NOTE: This is an unedited transcript and, therefore, contains imperfections and is not for publication or quotation in whole or in part by anyone without the express written consent of Pastor Conley. The audio tape of this message delivered in the evening service on March 1, 1998, is available and may be purchased from the Church.

The Truth Twisters

2 Peter 2:1-3

Dr. J. Drew Conley, Pastor

Tri-City Baptist Church, Columbia, South Carolina

So far in our study of this Epistle, Peter has tried to equip us to grow strong in the "like precious faith" so that we can withstand the enemies of our soul. Now he begins to identify and denounce these enemies for who and what they are. Beginning in verse 1 of 2 Peter 2: "But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not." Such a threatening section which becomes even more threatening as we will read on in the weeks to come, full of denunciation and doom, and certainly not attractive reading to any normal person. This is not the passage you turn to for great comfort when you are trying to have devotions, unless it happens to be on your Bible-reading schedule for the day.

Before we skip such warnings in God's Word, we would do well to recognize how important Christ and the apostles considered them to be. The New Testament writers continually warn us against false teaching. This passage is one of the strongest, but very much in keeping with Christ's own denouncement of the hypocritical religious leaders of His day in Matthew 23, where He pronounces some seven woes against the scribes and Pharisees: men that outwardly were religious but inwardly were corrupt. It is also similar to the words of Christ's half-brother, Jude, and also those of John the Apostle who instructs in his epistles and in Revelation against those who are false teachers. That such godly people, even the Son of God Himself, speak in such a strong way, the fact that they do should give me great pause. It makes me think a little more clearly of the value of such warnings and the motives that drive them. Christ, full of compassion; His half-brother, Jude, then part of the inner circle of the disciples; John, the apostle of love; Peter, as big-hearted as you could find; these are the ones most vehement in their exposure of false teachers.

I draw from these this conclusion: it is not hatred of people that believe different that motivates these warnings; it is a not a sort of harsh self-righteousness behind these denunciations — it is love. It is love for God and for truth, and it is a love for people who need to face reality so they can find salvation and hope. Real love does not leave unexposed the enemies of God and the enemies of good in our own souls. One thing I love about Scripture is that, like God, it is honest: it is God's Word. It calls us to face reality, no matter how dark that reality may be, and as we face that reality, it shines the light of hope and rescue. Until I face just how dark things are, I don't really desire the light, nor value it as I should.

The second thing I notice as a preliminary observation is that, in keeping with the New Testament pattern, Peter has already given us the solid truths of the faith on which to bank our lives and our eternity. Steadfast faith in these truths, he has taught us, ensures our positive growth and godly character which, in turn, assures our own hearts that we really belong to God and are, in fact, safe from the wrath to come. The New Testament pictures human history as largely a titanic spiritual conflict between good and evil — God and Satan — each seeking to win human beings over to his side; each one desires you. Man is born in sin under God's wrath and under Satan's tyranny. The only freedom is to be found in being translated from that kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light through the merits of Jesus Christ who died and rose again to set you free from sin and death. When the stakes are that high, any teaching that would divert people away from the saving truth demands earnest warnings against it. If you will not receive the gospel's claim that Jesus Christ is the only way of rescue from sin and from its eternal results, then you will likely believe these words to be exaggerated and needlessly harsh and pessimistic.

Human nature, and we all have a good dose of it, would like to have the freedom to reject the gospel message without feeling condemned for doing so. Whatever my feelings are, facts are facts; and if I cannot trust Jesus Christ and the apostles, whom can I trust? If they are right about this battle for my very soul, I may try to pretend that the battle doesn't exist, but ultimately I cannot escape it, nor can I escape its consequences. Therefore, I would have us consider this morning Peter's words — his exposure of "The Truth Twisters." He has told us that "holy men of old spake as they were moved (along) by the Holy Ghost (Spirit)" (2 Peter 1:21b), and that is how we have the prophesies or writings of the Scriptures. But he says there is another class of prophets, false prophets, who are not moved by the Holy Spirit, but are moved by something else — they are false prophets.

Notice his description in verse one: "there were false prophets also among the people," (At the same time as these "holy men of old" were writing and preaching, there were other men writing and preaching who were pseudo-prophets) "even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction." "False prophets" really means "pseudo-prophets" — in other words, it is not just that they speak falsely, but that they are false. They are counterfeits and shams. As Daniel DeFoe has written, "Whenever God erects a house of prayer, the devil always builds a chapel there." These are those who, according to Deuteronomy 18:20, "presume to speak a word in my (God's) name, which I (God) have not commanded him to speak, but that speak in the name of other gods;" or "prophets of deceit" as Jeremiah terms them, "who speak a vision of their own heart and not out of the mouth of the LORD;" or in Ezekiel 13:3, "foolish prophets, that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing!"

Just as there were pseudo-prophets, there are also going to be pseudo-teachers. He uses the same terminology. In other words, they are not only false in what they teach, they are also false in who they are. They are not really men of God. They are not men that you can count on. Notice, they are those "among you." There were false prophets also among the people; there shall be false teachers "among you"— in your midst. In other words, these are men that mingle in with God's people. They are men who come from Christian circles: they are pastors, evangelists, church leaders — many times with great credentials, and from good schools. They may be men who have perhaps been looked to for many years as reliable sources of leadership. Let us understand that just because they are among us does not make them reliable. Just because a man stands up in a church pulpit to speak does not mean that you can trust him. It does not mean that his message is necessarily from God. These pseudo-prophets, these pseudo-teachers, are among God's people.

Let's, first of all, recognize that not everybody that names the name of Christ is a man to be relied upon; not everyone that has a church, not everyone who has a ministry under the umbrella of Christianity, is one that you can trust — he may, in fact, be a pseudo-prophet and a pseudo-teacher. Don't be looking just for the falsehood to be found in someone who adheres to Darwin. Don't look for the falsehood to be found merely in the public schools. Look for the falsehood in your own church — from your own pulpit — among your own friends. This is one reason why Satan is so successful in this passage: it is so subtle. Notice, they "privily shall bring in damnable heresies." They shall smuggle it in; they will bring it in alongside of the other good things.

We tend to fear the threat of persecution, and whenever we hear of laws passed or sentiments expressed that seem hostile to Christianity and to Christians, it tends to make us uneasy. And yet the danger of false teaching is far more subtle, and therefore far more damaging to the Church. Christians do not tend to tremble before that because we don't notice it; it is not so blatant; it is not so obvious to us. These men don't introduce themselves as false prophets. They don't label their messages different from the real gospel, and yet their messages are, in fact, damnable heresies — they are "heresies of destruction." The word heresies in this case is an interesting word; it comes from a verb meaning to choose, and therefore it has the idea that it is a self-chosen opinion in contrast with unchanging truth. I am always a little leery when a man stands up to give me insight or a formula that he has come up with that nobody has ever heard of before. I am always a little leery when he can't open the Scripture and lay out what it says, but rather he uses a verse as a leaping-off point, and then gives me an outline that is entirely his own — because that is one of the characteristics of heresy. It is a self-chosen opinion in contrast to revealed truth. It is a heresy of destruction, not in that it annihilates people, but that it ruins them. It brings disaster. It destroys the men who believe it.

He further describes them as those "even denying the Lord that bought them, and (they) bring upon themselves swift destruction." There has been much debate over what "denying the Lord that bought them" means. I am not sure that I am absolutely sure. There are some who explain these men are only pretending that the Lord has bought them, and they reveal by their false doctrine that they are not really believers. There are those who teach that these are believers, but, because of their immoral lifestyle, they are living contrary to what they say they believe — they are saved men, but yet they're sinful. The best explanation that rings true for me is this: that Peter is referring to the fact that when Christ died on the cross, His blood shed there was satisfaction before God: sufficient for all, but efficient for only those who would believe. We have a similar reference in 1 John 2:1,2: "My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate (we have a mediator; we have a paraclete) with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: (He stands in our stead; He argues for us; His righteousness goes on our account. How far-reaching is that righteousness? How available is it?) And he is the propitiation (or the satisfaction) for our sins: (He paid the penalty — God has been satisfied with the blood shed; it is all He requires. He, once and for all, paid the penalty) and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." I may chose to define "world" as only the world of the elect, but if I do that, I have gone away from John's definition of world as he uses it in his epistles. Christ's satisfaction on the cross was sufficient for all mankind. Any man that puts faith in Jesus Christ can be sure that His blood satisfied the righteous judgment of God upon sin, and I believe that is what Peter is referring to here. These men, pretending to be prophets of the Lord, bring in teachings of their own that bring about destruction, even to the point they deny the Lord that bought them. Jesus Christ died on the cross, shed His blood. Isn't it interesting that so much of the heresy prevalent today, often called Christianity, but particularly liberal Christianity, is rife with wrong views of the person and work of Christ and diminishes what He did on the cross, and has drifted into merely a social gospel — a do-goodism, as if I can do good enough to get my soul in heaven — and neglects the price that Christ has paid. Also interesting is that Peter, himself, once denied the Lord — but it was an aberration; it was an exception; it was under great pressure; it was not something that was characteristic of his life; and yet it reveals to us just how prone to wander is the human heart. Let us be sure that we make our own calling and election sure.

The damage that these false teachers do (verse 2): "many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of." In other words, there is a connection between false teaching and loose living: "many shall follow their pernicious ways." We don't use that word pernicious except when we are trying to impress somebody with our astounding vocabulary. Pernicious ways refers to unbridled living. Characterized by excess and indecency; it is shameless conduct; it is sensuality. It is an "in-your-face" sensuality of life — a free-living, immoral lifestyle. The plural used here pernicious ways denotes this kind of living is repeated and habitual among these false teachers. Many shall follow their unbridled living, their uncontrolled sensuality. False teaching will tend to produce sinful living. Whenever you see a society turn away from God and the Bible, you can be sure that those people in time will sink to the very gutter in their lifestyle.

You look at our own country — I don't believe that the roots of the current depravity and immorality that we see throughout our country is rooted in the 60s. Quite honestly, I believe it is rooted in the early 20s or perhaps even before that, when so many of the seminaries abandoned the Word of God and undercut men's faith in its authority. When you take away the authority of God's Word in men's lives, you have no moral guide — you have no benchmark of what is right and wrong. After awhile you are going to drift into the hypocritical situation of children looking to their parents for guidance and parents saying, "It's right to do this because this is the way we've always done it," and kids saying, "How come the way you've always done it is the right way? Maybe my way is just as good as your way." Parents could no longer say, "We do it this way because God says it is right, and God has a perspective that none of us has. God has perfect insight into our needs. God has perfect insight into the results of our behavior, and therefore we do what we do because it is right before God." As soon as you pull God out of the equation, all you have is my opinion against yours — and "might makes right."

It is no wonder we had a rebellion in the 60s and 70s, and it is no wonder we are in the total era of confusion today, because false teaching led to false, sinful, living. Isn't it ironic that those that brought in the social gospel in the 20s and 30s did so on the grounds that the gospel, focusing on individual conversion to Christ, didn't really do enough for society. They threw away the gospel of the Bible for a gospel that preached ethics and dealt with social conditions, and what is the result: our social problems are only worse. They essentially abandoned the cure for the disease in order to give full attention to treating its symptoms. Now the disease rages! The symptoms are even worse.

What is interesting about this connection between false teaching and false living is that just as false teaching leads to sinful living, the reverse is also true: sinful living will produce, or at least gravitate toward, false teaching. A man who is living wrong cannot long endure the preaching of truth. He cannot long endure being condemned by God's Word for his living that way, so he will seek teaching that will fit his lifestyle, or he will make up teaching that fits his lifestyle. Why is it that we have so many men in this century who are so quick to accept as fact Darwin's hypothesis? (It is not really deserving of the term, theory; it is a hypothesis; it is a guess — it is really creative writing.) Darwin's hypothesis was that man was not created but that he evolved. Why have so many bought into that? Why have they been so reluctant to see how often evolution's teaching on origins contradicts proven scientific facts and laws? Why has there been a wholesale rejection of even the possibility of miracles and of the supernatural, despite plenty of historical evidence to the contrary? At the root of it is a state of mind that will not accept the existence of God and miracles and His revelation, because doing so creates the obligation to yield to His authority or to be condemned by His pronouncement of what is right and what is wrong. The man who wants to lead an immoral life, without his conscience condemning him, must find, or manufacture, a world view that leaves the God of the Bible out. I use those words for a reason. He may still have a god, he may still speak the name of Jesus Christ, but he will have a god that lets him do whatever he thinks is best — an over-the-hill, senile kind of deity, who laughs goodnaturedly at what is going on, and just wants you to be happy no matter how you get there.

"False teaching," Martin Lloyd Jones noted, "panders to man as he is, fallen from God, and man welcomes the teaching because it excuses the life that he lives." I would have you note that these men do great damage because their message appeals to a great number of people. Notice, "many shall follow their pernicious ways." There is widespread success with this kind of approach. It has an appeal to people with a pagan background as well as those with a Christian background. It is popular today even among churches that consider themselves evangelistic. It is common today for people to think that their rejection of, or their redefining of, Biblical Christianity has merely been brought on by modern advances; that somehow new is better, and recent is wiser; that because we dress differently from our forefathers and travel differently from them, and give and receive information differently, that we as human beings have fundamentally changed. Such a view, though we hear it everywhere, certainly has to be one of the most shallow of our age, fit for only the most gullible. What has really changed about man's nature and needs over the last one hundred years, or two hundred years, or two thousand years, or four thousand years? Technology cannot change the makeup of my soul. My needs remain the same. As C.F. Alexander has expressed in the poem called "Reason and Faith": Through paths of pleasant thought I ran, false science sang enchanted airs. She told of nature and of man, of the godlike gifts she bears. When I sat down by the way and thought out life, thought out sin, the burning truths that round me lay, and all the weak proud self within, still in my single soul there wrought the sense of sin, the curse of doom. ‘Til slowly broke upon my thought, in eastern olive garden's gloom, hung on Thy cross twixt earth and heaven, I saw Thee, Son of Man divine. To Thee the bitter pain was given, but all the heavy guilt was mine. I know the serpent touched my heart. I saw his trail on hand and brow. No sinless thought, no perfect part, but sullied breast and broken vow, and then I felt my need of Thee, and pride's allusions passed away, and Oh, that Thou hast died for me is more than all the world can say. The wounded fawn in yonder glade beside the doe seeks rest from harm, the babe that scorned its mother's aid, flies to her at the least alarm, and thus I feel my need of Thee when sin and pride would tempt me most, and Oh, that Thou has died for me is more than all the skeptics boast." [Poem quoted as spoken, not copied from text.]

Man has not changed. His needs are the same. He still needs a crucified and risen Lord. All these arguments over science falsely so-called are merely excuses for man not to come to the only God who can make him whole. Let us realize that the widespread willingness to accept false doctrine is rooted not in progressive thinking, but in regressive living. As one commentator put it: "No doctrine, however senseless and monstrous, which under the guise of a religious faith ministers to the sensual appetites of men will ever want followers." You can get a crowd if you will appeal to the sensuality of men and make them feel good and godly in their sensuality.

It is a major mistake to gauge how reliable teaching is by how successful it has been in terms of bringing people to adhere to it. Christ said in Matthew 7:13 and 14, in the context of warning of false prophets: "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." In the history of Israel, you always find the majority following idolatry, and it is a righteous remnant that remains true to the Lord. When you traverse Biblical history, you find it is Noah along with his family — some eight souls — standing in bold relief from the culture that he lived in. Abraham is a man alone. Moses, was called to lead alone. Joshua, David, Elijah — these are all exceptional men, but they were exceptional because they were exceptional in their godliness in contrast to those around them. Church history bears the same pattern: a godly man is usually the man standing alone. Beware of seemingly well-meaning Christian leaders who advocate unity over truth, as if it is numbers that makes us strong. The fact is that vast numbers are often indicative of spiritual wickedness and falsehood, because there are "many (that) shall follow their pernicious ways," and "by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of." The "way of truth," the Christian message and the Christian way of life, belong together, but both are discredited by counterfeit preachers and teachers and those that follow their teaching.

Martin Lloyd Jones ministered in an England that had largely abandoned the Word of God. He was fighting battles seventy-five years ago that we are fighting today in our country. He made the observation that "the vast majority of men and women are outside the Church today because they somehow have got the notion that the Church herself does not believe in this Book and that the Church herself is uncertain about the gospel." That indictment rings true of our churches that believe for them to win the world, for them to advance the cause of the gospel, they must quit preaching God's Word and must entertain. When you have people who have so watered down the gospel that there is no longer any mention of sin and of hell and being under God's wrath, or being cut off from God, but only talk of God's love — if that is the gospel they are preaching, the Church appears not to know what the gospel is anymore. You say, "Pastor, are you saying, God doesn't love?" No, He does love. He loved us enough to send His Son to die for our sins. If sin is not that important, why did Christ have to die for it? If it is not a serious thing, why did the Son of God have to take on human flesh and shed His blood — to suffer the attacks of Satan himself (the power of darkness) so He might rescue mankind. If I didn't need to be rescued, if sin is not any big deal — if you cut sin out, you cut God's wrath out, you cut hell out, and you have no gospel to preach — there is no reason for it. Many a so-called Christian evangelical church, zealous for souls, will justify their trimming of the message — their trimming of the truth and their misrepresentation of what God has said — so they can be "successful" in the commission God has given. It is a contradiction; it is a blasphemy; it is a misunderstanding of how people are saved in the first place. The damage that they do is great for "many shall follow their pernicious ways" and bring "the way of truth" into disrepute.

Third, I would have you look at their design. (2 Peter 2:3) "And through (or, in) covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you." Motive judging is always precarious business. No man can with full accuracy judge the heart intent of another — he can only surmise — but God, in His Word, is a "discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, and all things are open and naked before Him with whom we have to do." Here God uncovers what motivates false teachers: it is self-centered greed. Whereas a good shepherd is concerned for the welfare of the sheep, the hireling is interested in the sheep for how they can serve his own welfare. He uses them, rather than serving them. Notice, it is in "covetousness" that they do their so-called ministry. In other words, "It is in that very atmosphere that surrounds and governs their aims and their actions," as D. Edmond Hebert put it: "They have a great desire for more. They crave and grasp for what they do not have the right to have." It is covetousness, this desire for gain, that motivates what they do.

Desire for gain doesn't have to be limited purely to money. It can be desire for gain in the estimation of men. If I want to be considered intellectual, or scholarly, or if I want to be well received by many people, if I want people to buy my books and listen to my radio messages, if I want people to look to me as a great leader, if that motivates my ministry, I am motivated by that which motivates false prophets, and it will not be long until my message takes a turn for the worse. Romans 16:18 says, "They that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly." It is not just that they are preaching for food, but they are preaching for anything that satisfies their desires. Jude 11: "Woe unto them! For they have gone in the way of Cain (in other words, they have made up their religion), and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward (prophesied because he was paid to do so and tried to prophesy falsehood), and perished in the gainsaying of Korah (Korah said, ‘Why is Aaron the only high priest? I want to be high priest, too. I will be high priest even though God has not appointed me')." In other words, these men are not appointed by God. They are motivated by gain, and they have made up their own religion.

In Acts 20:33 Paul's testimony stands in bold relief to such false prophets as he can say, "I have coveted no man's silver, or gold, or apparel." In fact, he worked to support himself so nobody could accuse him of living off the church. In 1 Thessalonians 2:5 through 6 he says, "For neither at any time used we flattering words, as ye know, nor a cloak of covetousness; God is witness (I may want people to accept the gospel, but if I use flattering words to get them to accept it, I am engaging in the practice of false teachers): nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others, when we might have been burdensome, as the apostles of Christ." He says, "Look! We were the very apostles of Christ, certainly they would have rolled out the red carpet for us, we could have taken advantage of that — we could have lived high on the hog, but we did not do that. We did not let desire for gain motivate us. We did not let the desire for men to glorify us motivate us."

Christ said to the Pharisees, "You are students of the Scriptures — you have searched them — they are they which testify of me. You think you have eternal life. The fact is you don't love God. You love the praise of men more than the praise of God, and the reason you don't accept me is that you really don't accept God's Word" (paraphrase of John 5:39-47). The reason certain preachers won't accept certain truths of the Bible is because they are more interested in the praise of men than in the praise of God. A man, who is a prophet that you can trust, must be willing to stand alone and, if necessary, to burn at the stake to give God's message — a man who fears God more than he fears any man — or else he very likely will be one who will give false testimony to the truth.

Notice these false prophets used "feigned words." The word translated feigned is the word we get plastic from. It means made up or molded, just like you would take clay and mold it because it is plastic — it is movable. Their teaching is that way: they mold it to fit their hearers. They mold it to please men. It is not that we do not recognize that when you are preaching from God to men that you need to know who you are talking to — you have to accurately apply God's Word — but, the fact is, the people don't determine the message. You don't take a poll to ask, "What would you like to hear? What would bring you out to church? Should I talk about how to manage your finances? Should I talk about how to rear your kids? Should I talk about how to get ahead in life? Should I talk about how to live healthy lives? Should we start an Christian aerobics association? What can we do to get you to come?" I am not saying you should never have an aerobics class in your church, or whatever. But, let us recognize that men do not determine the message unless you want a false message. It is to be God speaking to men.

In Romans 16:18 it says, "by good words and fair speeches (they) deceive the hearts of the simple." Their false teaching is cloaked in appealing words. They are going to show you a better way, a method of having a fuller life, a strategy for success. If you turn on the religious stations, certainly in a week you could write down a hundred examples of this kind of preaching. They use a few Biblical phrases and will even flop the Bible open and act like they are preaching from it, but they are giving you psychology and success tips. They might as well be on late night TV selling real estate courses, because it has the same spirit to it. They try to tell you how to "get in touch with your angel." They say, "God has given the angels so you can be a full person, so we are going to teach you in this message how to get in touch with your angel." You get in touch with the angels by coming to Jesus Christ who is above all the angels, and they serve Him and those that belong to Him.

Jude said in verse 16, "their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage." If they can use you to get higher up on the totem pole, they will do it. They need you because they need your money — they need your warm body — they need you so they look successful. "They make merchandise of you." In other words, they make you a means of business or trade. It is the word we get emporium from. It reminds me of Christ cleansing the temple where He says, "(you have made) my Father's house an house of merchandise" (John 2:16). Can you imagine what Christ would do today? He would have to send His followers out with cats of nine tails to clean out the churches and overturn many churches because they have made them into money-making businesses. The profitability of the message dictates the message they teach, not the purity of the message.

The false preacher doesn't really care whether his message really works to convert and transform your life so long as it works to increase his position and his purse. Whatever he has to say to get you to buy into it is okay, and he will justify it as necessary to advancing the Kingdom of God. When Christianity becomes big business, it gets into big trouble. Look at how much Christian ministry is not just supported by money — which is necessary and Biblically legitimate (the Scripture lays out how that is to work) — but it is driven by money; and it is geared to gain money. What sells is the sole vindication of all kinds of disobedience allegedly done for the Lord, so that the gospel has been degraded to the level of a market niche. What is left of such ministries when there is no money to pay for the glitz? If I can't produce fantastic special effects, if I can't produce state-of-the-art entertainment, what do I have left? If all I do is use up an hour or two of your time and make you feel good, what difference will that make in light of eternity? You might as well have been out fishing, or watching your favorite VCR tapes nonstop all weekend — doing what the world does.

Notice, "they make merchandise of you." He is writing to professing Christians — real Christians, too. There is a danger even to those who know the Lord that they will be sucked in by such pseudo-prophets. Sadly, it is often genuinely converted Christians who support the ministries of these wolves in sheep's clothing. Christ says, "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves (they are ravenous, they are hungry for gain, hungry to use you — they do not care what happens to you spiritually as long as you will fund their ministry)" (Matthew 7:15).

Finally, let us look at their doom (2 Peter 2:3b): "whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not." "Of a long time," that is, from of old. In other words, it is the ancient divine verdict on such practice that judgment shall come upon it. It is not lingering; it is not idle, or inactive, or weak. When God delays judgment, men imagine that He doesn't notice, or that He doesn't care, but they are sadly mistaken. In Ecclesiastes 8:11 Solomon observed this phenomenon when he says, "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." You think God has not taken notice, but He has — "it lingers not."

The angels who rebelled against God were not spared (2 Peter 2), verse 4 — they were angels, not even men. The people of Noah's day had 120 years to repent, and although he preached in righteousness, they scoffed at his message and were destroyed the day the flood came. The inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah were sinning strong right into the night before God rained fire and brimstone into the cities of the plain and left them as smoking ruin. So these men shall bring upon themselves swift destruction — not necessarily soon, but definitely sudden — their destruction being the opposite of their salvation. Christ warns us in Luke 12:15 and following when He gives us the parable of the rich fool, He says: "Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth." He then tells the story of the wealthy man who lived to acquire wealth, built greater barns and said, "Soul take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God." And that is the rub (the difficulty): where will you be if you accept such false teaching when it comes time to face the God of truth?

Have you bought into a false view of life? There is coming an acid test. Though it delay, it will come suddenly and without warning — whether it be by your death, whether it be by the rapture of the Church, or if you remain, whether it be the tribulation and the coming in judgment and glory of Christ — at that point, of what value will good feelings now be, if they turn out to be built on nothing and bring you everlasting doom? The day of judgment will reveal the worth of what you believe and what you have refused to believe — the day God accepts you into His heavenly city, or the day He casts you into the lake of fire. Whether you are small or great, you will stand before God, the books will be opened where He has recorded everything, but the book you will want to be in is the Lamb's Book of Life — it shall be opened, too, and whosoever is not found written in that book will be cast into the lake of fire forever (Revelation 20:15). Those who have bought into the false prophet's message of gain, of success, who have turned their ears away from the truth that tells them the way things really are, how they shall wail in that day.

I know I am speaking largely to those who have professed the Lord as Savior. It is very easy even as a converted person to drift into thinking like the world, to set your sights on earthly treasures — on temporal things. That is exactly what the false prophets have done and what they encourage. God's people set their sights on heaven. They value what is valuable by heaven's estimation — by what will last. My question to you is, "Are you building on that foundation?" There is no other foundation that will hold when the judgment storms come. I would encourage you, if you know the truth and have been set free by it, to take pity on those that are taken captive by Satan at his will, to realize how many around you are deceived by false prophets, and be one who will proclaim to them the truth of God and have compassion for their souls.

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