The focus of 2 Peter 2 is the features of false teachers. If the Devil cannot beat the church, he will join the church. His best weapon is to place a man in the pulpit as a pied piper to lead the people to their doom. Often, such preachers seem solid and sound, but inside they are hollow and rotting—as a tree destined to fall. Their crash not only destroys them, but those who have gathered under their branches. The horror of the heretic is not only experienced by him, but by those he influences. How does this happen?
There is REFORMATION. “For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning,” (v. 20). The sad reality is that you can have a knowledge of the Lord and Savior intellectually and even emotionally without knowing the Lord and Savior personally. We see this often in people who will make a profession of faith and yet do not have a possession of faith as there is no perseverance in faith. This not only happens to people in the pew, but preachers in the pulpit! They exhibited behavior that attested to salvation at first. But it is reformation and not regeneration. The outside conduct was clean while the inside character was still corrupt. Jesus described such hypocritical religious leaders in his day as “white-washed tombs,” beautiful outwardly, but inside there was death. Eventually, such become entangled again in the world and are overcome by it.
There is then REGRESSION. “For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them,” (v. 21). They had facts in their head, but without faith in their heart. The doctrinal facts about Jesus are essential, but are not enough. They can stir the feelings but unless they move us to submission—to receive Jesus as Lord and Savior—there is no salvation. Eventually, these depart from the faith. Today it is called, “deconstruction.” We have heard of notable preachers who have departed from the faith.
Peter illustrates it this way: “But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: ‘A dog returns to his own vomit,’ and, ‘a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.’” (v. 22). Dogs and pigs behave as they do because of what they are. You can take a dog to the most exquisite cafe and he will still consume what he regurgitates. You can wash and perfume a pig, but it will roll in the mud at first opportunity. Without regeneration there is eventually regression.
The horror of the heretic is the end—and that is RETRIBUTION. Peter states it, “the latter end is worse for them than the beginning,” (v. 20), and stresses, “For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them,” (v. 21). The ultimate horror of the heretic is hell—something he no longer believes in. It often begins with him avoiding the topic in his sermons, and moves to questioning it in his heart, to denying it in his unbelief. When he discovers the reality of God’s wrath it will be too late. The gravity of that judgement will be immense as it not only is in measure of his own apostasy, but increases in intensity due to those he has dragged down to hell with him!
God help us—help me—to not have such an end, but rather have the testimony of the Apostle Paul, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.” (2 Tim. 4:7-8).
Peter once wavered. He denied the Lord three times! Yet, he did not stay there. He fell in the mud, but got up and cleaned up! He repented because he was regenerated. If you are struggling, listening to seductive false teaching, then cast yourself in brokenness upon the Lord. Trust in Him! Believe His Word.
Without question, the greatest evangelist of the last century was Billy Graham. Yet, his grandson, Will, recounted that it almost did not happen.
He wrote,
“a very good friend and contemporary of my grandfather’s, a man named Charles Templeton, had begun challenging my granddaddy’s way of thinking. Mr. Templeton, who had preached with Youth For Christ as well, had gone on to study at Princeton, where he began to believe that the Bible was flawed and that academia – not Jesus – was the answer to life’s problems. He tried to convince my grandfather that his way of thinking was outdated and the Bible couldn’t be trusted….
One night at Forest Home, he walked out into the woods and set his Bible on a stump – more an altar than a pulpit – and he cried out: ‘O God! There are many things in this book I do not understand. There are many problems with it for which I have no solution. There are many seeming contradictions. There are some areas in it that do not seem to correlate with modern science. I can’t answer some of the philosophical and psychological questions Chuck and others are raising.’
And then, my grandfather fell to his knees and the Holy Spirit moved in him as he said, “Father, I am going to accept this as Thy Word—by faith! I’m going to allow faith to go beyond my intellectual questions and doubts, and I will believe this to be Your inspired Word!’
My granddaddy wrote in his autobiography that as he stood up his eyes stung with tears, but he felt the power and presence of God in a way he hadn’t in months. “A major bridge had been crossed,” he said.
(From an article by Will Graham, https://billygraham.org.uk/p/the-tree-stump-prayer-when-billy-graham-overcame-doubt/)
