SERMON OUTLINE:
(1). A Corrupt Doctrine.
(2). A Corrupt Character.
(3). A Corrupt Experience
SERMON BODY:
Reading: 2 Peter chapter 2 verses 4-10
Ill:
Difference Between Men and Women:
• A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband.
• A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.
• A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend.
• A successful woman is one who can find such a man.
• To be happy with a man you must understand him a lot & love him a little.
• To be happy with a woman you must love her a lot & not try to understand her at all.
• Any married man should forget his mistakes;
• After all, there's no use in two people remembering the same thing.
• Men wake up as good-looking as they went to bed.
• Women somehow deteriorate during the night.
• A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn't.
• A man marries a woman expecting that she won't change & she does.
• A woman has the last word in any argument.
• Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument.
• There are 2 times when a man doesn't understand a woman ;
• Before marriage & after marriage.
• TRANSITION: Men and women are very different;
• In many ways opposites to each other.
• Although, scientists decoding the human genome;
• Have discovered that just 78 genes separate men from women,
• So maybe we are not as different as we might think!
• The topic I have been asked to speak on tonight is ‘ungodliness’
• And ungodliness is simply the opposite of godliness.
(1). The Context (vs 1-3).
• The context for the verses you have given me to speak on;
• Is false prophets and false teachers.
• Look at verse 1:
“But 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. 2 Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. 3 In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories.”
Ill:
• As a family we have enjoyed several holidays in Turkey,
• And in the town called Kalkan where we have stayed.
• If you go into the town centre and along the sea front shops,
• You will come across a Jewellers shop,
• In the window of that shop is a great big sign that says; ‘Genuine Fakes’.
• TRANSITION: The apostle Peter warned his readers about religious fakes;
• False teachers who are like those fake watches;
• On the outside they look like a genuine Rolex or a Versace;
• But when you removed the cover you discover on the inside they are fake.
• They probably contain cheap imitation parts.
The apostle Peter warns his readers then and now about false teachers:
• He summarises the methods of false teachers:
• Four things that reveal them.
• FIRST: They appear to be regular members of the Church.
• i.e. At first they are hard to spot because they are like chameleons, blending in.
• e.g. Jesus called them “Wolves in sheep’s clothing” (Matthew chapter 24 verses 4-5)
• SECOND: They work secretly under the cover of hypocrisy.
• i.e. they pretend to be what they are not.
• e.g. Jesus called the Pharisees “White washed tombs” (Matthew chapter 23 verse 27)
• THIRD: They bring in their false teaching alongside the true teaching;
• And then replace the truth with lies.
• i.e. like yeast that is mixed into a large amount of flour;
• It will not take long for the yeast to work its way through all the dough.
• FOURTH: Their lives deny what their lips teach.
• Their false doctrine will always lead to false living.
• e.g. a good tree produces good fruit and a rotten tree produces bad fruit.
• (Luke chapter 6 verse 43)
• Because these false teachers were corrupt in their doctrine;
• That then evidenced itself by the corruption in their lives!
ill:
• If you take a pig from his mud-wallow in the farm yard,
• Wash him, sprinkle on a little perfume,
• Tie a pink bow about his neck, and let him loose,
• He will quickly go back to wallowing in the mud.
• Because although you've changed his looks, you've not altered his nature.
• You have changed his appearance but not his nature!
• So he continues to do what comes naturally.
• These false teachers cannot consistently practice godliness;
• Because their nature is ungodly,
• Therefore there rottenness on the inside will sooner or later be evidenced on the outside.
(2). The Outcome (vs 4-8).
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment; 5 if 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; 6 if 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; 7 and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless 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)
• The apostle Peter informs us that the outcome for false-teachers is destruction,
• By false-teachers I am referring to unconverted deceptive individuals.
• In this section the apostle Peter uses some Old Testament incidents;
• To illustrate the lifestyles and the outcome of these false prophets.
We have three negative events of judgement:
• Wicked example #1: The fallen angels (vs 4).
• (Possibly referring to Genesis chapter 6 verses 1-4)
• Wicked example #2: The ancient world (vs 5),
• (Genesis chapter 6-9)
• Wicked example #3: Sodom and Gomorrah (vs 6-8);
• (Genesis chapter 19)
Two positive events of rescue:
• Saving example #1: Noah described as “a preacher of righteousness”.
• (Genesis chapter 6-9)
• Saving example #2: Lot described as “a righteous man”.
• (Genesis chapter 19)
• Well, sorry to disappoint you if you were hoping to get these stories explained!
• I would need another sessions to do each of them justice!
• And I don’t want us to get bogged down in the detail.
Note: These three negative stories are all making two main points:
• God will judge sin and punish sinners.
• God is able to deliver and preserve his people.
FIRST: GOD WILL JUDGE SIN AND PUNISH SINNERS.
• God’s wrath was poured out on:
• The fallen angels, the ancient world and Sodom and Gomorrah;
• And one thing God is and that is consistent!
• And he will deal justly and fairly with the people of his world.
Question: What do we mean by ‘God’s Wrath’?
Answer:
• Wrath is defined as “the emotional response to perceived wrong and injustice,”
• Often translated as “anger,” “indignation,” “vexation,” or “irritation.”
Ill:
• When we use the word wrath we tend to think of uncontrolled anger.
• i.e. we get so angry that we just want to kick the cat (only joking!)
• We want to vent our wrath, our anger, our rage;
• But so often we can vent it against the wrong person!
• i.e. Someone upsets us at work and we go home and take our anger out on the family!
• TRANSITION: While that may be human wrath,
• It is far from the truth about God’s wrath.
• Wrath is one of God’s attributes, it is one of his characteristics;
• Just as love is an attribute, a characteristic of God,
• So is wrath!
Now both humans and God express wrath.
• But there is vast difference between the wrath of God and the wrath of man.
• God’s wrath is holy and always justified;
• Man’s wrath is rarely holy and rarely justified.
• Please don’t forget that distinction:
• God’s wrath is holy and always justified;
• To summarise: ‘What do we mean by God’s wrath’:
• “The emotional response of a holy God to sinfulness and injustice,”
Note:
• Never forget!
• God’s Wrath can be satisfied in Christ.
• The holiness and the love and the justice of God met at the cross.
• Romans chapter 5 verse 9 puts it this way:
“Since we have now been justified by His blood,
how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through Him!”
• Because of the death, the sacrifice, the offering of Jesus Christ,
• God can rightly call sinful people justified.
• As the old saying goes; “Just as if we had not sinned”
• God has done what we could not do,
• And he has done what we didn’t deserve.
• He can make ungodly people godly!
SECOND: GOD IS ABLE TO DELIVER AND PRESERVE HIS PEOPLE.
• Noah and his family were saved;
• As was Lot!
Remember that both were described as being ‘righteous’.
• Verse 5: Noah is described as “a preacher of righteousness”.
• Verse 7: Lot is described as “a righteous man”.
• If you know their stories in the book of Genesis;
• You probably have no problem with Noah being linked to “righteousness”.
• But you may struggle with Lot being described as “a righteous man”.
Ill:
• Lot chose to live in the wicked city of Sodom
• (Genesis chapter 13 verses 12-13).
• Lot offered his two virgin daughters to an angry mob of homosexuals,
• And gave them permission to do whatever they liked to them!
• (Genesis chapter 19 verses 5-8).
• Lot later on became drunk and impregnated his daughters,
• Albeit unknowingly.
• (Genesis chapter 19 verse 30-36).
• On first impressions Lot was anything but “righteous”
• And yet the apostle Peter uses the term “righteous”
• Not once but three times in verses 7-8 to describe this Old Testament figure.
We need to understand Peter’s statements about Lot’s righteousness in its proper context:
• Righteous does not mean perfect;
• Remember the Bible often shows the foolishness and sinful actions of its heroes;
• As well as their good points.
• Both Noah and Lot messed up big time;
• But they were also islands of righteousness surrounded by a sea of iniquity.
Ill:
• Lot was surrounded by extremely “wicked,” and “lawless” citizens of Sodom,
• He himself tried to live a righteous life in that desperate place.
• Lot separated himself from the unlawfulness of the people of Sodom;
• And verse 8 says he was even tormented;
• “Day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds”
This was the distinction the apostle Peter made:
• Not that Lot was perfect,
• But that he tried to live clean even though he was surrounded by the filth of Sodom.
Ill:
• The story is told of a man who a lived a very bad lifestyle;
• But one day came to faith.
• When he asked for membership in a local church.
• The leaders took him to one side to hear his story.
• One of the leaders said to him;
• “You were you a sinner before you received the Lord Jesus into your Life?”
• The man replied; “Yes, that’s true”
• The leader then said; “Are you still a sinner?”
• The man replied; “To tell you the truth, I feel I’m a greater sinner than ever.”
• So the leader asked him:
• “Then what difference has Christ made?”
• The man replied; “Well before I met Christ was a sinner running after sin,
• But now that I am saved I’m a sinner running from sin!”
• TRANSITION: Lot was like that man;
• His attitude to all those around him was different!
• They sought wickedness and he sought righteousness.
(3). The application.
• Having got to an understanding of the passage;
• Let’s finish off by applying it to our lives today.
• These verses act as a warning believers;
• The warning is not just to be aware of false teachers who may come in among us;
• But to make sure we do not copy their behaviour.
A QUICK REMINDER OF THEIR BEHAVIOUR (UNGODLINESS):
(a).
• False beliefs “introduced heresy” (vs 1).
• That is ungodliness.
• Being godly means keeping your doctrine pure!
• Don’t just take truth second hand – know why and what you believe.
(b).
• False living (vs 2) is ungodliness.
• N.I.V.:
• “Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute”
• J.B. Philips translates verse 2:
• “Many will follow their evil teaching that there is nothing wrong with sexual sin.
• False living is ungodliness.
• Being godly means keeping your life pure!
(c). False attitude to money (vs 3) is ungodliness.
• N.I.V.:
• “ In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories”
• J.B. Philips:
• “These teachers in their greed will tell you anything to get hold of your money”.
• False attitude to money (vs 3) is ungodliness.
• We see that today with the ‘health and wealth’ gospel.
(d). Corrupt speech is ungodliness.
• Verse 3: N.I.V.: “fabricated stories” K.J.B.: “feigned words”
• Verse 11: “Bold and arrogant, they are not afraid to heap abuse on celestial beings”
• Verse 18: “For they mouth empty, boastful words”
• Our words reveal our heart;
• A corrupt heart will show itself in corrupt words.
• i.e. Luke chapter 6 verses 43-45:
• “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit.
• Each tree is recognized by its own fruit”
SERMON AUDIO:
https://surf.pxwave.com/wl/?id=5RXVoi6xuVUnSlNC4REaYNkxnaXQLlE5
