Chapter 2
1-3 Description of the danger
4-9 Examples of judgment and salvation
10-12 Character relating to authority
13-17 Character relating to morality
18-19 Character relating to ministry
20-22 Description of the damage
Introduction:
- Let us get started right on this chapter and this subject … God must be worshipped in truth (John 4:20-24).
- There has been a war against truth since Satan lied in Eden and Cain killed his brother Abel for holding to truth.
- Truth is God’s ways and God’s will from God’s word applied to every part of life without human compromise.
- We through our first parents chose a lie over truth to our great shame, death, and continued corruption of truth.
- Truth can be altered or even reversed with a change of a single word of the more sure word of prophecy (1:19).
- Violation of truth led an entire race to damnation … or it can leave you ashamed and confounded before Christ.
- Neglect of truth brings judgment of lies; Christians are turning from truth to fables instead of defending truth.
- There has been a very small remnant in the history of the world from Abel to the last soul that has held truth.
- Every choice we make is either following and furthering the truth or denigrating and departing from the truth.
- Knowing truth should cause thanksgiving for it, prayer for more, diligence in seeking it, and zeal in defending.
- The rage in church growth has been called the “seeker sensitive” movement, which waters down the gospel, substitutes entertainment, and allows most any lifestyle to attract and keep unregenerate and carnal Christians.
- Joel Osteen and Lakewood Church, Rick Warren and Saddleback Church, and Bill Hybels and Willow Creek Community Church are the big names, but seeker sensitive compromise has infected most churches.
- We have in our city churches no longer willing to be called Baptists or churches i.e. Fellowship Greenville.
- We have had a large Baptist church billboard, “If you come back, we promise not to throw the book at you!”
- The greatest enemy we face is carnal Christianity, worldly living, sinful compromise, and diluted devotion.
- We are living in the perilous times of the last days (II Tim 3:1 – 4:4), but this prophecy adds details to Paul’s.
- The key is in 2:19, where false teachers promise liberty, the lascivious grace of Jude 1:4 and Joseph Prince.
- There are two groups of people in this chapter – the teachers and their hearers – traced by pronouns in 2:18-22.
- There will be a temptation to get excited about tracing pronouns and antecedents, but we stress the warning.
- Peter was very intense about frequently reminding the saints against carnal and fruitless living (1:12-15; 3:1).
- As in the rest of the New Testament, there is warning here of regenerate saints backsliding in sin (1:9; 3:17).
- The lesson we must receive is to earnestly contend against false teachers and carnal living (Jude 1:3-4,20-23).
- We live in exceeding dangerous times, when the Christian world is spewing a lascivious and carnal brand of religion, which we must resist with all our might and not let it spot us with false brethren or false practices.
- There are several ditches we must avoid when we study chapters like this in light of those returning to sin.
- Ditch #1: there is a great crowd of unconverted elect wandering around that just don’t know any better: this error assumes everyone in the chapter is a born again child of God, simply unconverted or living carnally.
- Ditch #2: anyone returning to live in sin was not born again or saved in the first place, for it is impossible: these maintain that God has generally guaranteed that all the elect will progress in holiness through life; therefore they teach that there are no elect or regenerate saints in this chapter, all are false professors.
- These are the large two ditches of Antinomianism and Universalism (#1) and Calvinistic Fatalism (#2).
- Ditch #3: as long as one has invited Jesus into his heart, he is saved forever, no matter how he might live: these promote emotional decisions for eternal life with little regard for holy living or opposing the world.
- Ditch #4: God loves all his children as they are, and hell is just an invention of angry old theologians: these believe all men are going to heaven, and this chapter is fear mongering of questionable authenticity.
- These are the large two ditches of Arminianism and Decisional Regeneration (#3) and Universalism (#4).
- The truth of the matter is that God guaranteed eternal life for the elect, but they can still ruin their lives.
- The truth of the matter is that ministers – faithful or false – can seriously affect their hearers (I Tim 4:16).
- The truth of the matter is that discipleship is a duty of each believer, without which he will fall into sin.
- The truth of the matter is that the grace of God can be squandered and God’s elect can miss God’s best.
- The truth of the matter is that if we cannot be entangled again in sin, we should relax and take life easy.
- The truth of the matter is that if God has guaranteed our holy living, then these warnings are a cruel hoax.
- The truth of the matter is that many false teachers would arise by Satan’s working to devour true saints.
- We must reject any and all semblance of fatalism that trusts God to deliver lazy saints from false, foolish living.
- If you do not apply yourself using the grace of God, you will fail of God’s grace and make shipwreck.
- God warned often that elect saints can backslide and fall horribly into sin (II Peter 1:9; 3:17; Gen 19:1-38; I Kgs 11:1-11; I Cor 9:27; 10:1-11; 11:30; 15:2,33-4; II Cor 6:1; 11:3-4; Gal 5:4; 6:1; Eph 5:14-17; Col 2:4,8,18; I Tim 4:16; 5:6,11-13; 6:6-10; II Tim 2:16-18; Heb 2:1-4; 3:12-13; 4:1,11; 6:4-6; 10:26-31; 12:26-29; James 3:14-18; 4:1-10; 5:19-20; II Pet 1:9; 3:17; Rev 3:14-22).
- Since II Peter 2 has a cousin chapter in Jude, you should not read or study the one without the other; and you may revel in the great similarity of these two epistles written by different men, but inspired by one Author!
- For the identity and glory of truth … What Is Truth?
- For the value of truth … Truth is Fallen in the Streets.
- For Pillar and Ground of the Truth.
- For a thorough review of True and False Grace.
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