December 5th - The Good Shepherd

Prayer Requests
Pastor Aaron Surgery
Todd Love Recovery
Tamara Slack Recovery
Kennesaw Christmas Parade Preaching
Doomsday Outreach (December 17th!)
Christmas Concerts (James, Hannah, Bethany, Etc.)


Text – Zechariah 10

Zechariah 10 is a NEAT chapter, it tells us all sorts of great things about God, that he is the God of nature, he is the God who strengthens armies in righteousness, he is the God from whom all good things flow, he is the God who will win a complete victory at the end of time, and he is the Good Shepherd. The first thing I want to look at though, which is certainly not the main thrust of Zechariah’s message, but which is hugely important for your life is a tangential lesson from verse 1.

Zechariah 10:1 Ask rain from the LORD in the season of the spring rain, from the LORD who makes the storm clouds, and he will give them showers of rain, to everyone the vegetation in the field.

I love every Bible verse, but recently this has become my favorite, because it rocked my world. Look at it, when are we supposed to ask for rain from God? In the season of rain. Now, God is able to do things outside of the order in which he has decided to work, he can send rain in the middle of a desert in the dry season if he wants to, but he has structured the world in a way which we can trust and rely on a system of reliability. This is a miracle in itself,

Matthew 5:45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

It is a miracle every time it rains, even when we’re expecting rain, this is a blessing from God. It reminded me of another verse which is really taking us on a rabbit trail, but I think it’s totally worth reading,

Hebrews 3:12-13 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

There is a season given to us for every thing we do. As long as we live in a sinful world we must be killing sin, seeking righteousness, trusting Christ, and watching our brothers and sisters to ensure they are doing the same. Someday I’d like to do a study of Ecclesiastes 3 which talks a lot more about this. But the true reason I wanted to look at this is to exhort you all towards a season which comes all too early in most people’s lives, the season of dating and marriage. At 12, 13, 14 you shouldn’t be seeking boyfriends and girlfriends; someone to love, to kiss, to be for all intents and purposes married to, because at your age you are a ways off from expressing your love in the proper marriage covenant. We ought to pray for godly husbands and wives, yes, but in the season that this is appropriate, not a moment before.

Proverbs 6:27-28 Can a man carry fire next to his chest and his clothes not be burned? Or can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched?

So please at least think on this topic, that we may have perfectly right desires which are made wrong by the timing. While this isn’t remotely Zechariah’s point here, I would like to encourage you as you pray to consider if your prayer is keeping with the will of God. Can God do miracles outside of his normal timing? Absolutely, that’s one of the ways we really recognize it’s a miracle. For example, when Lazarus died, his sister knew he would be resurrected on the final day when everyone is resurrected, the righteous to eternal life and the wicked to eternal death, but Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life.” And he raised Lazarus and showed that he is the Sovereign of history and nature; he is not subjected to history nor nature.

Song of Solomon 2:7 Young women of Jerusalem, I charge you, by the gazelles and the wild does of the field: do not stir up or awaken love until the appropriate time.

So all that to say, there is a time and a season for everything under heaven. I adjure you not to awaken love before its season, that you would date only for the purpose of marriage, and count every act of love as sacred within that covenant, everything from holding hands to kissing to adequately covering yourself from everyone but your future spouse. I know I speak about this fairly often, and as soon as you get the message, then I’ll talk about it less frequently.

So let’s get to Zechariah, today we’re going to look at some wicked leaders, some false shepherds, and we’ll look at our true Shepherd, who is Christ. Chapter 10 and 11 of Zechariah are one complete thought, but they teach different lessons. Really quick though, we need to know from Zechariah 11 that the so-called shepherds of Israel were only in their positions for the money, they would sell their sheep for slaughter if it meant turning a profit.

We see this rampant in Christianity today, people so greedy that they go so far as to tell their audiences to send in their last bit of money so that they can show God how strong their faith really is, when in reality the leaders really only want a new jet-airplane or house. One of the craziest things I run into is false-teachers who use the very passage against them for their gain. For example, 1 Corinthians 14 is totally against speaking in gibberish, but gibberish speakers quote it frequently to justify themselves in their deep things of Satan. Here in Zechariah it speaks of the "latter rain" and some false teachers have used this passage and others like it to say there was a first "rain" of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, then a drought, and that they are now receiving the second "rain" of the Holy Spirit today. This is utterly untrue because the Holy Spirit was promised to be with us always. These will tell you basically anything in order to get your money. This is forever one of my greatest blessings to be unpaid because it utterly removes this temptation from my life.

Zechariah 10:1-11:3 Ask rain from the LORD in the season of the spring rain, from the LORD who makes the storm clouds, and he will give them showers of rain, to everyone the vegetation in the field. For the household gods utter nonsense, and the diviners see lies; they tell false dreams and give empty consolation. Therefore the people wander like sheep; they are afflicted for lack of a shepherd. "My anger is hot against the shepherds, and I will punish the leaders; for the LORD of hosts cares for his flock, the house of Judah, and will make them like his majestic steed in battle. From him shall come the cornerstone, from him the tent peg, from him the battle bow, from him every ruler— all of them together. They shall be like mighty men in battle, trampling the foe in the mud of the streets; they shall fight because the LORD is with them, and they shall put to shame the riders on horses. "I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph. I will bring them back because I have compassion on them, and they shall be as though I had not rejected them, for I am the LORD their God and I will answer them. Then Ephraim shall become like a mighty warrior, and their hearts shall be glad as with wine. Their children shall see it and be glad; their hearts shall rejoice in the LORD. "I will whistle for them and gather them in, for I have redeemed them, and they shall be as many as they were before. Though I scattered them among the nations, yet in far countries they shall remember me, and with their children they shall live and return. I will bring them home from the land of Egypt, and gather them from Assyria, and I will bring them to the land of Gilead and to Lebanon, till there is no room for them. He shall pass through the sea of troubles and strike down the waves of the sea, and all the depths of the Nile shall be dried up. The pride of Assyria shall be laid low, and the scepter of Egypt shall depart. I will make them strong in the LORD, and they shall walk in his name," declares the LORD. Open your doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour your cedars! Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen, for the glorious trees are ruined! Wail, oaks of Bashan, for the thick forest has been felled! The sound of the wail of the shepherds, for their glory is ruined! The sound of the roar of the lions, for the thicket of the Jordan is ruined!

We see first and foremost that God is the true God, the God of nature, the God of providence, the sustaining God. We ought to frequently realize that. We may say, “This morning the sun rose because the sun always rises.” Well really if it weren’t for God’s holding the universe together the sun wouldn’t rise. Centrifugal force would cause it to go zinging out into space and we’d never see it again.

There are many substitutes for God, but only one true God. Check out verse 2,

v.2 For the household gods utter nonsense, and the diviners see lies; they tell false dreams and give empty consolation.

Household gods are personal little figurines or methods of receiving supernatural revelation. These can be as simple as statues or as complex as astrology and horoscopes, or as seemingly innocent as a television. Zechariah didn’t have a television, but this very easily can fit into the place of a household god for us, as The View or Glee or Oprah or Glenn Beck try to form our theology into something that is radically different from true theology.

The false prophets make up revelation and present a god who really is of no account and isn’t able to save. This god won’t send people to Hell, but only because he can’t because he doesn’t exist, and he can’t save anyone for the same reason. Let me give you a controversial example, recently with all of the homosexual suicides several politically and financially successful homosexuals put out public statements that life for homosexuals is getting better and therefore troubled homosexuals should hold on. This seems like consolation, until we look at the fact that it is still a horrendous sin against humanity and God and that it is judged both temporally and eternally as hugely unhealthy for a person’s body and soul. True consolation is found in reconciliation to God, sanctification in the Spirit, and total forgiveness and freedom in Christ.

Another example is the empty pursuit of happiness and patriotic duty which we are constantly bombarded with. This is a false consolation, empty of truth and empty of temporal and eternal benefits. I watch it and am extremely angry, and find great consolation in the fact that so is God. We’ll see how he offers true consolation in a few verses, but first,

v.2-3 Therefore the people wander like sheep; they are afflicted for lack of a shepherd. "My anger is hot against the shepherds, and I will punish the leaders; for the LORD of hosts cares for his flock, the house of Judah, and will make them like his majestic steed in battle.

Even though Israel truly did have people acting as pastors (rabbis) and leaders, this verse says they wander and are damaged just as though they had no shepherds. Beloved, there are so many churches in our area that have youth pastors who are none more than adolescent boys who have no desire nor ability to lead their students into truth. There are churches all over the nation that have men overseeing them who care more for their own personal reputation than the spiritual health of their flock. In this passage God still refers to them as shepherds, but Jesus gives us a much more descriptive title for them in John 10.

John 10:12-13 The hired man, since he is not the shepherd and doesn't own the sheep, leaves them and runs away when he sees a wolf coming. The wolf then snatches and scatters them. This happens because he is a hired man and doesn't care about the sheep.

Hirelings are men who look after the flock, but only as much as they can benefit from it. The moment danger approaches they take off leaving the flock to be decimated by enemies. There is an even worse shepherd which we’ll look at in Zechariah 11, who is a wolf in sheep’s clothing (and sometimes in shepherd’s clothing (see 2 Peter 2)).

Matthew 7:15 Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

I love it that God’s anger is fierce against such men, knowing that I can leave all vengeance up to him and that he is the Sovereign of History who is demonstrating why his Son is the true Shepherd of the sheep, who does care about the sheep, the one who strengthens and equips his flock for the ministry. This is setting up an absolutely fantastic gospel presentation in chapter 13, one which it is so tempting for me to reveal now, but which I will wait a few weeks to show you!

v.4 From him shall come the cornerstone, from him the tent peg, from him the battle bow, from him every ruler—all of them together.

For time’s sake let me just tell you that these are the four major things which Israel needed to be a great nation, they needed a firm foundation, a secure support, mighty weapons, and brave men to act justly and courageously for them. We see that all of these come straight from Christ, apart from him we can do nothing. This is why we sing the song, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow…” If it’s good and a blessing, it’s from God.

v.5-7 They shall be like mighty men in battle, trampling the foe in the mud of the streets; they shall fight because the LORD is with them, and they shall put to shame the riders on horses. "I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph. I will bring them back because I have compassion on them, and they shall be as though I had not rejected them, for I am the LORD their God and I will answer them. Then Ephraim shall become like a mighty warrior, and their hearts shall be glad as with wine. Their children shall see it and be glad; their hearts shall rejoice in the LORD.

They shall be like great warriors, this is believers in Christ who aren’t out to kill people, but to convert them. If we have a firm foundation in Christ, a hope which secures us against every wind of doctrine, the sword of the Spirit which is the Bible, then we will be equipped and led by God to be great spiritual warriors, destroying every argument and persuading people to trust in Christ and Christ alone.

Now at this point it is tempting to follow a heresy that God saved us because he saw great potential in us, but verse 6 destroys that, stating that God raised us up and equipped us only on his compassion, not because of anything we had done or would do, but that both our salvation and subsequent works are his works in us. One of my new favorite verses is at the end of Colossians 1.

Colossians 1:28-29 Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

Whose energy? His. Who is working? He is. And we rejoice in this, emboldened, filled not with wine, but with the Holy Spirit. Now it gets extra beautiful, telling us that we have no fear of bad shepherds destroying our eternities if we are in Christ, for we have a much better shepherd,

v.8 "I will whistle for them and gather them in, for I have redeemed them, and they shall be as many as they were before.”

This whistle is a call to the sheep, it’s either a whistle you make with your lips, or with a reed flute, or a specific vocal call. However it is, the sheep know this call and come. It’s amazing that even as dumb as a sheep is, it is able to know the specific call, even the voice, of its shepherd. However Christ will call, we will hear his voice,

John 10:3-5 The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers."

Christ calls for us, and we go to him and follow him. We see that he has redeemed us, from what we will see in chapter 11, but ultimately it is from sin and the very teeth of the world which desired to devour us. Christ will not lose a single one of his sheep.

v.9-12 Though I scattered them among the nations, yet in far countries they shall remember me, and with their children they shall live and return. I will bring them home from the land of Egypt, and gather them from Assyria, and I will bring them to the land of Gilead and to Lebanon, till there is no room for them. He shall pass through the sea of troubles and strike down the waves of the sea, and all the depths of the Nile shall be dried up. The pride of Assyria shall be laid low, and the scepter of Egypt shall depart. I will make them strong in the LORD, and they shall walk in his name," declares the LORD.

This passage is beautifully poetic, but not especially clear on when nor how it is to be fulfilled. We see that God’s people will be so many as there will not be found room for them just in Israel. This has certainly come true in these days, that every Christian in the world would not fit in Israel, so we are in far off countries remembering God and bearing witness to his truth.

We have the language of him passing through the sea. This is certainly reminiscent of Moses parting the Red Sea, a type for walking through death to life, and possibly we can see here that Christ is prophesied living and dying and living again. The language of striking down the waves of the sea is neat because in Heaven the sea will be smooth as glass, because all strife will have ceased, and there we see in verse 12 that Christ does this by cutting off the wickedness and rule of Israel’s enemies.

Finally, let’s read the first three verses of chapter 11 which will further expand on Christ putting an end to all boasting that is not in him,

v.1-3 Open your doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour your cedars! Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen, for the glorious trees are ruined! Wail, oaks of Bashan, for the thick forest has been felled! The sound of the wail of the shepherds, for their glory is ruined! The sound of the roar of the lions, for the thicket of the Jordan is ruined!

We end with what we started with, that the false shepherds are punished and so they wail. Their riches gained through mistreating the flock of God are made nothing. These hirelings flee when danger approaches the flock, they seek only monetary gain. These sins against God’s sheep will be avenged.

So your application, trust wholly in Jesus Christ as your true Shepherd, make sure your leaders and pastors are following him and leading you in his ways, as you grow into leadership positions yourself, be willing to die for your flock, place them at far more value than yourself, refuse to let even a single one be devoured by the world while you still have breath in your lungs. Remember that this is how you were redeemed by your Shepherd, though he was God in every way, he counted you as more valuable than himself and laid down his life for your sake, and if he is willing to die for you, know that he will also equip you to walk in the power of his resurrection.

John 10:11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

October 3rd - The Pleasures of Sin

Prayer Requests
Pastor Aaron Preaching
Scheduled Revival
Covington Fair
North Cobb Witnessing
Judgment Journey
Kyle Preaching at FCA
Boy Scouts fund raiser

Text – Zechariah 5:5-11, Proverbs 9

Today we approach Zechariah’s seventh vision, one of the more difficult ones to tell you what the exact details mean, but one where the greater point shines forth. We’re going to look at the attractiveness of sin, the world’s efforts to elevate it, and God’s ability to suppress it.

Let’s do just a bit of review, there isn’t much coming forward in this vision from the last ones, but I didn’t clarify a major point last week that I really apologize for missing because it’s an important point.

The last two visions talked about the Word of God, if we are in God’s New Covenant, in the church, symbolically depicted as a lampstand, then how does the Word of God relate to us? It is as a blessing. But if we have broken God’s everlasting covenant and are outside of the church, then how does the Word of God relate to us? As a curse.

How did God redeem us from the curse of the law? By hanging his blessed Son on a tree, for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.” Was Jesus hanged on a sycamore or oak tree? He was hung on a cross; what is the cross made of? A tree. Is it a living tree? No, it is a dead tree; I think we could call it a tree of death. Christ redeemed us from the curse by becoming a curse for us, he has given us his blessings, he died on a tree of death to grant us access to the tree of life; for whosoever believes in him will not perish, but will have eternal life.

What part did God play in the sending of the curse and in cursing his Son? Did they surprise him? No, he accomplished both by his own power. The only real tie-in that I see between the sixth and seventh visions is that both are being sent by God’s will. The wickedness we see today is not outside of God’s plan, indeed it comes from the same place as the curse, it may be that this vision is the curse in manifestation. So let’s read this seventh vision.

Zechariah 5:5-11 Then the angel who talked with me came forward and said to me, "Lift your eyes and see what this is that is going out." And I said, "What is it?" He said, "This is the basket that is going out." And he said, "This is their iniquity in all the land." And behold, the leaden cover was lifted, and there was a woman sitting in the basket! And he said, "This is Wickedness." And he thrust her back into the basket, and thrust down the leaden weight on its opening. Then I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, two women coming forward! The wind was in their wings. They had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the basket between earth and heaven. Then I said to the angel who talked with me, "Where are they taking the basket?" He said to me, "To the land of Shinar, to build a house for it. And when this is prepared, they will set the basket down there on its base."

I’m going to do my best today to teach this like it should be taught. That’s what I always do, but today it could be tempting to try to take some of the offense out of this message, but I want you to see just how God sees the world and that outward beauty is not everything, I’m going to teach this along with Proverbs 9, because the two are closely tied together. If you’re not offended by the end of this lesson, then I’ve done something wrong.

v.5 Then the angel who talked with me came forward and said to me, "Lift your eyes and see what this is that is going out."

Visions six, seven, and eight all proceed out of Heaven, God sending forth either his law, or his plan, or his ministers. Zechariah is going to see a measuring basket, he’d know it was a measuring basket because these were really common in Israel, they hold about 7 gallons of whatever you want them to hold. When he asks what it is, he knows it’s a measuring basket, he wants to know what it’s measuring.

v.6 And I said, "What is it?" He said, "This is the basket that is going out." And he said, "This is their iniquity in all the land."

This verse is translated to interpret the passage for us. I’m not sure if I like that, though if you were reading the Bible in a year and only spent four days on Zechariah, I think I would like this interpretation, though this verse says something different in the Hebrew than what it says here, though they did a good job capturing the meaning of the passage without capturing the wording. What Jesus actually says here is that this is the resemblance of the world, or this is what God sees the world as, the original doesn’t have any meaning of sin, the translators are interpreting rightly what they read in verse 8. So what this measuring basket holds is what God sees the world as. So let’s see what this basket holds.

v.7 And behold, the leaden cover was lifted,

Wait, let’s stop there. The first thing we see is that whatever this basket is holding is protected by a big heavy weight. God is keeping what is inside inside…we see something odd here for a measuring basket, you wouldn’t put a heavy weight over seven gallons of grain. What do you think a weight would be used for? Whatever is inside is living and wants to escape!

Proverbs 29:18 Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law.

Second Thessalonians tells us that God is also restraining the spirit of antichrist:

2 Thessalonians 2:6-7 And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way.

Let’s then look at what’s inside:

v. 7-8 and there was a woman sitting in the basket! And he said, "This is Wickedness."

Strange. I don’t know where to start, there are several exceedingly great points here. Let’s start with the fact that the woman is called Wickedness, because I think that’s important. This isn’t the part that’s meant to offend you, but if I taught this wrongly, then it could.

Do you think the woman represents wickedness because all women are irredeemably wicked or wickeder than men? No, of course not, we know that the Bible says ALL have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, Zechariah just said this is the appearance of ALL land. I believe, and we’ll look at the verses that make me believe this, that this woman must be pretty cute and attractive and she represents the allure of sin as well as the actual sin.

Some sin is ugly and nasty and only certain people enjoy it, but most sin has a pleasure that comes with it. Sin can be really fun, if it wasn’t people wouldn’t do it…though some people sin and are miserable for it.

Hebrews 11:24-25 By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.

The attractiveness of the female form is an amazing representative of this, John calls it the lust of the flesh and eyes.

1 John 2:16 For all that is in the world— the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world.

Before you think God hates women, let’s read Proverbs 9 where both wisdom and wickedness are represented by women:

Proverbs 9:1-6,13-18 Wisdom has built her house; she has hewn her seven pillars. She has slaughtered her beasts; she has mixed her wine; she has also set her table. She has sent out her young women to call from the highest places in the town, "Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!" To him who lacks sense she says, "Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Leave your simple ways, and live, and walk in the way of insight."

The woman Folly is loud; she is seductive and knows nothing. She sits at the door of her house; she takes a seat on the highest places of the town, calling to those who pass by, who are going straight on their way, "Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!" And to him who lacks sense she says, "Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant." But he does not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of Hell.

So let me give you the practicality of this, and it’s pretty much the same for both the ladies and gentlemen in this class: not all that is beautiful is good and not all that is frugal is bad. Guys, the girls that show off the most are the ones you want the least, because everything they are is on display; while the modestly dressed and reserved ones are a depth of beauty that goes far beyond their appearance.

Ladies, there is a reason that sin is compared to a woman, because just by wearing immodest clothing you can ignite a fire in a man’s heart that cannot be put out. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, you do us a huge favor when you dress modestly. The true danger of seeking the fleeting pleasures of sin is that it is insatiable, it will burn every last bit of fuel you give it and still want more. Lust cannot be satisfied just once or through one inappropriate look, and so you only have two choices, to feed your sinful desires indefinitely, or to kill your sin immediately. John Owen put it better than I ever could, he said, “Be killing sin or sin will be killing you.”

Guys, Job said we should make a covenant with our eyes to avoid looking at the fleeting lust of the eyes. And ladies, besides the opportunity to cause someone to lust, you have to also worry about pride, having an obsession with guys finding you attractive. I’m not lying when I say that each and every one of you is beautiful beyond words, and I hope you realize when I say that it is also considering your inward person. You have a tremendous responsibility to practice discretion in what you wear and how much you show to the world. You have one chance to preserve a gift you will someday give to your future husband when he is privileged to something the rest of the world has never seen.

I hope this at least makes you think, and even a little uncomfortable. This is a sin area that we avoid discussing way too often in the church and one that, if we get it right in this class, will bless you and me and hopefully the whole church for the whole next generation. The only part of teaching middle school that I don’t like is the never ending cycle of seeing young ladies flaunt themselves and young men follow their eyes wherever they take them. By me saying this now hopefully I’ll never have to smack one of you guys in the back of the head when I catch you looking at something or someone you shouldn’t, and I’ll never have to ask you ladies to remove a picture off of facebook or put on a sweater in the middle of summer to cover yourself up, things I’ve had to do in the past.

Let’s conclude this thought with a bit of humor, but also great depth, through a Proverb and then move on with Zechariah:

Proverbs 11:2 Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout is a beautiful woman without discretion.

There are vast and reaching reasons why God symbolizes wickedness with a beautiful woman, because the façade can and does hide all manners of uncouthness and evilness; a little honey can hide the taste of poison. God sees to the inward person; describing that sin makes everything ugly and that even if there is a bit of external beauty, it’s like a gold ring in the nose of a pig.

Back to the basket: there is a measuring basket full of wickedness. What do you think this means? That our sins aren’t just a pinch or a little bit, but are filling up the fullness of what God allows us to do. Imagine God’s patience as the payment for this measure, that when sin is filled God’s patience runs out. We see this in reality in the destruction of the Amorites as God waited for them to sin to the full measure before he destroyed them.

Genesis 15:16 In the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.

We see a measure for nations and also a measure for the human heart,

Acts 8:22-23 Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps he will forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin.

Acts 13:10 You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord?

Let’s look at this from the standpoint of modesty, let me use the guys as an example. Just thinking someone is pretty is not a sin, but if you fail to kill the possibility of sin, of becoming obsessed with that person and having no intention of marrying them then you are sinning against five people: her, you, her future husband, your future wife, and above all you sin against God.

James 1:15 Desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

We’ll see the gospel in just a bit, but let’s look at what happens next:

v.8 And he thrust her back into the basket, and thrust down the leaden weight on its opening.

We see that God is more than capable of restraining sin, yet he lets sin happen every day. This was alluded to when we read earlier that God is restraining the spirit of antichrist in what Paul calls the Mystery of Iniquity, God showing us why righteousness is good and evil is bad, showing why he is God and we are not, that he is able to use everything for good, even evil, as demonstrated most amazingly when he took the most wicked execution tool ever, the cross, and used it to save his people. We see though that as he thrusts Wickedness down, there is no love between God and evil.

God has many ways of restraining sin, one of which is our conscience, telling us what is right and wrong, second is the Bible, explicitly telling us what is right and wrong, and another is shame, making us feel bad when we sin; the Christian also has the Holy Spirit who leads us and is grieved, saddened, when we sin. I believe God’s major tool for loosing sin is when he removes shame, I want to read you a passage in a bit from Ezekiel where God is furious at Israel’s sin, I’m going to read it because of the choice words God uses, first though let’s read verse 9.

v.9 Then I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, two women coming forward! The wind was in their wings. They had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the basket between earth and heaven.

This is the ONLY place in the whole Bible that remotely says that angels can be female, though because it’s a vision I don’t think we should make that jump. It sounds like angels are only male and Jesus explicitly said that angels never marry, so it'd be weird if there were boy and girl angels. What we should see these women as is sin elevating sin, think of them again as embodying wickedness, and we see that through a sort of strange way: they have wings like storks. The stork in the Bible is representative of uncleanliness, it is a carnivore and scavenger that will eat anything; these women, whether fallen angels or just symbolic of more evil, are definitely meant to convey that evil is elevating evil, and the wind in their wings means they are able to move swiftly, accomplishing evil things very quickly.

Deciding the best order to teach this in is difficult, there is so much to say, so let’s read Ezekiel 16 so I can get to where I want to get to.

Ezekiel 16:15,23-25,28-29,30,31 You trusted in your beauty and played the harlot because of your renown and lavished your sexual favors on any passerby; your beauty became his. And after all your wickedness (woe, woe to you! declares the Lord GOD), you built yourself a vaulted chamber and made yourself a lofty place in every square. At the head of every street you built your lofty place and made your beauty an abomination, offering yourself to any passerby and multiplying your harlotries. You played the harlot also with the Assyrians, because you were not satisfied; yes, you played the harlot with them, and still you were not satisfied. You multiplied your iniquities also with the trading land of Chaldea, and even with this you were not satisfied. How sick is your heart, declares the Lord GOD, because you did all these things, the deeds of a brazen prostitute, yet you were not like a prostitute, because you scorned payment.

Do you get the point that God hates it when sin is elevated and made the ultimate goal of everything? Let’s see what those winged women are going to do with this basket of wickedness.

v.10 Then I said to the angel who talked with me, "Where are they taking the basket?" He said to me, "To the land of Shinar, to build a house for it. And when this is prepared, they will set the basket down there on its base."

I really wish Zechariah would have asked, “What are these two winged women?” But he doesn’t, and so this is one of the details I can’t tell you exactly what they mean, though I think we’ve seen it pretty closely that they represent more sin. They are taking the basket to the land of Shinar, which is in Babylon. This is played out exceedingly in the New Testament that the world is referred to as Babylon and Christians are the exiles from our home in Heaven.

The word for house is more than just a plain building, but it’s less than a temple. It’s like a really nice house, even a palace. The two winged women are building a palace for wickedness, I don’t think it would be wrong to allegorize that they are making sin comfortable, even to the point of worshipping their sin.

We run into problems as Christians with displaying the 10 Commandments in public, or reading the Bible in school. Do you know why the world hates these things? I mean, what is to hate about any of the Commandments morally? If everyone kept them we’d have a nice society. The problem is that the Law and Word of God make people uncomfortable in their sin, they don’t want to hear of a judgment to come, they want to eat and drink and be merry and at the end of the road die and not face judgment. But comfortable sin is living in a lie, we need to know that apart from Christ’s saving work, we are set to be judged, and that in Christ’s saving work we are changed to hate sin and seek not to make it comfortable, but to kill it.

Romans 8:13-14 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

Finally, are you and I counted in this appearance of all the world? Are we full of sin? Absolutely, I bet you we’ve all broken every one of the 10 Commandments in spirit if not in flesh, and the measure of our sin is draining God’s patience. But let’s look at some verses to conclude why we do not despair and why we turn from making our sin comfortable to striving for holiness through Jesus Christ.

Let’s look first at my all time favorite Bible verse:

John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Psalm 86:15 You, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

Psalm 116:5 The LORD is gracious and righteous; our God is full of compassion.

While we were filling up the full measure of our sin, Christ filled up the full measure of righteousness, and in his fullness he humbled himself to become nothing, pouring out his life on cross so that we who are poor in spirit may be rich in spirit in Christ. He has canceled our sin and made us abound in his grace.

Therefore, let us put sin to death in our lives, not pampering it, not worshipping it, and certainly not living with it. Else we see that our God is also full of wrath towards his enemies, and will make a complete end to them, even pursuing them into the darkness.

August 29th - God is Working

Prayer Requests
Walk through the Old Testament
Celebrate Freedom Witnessing (Sept 4)
Shelby's Friend's Play
Pollock's Grandparents
Two students from the North Cobb area killed in car accidents
James in the Orchestra
Kari's Sister's visit

Text – Zechariah 1:7-21, Psalm 137

Last week we did an overview of the Babylonian captivity of the people of Judah which took place between 605 and ~535 BC. If you don't fully understand what was going on there it is fine, it is a lot of history and since we're so far removed, it's hard to really grasp the details. Today we're going to look at some of the details and hopefully you'll understand the faithfulness of God even if you don't understand 70 years of history in the 6th century BC.

Does anyone remember the name of the king of Persia who Isaiah prophesied by name over 100 years before he was even born? Cyrus. Here is a huge rabbit trail, but one that I think is important that we follow for a lot of reasons. Sometimes the way my brain works is strange, like the way I catalogue Bible verses or names sometimes takes me a little while to sort through, but it ends up that I have memorized more verses and names than anyone I know. As I was thinking about Cyrus, I wondered, "How would you possibly spell that in Hebrew?" Because Hebrew doesn't have a soft-C sound or even an S-sound that is close to Cyrus, so I looked it up, and it turns out that his name wasn't Cyrus, but Koresh. Cyrus is our Anglicization of the name Koresh, just like Jesus is the Anglicization of Joshua. Remember the name Joshua for the Messiah, it's gonna be hugely important in upcoming weeks.

Does anyone know why the name Koresh might pique my interest? It's because when I was growing up there was a famous cult leader named Vernon Howell, more popularly known as David Koresh. As I researched the name Koresh I found that David Koresh changed his name in order to claim he was the Messiah and the deliverer of God's people. He gained a small following as the second coming of Christ and convinced his people that Armageddon was taking place at their complex in Waco, Texas. As I researched him I remembered something important that isn't keeping with our lesson today but is important enough to share and I don't know when Zechariah would give me another chance to say this.

One of Koresh's biggest sins in a long list of big sins was his sexual sin, he married basically every woman and girl in his cult. The youngest was 12. I want to remind you that the most consistent mark of a cult is sexual sin, and it's amazing what someone can convince someone of in the name of religion. This is prevalent in Koresh's little cult, in the Mormon cult, and in Islam and Catholicism which most people think are too big to be cults, but they share every major distinction of cult-activity. Your body belongs to you and nobody should ever inappropriately touch you, especially in the name of Christ. Sexual purity is of utmost importance to him and your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, with the gift of an intimate relationship confined within the marriage covenant.

I wanted to share that because Koresh is being seen as more and more as a nice, misunderstood guy, when in reality he was a really wicked man.

So, to Zechariah,

Zechariah 1:7-21 On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, son of Iddo, saying, "I saw in the night, and behold, a man riding on a red horse! He was standing among the myrtle trees in the glen, and behind him were red, sorrel, and white horses. Then I said, 'What are these, my lord?' The angel who talked with me said to me, 'I will show you what they are.' So the man who was standing among the myrtle trees answered, 'These are they whom the LORD has sent to patrol the earth.' And they answered the angel of the LORD who was standing among the myrtle trees, and said, 'We have patrolled the earth, and behold, all the earth remains at rest.' Then the angel of the LORD said, 'O LORD of hosts, how long will you have no mercy on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, against which you have been angry these seventy years?' And the LORD answered gracious and comforting words to the angel who talked with me. So the angel who talked with me said to me, 'Cry out, Thus says the LORD of hosts: I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion. And I am exceedingly angry with the nations that are at ease; for while I was angry but a little, they furthered the disaster. Therefore, thus says the LORD, I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy; my house shall be built in it, declares the LORD of hosts, and the measuring line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem. Cry out again, Thus says the LORD of hosts: My cities shall again overflow with prosperity, and the LORD will again comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem.'"

And I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, four horns! And I said to the angel who talked with me, "What are these?" And he said to me, "These are the horns that have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem." Then the LORD showed me four craftsmen. And I said, "What are these coming to do?" He said, "These are the horns that scattered Judah, so that no one raised his head. And these have come to terrify them, to cast down the horns of the nations who lifted up their horns against the land of Judah to scatter it."

v.7 On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, son of Iddo, saying, "I saw in the night..."

This prophecy is two months after the first one, and is considerably longer than the first, it spans 8 visions and 6 chapters. All of these visions happened in one night, it was a busy night for Zechariah. Each of these builds on the next, so when we get to the end we'll read them all in order.

There are a few important things to see in this verse, first we remember our Zechariah, the son of a priest and a priest himself, has previously called Judah to continue repenting and to listen to the word of the Lord, for it will outlast both its hearers and the preachers who are proclaiming it.

The second important thing is the "Shebat" which is the name of a month. This month is in the spring when nature is waking up again and flowers are blooming and there is new birth happening all around. It is highly symbolic of Israel being saved out of a season of despair, and we'll see a flowering tree in a minute.

v.8 behold, a man riding on a red horse! He was standing among the myrtle trees in the glen, and behind him were red, sorrel, and white horses.

We're going to get a really good picture of these horses in chapter 6, but for right now there is a different lesson than the horses being taught. A red horse though, for this lesson, is symbolic of war; we'll see in a bit that this man on the horse is none other than Jesus Christ himself. Notice that there are other horses, these are representative of angels, and the different colors represent different duties; white for peace, red for war, black for death, and sorrel, which is light brown, the Bible never tells us what it represents.

The myrtle tree represents Israel, and at this time of year, it would be flowering with beautiful red and white flowers. A neat thing about the myrtle tree is that when you crush its leaves, it smells really nice; symbolic of the suffering of the believer bringing a pleasant outcome. The Hebrew for myrtle tree is Hadassah, do you know anyone else with that name? Esther's Hebrew name was Hadassah.

v.9 Then I said, 'What are these, my lord?' The angel who talked with me said to me, 'I will show you what they are.'

Zechariah doesn't understand, so we get a great lesson: ask.

v.10 So the man who was standing among the myrtle trees answered, 'These are they whom the LORD has sent to patrol the earth.'

These are God's ministering spirits, his messengers and soldiers to accomplish all of his purposes. Some are to do good, others are to do evil to punish sin. You remember that God told Cyrus that there weren't two gods, one who is good and one who is bad, but that there is one God and he makes good and creates evil. Some of these angels are not nice at all:

Job 1:6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them. The LORD said to Satan, "From where have you come?" Satan answered the LORD and said, "From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it."

In 1 Kings 22 God asks for a volunteer to bring a wicked king to a specific place so that he can kill him there, and some angels speak up, but nothing definitive, and then Satan stands up and says, "Let me go lie to him." and God lets him go; even guaranteeing Satan's success.

So know that God is working from the beginning, and is working today. He has ministering spirits acting constantly in the world. The report of these angels comes next,

v.11 And they answered the angel of the LORD who was standing among the myrtle trees, and said, 'We have patrolled the earth, and behold, all the earth remains at rest.'

This was an amazing time in the history of the world where there were no wars. Remember this is because of the work that God did through Cyrus, and completed through Darius, bringing most of the known world at this time under the control of the Persians. One of the only times in history where there was world peace, and this is not at all pleasing to God, as we'll see in a bit.

v.12 Then the angel of the LORD said, 'O LORD of hosts, how long will you have no mercy on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, against which you have been angry these seventy years?'

The angel of the Lord is Jesus Christ, here we see him beautifully interceding for his people, asking God how long their punishment shall last. There are a lot of terms for angels in the Bible, everything from sons of God to Seraphim (on fire ones), to the word here, Mal'ak, which comes from Melech, which means king. The angel here is not a pretty wingy thingy, but a messenger of the King.

1 Timothy 2:5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus...

Apart from God accepting mediation and having mercy on these people whose sins wouldn't be paid for for another 500 years, both these Jews and we would be utterly without hope. God's response is beautiful:

v.13 And the LORD answered gracious and comforting words to the angel who talked with me.

It may be that what is said next are these words, but I think there were some other words spoken in here which are not revealed to us. It is very dangerous to speak where God has not spoken, so I wouldn't presume to try to say what was said in here, but a great Puritan, John Flavel, did consider what might have been said and he did it very well, and I do not think that God would object to this discourse.

Father: My son, here is a company of poor miserable souls, that have utterly undone themselves, and now lie open to my justice! Justice demands satisfaction for them, or will satisfy itself in the eternal ruin of them: What shall be done for these souls?

Son: O my Father, such is my love to, and pity for them, that rather than they shall perish eternally, I will be responsible for them as their Surety; bring in all thy bills, that I may see what they owe thee; Lord, bring them all in, that there may be no after-reckonings with them; at my hand shalt thou require it. I will rather choose to suffer thy wrath than they should suffer it: upon me, my Father, upon me be all their debt.

Father: But, my Son, if thou undertake for them, thou must reckon to pay the last mite, expect no abatements; if I spare them, I will not spare thee.

Son: Content, Father, let it be so; charge it all upon me, I am able to discharge it: and though it prove a kind of undoing to me, though it impoverish all my riches, empty all my treasures, yet I am content to undertake it.

We have an intercessor because the Son of God willingly took our sins on himself and paid for them in his own life's blood. Apart from him there is no hope of reconciliation or mercy, but in him there is grace upon grace upon grace. Following these gracious and comforting words, Christ commands Zechariah to speak,

v.14-17 So the angel who talked with me said to me, 'Cry out, Thus says the LORD of hosts: I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion. And I am exceedingly angry with the nations that are at ease; for while I was angry but a little, they furthered the disaster. Therefore, thus says the LORD, I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy; my house shall be built in it, declares the LORD of hosts, and the measuring line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem. Cry out again, Thus says the LORD of hosts: My cities shall again overflow with prosperity, and the LORD will again comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem.'"

For sake of time I think this passage basically speaks for itself, that God is done being angry with Israel and is bringing them back to prosper, and prosper they did from this point on for quite a while. One of the evidences of this is that the temple was being rebuilt at this exact moment.

In the first prophetic outcry we see that God was very angry with the fathers of Judah; in this passage God compares his anger towards Babylon to the anger he felt towards Judah as only a little, and the anger he feels towards Babylon to be great. Remember that they were not righteous people, they had no relationship with God, they sinned exceedingly and did terrible things to all sorts of people, including the Jews.

One place we see this played out exceedingly clearly is with Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, better known as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. When they refused to abandon the God of Israel, Babylon tried to execute them with lions and fire, but God was with them and saved them. Besides that the Jews in Babylon were horrendously treated.

In the second passage God is sending destroyers to Babylon for their attrocities.

v.18 And I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, four horns!

A horn is a symbol of power and violence, like the horn of a bull or elephant or rhinoceros. Zechariah didn't know what they were, so what'd should he do? Ask.

v.19 And I said to the angel who talked with me, "What are these?" And he said to me, "These are the horns that have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem."

We don't know precisely who or what these horns represent, it could be kings or governments. We know that at least one, and maybe all, represent Babylon. Knowing what they represent isn't as important as seeing what God is doing to them.

v.20 Then the LORD showed me four craftsmen.

Craftsman is anyone who knows what they are doing in building, but specifically here the Hebrew means they are carpenters. Zechariah can see that, but he wants to know their purpose, so he asks, (I love this theme)

v.21 And I said, "What are these coming to do?" He said, "These are the horns that scattered Judah, so that no one raised his head. And these have come to terrify them, to cast down the horns of the nations who lifted up their horns against the land of Judah to scatter it."

God is sending specific people or angels or whoever to destroy these powers as punishment for their treatment of his people. Jews before Christ believed at least one of these was the Messiah. Some Jews believed in two Messiahs, one to die and one to reign as king, one Jewish commentator even called one Messiah the "Son of David" and the other the "Son of Ephraim."

Psalm 137 was written to describe the destruction of Babylon:

¹By the waters of Babylon,
there we sat down and wept,
when we remembered Zion.
²On the willows there
we hung up our lyres.
³For there our captors
required of us songs,
and our tormentors, mirth, saying,
"Sing us one of the songs of Zion!"

⁴ How shall we sing the LORD’s song
in a foreign land?
⁵If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand forget its skill!
⁶Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth,
if I do not remember you,
if I do not set Jerusalem
above my highest joy!

⁷Remember, O LORD, against the Edomites
the day of Jerusalem,
how they said, "Lay it bare, lay it bare,
down to its foundations!"
⁸O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed,
blessed shall he be who repays you
with what you have done to us!
⁹Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones
and dashes them against the rock!

This Psalm recounts how painful the exile was, and how the Babylonians scorned them and burned Jerusalem and the temple, how they were prisoners and mistreated. the middle section is wonderful because it reminds us that we need to only work for God and speak truths about God, and if we're not going to speak truth, it'd be better if our tongue didn't work.

Finally is the imprecation at the end, Edomites is a way of saying the people whom God has created for the sole purpose of showing his power on by destroying. They aren't just the Babylonians, but in this passage they are just the Babylonians.

God is so angry and his wrath is so just and his judgment so complete that he will destroy Babylon down to the very smallest of her babies.

So our major application in this is that God is still working, he is not slack concerning his promises, but patient, and he will repay every atrocity done to his beloved.

June 6th - False Prophets

Prayer Requests
Pastor Aaron and Summit in General
Camp
Dave and Brooke first week
Ben and Holly first/second week
Ashten - Breanna and Drew
Lane Kidney Stones
Jack Anderson Heart Stint

Text – 2 Peter 2:1-22

Before we start I want to share something that I found by accident which we talked about last week, when we talked about Hermeneutics. Who remembers where that word comes from? From Hermes, a mythical messenger of the Greek gods. Well check out this verse:

Acts 14:8-12 Now at Lystra there was a man sitting who could not use his feet. He was crippled from birth and had never walked. He listened to Paul speaking. And Paul, looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made well, said in a loud voice, "Stand upright on your feet." And he sprang up and began walking. And when the crowds saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in Lycaonian, "The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!" Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker.

Afterwards Paul and Barnabas straightened out the confusion and pointed Lystra at the True and Living God, but we do well to remember that our job is actually more important than Hermes' job, because we deliver the Words of Eternal Life, and not just some trite little mythological message about some divine drama.

So moving on, I struggled with how much of Second Peter 2 to teach today, because there are a lot of very interesting details in this chapter, but it is also one complete thought, so today I think we'll do well to look at the whole chapter, then next week, and maybe the week after that, we'll look at the smaller details.

So first of all, let's do a quick overview of Second Peter. Why has he written this letter? Because he is about to die. What does he want to tell the church with his last letter? How to know you're saved, that the Bible is the authoritative Word of God and that we compare everything against scripture, then he is going to warn us about false prophets, and finally he will point us at Christ's impending return.

Second Peter is a very well written letter with definite flow and movement, he knows where he's going and he gets there quick. There are only three chapters, but they fly through because he's building to crescendo that ultimately Christ wins, despite what we're going to see in chapter 2. So let's read the whole chapter.

2 Peter 2 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, 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.

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, 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 despise authority.

Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones, whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you. They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.

These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. For, speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. They promise them 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 it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. What the true proverb says has happened to them: "The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire."

v.1 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies,

Peter's first point is the "but" which he is coming from the thought that the Holy Spirit wrote the Bible, but there is no lack of false teachers who teach lies about God, the lies we'll see are coming up.

It is important to note that these false teachers bring in their heresies secretly, not waving a banner and blowing a trumpet; they sneak them in, sometimes possibly not even knowing they are doing so. There is no lack of false-teachings through the church as a whole, I want to let Peter do most of the talking, but just real quick the big false teachings we run into are a denial of the Trinity, a denial of our complete inability to save ourselves, and a denial of God's anger towards the sinner. There are obviously many more, but these are the three that I believe show themselves most often. Every heresy that comes in is destructive, some more than others, and some small heresies, like perhaps the idea of transubstantiation, that the bread and blood of the Lord's Supper are literally his body and blood, point to much bigger theological problems, like the finished Work of Christ on the cross.

vv.1-2 even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed.

This is one of the more difficult passages in the Bible to understand, because it can't mean what it sounds like it means, because it would contradict dozens of other passages that say Christ will save exactly whom he has bought. I don't want to spend too much time on this passage, although I do want you to know that it has a perfectly legitimate meaning and doesn't contradict anything. First of all, the word for "bought" is not the same word in other places which denotes Christ's saving work; in those places it is Time, here it is Agorazo, it's not redemptive, it probably means that Christ is the owner of all things, even false teachers.

The word of Master is not Kurios like we see saved people referring to Christ, but is Despotes, which refers most likely to a Master who owns Slaves.

Peter leaves this verse somewhat ambiguous for a purpose, I believe, to point to a lot of different false teachers. There are false teachers who preach a different Jesus by making up things about him, overemphasizing some parts of his character and ignoring others, or it can also refer to various church leaders like John Shelby Spong who are virtually atheists.

2 Corinthians 11:3-4 But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.

Not every time someone says Jesus or Christ are they talking about the real Jesus Christ. There is a wicked and crazy Puerto Rican who claims to be Jesus in Miami, but he's definitely not, despite his name being Jesus.

Because of these false teachers the way of truth is blasphemed, or cursed. It's not enough that the world hates Christ for who he is, but these false teachers also present a greedy and conniving Jesus and that makes the world hate him even more.

v.3 And in their greed they will exploit you with false words.

Greed is almost always the driving motivator behind the false teachers. Many also love the fame, theatrics, and power they get, but ultimately it all comes back to the money. (Cf. 1 Timothy 6:10) Just yesterday I was watching The Blasphemy Network (TBN) and the guy literally said, "God says if you have $1,000 then send it in, then $1,000 will be the least your ever have, or hold onto it, and $1,000 will be the most you ever have." Besides their greed look down to verse 10, 14, and 18:

vv.10,14,18 especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority...They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin...They entice by sensual passions of the flesh...

Another aspect of false teachers is sexual deviancy. The one thing all cults have in common besides ignoring the Bible is gross sexual sin; David Koresh, Benny Hinn, Todd Bentley, and a multitude more who led and lead people astray have sinned grossly with their bodies while in the ministry.

Very rarely will they just come out and say what they want, but sneak these disgusting heresies in. Know that God loves sexual purity and has confined the wonderful gift of sex to be used rightly between a husband and wife. Any teacher who stumbles on this point ought to be fired immediately before the problem can escalate. Know that we don't have rules like modest dress because we want to make your lives miserable, but because we don't want you to sin against Heaven and your own bodies. Many false teachers utterly ignore this point.

vv.3-4 Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment;

We see that they are not beyond Christ's reach to punish, their condemnation is forthcoming. Other parts of the Bible actually make it out that God allows these false teachers in the church to prove a point for believers, that sin is wicked and disgusting and destroys things; it grows a healthy hatred of sin in the believer when they see this wickedness.

It also provides another point that it leads false converts out of churches where the Bible is preached and serves to purify good churches; albeit false teachers will still infiltrate. For example, I knew two people who seemed to be following Christ when the economy was up and they were well fed and happy, but when they lost their jobs they ran off after these false teachers who promised them health and wealth and showed that they were actually not true believers at all. One thing I want you to see is that the problem doesn't start with the false teachers, it starts with people's wicked desires, and from there they find people who will preach what they want preached:

2 Timothy 4:3-4 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

God also has no problem SENDING these false teachers to wicked churches as punishment:

2 Thessalonians 2:11-12 Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

We're not going to read verses 5-11 today but save them for next week; these verses affirm that God is able to save the righteous and condemn the wicked from Old Testament proofs; a real quick summary is that we should care more about our own beliefs and teaching that seeking out every false teacher; although we should be aware of them. A person could potentially get so caught up chasing after false teachers to not realize they are one themselves! As Peter said in chapter 1, we are to make our own calling and election sure.

It is important to remember that we are all sinners and evil in the sight of God, that apart from Christ's righteous saving work which is attributed to us, we would face the same righteous judgment; so the distinction is not how we live, but whether or not Christ has saved us.

vv.12-16 But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you. They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.

I love Peter's passion, he gets MAD at their evil deeds and teachings, point us at another Old Testament example of Balaam who sold his soul for a couple of bucks by offering to curse the people of God, which he failed at, and still lost his soul. Read about it in Numbers 22-25, and we'll try to talk about him next week if we have time. One of the neatest things about his story is that God had total control over what he could and couldn't say, and we see that God is restraining even the most evil of people and that everything that happens is well within God's purposes.

v.17 These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved.

I think next week we'll read Matthew 23, but the next few verses are paraphrases of Christ's great condemning speech to the Pharisees. A waterless spring would be like me setting up a well in the middle of a desert and calling people over for a drink, and when they get there, they realize that I'm just pouring sand in a glass. These false prophets make all sorts of promises but since they are not preaching the true God and repentance from dead works, there is no Living Water to be had.

vv.18-19 For, speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.

This is why Peter is so mad, because people who potentially are seeking some escape from the defilement of sin find these false preachers who instead of pointing them to the saving work of Christ, point them at legalistic principles for salvation...give money...do stuff...don't sin...have faith in your faith...and these inward focused things cause people to be all the more captive in their sins. Beloved, you should have charity, you should give money, you should do good deeds, you shouldn't sin, but none of these save you and you should not be trusting in any of them, but they should be natural outpourings from the faith you have in the Living Christ who paid your ransom on Calvary's cross, who quickened your soul through his resurrection, for if the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed.

Ironically, a recent poll showed that followers of prosperity preachers are considerably poorer than Evangelical Christians. God doesn't particularly care if you're poor or rich, and he may make you rich for the sole purpose of you giving it all away, for he has given us an abundance so we can give out of that abundance.

2 Corinthians 9:7-8 Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.

vv.20-21 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 it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.

Here we see a gradation of Hell, that those who knew the truth and rejected it will have a worse time than those who didn't know at all. Christ spoke of this thusly:

Luke 12: 47-48 And that servant who knew his master’s will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.

The lowest part of Hell is for teachers who teach something other than the truth:

James 3:1 Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.

This doesn't just apply to religious teachers, but all teachers, so the next time you hear a teacher whining about not getting paid enough or being under appreciated you tell them that I said when they do a better job glorifying Christ by teaching the truth, then we'll pay them more. Until then their condemnation is just and their destruction is not idle, and Psalm 58 actually says we'll rejoice on Judgment Day when God's vengeance is poured out on those who set themselves against God.

All of this, of course, assuming they do not get saved before they die. If they are saved, transformed from a sinner to a saint, then we will rejoice in God's great mercy that he redeems sinners, of which I am foremost. But if they are not changed, verse 22 will be true of them,

v.22 What the true proverb says has happened to them: "The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire."

Without a doubt the grossest thing my dog does is throw up and then a few minutes later come back and un-throw-up her food. Something the body rejected somehow becomes appealing after a little time has passed. Similarly these unconverted temporarily reject sin, but upon second glance decide that's actually what they want.

A sow is a pig, have you ever heard the phrase, "I'm sweating like a pig." That statement is TOTALLY false, because pigs don't sweat, they can't sweat, so in order to cool their flesh, they go and roll in the mud. The unconverted, who temporarily dabble in Christianity but who aren't converted will eventually fall back into sin to satisfy their sinful desires.

So in conclusion, just as there have been false teachers in the past, so will there be false teachers today and until the end of the age. We must test everything against scripture, using it as our final authority, trusting wholly in Christ and not in works to save us. Our salvation will bring with it the natural tendency to seek after righteousness and strive for holiness, and we must identify these false teachers and reject them and warn others of them.

The most popular today are Joel Osteen, Benny Hinn, Rick Warren, T.D. Jakes, Joyce Meyers, Brian MacClaren, Rob Bell, William P. Young (The Shack), Andrew Wommack, Kenneth Copeland, Kenneth Hagin, and Paul Crouch, but this list is definitely not exhaustive. Avoid them and tell your friends to avoid them!