But There Will Be Lies – 2 Peter 2:1-10

But There Will Be Lies: 2 Peter 2:1-10

This was my second sermon in a summer series by men who wanted to preach on a favorite passage. My first was on the end of 2 Peter 1 and the authority of God’s word. Peter was writing to his children in the faith, knowing his life was ending, and told them to remember that we can live in a divine nature, like Christ, because of the righteousness he gave us, through the power of God’s word. In chapter 2 comes a warning that things will try to keep us from that. They are lies.

We Must Carefully Identify Lies

Verse 1: “false prophets also arose among the people.” The word means pseudo prophets, fakes. My teenagers know about fake sneakers called dupes. There were false prophets in Israel, and there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly bring in destructive heresies. A good false teacher does not say, I don’t believe the Bible, but listen to me. They smuggle it in. “Lies are universally destructive,” for the one who tells them and the one who believes. And the culture seeps into the church. “A good lie is something we usually want to believe.” If we did not want it, it would not be powerful. Verse 1 says they deny the master who bought them. The most harmful lies break down our relationship with Jesus. We do not get to decide whether we like a verse, because God’s word is the authority, our foundation.

Satan did the same in Genesis 3:1: “Did God actually say…?” He does not say God lied. He asks us to question. Every lie in the church breaks down faith, the unity of the body, families, and relationships. Those who tell and believe them, if they do not repent, bring upon themselves swift destruction.

Verse 2: many will follow their sensuality, what appeals to our senses and makes us feel good. The way of truth is blasphemed. These lies smooth out the edges of Scripture. Today your sexuality is treated as your identity. God created male and female, and a husband and wife are a picture of Christ and the church. When someone asks why it is wrong for two people who love each other to be together, part of us thinks, I see why they say that. But it matters because the Creator made the world a certain way, and he is the authority. We may try to smooth the edges to be less judgy. Peter says it does the opposite: it makes the gospel a joke.

Verse 3: in their greed they will exploit you with false words. They make a business of what is free. A salesman tells you how his product will make your life better. “We don’t sell the gospel like you might sell an appliance.” We tell people what God’s word says, that we are all sinners separated from a holy God, and Jesus makes things right, by faith and repentance. That does not make people happy unless the Spirit is working. Some TV millionaires make a business of a false gospel. Their condemnation is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. It may seem that way to us, like David watching the wicked prosper. But God says, I have this.

We must constantly ask why we believe what we believe. Is it Scripture, or tradition, my parents, my experience? In John 17:17, Jesus prays, sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. If God’s word can be manipulated, we have nothing. “It stabilizes the believer’s life.” When we treasure the world, a car, a job, or acceptance, the target keeps changing. When we treasure Jesus, he never changes. We are pressured to accept lies about sexuality, including pornography and sexual relations outside marriage. God says no and we believe him. We can be tempted by lies about marriage, thinking, if I could get out of this marriage I would be happy, or that I can keep God as one piece of my pie. He says give me your whole life.

Stay Close to God (Verses 4-10)

Peter gives the solution in two examples. Verse 4: God did not spare the angels who sinned. Verse 5: he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others. In a world where everyone did what was right in their own eyes, eight did not believe the lie. Preserved means guarded. If a stray dog came at your kids, you would pull them close and put yourself in the way. That is what God did for Noah. Verse 6: he turned Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes. Their sin was so well known that we use the word sodomy thousands of years later. I wonder what our culture will be known for. Being in the church does not make us immune.

Verse 7: he rescued righteous Lot, distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked. Lot was not supposed to be in Sodom, and he made many bad decisions, including offering his daughters. But his heart had been changed, and it bothered him. God drew him close even when he was not drawing himself to God. We put ourselves in bad situations, and God draws us close. Noah and Lot show that “God does not guard and preserve his people because they’re perfect he guards and preserves his people because he is good and because he gives us his righteousness.” “I don’t have to be perfect in myself to be protected from the lies that can destroy but my god is perfect despite my imperfections.” Verse 9: the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials.

So stay close to God in his word and prayer, daily. Don’t coast in your relationship. Jonathan Edwards preached about falling into the hands of an angry God, but this morning, “what a peaceful and safe place to live in the arms of a loving savior.”