Senseless Animals

If you have your Bibles, please take them and find 2 Peter 2:10. This morning, I want to give somewhat of a disclaimer as I begin.

 

Have you ever taken some medicine that didn’t taste good?  We probably all have.  Why did you take that medicine?  Even though it didn’t, take good, it was good for you. 

 

That is a good way to look at today’s message.  It probably isn’t going to taste that good, but it is good for us.  We continue this morning looking at and talking about the false teachers of 2 Peter, and I have entitled my message, “Senseless Animals.”

 

From today’s text, I want to show you that these false teachers, who Peter calls natural brute beasts or senseless animals, were unruly in their attitudes, unrighteous in their actions, and untruthful in their aim.

 

 

11. 2 Peter’s False Teachers were unruly in their attitude, 2 Peter 2:10-11.

10 and especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority. They are presumptuous, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries, 11 whereas angels, who are greater in power and might, do not bring a reviling accusation against them before the Lord. 

 

In our English translations, verse 10 is a continuation of verse 9 even through in the language of the NT, the end of verse 9 is the end of a sentence.  Peter is continuing to describe the godless of verse 9.

 

Remember from last week.  We can count on God to deliver the godly and destroy the godless, and Peter considered these false teachers to be godless.  They were church members, but they had denied the Lord. 

 

In the first two verses of today’s text, we see the false teachers’ unruly attitude manifest in three ways.  First, they despised authority.  Specially, they denied the authority of their local church.

 

Did you know that inherent in the idea of local church membership is the local church’s authority in your life?  That is exactly why Jesus told His followers in Matthew 18 that if a church member continues to live in public, egregious, and unrepentant sin, the local church can remove him or her from membership.

 

This local church challenged the teaching and the behavior of these false teachers, and they didn’t like it.  They despised authority.

 

Second, they were presumptuous and self-willed.  They had no inhibitions, and they only wanted to please self.  They weren’t selfless but selfish. 

 

Third, they were loud and boisterous.   They had the audacity to revile or to blaspheme or to speak evil of angels.  This last part of 2:10 and then leading into 2:11 is somewhat mysterious. 

 

What angels is Peter talking about?  We don’t exactly know.  What we do know is that speaking evil of the angels was very audacious because the angels didn’t even speak evil of the false teachers when they certainly deserved it and the angels had the right to do it.

 

 

17. 2 Peter’s False Teachers were unrighteous in their actions, 2 Peter 2:12-17.

12 But these, like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand, and will utterly perish in their own corruption, 13 and will receive the wages of unrighteousness, as those who count it pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are spots and blemishes, carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you, 14 having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls. They have a heart trained in covetous practices, and are accursed children. 15 They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; 16 but he was rebuked for his iniquity: a dumb donkey speaking with a man’s voice restrained the madness of the prophet.  17 These are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.

 

The beginning of 2:12 says these false teachers were like natural brute beasts or senseless animals.  They were like animals that could not be tamed.  They were born solely for the purpose of capturing and killing.

 

What actions of theirs was unrighteous and how do we know?  We know their actions were unrighteous because the Bible tells us so.  That was true of their actions, and it is true of our actions.

 

First, they spoke evil.  Specifically, spoke evil when they had no knowledge.  They were speaking ignorantly. 

 

James 4:11, 11 Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.

 

Second, they caroused in the daytime.  Your translation may say, “reveled” in the daytime.  “Reveling” was normally thought of as a nighttime activity.  This was sexual immorality. 

 

Something else that is interesting about this word.  It literally means softness or effeminate.  It appears that these false teachers were not only reveling in public heterosexual activity but also public homosexual activity.

 

Furthermore, it seems they were reveling in order to show off in front of other church members. Verse 13 says they “feast with you.”  Some believe their reveling was associated with the early church’s fellowship meal that happened as a part of the Lord’s Supper.

 

Luke 21:34, “But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly.

 

Third, had eyes full of adultery.  Peter says the false teachers have eyes full of adultery or literally eyes full of the adulteress.  This means that every woman they saw was one they visualized having sex with.  They never ceased from sinning.

 

Matthew 5:27-30, 27 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.

 

 

Fourth, they were deceptive and seductive.  Peter says they “entice unstable souls.” 

 

To entice means to catch with bait.  They lured these unstable souls, who were the new converts.  They were the young Christians.  The false teachers were taking advantage of the easily impressionable through deception.

 

1 Peter 2:1, Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking,

 

Fifth, they were guilty of coveting.  These false teachers had a heart “trained” in coveting.  The word for “trained” is where we get our English word “gymnasium.”  It literally means to exercise or to practice.  These false teachers practiced their greediness. 

 

Exodus 20:17, 17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”

 

In 2:15, Peter said the false teachers had forsaken the right way and gone astray.  What does this verse imply?  There is a right way and a wrong way.  Peter says there is a way that is right, and there is a way that is wrong. 

 

Peter believed in moral absolutes.  God believes in moral absolutes.

 

In verses 16-17, Peter compared the false teachers with Balaam in the OT.  He was guilty of greed and not listening to God. 

 

Peter also said they were like wells without water and clouds driven away by the storm.  Peter basically said they were promised a lot and delivered a little. 

 

 

• 2 Peter’s False Teachers were untruthful in their aim, 2 Peter 2:18-22.

18 For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error. 19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage. 20 For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. 21 For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. 22 But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: “A dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.”

These false teachers spoke with great, swelling words, but they didn’t deliver.  They promised satisfaction but delivered emptiness.

 

Second, they promised pleasure but delivered sin.  They delivered lives lived in error, the wrong.

 

Third, they promised freedom and liberty and delivered slavery and bondage.  They were enslaved to the very master from which they promised freedom.

 

Consequently, these false teachers will spend an eternity separated from Christ.  See verses 12, 14, 17, and following.

 

Verse 21 says they knew the holy commandment or the entire Christian Message, the Gospel, but they turn away.  These false teachers aren’t an example of losing their salvation.  These false teachers are examples of giving one impression for others in public and never having been born again from within by the Holy Spirit.

 

They, like dogs, return to their vomit.  They keep doing what they always have done, and like a pig, they love they mud.  That’s who they are.

 

 

Conclusion

I leave you this morning with three applications.  First, those who are truly saved will persevere.  Those who aren’t won’t.  They false teachers weren’t, and they didn’t.

 

Second, no church is exempt or immune from false teachers.  Everything that is said from this pulpit and our other teaching settings must be consistent with the Bible.

 

Finally, I want to warn you of some today’s false teachers.  I could speak about the false teachers of Mormonism or Jehovah’s Witness, but I’m not.  I could speak about the false teachers of Islam or Buddhism, but I’m not.

 

I want to speak to you about the false teachers of the LGBTQ Agenda, Black Lives Matter, and White Nationalism. 

 

First, homosexuality is not the unforgivable sin, homosexuals should not be treated as second class citizens, and are welcome to attend EBC at any time to hear the gospel.

 

However, love is not love.  Homosexuality is not God’s design for relationships or to populate the earth, and the false teachers of this agenda don’t want to and never have simply wanted to normalize this behavior.  They will demand the celebration of this behavior by everyone. 

 

Second, I want to warn you about the false teachers of the Black Lives Matter Organization.  To be clear, black lives do matter.  Every black live matters to God and should to us because every life matters to God and should to us.

 

Racism is real.  It is an evil reality of our country and our world.  It was an evil beginning to our Southern Baptist Convention.  If you think racism doesn’t still exist today, you are naïve at best and a liar at worst. 

 

At our previous, my family and I experienced racists first hand, and in some part, I stand here today as your pastor because of their evil.  However, the false teachers of the BLM Organization are anti-bible and anti-gospel.

 

Finally, I want to warn you about the false teachers of White Nationalism.  To be clear, I am not ashamed of being white, and I am proud to be an American. 

 

I will always put my hand over my heart when I say the pledge to the American Flag, and not only will I stand for the National Anthem, I’ll do more than many of you.  I will sing it in public. 

 

However, my white skin is not superior, and no one’s non-white skin is inferior, and God’s favorite country is Israel and not the USA even though I think the USA is the greatest country in the world having traveled to 5 continents and spent time in 15 plus countries.

 

I know that many of you think the same.  However, if your allegiance is to this flag before it is to this flag, we have a problem.