In this enlightening episode, we take a deeper look into the dangers of false teachings and spiritual corruption. From the profound lessons in 2 Peter to the inspiring stories shared by pastors worldwide, our discussion offers a refreshing perspective on faith and leadership. Discover the transformative power of God’s Word and the ongoing mission of equipping leaders with the knowledge to guide their congregations faithfully.
How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in God.
SPEAKER 04 :
There’s always someone who wants to make a buck off spiritual things. It’s sad, but unfortunately it’s true. Welcome to Through the Bible as we discover where that dangerous path leads. Our teacher and tour guide on our journey through the whole Word of God is Dr. J. Vernon McGee, and he’s going to lead us today in the study of 2 Peter. Now, do you remember Balaam? That’s from the Old Testament book of Numbers. And like every other religious racketeer, Balaam loved money and he would do anything to get it. He’s mentioned three times in the New Testament as an example of evil. As we come to 2 Peter 2, we’ll learn about the way of Balaam. It’s a great example of insight from the Word of God on how to navigate life. And it’s going to be a terrific study. So grab your Bible and turn to 2 Peter 2, verse 9. And while you do… I want to remind you that it is Letter Month here at Through the Bible, and Greg and I have some great letters to share with you.
SPEAKER 03 :
We do, Steve, and today we have kind of a special grouping of letters. These are all from young pastors. So let’s just jump in. Why don’t you read the first one?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, this is from Albania. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. It’s amazing how excited they are to learn and how clearly the gospel reaches their hearts. Thank you for these wonderful teachings. We are in need of God’s word in Albania. Thank you for bringing it.
SPEAKER 03 :
Wow. Very, very powerful. Now, here’s one from a country both you and I have visited, and that’s Nepal. And this letter says, I am from Dura and I lead a church. I’m from a Brahmin family. That means he’s from a very high caste Hindu family. He goes on. My father was a priest of a large temple, but we always had problems and had no peace. Wow. Not long ago, my father heard I became a Christian and asked me to leave the house. I did as he asked. I left the house, but I stayed in church. But I always prayed for my family. Some months later, I was surprised. They called me home. They told me that they now believed in the Lord and wished for us to listen to your programs and worship the Lord together. Wow, that is incredible. So wonderful.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, next is a letter from Josh in Missouri. As a young minister, words cannot express how much I appreciate Dr. McGee and his wonderful Bible teaching. I often reference through the Bible when preparing messages. The wisdom and understanding that Dr. McGee shares in his teaching of God’s Word is invaluable, especially when navigating difficult portions of Scripture. Thank you for keeping the Bible bus running for us young guys who need the wisdom from those old guys who have gone on before. It is just such an encouragement to know that we minister to so many pastors all around the world. And you think about the many countries of the world where pastors, we read one the other day that wasn’t even literate and was essentially a pastor. At least he was an itinerant preacher going around. And you think about the places where there aren’t seminary, where there’s not formal Bible teaching. And, you know, through the Bible fills that gap oftentimes when there’s nothing else in that area.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, and Steve, I’ve met pastors all over this country who tell me that they have Dr. McGee’s commentaries and they always pull them off the shelf. And so it’s such a wonderful ministry. And the thing that we see in all these letters is that God has given pastors the same heart all over the world. So it’s just an exciting part of our ministry.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah. Greg, why don’t you pray for our listeners and specifically for pastors as we begin our study?
SPEAKER 03 :
Heavenly Father, we are just amazed at the way you choose to use our humble efforts to offer your word to the whole world. And we thank you for the fruit that is coming as we get to bless pastors. We do pray for pastors who face many challenges, many difficulties, and we pray you will encourage them with Through the Bible and other Christian resources that will help them be strong and lead your church to the glory of God. In Jesus’ name, amen.
SPEAKER 04 :
Here’s Through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.
SPEAKER 01 :
Now, friends, we continue on in this marvelous second chapter of 2 Peter that I trust has opened up for all of us a new area of truth in the Word and one that would be helpful to us in living down here today. Now, we got down last time to verse 9, and I’ll just pick up with that verse. And I’m reading verse 9 of 2 Peter 2. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations. And the Lord knows how to get his church out of the great tribulation period. They won’t go through it. And to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished. And there is a time that the lost are to be brought before the great white throne for judgment. Now he goes on in verse 10, “…but chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness.” Now, this is a very strong statement here. It actually means defilements, in the defilements of uncleanness. This is a picture actually of those that are really like, well, as we’re going to see, they’re like animals. But they are those that delight in that which is vulgar, that which is vile, that which is vicious. They relish it. And we’re told here… that they despise government. Now, I don’t believe, as so many of the commentators I’ve read have said, that it means government down here. I have reason to believe, since this word occurs so few times in the Word of God, that it really means dominion. And we’ll find it again in the 8th verse of Jude. It was back in Ephesians. And it had to do there with spiritual governments. And actually, it is those that despise that which is spiritual. That is, that which is above us, that which God has ordained above us. The angels and the way God is running his universe. These are the ones that ask God to damn everything under the sun. They are not pleased, apparently, with anything. And not only that, presumptuous are they. And that, by the way, means they’re daring. They’re daredevils. They don’t mind blaspheming. It makes them feel expansive and big to use language like that. Presumptuous are they. Self-will, that is, they are going to do their own thing. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignities. And the word here for dignities is actually glories. That is, they speak evil of that which is sacred, that which is holy today. Isn’t it interesting that men take God’s name in vain? They don’t take the city’s name in vain or their boss’s name in vain or some person they hate. They don’t take their name in vain, but they take God’s name in vain. They’re not afraid to speak evil of dignities, glories, this order that God has established in his universe. Now he says, verse 11, “…whereas angels who are greater in power…” and might bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord.” Now, these are lifted up, you see, with pride. And they do something that angels don’t dare do. Now, when we get over to the little epistle of Jude, you’ll find out that he gives a specific instance there. That when Michael was disputing with Satan about the body of Moses, You see, the devil didn’t want Moses to appear later on in the promised land. So there was some dispute and God buried Moses, the body of Moses. And we’re told that Michael would not bring against him a railing accusation. But he just said, the Lord rebuked you. And again, here is a spirit that today we need to manifest. And that is a spirit of humility in the sense we are turning all of this over to God. It’s pride that causes us to speak as we do. And when I hear someone today, even a Christian, talking about the devil and ridiculing him and calling him names, I’ll say this, Michael the archangel wouldn’t do that. And if he is exalted as he is, wouldn’t do it. A little man down here needs to be very careful. We’re going to have more to say about that when we get to Jude. Now, will you notice verse 12? But these as natural brute beasts, and actually it means wild animals. These are natural wild animals. They are made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the thing that they understand not, and shall utterly perish in their own corruption. Now, I want you to notice several things here. These apostates are like animals. And we hear a great deal today about man descending from an animal. And when we get to Obadiah, we’ll find out that both the Old Testament and the New Testament make it very clear that That man can live lower than the animals today. He’s not descended from anything. He’s right down with them, if you please, and lives like an animal. And he’ll use that illustration in this chapter here a little bit later on. They are natural animals, wild animals. made to be taken and destroyed. That is, it’s like an animal is taken. They’ve descended to that low plane, and they’ve reached the plane where they’re hopeless and helpless. They speak evil of the things that they understand not. Now, here is something that has amazed me from the very beginning to the time I became a Christian, the fact of how smart some men can be who are not Christians and not at all understand the Word of God. There have been many brilliant men in the past, but have no knowledge of what the Word of God is about. Wilberforce in England. He was an alcoholic, actually, and lived a very fast life. And he was in the House of Lords or Commons, I’m not sure which. And Burke was his friend. And when Wilberforce was converted… He wanted Burke to hear one of the great preachers of Scotland. And when they were up there, he took him to hear him. And afterward, he was interested to get the reaction that he had to the sermon. And the reaction was very simple. It revealed something. He said, you know, says, that man is a brilliant orator, isn’t he? But what was he talking about? Now, here is Burke, one of the great English statesmen. When he heard a gospel message, he said, I don’t even know what he’s talking about. And I was very much interested to read recently of a great denomination in this country, a church that has preached justification by faith down through the years, that they made a survey and found out that 40% of the members believe they’re saved by works, their own works. How tragic it is to see today that people do not even understand the gospel at all. Many that have been hearing it year in and year out, they do not understand. And that’s what he says here. They speak evil of the things that they understand not and shall utterly perish in their own corruption. Now, you remember before he talked about pollution. He said that we’ve escaped the corruption of the world, the child of God. But these have not escaped the corruption. These today, some of them have escaped the pollutions, we are told, of the world. That is, there are a great many lost sinners today that say, I wouldn’t do this thing that this low-down individual’s doing. And he won’t. He has escaped the pollutions, but he has not escaped the corruptions. In other words, outside, he’s religious. He goes through forms. He does certain works. But his heart is not right with God at all. And he has a corrupt heart. And he’s done nothing about that whatsoever. Now, I read verse 13. “…and shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that counted pleasure to revel in the daytime.” spots they are in blemishes, reveling with their own deceivings while they feast with you. Now, I want to make a rather strong statement here, and that statement is just simply this, that here in verse 13 and in the next verse, we’re going to see the utter corruptions of the human heart. You see, when a man thinks wrong, he’s going to act wrong. You just can’t escape that. And we find today that there are a great many people that feel like, this is my life, I can live it and do as I please. And we have men today in government that are immoral, definitely immoral. I mean, it’s well known. They have affairs with other women that are not their wives. We know that most of them drink, and many of them drink to excess today. And they say, this is my business. My private life is my business. My friend, their private life is not their business if they’re representing this government and representing my country. I want to say to you that if it’s their private life, then get out. of where they are because they are hurting their country today. And they’re hurting us. They say, this is my life. I’ll do as I please. My friend, we want men in government that are men that are sober, men that are honest, men that are moral men. These are the things that are desperately needed today. And he goes on to say, verse 14, “…having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin.” Beguiling unstable souls and heart, they have exercised with covetous practices, cursed children. My, this is harsh language that he uses. And don’t think, my friend, that God doesn’t intend to judge them someday. Now, they’re not only guilty of all of these immoral excesses, but notice verse 15, “…who have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray following the way of Balaam.” Now, we have Balaam mentioned three times in these last books. Here’s the first one, the way of Balaam. We’ll have the era of Balaam and Jude and the doctrine of Balaam and Revelation. And each one is different. And here is the way of Balaam. What is the way of Balaam? Well, let’s keep reading. He’s the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness. Now, he knew that he should not go and prophesy against Israel. But he loved the price that was being offered him. He was a covetous man. but was rebuked for his iniquity. The dumbass speaking with man’s voice forbade the madness of the prophet. Why, he was mad to go. And that jackass that he was riding spoke to him. As some waggis said, that in the old days it was a miracle when a jackass spoke. spoke. And now, in our day, it’s a miracle when one of them keeps quiet. Well, here you have one that spoke, and he spoke to Balaam. He rebuked him. Why? Because of his covetousness. And friends, I believe that you will find that the religious racketeer, I think you can judge him by the house he lives in, by his standard of living, by the car he drives. and about the money that he spends. You can generally judge him in that way. I knew one of them that was a religious racketeer. He lived in a $75,000 home, would be today a $250,000 home. And a friend of mine, when he heard me say one day on radio, why don’t you go around and check up on the radio broadcaster, see where he lives, see what kind of home he lives in. See, his standard of life. What car does he drive? He said, I thought that speaking to me, he said, and this man’s a friend of mine. He said, I just thought you were wrong and that you shouldn’t have made a statement like that. But he said, I thought I’d check up. And he went out. Checked up, he said, this man living at that time in what would be a $250,000 home today. He said there were two Cadillacs parked out front, and there was a swimming pool. And he said, I heard about some things in his life. And he said, I came to the conclusion I was supporting the wrong thing, the way of Balaam. The way of Balaam, covetousness. And that’s the way that a false religious teacher, one of the ways he can be identified. And God will judge him for that. Now, I move on. This is really harsh language, is it not? Now, we find here some of the things that can be said about them. And here is one of them. These are wells without water. Clouds that are carried with a tempest to whom the mist of darkness is reserved forever. As a boy, I lived in West Texas, and we left the third year of a drought that had lasted three years. And I could remember that when we would chop cotton, and believe me, in those days, cotton didn’t grow well in that country anyway. But that little miserable cotton, and we’d go out and chop it, and those big thunderheads would come over, clouds would come over. And they would, late in the afternoon, get together, there’d be lightning. And you’d think, my, we’re going to have rain. But we didn’t have rain. How dry it was. And today, how many people are following leaders like that? They are wells without water. They are clouds. They’re beautiful clouds. They use beautiful, flowery language. And they soar to the heights oratorically. And they use a basso profundo voice. Oh, how tremendous it is to see these folk. They’re very impressive, friend. But there’s no water in the well. And there’s no rain in the clouds. And people are starving today for the Word of God. And they’re not being given the Word of God. You see, they do something else here. For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they soar to the heights, artorically, and they use beautiful language. They allure through the lusts of the flesh. You see, religion that appeals to the eye, religion that appeals to the ear, a religion that appeals even to the nose, incense. Preacher said to me, says, I always have my church sprayed on Sunday morning. And he’s a Protestant, by the way. He says, I have it sprayed. He wants it to smell good, you see. And don’t misunderstand me. I think a place ought to look nice and music ought to be good music. And I don’t mind the smell. But when those things are depended on, you see, they are the lusts of the flesh. through which wantonness, those that are just escaping from them, who live in error. And how tragic it is to see folk like that. This man, Simon Peter, has really been sarcastic now. He says, while they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption. Some habit has them bound, and yet they’re promising liberty to others. But they don’t know what liberty really is. For of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. So this is a picture that we have before us here. They promise liberty, but they don’t know what it is themselves. Now, verse 20, for if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world. Now, the pollutions of the world is what we were talking about, that which is outside. They say, why, I’m very religious. I belong to a certain liberal church. We don’t believe in anything. We just talk about love and brotherhood, but we don’t practice much of it. But nevertheless, we talk about it a great deal. Makes you feel good, you see. And we have a beautiful service. And we have a beautiful church. They’ve escaped the pollutions. This man read with horror what happened over yonder in Houston, Texas, when that group of boys that were slain by this homosexual, how horrible it is. And he was horrified by it. But you see, he’s escaped the pollutions of the world, but not the corruptions. Through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, They are again entangled in it. Now, it’s not that they haven’t heard the gospel. They’ve heard the gospel. These men have heard it. I’m meeting people all across this country today. One man that told me that he didn’t believe a thing. He doubted whether it was God. He says, I listen to you nearly every day. May I say to you that this man knows the gospel. And somebody said to me one time, I was playing golf with him, says, why don’t you present the gospel to him? I said, he’s heard me present the gospel over a hundred times. There’s no need of saying any more. They are again entangled in it and overcome. The latter end is worse with them than the beginning. Now, next time, I’m going to talk to you about the parable of the prodigal pig. You see, the Lord Jesus gave the parable of the prodigal son. Simon Peter gives us the parable of the prodigal pig. And it’s frightful, I’ll admit. But we’re going to look at that next time. Until then, may God richly bless you, my beloved.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, we’ve heard of prodigal sons, but prodigal pigs? Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? We’ll find out more tomorrow. And in the meantime, why don’t you take a few minutes to read the second chapter of 2 Peter again to get your heart ready for tomorrow’s study. And if we can help you find a resource that will deepen your study of God’s Word, you can call us at 1-800-65-BIBLE or visit us at ttb.org. And remember to tune in tomorrow to hear about the prodigal pigs. Until then, I’m Steve Schwetz. For all of us at Through the Bible, we’re praying, as we always do, that God blesses you as you walk with Him today. We’re grateful for the faithful and generous support of Through the Bible’s partners, whom God uses to take the whole word to the whole world.
