A little note about the sermon title: I had a little boy say outloud "Hell In A Handbasket". His mom said sternly: "Where did you hear such a thing?" "I was just reading the sermon title mommy". Maybe I should have gone with my alternate title: H. E. double toothpicks.
An old sourdough [that’s what we call old Alaskans who have toughed it out – for you all outside Alaska] was on his deathbed and he knew his time was near. So he called over his faithful wife, “Erma…come along side will ya…I got to get your help before I go.” Erma leaned closely over the old sourdough. “Erma, will go to the fireplace an, an pull out the third stone fro the top…an reach in there, way back…” Erma did as she was told and there she found a mason jar stuffed with cash. “Bring ‘er over here Erma and I’ll tell ya what yer gonna do with it. See, I’m taking it to heaven with me. So here’s what I want you to do: take this old mason jar and put it up in the rafters and when my time comes, I’ll grab it on my way up.” Old Erma fulfilled her husbands last request and place the mason jar on a ledge up in the rafters. Well, the old sourdough was right and his time came quickly. The funeral went very well and Erma was able to see many long lost friends. After three days she realized that she thought to herself, “I wonder what happened to the old mason jar.” So she went up to the rafters and there sat the old mason jar just as she had left it. She looked inside and all the cash was still there. “Oh my”, she said out loud, “I new I shoulda place the jar in the basement”.
As we look at our Scripture today…this is great stuff. There is so much here that is pertinent for our lives today. I have loved going through 1 & 2 Peter, haven’t you – the Apostle Peter is right on the money about how life works, isn’t he?
What Peter is dealing with in this chapter is folks who only believe in beautiful things.
They do not believe in a last judgment.
They do not believe in demonic beings.
They certainly don’t believe in hell.
Today, these people might, have a “random acts of kindness bumper sticker” on their car; believe that evil is a social concept, and education can overcome any evil; might tell you that a positive attitude is everything; might tell you that, if you love Jesus, all you problems will go away; might tell you that if there is a hell the only people in Hell are, Hitler, Stalin, and their ex husband or ex wife; and they might tell you that since God is love, we are all bound for heaven…
A Sunday School teacher was testing the children in her Sunday school class one morning, to see if they understood the concept of getting to heaven.
"If I sold my house and my car, had a big garage sale and gave all my money to the church, would that get me into Heaven?"
"NO!" the children answered.
"If I cleaned the church every day, mowed the yard, and kept everything neat and tidy, would that get me into Heaven?"
Again, the answer was, "NO!"
She was just getting going….
"Well, then, if I was kind to animals and gave candy to all the children, and loved my husband, would that get me into Heaven?"
Again, they all answered, "NO!"
She was just bursting with pride for them.
Well, I continued, "then how can I get into Heaven?"
A five-year-old boy shouted out, "YOU GOTTA BE DEAD."
Researchers who ask people about heaven and hell
get the same conclusion over and over - a majority of people believe in heaven. Hardly anyone believes in hell.
Why is that? I think there are four primary reasons:
1. People do not understand righteousness.
2. People do not see that we live in a spiritual world.
3. People can’t imagine that they personally could go to hell.
And the most common reason
4. They inadvertently are justifying sin in their life.
They are living in a clouded spiritual reality.
Peter tells us today what reality is. As always, it would be great if you keep you bible open, we are going to refer to it a lot.
Right up front there in the first verse Peter stops us cold."There were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you." Not that there may be, or that it is conceivably possible, but that there are – Peter uses the future tense to indicate both now and in the future. We should expect false teacher to arise.
We should expect them to arise within our own church. Here in 2 Peter, they were most likely members of the church itself. He says that Israel had them, why should we expect to be spared?
The people who Peter sees as false teachers are: Unbelievers who are pretty much pretending to be Christians, or since they have not made a commitment to Jesus, they may see themselves as Christian, because they have their own personal definition of what is Christianbut it falls short of a commitment to Christ.The false teachers are also Christians who have been lured by sin and are blind to spiritual things. We saw this in chapter 1, verse 9. We can forget that we are cleansed from sin
and forget the harm it did to us, and go back to it.
Note: Peter is not teaching anywhere in this chapter that one can lose their salvation. Once we come to the Lord, we are with him. God grants us salvation through grace, not through how good we are – so our sin will not cause us to lose our salvation. Though it will cause spiritual blindness, and make our lives miserable.
Peter is talking about final judgment before God – which we all will face. As you may recall, the bible speaks of two judgments:
First, for salvation, Christians through the person of Jesus Christ have faced the first; Second, for how we have acted in life. We will face God in judgment for how we have acted in life.
So, here is the situation: there are people who are teaching others that there will be no final judgment; And if there is not final judgment, then there is no place like hell; And so, how we act in this life, has little cnsequence…ironically they teach there will be no final judgment, but their teaching that there is no final judgment, is bringing judgment upon them. (I find that quite funny).
These people see Christianity as a doctrine, to Peter is not a doctrine but a way of life. Peter sees these people as bringing shame upon us as a church, because they embrace sin in their lives, instead of trying to remove it.
I received a wacky publication some time ago, I get so much junk mail here at the church. Anyway, this publication was about “Christians” celebrating their sexual freedom. It was story after story of people who had found their true sexual identity. Finding their true sexual identity is a euphamism for commiting adultery.
In each story the person left their spouse, to be with their new found fulfillment – and this was to be celebrated. God wanted this for their lives. I couldn’t help but notice, that the abandoned spouses were never consulted about the happiness and freedom that had been found.
False teachers leaving a path a destruction behind them.
The worst and most appalling was a story about a man who’s wife was in the final stages of cancer, slowly dying at home – and he was out discovering his new sexual freedom.
So is this a good thing that we should celebrate the abandonment of a woman in her final stages of cancer? Do you not think this man will be held accountable for his actions?
This is the kind of stuff they were teaching as Christian in Peter’s day.
This in the kind of stuff being taught as Christian in our day.
Verse 9 the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment. We see in this section from 4-9, Peter showing us that God has judged sin in the past
So why wouldn’t he judge sin in the future? Let’s take a look at verse 4, I want to spend a few minutes on this verse 4, "for if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment;"
we see a similar verse in Jude 6."And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day."
So what we have are angels, who for some unnamed reason, God has placed in detention until the final day of judgment. For us as Americans when we consider Hell, we are not really sure what to think, are we? Hollywood gives us devils in red suits, jokes like the one at the beginging of the sermon treat hell like, earth with fire – and friends all around.
I’ll just say a few words about hell. There are three distinct places away from God, with one being final. Here in verse 4 the word translated hell is tartarus,which pretty much means the greatest depths. Another more common name in the abyss. So first there is some kind of holding place that God has placed some of the evil angels, known as demons. In Rev 20 we see Satan being placed here for a time also.
Then we have a Hebrew concept of the “place of the dead”. We see an example of this when Jesus tells a parable of Lazarus the beggar in Luke 16. The righteous are on one side, the unrighteous on the other.
The word used there is hades. This is not the Greek concept of hades – very different. It is a place where people wait for the final judgment. The final judgment these false teacher are denying will happen.
Jesus preached to those in hades. 1Pet. 3:18" For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, 19 through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison 20 who disobeyed long ago"
So the righteous have been released, but the unrighteous remain. This is not the concept of purgatory – that’s a ski resort in Colorado. This is a Hebrew concept of a place of waiting.
Then there is the Lake of fire. Rev. 20:14 "Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. 15 If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire."
The lake of fire is what we would, in American culture call hell. Notice that hades is thrown into hell.
Define hell. Pretty difficult to paint some sort of picture. But you know in our world we have God around us everywhere – even in the worst of times. Hell is a place where God is not present.
Now we as humans live within the dimension of time – God is not bound by time. God experiences time all at once. He exists in all time at the same time. Do we step outside of time when we die? Perhaps.
Eternity might be eternity – because there is no time.
Ok. Now understand Peter, and those he is writing to know about the abyss, hades, and the lake of fire, they slide right along with what he is saying.
Peter then takes the rest of theses verses through verse 9, paralleling OT judgment with future judgment Noah and the flood prefigures final judgment. Lot and the destruction of Sodom & Gamorrah prefigures final judgment. Underneath it all he throws this question at us:If the wicked go unpunished, this raises the problem of justice of God. If the only people who are ever to be held accountable are Hitler and the current two infamous others, then God has no sense of justice at all.
Peter warns us that false teachers will come among us and here he tells us some things to watch for: First back in verse 3, and the end of 14 they are greedy. In other words they are out to make a buck off the Gospel. All over the country there are churches you can buy – literally.
You buy the building and get the congregation, the whole shebang.
When I lived in Oklahoma there were three churches for salein the town I was in like this at one time. You buy the thing, the seller tells you how things work, your in business.
Second: they have no concept of a spiritual world. Here these are supposed to be teachers, and they don’t understand spiritual things.
Verse 10 "they follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature". They don’t follow the Holy Spirit, they follow their human nature
in verses 11-12 Peter talks about how they claim great authority cursing spiritual beings, something angels would not even attempt to do.
Dr. Loder told us this story, he was a wonderful professor at Princeton Thological Seminary, A spiritual giant if there ever was one. There was a man had quite the astounding experience, and went from church to church in Princeton asking pastor after pastor to help explain what had happened to him. He didn’t go to every church, but at the several that he did go to, each of the pastors shrugged their shoulders and said, “I’ve never heard of anything like that, I can’t help you." This man heard about Dr. Loder and went to him and after a very short explaination Dr. Loder said, “Oh, you have experienced the presence of the Holy Spirit.” The man was thrilled, of course Loder was correct, it was easy to see. On his way out the man asked, “How come the pastors he went to didn’t know it was the Holy Spirit?” To which Dr. Loder replied, “I think the answer is obvious, don’t you?”
Third; its all about sex. 14 "With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable;" Remember Peter isn’t about theory – that’s Paul’s area. Peter is a man of action. Peter knows that the false teacher actions come first, then their theology follows. We all sin and we try to overcome. But these men, they sinned with gusto. Self indulgence in daylight – no shame, maybe even no idea that they could be sinning. What Peter is saying is that they act no different – morally – than the pagans.
13 "They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you."
Orignially, holy communion was celebrated as a whole meal – called agape feasts. Apparently these men are getting blasted at communion and carrying on. Can you imagine that? And then making sexual advances – during communion. "Hey baby, you wanna come over to my place..." Amazing!
Peter says: look at the way they act, their wild theology will follow. Why? A justification for sin. They want to be reckless sexually, so they make up a justification, and believe it so whole heartedly that they began to teach it.
Has it stuck you as strange that the apostle Peter who has been talking about dealing with life’s difficult circumstances so far is suddenly talking about false teachers? Here’s why: "2 Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute." We are valurable to their teaching, which will ruin our lives. In verse 14 he says they will seduce the unstable. When we have difficult circumstances swirling around you, I don’t care who you are – life becomes unstable. And we become open to ideas, that once upon a time would have struck us as a place we would never go.
Over the years I have see people follow all kinds of ignorant teachers;
And almost without exception – it is because they do know Scripture and they do not understand their Scripture. I can’t tell you how many times I have found good Christian people desperate for a solution turn to Buddhist Rituals, turn to the occultic witches (ok, our polite society calls them shamman or psychics - but they are witches just the same)
turn to all kinds of pagan sources, hoping for an answer. “I just want to have all the bases covered.” or, "I figured in couldn’t hurt.” Their ignorance is costing them dearly in their spiritual life.
Peter puts this in about false teacher because when life is hard, we want to hear wonderful things, that everything is going to be ok. That God will bless us with material things and perfect health...and if we do not know God’s word we are very susceptible.
Do you know that over 60% of converts to cults in America are church going Christians? That means that at least this half of the congregation, is at risk. Aren’t you happy you sat on this side of the church today.
So what do we do?First, realize we are spiritual beings living in a spiritual world. That there are realities that you may have not experienced first hand, but even so, they are complex and very real. And within that spiritual reality, when you give your life over to Jesus Christ, God will use even the bad times to build you up, and bring you closer to him. Second, understand, as we have talked about in this sermon series, bad things will happen to you, but that doesn’t mean that God isn’t with you – in fact it means that he I with you ever stronger. Third be wise. People who give you candy coated spiritual answers that downplay the authority of Scripture are – and I will be blunt, liars, who are after the cash in your pocket, your marriage, whatever they can take for their pleasure. And I’m not saying that last one just because I lived in New Jersey for four long years. (Note to those in the lower 48 - Alaskans find just saying the name New Jersey funny) Finally, take the apostle Peter’s advice and look for the signs of a false teacher: They are greedy; They don’t believe I a final judgment; They are spiritually ignorant; They morally are no different than people who are not Christians - How they live their lives, you couldn’t tell a difference from anyone else.
Let us keep our eyes open, our hearts on the Word, and pray for the mercy of our Lord upon us. Amen.
