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.”
Introduction:
Peter reminds us that it is possible for a person who has once known the truth to return to the mind set of deception and become deceived by the evil one.
Illustration: Satan’s worldwide convention:
Satan called a worldwide convention. In his opening address to his devils, he said, “We can’t keep Christians from going to church. We can’t keep them from reading their Bibles and knowing the truth. We can’t keep them from forming an intimate, abiding relationship with Jesus. Once they gain that connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken. So, let them go to their churches, let them have their conservative lifestyles, but steal their time, so they can’t gain that relationship with Jesus. This is what I want you to do. Distract them from gaining hold of their Savior and maintaining that vital connection throughout their day!”
“How shall we do this?” shouted the devils. “Keep them busy in the nonessentials of life and invent innumerable schemes to occupy their minds. Tempt them to spend, spend, spend and borrow, borrow, borrow. Persuade the wives to go to work for long hours and the husbands to work 6 to 7 days each week, 10-12 hours a day, so they can afford their empty lifestyles. Keep them from spending time with their children.
As their family fragments, soon, their home will offer no escape from the pressures of work! Over stimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that still, small voice. Entice them to play the radio or CD player whenever they drive. To keep the TV, VCR, DVD, PC, Game Boy, and their XBoxes going constantly in their home. See to it that every store and restaurant in the world plays non-biblical music constantly. This will jam minds and break that union with Christ.
Fill the coffee tables with magazines and newspapers. Pound their minds with news 24 hours a day. Invade their driving moments with billboards. Flood their mailboxes with junk mail, catalogs, sweepstakes and every kind of newsletter and promotional offering free products, services and false hopes.
Keep skinny, beautiful models on the magazines so their husbands will believe that external beauty is what’s important and they’ll become dissatisfied with their wives. That will fragment those families quickly!
Even in their recreation, let them be excessive. Have them return from their recreation, exhausted, disquieted and unprepared for the coming week. Don’t let them go out in nature to reflect on God’s wonders. Send them to amusement parks, sporting events, concerts and movies instead.
Keep them busy, busy, busy! And when they meet for spiritual fellowship, involve them in gossip and small talk so that they leave with troubled conscience and unsettled emotions. Go ahead, let them be involved in soul winning; but crowd their lives with so many good causes they have no time to seek power from Jesus.
Soon they will be working in their own strength, sacrificing their health and family for the good of the cause. It will work! It will work!
It was quite a convention. The devils went eagerly to their assignments, causing Christians everywhere to get busy and be more rushed than ever before. I guess the question is: Has Satan been successful at his scheme?
Contributed to Sermon Central by: James Harrington
Time magazine this week focused on a study by a scientist named Hamer who states that some people seek a god because they have a certain god gene. The more of this gene you have the more likely you are to be religious. The less of this gene in your body the less likely you are to be religious. They also talked about the differences in religions and how they are so different but all have this sense that they need a god. They call it a feeling and these scientist say it points to having this certain gene.
I also noted on a picture in the article this little comment by the editors “The Baptists praying at this Miami church believe-like most Evangelicals but unlike many other Christians-that Scripture is the literal word of God” (Time, October 25, 2004 page 65).
This whole 2 chapter in 2 Peter is a warning to us to be aware that there are false prophets-false teachers posing as godly Christian people yet have no relationship with the Lord. They will spin webs of deception that will lead the people of God away from Him. They will promote lies about the God of truth and say it’s from God but it will be from the evil one. Peter gives us historical reminders about how God deals with sin. He judges it and condemns it. Remember what it says in Scripture “I the Lord God do not change…!” Malachi 3:6a Peter warns us that sin will be judged and God has not changed his mind on what sin looks like and acts like. He tells us that God has a purpose in life for those who are Godly and those who are ungodly will be judged severely for their sins.
So therefore you need to know who is a genuine article and who is a fraud when it comes to claiming to represent the Lord. There are 7 practical ways to discover if a person is genuine or a fraud:
1. You can tell by their personal lifestyles in private
2. By the leading of the Holy Spirit – The Discerning of Spirits gift
3. By their spoken and unspoken messages
4. By their demonstrated life values
5. By their commitment to the Word of God and to Truth
6. By their attitude of humility or pride
7. By their willingness to submit to authority or rebel against it
T.S.: There are three main thoughts things that ring out in my mind about our chapter today:
I. Learn the lessons from the past --- sin costs us dearly.
a. Peter reminds us to learn the lesson from the flood in Genesis 6-9
i. The flood which destroyed the earth and the rescuing of Noah taught that sin could and would be dealt with on a world wide level by God.
1. God said in Genesis 6:5-12: 5The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. 6The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. 7So the LORD said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them.” 8But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. 9This is the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God. 10Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth. 11Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. 12God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways.
a. When a world decides to follow the path of sin and wickedness God is forced to judge that destructive pattern of sin.
2. Holman:
a. FLOOD A miraculous deluge of water God used to discipline His world made evil through human sin.
b. Holman: The drama of Israel’s Flood story is the drama of God reacting to the habitual sin of His creatures. Scene after scene exhibits a disclosure of God, the moral nature of His acts, His self-consistent righteousness, His ever abiding love, His determined will to extricate humanity from its self-inflicted ruin, His determination never to see wrong as ultimately victorious, but to see the fulfillment of His purposes finally and fully. These magnificent vistas of divine glory are dramatic in character, symbolic in nature, and religious in purpose. Since they are addressed to Noah in whom is incorporated the new race, the proclamation is applicable to all people in whatever situation they discover themselves.
b. The lesson from the wicked cities
i. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the rescuing of Lot revealed that God will deal with cities/ nations that fall into sin as well as with the world.
1. Genesis 19: 4-11: 4Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded the house. 5They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.” 6Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him 7and said, “No, my friends. Don’t do this wicked thing. 8Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.” 9“Get out of our way,” they replied. And they said, “This fellow came here as an alien, and now he wants to play the judge! We’ll treat you worse than them.” They kept bringing pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door.10But the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house and shut the door. 11Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, young and old, with blindness so that they could not find the door.
2. Some say the sin of this these cities was not homosexuality but in hospitality. There sins were many but homosexuality is called a sin both in the Old testament and the New Testament:
a. Leviticus 18:22: “Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman it is detestable.”
b. Romans also addresses the sin of homosexuality: Romans 1: 24-32: 24Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. 26Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. 28Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
3. Reference the paper written by the ELCA Theologians trying to justify that homosexuality is not a sin but a choice and God is okay with it.
a. They note that these were all cultural passages and they do not apply to us today.
4. Holman: SODOM AND GOMORRAH (sah’ dahm, Gah mohr’ rah) Place names of uncertain meaning. Two cities in Palestine at the time of Abraham. Sodom and Gomorrah were among the five “cities of the valley” (Gen. 13:12; 19:29; KJV, “plain”) of Abraham’s time. Exact locations are unknown, but they were probably situated in the Valley of Siddim (Gen. 14:3, 8, 10-11) near the Dead Sea, perhaps the area now covered by the Sea’s shallow southern end. Lot moved to this area, eventually settling in Sodom (Gen. 13:10-12; 14:12; 19:1). Sodom and Gomorrah were renowned for their wickedness (Gen. 18:20). Despite Abraham’s successful plea (18:22-32) not even ten righteous men could be found in Sodom, and the cities were judged by the Lord, then destroyed by “brimstone and fire” (19:24; NIV, “burning sulfur”). The unnatural lusts of the men of Sodom (Gen. 19:4-8; Jude 7) have given us the modern term sodomy, but the city was guilty of a full spectrum of sins including pride, oppression of the poor, haughtiness, and “abominable things” (Ezek. 16:49-50). Together, Sodom and Gomorrah provided a point of comparison for the sinfulness of Israel and other nations (Deut. 32:32; Isa. 1:10; Jer. 23:14). The memory of their destruction provided a picture of God’s judgment (Isa. 13:19; Jer. 49:18; Matt. 10:14-15; 11:23-24) and made them an example to be avoided (Deut. 29:23-25; 2 Pet. 2:6). Daniel C. Browning, Jr.
c. The lesson of the talking donkey and Balaam.
i. The intervening of the Lord with Balaam showing that God will also intervene in the personal lives of those who have fallen into sin reveals that we need to watch what we say about others.
1. Balaam was hired by the king of Moab to curse the nation of Israel but God would not allow it.
ii. Numbers 22:21-31:
1. 21Balaam got up in the morning, saddled his donkey and went with the princes of Moab. 22But God was very angry when he went, and the angel of the LORD stood in the road to oppose him. Balaam was riding on his donkey, and his two servants were with him. 23When the donkey saw the angel of the LORD standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand, she turned off the road into a field. Balaam beat her to get her back on the road. 24Then the angel of the LORD stood in a narrow path between two vineyards, with walls on both sides. 25When the donkey saw the angel of the LORD, she pressed close to the wall, crushing Balaam’s foot against it. So he beat her again. 26Then the angel of the LORD moved on ahead and stood in a narrow place where there was no room to turn, either to the right or to the left. 27When the donkey saw the angel of the LORD, she lay down under Balaam, and he was angry and beat her with his staff. 28Then the LORD opened the donkey’s mouth, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?” 29Balaam answered the donkey, “You have made a fool of me! If I had a sword in my hand, I would kill you right now.” 30The donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your own donkey, which you have always ridden, to this day? Have I been in the habit of doing this to you?” “No,” he said. 31Then the LORD opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the angel of the LORD standing in the road with his sword drawn. So he bowed low and fell facedown.
2. Holman: BALAAM (Bay’ luhuhm) A non-Israelite prophet whom Balak, king of Moab, urged to curse the invading Israelites for a fee.
a. Old Testament Balaam was one of many prophets of eastern religions who worshiped all the gods of the land. Many of these false teachers had great power and influence. When they pronounced a blessing or a curse, it was considered as true prophecy. When Moses led his people across the wilderness, God commanded him not to attack Edom or Moab (Deut. 2:4-9). He did not. When Edom attacked, “Israel turned away from him” (Num. 20:21). As the great nation journeyed north on the east side of Jordan, King Balak of Moab faced the invasion of Israel. Balak sought a strategy other than battle to stop Moses. He decided to use a prophet to curse Israel. Balaam was chosen. Balak sent his messengers with fees to secure Balaam’s services. Balaam asked God’s permission to curse Israel. Permission was refused, but Balaam journeyed to confer further with Balak. On this journey, Balaam’s donkey talked with him as he traveled a narrow trail (Num. 22:21-30; 2 Pet. 2:16). Here Balaam clearly understood that an angel’s drawn sword enforced his obedience to speak only God’s message to Balak. Later in four vivid messages Balaam insisted that God would bless Israel (Num. 23-24). God used Balaam to preach truth. He even spoke of a future star and scepter (Num. 24:17) a prophecy ultimately fulfilled in the coming of Jesus as the Messiah. Balak’s actions brought God’s anger upon Moab (Deut. 23:3-6). In a battle against the Midianites, Balaam died (Num. 31:8; Josh. 13:22). Balaam could not curse Israel, but he taught the Moabites to bring the men of Israel into Baal worship with its immorality. For this God would punish Israel. What Balaam could not accomplish with a curse he did so through seductive means.
b. New Testament Peter warned against false teachers and described their destruction. He referred to the fallen angels, the watery destruction of the unbelievers in Noah’s time, and the fiery judgment on lawless Sodom and Gomorrah in Lot’s day. Peter described his generation of false leaders as those with eyes full of adultery, who never stop sinning by seducing the unstable. He further said that they bore a curse as experts in greed. Peter wrote that they left the straight way and followed the way of Balaam (2 Pet. 2:15). In Revelation 2:14, the church at Pergamos was complimented for faithfulness under persecution, but also warned that some followed after Balaam in offering meat to idols and in immorality. Balaam was a money hungry false prophet who had a close encounter with the God of Israel, but not close enough. God is sovereign and did not allow Balaam to curse His people. As God wills, He changes curses into blessings. Lawson Hatfield
iii. Consequences Of Sin by Jerry Pratt “Sin is rebellion towards God. It comes in several forms: disobedience, accusation, ignoring God. Sin has many consequences. So often when people sin, they do not realize how that sin impacts on them and on God. ..** Firstly, sin has a most undesirable and even catastrophic effect upon the sinner. Sometimes the person who is sinning can feel the impact of his/her sin; sometimes this impact is not felt. Understand this, however, whether this impact is felt or not, IT STILL IS A REALITY.”
1. MENTAL CONSEQUENCES: When we sin, we affect our conscience.
a. Our mental stability is affected by sin.
b. Some people go insane over their indulgence into sin.
c. Some people become depressed as a result of sin
d. Some people become suicidal as a result of their sinful lifestyle.
e. Sin can and will block our rational thinking process
f. Sin can and will elevate our stress levels in our minds.
2. PHYSICAL CONSEQUENCES: Sin will produce consequences.
a. Sin does produce physical consequences which cause disease:
i. Aids
ii. Herpes
iii. STD’S
iv. Alcoholism
v. Drug Addiction
vi. Smoking related Cancers
3. SPIRITUAL CONSEQUENCES:
a. Certainly sin has spiritual consequences which affect the person who is committing the sin(s).
b. Sin will separate us from our God according to God’s word. It deprives us from the eternal reward that God has purchased for us by Jesus sacrifice.
4. SINS HAVE COST GOD DEARLY:
a. Our sins have demanded the death of Jesus Christ on the cross.
b. Our sins have grieved the heart of God.
c. Our sins have forced God to pronounce judgment
d. Peter warns us here in 2 Peter 2 that sin does have severe consequences and history proves that God will judge sin.
T.S. – History teaches us that sin has consequences on an individual level and on a national and even a world level. So we must beware of deceivers who are dressed as angels of light can come along and deceive us and lead us back into the wake of sin.
II. We must be aware that false prophets and false teachers are present today trying to lead you astray with their lies.
a. These individuals will seek to discredit the saving act of the Lord Jesus.
i. They will claim that the Word is not to be taken literally.
ii. They will claim even as ministers that the Bible is full of flaws and they will promote that sin is acceptable.
iii. They will bring the Gospel to disrepute by twisting it’s message.
b. These individuals may even claim to be Christians even Born Again Christians but their speech and their lifestyles will reveal that they are frauds.
i. 2 Timothy 3:1-9
1. 1But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—5having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.6They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, 7always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth. 8Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth—men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. 9But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.
c. They will seek to teach destructive theories and theology’s to get you to depart the truth.
i. But they do not offer springs of living water or the word of life instead they offer the word of death.
ii. Be careful when people come up and say “I have discovered something no one else knows!”
d. They will seek to teach that greediness is a good thing and is a way to godliness.
i. They will promote the way of greed and appeal to the lust for money in this world.
ii. 1 Timothy 6:3-10:
1. 3If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, 4he is conceited and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions 5and constant friction between men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain. 6But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. 9People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. 10For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
a. There are some today preaching a prosperity gospel which is contrary to what Scripture teaches about worldly wealth and materialism.
e. They will promise freedom to those who still live depraved and sinful lives.
i. They will glorify sin and say it’s okay. God made you that way! You cannot help it!
ii. They will forget the truth from 2 Cor. 3:17: 17Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
1. Freedom comes from saying no to sin not yes to it!.
iii. They will blow off Galatians 5:13 -16: 13You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature rather, serve one another in love. 14The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 15If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. 16So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.
1. Freedom comes from staying away from sin not playing with sin.
f. They will say its okay to fulfill the lust of flesh and live like you want God does not mind.
i. They will have sold God out for sin’s selfish gratifications.
1. 1 Peter 2:16: 16Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. 17Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king.
a. Never use the Gospel to cover up sin! Instead repent and change your way!
g. The false prophets and teachers will try to convince you that it’s okay to go against the Word of God and sin. Remember it’s never right to go against the Word of God.
T.S. - We have to understand that liars-deceivers-false teachers are present today and they are being used by the enemy to pull people down into the pit of sin even after salvation. But don’t be deceived be relieved that Jesus can and will lead you into all truth.
III. The truth is you can lose your salvation if you get sucked into a lie.
a. Peter warns us it would have been better for those to have never known what the gift of righteousness was then to know and then reject it.
i. They will be worse off at the end then in the beginning.
1. The warning is clear you can be deceived!
2. Paul reiterated this thought in Galatians 6:7 “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.”
a. In the King James he uses a phrase in Galatians “Who has Bewitched you!”
ii. Hebrews 5:11-6:12:
1. 11We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. 12In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.
2. 1Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, 2instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3And God permitting, we will do so.4It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, 6if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.7Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God. 8But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned.9Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are confident of better things in your case—things that accompany salvation. 10God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. 11We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure. 12We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.
b. Examples:
i. Jim Jones – He started out as a pastor and became deceived and it lead to the death of 100’s.
1. This was a Christian destructive, doomsday cult founded and led by James Warren Jones (1931-1978). Jim Jones held degrees from Indiana University and Butler University. He was not a Fundamentalist pastor as many reports in the media and the anti-cult movement claim. He belonged to a mainline Christian denomination, having been ordained in the Christian Church/Disciples of Christ. (At the time of his ordination, the DoC allowed a local congregation to select and ordain a minister on their own. However, ordinations conducted without denominational endorsement were not considered valid within the rest of the church.) The Peoples Temple was initially structured as an inter-racial mission for the sick, homeless and jobless. He assembled a large following of over 900 members in Indianapolis IN during the 1950’s. "He preached a ’social gospel’ of human freedom, equality, and love, which required helping the least and the lowliest of society’s members. Later on, however, this gospel became explicitly socialistic, or communistic in Jones’ own view, and the hypocrisy of white Christianity was ridiculed while ’apostolic socialism’ was preached." 1 It was an interracial congregation -- almost unheard of in Indiana at the time. When a government investigation began into his cures for cancer, heart disease and arthritis, he decided to move the group to Ukiah in Northern California. He preached the imminent end of the world in a nuclear war; Ukiah was judged to be as safe as any when war broke out. They later moved to San Francisco and Los Angeles. After an expose during the mid 1970’s in the magazine New West raised suspicions of illegal activities within the Temple, he moved some of the Temple membership to Jonestown, Guyana. The Temple had leased almost 4,000 acres of dense jungle from the government. They established an agricultural cooperative there, called the "Peoples Temple Agricultural Project." They raised animals for food, and assorted tropical fruits and vegetables for consumption and sale. Jones developed a belief called Translation in which he and his followers would all die together, and would move to another planet for a life of bliss. Mass suicides were practiced in which his followers pretended to drink poison and fell to the ground. During the late 1970’s, Jones had been abusing prescription drugs and appears to have become increasingly paranoid. Rumors of human rights abuses circulated. As in most high-intensity religious groups, there was a considerable flow of people joining and leaving the group. Tim Stoen, the Temple attorney and right-hand man to Jones left to form Concerned Relatives who claimed that Jonestown was being run like a concentration camp, and that people were being held there against their will. This motivated Leo Ryan, a Congressman, to visit Jonestown in 1978-NOV for a personal inspection. At first, the visit went well. Later, on NOV-18, about 16 Temple members decided that they wanted to leave Jonestown with the visitors. This came as quite a blow to both Jones and the rest of the project. While Ryan and the others were waiting at Port Kiatuma airfield, the local airstrip, some heavily armed members of the Temple’s security guards arrived and started shooting. Congressman Ryan and four others were killed; three were members of the press; the other was a person from Jonestown who wanted to leave. 11 were wounded. Fearing retribution, the project members discuss their options. They reach a consensus to commit group suicide. 914 died: 638 adults and 276 children. Some sources say 911 died. Most appear to have committed suicide by drinking a grape drink laced with cyanide and a number of sedatives, including liquid Valium, Penegram and chloral hydrate. Some sources say it was Kool-Aid; others say FlaVor-Aid®. Other victims appear to have been murdered by poison injection. The Guyanese coroner said that hundreds of bodies showed needle marks, indicating foul play. Still other victims were shot. A very few fled into the jungle and survived. The bodies were in a state of extensive decay when the authorities arrived. There was no time to conduct a thorough investigation. The Peoples Temple organization did not survive the mass suicide/murder in Guyana. Their former headquarters building in San Francisco was demolished by the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989. Copyright © 1996 to 2000 incl., 2002 & 2003 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Latest update: 2003-APR-4
Author: B.A. Robinson
ii. David Koresh started out on the right track but soon thought he was God.
1. BIOGRAPHY from Frontline on : David Koresh
a. David Koresh was born Vernon Wayne Howell in Houston, Texas in 1959 to a 15-year old single mother. He never knew his father and was raised by his grandparents.
In his late night conversations with FBI agents during the siege, Koresh described his childhood as lonely. He said the other kids teased him and called him "Vernie." He was dyslexic, a bad student, and dropped out of high school. However, he had musical ability and a strong interest in the Bible. By 12, he had memorized large tracts of it.
When he was 20, Koresh turned to the Church of Seventh Day Adventists, his mother’s church. But he was expelled for being a bad influence on the young people. Sometime during the next couple of years, Koresh went to Hollywood to become a rock star but nothing came of it. Instead, in 1981 he went to Waco, Texas where he joined the Branch Davidians, a religious sect which in 1935 had settled 10 miles outside of Waco. At one time, it had more than 1,400 members.
Koresh had an affair with then-prophetess Lois Roden who was in her late sixties. The two travelled to Israel together. When Lois Roden died, a power struggle began between Koresh and Lois Roden’s son George. For a short time, Koresh retreated with his followers to eastern Texas. But in late 1987 he returned to Mount Carmel in camouflage with seven male followers, armed with five .223 caliber semiautomatic assault rifles, two .22 caliber rifles, two 12-gauge shotguns and nearly 400 rounds of ammunition. During the gunfight, Roden was shot in the chest and hands.
He and his followers went on trial for attempted murder. The seven were acquitted and a mistrial was declared in Koresh’s case. (Koresh told the jury he and his men went to Mount Carmel to find evidence of corpse abuse by Roden and their shots were aimed at a tree.)
By 1990 Koresh had become the leader of the Branch Davidians and legally changed his name, saying on the court document that the change was "for publicity and business purposes." He said the switch arose from his belief that he was now head of the biblical House of David. (Koresh is a Hebrew transliteration of Cyrus, the name of the Persian king who allowed the Jews held captive in Babylon to return to Israel.
b. He was killed in 1993 along with 100’s of his followers when he set fire to their compound which had been seized by the ATF and FBI.
iii. Judas started out with Jesus to only betray him for money in the end.
1. He knew the truth personally and then betrayed it.
2. The Word said it would have been better for him if he had never been born!
c. Those who do preach the lies of deception will reap God’s judgment whether they are nations, cities, individuals or even the whole world.
i. Fact is – God will judge sin! No one is exempt unless they have surrendered themselves to Jesus Christ 100%!
Conclusion:
1. We need to learn the lessons from the past.
**Sin has great consequences on individuals, cities, nations and the world
2. We must know and understand that we need to be on our guard because false teachers and false prophets are around today to lead us back into the pit of sin and destruction.
**The truth is they are out to get you and me!
3. The reality check today is we can walk away from God and fall into deception by the enemy if we are not rooted and grounded in God, His church and His Word.
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