes these antichrists he says they went out from us but they were not of us in other words they’d been members of the church members in good standing of the church they had professed faith in Christ but they went out they left he goes on to say for if they had been of us they would have continued with us but they went out that it might become plain that they all are not of us and so forth so friends again as the great reform theologian Dr.

John Murray wrote in his classic book redemption accomplished and applied on the subject of the falling away of false converts to Christ Murray says this he says the scripture itself therefore leads us to the conclusion that it is possible to have very uplifting ennobling reforming and exhilarating experience of the power and truth of the gospel to come into such close contact with the supernatural forces which are operative in God’s kingdom of grace that these forces produce effects in us which to human observation are hardly distinguishable from those produced by God’s regenerating and sanctifying grace and yet be not partakers of Christ and heirs of eternal life it’s not enough just to have an outward profession there has to be true faith in Christ from the heart and he goes on to say Peter goes on to say in verse 21 for it would have been better for them for these false teachers who had fallen away from a true understanding of the gospel it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness meaning the gospel and its ethical implications then after knowing it to turn back that is to turn away from the holy commandment delivered to them it would have been better for them not to have even known the gospel though Peter doesn’t explicitly stated one of the reasons why it would have been better in their case in the case of these apostates never to have known the gospel is that with greater knowledge comes greater responsibility before God and thus greater guilt before God if you neglect your responsibility this is taught by our Lord himself in passages like Luke chapter 12 47 and 48 Luke chapter 12 47 and 48 where we’re told this Jesus speaking of the judgment of the Lord he says and that servant who knew his master’s will but did not get ready or act accordingly to his will will receive a severe beating but the one who did not know and did what deserved a beating will receive a light beating in other words even in hell there will be degrees of punishment but in the case of these false teachers they had known the truth they had known it clearly and they turned they resolutely abandoned it for a false gospel a false teaching it would have been better for them never to have known the gospel at all dear listener again have you been born again is your knowledge of Christ a mere intellectual knowledge now that’s important it’s important for us to have good doctrine and good knowledge but that knowledge needs to result in a personal trust in a receiving and resting upon Christ and Christ alone for salvation from sin the elements of true saving faith involve a knowledge of the gospel an ascent an intellectual ascent to the gospel but the crowning element of saving faith is personal trust in the Lord Jesus Christ who is the object of the gospel the Savior as he offers himself to us in the gospel and only the Holy Spirit can grant us the grace to receive and rest upon Christ have you received and rested upon him have you been born again and this leads me to the final point based on verse 22 and that is friends consider the ultimate uselessness of a mere external reformation without genuine heart regeneration and conversion the ultimate uselessness of a mere external reformation of life without a genuine heart regeneration and conversion to Christ in verse 22 Peter writes what the true proverb says has happened to them to these false teachers the dog returns to its own vomit some of you own dogs and you can picture what’s being described here and it’s pretty gross isn’t it the dog returns to its own vomit and the sow that is the pig after washing herself returns to wallow in the mire dear ones it’s possible to be externally connected to Christ’s church but not be spiritually and savingly connected to Christ himself and certainly while membership in the visible church brings great spiritual privileges and while an outward reformation of life through the influences of the gospel can be greatly beneficial in this present life at the same time from an eternal perspective a mere outward profession of faith and a mere external reformation of life without the new birth and without genuine faith and repentance of heart are ultimately useless Peter uses these illustrations of the dog and the pig both dogs and pigs were regarded as unclean animals by the Jews in Peter’s time as pigs continue to be today dogs were not viewed back then as man’s best friend you know let’s say that you own a pig let’s call her name Sally and let’s say that Sally loves to do what pigs love to do she loves to wallow in the muck and the mire and the filth when she’s in her pig pen she is at home and life is good for her but let’s say that Sally begins the stench of Sally the pig starts to get to you it starts to really she starts to really reek and you say you know we need to clean Sally up so what do you do well let’s say you take Sally out of the pig pen you connect the hose you hose her down sort of like if you’re cleaning a car that’s filthy you would hose down the car and you even use soap and you get Sally all nice and clean and to top it off she’s smelling much better now you put a nice bow on Sally’s head and then you release Sally what’s Sally the pig gonna do she can say thank you so much that’s great it’s so great to be clean now she’s gonna go right back to the pig pen and dive right into the filth when she has an opportunity to do so my friends why does Sally do that why would the pig do that because it’s still a pig by nature in order to keep Sally the pig from going back to the pig pen she’d have to stop being a pig she’d have to stop having a pig nature well in a similar way you can clean up an unsaved person on the outside you can teach them good manners and good morals so that they behave as decent human beings in society and they can continue as decent human beings in society as long as there are external checks and restraints that are brought to bear upon them we call it common grace and there are many certainly many unbelievers who are very decent individuals from a civic and external perspective they give you the shirt off their backs if you needed it but at the same time at the same time such an external reformation can be greatly beneficial but unless the Holy Spirit has changed their heart if the restraints are removed they will very likely go back to living their old sinful pagan lives just like Sally the pig will go back to the pig pen the Holy Spirit has to clean us up on the inside if the Holy Spirit hasn’t cleaned him up on the inside he will likely just go back to his unsaved ways and that’s why Peter’s warning is so powerful and so important for us to take to heart again we are all dirty we’re all sinners we need to be cleaned up we not only need to be justified before the throne of God the judgment bar of God we need to be regenerated and cleaned up on the inside the good news of the gospel is that God has the power through Christ to raise us up from the deadness and the filth of our sin and to bring us to newness of life in Jesus and to clean us up on the inside and so let us trust in him let us throw ourselves upon his mercy and let us rest in Christ who promises and welcomes all who recognize their sin and their guilt he welcomes all to come to him and he will forgive us he will embrace us he will cleanse us and he will fit us for glory let us pray heavenly father we thank you for the word even for difficult portions of scripture like the passage we’ve considered tonight we pray that by your spirit these truths would impact us and take deep root in our hearts and bear spiritual fruit in our lives we ask Lord that you would indeed not only reform our lives on the outside but change us for Lord in Christ our resurrected Savior we are indeed new creations in him give us the grace to live like the new creations that we are in Jesus for it is in his name that we pray and all of God’s people said amen let’s rise as we close our time of worship we’ll rise and we’ll sing

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April 20, 2025
Followers of Balaam’s Way

About this sermon

Peter warns that false teachers are bold and willful and blaspheme what they do not understand, like irrational animals; Jude 8-10 describes the same people. They have eyes full of adultery, entice unsteady souls, and have hearts trained in greed. They follow the way of Balaam, who loved gain from wrongdoing and tried repeatedly to curse Israel for the money Balak offered, until a donkey rebuked his madness. Such teachers lead people astray for personal gain. God sees them, will judge them, and is able to restrain them and protect his people.

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Sermon transcript

The title my sermon this evening, Followers of Balaam’s Way. And there are a number of key words you can be listening for tonight. The words false, character, angels, unstable, rebuke, and way. Well, my dear friends in Christ, imagine that you are speaking or writing an important message to a group of friends or perhaps a group of loved ones about whom you care deeply. But what makes this particular communication with these friends or loved ones extra significant is that let us say that you know that your time in this present life is very short. And you know that this might very well be the last time that they hear from you. Maybe you’ve been diagnosed with a terminal disease or you’ve been given only a very short time to live. If you knew that your time on this earth was quickly running out and that this might very well be your last communication with these folks that you care so much about, I’m guessing that you would probably want to kind of cut out the small talk and that you would be hyper focused on communicating the things that mattered the most to you, communicating that which was of utmost concern to you.

Well, what we have here in 2 Peter is the Apostle Peter doing just this. You see, friends, when the Apostle Peter wrote this letter that is known to us today as 2 Peter, he knew that he was nearing the end of his earthly life. You say, well, how did he know that? He knew it because our Lord Jesus had revealed it to him, as he indicates earlier in this epistle. Peter was particularly concerned in this letter to remind his readers of those things that would keep them firmly established in the truths that they had come to understand. If you go back to chapter 1, let me just read and remind us of verses 12 through 15 of chapter 1, and here Peter lays out his reasons for writing. He says, therefore, I intend always to remind you of these qualities, the qualities that he had spoken of in the previous context, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have, I think it right as long as I am in this body to stir you up by way of reminder.

Why is he so concerned to stir them up by way of reminder? Well, as he says in verse 14, since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, in other words, I know I’m going to die soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. This was communicated to him by means of a revelation from the resurrected Christ. And then verse 15, and I will make every effort so that after my departure, you may be able at any time to recall these things. And indeed, by the Spirit’s blessing and inspiration, he did leave us such a record in this second epistle that he has written. Indeed, friends, Peter was especially concerned that his readers pay careful attention to the prophetic scriptures, in other words, to the word of God. If you look at chapter 1, verses 19 through 21, we read this, he says, And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

So here we see that Peter was deeply concerned about this because he knew that false teachers would infiltrate the church and would gain many followers, as sadly false teachers often do. If you study church history at all, you’ll see that Peter was indeed correct in this prediction. Well, in our passage for this Lord’s Day evening, what we have here is we have the Apostle Peter describing some of the characteristics of the false teachers that he had in mind. Dear ones, this passage of God’s Word, I believe it is highly relevant to our situation today in the professing Christian church, for I believe, beloved, that there are many church leaders today in the broader professively Christian world who could be described by at least some of these characteristics that Peter describes in our passage for this Lord’s Day evening.

Beloved in Christ, in this present world, we face many dangers. We face dangers from the fallen world system that seeks to draw us away from Christ and conform us into its image instead of allowing us to be conformed by grace into the image of Christ. So we face dangers from the world. We face dangers from the devil and his minions. And of course, we face dangers from the ongoing pull of our own sinful fallen nature. One of the dangers that we must be aware of is the ever-present danger of false teaching and false teachers. Now of course, some of the dangers that we face in this present world originate from outside of the visible church, dangers such as persecution from those who are hostile to the faith, those who seek to shut us up or shut down the churches or counteract the spread of the gospel and so forth.

But friends, this particular danger of false teaching and false teachers is a danger that rears its ugly head even from within the visible church. So friends, let us give our earnest attention to these Spirit-inspired words penned by the Apostle Peter. Now as we look at our and consider our passage for this Lord’s Day evening, I want to set this passage again in its context and remind us of the context. The late D. Martin Lloyd-Jones said this about 2 Peter chapter 2. And his words are a little bit shocking, but let me explain. He says, of all the chapters which are to be found in the entire Bible, this second chapter of the second epistle of Peter is among the most terrible. Now he’s not criticizing the Bible. He’s not denying the inspiration of this chapter.

What he’s saying is that of all of the portions of scripture that we might consult, this is one of the most terrible in the sense that it speaks of the terrible wrath and judgment of God. He goes on to say that for threatening, for warning, for the idea of doom and disaster and destruction, there is nowhere in holy writ itself anything which surpasses this particular chapter. Now again, whether or not we agree with Lloyd-Jones’ particular assessment of this specific chapter of God’s Word, it is certainly a portion of God’s Word which is indeed filled with the theme of the doom and destruction of false teachers and the certainty of God’s judgment against them. Now as we consider this passage within its context in chapter 2, we note that in the first three verses of chapter 2, Peter, first of all, introduces us to these particular false teachers.

Again, just to review verse 1, he says, but false prophets also arose among the people. He’s talking about the people of God in Old Testament times. He says false prophets arose among them, arose from within the visible covenant community, and he goes on to say just as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, again, false teachers don’t go around advertising themselves typically as false teachers. They privately or privily, to use the old King James language, they introduce destructive heresies even denying the master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. So we’re introduced to these false teachers in the first three verses and then in verses 4 through the first part of verse 10, Peter assures his readers of the certainty of God’s judgment against these false teachers and also of his ability to rescue the godly from their trials as we’re assured and comforted by the truth as Peter brings it out in verse 9.

Well, let me start in verse 8, he says, let me start rather in verse 9, if the Lord knows how to bring judgment upon the angels and upon Sodom and Gomorrah and the world of the time of Noah, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of punishment and so forth. Well, friends, in our passage for this Lord’s Day evening, Peter describes the debased characteristics and character of the false teachers. So let’s now turn our attention to what we learn here in this particular section of chapter 2. Let’s first of all focus on the character and characteristics of false teachers. We learn here about the character and the characteristics of false teachers and again, there are specific false teachers that Peter has in mind, but these tend to be characteristics that are generally true of those who are false teachers.

How does Peter describe them? Well, look at the second part of verse 10, bold and willful. They do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones. How does he describe them? He describes them as bold and arrogant or bold and willful as it’s translated here in the ESV. The New King James translates it presumptuous, self-willed. The NIV has bold and arrogant. One suggested translation is that they are derers, self-satisfied. Dr. Kistermacher points out that they are bold in the sense of being rashly insolent and so adhere to the well-known saying, fools rush in where angels fear to tread. The term bold in this verse, it’s not a positive term, the term bold in this verse points to presumptuous and conceited individuals whose pursuits in life are self-gratification and physical pleasure. They’re bold, they’re presumptuous, they’re not teachable, they’re not humble, they’re arrogant.

Of course, this is the opposite attitude that we would expect from the faithful man of God. Faithful preachers and teachers of God’s Word will be characterized by, or at least ought to be characterized by an attitude of trembling at the Word of God, an attitude of humility before the face of Christ, and thus they will strive, however imperfectly, to be cautious and careful in their handling of God’s Word. You want those in the pulpit, for example, and those who preach and teach to you to tremble before the inerrant, infallible Word of God. And when we handle the Word of God, we are handling holy things, but the false teachers don’t have that attitude towards the Word of God. Another way that they’re described here in this passage is that they are slanderous. Again, let’s look at verses 10 and 11.

It says this, bold and willful they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones. I’ll explain that in a moment, whereas angels, though greater in might and power, probably meaning greater in might and power than these glorious ones that are blasphemed, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. Now, this raises an interpretive issue, an issue where good and godly scholars of the Bible have come to different conclusions. Who are these glorious ones? That’s how it’s translated here in the ESV. The New American Standard Version translates it as angelic majesties. There the New American Standard Version gives sort of an interpretive translation. Likewise, the NIV translates it as celestial beings. The New King James Version translates it as dignitaries. What is the word here that is here in the ESV translated as glorious ones?

The Greek word is the word doxus, and it’s a word that could literally be translated as glories. So these false teachers blaspheme or rail against glories. But that raises the question, who are these glories? Are they celestial beings, angelic beings, are they earthly dignitaries? Well, some have suggested that this term glories, doxus, refers to church leaders or perhaps to civil leaders. In this view, the false teachers are characterized by railing against legitimate church authority or legitimate governmental authority. And that is sometimes a characteristic of false teachers, is that they denigrate legitimate church authority or legitimate authority in the civil realm because they want to exalt their own authority and push themselves forward as worthy of being followed. But again, this is one understanding. But others suggest and many others, many others suggest that the term glories is referring to angelic beings, either referring to good angels or perhaps referring even to evil angels.

Again, this is a difficult interpretive conundrum that we find ourselves in because Peter doesn’t really flesh out what he’s talking about explicitly. He kind of assumes that his readers will know what he’s referring to. And so what do we need to do when we come to an interpretive difficulty in Scripture? Well, we need to interpret Scripture with Scripture. We need to look at the immediate context and we need to look at possible parallel passages. And we have such a parallel passage in Jude verses 8 through 10, which we’ll turn to in a few moments. But friends, when we consider verse 10 and 11 together and when we compare this passage with its parallel text in Jude verses 8 through 10, then the interpretation that seems to make the most sense is that Peter is referring to the fallen angels.

Let’s read verse 10 and 11 together again. Bold and glorious, excuse me, bold and willful they, the false teachers, do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones, whereas angels, clearly he’s thinking of the angelic realm, angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them, these glories, these doxus before the Lord. Is there another passage of Scripture that can throw light on the meaning here? Well, I’d have you turn to Jude. Jude is the short epistle right before the book of Revelation. And let me read verses 8 through 10 of Jude. And Jude is dealing with a similar situation. He’s also addressing the issue of false teachers. And he says this, yet in like manner, these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the doxus, the glorious ones.

But when the archangel Michael, contended with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, the Lord rebuke you. But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. It’s instructive, if you’re doing a study of 2 Peter chapter 2, to keep the epistle of Jude opened up, because there’s much parallel in these two epistles. And so it would seem, from the context of Jude, that these glories are referring to, he’s speaking of the angelic realm, and he speaks about the archangel Michael not bringing a railing judgment or pronunciation against the evil spirits and so forth. And so, but that raises the question, why would Peter refer to the evil angels as glories, as glorious ones, as celestial beings, and how is it that they can be blasphemed?

Well, again, if this is the correct understanding, then the term glories reminds us, beloved, of the truth that Satan and the other fallen angels, they had not been created as fallen angels. God did not create Satan with an evil nature. Satan and the fallen angels, the demons, were once good and glorious beings. They were glories. They were created good and glorious. But sadly, tragically, by their own free will, they rebelled against the Lord and fell. And in terms of what this teaches us about the false teachers, that they rail against the fallen angels, Satan and the fallen angels, what that teaches us is that, again, they don’t take Satan and his demonic hosts nearly as seriously as they should. They’re bold and they’re arrogant, they’re presumptuous. They don’t realize that they themselves are slaves to Satan and the demonic realm.

They’re not in a position to sit in judgment over the demonic realm or to rail against it. So again, they are slanderers and they are ignorant. And that leads me to my next point as we move on to verse 12. They are also described as ignorant and irrational. It says in verse 12 of our passage of these false teachers. But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction. Like irrational beasts, they’re not dwelling in the realm of rationality. They are like irrational beasts which function only on instinct. These false teachers behave with a similar irrationality to the irrationality of a beast. They also rail and blaspheme about matters about which they are ignorant. You listen to false teachers long enough in light of the Word of God, it’s clear that they speak of things, often speak boisterously and confidently of things about which they are ignorant because they’re not informed by and in submission to the Word of God.

And I think one of the takeaways from this beloved is that we need to beware of any pastor or preacher or Bible teacher who wants you to turn off your brain and let him do your thinking for you. Certainly, we must appreciate and respect the gifts, the teaching gifts that God gives to His servants who preach the Word faithfully. We can learn from them, but you can be a great preacher of God’s Word and still have error. You think of some of the great theologians in church history that we can learn much from. The more you study them, the more you realize, yeah, they were really great in certain areas, but they were way off in other areas. One example that comes to my mind is St. Augustine. We love St. Augustine. The reformers, Luther and Calvin, loved St.

Augustine. He was a great defender of sovereign grace against the Pelagians, and yet he also had some really wacky ideas in some other areas of his theology. Can we learn from him? Yes, but he was not infallible. And so, friends, when it comes to false teachers who want you to turn off your brain and just listen to them, that should be a red flag. God wants us to love Him with our minds, not just our emotions. He wants us to use our reason in submission to His revelation, in submission to the Word of God, yes, but He wants us to love Him with our minds and not just with our emotions, but with our hearts. So these false teachers, they’re bold and arrogant, they’re slanderous, they’re ignorant and irrational, but they’re also described here as being immoral.

He goes on to say in verse 14 the following about them. He says, they have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed, accursed children. What does this mean? They have eyes full of adultery. One commentator explains it this way. Eyes full of adultery is a compressed phrase for always looking for a woman with whom to commit adultery. Phillips has their eyes cannot look at a woman without lust. They are possessed by and driven by their lust, and they seek an outlet for their lust. And we are told, and again, when we look at the specific false teachers that Peter has in mind, it’s clear that these false teachers were what we might call antinomians. They were those who proclaimed that the grace of God gives a license to sin, and they lived in accordance with that principle.

Let us sin that grace may abound seems to have been their motto. And notice what it says here, and this is what has Peter so concerned as he writes earnestly this final epistle to these believers and to us today in the church. He says, they entice unsteady souls. Is your soul steady or unsteady? Are you settled and firm in your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? Are you grounded in the word of God? If not, you’re liable to be tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. Those who are not well grounded in the truth, such as newer or immature believers, are much more prone to be allured by false teachers and by false teaching. I know a man who was converted to Christ as a high schooler, but then the Jehovah’s, and he was a young believer, but then the Jehovah’s Witnesses got to him, and he became a Jehovah’s Witness, and he raised his family in that faith.

And later on in life, he came to realize he was wrong. He came to realize the Bible does teach the doctrine of the Trinity, and he returned to a sound orthodox understanding. But Satan got him when he was unsteady. This is why it’s so important to be in the Word, and parents, this is why it is so vitally important for you to ground your children in the Word of God. Read the Bible to them, teach them the Word, catechize them, ground them in the faith. You might say, well, yeah, we fill their heads full of knowledge, but their heart has to embrace it too. And that’s true. That’s where prayer comes in. Pray for your young ones, pray for your covenant children. But they are being raised in a world of unsteadiness. They need to be well-grounded, which means you, mother, father, you need to be well-grounded.

You need to be in the Word. My friends, the more unsteady and unstable the times in which we live, the more important it is to be well-grounded in the Word and stable in our faith. And the way to be stable, you know, it’s not something you don’t grow up physically overnight. Likewise, we don’t grow spiritually overnight. This is why we need one another. We need the body of Christ. We need the confessions of the church to guide us in our understanding of the Scriptures. We need the community of Christ, the community of God’s people. And yes, false teachers sometimes arise even within the covenant community. But if we are grounding our faith in the truth that has been confessed by our forefathers in the faith and which has been affirmed by the church of Catholic throughout its ages, I’m using the term Catholic in the terms of in sense of in the sense of the universal church, then we have that protection.

We need to not just trust Christ. That’s the only, you know, that’s the only way to salvation, of course. But once we trust Christ, we need to be discipled in him lest we be picked off by false teachers who prey upon the unstable. So again, these false teachers, they are also they are also immoral and they entice unsteady souls. But they’re also described in verse 15 as greedy, forsaking the right way. They have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Bayor, who loved gain from wrongdoing. Now that passage from Numbers that was read earlier in the service where the Lord tells Balaam to go ahead and follow after Balaam. And you may say, well, there’s this kind of attention in the text there because Balaam does that. He goes with Balaam and then the angel of the Lord confronts him.

And you know, the story about the donkey is one of the one of the funniest stories in the Bible. If you think about it, it always it always makes me chuckle when here’s Balaam and his donkey is not following his directions and crushes his foot and he starts beating up his donkey and the Lord opens the donkey’s mouth and the donkey starts talking to him. And then Balaam starts having a conversation with his donkey. And it’s almost like he’s so enraged he doesn’t realize, oh, hold on, wait a minute. My donkey’s talking to me. What gives here? But what was it that drove Balaam? The reason the Lord confronted Balaam is because Balaam wanted to do Balaam’s bidding. Balaam wanted the money that Balaam was offering him, but Balaam knew that he couldn’t speak anything except what the Lord directed him to speak.

But he keeps trying. Well, maybe if we offer a sacrifice on this at this spot, maybe the Lord will let me curse the people. He was motivated by greed. He wanted the money. He wanted the filthy lucre that was being offered to him by King Balaam. As one commentator puts it, Balaam is cited as a classic example of the false teacher who leads people astray for his own personal gain. Verse 22 to 24 shows how Balaam tried time and again to prophesy against Israel in order to gain the reward Balak offered. In the end, after failing to destroy Israel verbally, he is shown as doing so morally. Balaam is the prototype of the false teacher who seeks good rewards or popularity by persuading people that God’s standards can be lowered. A couple brief takeaways. First of all, understand that there are many false prophets and false teachers out there.

Just to mention a few obvious ones. There are pseudo-Christian cults out there, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Mormons, and so forth. There are prosperity preachers. There are so-called gay theologians. There’s modernists, neo-legalists, antinomians, and the list goes on and on and on. You will often be able to discern who they are not simply because of what they teach, although that’s an important way to recognize them if their teaching is not in accord with Scripture. But another way that you can recognize them is they will exhibit the same kind of character and characteristics that Peter mentions in this passage. And so that being the case, brothers and sisters, let us strive to be established, stable, and mature in our faith. And the best way to discern the errors that we are to avoid is to know well the truth God’s Word calls us to embrace.

Let me repeat that. The best way to discern the errors that we are to avoid is to know well the truth God’s Word calls us to embrace. Well, we’ve learned about some of the character and characteristics of these false teachers. But very briefly in closing, we also learn here of God’s power to rebuke and restrain false teachers, God’s power to rebuke and to restrain false teachers. Verse 16 focuses on this. Speaking of Balaam, the son of Baor, Peter writes that he was rebuked for his own transgression. A speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness. We see, as I mentioned, the utter spiritual blindness of Balaam. He was so driven by his greed that he persisted in his transgression even though God was speaking to him, even though he knew the truth about God.

Nevertheless, he refused to repent and he did not truly turn to the Lord. So we see, again, false teachers are spiritually blind to the things of God. But we also see God’s ironic power in rebuking Balaam. By his awesome supernatural power, God was able to use a dumb speechless donkey to rebuke the false prophet Balaam and to restrain the false prophet’s madness. And friends, if God is able to rebuke and restrain the false prophet Balaam by using a simple beast of burden, surely he is able to rebuke and restrain false teachers today. That is the comfort that I think we can glean from this passage. If God was able to rebuke Balaam, who was obviously influential as an oracle giver and so forth in that culture, certainly God is able to rebuke and restrain false teachers today.

Let not the presence of false teachers within professedly Christian churches discourage your hearts. Just as God used a humble donkey to restrain the madness of Balaam, so he is able to use the simple and humble means at his disposal, such as the faithful preaching and teaching of God’s Word, to restrain and to counteract false teaching today. So let us continue to confess and embrace the truth of God’s Word and bear testimony to it. The light of God’s Word and the power of the biblical gospel, when blessed by the Holy Spirit, can overcome the darkness and the stranglehold of false teaching and heresy. In conclusion, I will leave you with D. Martin Lloyd-Jones’ ultimate way to test whether a teaching is true or false. How do we know ultimately whether a teaching is true or false?

Well, he puts it very simply. He says, if Christ is not in the center, He is being denied. He is either in the center or He is nowhere. If you listen to a sermon and there’s no Jesus, not even implicit in the sermon, if you could very well hear such a sermon just as much in a synagogue as in a Christian church, then you might be listening to false teaching. Christ is always to be in the center. That’s how we guard against false teaching. Keep Christ, the biblical Christ, in the center. Dear ones, we avoid false teachers and we avoid Balaam’s way if we follow on the narrow way, the narrow way that leads to life. What is the narrow way? The narrow way is Jesus Christ. Jesus said, John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No man cometh unto the Father except by me. Let us keep Him front and center in our hearts, in our church, in our confession. Amen. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You and praise You that You’ve given us a true and trustworthy and reliable Word. We thank You for the Holy Scriptures. They are indeed a lamp unto our feet, a light unto our path. We ask that in these days where discernment is such a rarity that we ask that You would grant us a spirit of discernment. Grant us the grace, Lord, to test the spirits to see whether they are of God and help us, Lord, to be grounded in the gospel of Jesus Christ and grounded in the whole counsel of God as revealed in Your inerrant Word. We pray these things in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said, Amen.

Let’s close our time of worship this evening by rising and we’ll sing hymn number 266, Thou Art the Way, 266.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

April 6, 2025
Rescue and Wrath

About this sermon

Peter shows that the condemnation of false teachers is certain by recalling God’s past judgments: he did not spare the angels who sinned, he brought the flood on the ancient world, and he turned Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes. Yet in each judgment he also rescued the godly. He preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, and he rescued righteous Lot, though Lot had to be all but dragged out. The lesson: the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment.

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Sermon transcript

Well, friends, please remain standing for the reading of God’s Word. We continue our consideration of Peter’s second epistle, Second Peter, and tonight we focus on Second Peter, chapter 2, verses 4 through the first part of verse 10. I’m going to read from verse 1 through verse 10. So let us hear God’s holy word. You’ll find that on page 1208 in your Pew Bibles. Hear now the word of God. But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell, and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment. If he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly. If by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes, he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly. And if he rescued righteous lot, greatly distressed by their sensual conduct of the wicked. For as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard. Then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.

The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Let’s pray for the Lord to bless the proclamation of his word this evening. O heavenly Father, we pray that by your spirit that once again you would give us insight and wisdom and openness as we consider this portion of your holy word. And we pray that you would cause our consideration of this passage to bear spiritual fruit in our lives, fruit that brings glory to your name. We pray these things, heavenly Father, in Jesus’ name, and all of God’s people said, Amen. You may be seated. Just alert the children to the fact that there are four key words that you folks can be listening for in my sermon this evening, the words judgment, rescue, wrath, and righteous. Well, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, if you are a student of the Bible, which you ought to be, then you know that false prophets and false teachers frequently arose within the congregation of God’s people during Bible times.

We read of them often in the scriptures. And if you love the word of God and believe in its truths, then it should be clear to you that there are sadly many false teachers today in the professing churches of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that’s really kind of a thing that ought to cause you to wonder, at least it causes me to wonder. I mean, have you ever wondered why God allows the church in this present age to be frequently plagued by evil and godless men and so many false teachings, so many heresies and errors? Doesn’t it sometimes seem like the false teachers in the churches are almost invincible, like the church can’t get rid of them, that they’re always there in one form or another? Well, on the other hand, oftentimes false teachers, they gain large followings and great riches, but on the other hand, faithful church leaders and faithful congregations frequently struggle to survive and they often face fierce opposition from heretics and compromisers within the church, not to mention persecution from without.

Now beloved, in our text for this Lord’s Day evening, our passage offers true believers tremendous comfort in the face of false teachers and destructive heresies that often plague the church. Because in our text for this Lord’s Day evening, the apostle Peter assures us, his readers, that God is able to rescue godly men from their trials and he is also able to bring righteous wrath upon the unrighteous, including especially false teachers who are immoral and who reject the lordship of Jesus Christ. In fact, this is the point of the examples that Peter gives in our passage for this evening and really the key theme of our passage for this evening is summarized by Peter in verse 9, where it says, the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment.

That’s again the central theme, the central truth that is being illustrated in our passage for this evening. So in this passage, the apostle Peter offers three examples from redemptive history of God’s judgment against the wicked, two of which include examples of God rescuing the righteous from the midst of the wicked. And those examples are first of all, God’s judgment against the fallen angels, the angels who had sinned and rebelled against the Lord, and then we have God’s judgment against the ancient world through the flood of Noah’s day, and finally, Peter mentions God’s judgment against Sodom and Gomorrah. And so as we turn our attention to our passage for this Lord’s Day evening, we consider first of all some examples of judgment and rescue, and that’s the first main point in your sermon outline, is we consider examples of judgment and rescue.

And again, the first example that Peter gives is God’s judgment against the sinning angels. It says in verse four, for if God did not spare angels. Now let me pause there. When it says for if God did not spare angels, clearly he is continuing the thought from the previous context, the previous verse, where he speaks of these false teachers and he says of the false teachers at the end of verse three, for their condemnation from long ago is not idle and their destruction is not asleep. And now he gives us examples of how this is the case. He says for if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment and so forth. This is kind of a divinely inspired run on sentence here.

I know Paul is, the Apostle Paul is famous for those run on sentences. Well, we have one such sentence here in second Peter as well. And it’s interesting because this is very similar to what we read in the epistle of Jude. In fact, this is a parallel to Jude, verse six, I’d invite you to turn there to Jude. Jude is right before the book of Revelation, Jude, verse six, Jude, verse six says this. And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day. So again, you see there’s a parallel between Jude and Peter’s second epistle here. Now this may raise some questions. You may ask yourself, well, you know, Peter and Jude both talk about these angels who have been committed to dungeons, committed to hell basically.

Well, if that’s the case, if the demons, if the fallen angels are restricted and confined to hell, how was it that these demons were so active during the ministry of the Lord Jesus? You know, we read of much in the way of demonic possession and oppression in the New Testament scriptures and how are we to square those seemingly conflicting teachings in scripture about angels, about the fallen angels? Well, again, I just would remind us brothers and sisters that we need to be very careful to avoid too much speculation when it comes to the doctrine of angels or what the theologians call angelology. The word of God does give us some information about these glorious spirit beings that are known as angels, but the Bible offers us really little information about the angels, especially about the fallen angels.

But as we examine what the Bible does teach us, we can infer that Satan and many other angels rebelled against God at some point before the fall of Adam and Eve. But what about the fact that Peter speaks of these angels? He says of them that they have been cast into hell and committed to chains of gloomy darkness, again, depicting them as being confined, being imprisoned, being chained in hell. Well, Dr. Edwin Blum, I think, puts it well when he says, apparently, some fallen angels are free to plague mankind as demons, while others such as these are imprisoned. Again, there’s not a contradiction in the scriptures. There’s perhaps different classes of fallen angels. And it says of these particular angels that Peter is speaking of in our passage for this evening that the Lord has cast them into hell.

Now, the word for hell here in this verse is interesting. The Greek word that is translated here as hell is the word tartarosos. And Dr. Kistermacher points out, he comments, that God sent the fallen angels to hell, Peter writes. He borrows the word hell from Greek mythology, which designated a place called Tartarus and abode for the wicked. Peter uses this term not to teach or approve of Greek mythology, but to speak the language of his readers. They understood the term to describe that part of hell where the worst offenders were kept. So, apparently, these particular fallen angels were the, if you will, the worst among the fallen angels. In any case, they are said to have been committed to chains of gloomy darkness, or as the NIV translates it, putting them into gloomy dungeons. Either way, these particular fallen angels are pictured as being confined and restricted under divine judgment.

So why does Peter bring up these fallen angels and the fact that God has confined them and reserved them for the judgment of the last day? Well, Peter’s point here amounts to an argument from the greater to the lesser. You see, the point is that if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, even though these angels had been initially created as holy beings and had dwelt in God’s direct presence, if God did not spare them when they sinned, then certainly God will not spare unrepentant false teachers from his judgment. And this is intended, brothers and sisters, to be a comfort to the faithful, an assurance to the faithful that God is not ignorant of the errorists and the heresies and the false teachers that so often threaten the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, that so often threaten to upset the faith of God’s children.

God is not ignoring them. God is not just letting them go, so to speak. God is aware of them and God will indeed bring them into judgment. So believer, take comfort. The judgment of false teachers, false teachers who pervert the truth of God’s word, false teachers who distort the gospel of Jesus Christ, God’s judgment upon such false teachers is as certain as his judgment against the fallen angels. So that’s the first example of judgment that Peter gives. So then he moves on to mention in verse five God’s judgment against the ancient world, the pre-deluvian world, the world that existed before the great flood judgment of Noah’s stay. We read this in verse five. It says, if he did not spare the ancient world but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly.

So again, this is the second example he gives. It is clear, friends, that Peter regarded the great flood of Noah’s day to be a real historical event, not a myth. And while Peter doesn’t directly deal with some of the questions that evangelical Christians wrestle with today, for example, the question of the extent of the flood, was it a truly a global flood or was it just a large regional flood that wiped out the central trunk of the human race except for Noah and his family? Whatever the case may be, the point is that it was indeed a great historical catastrophic judgment of God that wiped out the entire human race with the exception of Noah and his family. It was a paradigm, a type of the ultimate judgment that will come upon the world of the ungodly when our Lord Jesus returns in glory at the end of this age at his second coming.

Now I want you to notice a couple of things here from this second example that he gives. Notice first of all that God brought universal judgment upon the ancient world of the ungodly, which is a sign that he is most certainly willing and able to bring judgment upon the ungodly today. If God has done it before, he is certainly willing and certainly intends to do it again in the case of the unrepentant wicked. We also notice that God rescued righteous Noah. It’s interesting Noah is described here as a herald of righteousness and again there are some questions about what that means. Does that mean that Noah actually preached to his contemporaries, that he actually called his contemporaries to repentance? Perhaps that is the case or perhaps it simply means that he was a herald of righteousness in the sense that he is building an ark on dry ground and that in itself was a proclamation that God’s judgment is coming.

Take heed, take warning, whatever the case may be. The point is that while God brings his judgment against the world of the ungodly through the Noahic flood, he also rescues righteous Noah along with Noah’s family, thereby showing that he is able to deliver the righteous from his judgment and from the ungodly. So again, this is intended to be a comfort to believers who find themselves living in the midst of an ungodly world and even in the midst of a church situation where they are threatened by heresies and false teachings. But the third example that Peter mentions is God’s judgment against Sodom and Gomorrah and his rescue of righteous Lot or Lot who is described here as righteous. We’ll talk about that in a moment. In verse 6 it says this, if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly.

Let’s pause there again. We have here in this example, we have a parallel with the epistle of Jude. If you turn to Jude, verse 7, we read Jude giving a similar example and this has led some scholars to believe that Jude and Peter were aware of each other’s writings and there’s debates about who borrowed from who or was it an actual borrowing or what have you. However that occurred, we know that the spirit has inspired this and reinforced this example by giving it, recording it several times in his word. It says in verse 7 of Jude, Jude verse 7, just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desires serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. Again we see God bringing judgment upon the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for their wickedness, sexual immorality and this causes me to reflect upon what is recorded in Revelation 14 verses 9 through 11.

In that passage we read these words, it says, and another angel, a third, followed them saying with a loud voice, if anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath poured full strength into the cup of his anger and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the lamb and the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever and they have no rest day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image and whoever receives the mark of its name. Now I share these passages with you brothers and sisters again to point out the fact that though it is not a popular teaching today, it is most certainly true, the Bible, the word of God plainly teaches the truth of the eternal punishment of the unrepentant wicked in hell under the fiery wrath of God and of course the only way of escape from the wrath that is coming, the just and holy wrath of God that is coming against human sin, the only way to escape that wrath is to turn to the Lord Jesus Christ for Jesus Christ is the all-sufficient savior of sinners, he is the one who is fully satisfied for all of the sins of all of God’s elect by his merit and sacrifice, his life, death and resurrection, he has redeemed wretched hell-deserving sinners like me and like you and indeed he has redeemed all who by sovereign grace come to believe in him.

But the point is that again in the example of Sodom and Gomorrah, God keeps these wicked unrepentant cities under judgment but he for the sake of, as was mentioned earlier, for the sake of the patriarch Abraham, he rescued righteous Lot. Again, God will punish the unrepentant wicked with eternal fire and if that is the case, beloved, let us take the gospel, let us strive to support missions and the spreading of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the lost that they too might hear the glad tidings of great joy, that they too through sovereign grace would come to embrace Christ and Christ alone for their salvation from sin and so with this example of Sodom and Gomorrah, we see again God’s fiery judgment against Sodom and Gomorrah but also God’s rescue of righteous Lot, look at what it says in verses seven and eight, and if he rescued righteous Lot, now let me pause there and you may scratch your head and think righteous Lot, are you talking about the same Lot that we read about in the book of Genesis, Lot who chose to pitch his tent among the Sodomites, Lot who even when the city surrounded his home in order to protect the angels who were visiting him, offered to give his daughters to be ravished by the crowds righteous Lot, again it is somewhat puzzling that Peter describes Lot as a righteous man, the record of Lot’s actions and behavior in the book of Genesis gives us the impression that Lot was in fact a weak and deeply flawed man, his choice to live among the Sodomites and some of his other behaviors demonstrate his moral flaws and his foolishness but at the same time beloved, we learn here that in spite of his many flaws, Lot at heart was a true believer, he was a godly man, yes he was weak, he was flawed, he was inconsistent as are all of God’s children to one degree or another in one way or another and so we learn here that in spite of his many flaws, he was a true believer, he was distressed by the ungodly behavior of those among whom he had chosen to live and God had mercy upon him and rescued him in spite of his flaws, in spite of his weaknesses and imperfections, the Lord rescued him.

Now in verse 5 we learn that God preserved Noah from the flood but here in verse 7 we read that God rescued Lot and boy did God have to rescue Lot, Lot was very hesitant and Lot had to practically be dragged by the hand with the angels whom God had sent to him but God did rescue him and again this shows that God is able to rescue the godly even from the midst of the ungodly and this too should be a great comfort to you dear believer in Christ. So in closing what do we learn from this passage? Well again it’s summarized, the lesson here is summarized in verses 9 and 10 and that lesson is God is able to rescue the godly and to bring his just judgment upon the unrighteous. God is able to rescue those who through sovereign grace are godly and to bring his just judgment upon the unrighteous.

Again to read verse 9 and 10, the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and we face trials and tribulations in this life, we face temptations, we face temptations to compromise, we face temptations from false teachers and false teaching, we also face hostility from the world and even at times persecution but the good news is the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority and when he’s describing those who are indulgent, who indulge the lust of defiling passion it is likely that the reference to defiling passion is a reference to the practice of homosexuality or other sexual perversion and scriptures make it clear that that is indeed a perversion, a distortion of God’s original design and it is an abomination to the Lord and those who indulge in that and those who make the grace of God an excuse to indulge in defiling passion and sexual immorality and so forth as well as despising authority, these false teachers did not want to be under authority, they put themselves in positions where they were the authority, they were above accountability and again this was another sign of their rejection of the Lordship of Jesus Christ but the good news is that God is able to rescue the godly and he will bring his judgment upon the unrepentant wicked in the end especially those who harass, pester, persecute and lead astray God’s people.

Dear ones, you know that hymn, this is my father’s world, there’s a line in that hymn that says but though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet. In this present evil age where the church of Jesus Christ is often by sisms rent asunder, by heresies distressed as the hymn puts it, in this fallen world where the godly are so often oppressed and persecuted while the ungodly seem to prosper, in this fallen world where false teachers and errorists often attract large followings and seem to prosper while the faithful are often small and struggling remnants, in this fallen world take encouragement from the truths that we learn from this passage beloved. Dear believer, God is able to rescue and deliver those who through sovereign grace are in the right with him, he is able to rescue from their afflictions and he will most certainly bring his righteous judgment upon false teachers and other godless men who harass and pester and persecute his faithful people.

Let us not be downcast, let us not be discouraged for though we will face tribulation in this present world, what does Jesus say? In this world you will have tribulation but I have overcome the world, Christ has overcome the world, greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world. We serve the one who has overcome the world, we serve the one who will someday right all wrongs, we serve the one who will ultimately vindicate his elect and judge the unrepentant wicked. God is holy and just, God is merciful and gracious. Let us praise him and let us rest in him for he alone is our salvation, amen. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, sovereign and eternal God, we thank you and praise you for the encouragement of the scriptures. For Lord, we as your people sometimes face trials and tribulations and tribulations in this present life.

Help us Lord when we do to be comforted by these truths that you are not ignorant or unaware of our trials and tribulations, indeed you sovereignly overrule them for our good and your glory. And so help us Heavenly Father to trust that you are able to rescue the godly from trials and you are able to reserve the unrepentant wicked under judgment and you will vindicate your people and your cause in the end. We praise you God for that and we pray that you would bless us now as we close our time in the word tonight. In Jesus name we pray and all of God’s people said amen. As we close our time of worship this evening let’s rise and we’ll sing together number 470 when this passing world.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

March 9, 2025
False Teachers, Destructive Heresies

About this sermon

Peter warns that just as false prophets arose in Israel, false teachers will arise in the church, secretly bringing in destructive heresies and even denying the Master who bought them. Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them people will blaspheme the way of truth. The visible church contains some who are not truly born again; the church receives members on a credible profession of faith, not by reading hearts. False teachers are greedy and exploit believers with made-up stories. Believers must know the truth of God’s word so that false teachers cannot lead them astray.

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Sermon transcript

Amen. Well, please remain standing for the reading of God’s word. Tonight we can, or this afternoon I should say, we continue our consideration of Second Peter and we are finally in Second Peter chapter two verses one through three. That’s my sermon text for this afternoon. That begins on page 1207. I’m gonna begin reading in chapter one verse 16 and read through chapter two verse three to kind of fill out the context a little bit. So once again, let us hear with reverence and awe, the word of our God. For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was born to him by the majestic glory, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased.

We ourselves heard this very voice born from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed to which you will do well to pay attention as to a light shining, a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality.

And because of them, the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed, they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle and their destruction is not asleep. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Please join me in prayer. Almighty God, Heavenly Father, we thank you for the gift of your spirit. We thank you that you have breathed out the scriptures by your spirit and you spoke of old. Holy men of God spoke as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. We thank you for the true prophets and apostles through whom you conveyed your word to us. But Lord, we would ask that as we turn our attention to this passage, which warns us of false prophets and false teachers, that you would grant us the grace to be attentive to what the spirit is speaking to us in this portion of your inerrant word.

And we would ask Lord that you would root and ground us in the truth of the gospel, the truth of your word, that we might not be led astray, but indeed that we might continue by grace through faith in that narrow way that leads to life, that way who is Jesus himself, the way, the truth and the life. We pray these things, Heavenly Father, in Christ’s name and all of God’s people said, amen. You may be seated. In your sermon outline, you’ll notice that there are quite a number of words to choose from that you can keep track of in my sermon this afternoon, truth, teachers, fruits, covetousness and condemnation. Well, dear friends, our text for this Lord’s Day afternoon needs to be read in light of its immediately preceding context and that immediately preceding context, which is basically the end of chapter one, going from verse 16 through verse 21 of chapter one, that preceding context highlights the origin and the trustworthiness of the prophetic scriptures.

Peter has pointed his readers to the holy scriptures as the entirely trustworthy source of God’s truth. And it is the entirely trustworthy source of God’s truth because it is God’s word. But here, beginning in chapter two, Peter turns his attention to warning his readers about the danger of false teachers who will seek to draw believers away from the truth of God’s word and to draw them into falsehood and speculation and into godless ways of living. And so what we have here is we turn our attention to our passage for this afternoon. We have here, first of all, a warning about false teachers, a warning about false teachers. And let me read this warning once again, verse one. Again, remember, he’s already spoken about the truth of God’s word and how true prophets were spoken, were carried along by the Holy Spirit so that they spoke the word of God.

But he says here in verse one, but false prophets also arose among the people. And here he has in view the Old Testament false prophets. There were true prophets that God raised up in Old Testament times to convey his word to his people, but there were also false prophets among the covenant people of God. Well, just as that was the case in Old Testament times, he goes on to say, just as there will be false teachers among you. It’s basically saying don’t expect things to be different in that regard. This is a warning. It’s more than just a warning. It’s actually a warning slash prediction, if you will, because he doesn’t just say, yeah, look out for false teachers. They may come along. No, he says there will be false teachers among you. That should grab their attention.

That should grab your attention and my attention as well. And observe what he teaches us here about the kind of individuals that these false teachers would be. It says that they will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. It says they will secretly bring in destructive heresies. Observe here, friends, that secrecy, craftiness, deception, these are characteristics of false teachers. False teachers and false prophets don’t go around wearing a sandwich board that says, hey, watch out, folks, warning, I’m a false teacher. Don’t listen to me. You may lose your soul. No, they don’t wear a t-shirt that says, attention, false teacher. No, they cloak themselves in an air of orthodoxy and godliness. False teachers are generally characterized by a basic dishonesty and deceptiveness. They’re almost never forthright and transparent about their real beliefs or their real motives.

They’re masters of subtlety, secrecy, and equivocation. Again, they may use orthodox lingo, orthodox language, but they use it as a cloak to disguise their heresies. Oftentimes, and we’re approaching Easter time down the road a little bit, and oftentimes, as Easter comes around, you’ll sometimes see a feature in the news media, a liberal clergy will be asked about the resurrection of Jesus, and oftentimes, you’ll hear such liberal clergy say things like, oh, yeah, of course I believe in the resurrection of Jesus. They don’t mean, however, by that. I believe that Jesus rose bodily from the dead. The same body that went in the tomb came out of the tomb by a sovereign miracle of God. No, that’s not what they mean. They rather believe that it’s a nice myth, a nice story, a metaphor for the arising of new hope from the midst of despair.

That’s deception. That’s equivocation. If you were to go into many of these preachers’ churches and hear them preach from the pulpit, they might sound altogether orthodox. They may say, yes, we believe in the resurrection of Jesus, a wonderful thing, but then they hide, oftentimes, from their own congregants that they don’t really mean what most of their congregants mean. After all, if they were too honest and too forthright with their beliefs, they might lose some of the donations coming into the church. I know that sounds rather cynical, but we are Calvinists after all, aren’t we? Don’t we believe in total depravity? People are deceptive, and sometimes even professed preachers of the gospel can be lying deceivers and wolves in sheep’s clothing. So these, we have here a warning prediction. There will be false teachers among the professed people of God.

Just as there were false prophets in the Old Testament, there will be false teachers in the visible church in this new covenant era. And so Peter’s warning the people. He’s warning his readers, and the spirit through Peter is warning us to be aware of that. And notice that false teachers, either by their practice or by their profession, are said to deny the master who bought them. It says, even denying the master who bought them. It’s interesting, that term master in the Greek is the term from which we derive our term despot. Now, when you think of a despot, what do you typically think of? In our language, that word obviously carries a negative connotation. A despot would be someone who’s oppressive and authoritarian in their exercise of authority. But the way that it’s being used here, it simply highlights the sovereignty of the Lord.

And this despot, this divine despot, this master is said to have bought these false teachers. Now, what does that mean? What does that mean? Does this mean that Jesus died on the cross to redeem these false teachers? False teachers who will ultimately be condemned and be lost? Some of our Arminian and generically evangelical friends will point to this passage and say, see, this proves universal atonement. This proves that Jesus died for absolutely everyone because even false teachers, even they were bought by the blood of Christ, we’re told. Well, how did we respond to this? In other words, does this verse support the doctrine of so-called universal atonement and deny our reformed understanding of particular atonement or definite redemption? Well, friends, the answer is that reformed and Calvinist interpreters of God’s word have offered a number of plausible alternatives to the so-called universal atonement interpretation of this passage and this language.

Let me just offer you a couple examples. Some would argue that Peter is simply describing these false teachers according to their own profession of faith. They did profess to be followers of Jesus. They did profess Christ as their savior. They professed to be bought by the Lord and Peter is simply describing them according to their own profession of faith. The reformed commentator Simon Kistermacher holds this view. In his commentary, he writes of these false teachers. He says, were the false teachers recipients of God’s saving grace? Apparently not, for they repudiated Christ. If we look at the words denying the sovereign Lord who bought them in the light of the broader context, we discover a clue. We notice that at one time these false teachers professed the name of Christ, for they said that they knew him and the way of righteousness.

And he refers us to chapter two, verses 20 and 21. And let’s pause and look at those verses. Just skip down to verses 20 and 21 and let me read those verses to you. It says this, for if after having escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first, for it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandments delivered to them. Then getting back based on that, Peter goes on, I’m sorry, not Peter, Kistermacher goes on to say of these false teachers, they made it known that Jesus had bought them, but they eventually rejected Christ and left the Christian community.

Hence their denial of Christ shows that they were not redeemed. So one view that is pushed by reformed theologians and commentators is that, well, yeah, Peter is not denying the efficacy and the perfection of Christ’s atonement. He’s not saying that those who ultimately end up in hell such as these false teachers, that they were genuinely bought or redeemed by the blood of Christ. But others argue that Peter really, and the language here that Peter uses makes it clear that he’s not speaking of being bought in the sense of being redeemed by Christ’s blood, but rather in the sense that the Lord as despot, as sovereign master had in some sense delivered the false teachers in a temporal way that fell short of eternal salvation. It’s interesting to note that in the immediate context here, there’s no direct reference to the blood of Christ.

Christ is called the master, the despot, and in some sense is said to have bought these false teachers. But how is it that he has bought them? Has he redeemed them in the sense of salvation? Well, if he has, they won’t be lost. Remember friends, our savior did not accomplish a half salvation. He’s not a half savior. He’s not a savior who failed in his mission. If Jesus died for your sins, you are saved from your sins. You are redeemed from your sins. Jesus Christ is not a failure. Not one drop of his blood was shed in vain. Not one soul for whom he salvifically died. Not one soul will be lost. We do not believe in a savior who is a failure. We believe in a victorious savior who has accomplished the redemption of his people.

So in what sense can these false teachers be said to have been delivered or bought? Well, again, I think the clue is found in verses 20 and 21 that I just read for you. You see, these false teachers had at one point at least, professed Christ as their savior and Lord, and had united in membership with the visible church. In that sense, they were delivered from the corruptions of the world. There are members of the visible church who are not truly born again, who are not true believers. We can’t judge the heart. We’re not called to judge the heart. We’re simply called to, in the judgment of charity, judge the outward profession. And if someone makes the credible profession of faith in Christ as their Lord and savior, uncontradicted by their life, we accept in the judgment of charity their profession of faith.

But it’s possible to profess Christ and not actually trust him, not actually possess him, if you will. But even so, even in the case of the unregenerate in the visible church, they come under the moral influences of the gospel and the moral influences of Christ’s church. And in that sense, they are freed from the corruption of the world. They are bought, if you will, from the world’s corruption. Again, as verse 20 says, for if after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. Would have been better for them not to have known the way of the righteousness than after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment, which there in this context, holy commandment, is referring, I believe, to the gospel call and the gospel message that had been delivered to them.

And then he uses the proverb, the dog returns to its own vomit and the sow after washing itself returns to wallow in the mire. But friends, whichever of these views is correct. The point is that there’s no compelling exegetical reason to interpret the phrase, the master who bought them, in a way that would undermine the clear biblical teachings about the absolute efficacy and perfection of Christ’s atoning work, or in a way that would deny the doctrine of definite effectual atonement. Again, the point here, beloved, is that these false teachers deny the lordship of Jesus Christ, either by their lips or by their lives, probably in both ways. And what will the result be? We’re told in verse one that they will face swift judgment. They denied the master who bought them bringing upon themselves swift destruction.

They bring it upon themselves. They deserve it. They have earned the wrath of God because of their heresy and apostasy from the truth. We learn next in our passage about the following and the fruit of these false teachers, the following and fruit of false teachers. It goes on to say, and many will follow their sensuality, and because of them, the way of truth will be blasphemed. How many will follow their sensuality, their wickedness? Well, it says many. This is instructive, beloved, because false teachers often have large followings. We live in a culture that values the big, you know. We Americans, we like things big. We like things, we’re impressed by bigness. Not necessarily, that’s not necessarily the case with the lord. It’s not the multitude or the bigness that matters to God, it’s faithfulness and truth that matters to the lord.

Many will follow their sensuality, we’re told. The truth or falsehood of a cause cannot be judged by its popularity. Truth cannot be discerned merely by counting noses. This reminds me of what our Lord Jesus taught in his Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew chapter seven, verses 13 and 14. Let me just briefly read those verses. Jesus says, enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction and those who enter by it are many, for the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life and those who find it are few. Who is or what is this way, this narrow way? Well, the narrow way has a name, his name is Jesus. Jesus says, I am the way, the truth and the life.

No one comes to the father except through me and that’s why few find that way because few are willing to humble themselves and admit, Lord, I can’t save myself. I can’t contribute anything to my salvation. I have no hope of salvation apart from grace, apart from Christ. It takes a humbling, sovereign, regenerating work of the Holy Spirit to humble you to the point where you recognize, nothing in my hands I bring simply to thy cross I cling. Now, what can we learn here about these particular false teachers of whom Peter is speaking? There are different varieties of false teaching. There’s legalism and Galatianism and Pelagianism and there’s also Antinomianism and libertanism. What particular kind of heresy is Peter dealing with in his second epistle? Well, what we can learn here is from the language, it’s clear that these particular false teachers were what the theologians sometimes describe as Antinomians.

Antinomians, which literally means against the law from the Greek term nomos, which means law. An Antinomian basically teaches that, well, hey, because we’re saved by grace, because Jesus died for our sins and we’re saved by grace alone, therefore we have no obligation to keep the law of God. In fact, the grace of God is an excuse for sin. So let us sin that grace may abound. That’s the basic position of the Antinomian. And that seems to be the particular heresy that Peter is addressing here because these heretics are described as those who are characterized by sensuality as we see in verse two. Many will follow their sensuality. The New King James Version translates it as their destructive ways, the NIV translates it, their shameful ways. And so we see that they have large followings, that these particular heretics and false teachers were Antinomian.

And what is the fruit of their teaching? Well, the fruit of the false teacher’s behavior was to bring the way of truth into disrepute. It says in verse two, because of them, the way of truth will be blasphemed. Because of it, the way of truth, again, notice how the Christian way is described here. It’s described as the way of truth. It’s interesting that in the early days of the Christian faith, the Christian faith was often called the way. And that makes sense, doesn’t it? Because again, Christians are those who follow the Lord Jesus who said, what about himself? He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father except by me. But again, think about how the shenanigans of well-known, highly public religious leaders who have fallen into serious, scandalous sin, think about how such shenanigans have given Jesus and the church a black eye.

I’m old enough, and some of you may be old enough to remember, remember good old Jimmy Swaggart, and Jim and Tammy Baker back in the day. I know I’m dating myself by mentioning those particular false teachers. Remember, Jimmy Swaggart had, I think, a run-in with a prostitute, and he professed repentance. He got up in front of the camera and put on a big show of crying tears, and I think his denomination made him stop preaching for about six months. But I think he’s still out there today, and then, of course, you’ve got Jim and Tammy Baker. Well, you’ve also got, in more contemporary times, you’ve got the various clergy abuse scandals out there that have scandalized so many. You think about public figures, leaders, who have not only stumbled into sin and withdrawn from ministry in genuine repentance, there’s always restoration, you know, at least restoration to Christ in the church, not necessarily to church office in such cases.

But when you think about those whose lives are characterized by unrepentant sin and sensuality, getting out there and using the pulpit to line their pockets and to take advantage of gullible people, think of how these kinds of men have been used by unbelievers as an excuse not to take Jesus Christ or the gospel seriously. It is very sad, it’s grievous. And so we learn of these men that because of such false teachers, the way of truth will be blasphemed. You know, we live in a time when more and more of our neighbors and coworkers and friends have very little exposure to Christianity. In fact, there are secular neighbors out there who’ve never once entered a church building, never once experienced a real Christian worship service. And I have to wonder, what do some of these people think?

What do some of these folks think when they think of what Christianity is about? Imagine getting your picture, your idea of Christianity from TBN, turning on Christian television and looking at these prosperity preaching charlatans, whooping it up on stage, rolling around in the aisles, spewing forth nonsense and trying to get your money. And that’s probably what a lot of people, a lot of secular nuns today, N-O-N-E-S, probably think Christianity is all about. You say, oh, you’re a Christian. Probably puts you in that mental category. Okay, you’re one of those crazy people. False teachers bring the gospel of Jesus Christ into disrepute. They blaspheme the gospel in the eyes of unbelievers. Because of them, the way of truth will be blasphemed. And that is why our passage ends with the final point that I’m gonna make this afternoon as we observe the covetousness and condemnation of false teachers.

The covetousness and condemnation of false teachers. Verse three. And in their greed, they will exploit you with false words. False words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle and their destruction is not asleep. In other words, their doom is certain. Even if it’s not immediate, it isn’t idle, it’s not asleep, it is most certain. We see the covetousness of the false teachers being mentioned here at the beginning of verse three. Peter describes such false teachers as greedy and exploitative. They often seek to take advantage of gullible or ill-informed folk. That’s always a sad thing, isn’t it? Now, of course, let me say something though about gullibility and being ill-informed. Well, when false teachers through their smooth words and their deceptiveness lead sinners astray, these false teachers are deeply guilty in the eyes of God.

But brothers and sisters in Christ, remember you and I have a duty to be discerning. If you are allowing yourself to be led astray, if you are allowing yourself to be gullible, if you are not testing the spirits and grounding yourself in the word of God, you bear responsibility too if you’re taken astray and led astray. You bear some responsibility too. So let us be discerning beloved. Let us be in the word. Let us be grounded in the truth of the gospel, the truth of God’s word that we may not be gullible or led astray by these slick false teachers. Peter describes them again as greedy and exploitative. And notice that one of the ways they do this, lead people astray is with false words. The New King James translates it as with deceptive words.

I like how the NIV translates it. With stories they have made up, stories they have made up. One of the characteristics of some false teachers, you’ve heard about padding your resume, right? You’re trying to find a job and you don’t have much on your resume. So you kind of like make yourself look better than you actually are, which is dishonest. And if you’re a Christian, you shouldn’t do that. But in any case, people do that. They pad their testimony. They kind of make up stories about themselves to put themselves in the best light possible. Well, we can say of false teachers that they will often pad their testimony and they will often come to you with amazing stories about great exploits of the faith that they have accomplished. A perfect example of this would be a fellow by the name, maybe you’ve heard his name before, Joseph Smith, remember?

The so-called prophet and founder of the Mormon religion, author of the Book of Mormon, although he claimed to get the Book of Mormon from, I forget which angel it was, the angel Moroni or Moroni, I don’t know how it was pronounced, but in any case, if you know anything about the Mormon religion, the narrative, the historical, allegedly historical narrative that you read of in the Book of Mormon has not been corroborated at all by any real history. Joseph Smith cooked this up in his brain, made up stories out of his own imagination. And that’s one of the things that false teachers will do. And so they’re covetous, they’re exploitative, and they lead gullible souls astray with false words, with stories that they have made up. This passage, sobering passage ends in verse three with a declaration of the condemnation of these false teachers.

After describing them and their negative influence, it says their condemnation from long ago is not idle and their destruction is not asleep. Now, some might latch onto that word destruction and say, aha, see, yes, they’re bad and they will be destroyed, but that means they’ll be ultimately annihilated, right? No, friends, read further in the context here. The ultimate fate of unrepentant false teachers is not mere annihilation. It is eternal conscious torment in hell. God does not want his truth messed with. We dare not mangle, manhandle, mess with, twist, distort the word of God, especially as that word reveals the gospel, the good news of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Peter speaks solemn words here. And this is a very, again, I know this is not a popular doctrine today. It’s not a doctrine that I feel easy with either, to be honest.

How can you say that you have a heart if you are comfortable with the doctrine of hell? I believe the doctrine of hell. We should believe and we confess the doctrine of eternal conscious punishment for the unrepentant wicked because the Bible teaches it. The Bible is true. Jesus himself, more clearly than anyone else in holy scripture, taught the doctrine of never ending conscious eternal torment. Trillions and trillions and trillions and trillions and trillions of ages, of trillions of years of never ending burning torment. That’s what the unrepentant wicked will face. It will not end. And some say, oh, that’s not proportional. That’s not proportional. How’s that proportional or just punishment? When we say things like that, we forget that God is a God of infinite holiness. We forget how infinitely holy God is and how utterly awful and horrifying sin is, especially the sin of leading precious souls astray from Christ.

False teachers are spiritual murderers and no murderer has eternal life dwelling in him. And so let us take to heart this warning about false teachers. Let us avoid them like the plague because they are a plague. Let us pray that we ourselves would stand strong in the truth and let us realize the fate of those who teach false heresies and who lead God’s sheep astray. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle. Their destruction is not asleep. Unless sovereign grace intervenes and brings them back from the brink of destruction and brings them to their knees in repentance, unless that happens, they face eternal destruction from the presence of the Lord. But praise be to God that Christ has redeemed us by his blood. And he’s given to us the truth of his gospel and let us stand in that truth.

Let us avoid false teachers and let us embrace and persevere in and continue to trust the biblical gospel. You will better be able to detect the false if you immerse yourself in the truth. So immerse yourself in the truth of the gospel and build your life upon Christ. He is the rock of our salvation. Rest in him alone for your salvation and you will receive the gift of eternal life. Praise be to God. Let us pray. Our Lord and Father in heaven, sovereign and eternal God, we thank you and praise you that you love us enough to warn us. We thank you, Lord, that though your word in places can be difficult and challenging, yet you reveal your word to us out of love for us and you instruct us that we might continue to cling to Christ and Christ alone for our salvation.

Lord, we pray that you would help us as a church and help us as individual believers to build our lives upon the rock solid foundation of the Lord Jesus Christ and the truthfulness of his inerrant, infallible, authoritative word. We pray these things in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said, amen. As we close our time together, let’s rise and we’ll sing as our closing hymn number 404, The Church’s One Foundation, 404. And four.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

March 2, 2025
The Source and Origin of Scripture

About this sermon

Peter teaches that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation or the will of man; men spoke from God as the Holy Spirit carried them along. God used real human authors without making them robots, but the origin of Scripture is divine. Because the Spirit inspired it, Scripture is fully trustworthy and authoritative. Believers do not need an answer to every objection on the spot; faithful scholars and pastors throughout church history have studied these questions, and answers can be found.

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Sermon transcript

Well, dear friends, please remain standing for the reading of God’s Word. We continue our consideration of 2 Peter. And my sermon text for this Lord’s Day evening is, again, 2 Peter 1, verses 19 through 21. I’m going to begin reading at verse 16 to fill out the context a bit. But again, you’ll find that on page 1207 in your Pew Bible. Dear friends, hear the Word of our God. 2 Peter 1, beginning at verse 16. For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. But we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was born to Him by the majestic glory, this is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.

We ourselves heard this very voice born from heaven, for we were with Him on the holy mountain. And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man. But men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God endures forever. Let’s pray for God to bless the preaching of His Word. Oh Lord and Father in heaven, we thank you for sending your Holy Spirit to carry along the prophets and apostles who wrote the Scriptures.

And therefore, Lord, we can rest our confidence in this sure and certain Word. We pray, Heavenly Father, that as we consider this portion of your God-breathed, inerrant, infallible Word this evening, we pray that your Spirit would open our minds and our hearts to behold wondrous things from your Word. We ask that you would edify us, that you would instruct us, that you would challenge us if necessary, rebuke us, Lord, but build us up in our most holy faith. Build us up in holiness and sanctification through what we hear this evening. Help us to embrace these truths, to chew upon them, and grant that the implications of these truths would take root in our hearts and bear spiritual fruit unto holiness in our lives. For your praise and honor and glory, we ask these things in Jesus’ name, and all of God’s people said.

Amen. Amen. Amen. That’s it. It’s completed. The title of my sermon this evening is The Source and Origin of Scripture. And there are five words you can listen for in my sermon tonight. The words Scripture, Spirit, Origin, Inspiration, and Word. Well, dear ones, on the last Lord’s Day, we began our study in consideration of this passage of 2 Peter. And we saw on the last Lord’s Day that in a time like ours, in a time when there is so much confusion and so much uncertainty, especially about the big questions, the Scriptures provide us with certainty and with clarity, with clearness. They provide us with a certainty and clarity that counteracts the prevailing confusion and uncertainty that saturate our contemporary secular world. As an antidote to confusion and uncertainty, our text for this Lord’s Day evening points us to the Holy Scriptures for such clarity and certainty.

Since after all, the prophetic word of the Scriptures, as the Scriptures are described in verse 19, those Scriptures are the inspired, infallible, and inerrant Word of God. On the last Lord’s Day, we considered specifically what verse 19 teaches about the certainty and the reliability or the trustworthiness of Holy Scripture. Because the Bible is God’s Word, you and I can depend upon what it says. And because it is God’s Word, it speaks with a basic clarity. There are difficult portions and sections of the Bible, no doubt. Not every part of Scripture is equally clear to all. Nevertheless, when it comes to the basic thrust and message of the Bible, the Bible was not written for academics. The Bible was written by common men under the Spirit’s inspiration for common men and women. And so the Scriptures can be relied upon.

Because the Bible is God’s Word, we can depend upon what it says. It is even more fully confirmed, as it says in verse 19, or even more certain as the NIV translates it. It is even more certain and more fully confirmed than the Apostle Peter’s eyewitness testimony to the glorious transfiguration of Jesus, as important as that glorious and miraculous historical event was. We also saw that the Scriptures bring God’s saving light into our world of spiritual darkness. So with all of this in mind, let us continue to work our way through this important passage. We’ll be focusing especially on verses 20 and 21 as we consider the source and origin of Holy Scripture, the source and origin of Holy Scripture. As Peter describes the source and origin of Scripture, he tells us negatively what that source is not, and then he tells us positively what that source is.

Again, look with me if you would at verse 20. It says, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. So negatively speaking, the Holy Scriptures did not originate in the will of man. The Lord employed men. He used men in the writing and production of Holy Scripture. Nevertheless, the Scriptures do not originate from the prophets’ will, from the will of the prophets or apostles who penned the Scriptures. And notice how Peter begins verse 20. He says, knowing this first of all, or again as the NIV translates it, above all you must understand. See, in using this language, Peter is indicating that what he is about to say is obviously something that is very important, something that he wants his readers to take to heart.

And this is what the Spirit wants us, the church, to take to heart. Now there is a controversy about what exactly Peter means when he says that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. It’s my understanding that our Roman Catholic friends, if you run into a Roman Catholic apologist or someone who knows the Catholic position and faith well, they’ll often point to this passage, this verse, and they’ll often say, look you Protestants, you Protestants believe in private interpretation. You believe that all of God’s people should privately interpret the Scriptures apart from the teaching magisterium of the church. But verse 20 says, no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. Well friends, in context here, it seems very clear that Peter is speaking here of the private interpretation of the prophet. After all, it’s clear from the context he is speaking to the issue not of our responsibility to interpret the Scriptures responsibly, but rather he is speaking to the origin and source of the Holy Scriptures.

Peter is speaking of the private interpretation of the prophet. He is not speaking against our individual responsibility to read and interpret Scripture according to the rules of the Word, contrary to what our Roman Catholic friends may say. Now certainly it’s important for us to read the Scriptures in community with God’s people. That’s why we believe in confessions and creeds and catechisms. Sola Scriptura is not the same thing as Solo Scriptura. It’s not the same thing as just me and Jesus and the Bible in my private prayer closet. We need to read the Scriptures in the community of God’s people. We are a community of interpretation, and the Scriptures were addressed to God’s people corporately. It has individual relevance, and we should read the Scriptures on our own and study them on our own, but we read them in context of the community of Christ, in the context of the church.

Nevertheless, the focus here is on the source and origin of Scripture. Dr. James White, the Reformed Baptist apologist, has a very helpful book on the subject of Sola Scriptura. It’s called, surprise, surprise, Scripture Alone, and in that book he offers a helpful explanation of what the Apostle Peter is getting at in this passage. And to quote from Dr. White, Dr. White says that Peter is not talking about how people interpret the words of prophecy, but about the certainty of the Scriptures themselves. And he goes on to explain what Peter means here. He says, Those of you who’ve taken the inquirers class with me as we’ve gone through Calvin Cummings’s little book, Confessing Christ, in the very first chapter of that book where he deals with the Bible, one of the things that he points out is that the Bible bears God’s signature.

And I think if I’m remembering the statistic correctly, the term, the phrase, thus saith the Lord, or its equivalent phrase, occurs somewhere in the neighborhood of like 600 times in the Old Testament alone. The Bible contains God’s signature. It claims to be from the Lord. It claims to originate from the Lord, and it backs that claim. There are evidences within the Scripture of that claim itself. So again, the Scriptures do not come from the will of man, including the will of the Apostles and prophets who penned them. Well then, where did it come from? Well, positively speaking, it is from the Holy Spirit, and this is emphasized by the language here that we read in verse 21. It says, for no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God.

Now notice, men did speak. God did employ real human beings. He didn’t just turn the prophets and the apostles into robots. He used them. They spoke, but how did they speak? They spoke from God. But again, the origin is from God as they were what? Carried along by the Holy Spirit. Dr. Simon Kistermacher explains the imagery here. He says this participle discloses the continual activity of the Holy Spirit who carried men along in the work of writing Scripture. The figure of speech is borrowed from the nautical vocabulary in the sense that a sailboat is carried along by the wind. Have you ever been sailing? You know that if you’re in a sailboat that the sailboat is carried along by the wind. The wind decides, I mean, obviously you can maneuver and manipulate, you can manipulate it, but you depend upon the wind to carry it along, and that’s the imagery here.

We are carried along. The prophets and apostles were carried along by the Holy Spirit so that what they wrote was exactly what the Lord wanted them to write. But immediately we would get an objection to this assertion, especially from the more liberal quarters of the professing church. Some would object by saying, well, then you Orthodox Presbyterians, you conservative Bible believing Christians, what you’re saying then is that the Bible was dictated by God. The so-called dictation theory. That God completely erased the human personalities and the writing styles of the authors of Scripture and they were basically like, you know, dictation machines. God kind of grabbed their hands and made them write or what have you. Well, is Peter here teaching the so-called dictation theory of inspiration? Again, the answer is no. To quote again from Dr.

Kistermacher, he explains, he says, the Spirit used human beings with their talents and insights, their peculiarities and characteristics, keeping them from sin and error. The Holy Spirit is in control of man. Therefore, the text is clear on this point. In the writing of Scripture, man is passive and the Spirit is active. And again, as Dr. White says, men did speak. Scripture is in human language. It had human authors who were not mere mobile dictation machines. They spoke in their tongue. They spoke from their contexts. They spoke within their cultures, but what they spoke, they spoke from God and only as they were carried along or moved by the Spirit. Here is the mysterious yet wondrous interface of the human and the divine in Scripture’s origination. While men are speaking, they are doing so under the power and direction of the Holy Spirit so that the result of this divine miracle, inspiration is a divine miracle, the result of this divine miracle is, as Paul puts it, God breathed.

It is not the men themselves who are, quote, inspired, but the Scriptures, the results of this divine initiative in revelation. The Scriptures are God breathed, Theopneustos, breathed out by God. Now what are some of the implications of the Spirit’s inspiration of Holy Scripture? We’ve considered tonight, we’ve considered the origin of Holy Scripture, that it comes not from men, but it comes from the Lord. This has so many profound implications for our lives as followers of Jesus Christ. Let me just mention a couple implications this evening. Dear friends, since the Scriptures are inspired by the Holy Spirit, since they originate from God the Holy Spirit, you can trust them fully and without hesitation. Let me ask you this, does God ever lie? Who is called the father of lies in Scripture? It’s not God, it’s Satan, right?

The God of the Bible is the God of truth. Jesus Christ, the Son of God said, what about himself? He says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father except by me. God is the God of truth, Christ is the Christ, is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the living truth of God, and the Spirit is revealed in Scripture to be the Spirit of truth. And so would it make any sense for the triune God who is the God of truth to communicate his word through lies, inaccuracies? No. We can trust the Word of God. Now again, that doesn’t mean that every part of Scripture is equally clear. It doesn’t mean that there aren’t difficult interpretive questions and conundrums and the passages that require a lot of study and research and where even good and godly Bible-believing scholars may differ on how to properly interpret a given passage, but nevertheless, the Scriptures themselves are breathed out by God, the God of truth.

And so in their original autograph, in their original autographs, they are without error, and we can trust in them. And we have faithful witness to those original autographs in the text of Scripture, for the Scriptures are the Word of God. So believer, since the Scriptures are inspired by the Holy Spirit and originate from God, they are fully trustworthy, even as God himself is trustworthy. Dear listener, are you trusting with full confidence in the absolute trustworthiness of the inspired Word of God? And are you doing so even in the face of a culture of uncertainty and confusion, a culture which mocks at the Scriptures, a culture which holds them up to contempt, a culture where many would sneer at you if you say, well, I’m a Bible-believing Christian. I stake my life, my eternity on this book.

And by the way, this isn’t just a book. This is a library of books. This is the writings of the prophets and apostles who were carried along by the Holy Spirit. It is the Word of God. But many would mock you and say, oh, come on. Come on. You’re one of those, you’re one of those Jesus freaks. You’re one of those nutty religious quacks. Friends, this is the Word of God. It claims to be the Word of God. It demonstrates itself to be the Word of God. And our challenge to an unbelieving world is to take up and read, read it, and to pray that the Holy Spirit would open the eyes of the blind to see the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ as he is revealed in the Gospel.

But again, are you, dear Christian, relying with full confidence in the Word of God? Or has your confidence in the Word of God wavered? Maybe you say tonight, well, Pastor, you know, I’m a Christian, I believe the Bible, but I have questions. And that’s okay to have questions. It’s okay to have questions. Jesus was very kind to, remember doubting Thomas? He was a little bit skeptical. He had been burned. He had thought that, you know, thought that this, all this talk about the resurrection, he didn’t want to believe it because he didn’t want to be disappointed. And the Lord was very merciful to him. Well, let us realize that it’s okay to ask questions, but realize that there are answers out there. This book is the most studied book in all of human history. And I can guarantee you, any question about the Scriptures or about a certain passage or a certain teaching of the Bible that unbelievers may throw in your face and say, explain this.

And have you ever been in a situation like that, you’re in a conversation with an unbeliever and they throw an objection out to you and you realize, wow, I’ve never thought about that before. I don’t know off the top of my head how to answer that objection. It’s okay to admit it. But be assured there are answers to those questions. God has raised up great theologians and Bible scholars and exegetes and pastors in the church throughout its history who have studied the Scriptures. There are answers out there. And if you have trouble finding the answers, come and talk to me. I’ll, you know, I’ll pull out my commentaries and I’ll give you a big pile of books to look at if you’re wrestling with certain questions. But there are answers. So don’t lose heart. Continue to trust in the Lord even if you don’t have all the answers.

The unbeliever wants to have all their questions answered before they will believe. But the wiser advice is to follow the counsel of St. Augustine who said, what, I believe in order that I might understand and not the other way around. We trust the Word of God and as we trust in the Word and wait for God to give us more light as we wrestle with the questions we may have, then our confidence in the Word will be deepened and strengthened. But understand too, another, and I close with this tonight, understand beloved that the Lord Jesus Christ, He Himself is at the heart and center of all of Scripture. The Old Testament prepares the world for the coming of the promised Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, and the New Testament reveals Him. All of Scripture is centered upon our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Peter here describes the Scriptures in verse 19 again as what? The prophetic Word. The Old Testament in particular is what he had in mind, although what he says applies to both Old and New Testaments. The Old Testament though in particular is prophetic in that it anticipates and prophesies and foreshadows and points forward to the saving work of Jesus, the promised Messiah. And therefore this Spirit-inspired Word penned by holy men who were carried along by the Holy Spirit confronts us with our sin and need for a Savior and reveals the good news about Jesus Christ. That is ultimately what the Bible is all about. So as you read the Word and as you wrestle through difficult passages in the Word, don’t lose sight of Jesus because He’s the ultimate central subject and theme of this book that we call the Bible, this collection of books that we call the Bible, the Word of God.

And so friends, let me ask you, what will you do with the Christ who is revealed in the Spirit-inspired Scriptures? Will you reject Him or will you receive Him? You might say, I think I’ll give that some thought and get back to you. You can’t be neutral. You’re either for Christ or against Christ. You’re either pro-Christ or anti-Christ. There’s no razor thin neutral ground that you can walk. So if you go away from this place this evening or if you’re watching online, if you go away and say, well, I’m not going to commit now, I still have to think it through, well, you’ve already made your decision at this point. May God turn your heart to Christ. May you submit to Him in faith and repentance. May you embrace His Word. May you believe in order that you may understand.

For again, the Scriptures originate not from the will of man, but they originate from God the Holy Spirit who carried along the holy men of God who spoke from God. Amen. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You, Lord, once again for the Scriptures. We thank You that You’ve given us a sure and certain and trustworthy Word. Help us, Lord, to grow in our knowledge of the Word. Help us, Lord, to wrestle through the difficult parts and to see the richness and fullness of the truth revealed therein. We would ask, Lord, that we would be those whose minds and hearts and consciences are saturated with Your God-breathed, inerrant, infallible Word. A Word that is a lamp unto our feet, a light unto our path, a guide to our way, and our comfort in our journey to glory.

It is in Jesus’ name that we pray, and all of God’s people said, Amen. As we respond to

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

February 9, 2025
The Prophetic Word more Fully Confirmed

About this sermon

Peter declares that believers have the prophetic word more fully confirmed and should pay attention to it as a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns. Scripture is a surer proof than even the apostles’ experience of the transfiguration, for no prophecy came by human will; men spoke from God as carried along by the Holy Spirit. Reason and expertise have their place but Scripture must measure them, and even the church’s authority is subordinate to God’s word. The written word brings God’s saving light into a world of spiritual darkness.

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Sermon transcript

Well, please remain standing for the reading of God’s Word. This afternoon, my sermon text is again from 2 Peter chapter 1. We’ll focus on verses 19 through 21, but I’m going to read verses 16 through 21 to fill out the context a bit. So let us hear God’s Holy Word. You’ll find this on page 1207 in your Pew Bible. Hear God’s Holy Word. For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was born to him by the majestic glory, this is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased, we ourselves heard this very voice born from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.

And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. And once again, please join me in prayer as we ask the Lord to bless the proclamation of his word. Our Lord and Father in heaven, we thank you for your great grace, your amazing mercy to us in Christ. We thank you, Lord, that in Christ and through faith in him you remove our sins from us as far as the east is from the west.

And we thank you, Lord, that you have given us this good word. You’ve given us the holy scriptures, which are a lamp unto our feet, a light into our path. And Lord, as we consider this portion of holy scripture briefly this afternoon, we pray that your spirit would once again illuminate us, open our minds and our hearts to behold wondrous things from your word. Help us, Lord, not merely to understand at an intellectual level, but help us to understand the truth of this scripture and how it applies to us as believers, how it applies to your church. And we ask all these things, Heavenly Father, in Jesus’ name, and all of God’s people said, Amen. You may be seated. The title of my sermon this afternoon is The Prophetic Word More Fully Confirmed. And there are five words you can be listening for in my sermon, the words scripture, inspired, certainty, light, and darkness.

Well, my dear friends, we live in a world that is filled with uncertainty, filled with confusion. There is widespread confusion and uncertainty over existentially pressing questions, you know, questions such as, who am I? Why am I here? Does my life have any genuine meaning and purpose, any genuine worth or significance? Is there such a thing as objective truth, truth that applies to everyone without exception, or is the only truth that exists subjective truth, you know, my truth? And what is the good and the beautiful? And how do we live a life that is genuinely good, and how do we find true beauty? And of course, a question that presses upon all of us as we grow old in our years, is there life after death? And the questions go on. Well, friends, a broad range of different and often contradictory religions and philosophies and ideologies try to answer these kinds of questions and attempt to ease the existential angst that arises from such questions and confusion.

But many of the answers that are given to such questions by these various philosophies and religions and ideologies and so forth, often end up being contradictory. And indeed, often these questions end up, or these answers to such questions often end up raising more questions than they end up answering. Well, dear ones, even in our highly secularized world today, there still persists in the human heart a deep-seated desire to have real answers. Answers that clear up the fog of confusion, answers that bring clarity to the mind and peace to the heart. Again, many today are confused about where to find such truth, and especially truth about the ultimate issues of life, eternal and unchanging truth, which clears away the confusion of falsehood. Well, our passage for this Lord’s Day afternoon points us to the sure and certain source and revelation of this eternal and unchanging truth, namely what the Apostle Peter describes as the prophetic word here in verse 19.

Now, let me again remind us of the setting and context of our passage. Remember, friends, that in 2 Peter, the Apostle Peter is addressing a group of Christians who were faced with the threat of false teaching, and that false teaching, as we will see, gets fleshed out in terms of its particulars more fully in chapter 2, and we will see that in weeks to come. Now, to what does Peter point these believers as the source and foundation for certainty in the face of such false teaching? Where does he point them to, to counteract such false teaching? Now, our Roman Catholic friends believe that Peter was the first pope, right? And the Catholic Church teaches that when the pope speaks ex cathedra, speaks in his capacity and authority as the pope, that what he says ends all disputes.

That is an infallible declaration. But does Peter here point to himself as the supposed first pope? Does he point to himself as the ultimate source of religious certainty in this passage? No, he doesn’t. Well, does he point to an allegedly infallible teaching magisterium in the Church? Does he do that in this passage? No. Does he point them, then, to philosophical speculations and the ever-changing interpretations of science? Again, no, my friends. Instead, he points them, the Apostle Peter points them, to the written scriptures as the certain and trustworthy source of truth. And the reason he does so is because the scriptures originated from God the Holy Spirit, being as they are, the Word of God. So let’s dive into our passage for today, and we’re going to focus this Lord’s Day afternoon mostly on verse 19, as we consider, first of all, the certainty and trustworthiness of Holy Scripture.

The certainty and trustworthiness of Holy Scripture. It says in verse 19, Peter writes, He says, we have the prophetic word. What’s he talking about there when he speaks of this prophetic word? What is the prophetic word? Well, it is clear from the context of this passage that he is referencing here the written scriptures, and they are called, and the Old Testament in particular, and they are called the prophetic word because the scriptures prophesy about and point to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The Old Testament scriptures prepared God’s people, indeed, prepared the world for the coming of the promised Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. And the Old Testament contains types and foreshadowings, anticipations, and prophecies of the coming promised Messiah, although it’s important to understand that what Peter here says about this prophetic word applies equally to both the Old Testament and the New Testament.

He says of this word that this word originates from God the Holy Spirit. We’ll focus more on that on the next Lord’s Day evening, but he does say in verse 21, that no prophecy was ever produced by the will of men, but men spoke from God. That’s the origin of the scriptures. Men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. But with respect to verse 19, Dr. Simon Kistermacher writes that the point at issue in this verse is whether the Old Testament scripture is confirmed by the teaching of the apostles or the apostles’ message is confirmed by the Old Testament. One view, there are a couple of basic ways to understand what Peter is saying here in verse 19. Two basic interpretations are possible of this verse. One view understands Peter to be saying that the transfiguration event that Peter references in the context of this passage confirms the truth of prophecy, confirming with certainty our Lord’s future second coming, that that will occur.

And the reason that this interpretation asserts that is because remember what we learned on the last Lord’s Day, that the transfiguration of Jesus, this miraculous transfiguration of our Lord on the Mount of Transfiguration, when his divine glory shone through his humanity in the presence of the three apostles that were with him on the Holy Mountain, namely Peter, James, and John, that that glorious transfiguration of our Lord on the Mount of Transfiguration was a picture, an anticipation of, a foretaste of the glory that will be revealed at his future second advent. In any case, that’s one way to understand verse 19, that the transfiguration event confirms the truth of prophecy, confirming with certainty that our Lord’s future second advent will indeed occur. Another interpretation of the Greek is that the, and to quote from one commentator, that the prophetic word of scripture is a more solid proof than even the spectacular experience of witnessing the transfiguration.

I believe that this latter interpretation seems to fit better in the context of this passage. It’s the more natural interpretation. And it’s reflected, this interpretation is reflected, for example, in the New International Version, which translates it, we also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable. Dear ones, the written scriptures are more fully confirmed, or as the NIV translates it, they are more certain than even the Apostle Peter’s eyewitness testimony to the transfiguration of Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. Now as we learned on the last Lord’s Day evening, the scripture’s testimony to the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ is supported by the evidence of eyewitness testimony and fulfilled prophecy. We learned that in verses 16 through 18. And on the last Lord’s Day, we considered a number of other passages from the New Testament scriptures, which confirm that the gospel story is indeed supported by eyewitness testimony.

But nevertheless, while all of these evidences can certainly help to strengthen our faith and to settle our doubts, we need to remember that the written scriptures themselves are even more sure than all of these evidences. In fact, the crowning evidence for our faith, the crowning evidence is this book, the scriptures themselves, for the scriptures are self-authenticating, as we’ve been learning in our morning instruction class in recent weeks. The scriptures are self-authenticating, the reason being they originate from God himself and they are inspired, they are breathed out by the Holy Spirit. Dear ones, by the grace of God, let us build our faith and our lives upon the certain and trustworthy prophetic word. In other words, let us build our faith and our lives upon the word of God, not the wisdom of men. The word of God is now, of course, contained in the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments because the Bible from Genesis to Revelation is the God-breathed, inerrant, infallible, authoritative word.

And again, as Peter says in verse 21, no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God. Yes, men spoke, but they spoke from God. How? As they were carried along by the Holy Scriptures. Do you trust in the word of God? Do you believe it in its fullness? Let us embrace the word, let us believe the word, let us, by the grace of God, live in obedience to the word of God. We also learn in this passage that the written scriptures bring God’s saving light into our world of spiritual darkness. This is the next point on your sermon outline. The written scriptures bring God’s saving light into our world of spiritual darkness. Again, it says in verse 19, we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, and then notice the language and the imagery that Peter uses here in the rest of this verse.

He speaks about this prophetic word as that which we would do well to pay attention to as to what? As to a lamp shining in a dark place. If you’re in a dark place, like you’re taking a hike out at night in the woods, you want a good flashlight, you want a lantern, you want something to illuminate your path and show you the way. We would do well to pay attention to this prophetic word as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. I’m reminded of what the psalmist writes in Psalm 119 verse 105, a very familiar passage. Your word is what? Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path, perhaps Peter has even that verse in the background of his thinking as the spirit inspires him to write this particular verse.

But what is this imagery of the morning star rising in your hearts? Well, we learn when we compare scripture with scripture that the morning star is none other than Jesus Christ Himself. Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, He is the morning star. Let’s just take a look at two passages. Let’s look at Numbers 24 verse 17, Numbers 24 verse 17. In this verse we read the following, and here is actually a prophecy of the coming of Christ spoken from Balaam. It says, I see Him, but not now. I behold Him, but not near. A star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel. The scepter, this is the scepter of the promised messianic king. This is a prophecy of the Messiah. A scepter shall rise out of Israel. It shall crush the forehead of Moab, Moab representing the enemies of God, and break down all the sons of Sheba.

The scepter shall sheth, and then it goes on to say, Edom shall be dispossessed and so forth. But notice, notice my friends, a scepter shall rise out of Israel. It shall crush the forehead of Moab. And I believe that I, there was one passage here in Numbers 24 that references the promised Messiah as the morning star, but another passage of scripture that confirms this is Revelation chapter 22 verse 16. Revelation 22 verse 16. I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star. Jesus in Revelation says, I am the bright morning star. Jesus in Revelation says, I am the bright morning star. And we are told in our passage for this afternoon that Jesus, this bright morning star, rises in your hearts.

How do we understand this language of Jesus the morning star rising in our hearts? One commentator points out that this is a difficult phrase. Since day dawns and morning star apparently refer to the second coming of Christ, which was an external event. Peter probably refers to the effect on believers of the full Revelation that will accompany Christ’s return. Dear listener, once again as we wrap up our brief time in the Word this afternoon, let me ask you, do you look to the scriptures as totally reliable and trustworthy in all that they assert and all that they record and therefore as your highest authority in life? Or do you look to some other authority as being somehow more reliable than the scriptures? Perhaps an authority like science or the experts or reason or even the church.

Now there’s nothing wrong with those other authorities properly in their proper place and in submission to God’s revelation in the scriptures. We’re not anti-science. We are not anti-reason and we certainly are not against genuine expertise. But all of these things must be measured by the measure of scripture, the holy scripture. And even the church itself must be subject to the scriptures. Christ has given his church genuine authority, but it is an authority that is subordinate to the authority of God’s holy word and is to be exercised in submission to the word of God. My friends, let us embrace the scriptures in their totality. They are totally authoritative. We must not only be committed to the principle of sola scriptura, scripture alone as the only infallible rule of faith and practice, scripture alone as the only source of written divine revelation.

We must also be committed to the principle of tota scriptura. In other words, all of scripture. We don’t get to take a cafeteria approach to the word of God, picking and choosing that which we want to believe and embrace. Now certainly we need to, when we study the scriptures, we need to recognize that God has utilized different, he’s used different literary genres to reveal his word and so there’s poetry, there’s apocalyptic imagery in the scriptures, there’s also historical narrative and parable. We need to, of course, properly and correctly interpret the scriptures according to its own literary genre and standards and so forth. But nevertheless, with that clarification and qualification in mind, it is all authoritative, properly interpreted, appropriately applied, the scriptures speak to all of life and we need to affirm tota scriptura, scripture in its totality and not just sola scriptura, scripture alone.

So let us believe, embrace, and submit to the word of God. And let me ask you in closing, friends, do you seek to do your part in bringing the light of God’s saving word into this spiritually darkened and lost world? Peter writes, we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. If the morning star is rising in your heart has brought you from death to newness of life, do you not want to share this glorious light of Christ, the light of the gospel, with others as God gives you opportunity? Let us, brothers and sisters, be deeply concerned for evangelism and missions. Now that doesn’t mean that all of you are called, all of us are called to be evangelists or missionaries.

It’s not to say that there aren’t differences of gifting in the body of Christ. The evangelistic task of the church is the task of the church as a whole and some will participate in that task in a more behind the scenes fashion or function, but we all have a part to play as we pray for and work for the spread of the gospel in our neighborhoods and indeed throughout the world. Let us seek by the grace of God to bring the light of his saving word into this spiritually darkened and lost world, that by the grace of God others will be able to experience the morning star rising in their hearts and in their lives. And all of God’s people said, amen. Let us pray. Our Lord and Father in heaven, we thank you for Jesus, the bright morning star, our savior and king, and we thank you Lord for the prophetic word which reveals our savior.

We would pray, Lord, that we would embrace the word, that we would base our lives upon the word. We pray, heavenly Father, that for us the word would indeed be a lamp unto our feet, a light unto our path, not only on the Lord’s day, but in every day of the week. We pray these things in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said, amen. As we close our time this afternoon, let’s rise and we’ll sing hymn 243, How Firm a Foundation, 243.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

February 2, 2025
Eyewitnesses of the Lord’s Majesty

About this sermon

Peter insists that the apostles did not follow cleverly devised myths when they made known the power and coming of Christ; they were eyewitnesses of his majesty. On the holy mountain they heard the Father’s voice declare, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” The gospel is rooted in historical events, as Paul also shows in listing the witnesses of the risen Christ. At the transfiguration, with Moses and Elijah present, the Father bore authoritative testimony to his Son, and the apostles’ testimony rests on what they saw and heard.

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Sermon transcript

Well, friends, please remain standing for the reading of God’s Word as we can continue our study of 2 Peter. This evening we are in 2 Peter, chapter 1, and I’ll focus on verses 16 through 18. I’ll read verses 16 through 21 to fill out the context a bit, but the sermon text for this evening is 1 Peter 1, verses 16 through 18. You’ll find that on page 1207 in your Pew Bible. Friends, let us hear God’s holy word. For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was born to Him by the majestic glory, this is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.

We ourselves heard this very voice born from heaven, for we were with Him on the holy mountain. And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Let’s pray for the Lord to bless the proclamation of His word this evening. Lord and Father in heaven, we thank you that you have spoken, that you have given to us clear revelation.

We thank you that in the Scriptures you reveal Christ our Savior, and we thank you that you give us the whole counsel of God in your holy word. We ask, Lord, that you would grant us the grace this evening to be attentive to your word as we consider this passage of Holy Scripture, and we pray that by your Spirit your word would once again find a lodging place in our souls. We pray that this word that we consider tonight would indeed impact us powerfully, and we pray that it would be used of you to further our sanctification and growth in grace. Be with us now, Lord. May your Spirit be present. Set a guard over my lips. Help me to speak forth only that which is faithful to your word. We pray these things in Jesus’ name, and all of God’s people said amen.

You may be seated. The title of my sermon this evening is, Eyewitnesses of the Lord’s Majesty, and I encourage you to be listening for the following words that are outlined in your sermon outline. The words gospel, history, apostle, eyewitness, transfiguration, and testimony. While dear friends, every so often an author or a scholar will come forward with a book or a theory that alleges to disprove or to reinterpret the gospel history about Jesus Christ as that history is recorded for us in the Bible. And just to give you some examples, way back in the 1960s, a man by the name of Hugh Seanfield, a Jewish scholar, wrote a book called The Passover Plot. And in that book, he claimed to offer a new interpretation of the life and death of Jesus, an interpretation which unsurprisingly denied essential truths of the gospel, such as the deity of Christ and the resurrection of Christ.

In more recent times, a number of years ago, Dan Brown’s popular novel The Da Vinci Code popularized some frankly bizarre way out conspiracy theories and ideas that obviously contradict the biblical picture of Jesus Christ. For example, in his book, and I read the book a number of years ago, in that book, he popularized the theory that Jesus was actually married to Mary Magdalene. In fact, in Brown’s book, one of the characters in the book claims that the early church did not believe in the deity of Christ until the Council of Nicaea affirmed that doctrine in 325 A.D. Now, of course, anyone with even a surface level acquaintance with the New Testament scriptures and with the early church fathers who wrote prior to the Nicene Council know that Mr. Brown’s claims are demonstrably false and that the early Christians most certainly did believe that Jesus Christ is divine.

Then there were claims made a number of years ago, maybe you remember these, claims alleging that the Jesus family tomb had been found in Jerusalem and thus that the bones of Jesus had been found, which obviously, if it were true, would have disproven the resurrection of Christ. But those claims, of course, again, were easily refuted. And of course, in recent years, the popular New Testament scholar and author, Dr. Bart Ehrman, a former evangelical Christian turned agnostic, in other words, an apostate from the Christian faith, has cranked out a whole bunch of books that seek to undermine confidence in the textual integrity of the New Testament, the historical reliability of the Gospels, the deity of Christ, and other Orthodox Christian beliefs. And just as there have been sound and Orthodox biblical scholars who have refuted the theories of writers like Hugh Shonfield and Dan Brown, so likewise, numerous conservative biblical scholars have taken Dr.

Ehrman to task and have offered sound and scholarly and biblical refutations to his skeptical theories. Beloved in Christ, there are many today, the point of this is that there are many today who would assert that the New Testament’s claims about the life and the miracles and the teachings and the death and the resurrection of Christ are nothing more than nice stories and clever myths. However, in our text for this Lord’s Day evening, the apostle Peter sets the record straight. He tells us in very plain terms that he and the other apostles, quote, did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. So let’s dive into our passage for this Lord’s Day evening. Beginning at verse 16 of our passage, which I will again read, Peter writes, for we did not follow cleverly devised myths.

Now let me pause there. When he says we, he means we apostles. He’s speaking of himself and the other apostles, and the apostles were appointed by Christ as eyewitnesses of his ministry and especially of his resurrection from the dead. We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. My friends, the gospel story about Jesus Christ is rooted in actual historical facts, not cleverly devised myths. This is what we learn here in verse 16. The gospel story about the Lord Jesus Christ is rooted in actual historical facts and realities, not rooted in cleverly devised myths. The term in the Greek that Peter uses, which is translated here as myth, is the Greek term muthois. That’s the word from which we derive the word myth.

And this phrase, cleverly devised myths, as it’s translated here in the English Standard Version, is translated similarly in other versions. For example, the New American Standard Version translates it as cleverly devised tales. The King James and New King James Versions translated as cunningly devised fables, and the New International Version translates it as cleverly invented stories. But you get the point. Peter is saying this is not what we presented to you, cleverly devised myths, but instead we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. My friends, the good news of Jesus Christ is not a mere story, nor a metaphor, nor a myth, nor simply a symbolic fantasy about the power of hope arising from the ashes of despair or some other such fuzzy-headed, flowery-sounding, sentimental nonsense. No dear ones, the good news of Jesus is based upon and rooted in supernatural events performed by a supernatural person, namely Jesus, in real space-time history.

We must always remember, children, what is history? History is his story. God is the one who orchestrates all of history by his sovereign decree and divine providence. The Gospel is the very truth of God, rooted in actual events of history, events which God has sovereignly decreed and has providentially ordered for his glory and for the salvation of his people. In other words, friends, biblical Christianity is an historical faith. There are some religions in the world that if the historical events behind those religions were taken away, the teachings would still remain. For example, if the Buddha had not in fact actually existed, then Buddhism could still exist as a religion because its principles and its teachings are not dependent upon the historicity of the person of Buddha. That cannot be said about Christianity. True biblical Christianity is not simply a moral story.

It’s not simply morality or ethics. It is the redemptive story that is rooted in the history revealed in the Word of God. Now let me just remind us of some of the context here of this passage that lies in the background of this passage. We need to ask ourselves, why does Peter bring this matter up? In fact, why does he do so at this particular point in his letter? That’s an important interpretive question that we need to ask if we’re going to be responsible readers of the Scriptures. We always need to ask, you know, why is the author here saying what he says when he says it and what’s the purpose of this? Well we need to remember that one of the major reasons why the Apostle Peter wrote this letter, was to refute a heresy that was threatening the Christians to whom he was writing and to fortify these believers against the false teaching of these particular heretics.

This was a version of heresy known as antinomianism, a version, a heretical teaching that basically denied the implications of Christ’s lordship in the realm of ethics and morality. In any case, perhaps the false teachers that Peter is concerned to refute had claimed that the Christian gospel was based upon such myths. Or perhaps Peter is contrasting the true historically rooted reality-based gospel that he and the other Apostles preached, maybe he’s contrasting that with the clever myths that were being propagated by the false teachers that he was seeking to refute. Whichever the case may be, what we learn here in this passage and what we see in other passages of scripture when we compare scripture with scripture is the importance of eyewitness testimony to the apostolic church. The Apostles were appointed by Christ as eyewitnesses and Peter is not the only apostle or the only New Testament writer who appeals to eyewitness testimony.

Those other passages in the New Testament scriptures indicate that the gospel, the Christian gospel is attested to and confirmed by the testimony of multiple eyewitnesses to the life, to the miracles, to the teaching, to the death and to the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I just want to, as we compare scripture with scripture, I want to take us to a number of passages that emphasize the importance of eyewitness testimony to the Apostles and to the early church. Let’s turn, for example, to the Gospel of Luke. The very beginning of Luke’s Gospel, remember Luke was very likely authored by Dr. Luke, Luke the physician who was a traveling companion to the Apostle Paul. Luke no doubt got much of his information from the Apostle Paul and other apostles as well. When he opens his Gospel with these words, as he writes under the guidance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Luke writes this, inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us.

Let me just pause there and point out that when Luke wrote this Gospel, whenever it happened to have been, and I believe that most if not all of the writings of the New Testament were written before 70 AD, but that’s another discussion for another time. In any case, Luke says many, at the point when he’s writing this Gospel, he says many have undertaken to write a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, the things that he records, many have sought to record at this point. Just as those who, notice verse two, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers or servants of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.

He wants to instill certainty, not just mere probability. Again, hearkening back to our morning instruction lesson this morning on apologetics, we don’t just prove that the God of the Bible probably exists, but we have reason to believe that it is certain. We have confidence because our faith is built upon and grounded in the very word of God. But the point here is that Luke has done his homework, and he has consulted with eyewitnesses, those who knew Jesus personally, those who had seen Jesus perform miracles. The things recorded in Luke’s Gospel were things that he had studied and that he had received in testimony by those who were eyewitnesses. Luke who also wrote the book of Acts begins the book of Acts similarly. I have you turn to Acts chapter one and let me read the first several verses of Acts chapter one.

He says at the beginning of Acts chapter one, verse one, in the first book, O Theophilus, that would be the Gospel of Luke, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when he was taken up after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. And then notice verse three of Acts chapter one, he, Jesus, the resurrected Jesus, he did what? He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God. The resurrected Jesus appeared to multiple eyewitnesses after his resurrection from the dead over a period of 40 days. And so again, Luke is appealing to the importance of eyewitnesses to the early apostolic church. Or consider the apostle Paul and what he writes in first Corinthians chapter 15.

Let me just read verses three through eight of first Corinthians chapter 15 where Paul reviews the basics of the Gospel and in this chapter where he defends the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, he says this beginning in verse three of first Corinthians 15, for I deliver to you, I passed on to you as of first importance what I also received that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. Notice that the scriptures are the ultimate authority. That he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the 12, that would be the other apostles, then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all of the apostles.

Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me, for I am the least of the apostles unworthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God. In other words, the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ after his resurrection appeared to more than 500 eyewitnesses. And when Paul wrote this, this epistle, many of those eyewitnesses, many of those 500 were still alive, though he says some have fallen asleep, some have died or perhaps been martyred or what have you. But again, we see the importance here of eyewitness testimony to the truths that are revealed to us in the gospel of Jesus Christ. The apostle John also emphasizes this in John chapter 20 verses 30 to 31. John chapter 20 verses 30 and 31, we read these words. It says, now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book.

In other words, they were eyewitnesses to the many other signs and wonders and miracles that Jesus performed, which confirmed and authenticated his identity as the Son of God and the promised Messiah. But he goes on to say, but these are written, these which he has recorded in his gospel, These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. Again, Jesus did many signs and wonders and miracles in the presence of his disciples. Again, eyewitness testimony. The final passage I want us to look at as I try to drive this point home is 1 John chapter 1 verses 1 to 3. Again, the apostle John writes this about the Lord Jesus. That which was from the beginning, there he is referring to Jesus, the Logos, the divine word who was in the beginning with the Father.

That which was from the beginning, which we, we apostles have what? Which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and have touched with our hands. That phrase we’ve touched with our hands indicates we’ve investigated this carefully concerning the word of life. That’s Jesus, for he is the one who gives us life eternal. He says the life was made manifest and we have seen it and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was made manifest to us. That which we have seen and heard, we proclaim also to you so that you too may have fellowship with us and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. So again, we see the importance and significance of eyewitness testimony, not only in our passage for this Lord’s Day evening, but many other passages of the New Testament which indicate that our faith is rooted not in fantasy, not in mythology, but is rooted in God’s providence and providentially ordered history and revealed and seen by multiple eyewitnesses.

But getting back to our passage for this evening, what were Peter and the other apostles eyewitnesses of? Well, he says, for we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the what? The power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. What were the apostles such as Peter eyewitnesses of? They were eyewitnesses of the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. They saw the power of Jesus in his miracles. They saw Jesus as he healed the sick, as he raised the dead, as he gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, speech to the dumb. They saw Jesus calm the storm, speak to the storm and automatically show his sovereign divine control over nature. They saw the Lord Jesus multiply the loaves and the fishes.

They saw the Lord Jesus cast out demons showing his power and sovereignty and conquest of the demonic realm and so forth. But then he also says that they were eyewitnesses of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now the word here in the Greek that is translated as coming in verse 16 is the Greek word perusin, which is from perusia. Now the term perusia in the Greek New Testament usually refers to the second coming or the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ. And obviously Peter and the apostles had not been eyewitnesses to the Lord’s second coming because that is an event of redemptive history that has not yet occurred. And yet a foretaste of that event has occurred. It occurred in the transfiguration of Christ as we will see. So what do we learn from these observations of what the apostles such as Peter were eyewitnesses of?

Well we see here first of all that the apostles clearly taught the doctrine of Christ’s second coming and by implication everything that is associated with that doctrine including the general resurrection of the dead, the final judgment of men and of angels, the ushering in of the new heavens and the new earth wherein righteousness dwells, heaven and hell and so forth. And the transfiguration event that Peter speaks to in this passage in which we read of earlier in the service this evening was a preview. It was an eschatological preview, a foretaste and an anticipation of our Lord’s glorious future advent. So again Peter says we did not follow cleverly devised myths but when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty and then immediately he goes on to speak of the transfiguration event.

He says in verse 17, for when he, Jesus, received honor and glory from God the Father and the voice was born to him by the majestic glory, this is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased, we ourselves heard this very voice born from heaven for we were with him on the holy mountain, the mountain where Jesus was supernaturally transfigured before them. You know the scene, you recall the scene. Jesus’ divinity was veiled behind his humanity but on the mount of transfiguration his divine nature, the divine luminosity if you will shone through his human nature and so they saw him in his glory and in that glory was a foretaste of the glory that will be experienced by believers at our Lord’s second coming, at the second advent. Dear listener, let me ask you, do you believe in this biblical historical Lord Jesus Christ, the one attested to by apostolic eyewitness testimony, the beloved Son of God the Father who bore divine testimony to his Son on the mount of transfiguration?

Is your Jesus the real Jesus of scripture and history or is your Jesus a false Jesus of heresy and mythology and are you ready for his parousia, his second coming? You know there are some skeptical scholars out there who try to drive a wedge between what they call the Jesus of history and the Christ of faith because studying the scriptures from a rationalistic and naturalistic world view, an enlightenment world view, they go to the Bible assuming that miracles are, that we live in a closed universe and that miracles are impossible and so they have to explain away the miracles that are ascribed to the Lord Jesus and so they would say well the miracle stories they were added by the church later on as the church turned the Jesus of history into the Christ of faith but friends that is a false dichotomy, that is a false view, that is a reading into the scriptures something that isn’t there.

The scriptures intend for us to understand that Jesus of Nazareth was indeed a unique person, a supernatural person, the God man who performed literal miracles. We do not live in a closed universe, a naturalistic universe where there is no God or at least where God does not intervene in redemption and grace. No, we live in a universe that is controlled by God, governed by God. Yes there are what we call natural laws that seem to operate but those natural laws are simply God’s ordinary way of running things. That’s God’s ordinary providence and by the way God is just as much involved in the rising and setting of the sun every day and in natural processes as he is in supernatural events such as the resurrection of Jesus and in this case the transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The point here is that the Jesus of history is the Christ of faith. Jesus is the supernatural divine son of God incarnate, the word made flesh, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, miracle working, the miracle working son of God and Messiah who died on the cross as an atoning sacrifice for sin and who physically and bodily rose from the dead, appearing to multiple eyewitnesses and who ascended in the presence of his apostles to the Father’s right hand and who will return one day in glory for all to see. This is the real Jesus. The real Jesus of history is the Jesus of the Bible and that is the only Jesus who can save you from your sins. The rationalistic Jesus of the higher critics and liberal theology cannot save you for that Jesus is a false Jesus.

That Jesus is actually the mythological Jesus. The real Jesus is the Jesus of the word, the Jesus revealed in scripture and you can trust in him, you can rest in him for he is real and praise God he is alive, risen from the dead, reigning at the Father’s right hand, interceding for you and for me dear brother and sister in Christ. And so we have this apostolic eyewitness testimony but this leads me to the final point I want to make here. We see here in verses 17 through 18 where Peter recounts the miraculous event of the transfiguration. We see here confirmation of Peter’s apostolic eyewitness testimony. In the transfiguration we have confirmation of Peter’s apostolic eyewitness testimony. For Peter saw Jesus in his transfigured state along with James and John. It’s interesting isn’t it that Jesus transfigured himself on the holy mountain of transfiguration not just privately to Peter but there were three witnesses.

The scriptures tell us that every fact is established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. Well we had three witnesses to the transfiguration miracle. We had Peter, James, and John. And here is what Peter says as he recounts that event. He says in verse 17, for when he, Jesus, received honor and glory from God the Father and the voice was born to him by the majestic glory. Now think about it. Peter, James, and John, what do they hear on the mount of transfiguration? They hear God the Father speaking audibly. Can you think of another mountain in the scriptures where God speaks audibly to his people? Think of Mount Sinai, right? God spoke all these words. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the house of slavery and so forth. Well God the Father speaks his authoritative word and here on the mount of transfiguration he bears testimony to his son.

He says this is my beloved son. Now there were a couple other people on the holy mountain with Jesus. Do you remember? Who else was with Jesus on the mount of transfiguration? There was Moses and Elijah. Moses representing the law, the Torah. Elijah representing the prophets. But notice the Father says this is my beloved son. Moses is not the divine son of God. Elijah is not the divine son of God. This one, Jesus, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. And by the way observe one of the things we learn here in verse 17 is that Jesus Christ is distinguished from God the Father. Well all three persons of the Trinity share fully in the one divine essence, the one divine substance or being. There is a distinction within the Godhead between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

And you may roll your eyes and say, well pastor we know that. We’re well catechized orthodox Presbyterians and it’s good that you know that. But there are some folks out there who claim to be Christian who even believe that Jesus is God who would deny that distinction between the Father and the Son. There are Unitarian modalist sects such as the Jesus only Pentecostals called United Pentecostals who teach that sometimes God shows up as the Father, other times as the Son Jesus, and other times as the Spirit. But how can that theology be correct if the Father is speaking of and speaking to his Son as he does clearly in this passage? The same Bible that affirms the full deity of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ also affirms that there are distinctions within the one Godhead including the distinction between God the Father and Jesus Christ the Son.

So if you’re ever in a conversation with a Jesus only Pentecostal or some other Unitarian this is a good passage to take them to and to discuss with them. Notice also that Christ is declared by God the Father to be the beloved Son of God in whom the Father is well pleased and that’s so significant. Why does the Father say that of his Son? He identifies and bears testimony to his Son but then he says of his Son this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Oh dear ones it is vital to understand that God will only be well pleased with us sinners if we are united by his grace through faith to his beloved Son Jesus Christ our Lord in whom he is well pleased. If you are in Christ God is well pleased with you not because you’re sinless not because you’re perfect not because you’re holy sanctified but because you are in the Son Jesus and he sees you in Christ and it is in Christ that he is it is in Christ that he is well pleased it is in Christ that you are beloved.

It is only in and through this beloved one that we sinners are redeemed from our sins and made right with our maker. Again dear listener are you in the Father’s beloved Son? Have you trusted him as your very own Savior from sin? So as we close our time in the word this evening let us behold the Apostles testimony as it is recorded in verse 18 where he continues recounting the transfiguration Peter goes on to say we ourselves we in this case are the Apostles Peter as well as James and John we ourselves heard this very voice born from heaven for we were with him on the holy mountain. Not only were Peter and his apostolic companions on the mount of transfiguration James and John not only were they eyewitnesses to the events that took place on the mount of transfiguration they were also ear witnesses they saw him with their eyes they heard with their ears.

Oh praise God for the glory of our Savior which was manifested on that holy mount and praise God for the apostolic eyewitness testimony to this event that the Holy Spirit caused to be preserved for us in this passage of God’s word. This is so faith strengthening and faith confirming. But as we will learn in future weeks when we consider the rest of this passage as immensely glorious as the event of our Lord’s transfiguration was and as faith strengthening as the Apostles eyewitness testimony to this event is let us remember beloved that our faith is built on the truth of God’s word that word which we would do well to pay close attention to as to a light shining in a dark place and so Peter goes on to write at the end of this passage and we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts knowing this first of all that no prophecy of scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation for no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

We have in the word of God the very speech of God. Let us hear the word. Let us embrace it by faith. Let us build our lives and our faith and our testimony upon it. Amen. Let us pray. Our gracious Lord and Father in heaven how we thank you and praise you that our faith in Jesus is not a blind faith. It is not an irrational faith. It is not a faith that is contrary to reason. We thank you Lord that you have given us an historical faith a faith that is grounded and rooted in your mighty works of salvation in history. Lord we pray that you would equip us to share this good news with others and to bear faithful testimony to the apostles eye witness testimony as recorded in your inerrant infallible word.

Be with us now Lord help us to take these truths to heart strengthen and deepen our faith and equip us to be followers of Jesus faithfully in the week ahead. We pray these things in Jesus name and all of God’s people said amen. As we close our time tonight let’s rise and we’ll sing together number 285 hail thou once despised Jesus.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

January 26, 2025