Why do you believe and live like you do?
What's the strongest influence in your life?
Another way to ask this,
what caused you to adopt the personal values,
morals that you live by today?
You know, most people make decisions about what they believe
and how they live according to one of three sources of authority.
One is their personal experience.
A lot of people just do what they feel like doing.
Or they base their decisions based on what has worked well in the past,
their experience.
Some people base their morality, their values on what we'd call cultural norms.
That's really what everybody else believes and does.
Another way to say that, it's just what everybody else is doing.
They follow the crowd.
And then the third source of authority is some kind of external source of authority.
For Christians, that would be the Bible.
For other religious people, it might be some other authoritative book.
But the truth is, all of us in this room,
we're sometimes influenced by each one of those sources of authority.
Sometimes you just do things because you feel like it, don't you?
And it's not even right, but it's how you feel at the moment.
And sometimes we all sort of get caught up in what everybody else is doing,
and we just follow the crowd.
It's the easiest way.
And then, as Christians, there are hopefully many times
that what we do is intentionally an attempt to be obedient to what the Bible says.
What most consistently influences you?
Or who most consistently influences your decisions
about what you believe and how you live?
Here are some questions.
They'll help us all to decide.
What are you doing with your money?
How do you spend your time?
On what basis did you make the decision on how,
in a general rule, you spend your money and your time?
What led you?
What leads you to do that?
What are you teaching your children and grandchildren about priorities?
About morality?
About their faith?
And other things that matter most.
What are you teaching them?
And we teach a lot of things.
Don't get me wrong.
But what is your source that you're drawing from
to influence those who are looking to you
and soaking up what you say and do?
What or who is having the strongest influence on you,
the way you think, what you believe,
the way you live right now?
We're involved in the study of how God wants us to live in this world
until we see Jesus face to face,
which is going to happen when we die, the moment we die,
or when He returns to this world, if we're alive at that time.
We're in 2 Peter chapter 3,
and please, if you would turn back there,
because we're going to focus on one particular verse this morning,
verse 17.
We're continuing our study of this series
about how to live till we see Jesus.
Today we're going to continue to look at what we started last week,
our responsibility to guard against the influence of false teachers.
And also, we're going to be looking at our responsibility
to maintain strong and stable biblical beliefs.
Let's look at 2 Peter chapter 3,
beginning in verse 13.
Peter is moving from what he's been talking about in this chapter 3,
about the second coming of Jesus,
into how he wants to encourage his readers to live until they see Jesus.
I hope most of you remember,
before we got into this series,
we spent four weeks looking at what happens after we die,
what happens after a Christian dies.
And so now,
we're in the fourth week of looking at
how do we live until then.
And Peter is giving us some good counsel.
Begin in verse 13.
But according to his promise,
we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth
in which righteousness dwells.
Therefore, beloved,
since you are waiting for these,
be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish,
and at peace,
and count the patience of our Lord as salvation,
just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you,
according to the wisdom given him,
as he does in all his letters
when he speaks in them of these matters.
There are some things in them that are hard to understand,
which the ignorant and unstable
twist to their own destruction,
as they do the other scriptures.
You, therefore, beloved,
knowing this beforehand,
take care
that you are not carried away
with the error of lawless people
and lose your own stability,
but grow in the grace and knowledge
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
To him be the glory
both now
and to the day of eternity.
Amen.
Peter's telling us
how
one day
we can look Jesus
in the eye
without fear,
without regrets.
The Bible is trying to tell us
when it talks about the second coming
and these kind of things,
as sure as we're alive right now
and you look around
and you see one another,
one day everybody's going to see Jesus.
We can be prepared
when that day comes
not to be scared to death,
not to have so many regrets
of what I should or shouldn't have done,
but Peter's telling us some things
that will help us to be ready
to see him
have a smile on our face.
Let's look at him.
We've been challenged
to get serious about our character,
to make the most
of God's patience,
and last week we looked at
stay on guard
against false teachers.
I want you to look
one more time
the latter part of verse 16
or the second sentence
in 16
and verse 17.
He's talking about
staying on guard
against false teachers.
There are some things in them,
Paul's letters he's talking about,
that are hard to understand,
which the ignorant
and unstable twist
to their own destruction
as they do the other scriptures.
You, therefore, beloved,
knowing this beforehand,
take care.
Most translations say,
be on your guard,
that you are not carried away
with the error
of lawless people
and lose your own stability.
We looked mostly
at verse 16 last week,
so I want us to focus
more on verse 17 now.
The warning is clear.
Look at it.
He's saying,
don't be carried away
by those who twist scripture
to support erroneous teaching
and lawless living.
We need to understand.
Whenever someone twists
what is obviously
the clear meaning of scripture,
they are turning
the truth of God's word
into false teaching.
That's why
they are described here
as teaching error
in verse 17.
Now, Peter also points out
that these people
who are doing this,
they are lawless people.
He has described them
in detail in chapter 2.
In fact,
that's what chapter 2 is.
It's a description
of false teachers,
what they believe
and how they live.
Now,
he describes them
as not only teaching things
that are contrary
to God's moral law,
but they live
immoral lives openly.
I want you to look
at some of the phrases
he uses to describe
these immoral people.
I'm quoting from chapter 2
and I'm using here
the New Living Translation.
He's talking about
how they are
immoral people.
Look at these verses.
They're evil teaching
and shameful immorality.
Those who follow
their own twisted
sexual desire.
They commit adultery
with their eyes.
They lust.
And their desire
for sin
is never satisfied.
These people
are not just
immoral people.
They're arrogant.
They are in people's face
about it.
Look at it.
These people are proud
and arrogant,
daring even to scoff
that supernatural beings,
angels,
without so much
as trembling.
They talk flippantly
about angels
as if they're on their level,
I think is the idea.
And then the next verse,
they love to indulge
in evil pleasures
in broad daylight.
Most normal,
most normal people
of whatever stripe
have enough
shame about them
to hide
their sinful behavior.
I mean,
we do that,
don't we?
When we are going
to do things
that we know
are not right,
we don't want
everybody to see it.
we're ashamed.
We'd be embarrassed.
But Peter's describing
people who claim
to be Christians now.
They are so blatant
in people's face
in the way
that they live,
they do it
in broad daylight.
They don't care.
Their goal
was to entice others
to join them
in immoral living.
Look at it.
They lure
unstable people
into sin.
With an appeal
to twisted
sexual desires,
they lure
back into sin
those who have
barely escaped
from a lifestyle
of deception.
Now,
as bad as all
that is,
that's not
what's so dangerous.
What is most
dangerous about
these false teachers
is that they claim
to be Christian
teachers?
They were
in the church
or had been
in the church.
They didn't
ignore Scripture.
They did something
worse.
They claimed
to be teaching it,
but they twisted
the meaning
of God's Word
to support
their erroneous
and immoral
teaching.
They were
what Jesus
described
false prophets
as in the
Sermon on the Mount.
They were
wolves
in sheep's
clothing.
Now,
look back
at verse 17
at the specific
warning
that's being made.
I put it in bold,
the first part of this.
Take care
that you are
not carried
away
with the
error
of lawless
people.
Now,
I want you
to think
about
how are
most
Christians,
how do
most Christians
go astray?
When you
do things
that you know
are not right
before God,
when you
disobey
God's Word,
how does
it come
about?
Excuse me,
please.
Do you
wake up
one morning
and think,
I think
I'll just
defy
God
and lie
to my
wife
about what
I'm going
to do
today?
Do you
ever wake
up one
morning
and just
think to
yourself,
I am
going to
try to
ruin
my
good
friend
with
slander,
with
gossip?
You don't
do that,
that's
crazy.
No,
normal
person.
If you
do wake
up and
think
those
things,
there's
something
wrong
with you.
It's
not just
that you're
not a
Christian,
there's
deep
problems
in you.
What we
do,
we don't
intentionally
rebel
against God,
we don't
sit around
and plan
it.
The way
most of
us go
astray
is we
get sort
of carried
along
based on
how we
feel at
a moment,
based on
what other
people are
doing.
Maybe we
want to
follow the
crowd or
other people
are tempting
us and
we just
go along
with them.
Sometimes we
do things
because it
just seems
like doing
this thing
that I
know it's
not right,
but it
seems like
it'll be
the simplest
thing to
do.
It'll be
the easiest
thing to
do.
it'll
cause me
the least
amount
of trouble
to say,
speak this
lie,
to be
deceptive,
to not
do what
I said
I would
do.
I want
to back
up.
This is
how we
do because
this is
how super
saint
Christians
do.
The human
author of
the passage
we're
reading is
Peter.
Most of
us in
this room
know how
he gave
in to
fear and
denied that
he even
knew Jesus
three different
times on
the night
Jesus was
arrested.
But that's
not the only
time Peter
stumbled and
fell morally,
spiritually as
a man of
Christian
leadership.
Peter stumbled
on one
occasion by
giving in
to peer
pressure and
acting
hypocritically in
front of some
young Christians.
Peter not
only did it
and other
Christians not
only did it,
but Barnabas,
another well
known respected
church leader in
the book of
Acts, he
joined Peter in
the crowd and
acting hypocritically.
I want to show
you what I'm
talking about.
It's in
Galatians chapter
two.
The problem
was Peter and
some other
Christians and
then Barnabas,
they were at
one point
engaging in
just normal
Christian
fellowship with
non-Jewish
Christians,
Gentile
Christians.
But some
more Jewish
thinking Christians
came to that
area and
Peter and
some of the
others thought
they're going
to be mad at
us, they're
going to think
that we're less
than what we
ought to be by
mingling with
the Gentiles.
So Peter and
Barnabas, they
withdrew.
And what Paul
says, they were
being hypocrites.
Look at it.
He says, but
when Cephas,
that's another
name for Peter,
when Cephas came
to Antioch, I
opposed him to
his face because
he stood condemned
and the rest of
the Jews acted
hypocritically along
with him so that
even Barnabas was
led astray by
their hypocrisy.
Now I want you
to think, Simon
Peter, the leader
of the apostles,
Barnabas, he is
the one who
actually mentored
Paul, got Paul
involved in
teaching and
having influence.
Peter and
Paul, or Peter
and Barnabas, they
got caught up in
the crowd.
They gave in to
peer pressure.
They got carried
away.
They sinned.
They were
hypocritical in
front of a lot
of young
Christians, so
much so that
Paul called
them out publicly
over it.
If that could
happen to those
guys, that
could happen to
us, can't it?
We can get
carried away
more easily
than them.
I think the
reason why many
individual Christians,
churches, and even
denominations have
rejected the truth
of Scripture
concerning such
things is human
sexuality and
marriage is
due to their
being carried
along or
carried away by
the error of
false teachers.
It didn't
happen overnight.
The two most
about-faces that
has taken place in
this generation in
terms of churches,
denominations,
individual Christians
turning away from,
rejecting the clear
teaching of Scripture
about human
sexuality and
the institution of
marriage.
Nothing has been
quite like this in
this generation.
The about-face, the
change has taken
place.
But I want you to
know it didn't
happen overnight.
It happened over
many years.
As Christians
started twisting the
truth of Scripture
about these issues
to make the church
less offensive to the
culture.
This twisting of
Scripture evolved
into the rejection
of biblical
authority and
replaced it with
no authority.
Do what you want
to do.
So now instead of
looking at what the
Bible teaches about
homosexuality and
same-sex marriage,
we have some
Christians, we have
some churches, we
have some entire
denominations that are
looking at what the
culture says and
calling that normal.
They're looking at
what people say they
feel and let that be
the determining factor
about what they
believe.
Now to make matters
worse, some of these
liberal churches still
claim to believe in the
authority of the Bible.
I want to give you a
specific example of a
church that's done this.
It's First Baptist
Church of Greenville,
South Carolina.
Now, I want you to
understand I'm not
picking on them.
I'm not singling them
out for any particular
reason.
I'm using them as an
example because they
have come out publicly
in the Greenville News
on Channel 4, WIFF.
They put it in their
documents, these
erroneous teachings
about these issues.
Here's the examples.
As a part of their
current mission statement
that is listed on their
website, you can go and
see it today, they
state this, we believe
in the authority of the
Bible.
In their church mission
statement, they have this
sentence, we believe in the
authority of the Bible.
Yet, in an article that
was in the Greenville News
on August the 4th, 2015,
the church's senior pastor
is quoted as saying this,
there's no family value
system in the Bible that we
would lay into the 21st
century.
He's more clear in the next
statement.
What we believe about
marriage and family is
culturally driven, not
biblically driven.
There's a quote from the
pastor of Greenville
First Baptist Church.
Now, that article in the
Greenville News also
pointed out church policies
about these matters.
And I'm quoting, today,
First Baptists can perform
same-sex marriages.
And the next one is on
their website, one of
their documents.
And members, no matter
their sexual orientation,
can serve in leadership
roles and can be ordained
as ministers.
Now, I want you to hear
what I'm saying.
Any church that claims to
believe in the authority of
the Bible, but rejects what
the Bible actually teaches
on these issues, that church
is guilty of twisting
Scripture and teaching error.
I don't care if it's a
Baptist church,
Presbyterian church,
non-denominational church,
Episcopal church,
Methodist church,
any church.
It's also true about any
individual Christian teacher.
Anyone who teaches anything
that openly, clearly,
blatantly contradicts what
the Bible teaches, that church
does not believe in biblical
authority.
That church is rejecting
biblical authority and
biblical truth.
And that church is guilty
of teaching error.
They're guilty of providing
false teaching.
Now, we as Christians,
we're being told by Peter that
it's our responsibility to
stay on guard against such
false teachers to make sure
that we don't get carried away,
get caught up in
their false teaching,
their erroneous teaching.
A person can get caught up
in a church or among
Christians like that because
a lot of them are your
friends.
You love them.
You have a history with them.
It doesn't matter.
We have a responsibility
not to get caught up in,
not to be carried along
by such false teaching.
If you're a parent with
children still living in your
home, or if you're someone
who has influence over
children, period, you need to
make sure that you are teaching
them the truth of Scripture
to help them to develop
biblically sound beliefs and
values because if you don't do
it, nobody will do it.
I want to stress that.
If you are a Christian with
children in your home,
grandchildren, if you're a
Christian who has influence
over young people,
they are not going to hear,
they're not going to be taught
from the world
biblical values.
They're not going to be guided
in terms of what they should
believe about God and the
things of God.
Moral living
by anyone outside
of Bible-believing
Christians, Bible-believing
church.
But if you're a parent,
grandparent, you are the
first, you're the primary one
that God's going to hold
responsible for teaching them.
It's good to teach your
children how to fish, how to
hunt.
It's good to teach your
children how to play ball.
I have worn out my shoulder
playing football, throwing
football with Will.
I don't have any regrets.
I just take a lead and keep on
doing it.
I love it.
But I also, as his
grandparent, want to teach him
things that matter a whole lot
more than football.
Things that are a matter of
life and death, eternal
values.
And you need to want to do that
with anyone that you have
influence over.
We are responsible not to be
led astray and then to teach
those we have influence over
not to be led astray.
We are called as Christians,
remember what Jesus said in the
Sermon on the Mount, we are
called to be salt and light in
this world.
We're called to be salt and
light to everyone in our circle
of influence.
We need to do it in the most
loving way we can, the most
positive way we can, but we need
to do it.
And if we don't do it, no one
will.
Before we leave verse 17, we
need to note the warning that's
directed at sound, mature
Christians now.
Look at this.
He's saying in effect, don't let
anyone undermine your doctrinal
stability.
Look at the verse.
Take care that you're not
carried away with the error of
lawless people and the next
part's the new part, bold, and
lose your own stability.
The idea is not that a true
Christian can lose their
salvation.
That's not what he's talking
about at all.
True faith, true saving faith
will continue.
Saving faith is a gift of God.
It's a work of God in a
person's life.
And so when God does this
work to save someone, to
grant faith, God's going to
continue.
He's never going to give up on
that person.
Paul points it out in a good
clear way in Philippians 1, 6.
Look at it.
He says, and I am sure of this,
that he who began a good work
in you will bring it to
completion at the day of Jesus
Christ.
A person that appears to be a
Christian, a person that starts
out maybe looking like they're a
Christian, but then they just
quit.
They renounce their faith.
Or they just turn away and walk
away from any kind of commitment
and start living like an
unbeliever.
They're demonstrating that their
so-called faith was not real.
John describes such people in his
first letter, 1 John 2, verse 19.
Look at it.
They went out from us, but they were
not of us.
For if they had been of us, they
would have continued with us.
He's talking about false teachers.
He called them little antichrists.
But they went out that it might
become plain that they all are not
of us.
He's saying not that such people
lost their salvation.
He's saying they never were saved.
But true Christians can become
unstable.
We saw how Peter and Barnabas did.
But by the grace of God, they
bounced back.
They got off.
They fell momentarily into hypocrisy.
But God brought them back.
I know some men who went to seminary
with a strong belief in the
inerrancy of Scripture back in the
1970s and early 80s.
But they came out denying that the
Bible is God's Word without error.
Back in those days, Southern Baptist
seminaries, they were liberal.
But by the grace of God, all of that
has changed and they are solidly
biblically sound today.
You can't teach there and not believe
in the inerrancy of Scripture.
But some of those men, they went in
doctrinally sound and they fell away
from their belief in real biblical
authority.
And some of them never came back.
They preach a watered down Bible.
I know Christians, individual Christians
in the pew, who never questioned the
truthfulness of the Bible.
But when their child came out as gay,
or their marriage got hard, or they
started making a lot of money, or they
developed close friendships with liberal
Christians or unbelievers, they changed
some of their views on moral issues.
They either ignored or twisted the
Scripture to fit their changed values.
I want to stop here and say, if I've hit a
sore spot with you, I want you to thank me.
It could be that you think to yourself,
there was a time when I was totally
committed to where the Bible speaks, God
speaks.
But I've wavered.
I've drifted.
I've fallen away from being truly sound in
what I believe and how I live.
If God's made that clear to you and that's
bothering you, thank God because that's His
way of calling you back right now.
Confess your sin of betraying Him and His
Word.
Renew your commitment to God and His
authority as expressed through His Word.
Do that right now.
But we all this morning need to listen to this
warning from God's Word and stay on guard.
There's always going to be something,
someone, certain things in your life,
certain things that you experience,
certain ways that you feel.
You're going to be tempted to be carried
along by false teaching and fall away
from a true commitment to the absolute
truthfulness of God's Word.
We're going to come back next week and see that
the best way to avoid being led astray is to stay
focused on a growing relationship with God.
And we're going to look at what all that involves.
But now I want to ask you one more time.
Who or what is influencing you?
Really?
What's influencing you?
Is it your personal experience?
How you feel?
Or is it cultural norms?
What everybody else is doing?
What the crowd says?
Or is the teaching of Scripture really the number one source of authority in your life?
I want to encourage you right now.
Make sure that you are standing firmly on the truth of God's Word
when it comes to what you believe and how you live.
And if you will do that day by day,
not question God, but question yourself and other people,
you will not be carried alone.
You will not fall.
God will keep you safe.
He'll keep you secure as you remain close to Him
and obedient to His authoritative and truthful Word.
Let's pray together.
Dear God, help us now to just see what it is,
to see clearly, understand what we are allowing,
what we're turning to,
to influence us and guide us in what we believe and how we live.
Lord, help us to see that we can love people
and disagree with them.
We can care about people but not be carried along by their twisted views
of truth matters.
Help us, Father, to be more concerned
with what you say
than what the world says.
Show us how we should respond to you.
Help us to do that.
Let's just, in an attitude of prayer,
obey God as He speaks about our commitment,
our being carried away if we are.
I'd be happy to pray with you during this time
if you come during the next few minutes.
But listen and obey the Lord.
God penalty