Sin Becomes Fatal When, You Fail To Grow In The Knowledge Of God
Sunday October 16 2005
2 Peter 2:1-21
1 But there were also false prophets in Israel, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will cleverly teach their destructive heresies about God and even turn against their Master who bought them. Theirs will be a swift and terrible end.
2 Many will follow their evil teaching and shameful immorality. And because of them, Christ and his true way will be slandered.
3 In their greed they will make up clever lies to get hold of your money. But God condemned them long ago, and their destruction is on the way.
4 For God did not spare even the angels when they sinned; he threw them into hell, in gloomy caves and darkness until the judgment day.
5 And God did not spare the ancient world—except for Noah and his family of seven. Noah warned the world of God’s righteous judgment. Then God destroyed the whole world of ungodly people with a vast flood.
6 Later, he turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into heaps of ashes and swept them off the face of the earth. He made them an example of what will happen to ungodly people.
7 But at the same time, God rescued Lot out of Sodom because he was a good man who was sick of all the immorality and wickedness around him.
8 Yes, he was a righteous man who was distressed by the wickedness he saw and heard day after day.
9 So you see, the Lord knows how to rescue godly people from their trials, even while punishing the wicked right up until the day of judgment.
10 He is especially hard on those who follow their own evil, lustful desires and who despise authority. These people are proud and arrogant, daring even to scoff at the glorious ones without so much as trembling.
11 But the angels, even though they are far greater in power and strength than these false teachers, never speak out disrespectfully against the glorious ones.
12 These false teachers are like unthinking animals, creatures of instinct, who are born to be caught and killed.
They laugh at the terrifying powers they know so little about, and they will be destroyed along with them.
13 Their destruction is their reward for the harm they have done. They love to indulge in evil pleasures in broad daylight. They are a disgrace and a stain among you. They revel in deceitfulness while they feast with you.
14 They commit adultery with their eyes, and their lust is never satisfied. They make a game of luring unstable people into sin. They train themselves to be greedy; they are doomed and cursed.
15 They have wandered off the right road and followed the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved to earn money by doing wrong.
16 But Balaam was stopped from his mad course when his donkey rebuked him with a human voice.
17 These people are as useless as dried-up springs of water or as clouds blown away by the wind—promising much and delivering nothing. They are doomed to blackest darkness.
18 They brag about themselves with empty, foolish boasting. With lustful desire as their bait, they lure back into sin those who have just escaped from such wicked living.
19 They promise freedom, but they themselves are slaves to sin and corruption. For you are a slave to whatever controls you.
20 And when people escape from the wicked ways of the world by learning about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and then get tangled up with sin and become its slave again, they are worse off than before.
21 It would be better if they had never known the right way to live than to know it and then reject the holy commandments that were given to them.
22 They make these proverbs come true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and “A washed pig returns to the mud.”
Peter continues to unfold this horribly descriptive passage about false teachers and others who secretly will arise in the church and the many who will follow them.
In our text today, he begins to articulate just exactly what it is that makes their actions so wretched and deserving of God’s wrath.
There have always been sinners in the church.
God has always been in the recycling business with people like us.
But anyone can tell by the tone of Peter’s words that there is a specific kind of sin being dealt with.
He’s warning of an attitude of the heart that defiles people in a way that makes them past reclaiming.
He’s dealing with an attitude that just ripens people for divine judgment.
Peter is reaching for words to describe a situation where sin becomes fatal.
The most destructive sins are sins committed against the knowledge of the truth!!!!
2 Peter 2:10-11
10 He is especially hard on those who follow their own evil, lustful desires and who despise authority.
These people are proud and arrogant, daring even to scoff at the glorious ones without so much as trembling.
11 But the angels, even though they are far greater in power and strength than these false teachers, never speak out disrespectfully against the glorious ones.
Notice those first three words, "He is especially."
They link up with the idea of God preserving people for judgment at the end of verse 9 - "...and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority"(10).
"These people especially will God hold for stern judgment," says Peter.
Which people?
People who commit to a path of sin and despise authority while doing it.
How do they despise authority?
By ignoring leaders who give correction.
By ignoring the advice and rebuke and counsel of others.
There is literally no voice that will change their minds.
They are committed to rebellion.
There are two similar, yet different ideas here.
There’s committing sin, and then there’s hating the convicting voice of truth.
It’s the second of those two that Peter describes here.
This is what Peter means when he says they are "Daring and self-willed."
They don’t tremble when they revile authorities and angelic majesties.
He’s trying to show the difference between sin and high-handed sin.
It’s the difference between sin as an act of disobedience or weakness or stupidity,
And sin as intentional, willful persistence against every check and warning of the Word and Spirit of God.
Nothing is as damming as committing yourself, to a course of sin - a way of sin - a pattern of actions that perpetuates itself - feeds itself into future corruption.
All sin stains the sinner.
Persistent sin hardens the sinner against repentance.
The lights start to go out in the soul, your eyes become strangely dim.
Bam, Sin becomes fatal.
So in these verses Peter says that God will reserve sinful people for judgment.
Especially for doing two things:
Especially for "indulging the flesh".
That’s the commitment to persist in the sin.
This is not a fight against sin.
This has become a calculated effort to prolong and deepen sin’s pleasure.
And, secondly, God will reserve people for judgment:
Especially for despising authority.
This is the calculated evasion of correction.
This is the justification of sin.
This is the covering up of guilt.
Peter says this is the worst thing people do with their sin.
They calculate their future in it.
They become stubborn in it.
Now, let me hold up some other passages of Scripture along side of these words of Peter so we can get a clearer picture of this principle:
James 1:19-27
19 My dear brothers and sisters, be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.
20 Your anger can never make things right in God’s sight.
21 So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the message God has planted in your hearts, for it is strong enough to save your souls.
22 And remember, it is a message to obey, not just to listen to. If you don’t obey, you are only fooling yourself.
23 For if you just listen and don’t obey, it is like looking at your face in a mirror but doing nothing to improve your appearance.
24 You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like.
25 But if you keep looking steadily into God’s perfect law—the law that sets you free—and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.
26 If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are just fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless.
27 Pure and lasting religion in the sight of God our Father means that we must care for orphans and widows in their troubles, and refuse to let the world corrupt us.
The subject of these verses is clear.
They are verses about becoming clean.
They are verses about how filthiness and wickedness can be put aside.
James says these people can be made clean.
God has made abundant provision for that with His Word.
James says God’s Word has the power to actually save their souls.
But here’s the trick.
All of the power of the Word will lie dormant and useless until it becomes "implanted" in their souls.
Just reading the Word won’t get the job done.
Just memorizing the Word won’t cut it.
Just knowing what’s in the word will leave their lives dirty and chained to sin.
James says the Word has to be received with humility.
It takes no humility to believe that Jesus is the Son of God.
It takes no humility to believe that God created the heavens and the earth.
It takes no humility to believe that Jesus was born in Bethlehem of a virgin.
What does James mean when he says the Word must be received!
The Word must be implanted!
The Word must be received and implanted with humility!
He means there will be specific times when the Word of God confronts me with truth that is specifically against the grain of my rebellion.
Not just theological truths, but truths that confront the way I’m living, truths that force me to admit I’ve been wrong.
And James is saying it’s what I do with the Word at that point.
It’s how I respond, either with pride and evasion, or humility and repentance, that determines whether or not the Word will save my soul.
That’s exactly where Peter says these false teachers, and those who followed them, were going to miss the boat, and would be especially reserved for God’s wrath and judgment.
Let me give you another of my favorite passages of Scripture on this same subject:
Psalm 19:11-14
11 They are a warning to those who hear them;
there is great reward for those who obey them.
12 How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart?
Cleanse me from these hidden faults.
13 Keep me from deliberate sins!
Don’t let them control me.
Then I will be free of guilt
and innocent of great sin.
14 May the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart
be pleasing to you,
O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.
When David says, "Moreover, by them Your servant is warned;
In keeping them there is great reward," he is talking about the great protecting and keeping work of the Word of God.
But as he writes of these great blessings, he realizes there is a way this whole benefit package can be nullified - short-circuited in his daily experience.
There are errors - sins that lie hidden just under the surface of our lives - which, if we’re not alert to the Word, we won’t even see growing until it’s too late.
David says, if we’re not careful, daily sins can turn into great sins.
And the clue to what that means is found in the beginning of that thirteenth verse - "Keep back Your servant from presumptuous sins."
Those are the sins that rule you.
Presumptuous sins are sins committed with a stubborn, rebellious heart.
They’re sins against all advice, counsel and reason.
They’re sins that set the will on a course that is committed to future sin.
That’s exactly the kind of sin Peter is warning about.
And again, David says the same thing as James about the place of the Word in all of this:
Psalm 19:14
14 May the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart
be pleasing to you,
O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.
The things said - admitted, and the things meditated on - planned in the heart, must be shaped and molded by the Word of God.
God’s Word - the Law - must regulate every part of the life, especially when it points out areas needing change and correction and alignment.
You must instantly say "yes" with your lips and stop planning any further rebellion in your mind and heart.
Your meditation must be pure.
Remember where we are.
Peter says people who indulge the flesh and then despise authorities are in a hopeless situation indeed.
The only thing that keeps a single sin from growing into a chain of sins is an instantly humble response to the Word of God.
That’s why Peter says, with reference to God’s sure Word, "You do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place".
Sin becomes fatal when people actually begin to boast in their wickedness.
2 Peter 2:12-13
12 These false teachers are like unthinking animals, creatures of instinct, who are born to be caught and killed. They laugh at the terrifying powers they know so little about, and they will be destroyed along with them.
13 Their destruction is their reward for the harm they have done. They love to indulge in evil pleasures in broad daylight. They are a disgrace and a stain among you. They revel in deceitfulness while they feast with you.
They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, as they carouse with you..."
Again, note the boldness in their sinful activities.
They revile, even in areas where they’re demonstrating nothing but their ignorance.
They do the wicked things they do with no attempt to hide their sin from others.
Far from feeling shame, they count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime.
I don’t know when it happened, but we now live in a world where people feel sin is acceptable as long as the sinner is open about his of her sin.
If he’s proud of his sin, then we should all be proud of him for being so honest and self-expressive.
And you are proud of your sin when you continue to do it and make excuses about it and make statements like I enjoy it so much can’t I have something that I like!
It may not be the way I want to live, but at least he’s open and transparent about how he lives.
Let’s be clear about it.
The Bible never looks at openness about sin as a virtue.
It looks at repentance and contrition over sin as virtuous.
But that fact that some people sin proudly and openly - as Peter says of these people - "in the daylight" - is only a sign of their hardness of heart.
Even if you won’t forsake your sin, at least have the minimal standard of decency to be ashamed of your sin.
When sinners lose the ability to blush, it’s only a sign of the lowering of their level to that of the animal world.
It reserves a special form of God’s righteous judgment:
Jeremiah 8:4-17
4 “Jeremiah, say to the people, ‘This is what the LORD says: When people fall down, don’t they get up again? When they start down the wrong road and discover their mistake, don’t they turn back?
5 Then why do these people keep going along their self-destructive path, refusing to turn back, even though I have warned them?
6 I listen to their conversations, and what do I hear? Is anyone sorry for sin? Does anyone say, “What a terrible thing I have done”? No! All are running down the path of sin as swiftly as a horse rushing into battle!
7 The stork knows the time of her migration, as do the turtledove, the swallow, and the crane. They all return at the proper time each year. But not my people! They do not know what the LORD requires of them.
8 “ ‘How can you say, “We are wise because we have the law of the LORD,” when your teachers have twisted it so badly?
9 These wise teachers will be shamed by exile for their sin, for they have rejected the word of the LORD. Are they so wise after all?
10 I will give their wives and their farms to others. From the least to the greatest, they trick others to get what does not belong to them. Yes, even my prophets and priests are like that.
11 They offer superficial treatments for my people’s mortal wound. They give assurances of peace when all is war.
12 Are they ashamed when they do these disgusting things? No, not at all—they don’t even blush! Therefore, they will lie among the slaughtered. They will be humbled when they are punished, says the LORD.
13 I will take away their rich harvests of figs and grapes. Their fruit trees will all die. All the good things I prepared for them will soon be gone. I, the LORD, have spoken!’
14 “Then the people will say, ‘Why should we wait here to die? Come, let’s go to the fortified cities to die there. For the LORD our God has decreed our destruction and has given us a cup of poison to drink because we sinned against the LORD.
15 We hoped for peace, but no peace came. We hoped for a time of healing, but found only terror.
16 The snorting of the enemies’ warhorses can be heard all the way from the land of Dan in the north! The whole land trembles at the approach of the terrible army, for it is coming to devour the land and everything in it—cities and people alike.’
17 “I will send these enemy troops among you like poisonous snakes you cannot charm,” says the LORD. “No matter what you do, they will bite you, and you will die.”
This is so fitting for our times.
Look around you.
Read the signs that people carry.
Look at the causes they march for.
We’ve become a world that admires sinners who try to justify their wickedness.
Philippians 3:17-21
17 Dear brothers and sisters, pattern your lives after mine, and learn from those who follow our example.
18 For I have told you often before, and I say it again with tears in my eyes, that there are many whose conduct shows they are really enemies of the cross of Christ.
19 Their future is eternal destruction. Their god is their appetite, they brag about shameful things, and all they think about is this life here on earth.
20 But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior.
21 He will take these weak mortal bodies of ours and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same mighty power that he will use to conquer everything, everywhere.
That’s what Peter has in his heart as he warns these churches.
It gets harder and harder to stand up for truth and righteousness when others promote the cause of sin with such pride and effectiveness.
Christians who used to stand with their own crowd are suddenly forced to stand on their own.
It’s one of the most successful ploys of the devil.
And that leads to one further warning from Peter in the next verse:
It is because these people can no longer quit sinning that they comfort themselves by luring others into their same hopeless situation.
2 Peter 2:14
14 They commit adultery with their eyes, and their lust is never satisfied. They make a game of luring unstable people into sin. They train themselves to be greedy; they are doomed and cursed.
Recruitment is the last comfort of those plunging hopelessly into eternal darkness.
Recruitment is hell’s final protest against a holy, judging God.
So Peter warns these churches that these people will prey on unstable souls - "enticing unstable souls".
They look for people who are going through particular times of trial, discouragement, and fear.
They look for people who may just be on the edge of becoming impatient with God about something.
They look for people who have been genuinely hurt or wronged by others in the church.
They look for people who face great financial set-back.
That’s what Peter means when he says unstable souls.
He doesn’t mean they are mentally deranged or handicapped.
He means people who are, right now, having their souls shook up.
Who are knocked off stride.
Who are beginning to doubt or question.
Who will be particularly vulnerable to a tempting compromise that will offer a quicker, easier way out of their dilemma.
Peter says there will always be teachers, counselors, mentors, study leaders, there will always be some new group meeting down the street, some book, some best selling tape.
There will always be something, or someone offering a quick fix.
Notice the wording of verse 14.
Look at the way these teachers are glued to instant gratification of desire: "having eyes full of adultery," and, "having a heart trained in greed."
Everything in their message is geared to giving people what they want, right away.
It’s all glued to human satisfaction.
There’s no cost.
There’s no waiting.
There’s no mention of the holiness or glory of God.
That’s why Peter has already likened them to animals in verse 12 - "But these, like unreasoning animals..."
The whole thrust of those words is these people live by blind instinct.
They don’t govern themselves by anything beyond the immediate moment.
So Peter says, "Don’t follow them in their enticing words."
Learn a lesson from Balaam’s donkey.
2 Peter 2:15-16
15 They have wandered off the right road and followed the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved to earn money by doing wrong.
16 But Balaam was stopped from his mad course when his donkey rebuked him with a human voice.
The story of the prophet Balaam is told in Numbers 21-24.
In a nutshell, Balaam is sought out by Balak, king of the Moabites.
Balak has a huge problem A massive army is advancing against him - too big for him to handle.
Like most people who face a huge problem, Balak get very religious, very quickly.
He sends for the prophet Balaam to come and, under the power of God, put a curse on the enemies.
Balaam takes this request to God and God says, "No, you aren’t to go to King Balak.
At first Balaam’s sense of faithfulness to God causes him to refuse Balak’s offer.
But then Balak sweetens the pot with all sorts of riches.
Balaam says he’ll pray about it again.
Later, he agrees to accept the job.
On the way to see Balak the donkey on which Balaam is riding suddenly comes to a halt.
Balaam is in a hurry and is furious at his donkey’s hesitation.
He yells and shouts and swats the donkey.
And then something amazing happens.
The donkey turns, and in a human voice says,
"Listen, you pinhead, why are you hitting me?
Can’t you see the angel of the Lord in our path with that sharp sword?
Use your head!"
Then, finally, God opens up Balaam’s eyes to see what the donkey saw all along.
That’s the only thing that saves Balaam’s life.
He was actually prepared to sit there and argue with this talking donkey.
You would think that in itself might cause a person to stop and think about what he was doing!
Balaam would sit and argue with his own talking donkey before he would change his mind.
Now, stop and consider Peter’s point in telling this story.
He’s talking about how people can become almost animal-like in the pursuit of their own desires.
He’s talking about how people can fill up their lives with so much sin and dishonesty that they lose the ability to turn to God and be freed from their sins.
Balaam was told by God not to go to see King Balak.
But, in his greed for wealth and fame, he gave in to pressure, forgot the true way of the Lord, and went off to see Balak.
He just willfully pushed God aside and did his own thing.
God can’t get through to Balaam.
But God can get through to the donkey.
In fact, the angel doesn’t have to say a word.
The angel just stands and holds up his hand.
That’s all.
And the donkey instantly responds obediently by coming to a dead halt.
Balaam, the prophet, argues and disobeys.
The donkey instantly obeys the will of God.
What’s wrong with that picture?
Peter pleads with these churches.
He warns them about lowering the bar in their holy commitment to staying true to the Word of God.
He warns them not to tolerate anyone who would attempt to distract them.
He warns them not to tolerate anyone who would attempt to bribe them,
He warns them not to tolerate anyone who would attempt to cause them to doubt either God’s available mercy and grace and help to those who stay loyal to Him.
Or the fierceness of God’s wrath and judgment on those who turn from following Jesus to satisfying the desires of their own hearts.
And here’s the closing point.
Peter is saying, quite simply, if you willfully turn from the truth you eventually lose your ability to respond to God in repentance.
That’s when sin becomes fatal.
Hebrews 4:6-13
6 So God’s rest is there for people to enter. But those who formerly heard the Good News failed to enter because they disobeyed God.
7 So God set another time for entering his place of rest, and that time is today. God announced this through David a long time later in the words already quoted:
“Today you must listen to his voice.
Don’t harden your hearts against him.”
8 This new place of rest was not the land of Canaan, where Joshua led them. If it had been, God would not have spoken later about another day of rest.
9 So there is a special rest still waiting for the people of God.
10 For all who enter into God’s rest will find rest from their labors, just as God rested after creating the world.
11 Let us do our best to enter that place of rest. For anyone who disobeys God, as the people of Israel did, will fall.
12 For the word of God is full of living power. It is sharper than the sharpest knife, cutting deep into our innermost thoughts and desires. It exposes us for what we really are.
13 Nothing in all creation can hide from him. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes. This is the God to whom we must explain all that we have done.
