Peter Warns All Believers Against False Teachers Within and Exhorts Us to be Steadfast Volume 18

Their are False Teachers of the Bible in Visible Christianity Part 3 2 Peter 2:3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. KJV Note: NKJV=New King 👑James Version The Apostle Peter called the way of the false teacher as lascivious, that is, driven by lustful desires not only for immoral sex which is most emphatically against the will of the true God (1 Thessalonians 4:3:7 as we declared in Volume 17, but those lustful desires also breed greed for wealth/money and popularity and praise from many people because of their self-aggrandizement that is, the act of increasing the wealth, prestige, power or scope of someone. It is so ironic that our Lord Jesus said that this world and the people who make up it would not love those of us who are His true adopted sons and daughters who declare His truth without compromise, as it is spoken directly from the mouth of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, "'If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also." (John 15:18-20) (NKJV). The idea here is that Christ Jesus our Lord did not become a man and live a perfect sinless life and then willingly die on a Cross for the sins of the whole world to make Himself popular with the world, but instead He did all of this that some would look to Him on Calvary and be pierced by their own sinfulness and turn from their sin (repent) to Him and be healed and made a new creation by Him (2 Corinthians 5:17). The false teacher and the false christian knows of this truth, but instead of yielding (repenting) they chose the gratifying of their fallen nature and rejected, refused, and resisted being made new. Therefore, their lives are lives of spiritual blackness and as Peter will say later on in this same Chapter they are 'wells without water' (2 Peter 2:17) dry wells who are useless and good for nothing pleasing to the One True God for they have no part with Him. Now the Apostle declares to us that these useless dry wells will make merchandise of people created in God's image, for they will not care about those people's eternal soul, but instead they will use made up words flattering speech to draw people to themselves to build up their kingdom here on the earth 🌎. Here is exactly how Peter words it for us, "And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not." (2 Peter 2:3) (KJV). Here is how the NLT (New Living Translation) words it, "In their greed they will make up clever lies to get hold of your money. But God condemned them long ago, and their destruction will not be delayed. (2 Peter 2:3) (NLT). In the KJV the English word 'feigned' is translated by the Greek word plastos which is used this one time only in the New Testament and means moulded, that is, (by implication) artificial or (figuratively) fictitious (false): - feigned. In other words, nothing these people say or write comes through illumination by God the Holy Spirit who is the Author of the Word of God. As we said in Volumes 16 & 17 when you are not illuminated by the Spirit of God 'in you' then your words will be fictitious, that is, words formed or conceived by your own rotten imagination; pretended words or made up words usually meant for the gratifying of the flesh (or fallen nature from Adam). These false teachers turn their converts into merchandise, that is, a product to be used for their own greedy profit. Simon the sorcerer in Acts Chapter 8 who got baptized in water and said he believed thought that he could buy or purchase the Holy Spirit with money for his own greed for supernatural power and to use said power to make money for himself, as it is written of him, "But there was a certain man called Simon, who previously practiced sorcery in the city and astonished the people of Samaria, claiming that he was someone great, to whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, 'This man is the great power of God.' And they heeded him because he had astonished them with his sorceries for a long time. But when they believed Philip as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized. Then Simon himself also believed; and when he was baptized he continued with Philip, and was amazed, seeing the miracles and signs which were done. Now when the Apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the Word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, who, when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For as yet He had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. And when Simon saw that through the laying on of the Apostles' hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money, saying, 'Give me this power also, that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit.' But Peter said to him, 'Your money perish with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money! You have neither part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this your wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity.'" (Acts 8:9-23) (NKJV). You see the gift of God is a free gift 📦which cannot be earned by good deeds or doing good or trying to be good, nor can the gift of the Holy Spirit be bought with human money 💵, for as it is written from the lips of our Lord Jesus Himself, "'So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!'" (Luke 11:9-13) (NKJV). The graciousness and goodness and generosity of God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit is tremendous, yet it does not outweigh His Justice and His Righteousness and His Holiness, therefore, these false teachers and false christians will receive what they wanted and that being eternal forever separation from God. Because God is Omniscient He has known who these false teachers and false christians are before anything was made or created by Him (don't ask me to explain this for I cannot but I believe it) and their eternal damnation in Hell first and then when He (God) flings Hell into the Lake of Fire 🔥. He is a loving God and He wants to see no souls there, but He is at the same time ⌚a Just God and all who reject or refuse or resist His only means to be brought into fellowship with Him (by the Blood of Christ) will receive said eternal vengeance and punishment because He provided a substitute for sin, yet these false teachers and false christians would not have Him instead they did just as the Apostle Paul warned brother Timothy in his first letter to him with these words, "Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron," (1 Timothy 4:1-2) (NKJV) and in so doing their eternal future is sealed. Here is what Matthew Henry had to say of 2 Peter 2:3, "Observe, in the next place, the method seducers take to draw disciples after them: they use feigned words; they flatter, and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple, inducing them to yield entirely to the opinions which these seducers endeavour to propagate, and sell and deliver themselves over to the instruction and government of these false teachers, who make a gain of those whom they make their proselytes/converts, serving themselves and making some advantage of them; for all this is through covetousness, with a desire and design to get more wealth, or credit, or commendation, by increasing the number of their followers. The faithful ministers of Christ, who show men the way of truth, desire the profit and advantage of their followers, that they may be saved; but these seducing teachers desire and design only their own temporal advantage and worldly grandeur. Men are apt to think that a reprieve is the forerunner of a pardon, and that if judgment be not speedily executed it is, or will be, certainly reversed. But the Apostle tells us that how successful and prosperous soever false teachers may be, and that for a time, yet their judgment lingereth not. God has determined long ago how he will deal with them. Such unbelievers, who endeavour to turn others from the faith, are condemned already, and the wrath of God abideth on them. The righteous Judge will speedily take vengeance; the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste. To prove this assertion, here are several examples of the righteous judgment of God, in taking vengeance on sinners, proposed to our serious consideration." Here also is what the Expositor's Bible Commentary had to say of 2 Peter 2:3, "'And in covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you.' St. Paul in writing to Timothy gives a comment which throws much light on these words. He tells of men who consent not to sound words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, thus denying the Master that bought them. He speaks of them as bereft of the truth, supposing that godliness is a way of gain; and he adds, 'They that desire to be rich fall into a temptation and a snare, and many foolish and hurtful lusts, such as drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, which some reaching after have been led astray from the faith, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows.' (1Timothy 6:3-10). From the first days of the Church's history we see, from the instances of Ananias and Sapphira, and of Simon, with his offer of money to the Apostles, that both among the disciples and the would-be teachers covetousness made itself very apparent. The communistic basis on which the society was constituted lent itself to the schemes of those who desired to make a gain of their Christian profession. In the time when St. Peter wrote the evil had spread. Teachers were discovering that, by a modification or adaptation of the Christian language and doctrines, they could draw after them many followers. These were the feigned words to which the Apostle alludes, and the contributions of their satisfied hearers were proving a gainful merchandise. The Gnostic teachers were of various sorts, but of all alike the language was boastful as coming of superior insight; great, swelling words they spake, having men's persons in regard because of the prospects of advantage. The evil was a sore one, and is so wherever it finds entry. And later ages have also known somewhat of its mischief. It is the wisdom of all Christian communities so to order themselves that their teachers and guides may be safe from this temptation. For such teachers do not stop at small beginnings of error, but prophesy smooth things, and close their eyes at evil; nay, in this case they seem to have encouraged sensual living, as though it were an indication of the freedom of which they boasted. 'Whose sentence now from of old lingereth not, and their destruction slumbereth not.' In thought the Apostle reads the book of prophecy. It is as if he said, 'It is written in the prophetic word.' And when the overthrow of the sinners comes to pass, those who behold it may say, 'Thus is the prophecy fulfilled.' The doom of such sinners is sure. They may seem to live their lives with impunity, for a while, as though God's eternal law were inoperative; but the issue is certain. None such escape. God's mills grind slowly, but they grind exceeding small. And the lot of such men is destruction. Of illustrations the Apostle chooses three, applying each to a different vice of these teachers of error. These men were proud; so were the angels that sinned, but their pride was only a prelude to their fall. These men were disobedient; so were the antediluvian sinners, and would neither hearken nor turn, and so the Flood came and swept them all away. These men were sensual; so were the dwellers in the Cities of the Plain, and their overthrow remains still a memorial of God's wrath against such sinners. Verily the sentence of all such men is written from of old." If you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ and His amazing healing power, pray this from your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ (you speaking directly to Him), Dear Lord Jesus, I confess to You that I am a sinner and I need Your forgiveness. I believe You shed Your Blood and died for my sins. I believe that You rose from the dead proving that You alone are God. I repent of my sins. I want to turn from my sins. I ask You Dear Lord Jesus to come into my heart and take control of my life. I want You to be my Lord, Savior, and my God. Amen...