The conduct of false teachers - Part 3

So this is the third part on false teachers and I mean this is instructive and sometimes seems maybe a little unrelated to where we're at today but at times it seems like it should be very related to where we're at. So we're given this section in 2 Peter for a reason and I think at the times this must have been a real issue in terms of the acceptance of the gospel and ultimately application to the new life in Christ. Keep in mind Peter's writing to Jews mostly. This has broad implications today in terms of the age and world in which we live. So maybe let's go back.

I'm starting at 2 Peter 2.17. So let's just begin reading to set the stage for today. I'm going to start at verse 12 and we'll read down through 19, which is our terminal verse today.

These, speaking of the false prophets, are like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed. They speak evil of the things they don't understand, will utterly perish in their own corruption, and will receive the wages of unrighteousness of those who counted pleasure to carouse in the daytime. There are spots and blemishes carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you. Having eyes full of adultery that cannot cease from sin, Enticing unstable souls, they have a heart trained in covetous practices and are accused children. They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness. But he was rebuked for his iniquity. A dumb donkey, speaking with a man's voice, restrained the madness of the prophet.

And these are the wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption, for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage. These are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness. Forever is in some text and it's typically left out of the interlinear Greek. So I'm not sure what versions of the Bible you have. How many people have forever in their text? Okay, that's about half of you.

So it's in the original text, not there, but implied. To what does these pertain? You've already told us. These are the false prophets. Is that what you just said? These? I didn't define these. This is the question before you. I know, but you told us already a little earlier. You gave us the answer. This is what I live with. And by the way, it's wonderful. It really is. All right. Okay.

Now, I haven't asked. Would you behave yourself up here, please? So the next question is, what are wells without water? Dry dirt. Okay. It signifies no water. What, Jack? Speak up. It signifies that there is no water. There are false prophets and the words you're putting on are deceptive. But wouldn't it also apply to, because Christ has been referred to as the living water, couldn't that also be part of what that is? That's what I would think of too, they're empty.

The term well here is pegue. I'm not sure that's correctly pronounced. It's just not a hole in the ground, but it's an ever up-leaping, interesting term, living fountain. The standard term for well is not what this term is here. This is a term where the water is ever coming. It's like an abundant source. Like a spring. This is not just a well without water. This is a well that was used to be bubbling and ultimately uplifting or up-leaping according to what the definition was there. Remember this is a desert. The Middle East is is not a place where in fact you expect water.

So these false prophets are basically described as what would be expected in terms of this description of a well far from it. Like an oasis, you have the hope that you're going to have life here, and you're going to be able to get water, and you're going to be able to go on, and you find it's dry. It's kind of like a mirage too, right? I think that's what we're...

The expectation is something abundantly flowing with water, and there's none there. Wiest says, the words without water are an oriental expression where the green verdure, verdure would be vegetation, Excites the traveler's hope of water count, just like what you stated, only have it often disappointed. So that is Weiss kind of interpretation of this phrase, a well without water. Keep in mind this isn't like Jacob's well or something, where presumably there was simply water down deep.

I said TV ministers, some of them. The TV ministers. I didn't say that, Winnie, you did. Some of them. Alright, and I think this in context relates to the disappointment that arises from them seeking the truth of the word of God with no return. Keep in mind the false teacher there is to bring attention to him, presumably herself, through false teaching that ultimately is really associated with a financial gain. And this is to compare with John just pulling one verse that relates to the water that was mentioned just a minute ago. Christ said, but whosoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst, but the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. I mean, boy, if that's not the well that we all seek, a fountain of water. into everlasting life.

All right, clouds here is in some texts, but not at all. And it's probably better translated as mist or fog. Okay, so we have a lot of potential precipitation that exists here, but these are not kind of like thunderstorm clouds. And it's kind of interesting in context. We'll get to this in a second, how we interpret this.

So how would you describe a tempest? Now remember it says clouds carried by a tempest. Have you stormed? Okay, storm. So you're considering tempest that's going to, would a tempest include rain or would it not? More than likely. Ultimately maybe. Okay. But tempest would simply relate to the winds, wouldn't it?

I'm thinking of in the desert, you see a lot of these whirlwind kind of things that are dust storms that just carry the dust and they call those tempest. The old Christian translate this as mist driven by whirlwind. Mist driven by a whirlwind. So there's no precipitation. Potentially it's there, but we're talking about here mist or fog.

We've all driven in fog, and by the way, rather have a thunderstorm with heavy rain rather than driving through fog. I'm thinking about the accidents that occur in fall, particularly in interstate highways where 50 cars are piled up one on the other. So if Mark 437 says, and a great windstorm arose, it doesn't say rain, it says windstorm, same word, and the waves beat into the boat so that it was already filling. So it wasn't the rain that was filling the boat, it's the waves because of the wind.

So I don't want to overly you know, contextualize this beyond what it's worth. But I think the Great Tempest, the fog with Great Tempest, you've got poor visibility without precipitation. You just have a lot of wind blowing into your face. Okay. One interpretation here is that the false teachers are being driven by an outside force. What do you think of that? In other words, you know, they're somehow out of control of their own motives and desires and direction of their teaching. Yes? No? Maybe being driven by the profit motive? By the what? By the profit motive, the desire for the profit.

Yeah, but I don't think they're innocent. I don't get the impression that they're Are people responsible for their own behavior? Yes. Yeah, I think so. And kind of the way I interpreted this was, I kind of didn't read it as this. I mean, the idea that they're the fog, or if they represent false teaching, and they're just being blown by some wind, that they're not totally responsible.

And I point out, remember, what falls short of God's glory is Satan, the world system, and the sin nature. And all are responsible here. Right? I mean, just think, I mean, Christ is a trump card if you play bridge and all the other cards are worthless, but yet they're all anti ace of spades, if ace of spades are trump. I mean, that's a poor analogy, but just, you know, the idea is that are these false teachers not partially responsible for their behaviors?

Not just being led by, you know, by the winds that blow in their direction, I think. They're responsible here, particularly when self and self gains in terms of financial gains are the motive. We can't blame entirely Satan, we can't blame the world system. Well they're being led by some other, how do you put it here, being driven by an outside force because of their choice. They have not chosen Christ. Satan or one of his demons or something to be led by them. Okay. And they're responsible for that choice.

It says in verse 11 that they walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness. And then it says they despise government. Presumptuous are they, self-willed, and they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities. They're just totally locked in negative volition, it seems like. opposing the things that maybe they have learned to be the truth but probably energized by Satan, no doubt. Okay, so building on what John said, I mean ultimately these three issues, agendas, themes are all relevant here. Winnie?

Well I do know that some of the young people that want to go into the ministry They go to the seminaries that don't teach the word like they should teach it and they are led wrong. How do you bring them back? They are taught this way and how do you bring them back to the truth? They think they are doing the right thing. So, Wendy, that comment is valid, but do you think that relates to the false teachers that we are learning about here in 2 Peter 2? Well, I think the teachers that are teaching them are false teachers, very often. I think they go in, I'm thinking of a place like Island Seminary and I've talked to people who've gone there and those young men go in there and the first thing they do is challenge their faith.

They don't uplift them, they challenge them. But are we questioning the salvation of these educators then? Could be that too. Could be that too. I think we've made it pretty clear in weeks gone by that these are men not of the Lord, right? That's false teaching. I think are we challenging that this morning then again? I don't think so. But your comment is absolutely correct. I mean we come here because we think this body of believers is the closest to the truth of the word of God and how we apply it to day to day living. that somebody down the street may feel the same way about where they attend, right?

So, I mean, we can't question the salvation of false teachers in seminaries, calling them false teachers in seminaries. Although, remember the first part of Galatians, it's another gospel to live the Christian life under a legal system, a legal blanket. But I think here we're talking about people who, for their own earthly gain, are projecting wrong messages. They aren't born-again believers.

Right. and there is a wind blowing and that wind is the world system but yet they're responsible for the decisions they're making in terms of what they're doing in terms of false teaching. Yes, Kevin. I'm thinking about this. You've got the three things there. You've got Satan, the world system, and this in nature and it's like I think they feed off of each other and go around a circle which creates a windstorm. I can see the three Each one feeds on the next one, it gets carried away and it turns into kind of a tempest.

Right, as we think of who we are as believers in Christ Jesus, positioned above, Satan we learn in Hebrews 2.14, one of the great verses of the Bible, we don't look at often enough.

In fact, let's turn to Hebrews 2.14 right now. Because this puts one of these into perspective. And whoever gets it, read it and read it as loudly as you can.

Hebrews 2.14. Go ahead please.

For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that hath the power of death, that is, the devil. The cross is final in terms of Satan's fate. Satan has been done away with eternally at the cross. Now, is he still a vibrant entity in the world system in which we live? Absolutely. But positionally, Satan has been crucified. It's been a done deal. But yet he's still operational.

It's kind of like our sin nature. You know, as we grow in grace, we find out that our sin nature is even maybe more alive. That is, the light gets brighter in terms of when we see ourselves in Christ Jesus. Our sin nature becomes more evident for what it is. We don't want to dwell there. I mean, I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Not I, but Christ. I mean, buried with Him with baptism unto death, risen with Him in newness of life. That's where we are.

So, Hebrews 2.14, Satan's been taken care of. The world system is something we're not citizens of, and ultimately our sin nature is there, but before God we're perfectly holy and righteous. Boy.

So, all that's operating in these false teachers is really fully operational because they're not in Christ, buried with him, sins forgiven, old man crucified, risen with newness in life. important teaching here for the believer. Keep in mind this is addressing how people are receiving false teaching. We're going to come to that in a couple of verses in a very important way for further discussion.

Everybody okay here? This wind is blowing but yet the false teachers have made a choice to in fact unrecognize the truth of the gospel and are using false teaching for their own personal gain. The wind's blowing but they're part of the fog that's being blown by the wind. Okay? Everybody okay with that? Alright. But there is rain.

But is there rain or is this just another empty hole with expectation but nothing yielding? I think we discussed this before. There's probably rain brewing in these clouds, although mist and fog may not be rain. But the emphasis here is the blowing of a cloud or fog that ultimately modifies our visual acuity.

And I turn to June 1, 12. Jude's got a lot of verses that are really very appropriate for this section of 2 Peter. These are spots in your love feast, and while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves, they are clouds without water carried about by the winds. How appropriate that is, right?

Late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead and pulled up by the roots. Clouds without water, carried about by winds. Boy, if that's just not a parallel. I'm just going to save my notes. It talks about false teachers having promised spiritual refreshment, but were all show with no substance. All show, no substance. Promises, false promises. No show. Where was that? That's just in my notes. No, that's okay. I didn't know if that was another verse.

Alright, so the end of verse 17, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness? Well, how's that for, you know, if you will, a noun squared, if you will, or logarithmically transformed. I mean, blackness of darkness. I mean, that's not redundant. overly emphasizing what the future is here. The Interlinear Greek I think works it a little bit better. For whom the gloom of darkness has been kept. And we could turn to these other verses which we won't do, but they just exemplify the nature of this darkness.

2 Peter 2.4, Jude 1.6, Jude 1.13. So those are other verses to support this. So God's promise to the unrighteous, and an analogy that's scriptural, that's in the gospel, is a worm that never dies. Bless you.

And so in Mark 9.44, in fact I think Mark 9.46, 9.48, where there worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. It's kind of, you know, the ultimate is this gloom of darkness. that will live forever, and those who are not saved. Alright, let's go on to verse 18 then.

For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who are barely escaped from those who live in error. Speaking with great swelling words of emptiness, interlinear Greek, inflated words of vanity, A lot of nothingness is kind of what's being spoken here.

Speak here is, I'm not going to try to pronounce that, but it's the same type of utterance of Balaam's donkey. So this is not just a common English or Greek or Hebrew dialogue. This is in fact an utterance. So what's being alluded to here is these teachings of the false prophets are really like a donkey uttering. And that of course is what we looked at last week in terms of Balaam's donkey the Lord using to bring something to Balaam's attention.

Swelling words, immoderate, extravagant, arrogant. Nothing wholesome here. It made me think, I didn't put this down in the handout, but many of our politicians today, correct? Isn't that kind of the way they stand? Lots of emptiness, no real direction, no real content. just promoting themselves to a higher office so that we would be impressed by their inability to do anything.

World system, but nevertheless I think very applicable. My translation says arrogant words. So instead of swelling words, the idea of arrogance. I didn't see it there, but just pointing that out. It's not just politicians, but even, you know, there's a lot of preachers. Aside from the, I mean he's specifically talking about false teachers here, but we can look at, you know, even teachers, I wouldn't say are false teachers, can get involved in that arrogant type speaking. That is just, it's more promoting themselves. than promoting the gospel. Obviously here it happens with false teachers, but I think even those who aren't false teachers, it's easy to get more infatuated with the fact that we're speaking than the fact that we're supposed to be speaking the gospel.

I think that comment's well taken. I think what we're dealing here with a little bit, and let's make it go tangential for a second from the lesson, Arrogance is interpreted as something wrong, correct? If we smell or sense arrogance, we kind of take a step back, whether it's somebody teaching truth or false teachings. You have four teachers in this class, right? I mean Roger, Jeremy, myself and Isaiah, I mean Josiah. And so we all kind of have different styles of teaching.

And so but so I think arrogance is a different kind of scenario. Right. I mean I think personalities can promote the truth in different ways and so I think it's the interpretation of the spirit whether in fact that presentation is extravagant or wrong or arrogant. But I think you're right. I think at times you can kind of if you will smell a rotten apple in the bunch. Well arrogance seems to be the opposite of humility. You should always teach with humility. The word of God is always humbling, is it not?

I always call the cross the great equalizer of all men, all women, for all time. No rich, no poor. Black, no white, no tan. It's a great equalizer. Everybody's the same at the foot of the cross. And that's really what's humbling about our salvation. Other thoughts here? All right, good. They allure through the lust of the flesh and lewdness. Allure or entice is something to bring self gain and as Jeremy said arrogance would be something that would be potentially perceived bias in terms of the motive for this.

In James 1.14, that each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed, that's directed to the believer, but the verb term, drawn away, is in fact what the false teacher is trying to accomplish. They're trying to draw away your attention from the truth to what they're portraying in their teaching.

Lust of the flesh. This doesn't have to be only of a sensual nature. We think of lust and you think of sensual things, but lust of the nature really is anything that relates to the cravings of the totally deprived nature. So the deprived nature in fact is always related to lust. Our own nature relates to everything, sensual and beyond. money, it could be greed, it could be pride, it could be anything that's really part of the old man.

So it doesn't have to relate to that. But here when it says in context of lewdness and wantonness or licentiousness, sensuality is implied, but again it's not necessarily interpreted that way. And remember last week, last week if we look up at verse Fourteen. Fourteen. Having eyes full of adultery that cannot cease from sin. There was no really other interpretation there other than sensual.

So I think it's certainly appropriate to interpret that as part of the depraved nature in terms of what drives each and every one of us through the power of sin, but it doesn't have to specifically relate to that. The meaning here is that they made use of every variety of lasciviousness arts to beguile others under religious pretenses. So this is really a motive that relates to drawing others in to teachings that were false. Who are the ones who are barely escaped from those who live in error? What do you think? The end of the verse. Who are they? My guess would be new believers or a weak Christian. Barely escaped. Maybe it implies most recently. They've just escaped.

There's an alternative explanation. Let's see which one we might choose. I'm going to cite two interpretations. Strahan or Strachan describes these as those who, quote, have been impressed with Christian truth and have had strength to separate themselves from their old surroundings and customs, but are led to return through the compromises suggested by the false teachers. These are unsafe people. All right? And Jeremy's interpretation would be that of Barnes, which I tend to agree with. He describes those who had almost escaped from the snares and influences of those who live in error and sin.

They had begun to think of their ways that they had broken off many of their evil habits and there was hope that they would be entirely reformed and would become decided Christians, but they were allured again to the sins in which they had so long indulged. So that would be a believer who is very, very milk-oriented in terms of his or her growth that ultimately gets drawn away. So what do you think? Are we talking about unbelievers who have been impressed with Christian truth who in fact haven't quite gotten saved and now are being drawn away?

Or they're barely, barely or almost saved? Barely escaped from those who live in error or in fact are we talking about the second alternative? When it says they almost escaped you have to wonder. Exactly. Did they? Did they? Well, some people think barely escaped is a better term than almost. And so I chose barely rather than almost here. And I think almost and barely you could maybe interpret the verse differently if you used almost rather than barely. I don't know the inner linear. The inner linear used barely.

So if they barely escaped, then you would think these are believers. If they almost escaped, then you would think this first interpretation would be correct. I don't think it makes that much difference here. I think we're talking about someone who's on the fence.

And if they're unsaved, ultimately they were drawn away from the truth by the false teaching. If they are saved, they're not well grounded. And keep in mind, we all have this old nature, and if we're not, you know, there's no growth of the Word of God, there's no fellowship, there's no teaching, there's no, you know, life lived by faith, even though they're saved by grace through their initial faith. I mean, that could be a group, too, that's being led astray by the ways of false teachers.

Jeremy. Yeah, I definitely, I think the point is they're preying on the weak. They're preying on, and I mean, Even from an earthly standpoint, one of the worst things anybody can do is to prey on the needy, to prey on the weak. One of my favorite movies is an old movie called The Third Man, and it's like Vienna after the war, and the main character is selling diluted penicillin to these kids and stuff that are sick from all the stuff after the war. I mean, that's just one of the worst things you can do. He's exploiting the weak and doing tremendous, tremendous harm towards them and reckoning with the evil of that.

That's who these men are. They're more than selling diluted penicillin. They're selling them something that's not going to... I mean, maybe that's a good example. They're selling them something that, oh, this is supposed to heal me, but it's actually not.

In many cases, I mean, as you know, epidemiology, if you have a weakened form of an antibody, it can actually do more harm because the bacteria grow stronger and they grow resilient to that. And in the end, you end up causing more harm. And that's kind of, that's almost what's going on here. Because they're given that false teaching and, oh, well, now I'm securing it, you're actually making In a sense, they're making the people more resilient to the truth, more difficult, and so all the condemnation is on what these false teachers are doing and how they're preying on those who, either on whichever side of the fence they're on, they're pretty close.

They're not going after the Christian who's eating meat, because they can't. They know, oh, these are picking off the weak among you, and that's a pretty horrible action. That's a good description. Keep in mind, almost and barely allows you to interpret this in two different ways. Again, I think in terms of our ability to read this scripture and look at it from both pair of glasses, we can see that this could pertain in either circumstance. Mine says the ones who have actually escaped. So that, to me, goes along with barely. I know you've crossed that line, but not by much.

Yeah, and this is kind of places where the critic of the Word of God would say, you know, if someone's really educated intellectually in the Word of God would raise this as an issue. How are you going to interpret this? The Lord knows perfectly well what he meant in terms of working through the Spirit in Peter to write this text. We sometimes get hung up on these, if you will, the subtleties of the Greek language. That's not wrong. I think either way we interpret this, you're okay.

But I think it's better to think that these are believers who who are now being subject to false teaching and have basically actually or barely escaped from those who are in error. Maybe a little out of place, I don't know, I'm the new kid in the team, but when I read this I think that they're basically highlighting the problems with false teachers and they're taking people, whether believers or not believers, and leading them astray. And if you are a believer, you're going to take longer to grow. But the Bible does say that God knows those that are his and will not lose one of them.

And I think it's a very important point to note. The theme here is false teachers. That's what we've had three parts or three lessons in. We don't want to study them too much. I don't want to know much more about these guys, but we just need to be aware that we need to identify them and understand their motives. So the question we've already discussed, which do you believe is correct here? So make up your own minds. Those who live in error are the false teachers. So we don't have to really define them any further.

In Jude 1.16, I kept saying, what's in Jude here? What's these guys? These are gamblers, or grumblers, my bad, complainers walking according to their own lusts. And they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage.

Boy, how's that for one verse to parallel what we've been studying the last three weeks? I mean, great. So read Jude if you want to learn more about these guys. We could have in fact studied the book of Jude and had the same kind of educational experience. Okay, last verse on the false teachers.

While they promised them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption, for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage. Notice the contrast here. Liberty, while they promised them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption. Liberty, And they themselves, they're promising liberty, but they themselves are slaves. And what is promised is not anything but slavery. I mean, even though they promise liberty, they're slaves to sin.

So, in effect, these two terms can be equated here. For by whom a person is overcome, by him also is he brought into bondage. And overcome is perfect indicative. That means it's factual. And it's perfect, it continues. So this is something that doesn't stop.

Once people are in this path of destruction, they in fact are going to remain in that path because they've been overcome by these false truths. To be put in a position where you have been overcome is to be made inferior to. The idea here is that once you're in a position having a false teacher influence your thought process, he or potentially she, I think these two guys here almost entirely, now is in a position of control. Because you've been led by false teaching and you believe in the teacher.

Who's the guy that took people to the island? Jim Jones. By the way, just parenthetically, where we live now, Lou Stone and Joel Stone bought the mountain where we live in 1953, something like that, and one of Joel's sons was part of that group who was assassinated. He was their attorney. The Jim Jones tragedy. They're believers. To be overcome, that's an example of being overcome to the extent of death. We think of today, the whole ISIS deal, the same kind of deal, false teachers, in a very extreme way.

But we have an alternative, and Romans 8.16 would be one of many places we could go.

And having been set free from sin, you become slaves of righteousness. You became slaves of righteousness. So here's liberty and slavery contrasted, but yet in terms of the benefit of the believer. But in this bondage, we're made free. So before liberty versus slaves are the same thing. Whereas here, the liberty and slaves are for the believer in a totally opposite way. John 3, 836. Therefore, if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. Lovely verse.

But yet we're told in Romans 8.16 we're slaves of righteousness, but that's not bondage, that's in fact freedom. And we're going to look at this in a little bit more detail.

Galatians 5.1, stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free and do not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage promised by the false teachers. Yet this liberty is a life, not a license to serve sin. Should I continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. This freedom is really something very special.

For you, brethren, have been called to liberty, only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. And so what I'd like to do is kind of close this section of 2 Peter by having us kind of describe how you view your liberty in Christ. So the stage is set by the false teachers of being made slaves and although promised liberty, that liberty is to live a life full of lack of trust and sin. But yet now we are made bobsleds of righteousness, but yet we are called free and liberated from a legal life. So think about this. Think about what this means. Describe the liberty you have in Christ. Freedom from the law.

The law was meant to convict, not to be lived by. and nature's been crucified. So I think it's really moving us in the right direction in that we now have a life where we have a freedom to live in the absence of sin. The fact that Christ was going to make us free indeed meant there's no burden of our sin any longer. And we can now live a life of righteousness by the faith we have in the Son of God. Other thoughts? freedom, liberty. Again, Paul said, should I continue in sin that grace should abound?

God forbid. No, this is not a license. I think one of the criticisms that comes up when you have the Christ-life view of your Christian existence, the identification truths, is that we can do whatever we want. No, it's not true because whatever I want now is to live above.

I mean Christ gives us his new creation that we might live by faith in that creation. And that's the ability to live a life free of sin. I'm free to reject sin and do what pleases God. Free from the bondage of sin now that you can... But I can do what pleases God. Before I couldn't do what pleases God. No, I can't.

Yeah, by trusting the Lord and that rest that you have, it does change the way your whole view is, your whole world view, everything is changed because it's His life that begins to be lived out in you. Yeah, I think a verse, a good fallback verse after Romans 7 where Paul says, O wretched man that I am, is that there is therefore now, when he comes to the truth of the spirit-led life, there is now therefore no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus. No condemnation.

So when we come to the fact that we are viewed as he hath made him to be sin, who knew thy sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him, 2 Corinthians 5.21, He made him to be sin who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him is identification truth. And when we begin with the identification truth that there's no condemnation that those are in Christ Jesus, then we don't dwell on our sin nature. We begin lifted up and view from above. If we live by faith in that truth, it doesn't mean we don't have problems.

Welcome to yesterday. How many things can you list that didn't go perfectly well yesterday? Welcome to being conformed to the image of his son. The ability to live freely and let the Lord work through our life doesn't mean that we are going to steal the neighbor's safe account.

It's a freedom to make I don't like the term choices because the Christ life is not a choice, it's a life and it's lived by faith. Other thoughts on this freedom that we're given, but yet still bond slaves. What does it mean to be a bond slave of righteousness? Because the Christ life is in us and he's righteous and we're I mean, we're in Christ, and so because we're identified with him, the only thing we can be is righteous. Because that's how the Lord sees us. He doesn't see our sin anymore. In terms of what Jeremy was alluding to before, if anybody is teaching anything other than the Christian life lived by identification, they're actually false teaching. It's another gospel. We live under that. And I think we can study false teachers all we want, but we have to relate to what's going on here and what Peter was so concerned about, and Jude also, and how it relates to where we are today.

So, anyway, we can stop a few minutes early, but I'm going to end by saying it, by endless grace and faith. Keep in mind, grace is the platform we walk on. We have to respond to the fact that we're walking on carpet here downstairs at Holly Hills. This is the foundation. Grace is the foundation.

We need to respond to that by faith. So let go, let God? Absolutely not. We have a life called to live by faith. And when we live by faith, that means we believe what's been written and given to us in the word of God. Okay, so endless grace and faith to respond. Let's always relish our new life in Christ. And it begins by looking down. That's where we have peace, comfort, and full righteousness.

And that's, I think, the opposite of what the false teacher would have you do. He, she would be directing you to live for self-pleasure and ultimately for financial gain to be related to the earthly existence in which we currently dwell in. Lord willing, I think this is the last class I'm going to be teaching.

Next Sunday I think we're here at Thanksgiving weekend. Who's on next week? Jeremy, you on? And then the next Sunday we get Margaret. I'll be in Vancouver. I have a meeting there. I'm speaking at. And then I'm going under the knife on December the 7th, which is a Monday and presumably out of action the rest of the month of December.

So and incidentally, those of you who feel she's doing pretty well, is she? She's really gotten used to. walking on those knees. She was a little insecure walking on those knees. And she had some rotation for two, three days. When his mom has tears in her eyes, he knows she's hurt. Because she's not a tearful woman at all. She's doing well. So it's been what, three weeks now? About? Tomorrow. She's still not out of the house though? No, I don't think so.

Anyway, I'm thankful. I was really debating for a while whether I should go through with this for a lot of reasons. I prayed that the Lord would make it clear to me. So the last five days I've had really fairly severe pain in my knee. So I was doing pretty well and now I have pain again. So I'm ready to go. So the decision has been made based on my symptoms.

So I appreciate your prayer. Let's close in prayer. Father, we're thankful. for the writings of Peter here in the second epistle that he's made it very evident to us that there are those out there who in fact are meant to lead astray and we you know being all saved we're in a position of truth and knowledge that as we continue to grow by your great grace and by faith we see increasingly what this false teacher precepts all about we pray for those who in fact are being led astray who may not be barely escaping but almost escaping from from these truths or lack thereof. So we pray that we might be educated by this text and ultimately use this as a cautionary note going forward that we might be lifted up and ultimately see the truth for everything that it's worth. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.