2 Peter 2

CHAPTER 2THEME: Apostasy brought in by false teachers

2 Peter 2:1

APOSTASY BROUGHT IN BY FALSE TEACHERSWe have seen in the previous chapter the centrifugal force of the light of Jesus Christ that draws men away from the world and toward God. Now let’s talk about the centripetal force; that is, the force that impels folk toward the world. It is a gravitational force, the pull of the world away from the Word of God. The days that Peter is talking about in this chapter have now come upon us in our day. “But there were false prophets also among the people.” Peter is writing to Jewish Christians, and “the people” he is talking about is Israel. “There were false prophets among the people of Israel,” Peter says, “even as there shall be false teachers among you,” that is, among believers, the church. There were false prophets in the Old Testament, but there are false teachers today. My friend, we do not need to beware of false prophets at allthat is not our problem. Any man who attempts to prophesy today will soon be proven a liarthere is no question about that. During World War II, there was here in Pasadena, California, a man who predicted that the end of the world would come (if I remember correctly) on September 15, 1943. When that day came, newspaper reporters filled his yard and waited. Eventually he had to come out and say that he had misfigured it. He said that instead it would be September 15, 1944. The ministers in Pasadena who were meeting together in a prayer fellowship at that time were concerned about this man’s prophecies and wanted to get a statement into the newspaper. I said to them, “Forget it.

As far as I am concerned, on September 15, 1944, the man will be proven a liar.” You know, the world didn’t come to an end the next year either. What happened was that the newspaper reporters laughed at and ridiculed that man. Of course, it hurts the cause of Christ when anyone does that sort of thing. The man disappeared from this area, and I do not know where he is today. We do not need to pay any attention to false prophets, but let me say this to you: You do need to check false teachers. You need to check all teachers, including the one whose book you are reading right now. I urge you to check what I say by the Word of God. Don’t believe it because Vernon McGee says it. One man told me, “I teach a Sunday school class, and if anyone questions what I say, I tell them, ‘Well, McGee says that.’” That is the wrong approach, my friend. The Word of God is what you are to rest upon. I am amazed today how easily people are deceived by all kinds of teaching. People will fall for anything, and if you do not believe that, you ought to see the elaborate operations and headquarters of some of the cults which are located here in Southern California. You would be amazed, for it reveals that there are a great many people who have not heeded Peter’s warning that false teachers are abroad. Instead, they listen to them and give them financial backing. Some wag has put it like this: Little drops of water, Little grains of sand Make the mighty oceans And the beauteous land. So the daily pressures, Subtle though they be, Serve to shape the oddballs We call you and me. “Little Drops of Water” Author unknown We oddballs down here can really be taken in. Peter says, “Beware of false teachers.” In chapter 1 we saw that there were prophets of God in the Old Testament, and they prophesied 100 percent accurately. Peter now says, “But there were false prophets also among the people.” There were not only true prophets but also false prophets among the people of Israel. One example of this is the time that Ahab and Jehoshaphat went out against the Syrians (see 1 Kings 22). They called in a bunch of the false prophets of Baal who urged Ahab and Jehoshaphat to go to battle. Jehoshaphat saw immediately that they were not getting a word from God, and he said, “Don’t you have a true prophet of God here?” Ahab said, “Yes, but I keep him in prison because he never says anything good about me.” Today a great many people don’t like a preacher unless he says something nice about them all the time. Ahab was like that.

This prophet of God, Micaiah, told him the truth, and Ahab didn’t like that. But they brought Micaiah in, and he told Ahab, “If you go to battle, you will be slain.” Ahab turned to Jehoshaphat and said, “See, he never says anything good about me!” It’s too bad that Ahab didn’t listen to him, because he was slain just as Micaiah said he would be. Micaiah was a true prophet of God, but there were also several hundred false prophets at that time. “Even as there shall be false teachers among you.” Dr Marvin R. Vincent, in his very fine Word Studies in the New Testament, says that this Greek word for “false teachers,” pseudo-didaskalos, occurs only here in the New Testament. As we have said before, false teachers are the danger for the church today, and believe me, they are dangerous. What is a false teacher? A false teacher is one who knows the truth but deliberately lies for some purpose. It is either for some selfish reason, or he wants to please people, or he does it for money. There are many teachers like that today. They preach and say what people want them to say, although they know what the truth isthat is a false teacher. There are other men who teach error ignorantly. Some of the great reformers of the past and some of the great post-apostolic church fathers believed and taught some things which we do not hold to today. We believe they were entirely in error on certain things. Those men were not false teachers. They believed they were teaching the truth, and that does not put them in the category of a false teacher. A false teacher knows what he is doing, and he does it deliberately. “Even as there shall be"Peter puts this period of apostasy out yonder in the future because it would be beyond his death. Jude also discusses this same subject of apostasy. The very fact that 2 Peter and Jude are so much alike has caused some of the critics to say that one copied from the other. Let me state it a little differently: When God wants to emphasize something, He says it twice. That is the reason that the Lord Jesus said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you.” One “verily” is enough for Him, but when He says it twice, you had better sit up and listen. Therefore, this is something that God considers rather important. However, when Jude wrote, he said that there were already false teachers in the church. They came in quite early, by the way, and they have been in the church ever since. I think we have in this first verse a good definition of false teachers: “Who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.” “Damnable heresies” actually means destructive heresies. That which identifies these false teachers is that they deny Christ’s work of redemption for them. They will appear in the church as members of the church; they will claim to be Christians, and they will work secretly under cover of hypocrisy. Years ago I preached in a church which was a very fine, fundamental church where the people loved the Word of God. They called a pastor to that church whom they had questioned concerning whether he believed the Scriptures and whether he believed in their plenary, verbal inspiration. He had answered affirmatively to every question they asked. About two years later, I was in that city and found that the members of the church had scattered and were attending other churches. They told me that this man had absolutely misrepresented himselfthat’s what the kinder people said. Some said, “He lied to us.” That’s exactly what he had done. He had come into that church and actually been a hypocrite. He said one thing when he actually believed another. Now false teachers have some true doctrine. There is not a cult that I know of which does not have some truth in it. That is the one thing that makes them very dangerous, ten thousand times more dangerous than if they were 100 percent in error. These teachers generally believe some things that are true. Our Lord said, “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves” (Mat_7:15). Paul warned the church at Ephesus, “For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock” (Act_20:29). These wolves in sheep’s clothing will absolutely destroy the flock and scatter them. Our Lord made this clear when He gave us a picture of the condition of the Kingdom after His rejection, crucifixion, and resurrection. He would not establish His Kingdom on earth at that time, but He said that the Kingdom of Heaven would be like a sower sowing seed, like a mustard tree, and like leaven. Leaven has gotten into the bread today. The bread is the Word of God, and there is a lot of false teaching that goes out under the guise of being the Word of God.

2 Peter 2:2

“And many shall follow their pernicious ways.” False followers will go after false teachers. I do not believe that God’s elect can be permanently deceived. I believe that God permits a lot of the cults and “isms” in order to draw away from the true church that which is false, because those who are phony will go after that sort of thing. This is exactly what Paul said would take place: “For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you” (1Co_11:19). In other words, the genuine child of God will not go in that direction. The Lord Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice, and they will not follow a false shepherd” (see Joh_10:27). When you see people take out after one of these false teachers, they are either ignorantly deceived or they are deliberately deceived because that is what they believe and what they wanted to hear all the time.

2 Peter 2:3

“Feigned words"the Greek word for “feigned” is plastos. Dr Joseph H. Thayer in his lexicon of the New Testament, says that plastos means “moulded, formed, as from clay, wax, stone.” Plastosdoes that sound like another word you’ve heard? We have a new word, a word that wasn’t even in existence in Peter’s day, yet in a way it was. Plasticthat’s the word Peter uses here. I love that, because today you can buy a plastic pitcher, you can buy a plastic bucket, you can buy plastic dishes, you can buy plastic toys. You can buy almost anything in plastic because plastic can be molded into every possible shape. May I say this, and I do want to say it kindly. There are also plastic preachers who can be molded and shaped by the people that they serve. They say what their congregations want to hear. They use plastic words. This is the reason that neo-orthodoxy, when it first appeared, deceived so many people. When I came to Pasadena many years ago to pastor a church here, another pastor came about the same time.

He was an outstanding liberal who is pretty much known all over the world today. A member of his church attended my Bible class, and she said, “Oh, he is sound in the faith because he uses the same language that you do.” I said, “Fine, but does he mean what I mean by it?” She was sure that he did. On Easter Sunday she called me and said, “Dr. McGee, you have been wrong in criticizing this man. He spoke of the resurrection of Jesus today.” I asked her, “But did you go up afterward and ask him whether he believed that Jesus was raised bodily from the tomb?” She replied, “I’m sure that that is what he meant.” I told her, “I’m sure that he didn’t, but you ask him.” The next day she called me, weeping, and said, “You know, he just ridiculed the idea of the bodily resurrection!” So I explained to her, “These fellows use our vocabulary, but they don’t have our dictionary.” In other words, they may say something, but the important thing is what they mean by what they say. Peter tells us that false teachers will speak with feigned words, plastic words, words that are just molded words. They will fit their words to the people to whom they are speaking. They speak one thing to one crowd and then talk differently to another crowd. I know a man who can bring a fundamental message if he is in a fundamental group, but when he gets with a liberal group, he is just about as liberal as they are. He is a plastic preacheryou can pour him into any mold, and he will accommodate himself to it. What is the motivation for these false teachers? I tell you, Simon Peter puts it right out in the open here: “And through covetousness.” They do it because they are covetous. Covetousness is actually a form of idolatry. Sometimes it may be that they are covetous for a position, for a name, for popularity. Many of them are covetous of money. I am not talking through my hat, my friend. I could give you example after example of the fact that there are many false teachers abroad today, but I will give you just one. I read a report in a very fine Christian publication which tells about a service held by a well known evangelist. They reported that the preacher introduced the evangelist, saying, “He is a man after my heart because he loves money just like I love it.” As the evangelist spoke, he was forceful, he was dynamic, and he put on quite a show. For forty-five minutes he did not read one Scripture verse, not even his text. He partially quoted only three or four verses.

He used the personal pronoun I 175 times. He referred to Jesus Christ only eleven times. There was laughter every two minutes during his messagehe was quite a comedian. When the invitation was given, some twenty young people responded to the urgings of the evangelist and went forward. For what? They had not heard the gospel!

This is something that is so prevalent in our country today. The average church member doesn’t know the gospel when he hears it and does not recognize when he doesn’t hear it. This is the tragedy of the hour in which we live. There are many false teachers abroad today. I urge you to check on all Bible teachers and radio preachers that you listen to. Check on me. Am I teaching the Word of God? Examine the Word of God and see whether I am or not. And check yourself. Every child of God should examine himself to see whether or not he is in the faith. “And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you.” In other words, these false teachers are doing it for money. I personally resent all forms of promotion today. When I return from a trip and sort through my accumulated mail, I will sometimes pitch letters into my wastebasket without even opening them. The name of the organization is on the envelope, so I know who they come from. I’ve been getting their letters for years, although I’ve never contributed to those organizations. I don’t know why they keep sending out all that propaganda, but I do know this: they want to make merchandise of me.

It is my conviction that an organization ought to appeal only to folk who are interested in their certain work. There are many fine mission organizations, and there are many fine Christian radio programs, but there are some that are nothing in the world but promotion. One of the marks of a false teacher is that he is a promoter. He is not interested in giving you the Word of God; he is not attempting to help you. He is attempting to get something from you, to make merchandise of you. You are sort of a food trading stamp for him or a luxury car for him. “Whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.” This is something that has disturbed a great many folk, including some in the Bible. For example, the psalmist was disturbed that the wicked were getting by with their sinor so he thought. But then he said, “I went into the temple of the Lord.” What did he learn in the temple? All he learned in the temple was that God is in charge and He will take care of the wicked (see Ps. 73). The apostle Paul was mistreated again and again, and he resented it. He would not let the authorities at Philippi release him from jail and urge him to leave town secretly. He was a Roman citizen, and he forced them to do it the right way. But Paul told us not to take vengeance. We are to turn our case over to God. The minute that we try to get revenge we are taking God’s place, because “…Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord” (Rom_12:19).

And if you try to get revenge, you depart from your walk of faith. However, walking by faith does not mean that you are a Mr. Milquetoast whom everyone can push around and treat any way they please. Rather, it means that you can say, “All right, brother, you have mistreated me, you have done this to me, but I’m going to turn you over to the Lord.” Paul wrote, “Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works” (2Ti_4:14). “The Lord will take care of him. I’ve turned him over to the Lord,” Paul said concerning another brother who had mistreated him. Peter assures us that God will also take care of these false teachers someday. When I heard of the death of a certain liberal not long ago, a man said to me, “Well, he’s better off today than he was when he was in this life.” Frankly, I’m not so sure about that because he must give account to God for his life. I would not want to have to go into the presence of God someday and have the Lord say to me, “Look, McGee, you came to a passage of Scripture that time, and you soft-pedaled it because you were afraid of criticism. You didn’t teach it like it is written.” God would hold me accountable for that. I will have to turn in a report to Him for my Bible-teaching ministry. May I say to you, you are going to have to turn in an account to God also. It may look like God is slumbering; it may look like God is taking a nap. He may not seem to be doing very much about these false teachers, but He is, my friend. Habakkuk wondered whether God would do anything about the enemies of Israel, but he found out that in reality God was moving much too fast for himHe was not slumbering at all. Now Peter will give us three examples of apostates in the past. His first example is of the angels who sinned (v. 2Pe_2:4), and it is an exampIe of how the Devil works. His second example is that of the world of Noah’s day (v. 2Pe_2:5), and it is the example of the world. The third example (v. 2Pe_2:6) is the turning of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, and that is the example of the flesh. We have here the world, the flesh, and the Devil, but Peter puts the Devil firstthe Devil, the world, and the flesh. These are the three enemies that you and I need to be aware of.

John, the apostle of love, says, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world …” (1Jn_2:15, italics mine). “The world” does not mean the beautiful flowers, the mountains, the trees, and the sea. It means the world system down here that is against Godthat is what we are not to love. Peter will talk first about the Devil and about the fact that God in the past has judged angels. The subject of angels and demons is highly debatable and very popular today. In fact, there is too much attention being given to it. Many books are being written about Satan and about demons and all that sort of thing. I suppose they have their place, but my feeling is that the positive side needs to be emphasized more. I have a message that I give, “Who is Antichrist?” and I always conclude that message by saying that I don’t know much about Antichrist and I don’t want to know much about him.

The One I want to know is the Lord Jesus Christ. I cannot find anywhere where Paul or any other of the writers in Scripture say, “That I might know the Antichrist….” But Paul does say, “That I may know him [the Lord Jesus], and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings …” (Php_3:10). It is life eternal to know God, the Father, and the Son, the Lord Jesus, whom He has sent (see Joh_17:3). Scripture does not instruct us to know Antichrist or to know all about Satan. It is true that we are not to be ignorant of his devices. We need to beware of him, but we can pay too much attention to him.

2 Peter 2:4

“For if God spared not the angels that sinned.” Many commentators feel that this refers to the events of Genesis 6. I do not agree, because I do not believe that the “sons of God” mentioned there were angels. Genesis talks about the genealogy of man. It concerns that family which was leading to the coming of Christ, which would bring Him into the world. That line intermarried with the world, with the line of Cain, and brought about a generation who were so sinful that God finally brought the Flood upon them. That is what Genesis 6 is all about, and I do not think this verse here in 2 Peter has any reference to that at all. Then what does this verse have reference to? I will have to do just a little bit of speculating, yet Scripture does give us some hazy glimpses of this. We find that Jude refers to these things also; the Book of Revelation gives us some inkling of it; and several of the prophets open this area to us just a little. Man was sort of a Johnny-come-lately on this earthwe haven’t been here too long. Before man was here on earth, apparently there was another creation. God had a program going long before man appeared on the scene, and there were many created intelligences. From among those angels, who were God’s creation and who were His messengers, some rebelled against Him and apparently followed Satan. We are told in Rev_12:7, “And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels.” Back in the past there was a rebellion against God led by the creature we know today as Satan or the Devil. He has many nameshe is the great deceiver; he is a liar from the beginning. This creature rebelled against God, and there followed with him a great company of angels. Peter tells us that some of the angels who rebelled are already in chains, they are already incarcerated, but some of them have not yet been brought into that place of being inoperative. They are very active in the world today, and I believe they are the demons that we read about in the Word of God. I think we are seeing today a reappearance of the supernatural. I have considered giving a message on this subject of demons because so much that is false is being taught today. There is a reality in the supernatural world, and because a so-called miracle takes place does not mean that God did it. After all, Satan has a certain degree of power. Therefore, this verse is a reference to that which took place before man was put on this earth, when there was a rebellion against God led by Satan. “Cast them down to hell.” The word for “hell” here is an unusual word which does not occur in very many places in Scripture. The Greek word is tartarus. The Greeks spoke of the lost being in tartarus. It is not hell as we think of it. Hell has not really been opened up to do business yet and will not be opened up until much later. The Devil is not in hell; he is abroad in God’s creation. He goes into the presence of God, according to the Book of Job; and he is like a roaring lion, going up and down this earth, seeking whom he may devour, Peter told us in his first epistle. Although Satan is not in hell, certain of his angels have already been incarcerated. “And delivered them into chains of darkness.” The Greek word for “chains” is seira. Many believe it should be seiros, for that is the word used in many of the better texts. Seiros means “pits or caverns.” The two words are very similar. Apparently these angels are in pits of darkness. People think of hell as being a place of fire, but I think it is a place of darkness. Darkness and fire just don’t go together, because a fire makes light. Can you imagine being in darkness for eternity? “To be reserved unto judgment.” They have not yet been judged. The indictment has been made against them. God has declared them guilty, and they are waiting for the judgment to come.

2 Peter 2:5

“And spared not the old world.” In chapter 3 Peter will talk about three worldsthe world that was, the world that is, and the world that is to come. God “spared not the old world,” that is, the world before Noah. “But saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness.” There were seven others with Noah. Noah, his three sons, their wives, and Noah’s wife are the eight persons who came through the Flood. “Bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly.” The people were religious; they simply left the living and true God out of their religion. They were living as if God didn’t exist at all. They were living in the flesh. It is a false idea today that you and I, in the flesh, have some good in us. Paul says, “I have discovered that in my flesh dwelleth no good thing” (see Rom_7:18). I read a report by Dr. Turnbull in his book, Mountain People. He made a study of a people called the Ik who have been discovered in Africa and who are absolutely living lower than animals. Dr. Turnbull reports that the children are cast off by the mother at the age of three and must provide for themselves or die. They find berries and bark and insects, and they scavenge around for what is left by wild animals.

The stronger ones literally take food from the mouths of the elderly. The author said that it would be an insult to animals to call these people’s behavior bestiality. Dr. Turnbull (who is a humanist and not a Christian) said that the Ik teach us that our much vaunted human values are not inherent in humanity at all, but are associated only with a particular form of survival called society, and that all, even society itself, are luxuries that can be dispensed with. In other words, man apart from God is nothing in the world but an animal, and it is an insult to an animal to say that. You see, it is God who gives values; it is God who gives moral standards, and none of them are inherent in us. Noah lived in a day when there was rebellion against God, a day when the world had become lawless. Genesis tells us, “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen_6:5). Violence was abroad in the earth in that day. God moved in with the judgment of the Flood and brought an end to that pre-Noachician world. It was a world that had become, with the exception of one man and his family, a totally godless world. God did well in bringing judgment at that particular time.

You can well see that it would not have been long until the entire world would have been in such a condition that God would have had to judge it and there would have been salvation for no one after that. In His judgment God had in mind the future that was coming, and His judgment reveals His care and respect for the human life He had created. Immediately after the Flood, in order to curtail lawlessness and crime, God gave to man this edict: “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man” (Gen_9:6). It is nonsense today to argue against capital punishment by saying that the Bible says, “Thou shalt not murder.” “Thou shalt not murder” has reference to an individual who harbors hatred in his heart and, expressing his own fleshly feelings in anger or hatred, he slays another human being. My friend, that’s murder. But God has given to governments the authority to execute any man who takes another man’s life. Why? Listen to me for just a moment: You do not show respect for human life by letting off a murderer who has destroyed another human being. You show respect and value for human life when you take the life of a murderer who fails to respect another human being but despises him by killing him for some selfish or sinful reason. Today the pendulum of the clock of public opinion is over on the side of the criminal. The sympathy goes to him: “Oh, he’s a human being. We don’t want to take his life.” But he took someone else’s life! We have had many softhearted and softheaded judges in this land, and we are far from God and His Word. Lawlessness has become so bad that the people of California have voted to reinstate capital punishment. Yet it is almost impossible to enforce it because of the godless leaders we have today.

They know not God. They know not God’s plan and program. Instead of being put in prison, the criminals are running the streets today, and the honest citizens are in prison in their own homes. I was in a home recently in the East where there were half a dozen locks on one door because that lovely home had been broken into. Criminals and thieves are abroad today. Dignity and respect for human life are shown when they are locked up, my friend. Our nation has more than three strikes against it. Not only are we a nation of alcoholics, but also of murderers and thieves. The situation is alarming. Why have we come to this point? When I was in college, they didn’t teach morals because they said that was not the purpose of education. “After all,” they said, “if you just educate little Willy, he will come out all right.” Little Willy is sort of a cross between a piece of Dresden china and a hothouse orchid. You don’t want to apply the board of education to the seat of knowledge for fear you might ruin his little “umph” and he won’t be able to express himself like the little flower that he is!

Well, little Willy is expressing himself today: he is a thief, he’s a murderer, he’s a homosexual. My friend, may I say to you, the Lord Jesus said that out of the human heart proceed the ugliest, nastiest things that are imaginable. We need discipline. The unsaved world must have discipline from a government. If it does not, that nation will be destroyed. God laid down this principle for governments following His judgment upon the world of Noah’s day.

2 Peter 2:6

You can read the record of this in Genesis, chapter 19. It was the flesh that God judged at Sodom and Gomorrah. The inhabitants were given over to sodomy. Homosexuality was approved of in Sodom, and it is approved of in the United States. The flesh is an ugly thing. You and I have that old nature, and it is a nature which expresses itself in that which is ugly, that which is wicked, that which is nasty. You cannot make me believe that by making homosexuality lawful somehow or other you have added dignity to it. God has said that when men go down that low, He gives them up. You can take it or leave it, but that’s what the Word of God says (see Rom_1:18-32). The very fact that we have been lenient and have smiled on this type of thing has caused it to increase and grow within our land.

2 Peter 2:7

“And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked.” This word vexed doesn’t seem to me to convey what Peter is really saying. Many people say that Peter does not use good Greek, and yet I have had to look up the meaning of more words that Peter uses than even the apostle Paul uses. The Greek word he uses here is kataponeo, which means, according to Trench, “to tire down with toil, to exhaust with labor.” It means “to afflict, to oppress with evil,” actually, “to torment.” One of the methods that communism has used and which apparently is used now in many places is to break down an individual by constantly putting him under a bright light, constantly plaguing him with questions, by pulling out his fingernails, and by doing all manner of torture to him. This word has that idea in it. Lot vexed his soul in the city of Sodom. He was never happy there.

He was tormented on the inside. It was torture for him to live in Sodom. I never got that impression of Lot while reading the Book of Genesis, by the way. I’m glad for Peter’s commentotherwise I would be apt to say that Lot was not saved. By reading the story back in Genesis of when Lot went down to the city of Sodom, got into politics there, and lost most of his family, I would come to the conclusion that he was not saved. Even when you read what happened with the two single daughters who escaped with him, you might wish that they too had stayed back in Sodom. The point Peter is making is that God got Lot out of that city; He knows “how to deliver the godly.” We are told in verse 2Pe_2:6 that all of this is given to us as an example. An example of what? I think that you and I are going to get two big surprises when we get to heaven. The number one surprise will be that there are not going to be some people in heaven who we were sure were going to make it. They really weren’t genuine, although we thought they were. The second and bigger shock will be this: There are going to be some people in heaven who we never even suspected were real born-again children of God.

They didn’t have very much of a testimony down here. Lot is an example of thisI don’t think this man had any testimony for God at all. When the angels came and said that the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah would be destroyed, Lot went around to his sons-in-law and said, “I’ve got word from God that He is going to destroy this city. He’s going to judge it. Let’s leave!” The record says, “But he seemed as one that mocked.” I suppose that they said, “We don’t believe you, old man. The kind of life you’ve been living down here doesn’t reveal to us that you have had very much faith and confidence in God.” If I had only Genesis to read, I would have come to the conclusion that Lot didn’t make it to heaven, that he was not a saved man.

But Peter says, “He delivered just Lot"and that does not mean only Lot, because his two daughters went with him, and his wife, although she didn’t get too far away. Lot was called “just” because he was justified in God’s sight. “And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation [manner of life] of the wicked.” He didn’t go for the way they lived; he hated it. He was a just man, which means that he was justified before God because he trusted God as Abraham did, although he didn’t lead a life like Abraham, one that was a testimony to the world. Lot stands on the page of Scripture as a saint of God who was justified because of his faith, but his life denied everything he believed and he never had a moment’s peace down here. “For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing.” Just think of the filth that that man had to listen to! Very candidly, I do not believe that a child of God can continually engage in filthy conversation. Filthy conversation will lead to filthy action. God said to this man, “Lot, you will have to get out of the city. I cannot destroy it with you in it.” You see, in the meantime there was a man named Abraham who was not criticizing Lot but was praying for him. That is a good lesson for many of us. There is a preacher, a friend of mine, who criticizes everything and everybody. One day he was criticizing an outstanding Bible teacher whom I respect and know that God has mightily used. I said to my friend, looking him right straight in the eye, “Have you ever prayed for him?” He turned red and said he hadn’t. I said, “Instead of criticizing him, why don’t you pray for him? If you think he is wrong, pray for him.” Abraham prayed for the city of Sodom. He wanted his nephew Lot to be spared. Abraham asked God to spare the city for the sake of fifty righteous people. He finally got it down to ten righteous people, and then he stopped praying because he was afraid that Lot was not really a child of God. But Lot was, and God got him out. God said, “I cannot destroy the city until you get out.” Mrs. Lot left with him, but she looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt. That may sound strange. Why should she be turned into a pillar of salt just because she looked back? My friend, it’s what turning and looking back means. Why did she look back?

It is obvious that, although she walked out of Sodom, she had left her heart back there. She was intertwined in everything that took place in that townshe belonged to the country club, the Shakespeare club, and every other kind of club. Perhaps the bridge club was having a meeting that afternoon and she really wanted to go. I think she plagued Lot, saying, “Why do we have to leave like this?” Another reason she turned and looked back was because she didn’t believe God would destroy the city. Well, He did destroy the city, and He turned her into a pillar of salt. The greatest lesson for us in these verses is that God’s rescue of Lot from Sodom prefigures the rapture of the church. May I say to you, the rapture of the church will take place before the Great Tribulation period, before the judgment comes, because God will not let any of His saints go through it. Even those who are like Lot, the weakest saints, will be taken out. Lot made it, and if you have trusted Christ as your Savior, you can be sure that you will be going out too. This is a marvelous example of the fact that the church will not go through the Great Tribulation period. They have been justified by faith in Christ, and this man Lot was justified also.

2 Peter 2:9

To those who believe that the church is going through the Great Tribulation period, I would like to say that God knows how to deliver His own. You may not know how, but God knows how. He also knows how “to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished.” God knows the difference between the godly and the unjustI don’t. The wheat and tares are growing together today, and He said, “Let them alone. Let them both grow together.” I’m not worried about the tares today, although I must confess that I wish there weren’t so many of them. But wheat and tares are growingthe Word of God is getting out in this glorious day in which we live. One of these days He will make the separation, when He takes His own out of the world and when the lost will be brought before the Great White Throne for judgment.

2 Peter 2:10

“But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness.” This is a strong statement that Peter makes here. It actually means in the defilementsthe defilements of uncleanness. This is a picture of those who are really lower than animals. They are those who delight in that which is vulgar, vile, and vicious. They relish that type of thing. “And despise government.” Many commentators say that this refers to government here on earth. I have reason to believe, since this word occurs so few times in the Word of God, that it really means “dominion.” The same word kuriotes is translated “dominion” in verse Jud_1:8 of Jude and “lordship” in the first chapter of Ephesians. In Ephesians it has to do with spiritual governments. In other words, they despise that which is spiritual, that which God has ordained above us: the angels and the way God is running His universe. They are the ones who ask God to damn everything under the sun. They are not pleased with anything. Not only that, Peter says, “Presumptuous are they.” That means they are daring. They are daredevils. They don’t mind blaspheming. It makes them feel expansive and big to use such language. “Self-willed"that is, they are going to do their own thing. “They are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.” The word for “dignities” is actually glories. They speak evil of that which is sacred, that which is holy. Isn’t it interesting that men take God’s name in vain? They don’t take the city’s name in vain or their boss’s name in vain or the name of some person they hate. But they take God’s name in vain. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignities, of glories, of this order that God has established in His universe.

2 Peter 2:11

The false teachers are lifted up with pride, and they do something that angels don’t dare to do. In the little Epistle of Jude, we find that Jude gives a specific instance of this when Michael the archangel was disputing with Satan about the body of Moses. You see, the Devil didn’t want Moses to appear later in the Promised Land (at the transfiguration of Jesus), and so there was some dispute. God buried the body of Moses. And Jude tells us that Michael would not bring a railing accusation against the Devil, but he simply said, “…the Lord rebuke thee” (Jud_1:9). This is a spirit that we need to manifest today, a spirit of humility, in the sense that we turn all of this over to God.

It is pride that causes us to speak as we do. When I hear someone, sometimes even a Christian, talking about the Devil, ridiculing him and calling him names, I have to say that Michael the archangel wouldn’t do that, and if Michael, exalted as he is, wouldn’t do it, a little man down here on earth needs to be very careful.

2 Peter 2:12

“But these, as natural brute beasts.” These apostates are like wild animals. We hear a great deal today about man descending from an animal, but both the Old and New Testaments make it very clear that man is capable of living lower than the animals. He’s not descended from anything. He’s right down with them, if you please, and lives like an animal. Peter will give an illustration of this a little later on in this chapter. They are natural wild animals, “made to be taken and destroyed” just like an animal is taken. They’ve descended to that low plane and have reached the place where they are hopeless and helpless. They “speak evil of the things that they understand not.” This that Peter says of false teachers can also be applied to many others. Something that has amazed me ever since I became a Christian is how smart some men who are not Christians can be and yet they do not at all understand the Word of God. There have been many brilliant men in the past who had no knowledge of what the Word of God is about. Let me give you an example. William Wilberforce, a member of the British Parliament, was an alcoholic and lived a very fast life until he was converted. He wanted his friend, Edmund Burke, to hear one of the great preachers of Scotland, and when they were up in Scotland, he took Burke to hear this preacher. Afterward, he was interested to get Burke’s reaction to the sermon. His reaction was very simple, and it revealed something. Burke said, “That man is a brilliant orator, but what was he talking about?” Edmund Burke, one of the great English statesmen, when he heard a gospel message, said,“I don’t even know what he is talking about!” Also I was very much interested to read recently something about a great denomination in this country, a church that down through the years has preached justification by faith. They made a survey and found that 40 percent of their members believe they are saved by their own works. How tragic it is to see that people do not understand the gospel! Many who have been hearing it year in and year out do not understand it at all. “And shall utterly perish in their own corruption.” Earlier Peter talked about the fact that the child of God has escaped the corruption of the worldbut these have not escaped the corruption. Some of them have escaped the pollutions of the world. In other words, there are many lost sinners who say, “I wouldn’t do the things that this low-down individual is doing"and he wouldn’t. He has escaped the pollutions, but he has not escaped the corruptions. On the outside he is religious; he goes through forms; he does certain works, but his heart is not right with God at all. He has a corrupt heart, and he has done nothing whatsoever about that.

2 Peter 2:13

In verses 2Pe_2:13-14 we see in the description of apostates the utter corruption of the human heart. When a man thinks wrong, he is going to act wrongyou just cannot escape that fact. There are a great many people who say, “This is my life. I can live it as I please.” It is well known that we have men today in government who are definitely immoral. They have affairs with women who are not their wives. We know that most of them drink, and many of them drink to excess.

They say, “This is my business. My private life is my business.” My friend, their private lives are not their business if they are representing this government and representing my country. If they want to lead that kind of life, they ought to get out of government, because they are hurting their country and they are hurting us. We want men in government who are sober, men who are honest, men who are moral men. This is what is desperately needed today.

2 Peter 2:14

My, this is harsh language that Peter uses in speaking of false teachers! They are guilty of all of these immoral excesses, and don’t kid yourself that God does not intend to judge them someday.

2 Peter 2:15

Balaam is mentioned three times in the closing books of the New Testament. In 2 Peter it is the way of Balaam. In Jude it is the error of Balaam. And it is the doctrine of Balaam in the Book of Revelation. Each one is different. What is “the way of Balaam”? Peter says he is “the son of Bosor who loved the wages of unrighteousness.” Balaam knew that he should not go and prophesy against Israel, but he loved the price that was being offered to him. Therefore, “the way of Balaam” is the covetousness of one who does religious work for personal profit.

2 Peter 2:16

Peter says that Balaam was mad to go and that the jackass he was riding spoke to him. Some wag has said that in the old days it was a miracle when a jackass spoke and now in our day it is a miracle when one of them keeps quiet! This jackass spoke to Balaam and rebuked him because of his covetousness. My friend, I believe that you can judge the religious racketeer by his standard of living. A friend of mine heard me make the statement that people should check up on radio broadcasters and see what kind of homes they live in and what cars they drive. He thought I was wrong to have made a statement like that, but he decided to check up on one man. He found that man living in a very costly home with two Cadillacs parked in front and an expensive swimming pool behind it. My friend had also heard about certain other excesses in that man’s life, and so he decided that he was supporting the wrong broadcaster. “The way of Balaam"covetousness. This is one of the ways a false religious teacher can be identified, and God will judge him for it.

2 Peter 2:17

As a boy I lived in West Texas. We left there in the third year of a three-year drought. I can remember when we would go into the fields and chop cottonbelieve me, in those days cotton didn’t grow well in that country even if there was rain. But sometimes late in the afternoon big thunderheads, big clouds, would gather overhead, and there would be lightning. We’d think, My, we are going to have rainbut we didn’t have rain. How dry it was!

Many people are following false teachers who are like that. They are “wells without water.” They are like clouds, beautiful clouds. Oh, how tremendous it is to see and hear these folk. They are very impressive, but there is no water in the well, and there is no rain in the clouds. People are thirsting today for the Word of God, and yet it is not being given to them.

2 Peter 2:18

“For when they speak great swelling words of vanity.” These false teachers use beautiful, flowery language. They soar to the heights oratorically, speaking in basso profundo voice. “They allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness.” It is a religion that appeals to the eye, a religion that appeals to the ear, a religion that appeals even to the nose. One preacher said to me, “I always have my church sprayed on Sunday morning.” He wants it to smell good. Don’t misunderstand meI think the place ought to look nice; the music ought to be good music, and I don’t mind a fragrant smell, but those things are not to be depended upon. They are the lusts, the desires, of the flesh. But Peter is accusing the false teachers of more than this. “Through much wantonness” refers to lewdness, sexual excesses. This man Simon Peter is really being sarcastic now

2 Peter 2:19

“While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption.” Some habit has these false teachers enslaved, and yet they are promising liberty to others! “For of whom a man is overcome of the same is he brought in bondage.” This is the picture that we have before us: they promise liberty, but they don’t really know what it is themselves.

2 Peter 2:20

These apostates have a head knowledge of Christ. They know the truth but have no love of the truth. They reject what they once professed and become enslaved in some sort of corruption. And, my friend, I hear many folk say, “Oh, I am very religious. I belong to a certain church. We don’t believe the Bible is really the Word of God, but we talk a lot about love and brotherhood. We have a beautiful church and a lovely service that makes us feel good.” Such people have escaped the pollutions of the world. They are horrified when they read of crime and violence in the newspaper. You see, they have escaped the pollutions of the world but not the corruptions. “Through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” It is not that they haven’t heard the gospel. They have heard the gospel. One man told me, “I listen to your Bible broadcast nearly every day.” But he had to admit that he didn’t believe anything; he even doubted that there was a God. That man knows the gospel. When someone asked me, “Why don’t you present the gospel to him sometime when you’re playing golf?” I told him, “He’s heard me present the gospel over a hundred times. There is no need of saying any more.” Peter says “They are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.” In this chapter Peter has dealt very definitely with the apostasy that was coming into the church through false teachers who were creeping in and teaching false doctrines, teaching that which is contrary to the Word of God. Peter says that they pervert the truth of God, and they do it for their own advantage. These false teachers exalt themselves instead of exalting Christ. They do not use the Word of God except for a few little proof texts that more or less clothe their teaching with a pious halo. They use big words which are counterfeit words. They try to impress people that they are very intellectual, and they are interested in making money.

They claim that they can change people. I know that I will get into trouble by saying this, but I think you ought to examine very carefully anyone who claims to have a supernatural power to heal or to perform miracles. Another thing that sometimes identifies a false teacher is that he is living secretly in lust and sin. You and I cannot fight these false teachers; I’m not attempting to fight them; I’m just trying to expose them. But one day God is going to expose them, and He is going to judge them.

2 Peter 2:21

Now Peter concludes all this by saying that it actually would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than, having known it, to then turn from the gospel. I have done something in my ministry which has not been original with me at all. I heard the late Dr. A.C. Gaebelein say this, and it was so effective and so true that I have used it on many occasions. I will sometimes conclude a message by saying, “Friends, if you came in here today unsaved and you walk out of here unsaved, I am the worst enemy that you have ever had, because you have heard the gospel and you can never go into the presence of God and tell Him that you have never heard the gospel. You have heard it, and it will be worse for you when God pronounces judgment than for any heathen in the darkest part of the earth today.”

2 Peter 2:22

Peter speaks of these false teachers, using the term dog. To the Jewish mind there was nothing lower than a dog, by the way. “The dog is turned to his own vomit again.” Peter draws from Pro_26:11 to show that they will return to their true, natural, unchanged condition. “And the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.” It is Simon Peter who gives us the parable of the prodigal pig. You may never have heard the parable of the prodigal pig, but here it is. It is, of course, based on the parable of the prodigal son, which is one of the greatest parables the Lord Jesus ever gave (see Luk_15:11-32). There are those who say that you cannot preach the gospel from the parable of the prodigal son. However, the first time that I ever went forward in a meeting was under a brush arbor in southern Oklahoma in a little place called Springer. It’s not much of a place today, I’m told, and it certainly wasn’t in that day. I went forward and knelt down, and all I can remember of that night is that the preacher preached on the prodigal son. I can remember the figures of speech that he used. He took the prodigal son through all the nightclubs and places of sin.

That night all the saints sinned vicariously through the preacher’s message. Believe me, it was a very effective message. I’m confident that others got saved that night, but nobody took the time to explain to me about the gospel. I didn’t really understand it, and my life afterward revealed that I wasn’t saved, but my heart was certainly open for it. Actually, the story of the prodigal son is not how a sinner becomes a son but how a son becomes a sinner. The account, as recorded in Luke 15, is a familiar story. You remember that there was a father who had two boys. One of the boys, the younger one, wanted to take off for the far country. Dr. Streeter calls this the sin of propinquity. That is a big word, but it simply means that the things near at hand are not so attractive but that the faraway places have an allurement, an enchantment. I think the chief allurement of sin is its mystery. The old bromide that grass is greener on the other side of the fence is the story of this boy. So the boy ran away and soon was living it up. When he had plenty of money, the fair-weather friends were with him, but they soon faded away. He ended up having to go out and get a job working for a man who raised pigs. When the Lord Jesus mentioned that, both the publicans and Pharisees winced, because a Jewish boy could have sunk no lower than that. He hit bottom. In effect, he was on drugs, involved in sexual immorality, and all that type of thing. This boy was down in the pigpen. Again, let’s understand what the parable is primarily teaching. It is not showing how a sinner gets saved, but it reveals the heart of the father who will not only save a sinner but will take back a son who sins. Someone asked the late Dr. Harry Rimmer,“Suppose the boy had died in the pigpen? What then?” Dr. Rimmer said, “Well, if he had died in the pigpen, there is one thing for sure, he would not have been a dead pig.

He was a son.” He was a son when he left home; he was a son when he got to the far country; he was a son while he was living in sin; and he was a son in the pigpen. And because he was a son, he made a statement one day, a statement that no pig could ever have made. He said, “My father lives up yonder in that great big home. He has servants who are better off than I am. I am his son, but I’m living down here with the pigs. I will arise, and I will go to my father.” No pig could say that, unless he was going in the opposite direction, heading back toward the pigpen. Now what is the father going to do with his boy when he returns home? According to the Mosaic Law, that boy was to have been stoned to death (see Deu_21:18-21)but he wasn’t stoned to death. The son went back and made his confession,“Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.” But his father wouldn’t let him finish. You would expect the father to have said to one of his servants, “Go down and cut off some hickory limbs and bring them back to me. I’m going to whip this boy within an inch of his life. He has disgraced my name; he’s spent my substance; he’s wasted his time.

He has been in sin, and I’m going to teach him.” But that’s not what happened at all. The boy, you see, had gotten his whipping in the far country. All prodigals get their whipping when they are away from home. When they come back to the heavenly Father, there is always a banquet, a robe, and a ring. And “they began to be merry.” The fun was up at the father’s house and never in the pigpen. The interesting thing now is that Peter says, “And the sow that was washed [returned] to her wallowing in the mire.” Now we can add something to the parable of the prodigal son. One of those little pigs in the pigpen said to the prodigal son, “You say you want to leave this lovely pigpen with all of this nice mud and goo, and you want to go up to your father’s house? That sounds good; in fact, you’ve sold me. I think maybe I’d like to go up there with you and try it myself.” So the prodigal son told him, “If you go up there, things are sure going to be different! You are going to have to clean up.” When they got to the father’s house, the father put his arms around the boy and said, “Bring forth the robe.” Actually, he could smell those clothes his son had been wearing in the pigpen, and what he really meant was, “Give him a good bath and then put a new robe on him. He can’t smell like that or live like that in my house.” The little pig went with the prodigal son, and he had to get all cleaned up too. They washed this little pig up nicely and tied a pink ribbon around his neck. They brushed his teeth with Pepsodent, and the little pig went squealing through the house. But it was only a couple of days until the little pig came to the prodigal son with a downcast look and said, “Prodigal Son, I don’t like it here.” And the son said, “Why, I am having the best time I’ve ever had in my life since I came home, and you say you don’t like it here! What’s wrong?” The little pig replied, “I don’t like this idea of having white sheets on the bed. If we could just get to a place where there is plenty of good, sloppy mud, I could sleep better there.” “We just don’t do that here in the father’s house,” said the prodigal son. “You just can’t live in a pigpen here.” “Another thing I don’t like is sitting at a table, using a knife and fork, and having a white tablecloth, and eating out of a plate. Why couldn’t we have a trough down on the floor and put everything in there? We could all jump in and have the biggest time of our lives.” “We don’t do that here?” said the son. And the little pig said, “Well, I think I’ll arise and go to my father.” His old man wasn’t in that house, and so he started back to his home. He had been all cleaned up, but he went back to the pigpen and found his old man right down in the middle of the biggest loblolly you’ve ever seenmud all around him, dirty, filthy, and smelly. That little old pig began to squeal and made a leap for it. He jumped in right beside his father, saying, “Old man, I sure am glad to get back home!” You know why? Because he was a pig. I had the privilege of being pastor in a downtown Los Angeles church beginning in 1949. Those were the years when subdivisions were beginning to be built in Southern California. That’s the period when the population doubled again and again. People came from everywhere, and we saw a tremendous ingathering in the church I pastored during that period. I have always thanked the Lord that He gave me the privilege of being in that unique position at just the right time. Although it was a great time because so many folk turned to the Lord, there was always the problem of how to tell the pigs from the sonsthat is, professing Christians from real born-again believers. It was difficult and confusing, but I learned something. I found that at one end of the road was the Father’s house, at the other end of the road was a pigpen, and there were always prodigal sons who were going back to the Father’s house. I talked to a preacher’s son one time when he came in to see me. He was a handsome young man who had come out to Hollywood to make it big, but he was one of those who didn’t have the charisma and didn’t quite make it. He got in with the wrong crowd and began to drink. He saw that he was going down and down. He was a prodigal sonhe wasn’t a pig. He hated the life he had been living. When he came to see me, he said, “My dad is a wonderful man. I’ve let him down so, and I just don’t know how he would receive me. I don’t know whether I can go home or not.” I said, “Let me call him, and if he doesn’t want to talk to you, we’ll just hang up,” and the boy agreed. So I called this man who is a very fine minister, and after we had exchanged a few pleasantries about the weather and such, I knew that he was wondering why I was calling him. I said, “I have somebody here in my study who would like to talk to you.” He knew who it was. He knew that his boy wasn’t a pig but a son. That father broke down and said, “Is it my boy?” I said, “Yes.” “Let me talk to him.” The boy began to weep, and I’m sure the father was weeping too. I just walked out of my study to let them talk. I came back in after the young man had hung up, and he said to me, “I’m going home.” However, the transition is always confusing because sometimes the prodigal sons are on the other side of the road going down to the pigpen. To add to the confusion, sometimes a pig will get out of the pigpen and go up to the Father’s house. But he is a pighe won’t like it there. He may get all washed and cleaned up and become very religious. Sometimes he may even be made a deacon in the church. You just can’t tell because he’s all cleaned up on the outside; but inside he has the heart of a pig, and a pig loves the mire. One time a lady came to me and said, “I used to know this man back East when he was a superintendent of a Sunday school and a deacon in the church. He’s here on the West Coast now. He’s drinking, he’s divorced his wife, and he’s running around. Is he saved or not?” I told her I didn’t know, and she said, “You mean that you are a preacher and you don’t know whether that man is saved or not?” I said, “No, I really don’t know. I couldn’t tell you, because all I can see is the outside. But I’ll tell you what we’ll do. We are in this great metropolitan area where there is a road with a pigpen at one end of it and the Father’s house at the other end. I’ve learned that, if you wait long enough, all the pigs will go down to the pigpen and all the prodigal sons will go home to the Father’s house. Just wait and see. If that man continues to live in the pigpen, we can know that he is a pigbecause Peter says that the pig that was washed has now returned to her wallowing in the mire.” This is the mark of the apostate, and it is a frightful picture. I know of no more frightful picture in the Word of God other than chapter 18 of the Book of Revelation. I will conclude with a poem written by a friend who heard me preach on this subject of the prodigal pig. A PIG IS A PIG “Come home with me,” said the prodigal son. “We’ll sing and dance and have lots of fun. “We’ll wine and dine with women and song. You’ll forget you’re a pig before very long.” So the pig slipped out while the momma was asleep, Shook off the mud from the mire so deep. Around his neck was a bow so big, He’s gonna show the world, a pig’s not a pig! With his snout in the air he trotted along, With the prodigal son who was singin’ a song. It must be great to be a rich man’s son, He would surely find out ‘fore the day was done! It didn’t take him long to realize his mistake He’d been scrubbed and rubbed till his muscles ached! He squealed when they put a gold ring in his nose And winced with pain when they trimmed his toes. He sat at the table on a stool so high, A bib around his neck and a fork to try, While the prodigal son, in his lovely robe, Kept feeding his face, so glad to be home! When the meat came around, the pig gave a moan It looked too much like a kind of his own. He jumped from his chair with a grunt and a groan, Darted through the door and headed for home. His four little feet made the dust ride high For he didn’t stop till he reached that sty! It’s what’s on the inside that counts, my friend, For a pig is a pig to the very end! Evelyn C. Sanders