Truth Wins

Introduction

What is the basis of confidence? How do you know that something is true? These are not two different questions. They are instead questions that build on each other. If you know something to be true then confidence follows. For instance, if you know that 2 + 2 = 4, then in confidence you reject any attempt to say it is something else. How many legs does a cow have? Four. If we say the cow’s tail is a leg. Now how many legs does a cow have? Still four. Calling a tail a leg doesn’t change the truth that a tail is not a leg.

But our culture has eliminated the second question. The quest for truth is no longer pursued in our culture. Truth has become whatever I say it is. I can say a cow has five legs if I believe that the tail is an additional leg. While we may scoff at such a view, this represents our culture’s perspective. Truth has become personal not objective. Truth is circumstantial and situational. Truth is relative. Such views are not new. Cultures throughout history have often seen truth as nebulous and a moving target. Is it any wonder that folks struggle to find confidence and assurance? Where is dependability? Social justice and personal integrity are lost in the absence of truth. Thus, people have no confidence in the judicial system or in fellow human beings. What is left is a fractured society and empty words centered on trusting yourself and your heart.

Do you know that such a view was taking place when Peter wrote his 2 letter. Believers were growing uncertain. Surrounded by circumstances that did not inspire confidence and infiltrated by false teachers who espoused uncertainty, Peter writes so that we can be sure about our salvation. 1:10–11, Peter wants his readers to be sure about their position with God and live in anticipation of being with God forever. Here’s the point — surrounded as we are with the lack of searching for real truth, there is final and complete assurance in our faith with God. We can know that we belong to God. Let’s sing of that certainty.

False Teachers

Chapter 2 is not a pleasant chapter to read. It is filled with language that is direct and ugly in its description. Peter identifies the false teachers, not by name, but by character and explains what will happen to these false teachers. It is not a pleasant picture to read, but it is intended to inspire confidence for those who belong to God. The false teachers will not stand against God. The day is coming when there will be a judgment and God will destroy them. Peter describes these false teachers in very clear language. In 2:1, he says that at some point they were bought by Jesus but now they deny him. They engage in immorality (shameful ways of vs. 2) and they are greedy (vs. 3). Additionally, they share in their feasts with them (v. 13).

Peter’s description is extremely graphic in verses 10ff. He describes them as:

Arrogant (v. 10)

Slanderers (v. 10)

Blasphemers (v. 12)

Brute beasts (v. 12)

Blots and blemishes (v. 13)

Adulterous (v. 14)

Seducers (v. 14)

Boastful (v. 18)

Peter goes on to point out that their ultimate end is destruction and placement in the blackest of darkness. They will not escape God’s judgment. As God judge other evil beings in the past and preserved the righteous in the midst of that judgment, God will be able to deal with these false teachers while preserving the righteous for his glory. This entire chapter is designed to warn and encourage at the same time. The pressure that is being applied by these false teachers must be met with the confidence of people who are going to abide by the truth even though these false teachers are extremely persuasive.

False Messages

How is that these false teachers are welcomed at their feasts? In verse 13 these false teachers are present with them. Some believe this is a reference to their meals shared together to remember Jesus’ death and resurrection. The point is these teachers who deny the sovereignty of Jesus yet join with believers in times of feasting to remember Jesus. How is this possible? How is it that these false teachers remain in the place where their faith is not in Jesus? How do these false teachers get a hearing at all?

Now we see why Peter wanted his readers at the end of chapter one to immerse themselves in the prophets written word as well to remember that his eyewitness testimony took precedence over another teaching. If we are not firmly grounded in truth then any teaching that appeals to us can find its way into our heart. These false teachers’ message involved at least two things that would have appealed to others.

First, they taught that God had no desire to punish anyone. According to Peter these false teachers deny God’s sovereignty (meaning they deny the power of God to deal with evil) and they slander celestial beings (v. 10) meaning they deny the spiritual world. In other words, these teachers instruct that God is not God at all; that God has no interest in the spiritual battle of good and evil. There will be no judgment. This message would have appealed to any number of believers for various reasons. Just as it appeals to believers today. How can God condemn anyone? We want God at least be passive but more than anything we want a God who sentimentally loves deeply and would never send anyone to eternal destruction.

This same message is found today among believers. It is a false message. It is a heretical message. It is not a message of hope; it is a message devoid of hope. For this message means that God is not God. There isn’t a holy God who deals with sin. It means that Jesus’ death on the cross was meaningless. If God saves all, then live life the way you want.

This is the second message and it coincides with the first. If there is no judgment and God has no stomach for sending people into eternal destruction then live as you want. In this case, the false teachers instructed to live sexually free lives. This message, too, has wormed its way into not only our culture but into the hearts of believers. As one spouse leaves another, the sexually immoral person confesses that God wants them to be happy. After all, God is the one who brought this person into my life. The single person who struggles to control sexual desires announces that God is the one who gave such feelings and we know that God doesn’t endorse loneliness so I will find someone to live with. Sexual immorality is not new, but God has reserved sexual activity between a man and a woman within marriage. Anything outside of God’s plan is against God’s will.

Peter’s answer to this message. God will judge. We saw how God judged the angels; we saw how God judged in the days of Noah; we saw God judge Sodom and Gomorrah. If he did it before, he will do it again. In the meantime, according to verse 2 do not allow the false teachers to distort the truth. Your confidence about God’s final judgment is based on what God has done before. He has promised that he will judge again and it will be a final judgment. Until then remain committed to the truth and allow that truth to keep you confident about your relationship with God. Make no mistake, God will judge and he will not judge sentimentally but with a holy judgment. Invitation.

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