Don't Be Deceived! Series

2 Peter 2 – “Don’t Be Deceived!”

Thesis: Peter warns us in chapter two that we need to make sure that we do not become deceived by the false teachers that are out there claiming to represent God when they don’t even have a clue. He also reminds us to learn the lessons from the past about the consequences of sin’s deception.

Note: I do not show this clip to discredit those individuals who are genuine and are sent by God to go around the world and hold revival meetings.

Illustration: From the Movie clip from “Leap of Faith”

Clip: The one were they put their show of deception on for the first time. He tells them stories of lies to deceive the people in giving him more money. His whole plan is to get the people hyped so as to buy into his lies literally. The whole scene shows that a false prophet can put on a show saying the right things but in essence delivering a message of lies and degrading the Gospel of truth.

The movie is about a preacher named Nightingale who is a con man out to take a small town for everything they got as he puts on a show of deception. He is not a man of God but claims he is as he preaches with flair. He fakes miracles’, words of knowledge and other signs from God. He uses and misuses the people of this small town trying to drain them dry of their money. But an amazing thing happens God actually shows up and does a miracle for a young boy. This rocks the fake prophet and he gives up his life of deception and as he is leaving the world of deception God does another miracle by sending the needed rain this farm community needs to prevent total financial devastation. He genuinely thanks Jesus for the rain.

You see this false prophet decided to give up his life of deception and conning because when deception decides to yield to truth it changes people’s lives and real miracles happen. But if this person would have decided to believe the lies it would have cost him his life for eternity.

Scripture Text: 2 Peter 2:1-22

1But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. 2Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. 3In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.

4For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment; 5if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; 6if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; 7and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men 8(for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)—9if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment. 10This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority.

Bold and arrogant, these men are not afraid to slander celestial beings; 11yet even angels, although they are stronger and more powerful, do not bring slanderous accusations against such beings in the presence of the Lord. 12But these men blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like brute beasts, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like beasts they too will perish.

13They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you. 14With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed—an accursed brood! 15They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness. 16But he was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey—a beast without speech—who spoke with a man’s voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.

17These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. 18For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. 19They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him. 20If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. 21It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. 22Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.”