Sermon Tone Analysis

2 Peter 2:10-22

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stephen Caswell © 2004

Apostasy Of Glide Memorial Church

 

Glide Memorial Methodist Church in San Francisco has this Call to Worship in their printed bulletin on Sunday and recited by the leader:* *We are all of us Christians; Jews, liberals, Bolsheviks, anarchists, socialists, Communists, Keynesians, Democrats, Civil Righters, Beatniks, ministers, moderate Republicans, pacifists, teach-inners, doctors, scientists, professors, Latin Americans, New Africans, Common Marketers, even Mao Tse-Tung.

Doubtless.

From Lyndon Johnson to Mao Tse-Tung, we are all Christians.

This church once preached the Gospel and from which, several decades ago, a most powerful evangelistic note was sounded.

Today, many of its services are performed in the mode of the modern dance.

Suggestive gyrations are indulged in and the church has become a haven for dope addicts, hippies, homosexuals, and sex-pots.

Last time we looked at 2 Peter we saw how Peter exposed false teachers.

He described their characteristics in the Christian Church.

They deceive people for personal gain.

The Lord has judged them in the past and will do so again.

Tonight, Peter continues his attack on these apostates.

Peter describes them as Marked Men awaiting God's judgment.

Tonight we will see two things about these marked men.*/

They Have Rejected Authority & They Have Run Astray /*

 

1.

They Have Rejected Authority

/ /

/a.

Adultery/

/ /

*2 Peter/ /2:10-14:* /And especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority.

They are presumptuous, self-willed.

Having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls.

They have a heart trained in covetous practices, and are accursed children./

/ /

/How have the false teachers rejected authority?

/By disobeying God’s commandments concerning salvation and the ministry.

They reject moral purity to satisfy their own lusts.

*2 Peter 2:14* makes it clear that the apostates attend the church meetings for two reasons: */firstly/*, to satisfy their own lusts; */secondly/*, to capture converts for their cause.

They keep their eyes open, looking for loose women whom they can entice into sin.

Paul warned about similar apostates who creep into houses and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with diverse lusts.

*2 Timothy 3:6.*

More than one minister has used religion as a cloak to cover his own lusts.

Some women, in particular, are vulnerable in counseling sessions, and these men take advantage of them.

Many religious leaders in recent years have been caught in adultery.

Jim Bakker, Jim Swaghert, Jim Jones are just a few who have displayed this kind of lust.

The founders of the Mormons and the Jehovah's Witnesses were both immoral men.

The satisfying of their lusts is the false teachers’ main ambition: they /cannot cease from sin./

The verb suggests /they are unable to stop./

/Why?/ *2 Peter 2:18-19* says that they are in bondage.

The apostates consider themselves to be free, yet they are in the worst kind of slavery.

They are slaves to money and adultery.

Not only are they enslaved but they enslave others too.

*/Beguiling/* unstable souls presents the picture of a fisherman baiting a hook or a hunter baiting a trap.

The same image is used in *James 1:14* where James presents temptation as the baiting of the trap.

Satan knows that he could never trap us unless there is some fine bait to attract us in the first place.

Satan promised Eve that she and Adam would become like gods if they ate of the forbidden tree, and they took the bait and were trapped./

/

/ /

X-Rated Sermon

 

In Richardson, Texas, they’re still talking about the worldly ways of the First Unitarian Church.

On a recent Sunday, Pastor William Nichols invited Diana King, a Unitarian from Fort Worth, to take part in the service.

She did, and when she was through, Miss King, an exotic dancer at a Dallas nightspot, was wearing only underwear.

The congregation of 200 adults and children watched in fascinated silence as she shed her clothes in time with recorded music.*

*Nichols said the dance fitted very well into their service and nobody complained.

Miss King said it was something she had wanted to do for a long time, and she would like to conduct classes for women church members.

I would like to do a sermon using the exotic dance, and members of the congregation could join me if they liked, she commented.

Today many churches have been seduced by false teachers!

/ /

/b.

Blasphemy/

 

*2 Peter 2:10:* /And especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority.

They are presumptuous, self-willed.

/

 

*/Firstly, false teachers speak corruptly when they despise God's leaders./*

The picture here is one of proud people who try to build themselves up as they tear down everybody else.

They show no respect for authority and are not afraid to attack and defame people in high positions.

*/They attack anyone who questions their behavior, teaching or their ministry./*

God has established authority in this world, and when men resist it they are in fact resisting God.

God has established authority in the home, in the Church and in society.

*/These apostates reject all authority so that they can indulge their own fleshly desires./*

They want freedom to live as they please.

They have no concern about hurting others while they satisfy their own lusts.

*2 Peter 2:10b-12:* /They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries.

Whereas angels, who are greater in power and might, do not bring a reviling accusation against them before the Lord.

But these, like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand, and will utterly perish in their own corruption./

*/Secondly, these apostates revile even the angels!/*

And they do not even tremble when they do it!

The word */dignities/* *δόξα* literally means*/ glorious ones/* and refers to the angels.

They are so secure in their pride, that they even dare God to judge them.

Angels don't speak evil of the wicked but leave all judgment with God.

*Jude 6-8* speaks about how Michael the archangel confronted Satan where, /he said the Lord rebuke you.

/But these apostates make a lot of noise about things they know nothing about!

The Phillips Translation says, /they/ /scoff at things outside their own experience./

These false teachers don't understand spiritual things because they are so worldly.

But that doesn't stop them ridiculing what they don't understand.

When her pupils were noisy in class, one of my teachers used to say, /empty barrels make the most noise!/

And so they do!

These apostates behave like wild animals and God will judge them as such.

Mad dogs are put down lest they harm others.

This will happen to these false teachers.

/c.

Covetousness/

 

*2 Peter 2:13, 14b: */And will receive the *wages* of unrighteousness, as those who count it pleasure to carouse in the daytime.

They are spots and blemishes, carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you.

They have a heart trained in covetous practices, and are accursed children./

/ /

*/1.

Luxury: /*These false teachers enjoy living the high life.

The words translated riot and sporting carry the meaning of sensual reveling.

They also contain the idea of luxury, softness, and extravagance.

At the expense of those who support them, the apostates enjoy luxurious living.

*/In our own society, there are preachers who plead for funds for their ministries while they live in expensive houses, drive luxury cars, and wear costly clothes.

They eat at the finest restaurants and their followers pay for it all.

/*When we remember that Jesus became poor in order to make us rich, their extravagant lifestyle seems out of place with New Testament Christianity.

Not only do they deceive others, but they even deceive themselves!

They can prove from the Bible that their lifestyle is right.