2 Peter 2:17-22 Take Care! There Will Be False Teachers Among You Part 2

2 Peter 2:17-22 Take Care! There Will Be False Teachers Among You Part 2

October 9, 2022

Message by Paul Mermilliod

2 Peter 2:17-22
[17] These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. [18] For, speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. [19] They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. [20] For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. [21] For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. [22] What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”
 

Big Truth:
Take Care! There Will Be False Teachers Among You

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 
2 Peter 2:1

These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. 
2 Peter 2:17
 
You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. 
2 Peter 3:17
 

Big Idea:
The message of false teaching is alluring, yet empty. (2:17-18)

  • “Waterless springs”: They offer life, but are empty.
  • “Mists driven by a storm”: They promise clarity, but operate in ambiguity. 
  • “Loud boasts of folly”: They are loud in their opinions, but quiet regarding the truth of God’s Word. 
  • “Entice by sensual passions of the flesh”: They appeal to our desires. 
  • “Entice… those barely escaping”: They appeal to new and coasting Christians.
 

Big Idea:
False teaching promises freedom, but results in slavery. (2:19)

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery… For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 
Galatians 5:1, 13
 
For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. 
Romans 6:20-23
 

Big Idea:
False teaching leads to eternal judgment because it is a rejection of Jesus. (2:20-22)

They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. 
1 John 2:19
 
For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. 
Hebrews 10:26-31
 
Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
John 4:13-14
 
On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” 
John 7:37-38