2nd Peter #3 - Bring Your Bible to the Battle

[Music] so [Music] all right you excited for an uplifting joyful motivating sermon well then come back next week this one's going to hurt this one's going to hurt like crazy i'm just telling you where we're going we're in 2nd peter chapter 2 we're dealing with heretics if you're one bad day and also people who are sleeping with their girlfriends and if you brought her welcome miss we're really glad to have you we're in second peter chapter two and and i want to set it up this is a great book of the bible uh that if you are for something you're going to need to be against some other things that's the first principle so if you're for god you need to be against satan if you're for truth you need to be against lies if you're for life you need to be against murder if you're for goodness you're against the new england patriots just if you're for something you're against something else okay and then the second principle is if you have something valuable expect to have to defend it this is why we have a lock on our home this is why we have a lock on our car this is why we have passwords on our technology if it's valuable somebody's going to try and steal it or take it because there's only two ways to get something to earn it or to steal it and what we see with false teachers and satan and demons they ultimately come to steal they come to steal what god has given and so what we're dealing with today is false teachers infiltrating what is a really healthy loving joyful church and a pastor from a distance nearing the end of his life telling them and warning them that the word of god is absolutely true and don't let anyone take it from you or twist it for you so peter told us the author of this great book of the bible at the end of chapter one he says i'm nearing the end of my life right his check engine light is on he's coming to the end of his days on earth he knows he's gonna die and he wants the people to be strong and healthy as a result even after he is departed so in chapter one he says you can trust the bible chapter three next week he will tell us again you can trust the bible chapter two don't trust everyone who teaches the bible because some people like satan they will twist and use the scriptures to steal the people that god loves and peter saw this in his own life he was a follower with jesus for three years watching his miracles and hearing his teaching and jesus would love people and feed people and serve people and deliver people and large crowds would come to hear him and to receive his love and then the religious people would show up they were demonically inspired sometimes the most evil people are the most religious people because they're confusing because they say that they're speaking and working for god when they're working and speaking against god and and what would happen then is these religious leaders would show up they would argue with jesus they would criticize him they would try and hijack the conversation and sidetrack the ministry and so over and over and over jesus would be against them seeking to defend the people well peter has been doing this his entire life and now he is telling the people that they need to be prepared because trouble is coming and his big idea is bring your bible to the battle the reason i tell you this we're in a phenomenally good season as a church healthy joyful generous unified everything's going down we're going up everything's sad we're happy everything's kind of we're kind of so it's a good season here and what it is it's a good time for us to remind ourselves of all that god has given us and entrusted to us so that when the day comes when trouble comes you guys are ready for that battle so that's what this sermon is regarding so we'll just start in second peter chapter two verse one with everything that god creates satan counterfeits this is a massive mega theme of the bible that god is creator god is creative and satan he's just a knockoff artist he can't create anything he only can steal or coerce or corrupt and he says it this way second peter one through three but false prophets that's the counterfeit anytime you hear that word false in the bible it's a clue that the counterfeit is present false prophets also uh arose among the people he's looking at the history of god's people just as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies even denying the master that's jesus who bought them bringing upon themselves swift destruction and many will follow their sensuality they're super popular and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed and in their greed they will exploit you with false words their condemnation from long ago is not idle and their destruction is not asleep god has real prophets and real teachers the real prophets tell people what the future will be and the real teachers prepare them for it the counterfeits that satan sends the false prophets prophesy a future that is not god's intention we're entering into a new era god's doing new things everything's changed you know we've moved beyond the bible there's a new possibility and then the false teachers are the ones who come in to do the heavy lifting of answering the objections and defending the false prophets the false prophets tend to be the bigger more public personas these are the people that have large platforms and write books and blow up on youtube and they're very very popular and sometimes they're spiritual and sometimes they start as a christian but they finish like judas and they're no longer with jesus there's always the latest trendy christian issue fetish book nonsense leader or garbage ideology and it becomes very popular and it usually starts within christianity and then it moves beyond the bible and then others who would call it into question are then refuted by the false teachers who are defending the false thesis presented by the false prophet and what he says is these people start working churches organizations and ministries secretly they don't just walk in and say hi we don't really believe the bible we'd like to wreck your life because they know that most people are like well we vote no thank you for telling us so what they do they do they do covert not overt they're secretive they are private they are not forthcoming and public how many of you have met somebody you thought that they love the lord and as you got to know like whoa wait a minute that's just totally not the fact or you thought that they believed the bible then you realize no no actually they don't they just are sort of pretending to be on team jesus to use that to their advantage and to your disadvantage secretive these are people who have agendas but they don't reveal them usually self-seeking and self-serving peter saw this in his own life in ministry there was a guy with him one of the 12 who was very secretive or covert who was that it was judas the whole time three years he's stealing from jesus nobody knows very covert and he's sitting there hearing all the sermons just like everybody else taking the notes and he would assume that he agreed because he never said otherwise just because someone sits under teaching doesn't mean they agree with the teaching the entire time he's disagreeing so what jesus taught made it to judas's notebook but never made it to judas's heart he knew everything jesus said he just didn't agree with everything jesus said and as a result he was the one who was secretive and this is how the demonic works this is how the counterfeit works it starts by secretly entering in and then bringing in with that person what he calls destructive heresies we'll deal with the destructive first the destructive means you know that there's a problem when all of a sudden it's us versus them and there's factions and divisions and infighting and conflict and the environment has changed and it's no longer a joyful or a healthy place to be this can be in a family a ministry this can be even in a network of christian friends or even an entire church family it's destructive all of a sudden we're talking about things that are not essential we're talking about people rather than how to love and help people they're it's us versus them and it's destructive it's destructive heresies he says that's false teaching the key at your house is when there's garbage take it out what these people do they take the garbage from the world and they bring it into god's house they take whatever the popular issues are the political issues are the polarizing issues are all of the garbage in the culture and they bring it into god's house it's destructive and he uses the word heresy so we'll talk about this now let me say this some of you you don't understand the word heresy heresy does not mean that someone disagrees with you it means that they disagree with god and you and god just little spoiler alert not exactly the same person okay so you're like well you disagree with me you're a heretic well if your name is jesus then you could say that everybody else you need to double check everything you and i believe may not be exactly what god believes just because they disagree with us doesn't necessarily mean they're disagreeing with him but a heretic is one who doesn't just disagree with you they disagree with god and heretic or heresy is a big word in the church it's like calling someone a rapist you don't just use that word oh you're a heretic no that's a big word loaded word very important word and we need to use it very sparingly because otherwise it loses its effectiveness to describe someone in regards to what they're trying to teach how do you become a heretic well we like to use the language or i like to use language there's closed and open-handed issues paul says in first corinthians 15 i delivered to you of what is of first importance what he means is everything is important but not everything is equally important some things are first importance other things are of lesser importance the closed-handed issues for us would be the things that if you're a christian we need to agree on and the open-handed issues we can disagree on because in any family there are points of disagreement so in the closed hand there's one god three persons father son and holy spirit the trinity the bible is god's word jesus is god's son he was born of a virgin fully god fully man lived without sin died on the cross in our place for our sins rose from death is seated in heaven is coming again to judge the living in the dead and if you're with jesus you go to heaven and if not you go to hell close hand amen right all right it's not very enthusiastic but i'm excited okay okay we'll do it open hand public school private school homeschool just flip a coin pick one whatever right how about this one uh what kind of music do you sing when you baptize somebody idea dunk them do you sprinkle them yeah either way they're wet works for me it uh open-handed okay how old is the earth old enough i mean you know we don't just open-handed and so the pro here's what a heretic does a heretic takes something that is supposed to be in this hand and they move it over to this hand now a legalist does the opposite a legalist takes something that should be in this hand and they put it in this hand what what a heretic does they take something that should be in this hand they put it in this hand well i'm glad the bible works for you but you know not all christians need the bible right bro oh no supposed to be over in this hand oh you you trust jesus i'm glad that works for you i think that there are other christians who also believe in other religions and other gods and ideologies and spiritualities so i believe in addition to jesus there's lots of paths that lead to god ro you moved it from this hand to this hand that's how you become a heretic underlying heresy is something very very interesting and the big heresy today is there's no heresy everybody's right everybody's that's your perspective that's your viewpoint that's your vantage point that's your bias so what happens is i'll tell you a story it's going to be a series of rants it's only going to get worse i'm being very overt you're welcome so some years ago i met with a theologian dr j.i packer i believe just one of the greatest towering bible teaching theological thinkers in recent decades and i was young this was many years ago it's in my 20s i mean this was a long time ago and uh some of us young leaders got to meet with dr j.i packer which was amazing he's you know canadian and very much a gentleman i met with them and i can't remember it was me or one of the guys somebody asked questions so for the next generation of christian bible teaching leaders what's the big issue that we should prepare for prepare for what do you see on the horizon that's coming that's going to be a problem and i was kind of shocked we were kind of shocked because he said gay marriage and at that time nobody was for it nobody was for it and i said was okay explain that dr packer he said the problem with it it's a heresy he used this word big word by gi packer not some guy in his mom's basement in his footy pajamas you know eating his lunchable you know going to christian college not that guy g.i packer said okay explain that to us dr packer he said he said heretics are those who preach tolerance of sin christians are those who preach repentance of sin if it's sin and you preach tolerance you're a heretic if you preach repentance you're a christian true or false he was a prophet not a false prophet he looked on the horizon and now it's just like well you know god loves you yes he loves you so much he'll take you as you are but he loves you too much to let you stay as you are god tolerates you you repent and then he transforms you so that it's a new you not just blessing the old you how you become a heretic is you start preaching tolerance of sin not repentance of sin and let me say this start preaching it to yourself first because what we always like to hear people hear this sermon they're gonna be like there's such a good sermon i got a whole list of people i'm gonna send a link to they got some stuff they really need to fix you start with you right your biggest problem meets you in the mirror every morning you start right there now why are they so powerful these false teachers and heretical instructors well he says that ultimately they're empowered by demonic principalities and powers he says this started he uses the language from long ago the rebellion started in heaven satan is like i don't agree with god few demons are like we think we could do it differently this rebellion this disagreeing with god it has very long history to it and as a result the same spirits who rebelled against god in heaven are empowering false teachers and false prophets to continue the rebellion on earth and then the question is why are they so popular and he says they'll be very popular he says many will follow it's a parade sometimes literally okay sometimes literally why is it so popular because it's about sex power and money which are always really popular he talks about greed and sensuality and popularity and we've even got this little line we use it in our day sex sells you know what it does if you come to people and you're like uh you can have all the sex money and power you want and god will give it to you oh so i even get to pretend that i'm holy that's a double bonus round so let's have this conversation because i got nothing else to do and we've locked the doors and you're not allowed to leave so let's have this conversation let's start with the and he's talking about sensuality which is sexual sin true or false it's still popular sexual sin true true true so let's start with the single people okay and then we'll move on to everyone else so for those of you who are single because what oftentimes happens it's it's this conversation begins right it's like um well you know it's uh it's false teaching and it's sensuality and it's destructive and then immediately everybody's got their own little attorney that lives in their heart that comes out to defend their behavior and let me just say this most churches give away water bottles to first-time gas we should give away belts because that actually is what people really need they need a belt and they need they need a belt that says jesus rules below this place that's what it needs to say okay so we're gonna start our men's ministry in a few weeks and i'm seriously thinking about ordering real men belt buckles and all the single guys get a free one get a free one okay so so for those of you who are single now single people like to live and sleep together right and what what are the arguments that they usually give to justify their behavior even if they're christians oh financial weak weak holiness is too expensive we we can't we can't we it's cheaper to live together it's cheaper to it's a it's a better deal you know what sleep in your car all right and ma'am if you are marrying a guy who doesn't have enough money to live somewhere maybe you should marry a different guy with a job or at least a friend who would let him stay at their house if you have a guy who has no money and no friends that might not be the first round draft pick for a husband okay what what are the other reasons or excuses that we give single people i'm just a 50 year old dad i can do this all day okay so what are the other reasons what we're gonna get married we're gonna get married there was a guy one time went into a walmart grabbed a tv and just walked out the door without buying it when the security guard stopped him what he said was i was going to come back and buy it later okay you're stealing that's not yours we're gonna get we'll then get married then get married well the pastor won't marry us well then don't get married what what are the other reasons we give we're married in god's eyes no you're not i've seen his eyes he's not even blinking they're flaming red [Laughter] he's got the full-on angry dad look that's his daughter he's ticked well we're gonna try getting married we're gonna try getting married let me just tell you this a spouse is not like a car you don't need to go for a test drive see i i had a friend in college i know that's shocking um i had a friend in college he never even kissed his wife until their wedding day and i'll never forget he told us the story at the state university in a communication class in front of a bunch of frat guys immediately when the teacher's like any questions after that presentation oh yeah the frat guys had questions one of the frat guys asked he said well how do you know if your wife is going to be any good in bed he said if i've never even touched another girl how would i know she's bad bazinga drop the mic cowabunga shazam yeah yeah that's a really good idea there we we say crazy things trying to justify our behavior what else do single people say who want to live and sleep together oh it's just a piece of paper yes so is this read it it says not to do that anything else we say god just wants us to be happy which is very clear in first and second nowhere it's a very it's a very strong theme in first and second nowhere if you are living and sleeping together you are not practicing for marriage you are practicing for divorce the two become one one last name one god one house one bed one checking account not two statistically if you live together your rates of domestic violence are higher than a married couple and if you live and sleep together before you are married statistically your rates of divorce are higher than those who do not and immediately what happens is we just want to excuse our behavior not understanding that god is a good god and his plan is a good plan and when you sin you hurt yourself that's why the bible says among god's people ephesians there shouldn't even be a hint of sexual immorality and i hear this from a couple studies like well we're living together we're not sleeping together okay you're lying or weird [Music] those are your only options you're either lying you're like well yeah nobody could see but trust us it's all bible studies back here or [Laughter] it says it's so solomon don't arouse or awaken love till it's time so the question is not single person where is the line the question is when is god's time god's time is marriage marriage marriage that's why the bible says in hebrews to honor the marriage bed there's no verses about the dating bed it's supposed to be two beds this is this is really crazy and if you're under 25 i'll just say this you've been lied to your whole life you've been lied to your whole life when you went to school and they gave you sex ed no it was false teaching when you went to university it was false teaching if you look on media or social media it's false teaching it's false prophets it prophesies a future that never exists they lived happily ever after and it's a bunch of false teachers people educated beyond their intelligence with more degrees than fahrenheit making up silly naughty arguments so that foolish kids will follow click bait and provide revenue to naughty people okay now let's talk about other people because i believe in equality which means you have to offend everyone at some point in the sermon so what are what some of the other reasons that people will give for having sex before or outside of marriage what are the justifications that even people who say they're christians will use everybody's doing it well that's a great idea you know that's a great idea you know what if everybody's doing it it's probably the conga line to hell that's probably what it is you're like but it's a conga line to hell so don't join the conga line everybody's doing it you know what everybody's not doing reading their bible you know what everybody's not doing keeping their pants on we're supposed to be the minority we're supposed to be the counter culture other reasons we give god knows god knows our heart yes he does and he says it's nasty right because out of the overflow of the heart the hands wander [Laughter] you should see all the single guys who are sad they brought their girlfriend to church today they're i wish you could see their faces they're all just sitting there like this not even making eye contact a couple of them check their oh i got a call i gotta i'll be back never back never all the single guys somehow got a call at the same time that's amazing i was teaching the sermon last night and i said yeah some of you guys say we're married in god's eyes i literally watched one guy he was sitting there like this and his girlfriend looks like that's what you said [Applause] somebody's getting dumped that's how this is going down now what we like to say is nobody gets hurt we're consenting adults let's just look at the statistics because false prophets will tell you a future that is not reality if you have sex before the age of 25 you have a 50 percent chance of getting a sexually transmitted disease that means if you go to college your odds of getting a degree and a disease are about the same [Laughter] is he going to do this for a whole hour i hope so okay so when you went to college was that could you get a minor in self-control was there an elective in chastity no there's not let me just let you know a little secret we worship a virgin right probably the best way to worship him is not by having sex with people he says not to have sex with in addition people nobody gets hurt 110 million americans have a sexually transmitted disease for the first time in the nation's history the majority of children born to women under age 30 or born out of wedlock have no father which is the number one indicator that you will grow up in poverty and commit a crime in addition one out of four children never lives through their conception because they are aborted in the womb one in four women reports being sexually assaulted one in six men reports being sexually assaulted it is the most underreported crime and an epidemic in addition with sex out of control we have sex trafficking which is the slavery issue of our age and pedophilia is on the rise especially as children are online stuck at home and predators are pursuing them whenever he's like nobody gets hurt everyone gets hurt that's a false prophecy it's prophesying a future that is not a reality it is buttressed by false teachers and false leaders who are trying to recruit let me just tell you this sex in our country is a religion it has evangelists trying to convert you and it has apologists trying to defend it the whole thing is a counterfeit and some people will say well god wants us to be happy well let me just tell you this statistically the happiest people lowest divorce rates lowest domestic violence happiness scores off the chart and the most frequent intimacy ah bible believing jesus loving church attending prayer singing christians okay so there you go let god be true let every man be a liar god made marriage god made us male and female god architected things that work and when you work against his design plan it is a disaster and so what we've done today we've just lit gender marriage and sexuality on fire and sometimes it's in churches and that's what's particularly deplorable all right let's get some more verses reload okay uh second peter 2 4-10 you can make it so as you look at this world and what a dumpster fire disaster it truly is he has a little bit of hope for if god did not spare angels he's going to give us four case studies here when they sinned and it's sin no it's not pester mark that's just perspective you're very binary let me just let you know a little something the god of the bible he's a bit judgy okay just so you know that he's a bit judgy he calls it sin not just an alternative or a perspective or a bias but cast them into hell it is real and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment if he was another one if he did not spare the ancient world but preserve noah we'll talk about these guys a herald of righteousness he preached for 120 years with seven others that's his family keep an eye on your family when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly if by turning the cities of sodom and gomorrah case study number three to ashes a whole bunch of perverts in one town god turns on the self-cleaning oven in sodom and gomorrah as he condemned them to extinction oh my gosh he got rid of a whole culture yep making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly and if he this is the fourth one if he rescued righteous lot now if you know the story lot is not that righteous but apparently the bar of entry was low his name is lot because he's a lot of drama he's related to abraham greatly distressed by the sexual sensual conduct of the wicked keeps talking about sexuality you know what theological problems are really moral problems bible problems are really pants problems don't over complicate things as soon as i hear a teacher say i'm not sure i believe the bible anymore my question is always who are you sleeping with for as that righteous man lived among them day after day in vegas on the strip he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard then the lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despising authority and he gives us four case studies like okay the false prophets tell you things have changed do what you want choose your gender let's reimagine marriage let's just take off all the sexual restraints everything will be fine it's false prophecy that's not the future that comes this is the future that comes he brings us four case studies the first is fallen angels what he says is rebellion is nothing new satan and demons rebelled and they get no savior they get no forgiveness they're just sentenced to hell chained up on fire now what happens is you and i get something that the fallen angels do not get and that is we get jesus amen god said okay you sin you go to hell to me that's totally reasonable and then we sin and god looks at us and says well you should go to hell but i'm going to send my son to die for you and rise for you so i take you to heaven some of you like i don't know how god could send people to hell i have no problem with that i to me i'm just befuddled that god would take anyone to heaven if i was god i already got rid of the demons i looked down and people are joining the demons i'd be like well glad they're down there i'm certainly not bringing them up here god did the unthinkable the unimaginable he gave us grace and he gave us jesus and what he says is hey if you've done the same thing as the demons and declared war on god be grateful that there is an opportunity for you to be forgiven and have a relationship with god he talks about noah and the flood here's what it says in genesis 6 god looked at the inclination of man's heart and it was only evil all the time therefore god was grieved in his heart as god looked at humanity god not only hears the words and sees the deeds he knows the motives of the heart and everybody all the time just had nasty self-destructive grotesque desires and god was just devastated and his heart because god's a father and when he sees the people that he made self-destructing it grieves him in his soul so what god did he came to know and he's like okay i'm gonna send a flood of judgment in 120 years because god is really patient that people tend to think that god isn't he does it's changed his mind he's not showing up no he's just patient so he tells noah i need you to build a boat now the story of noah is he lives in the desert like we do some theologians think it had never rained to that point in the history of the world she's like okay what's rain so i take the water down here i put it up there and then i bring it back down but in a far less organized way okay build a boat so noah starts building a boat and he just told us preaching for 120 years for 120 years nobody came forward for the altar call only his family responded and everybody was just eating and drinking and messing around and enjoying mardi gras and surfing the internet and just doing high school hijinks and all of a sudden it started raining and everybody died but noah's family got an ark they were spared by the grace of god then he uses the example of sodom and gomorrah or as we will call it hollywood and vegas these were two cities that were right next to one another and they were absolutely economically built on sin and rebellion and in self-indulgence the key that false teaching is so popular it just teaches self-indulgence the only thing left in the entire western world that says no is this it's the only thing left and if we can get rid of this then it's self-indulgence without any restraint and so what happened in sodom gomorrah they set up their entire culture their entire economy on lots of perversion and god saw that it was just horrifying what they were doing to one another so he sent two angels sort of to go undercover incognito and examine the city all the nasty men in the city come out and they want to sexually assault the two angels who appear as men and god realizes that this is not going to change so it needs to end that's the story of planet earth that's right those of you who believe in evolution you're adorable okay it's it god is patient but if it's not going to stop he's going to make it end and so what he did he literally sent flaming rotar and eviscerated the two cities of sodom and gomorrah now what's so crazy is the false teachers and we'll deal with this when we get into romans one and i think there's a 50 50 shot i get kicked off of social media that'll be fun we'll see how that works out but when you get into romans 1 there's this whole description about what was happening in and around sodom and gomorrah but what what happens today is the false teachers will come and they'll say oh no the sin was not sexual perversion the sin was in hospitality that they didn't welcome the stranger into the city so god judged them and so the moral of the story is we need to welcome people who are different than us which is why we need to be pro-gay otherwise if we're not pro-gay then we're like sodom and gomorrah i'm not making this up and i'm sober this is exactly what they say they will use the entire story and twist it to justify the thing that it forbids so he uses the story of lot now lot was supposed to be a believer he was related to abraham he had a family grabbed his family he's like where should we move they moved to sodom and gomorrah imagine that you're homeschooling your kids your telecommuting you're like we could live anywhere let's go live on the vegas strip come on kids get your king james bible what could possibly go wrong so he moves his family into sodom and gomorrah no believers were his kids going to school all right they're going to sodom high oh it's not good the angels show up and they're like you better leave it's all going to get destroyed so he grabs his family and flees what's his wife do she turns around oh i miss our old lifestyle oh i miss the good old days oh i miss those times when we got to indulge the flesh let me tell you this if god delivers you don't turn around don't go back and don't look back to your old lifestyle don't do that and then they flee and then his daughters think it's the end of the world and they really want to be mothers so they concoct a plan where they get their dad drunk two nights in a row sleep with them so that they can get pregnant with a baby okay immediately some of you are thinking that's sick unless you live in sodom and then it's tuesday see the point is if you raise your kids in sodom even if you move your kids out of sodom you better get sodom out of your kids it's not just enough to get your kids out of sodom you need to get sodom out of yourself out of your spouse and out of your kids the nastiness that lived in mom apparently lived in the daughters and apparently lot was a horrible leader because he led the family into total disaster some of you have moved here we're in the fastest growing city and county in america and you are fleeing your version of sodom and gomorrah it's fine if you get out of it just make sure it gets out of you if you take it with you you'll just be the same person in a new place okay so he uses these case studies and then the underlying question is why are they so powerful well it's because of perversion and rebellion perversion he talks about defiling passion passion is really good and if it is misdirected it is really bad marriage is for passion and passion is inclusive of the intimate relationship between husband and wife so let me just say this very plainly and clearly jesus god the bible is not against sex it's for marriage sex goes in marriage like fire goes in the fireplace it's very hot it's very passionate which is totally good but if you go home and you decide i'm going to build a fire i would recommend you choose carefully where to build that fire at your house if you build it in the fireplace you'll be fine you build it somewhere else you're gonna have real trouble the passions of intimacy are made for the hearth of marriage taken out it just burns everyone and everything down and what he's talking about here is defiling passion what we need to do is not defile passion but direct passion toward god and the things that god intends for us to be passionate about and then number two he talks about rebellion which is despising authority that is there is no authority beyond me you can't judge me who are you to tell me i disagree with you you're biased you're prejudiced you're privileged that's your culture we have all of this nonsense and god says you're all wrong i don't care what your culture is what your education is or what your upbringing is over all the cultures is god he rules through laws that are unchanging because god does not change and he expects us to change see and some of you i just see your faces i love you be like i'm very offended okay thank you for paying attention at least you're getting the big idea that i'm trying to communicate but let me say this if you are offending him then my choice is not will i offend my choice is who will i offend do i tell you what he said and offend you or do i tell you something different than he said and offend him the question is not will people be offended the question is will it be people or the god who loves them and i'm telling you that god's way is the best way i'm telling you that the god who made you knows what's best for you and this strong language from peter it is like a dad looking at his kids and saying okay that's a sink that's a faucet if you want a drink feel free to go get water out of the faucet now if you open up under the sink there's also something that looks like water but it's called bleach don't drink that that's the heart of peter that's the heart of god this will give you life this will give you death please know the difference and please make good choices now the worst is when all of this nonsense shows up in the church or what is supposed to be the church some years ago i'll give you a little story we were driving in the car kids in the back uh we were three rows deep we were all deep five kids um we're in the suburban i think it was hank the tank kids always name their cars your kids do that then you can't sell it you're like that's that's that's part of family so we're driving hank the tank and uh kids are in the back some of them are in the car seats we drive by a quote-unquote church old church building it's got a big huge rainbow flag out front it says god is still speaking one of the kids in the backseat's like dad what's that sign mean oh boy oh boy well they believe that what god said in the bible is no longer true that god has changed his mind and now he's saying things that contradict what he used to say so we need to listen to their teachers instead of the bible and that when god speaks of gender sexuality and marriage he's changed his mind one of the kids said well then it's not a church how come they get to still call themselves a church little kid real insightful i said yeah that's the problem you can just put church on the name they said well why do they put church on the name because it deceives people they think that they're going to church they're not they're going to the counterfeit they're going to the counterfeit and what peter is saying is every one of us has something that is a defiled passion that we really wish we could do that and we need to fight that and not feed that because ultimately we will find some people who tell us it's okay and that will be the entry point into the demonic realm and the acceptance of false teaching through defiling passion and rebellion against god's authority this is the father heart of god he gives some good news correction is for redirection okay some of you are asking is there any hope no done no none but the band will still sing at the end second peter 2 10-16 correction is for redirection all believers at some point we get off the path and we need to be corrected and redirected bold and willful hashtags parades bumper stickers cancel culture social media comments websites blogs that's what it means in the greek bold and willful they do not tremble as they blaspheme glorious ones they even try to boss angels around very high self-esteem whereas angels though greater and might and power do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the lord but these are like irrational animals you start to act like animals right now sexually morally people are acting like animals we didn't come from animals but some people seem like they're going backwards on the evolutionary chart creatures of instinct born to be caught and destroyed blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant they don't even know what they're talking about will also be destroyed in their destruction suffering wrong is the wage for their wrongdoing they counted pleasure to revel in the daytime they're not even ashamed of it anymore they're not even hiding it anymore they're not even embarrassed by it anymore what they should have a funeral for now they have a parade for they are blots and blemishes reveling in the deceptions while they feast with you they want to be your friend and hang out they have eyes full of adultery insatiable for sin they entice unsteady souls they have hearts trained in greed it's profitable accursed children forsaking the right way they have gone astray they have followed the way of balaam son of beor is from the book of numbers who love gain from wrongdoing but was rebuked for his own transgressions a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet's madness he says they have three things pride they work in public and underneath it all it's profit pride they'll tell you what to do you need to do this you need to do that they're going to get bossy and bully if they're willing to tell angels what to do they're willing to tell you what to do number two he talks about they're they're public they're not ashamed of it i'm not ashamed of who i am i'm not ashamed of what i do well if you're a christian and you're living publicly against the will of god that is something that needs to be changed not celebrated and number three he talks about profit hearts trained in greed i'm just telling you there is a whole movement coming with young social justice warriors quote unquote christians that is going to change gender marriage sexuality and encourage lots of rebellion in the name of a bright new future that is promised to be glorious grand and good and it's all false prophecy with false teachers and he uses the example of balaam son of beor so bjor was his daddy probably really disappointed balaam here's the story it's a crazy story balaam was supposed to be a prophet not a false prophet the difference between a profit and a false profit is often the profit meaning you get paid enough to say what people want see today we would call these marketing or uh pr firms you just pay us and we'll create a message to tell not what's true but what you paid us to tell what happened was balaam son of bjor he was a prophet of god yeah the holy spirit he was a believer he would prophesy over god's people and he would prophesy blessing over them there's a demonic pagan false king who really hates god and god's people and he wants god to stop blessing them so that he can overtake them and that he can destroy them so he comes up with a plan well maybe if i can get the prophet and then i could give him some profit he'd become a false prophet and prophesy condemnation rather than blessing over god's people and then they would be harmed and then i could destroy them and i could take them so then the king kept coming to balaam's son of beor naming a price naming a price naming a price over and over and over balaam's like no i can't do that i love the lord i speak for the lord and eventually the king added enough zeros to the check that balaam was like well i don't know how about a few more zeros okay if your soul is for sale satan will just keep adding zeros till he finds your dollar amount cashes his check jumps on his donkey which is his mode of transportation and he's going to curse the children of god to become a false prophet along the way jesus shows up to stop him in the old testament and angel of the lord is usually an angel the angel of the lord is usually jesus coming down from heaven jesus comes down from heaven with a sword he's not messing around he's standing in the middle of the road to stop the false prophet balaam the false prophet balaam does not see jesus but the donkey does the moral the story is the real donkey is the prophet the less spiritually discerning one is the prophet the donkey's got this all figured out it's the man of god who's got it sideways so the donkey is like i am not running into jesus so he squeezes up against the wall he's trying to go around jesus in the road well balaam doesn't see jesus in the middle of the road so he starts whipping and hitting his donkey and what's interesting to me is balaam is so angry that his donkey will not obey him but he's not bothered that he is a donkey disobeying god we get very angry at people who disobey us but we don't think anything about our disobedience toward god so then eventually the donkey turns around and rebukes him so now the donkey is the real prophet rebuking the false prophet this is awesome he's like i've been a good donkey why do you hit me jesus is in the road you're an idiot i'm not going to run over jesus he's got a sword stop hitting me they have this conversation the point is that the donkey corrects the prophet who's become the false prophet correction is for redirection even a believer can get off pace can get off course can get off mission and god will use people and things to redirect us back onto the right course and sometimes it's not the people and things that we would have chosen sometimes they're like i don't like that person you're like well it's better than the donkey he got you're blessed now how many of you hear this and immediately your first thought is this is why i don't believe the bible donkey's talking to people is impossible it cannot happen okay what's what i find interesting is that the bible talks about people's times and places that eventually the archaeologists who dig up history they verify what the scriptures say is true and oftentimes it's reported in something called the biblical archaeological review and they will take the latest findings to prove the bible and they did find an ancient inscription of both balaam and the talking donkey [Laughter] [Music] [Applause] every time i read the story i hear eddie murphy's voice don't you see jesus why are you hitting me um so should i keep it for the next sermon or toss him what do you think keep or toss keep it okay okay keep it all right there you go that's uh that's balaam on the left all right so last section of verses some people self-destruct um here it goes it's gonna get worse somebody like is there any encouragement no uh no uh my spiritual gift is discouragement so second peter 2 17-22 these are waterless springs and mist driven by a storm just a waste of time and energy for them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved it's a guaranteed one-way ticket to the flames for speaking loud boasts of folly man they make a lot of noise but they don't make a lot of difference they enticed by sensual passions there it is again of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error they promise them freedom but they're slaves of corruption you're only free if you can stop and you can control if you can't stop drinking you're not free you're a slave alcohol if you can't stop having sex and you're not married or outside of marriage you are not free you're a slave to your loss see what false prophets do they prophesy freedom and it's part of the demonic deception because satan is only and always a liar i love people i'm tired of seeing them addicted to sex to porn to gambling to power to money to alcohol to drugs it's just addiction that's the language of slavery in the bible we have an entire culture built on the pursuit of happiness where the number one prescription medication is antidepressants you know why satan is a liar and he promises freedom but all he delivers is slavery he promises life all he delivers is death he promises joy and all he delivers is grief after they have escaped or because they promised freedom but they themselves are slaves of corruption for whatever overcomes a person to that he is enslaved for if after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our lord and savior jesus christ they are again entangled in them and overcome the last state has become worse for them than the first for would have been better for them to never have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them it's kind of like judas judas knew a lot so he got judged more harshly because he had more knowledge that should have compelled him to trust in jesus some people think well if i just sit in church that'll help if you don't know jesus if you don't love jesus if you don't follow jesus all that does is increases the things you're accountable for now you think he would end this is the end of the chapter see in our day you would think okay end on a high note encourage them give them a lull a little hope for the whole family give them something for the flannel graph for the kids in sunday school give him something make a real good veggie tale okay okay here we go the dog returns to its own vomit you ever seen a dog oh yep okay so we know who the dog owners are that's fast okay you know where this is going you ever seen a dog your dog eats something they're like and then they're like you ever seen that god sees that every day on planet earth oh you drank too much threw up now you got a hangover and you're going to drink more to cure the hangover dog vomit dog vomit how many of you have done something made you sick and then later you're like oh i'll just try it one more time see what happens true or false you're not as enthusiastic as you should be true that's true i'm a little hungover right now okay the dog returns to its own vomit and the sow or the pig i mean jewish people this was a real insult after washing herself returns to wallow in the mire if you have you ever seen a pig they're just they're a nasty animal they eat everything they smell like satan farted they're dirty they're terrible so let's say you're like oh the poor pig he just needs needs to be brought in needs to be cleaned and a little perfume little old spice a little love some of you gals i'm explaining your dating relationships um uh you know and then i'll turn it into it'll just be just be a totally new piggy as soon as you open the door gone right back in the mud the band's got two new songs one about being a dog the other about being a pig we're gonna sing it just a minute it's gonna change your life we tend to see this in other people's lives a lot more clearly than we see it in our own we're just like why do you do that you keep doing that that's just terrible me too well you got out of it and then you got back into it how many of you there's somebody you know somebody you love you're trying to get them clean you're trying to get them sober you're trying to get them responsible and it's like every time the door opens man they just run right back into it as soon as they throw it up they eat it again what he's talking about is for some people they never change for some of you who are highly relational you're like pastor mark there's hope for everybody everybody there's hope for everybody now no no the way is narrow not everyone finds it not everyone wants jesus not everybody wants to change and the how-to precedes the want to this is where he talks about we have a savior the lord jesus christ do you know that jesus not only saves us from satan sin death hell and the wrath of god jesus also saves me from me jesus needs to give us a new nature with new desires otherwise we're just the same old dog we're just the same old sow and what jesus does through the holy spirit he gives new desires to realize i threw that up i ain't eating that anymore i used to go wallow in that i ain't going there anymore i'm not going there anymore have you met jesus have you gotten new desires has god changed you at the level of being if not then you need a savior and he is the lord jesus christ and once he gives you a new nature you will still struggle with these things but you will have power to walk in victory over these things and like balaam there will be seasons that you wander but god will correct and redirect you if you're in fact one of his children this is like judas and peter they both blew it publicly as disciples of jesus judas never changed peter did that's why he writes this letter and i believe in his heart he is appealing to you and he is saying please follow me please don't follow judas jesus will love you and help you and serve you but if you reject him there is only pain in your future no matter what the false prophets would say there's hope for peter there's hope for you if there's hope for peter there's hope for me and this is the hope second peter 2 9 then the lord knows so god's got a plan here's the good news how to rescue how to rescue how to deliver how to save the godly from trials so the question is not is a trial coming in your life the question is will you choose in the middle of it god and godliness we're all going to have trials in the middle say i choose god and godliness then god will rescue you he provides a way of escape the apostle paul says how many of you in the middle of it it looked like everyone and everything around you was doomed and destroyed and god delivered you right and here's how he does it noah gets a what no in his family what do they get for their deliverance they get a big boat what does lot get he gets a couple of angels which is awesome what does balaam get a talking donkey that's different what does peter get a second chance so let me let me end with my testimony i want to encourage you um by how god has been so gracious to me so i grew up um i grew up behind next to an airport within walking distance of my house were a couple of strip clubs not a great neighborhood my first job i falsified my birth certificate at age 15 and i worked at a 7-11 that was walking distance between two strip clubs it was right off an interstate where they had the green river killer and ted bundy that's where i grew up serial killers prostitution danger i did not know the lord but i thought i was a good person because in my neighborhood it didn't take a lot it didn't take a lot and i grew up sort of marginal jack catholic so i knew a little bit about god but i didn't know god and it wasn't the church's fault i just didn't care and i never really read the bible but i just assumed that i knew the big idea god likes bad people he does excuse me god likes good people and god doesn't like bad people therefore be a good person and you'll be fine with god he grades on a curve if you're a c student no need to worry that's kind of what i thought i was like well i'm obviously a good person so jack i'm fine so then i uh i meet grace my wife at age 17. i was not a virgin she was a pastor's daughter pretty soon i'm sleeping with a pastor's daughter okay just you know now that i'm a dad and a pastor you get cuts in the line to hell for that that that's here's i mean literally if you're sleeping with a pastor's daughter when everybody's in life excuse me i'm at the front i'm here i'm in the front that's me i'm 17 sleeping with the pastor's daughter why god did not set me on fire now that i'm a dad just so you know i've changed my position on this i see it very differently than when i was a single guy how many of you dads you're like i used to see it this way now that i got a daughter i see it a real different way yeah that's me okay okay so then i'm sleeping with a pastor's daughter and then i go to college where every class is telling me to do whatever i want to do okay every class is giving me justification for self-indulgence and self-destruction and then grace gave me a bible so i started reading the bible and uh and then i decided you know what i got to figure out what the bible says because everybody's trashed in the bible and the bible seems to be the only thing saying no it's saying crazy stuff like there's boys and girls and that marriage is for one guy and gal and sex is for marriage and man it's the only thing telling anybody no is this book so i got to see if that book's true or false so i go to a bible study college bible study guy gets up teaches a bible study i kid you not on fornication right he's like now fornicators don't inherit the kingdom of god fornicator is foreign and i'm like that's a big word i wonder what that means so it sounded like he was saying you're not supposed to sleep with your girlfriend so uh now now i'm a greek scholar because every guy who doesn't know what to do with his belt is all of a sudden a greek scholar trying to figure out what the original authorial intent was so that he could take his belt off so so most of you guys are in your 20s you're not theologians you're naughty okay so what happens then is i'm that guy so then i called the pastor who taught the bible study i was like hey i appreciate that bible study on fornication that's a really insightful new lesson thank you yeah i'm calling uh i'm afraid that i have a friend who might be fornicating didn't tell him it was grace and uh [Music] [Laughter] i was like so can you just clearly define fornication for me as it appears in the greek new testament he's like well are they single yes are they sleeping together yeah then they're fornicating oh well what if they love each other they're still fornicating and they need to stop what if they're going to get married then they're fornicating and they need to stop until they're married i was like what if they've already been doing it isn't it like running a red light i mean if you back up somebody gets hurt [Laughter] so he's like no they need they're fornicating and they need to stop i call grace i was like we're fornicating she's like yeah i know i'm a pastor's daughter oh okay i'm sorry i now i belong to jesus and his lordship extends beyond my belt okay so i stopped sleeping with grace i had to repent and apologize to grace we start meeting with our pastor start learning what the bible says about gender and marriage and sex and family and literally everything i thought was wrong we got married we've got a great marriage i mean we still have some problems so pray for grace she's working on some things but this last week probably shouldn't have said that [Laughter] this last week we celebrated 28 years of faithful marriage [Music] and i i i love my girl and we we love each other and and the truth is the bible has saved us from self-destruction this week we get to record a series of podcasts real marriage podcast marriage today is the largest marriage ministry in america and we provide podcasts to help couples with their relationship with god and with each other from the scriptures and so we're recording those this week the fact that a dude who grew up behind a strip club and was sleeping with the pastor's daughter gets to teach on second chances should give you hope okay if i can be faithful to my wife for 28 years just add that to the list of jesus miracles okay and here's what i'm telling you none of us is where we should be but every one of us can start where we are okay i started in the worst possible place and god has been very gracious to me and every time i open his word it reveals who he is who i am what jesus has done and it gives me a future that is not a false prophecy it's a true prophecy of the blessing of god on those who walk in his will according to his word i love you i'm not against you i'm for you god loves you he's not against you he's for you and i just want you to know that if you're a little ashamed or embarrassed or convicted because of where you are look i'm just telling you we all start there and the key is just to get started open your bible meet with jesus learn to obey make some changes god is very very gracious and he's here to help amen we're going to worship this god because it's through worship that we become like him and we're delivered by him so i'm going to invite the band up i'm just going to pray for you and uh we'll just ask you you know right now what are the things that you need to talk to god about right are you are you in sexual sin do you have secret hidden sin are you not loving your spouse are you not doing life really connected to your spouse father god i pray for those who are single lord god if they do what the world does they will suffer as the world suffers god i pray for those who are single to defy gravity to live in holiness and obedience and god i confess i was exactly the opposite of what the scriptures say and lord i thank you for your grace to me and i pray for that same grace to those who are single god for those who are married i pray that all of their passion would not be defiled but it would be directed toward their marriage and their spouse i pray that the flames of passion would live in the hearth of marriage in their home and would not escape to burn and to bring the flames of hell into the rest of the life god thank you that we can take you seriously but we don't need to take ourselves seriously and father god this is a very serious word but sometimes we take you very lightly and we take ourselves very seriously i pray we would take you very seriously and take ourselves very lightly and god i just want to thank you i want to thank you for 28 years with the greatest gal i've ever met and god i want to thank you for children who are a lot wiser and holier than their dad ever was at their age and god i pray that grace on all of these families that their marriages would be endearing and enduring i pray that there would be forgiveness and intimacy and oneness and joy and i pray that the future would be a good future i pray for their children and their children's children that they would be filled with the spirit that they would be obedient to the scriptures and that they would know and love the lord jesus in whose name we pray amen love you thank you

Channel: Real Faith by Mark Driscoll

Views: 3,556

Rating: 4.8333335 out of 5

Keywords: Mark, Driscoll, ministry, thetrinitychurch, scottsdale, arizona, bible, teaching, gospel, theology, jesus, biblestudy, faith, bibleverse

Id: 6cTWIidxYWY

Length: 69min 2sec (4142 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 24 2020