Disobedience Gone to Seed, Part 1

When we scroll through the daily news, we're confronted with gloomy stories about a world gone awry. Just when we think we've seen it all, something else happens that shocks our senses and weakens our confidence in mankind. Most of the time we sit back in disbelief and wonder, why do evil people seem to prevail? Today, on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll invites us to follow along in 2 Peter chapter 2, where we find a raw description of depravity. Chuck titled this portion of our study, Disobedience Gone to See. We've come to realize that a Christian without discernment is a lot like a submarine that plows full speed ahead without either a periscope or sonar. It's a disaster waiting to happen.

It's like a triple seven airplane attempting to land without any instruments in a dense fog. Believers in Jesus Christ should not believe everything we hear. Listen to me, discernment is the answer. I'm referring to skill and accuracy in reading character, as well as the ability to detect and identify the truth.

It's the ability to see beneath the surface, between the lines, and correctly size up the situation. So important, discernment helps us recognize error whenever it appears. The letter of 2 Peter reminds us in vivid terms that false teachers are ready and waiting for anyone who lacks discernment. The moment these charlatans find a chink in someone's armor, especially that of an unsuspecting Christian, their hidden blade of heresy will strike. So Peter helps us to be discerning by describing these false teachers as they really are. I'm reading today from 2 Peter 2 verses 12 through 19. But these, like unreasoning animals born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed, reviling where they have no knowledge, will in the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed, suffering wrong as the wages of doing wrong.

They count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions as they carouse with you, having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children, forsaking the right way they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness. But he received a rebuke for his own transgression, for a mute donkey speaking with the voice of a man restrained the madness of the prophet.

These are springs without water and mists driven by a storm for whom the black darkness has been reserved. For speaking out arrogant words of vanity, they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error, promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption. For by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved. You are listening to Insight for Living. To dig deeper into the Bible with Chuck Swindoll, be sure to download his Searching the Scriptures Studies by going to insight.org slash studies.

And now let's resume the message that Chuck titled Disobedience Gone to Seed. God tells the truth. Perhaps it is that which has drawn me to the Scriptures more than any other fact. God speaks the truth.

I love it when God writes his word. He doesn't fake it nor feign it, nor does he flatter. When he directed various people to put truth down on the page, he never once whispered, Now take it easy. Take it easy. Don't be offensive.

I want to be nice about this. He never did that. For example, when he wrote about a life like David, as great a life as it was, he didn't hedge when it came to the adulterous affair with Bathsheba. He called it adultery. When he wrote about Gehazi, the faithful servant of Elisha, God did not deny the fact toward the end of Gehazi's service, a time when he became materialistic and deceptive and died a leper because of it. Even good King Uzziah, as great a man and as faithful as he was, at the end of his life when he stole the glory from God or attempted to do so, God didn't keep that from us. He recorded it on the pages of his word because God tells the truth.

He tells the truth about everything. I have my New Testament open to Romans chapter 3 where I'd like to have you turn for the next few moments because I find here the truth about the human heart. I find what Paul writes in broad brush strokes, Peter in a few minutes we will see, writes in more specific lines and shading and shadows. I'm reading Romans 3 verses 10 through 18, perhaps one of the most blunt declarations of the depravity of man you will find in any piece of literature. Romans 3, 10. There is none righteous, not even one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become useless. There is none who does good.

There is not even one. Now look at the analysis. It is as though he is doing an autopsy. Their throat is an open grave. With their tongues they kept deceiving. The poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.

Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their paths. And the path of peace have they not known.

There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now everything isn't answered in those verses, but for sure anyone who reads English and anyone who asks the Spirit of God to illumine the truth of his word will understand that God feels strongly about those whose lives lack the presence of Christ. As I said earlier, these are broad brush strokes on depravity where 2 Peter chapter 2 is depravity in detail. Perhaps one of the least pleasant chapters in all the Bible. When you work your way through 2 Peter 2, it is like taking a walk through a sleazy alley in the inner city where drugs are sold and taken. Where there is the raw, gutter conditions on display. Where there is shamelessness and ugliness without any cushion. Sort of the dregs of humanity are there. John Henry Jowett was quite a preacher.

British by birth, but later he ministered in New York City to a sophisticated group of people who must have found his strong preaching at times rather severe, but he was colorful to say the least. In a book on the epistles of Peter, John Henry Jowett writes as well as anyone I've ever read on this chapter. Allow me a few paragraphs.

Just listen. This is a dark and appalling chapter. There is nothing quite like it elsewhere in the entire book. The misery and desolation of it are unrelieved. It is so like some wide and sodden moor in a night of cold and drizzling rain, made lurid now and again by lightning flash and weird by the growl of rolling thunder. Everywhere is the black and treacherous bog. The moral pollution is overwhelming. I confess that I have stood before it for months in the hope of seeing my way across, and even now I am by no means confident of a sure-footed exposition. The gutter conditions are ubiquitous. The descriptive language is intense, violent, terrific.

There is no softening of the shade from end to end. It begins in the denunciation of lascivious doings. It continues through pits of darkness, children of cursing, spots and blemishes, and it ends in the gruesome figure of the dog returning to his own vomit, and the sow that had washed to wallowing in the mire. It is an awful chapter. Then he concludes, Is there any road across this dark and swampy moor?

Has the bog a secret to drop my figure? Has this wide-spreading pollution an explanation? Amid all the cold mystery and darkness of the chapter, one thing becomes increasingly clear, that the depraved life is the creation of perverse thought. I say this is one of the clear and primary emphases of the apostles' teaching.

Now listen to his summary. A man's thought determines the moral climate of his life and will settle the question whether his conduct is to be poisonous marsh or fertile meadow, fragrant garden, or barren sand. The pose of the mind determines the dispositions and will settle whether a man shall soar with angels in the heavenlies or wallow with the sow in the mire. What we think about the things that are greatest will determine how we do the things that are least.

Let me repeat that last line. I think he would call this his big idea or the idea of the whole chapter. What we think about the things that are greatest will determine how we do the things that are least. As we look at 2 Peter 2, yet again we have been in it before, and by the way, working your way through this letter is no easy task, I can assure you, at least when you have to divide it from message to message and you can't give it all in one single statement, it is quite a challenge. This chapter is woven together like fabric, and to take it apart is not to cut it but to tear it.

There is no simple and easy place to divide it. You will remember that the chapter is about apostates called in verse 1, false prophets, and a little later in verse 1, false teachers. These are people who look real but they are counterfeit. They come across with appeal and even with charisma, but deep within the heart there is evil, there is wickedness. Now, the last time we were together, we learned that God is a God of wrath and a God of rescue. God never confuses any scene on earth. In other words, he doesn't come and in a wholesale manner, just judge and sweep into judgment, righteous and wicked alike. He separates the two.

And we saw two classic illustrations of that before. Verse 5 of chapter 2, God did not spare the ancient world, but he preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness. God, verse 6, condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction, verse 7, but he rescued Lot. So, for you who tend to be insecure and unstable and uncertain about your relationship with the living God, if you know the Lord Jesus Christ, you are safe. You are in his care.

You are within the envelope of his protection. And if judgment were to occur this day, God would see to it that you would be with him eternally, just as he protected Noah and just as he preserved Lot. He knows how, verse 9, which is a key verse, he knows how to rescue the godly from temptation and at the same time, he knows how to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment. Now, it's that second category that Peter spends the balance of the chapter addressing, the unrighteous, the lives, the lifestyles of the wicked. It is something that will make you gasp and it's supposed to. If you aren't gasping a bit in the midst of this exposition, I'm not doing my job, it is supposed to be unpleasant, as unpleasant as a dog returning to its vomit, verse 22, and as unpleasant as a sow that is wallowing in the mire. It is a scene of abject filth. It is the lifestyle of one whose unrighteousness is running unchecked.

Okay? Let's see how Peter writes the truth about apostates. He says three things, if I read these verses correctly, about the apostates. In verses 12 to 14, he tells us that they look impressive, but they are depraved. In 15 to 17, Peter writes that forsaking the truth, they go astray.

And then in 18 and 19, he writes, promising freedom, they themselves are enslaved. In the time I have, let's do our best to understand these verses hold on, the scene, I say, is not attractive. Verse 12, but these. You know right away, let me read the verses 12 to 14, but these like unreasoning animals, born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed, reviling where they have no knowledge, will in the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed. Suffering wrong as the wages of doing wrong, they counted a pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions as they carouse with you.

Having eyes full of adultery, and that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children. But these. If you were sitting at your kitchen table reading your Bible and you came to verse 12 for this moment of study and you began with but these, you would know right away you're reading a contrast. But.

It's like beginning a newspaper article in the middle that has been describing something and now it describes something in contrast or at least worse than what has been presented before. You'd have to know what that would be. He has just talked about those who despise authority. Verse 10. Those who were so self-willed, they would stand against majesty. Something not even angels would do.

Verse 11. But these, meaning even worse than those, these are like unreasoning animals. Creatures of instinct.

He's beginning to describe a desperate portrait of animalistic appetites. People who allow their passions and their glands to take full charge of their lives until they virtually self-destruct. They revile.

They revel. They are creatures worth only destruction. Suffering wrong as the wages of doing wrong. I want you to pause in case you happen to be one of the souls that is enticed by the world lifestyle around you. If you find yourself on occasion envying those who run against God and for a while get away with it, listen closely to what Peter says. This book tells you the truth.

And note how verse 13 says it. Suffering wrong as the wages of doing wrong. You know, we read only the, usually we read the bright side of wrong and we never get the consequences.

I would wish there were times that the pastoral staff could record, even videotape, the scenes that are ours to behold. We do not deal with folks who have come with delightful messages about life. We deal with people who have come with the consequences of wrong. And they come spilling out their lives in all of its filth before us. They come not to tell us the excitement of some sexual escapade.

They come to talk about a disease. They come to us to talk about the depression that follows. The guilt, the shame, the broken home, the rebellious child, the wife or husband who has lost respect.

They don't come to applaud the lifestyle of the ungodly. They come with sighs and tears and heartaches. And we do our best to help pick up the pieces.

Sometimes it is virtually impossible. The story that is woven is like you cannot believe unless you are in counseling that is a counselor and you hear this rather regularly. It is absolutely appalling the conditions in which they find themselves. They are suffering wrong as the wages of doing wrong. Did you hear what I said in this passage or what the passage reads? They are stains and blemishes reveling in deception. They carouse with you.

You didn't misread that. As they carouse with you. During my days in the military, I noticed that there was a certain kind of chaplain that was always available. He was the one that would drink you under the table. He was often the one who laughed when he gave his little lecture on diseases that you might get if you messed around sexually. He was the one who had really no spine and no message and no convictions. And no respect.

But he was always available to carouse with you. Thankfully, this didn't represent all of them. But alas, it did represent most of them. I remember thinking as a young man in the military what a fertile field this would be in ministry to be engaged in the military chaplaincy and to work with men who have time and who have money, enough of it to get in trouble.

Men who are away from home and ready to make decisions. What a chance to impact them for the cause of Jesus Christ. And here are these religious deceivers who carry crosses and talk about a sin as though it's inevitable and you kind of do your best to live with it while you're away from home, on and on and on. They revel in their deceptions and they carouse with you. Please observe in verse 14 something that is raw indeed. Individuals like we are describing in this section on depravity have eyes full of adultery. Ever been around a man like that?

Forgive me if it's too bold. Every woman is a possible adulterous. They have no hesitation to undress you as they look at you. In their mind is one desire and that's lust for your body. Eyes full of adultery and there is no sense of restraint or shame.

They readily proposition you, hustle you and they have no trouble with that. That is the way they think. Look at this, that they have eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin. They envision an opportunity for sin in every encounter.

They watch for the moment to make their pitch. Look further, they entice unstable souls. Do they ever, they prey on the young woman who is naive, who is not very well taught, who is lonely and misinterprets lust for love and a caress as a genuine embrace, not realizing that she is just one step closer to the bed. They are people who entice unstable souls.

I find one more characteristic very relevant. Notice the end of 14, they have a heart trained in greed. The new international version says they are experts in greed. Phillips paraphrases it, their technique of getting what they want is through long practice highly developed. They are masters at getting money out of your pocket. They know how to jerk at the heart strings. They know how to appeal to your emotions in a letter.

They are experts in greed. He is warning us about it. To learn what's available to you today, visit us online at insightworld.org. Right now, let me draw your attention to the commentary that Chuck wrote that covers 2 Peter. In fact, the book includes his commentary on James and 1 Peter as well. It's called Swindoll's Living Insights New Testament Commentary. In one volume, you gain access to Chuck's interpretation of these books. To purchase a copy of Chuck's commentary on James, 1 Peter and 2 Peter, give us a call.

If you're listening in the United States, call 800-772-8888 or go online to insight.org slash store. And then let me take a moment to thank those who have given generously to Insight for Living in recent days. You might have no idea of the impact of your generosity, but we sure do. A day never passes without hearing from someone whose life has been touched because of the Bible teaching they receive through Insight for Living. And these life-changing moments are made possible through the voluntary gifts from people like you. Recently we received a note that simply said, Thank you, we've been through some terrible times and your message really helped. There was no further detail, but it's comments like this one that remind us that your financial gifts are touching lives.

We never know how God will use His word to impact the lives of those who are suffering, so thanks so much. To give a contribution today, call us. If you're listening in the United States, call 800-772-8888 or you can give online at insight.org.

I'm Bill Meyer. Join us next time when Chuck Swindoll continues to describe what he calls Disobedience Gone to Seed on Insight for Living. The preceding message, Disobedience Gone to Seed, was copyrighted in 1989, 1990, and 2011. And the sound recording was copyrighted in 2011 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.