2 Peter 3:8-13 A Thousand Years A Day!

2 Peter 3:8-13  But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.  The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness.  Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.  But the day of the Lord will come like a thief.  The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.  Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be?  You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.  That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat.  But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.
Before atom bombs and the possibility of nuclear warfare, man could not envision the elements destroyed by fire or everything laid bare.  Now we realize that man can bring about devastating disaster.  With man’s innate inclination towards conflict, this kind of destruction could very well happen.  Since the beginning, man has struggled with his desire to hurt others for his own perceived benefit.  In the advancement of civilization, mankind’s tendency toward evil has motivated him to gain an advantage over others.  Of course as Paul states, this attitude spawns from the sin in man’s heart.  Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done.  They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; THEY INVENT WAYS OF DOING EVIL.  (Romans 1:28-30)  Mankind chafes under these descriptions in the Bible because people want to believe that there is precious gold and silver in us.  If we bring out the goodness in each of us, then we will do good and not evil; then we will be cooperative and caring with empathy abounding in us.  Almost every cult and wayward religion sees this seeking of the good in mankind as the way to God and righteousness.  Of course that doctrine is antichrist in its foundation, the very opposite of God’s word.  Jesus said you must be born again, claiming that man cannot salvage himself by his own efforts.  A fallen people must have a new life, a different life, a transformed life; and that born-again life comes only from the giver of life: Jesus Christ.  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  In him WAS LIFE, and that life was the light of all mankind.  (John 1:1-3)  Nothing in creation was made or existed outside of God.  Life itself is in God.  IN JESUS CHRIST, the Creator of all things, we have been given a new life that is acceptable to God in his holy state.  As the Bible says, In him (Jesus) was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.  (John 1:4)  For the secular world, this God-centered thinking is foolishness.  They are very troubled to the point they want to ridicule or to destroy the testimony of anyone who holds those thoughts.  Today in many parts of the world, Christians can lose their lives by speaking of Jesus and his transforming power.  Elsewhere, believers are readily persecuted, making their daily lives difficult.  In our progressive and sophisticated first-world countries, the message of Christianity is ridiculed and mocked as Peter predicted.  Where is this Jesus you claim all powerful?  Where is his second coming?  Has he been sleeping or is He too busy to consider the world and its problems?  Because of the language oneness of the computer, people race to replace God in the minds of humans, attempting even to produce life from inanimate elements.  But the internal condition of the civilized, sophisticated man and even the so-called primitive man remains the same: disharmony, disruption, destruction, warfare.  To know fully what mankind is like, look at the world at the present— see what is happening in every country, ethnic group, and race.  You will find approximately the same situation: disharmony, hurt, violence, corruption, and killing.  Mankind has never been able to heal itself.  History is full of the accounts of horrendous, evil acts.  People, nations have been destroyed throughout the millenniums, and now we have the power to wipe out all life on this planet.  Two or three people could make decisions that would annihilate everything on Earth.

In today’s focus, Peter reminds us of the timelessness of God.  He makes this concept understandable by using time: But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.  The idea of time helps us in many ways.  We measure distance, speed, and size by using time.  We orient the sequence and the structure of our lives by using time.  We know if we are young or old by using time.  Time confronts every part of our lives.  Yet God is timeless—without beginning or ending.  This throws our rational ideas out of the window.  We cannot even conceive of such an existence.  So we tend to confront spiritual realities by using time.  The scoffers use time as the basis for their disbelief.  God must not exist or we would find him someplace in the universe or in the galaxies.  But our understanding of the realities of space are based on time: distances and the largeness of space are determined by light-years.  But God does exist and we who are people of faith enter into that dominion, trusting in our God.  In fact there is no other gate to a relationship with God other than faith in Jesus Christ.  As Paul said, I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.  The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.  (Galatians 2:20)  Christ is our only hope.  Peter is talking about the end times and that God has delayed Jesus’ return because He is not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.  Anyone who desires to have eternal life can escape the consequences of sin and death by believing in the One who gives life, who created life: Jesus Christ.  Heaven and Earth will pass away, will face total destruction.  But God is not caught in this construct of existence.  He is timeless and we will be with him.  The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.  Since this is a real possibility in our lifetime, what kind of lives should we be living: we ought to live holy and godly lives as we look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.  We should live lives of expectancy—looking for his return.  When we are sold out to God; this world will not have much for us.  But if we are in tune with everything in this world, we will live for the world and not be looking for Christ’s soon return.  In fact, his return will destroy the fixations of our lives.  Jesus points out true worship, true dedication to God, when He tells his disciples to observe the widow who has given her last mite to God.  Jesus said, Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others.  They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.  (Mark 12:43-44)  Serving God for the wealthy cost them nothing; for the widow, serving God cost everything.  Of the two: the widow and the prosperous, who will be looking for Christ returning?  Who will have set their affections on an eternal existence and not this one?
 
When we consider Jesus and his teachings, even in the beatitudes, we see Jesus talking about our next existence.  He talks about people’s rewards in the next life if they live this life in rightness, goodness and love.  The kingdom, the place of peace, is not yet theirs, but it is promised to them.  The people who mourn will be comforted in the next world.  God will bless the humble.  When?  Later!  The humble, those who desire justice, the merciful, the pure in heart, those who seek peace, the persecuted, the poor, will all receive their reward when they see God.  These are people who may have lived their lives in expectancy with the idea that God would recompense them at a future date.  (See Matthew 5:3-11)  This concept of delayed rewards was prominent in Jesus’ words and deeds.  This future existence impelled the apostles to look for Jesus’ imminent return.  They taught this idea to all of their followers, for they knew all things will be made right when He returns.  Jesus’ second coming will cause the world and its institutions to be turned upside down, switching everything from evil to goodness, from wrong to right.  But, we must desire that to happen.  Our lives should be lived in such a way that his return is always on our minds.  Most of us because we are not poor or persecuted do not look for Jesus’ imminent return, nor sadly, want him to return soon; for we cannot conceive, except for eternal life, how He can make our lives better.  If we are old or sick, we might be looking steadfastly for him.  But if we are healthy and full of vigor, our minds wander to other places — places that placate our fleshly desires.  But in reality, all Christians whether rich or poor, healthy or sick should be looking for the kingdom where righteousness dwells.  We should desire heaven.  If we do not, we are too much into this world.  Jesus told his disciples a parable about a nobleman who goes away and tells his servants, Occupy till I come.  (Luke 19:13)  Jesus is speaking of his going away and that we must do his work, but we are not to put our tent poles deep into this world’s soil.  At another time, Jesus called a man a fool who considered building another barn to store his grain without considering the temporariness of this world.  Christians should always be ready to move on as the Spirit leads.  In the wilderness, the Israelites were always ready to move, to follow the Holy Spirit.  By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night.  (Exodus 13:21)  When we get too comfortable, when the land is green around us and nourishing, when we find a good watering hole, we might long to stay in that camp, but God has a holy place ahead for us where all tears, all anxieties, all questions will exist no more.  We will be at home.  Yes, the world might be destroyed by fire, the elements might be burned up, all that is might disappear, but GOD REMAINS.  HOME REMAINS FOR ALL WHO HAVE PUT THEIR TRUST IN JESUS.  Do not fear breakfast companions: your place of safety in eternity is guaranteed.  Your ticket was paid in full by the shed blood of Jesus Christ.  

2 Peter 3:1-7 People of Faith

2 Peter 3:1-7  Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you.  I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking.  I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles.  Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires.  They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised?  Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.”  But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water.  By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed.  By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly

We who are IN CHRIST ARE PEOPLE OF FAITH.  The world cannot really believe the promise of faith in Christ: eternal life.  The wicked despise the further promise of faith: eventual judgment.  When Peter addressed the crowd after Pentecost, he referred to the prophecy of Joel, saying he was talking about their age, their day.  We know Peter was talking about his day as well as the days to come.  IN THE LAST DAYS, God says, I will pour out my Spirit upon all people.  Your sons and daughters will prophesy.  Your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams.  In those days (last days) I will pour out my Spirit even on my servants—men and women alike, and they will prophesy.  (Acts 2:17-18)  From the very beginning, people chose to disbelieve God’s creation of the earth and all living things.  Since creation, people’s failure to obey and to respect God brought them into wickedness, waywardness, and rebellion.  “Did God really say,” was the temptation that Adam and Eve could not reject.  (Genesis 3:1)  From the start, mankind was given the authority over all life on Earth.  The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.  (Genesis 2:15)  However, the Tree of Good and Evil was beyond their control.  The serpent used the knowledge of something kept from Adam and Eve to birth rebellion against God’s control.  As they sought to serve themselves rather than God, they made a decision beyond God’s will for them.  Because of their intransigent decision, God forced Adam and Eve out of the Garden.  Out in the world, rather that creating new life, we see Cain kill his brother.  His allegiance to mankind’s fallen nature brought death, not life.  Eventually, we find the fallen nature of the ancients brings cruelty and meanness to the world.  They forgot their Creator and did not accept the biblical account of creation: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters.  And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.  Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.  And God saw that the light was good.  Then he separated the light from the darkness.  God called the light “day” and the darkness “night.”  (Genesis 1:1-5)  In their wayward thinking, they made images and depictions of God, constructed from their own imaginations, including many gods.  Of course their god or gods would promote unbelief in the only true God and wipe out subservience to him alone.  As Paul writes, they knew better, but their rebellion to God took them away from the truth.  For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.  For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.  Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.  (Romans 1:20-23)  Paul knew their hearts had been darkened by their Adamic nature: they became their own authority, traveled their own way outside of God and his control.  

From the dawn of creation, mankind scoffed at God, living opposite of his nature of grace and mercy.  Violence and wickedness flooded the earth, causing God to destroy mankind in a flood.  Only Noah and his family were saved.  Even though the flood at God’s hands was in their history and culture, people continued in their rebellion against God.  We see them building the tower of Babel in an effort to be as God, to take the reins of creative authority away from the God of creation.  But God thwarted their efforts by providing in their community a variety of languages, breaking down the oneness in their attempts to build the tower.  Their efforts to be like God were disassembled.  But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building.  The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.  (Genesis 11:5-6)  The people God created in his image were so powerful in their creative ability that they could do anything they desired.  Their scoffing at God now was coming to fruition, replacing God with their own creation.  Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires.  From the beginning we see humans striving to be like God, developing a way of living different from God’s design.  The scoffing Peter describes is a scoffing that goes beyond a spiritual reality that there is any purpose to the design of man and to the creation of earth.  Where is this God?  Why should we respect anything about the so-called holy scriptures.  Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.  This idea that Jesus is coming back to Earth to gain control of mankind and to set things under God’s authority is silliness to the scoffers.  They say, we have gone through many millenniums since the prophets predicted the return of the Messiah to set up his kingdom.  Mankind rejects this message and the authority of God.  All through the generations there have been scoffers, people who have laughed at the idea that there is a God to serve, a God who determines the fate of whether men will live with him forever or not.  In our present time, this turning away from the theological determination of life is even more widespread.  The ancients left the God of creation and followed their own rebellious ways, making their own gods to follow, imaging their own wicked hearts and inclinations.  Today, the aspect that there is a God is in question worldwide.  Within the present culture in the elite, educated circles of the world, the sophistication and the understanding of the physical nature of existence has spawned many scoffers, many atheists.  People know more about the nature of things than ever.  We measure the stars and galaxies by light years to find their distances from us.  We can determine the ages of rocks by radioactivity.  DNA denotes our ancestry; our biological existence is better understood.  Our understanding of the physical nature of existence has not drawn us closer to God, but in fact has separated many from the idea that there is a God to serve and to glorify.  The scoffers in our day are even more fervent in their denunciation of God and his existence.  A recent poll in the United States of about 5,000 people indicated 56% of them believed in God.  What do the other 44% have as a foundation for their lives?

However, we who are IN CHRIST live not by the nature of things, or by the knowledge and wisdom of the world.  As the Bible says, For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight.  (1 Corinthians 3:19)  Paul goes on to say that God sees the best thoughts of the world as worthless, and we should not boast in them.  Certainly, understanding the physical nature of things is important and necessary to help us maneuver through life.  This knowledge gives us insight into life’s necessities on the planet Earth.  But this knowledge has no spiritual or eternal value.  We will never escape the surface of this planet if we place our hope on the wisdom and knowledge of mankind.  The scriptures point us to an eternal life, one that demands faith.  Faith has a reality all its own.  For we live by faith, not by sight.  (2 Corinthians 5:7)  We know from reading scripture that God met Abraham at least nine times, telling him that a new life was necessary if he was going to escape the nature of his idol worshipping ancestors.  God intervened in Abraham’s life.  God’s activity, even anthropomorphic activity, was necessary to bring to life a faith-driven existence for Abraham.  He believed in God rather than in his physical realities.  He believed that there was something more real than the realities of this physical world.  This faith of his in God’s word, brought God’s purposes in his life.  We who are CHRISTIANS believe in Christ’s work.  We read in the New Testament of Jesus’ works and teachings.  He was the Son of God in the flesh, walking and living as the flesh does.  As in Abraham’s day, the divinity of God in the flesh came to walk with mankind.  God’s Spirit was intensely involved with Jesus.  Later, to carry on the Good News of Jesus Christ and his life in us, we discover Paul’s conversion.  We see God coming directly into his life; interacting powerfully in his life.  All of this was to show to people that a new way of life was coming to mankind on Earth.  As with Abraham, God intervened into Paul’s life directly.  Paul presents to mankind not only a faith in God such as Abraham had, but now a faith in Jesus Christ as God’s Son.  And through this faith eternal life can be won.  Yes, the understanding of the physical nature of life is important, but far more important is the understanding of the life of faith in Christ Jesus.  The former is temporary, the latter is eternal.  People cannot enter into eternity with God unless they enter through the gate: faith in Jesus Christ and his works.  Jesus said, I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.  They will come in and go out, and find pasture.  (John 10:9)  In the latter day, in this age of the computer, once again man has one language as in the day of the tower of Babel.  Mankind will attempt to bring God down; to magnify himself above God; to take the place of God.  Nothing but God’s direct intervention will stop this pervasive evil.  But Jesus will, his voice is still lifted up wherever believers congregate, and He is coming back to restore his kingdom.  If you are not in his pasture, enter in today and receive his blessings.  Do not dwell with the scoffers.    

 

2 Peter 2:17-22 Driven By A Storm!

2 Peter 2:17-22  These people are springs without water and mists driven by a storm.  Blackest darkness is reserved for them.  For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of the flesh, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error.  They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for “people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.”  If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning.  It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them.  Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud.”

When people reject living for Jesus Christ in every part of their lives, attempting to blend Christ and the world together, beware.  Do not love the world or anything in the world.  If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them.  For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.  The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.  (1 John 2:15-17)  When people compromise with the world, they will eventually find themselves worse off than when they first believed.  Christians have been set free from the entanglements of this world by the blood of Jesus Christ.  They have become acceptable to God by their faith in Jesus Christ and his works.  Faith in Christ brings right relationship with God.  Abraham found acceptance through his faith in God’s promises.  As Abraham, Christians are people of faith.  God, through the works of Jesus Christ on the cross, has made us holy in his sight, for Jesus is the propitiation for our sins.  Jesus paid the price for all unrighteousness; He suffered the pain of death for us, experiencing the consequence of sin: death.  The cancer of sin exterminates eternal life.  Therefore, Christ’s blood must eradicate sin from our lives for us to inherit eternal life.  Christ’s perfect life, his righteousness for our unrighteous, perfection taking the place of imperfection, provides the antidote to death.  Jesus personified holiness, righteousness to all people.  We who are IN CHRIST by faith have that same holiness; we are part of the body of Christ.  We no longer have to work to please God, for the Bible says, you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.  (Colossians 3:3).  Some Christians are not satisfied with Jesus only as their lifestyle.  False teachers exploit this dissatisfaction by introducing fleshly ideas, either more works, self-denial faith, or self-pursuing, self-absorbed Christianity.  Regardless of the tack false teachers take, they dilute the message of Christ.  Pursuits that detract from Jesus are fleshly in nature, magnifying self-will over God’s gift of life: Jesus Christ.  When Christians want to win the world by becoming like the world, they are in danger of losing their souls.  If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning.  Because of this adulterous affair with the world, their minds become damaged by the effects of sin.  Sin never stops debasing a person; the trajectory is always downward.  Often in war, soldiers will find themselves acting in ways that they never thought possible when they were civilians.  Horrific violence has no stopping place.  Depending on the circumstances, a soldier in warfare may trespass society’s norms of civility.  In the book, A STRANGER TO MYSELF, the journal of a German soldier on the Eastern Front in WWII, we read about cruel and sadistic acts he participated in, acts he would not have conceived of doing before the war.  He was raised in a home with Christian values and morals, but war accentuated the iniquity within his human nature, bringing out the barbarian in him.  When the conscience becomes frayed, we are capable of anything.  There is no stopping place.  When a Christian leaves the haven of grace and mercy from God, choosing all the world has to offer, there is no stopping place.  The depths of sin are a bottomless pit.

A more serious condition than just an individual straying from a full commitment to Christ is when a person leads others to this dark place.  Peter says, These people are springs without water and mists driven by a storm.  Blackest darkness is reserved for them.  For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of the flesh, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error.  These people claim freedom in their new way of living, but they are chained hand and foot to their self-willed nature.  What they believe is true liberty is nothing more than servitude to darkness. They are trapped behind the bars of worldly living, filthy language, and dangerous indulgences.  They profess freedom from the restrictions of holiness, but in reality they have sold their souls to the Prince of Darkness.   Rebellion is his theme, self-interest is his focus.  People who leave the cloistered warmth of the Good News: loving your neighbor as yourself, servanthood to others, preferring others above yourself, will usually focus on what others should be doing for them or how others hurt them.  Rather than presenting Christ as the answer to life, they focus on what people can do for them.  A valid Christian life will focus on loving others.  When people focus on Christ plus something else, either works or secular living, they are in danger of not living a Christian life of faith in Christ and his works.  If we try to find the solution to life any place else other than Christ, we will find little or no peace.  Man is intent on doing what is right in his own eyes.  He will blame others for his failures, his sins.  Sadly, often what he determines is best for him is divisive, leading to discontent, arguments, battles, and even wars.  Fundamental to the scriptures is that we all have gone astray, all have gone our own way.   Consequently, we must look at ourselves first before judging other people.  Of course, society is a milieu of turmoil and sickness.  Christianity should bring healing by doing good to others.  Christianity presents to the world not only the message of salvation, but also the message of doing good, of being a servant.  Jesus demonstrates a servant behavior when he cooks breakfast for the seven disciples who toiled all night without catching any fish on the Sea of Galilee.  Jesus, recently down from the cross for humanity’s sake is now seen cooking breakfast for his disciples.  Some of them abandoned him when He was on the cross.  Our Lord demonstrated his love for these men.  (See John 21:1-14)  Jesus did not teach a self-serving life.  He did not teach worldliness.  He did not teach a me-only road to heaven.  No, He preached sacrificial love, a dedication to others.  He gave living water to the thirsty; He was not as those who are springs without water and mists driven by a storm.  Peter speaks very harshly of those who reject Christ’s true message, and Paul told the believers at Galatia, If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!  (Galatians 1:8)

Sin is the great escape artist—the Houdini of our time, of any time.  Sin is the desire to escape from God’s authority.  In the Garden of Eden, the genesis of rebellion began rather innocuously: Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made.  He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’”  (Genesis 3:1)  This simple question led to a self-serving existence, a clarion call to rebellion.  The false prophets of any era begin with the notion that we will create a better existence.  We will provide a better way of living, even a better way of serving God.  But this talk is exploitive, mostly for the benefit of the false prophet.  In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories.  (2 Peter 2:3)  Out of their own imaginations, false teachers manipulate God’s word and his authority to fit their own purposes: to gain power, wealth, and notoriety.  Some take on the mantle of speaking for God or claim divinity.  They often separate themselves from the body of Christ.  Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come.  This is how we know it is the last hour.  They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us.  For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.  (1 John 2:18-19)  The false prophet will reveal his true identity by lessening the authority of Christ and his redemptive power.  This is the antichrist spirit, easily detected.  But a more pernicious threat to the church’s stability is when false prophets bore into the fabric of the church.  They become powerful within the church, carrying with them ideas that are antichrist.  Usually this type of false prophet will magnify their own experiences and emphasize their name.  Everything within their purview will have their name tacked onto it.  They are magnified, not Christ.  This is an antichrist spirit; the replacement of their lives for Christ’s life.  Seemingly the elevating of man is harmless, but it is so dangerous because people begin to believe the views of a man over the word of God.  Many people today follow this kind of leaders, relating the truth of the word to everything their leader has said about the word, quite innocuous, but quite dangerous.  If any doctrine or anyone leads you away from your dependence on Jesus Christ and his righteousness, you are being led away from your SAVIOR.  He alone has made you right with God.  He alone is pleasing to God.  Place your faith every day in him and in his works on the cross.  If so, you will experience daily the intimate presence of the Holy Spirit.  His words will be rich in you and sustain your life in the SPIRIT. 

2 Peter 2:10-16 Grow In Love!

2 Peter 2:10-16  This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the flesh and despise authority.  Bold and arrogant, they are not afraid to heap abuse on celestial beings; yet even angels, although they are stronger and more powerful, do not heap abuse on such beings when bringing judgment on them from the Lord.  But these people blaspheme in matters they do not understand.  They are like unreasoning animals, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like animals they too will perish.  They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done.  Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight.  They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you.  With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed—an accursed brood!  They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Bezer, who loved the wages of wickedness.  But he was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey—an animal without speech—who spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness. 

In the above focus, Peter refers to the false prophets who are in the midst of the living church of God.  They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you.  Rather than understanding the nature of a fleshly life, they revel in worldly living.  They teach others to tack on Jesus as a Christian vaccination, but then continue to live in ways adverse to a holy life.  They claim God would want his people to win the world, to be richer and more satisfied with their possessions and earthly dwellings.  Riches and a pleasant lifestyle is their mantra for a successful Christian life.  However, Peter warns that living for the pleasures of this world will lead to hypocrisy and destruction.  The world will eventually understand the vaccinated Christian isn’t any different that the unrepentant sinner.   People will see the lack of sincerity and inconsistency in Christians following false teaching.  Rather than dedicating their lives to God by repenting of their old manner of living, wayward Christians will want to mine everything they can out of this world before their deaths.  They will develop and fulfill their bucket lists; experiencing everything possible in this life because they go around only once.  Consequently, why not eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we pass into eternity.  In Jesus’ parable of the rich fool, the man says he is going to tear down his barns and build bigger ones, and then he will take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.  But God said to him, “You fool!  This very night your life will be demanded from you.  Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself.  (Luke 12:19-20)  He goes on to say, life is not represented by the possessions we own.  When Christians think as the world does, how are we any different from them?  Of course, we are not.  As Peter says, if we follow false prophets, we will accept the frame of mind of Balaam, a non-Israelite who used divination, mostly to predict the future.  He was considered a spiritual man, a mystic who could bless or curse people.  People around the world, sadly even in the church, will seek others to tell their futures.  Balaam made a living through his divination and prophetic words.  In Revelation, we see the church in Pergamum contaminated by the teachings of Balaam and the worldliness of the Moabites:  But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the people of Israel, so that they would eat food sacrificed to idols and practice fornication.  (Revelation 2:14)  We do not know how thorough this contamination was in the church, but we do know Balaam’s ideas on life existed in some of the people and the leadership.  Worldliness and using spirituality to gain success is always a danger and a threat to the body of Christ.  Balaam received notoriety and wealth by using his position of spirituality among the people.  He did bless the Israelites as God directed him.  Sometimes false prophets in the church can help people in their spiritual journey, but along with Balaam’s blessings came a sinful attitude that led to terrible wickedness, as Peter puts it: madness.

Often people who find popularity because of their teachings will claim aspects of their relationship with God that are untrue or not evident to observers.  The more outlandish they get in their teachings, the more people will think of them as great spiritual leaders, for they seem to have special insight into the spiritual world.  Of course super spirituality is a way to gain control of people’s thoughts and ways of living.  Paul warned Timothy about such people: The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.  Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.  (1 Timothy 4:1-2)  He says they will falsely tell people not to marry or to avoid certain foods.  There is no ending to this kind of influence and control from such people.  And in the cultish world, control is everything, so thinking outside of their box is anathema to the leaders of the organization.  This can also be true of the Christian world.  When leaders demand that you must think and view everything just as they do, be cautious about that kind of instruction and control.  Peter states in today’s focus that some leaders even claim to have power over spiritual entities.  Bold and arrogant, they are not afraid to heap abuse on celestial beings; yet even angels, although they are stronger and more powerful, do not heap abuse on such beings when bringing judgment on them from the Lord.  Now we are getting into spiritualism and mythology.  Of course, Peter is dealing with people who have had experiences in worshipping other gods, also with seances: talking to the dead.  Greek mythology was prevalent in that world.  People knew about these various gods; barbarians and Jews alike were familiar with worshipping spiritual entities.  Some  people claimed they could manipulate these gods to fulfill their own worldly purposes.  These ideas crept into the church.  False teachers came in like wolves, devouring the flock with worldly ideas.  Of course, sexual deviation and adultery is one of the first signs of worldliness.  With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed—an accursed brood!  False teachers and false ideas always come with fleshly, worldly goals: wealth, control over others, sexual promiscuity.  When people claim to have special insight into the unseen world, insight that only they possess, be very careful about following such people.  They are probably false prophets with an agenda that does not promote the Good News of the gospel of Christ.

What is the way of the gospel?  What is true?  What is not?  Faith in God and his word brings salvation.  Faith in Jesus Christ brings righteousness to all who believe in him.  Paul said this well: For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.  (Ephesians 2:8-9)   This is the faith of Abraham.  Abraham’s faith in God’s word brought acceptance to him or righteousness.  We know in the flesh, Abraham was not perfect.  He failed often.  He gave up his wife to others twice, saying she was not his wife.  He was just a man.  But his faith in God’s word brought him favor with God.  Why?  Because he believed in God’s truthfulness, in God’s integrity.  Otherwise, his faith stood the test of time, for in spite of his weaknesses he relied on the goodness of God to fulfill his promises to him.  He would not recant his belief in the words of God and his covenant with him.  Abraham received righteousness because he knew God could not repent of making his covenant with the man Abraham.  Abraham received everything that God is, was and ever will be.  Was he then righteous in the flesh?  No, he was a mere man, but his faith in God brought God’s righteousness to his soul.  This is what faith is.  But faith in God’s words alone, his covenant to Abraham and the world, could not change the nature of a man.  In fact, the nature of man is so corrupt that not one person, including Abraham, could please a perfect, righteous God.  The Bible says not one person follows God in perfection.  When Jeremiah speaks over Israel, God says He could not find one upright Israelite; they had all gone their own ways.  He told Jeremiah, Go up and down the streets of Jerusalem, look around and consider, search through her squares.  If you can find but one person who deals honestly and seeks the truth, I will forgive this city.  (Jeremiah 5:1)  In Sodom and Gomorrah, we see the same thing.  Those two cities are destroyed, but because of Abraham’s faith a remanent of Jerusalem is saved.  (See Genesis 19)  The nature of mankind must be changed from the inside out.  Jesus came to make new creatures.  The word of God did not lay upon man’s head anymore, to be obedient to the law; no, now the word would rest in man’s heart, through the presence of the Holy Spirit.  His presence would constantly be with us, teaching and counseling us to live a life in the flesh for God.  Are we always good in the flesh?  No, but God is always good in our spirits.  He is always with us.  Any other doctrine is false.  We live by faith, but our faith is not just in words.  It is the faith we hold in Jesus Christ and his words.  As Jesus said, WE MUST BE BORN AGAIN.  And we have been reborn through the power of the cross.  We are not under man’s control and his worldly ideas; we are under the control of the Spirit as He feeds us the word of life, the manna for each day.  Bless each of you today as you partake of sound doctrine and grow in love, mercy and grace in the Lord.