Guarding the Gospel: Integrity in a World of Compromise

• The Value of Character 00:32:17 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor uses anecdotes to illustrate how character is often compromised for small financial gains, contrasting this with the high value it should hold.
• Motivations of False Teachers 00:39:49 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor identifies that false teachers are driven by money, fame, power, and ego, rather than the glory of Christ.
• Methods of Deception 00:41:25 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor explains how false teachers use 'bait' to entice unsteady souls by detecting their flaws, needs, and weaknesses through conversation and intuition.
• False Teachers and Greed 00:45:41 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor identifies the motive of false teachers as greed, explaining that their hearts are 'trained' (gymnazo) in this vice, leading them to exploit believers for personal gain.
• The 'Right Way' and Apostasy 00:54:13 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor explains that false teachers have 'forsaken the right way,' meaning they abandoned the exclusive path of Christianity and Christ, revealing they never truly possessed salvation.
• False Gospel of Prosperity 01:00:32 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor critiques the teaching that following God guarantees prosperity and problem-free lives, contrasting it with the biblical reality that coming to Christ often brings spiritual conflict and 'trouble.'
• False Teachers and False Conversions 01:00:59 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor warns against selling Christianity with promises of prosperity, noting that such messages lead to false conversions and that God's plan may involve trouble rather than ease.
• The Danger of Greed 01:01:44 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor uses the biblical figure of Balaam to illustrate how greed for gain leads to compromising with God's will and engaging in wickedness.
• Discernment of False Teachers 01:11:08 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor advises believers to research the full body of a teacher's message and watch their lives, as false teachers may speak truth but ultimately lead people astray through compromise.
• Spiritual Warfare and Temptation 01:15:05 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor describes Satan as an expert fisherman who baits hooks with worldly desires to lead believers into apathy, discouragement, or sin.
• Character Integrity 01:13:36 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor challenges the congregation to evaluate the worth of their character against various worldly lures, asserting that character is not for sale regardless of the size of the temptation.
• Divine Warning and Protection 01:16:35 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor explains that God warns the church through Scripture to protect believers from temptation, and prays for protection for those at spiritual intersections or non-believers.

• Sermon Illustration 00:33:38 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor recounts a story about a bank manager and a junior clerk negotiating the price for committing fraud, illustrating how character has a price tag.
• Sermon Illustration 00:35:56 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about a cashier at Lowe's who tried to convince him to steal bolts and stain by exploiting a missing item in his purchase, asking if his character was worth only 18 cents and a gallon of stain.
• Sermon Illustration 00:34:30 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor cites a survey from Ken Hughes' book where 23 out of 100 people said they would abandon their families for $10 million, and 30 would commit sexual misconduct for the same amount.
• Sermon Illustration 00:43:19 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor references a confession from a former psychic who admitted to being a 'kind-hearted fraud' who used common sense and listening skills to feed lonely people what they wanted to hear.
• Sermon Illustration 00:43:19 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor cites a former psychic who admitted to being a 'kind-hearted fraud' who used common sense and listening skills to feed people what they wanted to hear, illustrating how false teachers prey on weaknesses.
• Sermon Illustration 00:47:20 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor mentions a guru who owned over a hundred Rolls Royces as an example of obvious, tragic greed.
• Sermon Illustration 00:47:54 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor recounts a news story about a pastor nicknamed the 'Bishop of bling' who was robbed of over $1 million in jewelry during a live-streamed service, leading to an FBI investigation that revealed he was defrauding congregants.
• Sermon Illustration 00:49:46 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor uses the analogy of a 'kiss cam' investigation to explain how authorities uncovered the fraudulent pastor's crimes, noting that the public failed to ask why a small congregation's pastor wore such expensive jewelry.
• Sermon Illustration 01:01:51 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor recounts the biblical story of Balaam, who was hired by King Balak to curse Israel. Despite God's prohibition, Balaam sought to find a way to be paid, leading to a confrontation where his donkey saw an angel and spoke, ultimately forcing Balaam to speak only what God commanded. The pastor notes that Balaam later advised Balak to corrupt Israel through sexual immorality.
• Sermon Illustration 01:15:05 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor uses the analogy of Satan as an 'expert fisherman' who baits hooks with worldly desires to catch believers, warning that these baits can lead to apathy, resentment, or walking away from God.
• Sermon Illustration 01:13:42 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor uses the analogy of a fisherman's bait to describe how Satan targets believers. He illustrates this by listing specific, mundane examples of potential 'bait' in a believer's life, such as compromising for a promotion, money, an 'A' on a test, or even '18 cents and a gallon of stain,' to show that temptations vary in size but the call to integrity remains the same.

• Pastoral Charge 00:50:24 ▶️ 📄
  > Question leaders and demand accountability regarding their motives and lifestyle.
• Pastoral Charge 01:14:41 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor commands the congregation to firmly decide to protect their character and integrity, refusing to compromise for any gain.
• Pastoral Charge 01:14:31 ▶️ 📄
  > The congregation is commanded to make a firm decision regarding their character and integrity.
• Pastoral Charge 01:14:53 ▶️ 📄
  > The congregation is asked to physically stand up.

[00:08:12] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:08:12] Good morning, church family. Welcome to worship here at the Shepherds Church. So good to see all of you. We're blessed to have our handbell choir joining us in the worship service this morning, and we're grateful for them.
[00:08:24] I invite you to stand as we prepare our hearts to worship together. We're going to begin with prayer, and I'm going to pray through Scripture, Psalm 111.
[00:08:39] Great are the works of the Lord, and so let's bow our heads and our hearts as we go to the Lord together.
[00:08:47] Lord, we praise you. We're gathered as your people. We give you thanks with our whole hearts.
[00:08:54] Great are your works. Teach us to study them and to delight in all you've done.
[00:09:01] Your work is full of splendor and majesty. Your righteousness endures forever. We worship you for your enduring goodness. You've caused your wondrous works to be remembered, and Lord, help us to remember them today. You are gracious and merciful. You provide food for those who fear you
[00:09:22] and you remember your covenant forever. And God, we thank you for your provision and trust, your faithful care. You've shown your people the power of your works, giving them the inheritance of the nations. We praise you this morning for your power and your faithfulness to your people.
[00:09:38] the works of your hands are faithful and just all your precepts are trustworthy and lord help us to trust what you do and to obey what you command your precepts are established forever teach us
[00:09:55] to carry them out with faithfulness and uprightness you sent redemption to your people and command your covenant forever holy and awesome is your name we bow before you with gratitude and reverence The fear of you, Lord, is the beginning of wisdom.
[00:10:13] So give us understanding as we practice your commands.
[00:10:18] May our lives join in your praise, both now and forever.
[00:10:23] Thank you for these moments of worship together.
[00:10:27] May you be honored and glorified.
[00:10:29] In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
[00:10:33] Let's remain standing and sing together across the lands.

[00:10:36] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:10:36] Restart what's been fashioned by your hands All creation holds together By the power of your voice Let the skies declare your glory

[00:11:20] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:11:20] Let the land and seas rejoice You're the author, you're the Lord Rest in peace Great God we serve

[00:19:14] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:19:14] Remain standing We're going to read scripture together This is from Psalm 8, and let's read this aloud as the people of God.
[00:19:22] O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.
[00:19:28] You have set your glory above the heavens.
[00:19:31] Out of a mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes to still the enemy and the avenger.
[00:19:41] When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?
[00:19:58] Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.
[00:20:06] You have given him dominion over the works of your hands.
[00:20:10] You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
[00:20:27] O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. Amen.
[00:20:34] you may be seated. The choir now sings from that Psalm 8, the majesty and glory of your name.

[00:20:43] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:20:43] Choir, let's stand and join our voices together in this timeless hymn, Beautiful Savior.
[00:27:58] Amen, church. Wonderful, wonderful singing. You may be seated.

[00:32:17] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:32:17] My sentiments exactly. Wow. Wow. You know, a lot of work, a lot of work. These volunteers, choir, orchestra, tech team, everybody just does so much work. They get here very early in the morning. We're probably still sleeping or drinking a cup of coffee. Why don't we just thank all of
[00:32:36] them? They can hear me backstage. I can remember growing up where my father would often illustrate how character should really not have a price tag. Some news item would come out and maybe somebody was caught stealing $500 or something. And he would say invariably, well, look at that.
[00:33:04] their character was only worth $500. And I have found myself saying that often as I've gotten older. Now, typically the price tag for somebody's character is, you know, it ought to be high, I suppose. You got to get something out of it or it isn't worth it. At least that's how the world
[00:33:26] would think. It's got to be a prize if I'm going to sacrifice character. I was reading in Chuck Swindoll's commentary on the passage we're going to study. And a bank manager, true story, a bank
[00:33:38] manager pulled a junior clerk aside and he said, hey, listen, we got an opportunity here to make a little money on the side. He said, if you help me doctor these documents, we'll split the
[00:33:50] difference and we'll each get $25,000. Would you do that? And the clerk said, yeah, I'll do that for $25,000. And then the boss paused and he sort of leaned in and he said, well, would you do it
[00:34:05] for $1,000? And the clerk said, well, what do you think? I'm a common thief. And the boss said, well, we've already established that. We're just negotiating the price. It makes me wonder, what is your character and mine worth today? Ken Hughes in his book on the disciplines of a godly
[00:34:30] man reported on a survey that just asked 100 random people several questions related to money, asked them, would they be willing to abandon their families for $10 million? 23 of them said, yes. They were asked, would you be willing to do something sexually inappropriate with somebody
[00:34:59] you didn't know for $10 million? Thirty of them said yes. I wonder how much our character would be gaining if it were essentially on sale. Some people will lie, steal, cheat for a lot of a
[00:35:25] prize, maybe a promotion, maybe it's a career step. I'll cut corners. I'll lie about the contract.
[00:35:32] It's going to give me a lot of money.
[00:35:34] Sometimes the lure may be just a little bit of money.
[00:35:41] And I often hear my father's voice, is that all your character is worth?
[00:35:47] I can still remember years ago, and this came back to mind, going to Lowe's Hardware, I was going to put together a wooden porch swing.
[00:35:56] And my wife would tell you that's risky for me to put anything together, but I was going to do it.
[00:36:00] And so I went to Lowe's and got the box, the big box, had it in the cart, and it was busy. I found an open lane cashier in there and she was waiting. And so I wheeled in
[00:36:11] there. And as soon as I wheeled in, she said, hey, I bought one of those last week. Put it together and we love it. And I said, great. I'm glad to get a little affirmation that it works and you're
[00:36:24] enjoying it. So anyhow, she's ringing it up, hands me the receipt, and then she kind of leans over the counter and whispered to me, the directions call for 12 bolts. I thought, okay. Thank you
[00:36:43] for that. Why are we whispering? And she said, but there are only 10 in the box. Oh, okay. Maybe she didn't want to embarrass Loves. I get it. Thank you. I hate, don't you hate getting something,
[00:36:54] you put it together and you're missing one bolt that holds everything together. So I said, well, let me just, you hold the box. Let me go get two bolts. I'll find them off the shelf. She said,
[00:37:03] no, no, no. You only need 10. So now I was confused. Okay. I only need 10. The directions call for 12. If I'm going to read the directions, which I probably won't. So I'll find out a little
[00:37:13] later, but so I need only 10, but they call for 12. So why are you telling me this? She said, well, you go put the thing together and then you come back and you tell the manager, you show them
[00:37:26] the directions that it was supposed to be 12 in the box. You only got 10 and, and then you'll get two free bolts. I said, well, how much do bolts cost? And she said, well, 18 cents. And then she
[00:37:39] said, see what you can do then is you can come in a little later on, keep your receipt and you can get reimbursed for those two bolts. I thought, man, I can pay off my house now. This, this is
[00:37:51] great. I can put my kids through college and what a windfall, 18 cents, really. So anyhow, I'm thinking, I'm ready to leave here. And then she leans forward and whispers again, and there's something else. I said, what? And at this time I'm thinking, are there cameras? Is this a trick?
[00:38:13] And she said, you're going to need some stain to stain that wooden swing so it'll last. And I said, yeah, you're right. I can tell by the picture that it's stained and that's a great idea. She said,
[00:38:26] but here's what you ought to know. It'll only take about a quart of stain and Lowe's only sells them by the gallon. I said, okay. She said, so here's what you do. And I'm thinking, really,
[00:38:43] what? She said, well, go home, take the lid off very carefully so you don't dent it.
[00:38:49] Paint your swing. It'll only take about a quart. You won't even be able to feel the difference.
[00:38:54] Put the lid back on it, hammer it down carefully, bring it back in, and you can get reimbursed.
[00:39:01] And I said, well, how much does a gallon of stain cost?
[00:39:03] And she said, $11.
[00:39:05] And you can get that back.
[00:39:09] Wow.
[00:39:10] I left there thinking to myself, is my character only worth 18 cents and a gallon of stain?
[00:39:24] But what that lady just told me was her character was.
[00:39:30] and she told a total stranger.
[00:39:38] Well, we're about to see this particular issue brought up now by the apostle Peter in his list of characteristics of a false teacher.
[00:39:49] Primarily that they can be bought.
[00:39:54] Their character is for sale.
[00:39:56] You just have to figure out the price.
[00:39:59] More specifically, they're in it for the money.
[00:40:03] they're after a following for fame. I mean, listen, religion happens to be their gig.
[00:40:12] And in some cases, it can be a nice meal ticket. That's what they're after. Could be power, be popularity, ego. They're materialistic. They're arrogant. They're immoral. Peter's already dealt with all of that in this list here in chapter two, and he's only halfway through.
[00:40:31] Now, every false teacher isn't necessarily going to check all the boxes that Peter rattles off here that I just rattled off.
[00:40:38] But in the end, none of them will care about the glory of Christ of whom we just sang.
[00:40:47] They really don't care.
[00:40:51] They have their own glory they want.
[00:40:56] And so because of it, they're going to fall for just about any price if you can reach it.
[00:41:04] it might be, it might be 18 cents and a gallon of stain. Well, let's go back to Peter's warning to the church. He exposes this issue. We're now at verse 14. In the last study we had in this passage,
[00:41:25] he described false teachers as enticing, unsteady souls. I mentioned that just very briefly.
[00:41:33] enticing is a fisherman's word in the original language, and Peter would know all about that having spent a lot of years fishing. It's used for bait that a hunter would use to make a catch.
[00:41:47] So false teachers effectively bait the hook. They're out to scam the gullible. They're going to trick the unsuspecting who unfortunately trust them and don't ask enough questions because after all, they're the leader. They're out front. They're on television. They're an author.
[00:42:13] So I can trust them, even though unfortunately on many occasions their lives do not match the message. They evidently can read people well. You'll notice Peter writes, they entice unsteady souls. Now, by the way, nobody walks in to the church, and this is a
[00:42:35] warning to the church that are going to arise from within the church, within a religious system.
[00:42:39] Nobody walks in holding a placard saying, I am unsteady. You know, I am needy. You know, I'm gullible. Trick me. And false teachers don't walk in with their placards and say, hey, I'm going to scam you. Watch out for me. I'm going to rip you off. No. So for them to be
[00:43:01] able to entice unsteady souls means they're able to detect through conversations, intuition, whatever, flaws, needs, weaknesses, and they're going to take advantage of them.
[00:43:19] Found it interesting. I came across this excerpt from a book written a year or two ago by a psychic entitled Confessions of a Conflicted Medium. He was pretty much debunking the entire paranormal world. He says that he peddled what he called, quote, junkyard superstition to the gullible,
[00:43:42] the lonely, the hopeful, and the dim-witted. Not a very nice expression, but he said that he had been a member of the Psychic Friends Network. That's where you dial in and you can talk to a
[00:43:54] psychic. He would go as a party psychic, that is a corporation might have a party, bring in a psychic to read tarot cards or read palms. He was a fortune teller. But it's interesting, he said,
[00:44:07] I have no paranormal powers and neither do any of the others. Kind of interesting. He says, I was a kind-hearted fraud, and I just helped a lot of lonely and confused and gullible people.
[00:44:26] He admits in his book that he relied on conversations with people. He would ask probing questions. He would get information out of them. His intuition would tell them what they probably wanted or needed. He said, I used my common sense and listening skills, and then I
[00:44:43] fed them what I knew they wanted to hear. That, beloved, is a classic description of a false teacher. They're on the lookout. They're prowling. They're prying for weaknesses, conversations, history, questions. They're listening for motive, need. A false teacher knows how to make you feel
[00:45:14] good about how you live, about who you are, without any sense of accountability or surrender to following Christ. Now, what's their ultimate motive? Well, Peter writes that next in his next phrase. He says they have hearts trained in greed. Now, he's bringing up one more evidence of a false
[00:45:41] teacher, and this is apparent. Their hearts are trained, and they're trained in greed.
[00:45:51] The word for heart that he uses is the word cardia or cardion, and it gives us our words cardiologist, cardiology, cardiogram. The Bible considers the heart to be the seat of your true self. Who you are is represented by your heart. In your heart, the Bible says, are your desires,
[00:46:17] your plans, your motives, and they birth words. They birth actions. Proverbs says in chapter 23, verse 7, as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. And what he thinks is eventually going to come
[00:46:39] out of his mouth. It's going to affect his hands and his feet, his motive. So long before pet scans were around and cardiograms, the Holy Spirit is revealing to us the condition of the false
[00:46:55] teacher's heart. Every beat of their heart spells greed. It can become obvious. It could be an opulent lifestyle. It could be a private jet. It could be like one guru I read about years ago. He
[00:47:20] had over, I think it was over a hundred Rolls Royces. I mean, how many can you drive at one time? He had a hundred. He just couldn't hold back. It became obvious, tragically, because of his position, people refused to ask the obvious questions. They needed a little child
[00:47:41] to show up and say, hey, that emperor's naked. He has no clothes on. I read a news report recently about a pastor who was preaching. It was being live-streamed. In the middle of the service,
[00:47:54] three armed men entered the church sanctuary and robbed him of his jewelry. They made him lie down.
[00:48:03] They took all of his jewelry, and it was valued at more than $1 million. Yeah, that's amazing to me too. They never fired a shot, by the way, never fired a shot. And they just sort of casually
[00:48:20] had him laid out. They took all his jewelry. And it was a little, it was a small congregation.
[00:48:26] And it made headlines, by the way, national headlines. And people were asking all kinds of questions about, you know, safety and security and what it must have been like to be robbed in the middle of a sermon. And those are valuable concerns. But I was wondering what a preacher
[00:48:44] was doing wearing a million dollars worth of jewelry. Did anybody say time out? Something's wrong here. Evidently not. In fact, his nickname, as I read further, his nickname was the Bishop of bling. And somebody should have said, that's telling. And he evidently wasn't hiding it.
[00:49:17] Now, you know, if you're thinking about rushing me and robbing me, I mean, you know, you can.
[00:49:21] I got a little water left I can give you when you show up here. A million dollars of jewelry.
[00:49:27] Well, what's interesting is the authorities wondered the same thing I did. Where do you get that kind of money and his little congregation. And it launched an investigation. It's kind of like that kiss cam a few years ago. Remember that couple got caught on the kiss cam and they
[00:49:46] shouldn't have been together and that just started this investigation. Well, the authorities started prying and they found out it wasn't too hard. Evidently, the FBI revealed that he was defrauding people of their retirement. He was scamming congregants. He was guilty of attempted extortion
[00:50:08] on a number of fronts of wire fraud and more and more. He's now in prison, federal prison for nine years. But again, why didn't somebody ask the question? Peter wants us to ask that question.
[00:50:24] You have every right to ask it of me, any leader. I couldn't help but wonder why didn't somebody say something's wrong here. Now, I will tell you the word Peter uses for greed isn't just about money.
[00:50:41] In fact, you could paraphrase this broader expression to say their hearts are continually lusting after more. They just want more. Ninety-nine Rolls Royces isn't enough. I've got have a hundred. You know, I need even more fame. I need more following. I need more book sales. I
[00:51:03] need to feed my ego a little more. I need more sexual conquests. I need more power. That's their heart. Their hearts are being trained. That word trained is one of my favorite words. It's the word
[00:51:23] gymnazo. It gives us our word gymnasium. Paul used the same word when he told Timothy, train yourself for the purpose of godliness, 1 Timothy 4.7. So exercise your heart for godly living. Being in good shape physically isn't an accident. It's intentional. Being in good shape
[00:51:49] spiritually also is not accidental.
[00:51:54] Holy living will never be a coincidence.
[00:51:57] You don't stumble into that.
[00:52:00] You set your path toward that.
[00:52:03] This is your direction.
[00:52:07] You can think of your life than being offered two different kinds of regimen, spiritually.
[00:52:17] You can go and work out in the gymnasium of the word work up a sweat don't expect it to be easy work out in the word and develop a character of godliness or you can be influenced daily
[00:52:36] you can go work out as it were in the gymnasium of the world it's going to develop a character of wanting more greed and Peter implies this here these false teachers they're dedicated they're given over to the regimen
[00:52:55] of being trained in greed.
[00:52:59] They're devoted.
[00:53:00] Their New Year's resolution is to go and work out in this gymnasium and they made it in January.
[00:53:06] Here we are in September and they're still doing it every day.
[00:53:08] And you know, I'm watching football, eating potato chips and cookies.
[00:53:13] Well, not them.
[00:53:15] They're devoted.
[00:53:16] They're dedicated.
[00:53:18] But they're becoming experts, Peter writes, in greed.
[00:53:22] And from whom do they satisfy their lust for more? The church, gullible believers, people who buy their scam and listen to their religious jargon and don't ask common sense questions. Now he diagnoses their condition. Here's the terminal prognosis, verse 14.
[00:53:52] These false teachers are accursed children or they're children of wrath, the New Testament also says. In other words, that's where they're heading. That's their destiny. They're heading toward the final curse, the verdict from God, which is eternal judgment in hell. Why? Well,
[00:54:13] it's more than their jewelry or their jet. It's more than greed. In fact, Peter writes here in verse 15, because they have forsaken the right way. Now, that's code language, by the way, that everybody in the first century would have understood. We don't understand it as quickly.
[00:54:35] A guru was known to have his way, his path. A religious teacher had his way. A philosopher had his way. In fact, in the New Testament world, it was said of you that you wore the dust
[00:54:53] of your teacher. In other words, you're following in their way and the dust they're kicking up gets on you. The early New Testament world referred to Christianity as the way. And the way, you'll notice as you read, especially the book of Acts, is capitalized. That was the title for Christianity.
[00:55:17] For instance, in Acts chapter 9 and verse 2, Saul left for Damascus and he's going to see the glory of Christ, by the way, is going to knock them flat and convert them. The text says that he was
[00:55:30] going to find anyone belonging to the way. Acts 19.9, we read that some people spoke evil of the way. Acts 19.23, Luke reports that there arose no small disturbance concerning the way. In Acts 24.22, Governor Felix is said to have had a more accurate knowledge of the way. In Acts 16.70,
[00:55:54] and a demon-possessed girl alludes to the fact that Paul and his companions are proclaiming the way of salvation. So Peter is writing here that these false teachers have wandered from the way.
[00:56:11] What he means is the way, Christianity, the gospel, and they've wandered away, as it were, than from Christ. And Peter refers to it as the right way. This is the right way. It was right
[00:56:28] all along. It was the way. I often, as I pray for an unbeliever and an unbelieving community, as I meditate on their future, I'm filled at times with terror because I realize that about 15
[00:56:48] seconds after they die, they're going to realize Christianity was the right way.
[00:57:00] There weren't many ways. In fact, they're going to wake up to the fact that Jesus Christ was telling the truth when he said in John chapter 14, verse 6, I am what? The way. I am the way.
[00:57:19] How many are there, Lord? Well, you can only get to the Father through me. So he says, and this is what gives heartburn to everybody else on the planet. He says, this is the exclusive claim of
[00:57:33] my way, my gospel. There aren't many ways. I am, he says, that way. Now don't miss the implication of what Peter's telling us. He says these false teachers forsook. You could translate that they abandoned the right way, which means they once were on it. They seem to be on it. They seem to
[00:58:00] believe it. They may have started out teaching it. They knew all about it. Now, later on in this chapter, Peter's going to say it would be better off for these false teachers to have never known
[00:58:11] about Christ than to know about him, seem to follow him, and then abandon him. The greater the knowledge, the Bible teaches us, the greater the judgment. There are degrees of punishment in hell based on the knowledge someone had. So somewhere along the line, they seemed like they
[00:58:34] were on the path. It gave them a hearing. In fact, one day they're going to stand before the Lord.
[00:58:40] Many of them are going to say, wait a second, Lord, we preached in your name, in the name of Jesus. We healed in your name. We cast out demons in your name. We did it all in the name of Jesus.
[00:58:51] I don't really care if I hear somebody on television or some authors say, I'm following Jesus. All you need is Jesus. No, what I want to know is who they believe Jesus is and what is
[00:59:04] their relationship with Jesus? Because Jesus is going to tell them, yeah, you did those things, but I don't know who you are. I never knew you. I don't have a relationship with you. So at some
[00:59:18] point in their lives, this is the chilling fact that Peter is describing here, these false teachers, they seem to be following him, preaching, teaching for him. And then they reach some intersection. And for whatever reason, maybe it was immorality. Maybe it was resentment. Maybe it
[00:59:38] was pride. Maybe it was fame that turned their head. Maybe it was greed. Whatever it was, they reached that intersection in their lives and they decided, I don't want to go his way anymore. I'm
[00:59:52] going to go my way. They didn't lose their salvation. You can't lose your salvation.
[01:00:02] They never had it. John writes in 1 John chapter 2, they went out from us because they were not of us. Had they been of us, they would have remained with us. But they went out to reveal
[01:00:14] that they were not truly of us. Now, be careful that you draw a line in the sand and say, okay, they left us because they may be a prodigal who returns. It's not up to us to decide.
[01:00:25] But if they do not return, they didn't lose anything. They never had it to begin with.
[01:00:32] They're following God because he's supposed to pay off. And they tell their followers that if they follow them, God will really make them prosper.
[01:00:43] They're going to get the promotion.
[01:00:45] Life is going to settle out.
[01:00:47] All troubles will be smoothed out.
[01:00:50] The wrinkles will go away.
[01:00:52] Jesus will fix all your problems.
[01:00:54] By the way, don't tell anybody that.
[01:00:56] Don't sell Christianity to a world like that.
[01:00:59] You get a lot of false conversions.
[01:01:02] You know, he's got a wonderful plan for your life.
[01:01:05] Well, that plan might be trouble.
[01:01:08] In fact, you come to Christ and he doubles your trouble.
[01:01:12] Now what?
[01:01:13] He brings a sword, separates mother and father, separates parent and child, Jesus said.
[01:01:22] Now, they are promoting, their followers are wanting in their weakness a gospel of greed.
[01:01:35] If God doesn't come through, eventually they will be through with God.
[01:01:44] Now, to illustrate the danger of a greedy heart, Peter goes back into the Old Testament.
[01:01:51] Now, first notice here, verse 15, he says, by way of illustration, Balaam loved gain from wrongdoing. In other words, he did what he could for a paycheck, but was rebuked for his own transgression. A speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet's madness.
[01:02:11] Now, what Peter does is take us back in time. You have, and I'll just survey it very quickly, but you have Israel heading toward the promised land. You got these nations in the way. They are
[01:02:21] demon-worshiping, immoral, child-sacrificing nations, and God will use Israel to judge them, literally wipe them out. Judgment will come early for them. Judgment's coming for everyone, by the way, who doesn't belong to the Lord. It comes early, in this case, through Israel.
[01:02:41] And watching these nations fall, the king of Moab says, well, you know what? I don't think I want to fight them. I've got to somehow slow them down. So maybe there's a way I can get them cursed.
[01:02:55] And so he reaches out to a famous Gentile prophet by the name of Balaam. Balaam was a practitioner of the dark arts. He dabbled in the occult and he was for hire. So Balak sends a wagon load of money
[01:03:19] to Balaam and he says, I want to hire you. I want you to come and curse this people for me because they are too mighty for me. Well, man, he's licking his chops. This is great.
[01:03:33] But the problem is he knows that Israel is following the true and living God.
[01:03:40] He's smart enough to know that.
[01:03:43] And so he goes to God for counsel.
[01:03:51] He doesn't want to get caught in the crossfire.
[01:03:53] Now, we're not told how God communicated to Balaam and what exactly he told him.
[01:03:59] In fact, there's not a lot of information given.
[01:04:01] And we're just told that Balaam gets the message and God says, you're not to curse Israel.
[01:04:10] Now, by the way, don't send you into the, you know, into some wild speculation that, you know, some witch doctor can get a voodoo doll and stick a needle in it and it's going to ruin your life.
[01:04:18] No, the powers of darkness are under the control of God and it can do nothing to you except or not without his permission.
[01:04:26] And by the way, the one who is in you, the spirit of God, believer, is greater than anybody in the world. So at any rate, God says, you're not going to curse them because they're blessed.
[01:04:39] And so Balaam, to his chagrin, has to send that wagon load of money back. But then the king comes back a second time and basically says, look, I'll give you a blank check. Well, we would call a
[01:04:50] blank check. You just fill in the amount and then curse Israel. Well, Balaam's really torn up now.
[01:04:58] Man, I got a blank check.
[01:05:00] So he goes back to God and he says, is there any chance you could change your mind?
[01:05:05] I'm paraphrasing.
[01:05:07] And it's interesting.
[01:05:09] The Lord says, well, I'll tell you what I'm going to do.
[01:05:10] I'm going to let you go.
[01:05:11] But you tell them what I tell you to tell them.
[01:05:16] The words I put in your mouth, you speak them.
[01:05:18] And that's music to Balaam's ears.
[01:05:20] So he spends the night and then he gets on his donkey early the next morning.
[01:05:23] Now, we don't know what happens the night, that night before.
[01:05:26] But we do know from some clues in scripture that he comes up with a plan.
[01:05:31] In fact, the angel's going to rebuke him in a little bit and say, I know about your perverse plan, your reckless plan.
[01:05:37] You can translate it, perversion.
[01:05:40] Somewhere along the line, Balaam has figured out how to pronounce something against Israel, but not too much to get into trouble with God.
[01:05:50] Maybe I'm going to straddle the fence.
[01:05:52] Maybe he's going to fool the king, you know, hocus pocus, whatever, and get paid.
[01:05:58] So he gets up, gets on his donkey, and you probably know what happens next, but I'll just read what happens here. I'm in Numbers 22. Let me just read it fairly quickly. So he's on his donkey,
[01:06:14] he's headed to the king. And the donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand. Now again, let me just pause here. Don't get into some kind of strange
[01:06:28] world where you believe that angels have, you know, this success that they can somehow see angelic creatures. I know I've seen the paintings, you know, the dog looking through the window, somebody's dining, they can see the, that isn't true. Your fish, your dog, your cat, whatever.
[01:06:43] I mean, well, your cat might have occultic powers, but they don't have any ability to see the spirit world. Okay, so don't take that and go, oh, wait, look, you know, the donkey can see angels.
[01:06:53] This is all miraculous. He's going to allow that donkey to see the angel and he's going to put words in the donkey's mouth to speak. Well, the donkey turns aside out of the road, goes into a
[01:07:03] field. Balaam struck the donkey, whacked it, turned it back into the road. Then the angel of the Lord stood in a narrow path between the vineyards with a wall on either side. And when the donkey saw the
[01:07:17] angel of the Lord, she pushed against the wall and pressed Balaam's foot against the wall, crushed his foot. That had to hurt. So he hit her again. Then the angel of the Lord went ahead
[01:07:28] and stood in a narrow place where there was no way to turn either to the right or to the left.
[01:07:32] And now when the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, she just lay down under Balaam. There's nowhere to go, just collapsed. And Balaam's anger was kindled and he struck the donkey again, third time,
[01:07:46] with his staff. So what's happening is God knows the perversion of his plan and he's going to give him a severe warning along the way. So then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey and said to
[01:08:02] Balaam, what have I done to you that you have struck me these three times? And Balaam said to the donkey, because you've made a fool of me, I wish I had a sword in my hand that I'd kill you.
[01:08:14] And the donkey said to Balaam, am I not your donkey on which you have ridden all your life long to this day? Is it my habit to treat you this way? And Balaam said, no. The surprising
[01:08:31] thing to me here is not that the donkey is talking to Balaam, but that Balaam is talking to the donkey. Somewhere along the line, you'd think Balaam would go, oh, wait just a second. Something
[01:08:44] unusual is happening here. When did you learn how to talk? In fact, you said that I struck you three times, when did you learn how to count? Balaam is carrying on a conversation with this donkey
[01:08:59] when he should be catching on to something unusual is happening. Let me put it this way. Balaam is dumber than his donkey. Bottom line. Now with that, God opens Balaam's eyes, who sees the angel and
[01:09:11] falls down then in terror. And then the warning comes again, verse 35, speak only the word that I tell you the words that I put into your mouth. That's the connection here. In other words, Balaam,
[01:09:28] try to be as smart as your donkey. Your donkey spoke the words I put in its mouth. Now you do the same thing. Speak only the words that I put in your mouth. Now what's interesting is that Balaam
[01:09:46] will go ahead. He won't curse Israel. He will speak the words God gives him. And he actually delivers a phenomenal messianic prophecy. He says over in chapter 24 and verse 7, a star shall come
[01:10:01] out of Jacob and a scepter will rise out of Israel. In other words, there's going to be a king and it's going to be a descendant of the Jewish people. You're not going to wipe them out.
[01:10:16] A king's coming from them. And from Israel will come this royal king. That's a messianic prophecy. Listen, God delivered through a false prophet truth. And that is part of the danger and the warning that Peter is warning us of here. Everything, God can do whatever God wants to do.
[01:10:45] He uses donkeys to this day, by the way. In fact, I take great encouragement that he uses me.
[01:10:51] But the thing we ought to be alert to is the very fact that everything a false teacher says might not necessarily be false. So you might be watching somebody on TV, you might be reading a
[01:11:08] book and you're thinking, hey, that's good, that's good, that's right, that's right. It isn't that something they say is wrong. That's why you have to listen to everything they say.
[01:11:22] They might have begun their ministry teaching the Bible.
[01:11:25] Many of them have.
[01:11:27] That's why we're warned, out of your midst will arise false teachers.
[01:11:32] They might be eloquent.
[01:11:34] They might be impressive, persuasive.
[01:11:38] Ask the question, what are they saying?
[01:11:42] Research the full body of their message.
[01:11:45] And watch their lives.
[01:11:50] Does it match?
[01:11:52] at some point say, time out. Did Balaam get paid? We're not told in that passage. I believe he did because of what he does next. After this is all over, a little later on, he goes over to Balak,
[01:12:12] the king of Moab, and he says, here's what you can do if you want to cripple Israel, if you want to slow them down, not by some occultic curse on the outside, but by corruption
[01:12:24] on the inside. So here's what he tells Balak to do. Introduce some Moabite women to some Israelite men, and then watch what happens. It won't be long, and it wasn't long, before those Moabite women invited those Israelite men into their religious orgies, into their sexual practices,
[01:12:41] which combined religion of their God with perversion. And that was a hook. And the bait will literally dog the steps of Israel for generations, and it is dogging the steps of people to this day. I can believe what I want to believe about God, and I can live in my immorality.
[01:13:07] I can feel bad on Sunday about what I did on Saturday, but I'm going to do it again on Monday.
[01:13:17] That's the kind of religion people are wanting today.
[01:13:24] Numbers 31 verse 16 says that all of that was instigated by Balaam.
[01:13:28] Balaam got paid.
[01:13:30] The pressing question for us as we wrap this up is what is your character worth today?
[01:13:36] What's the bait right now in your life?
[01:13:42] The price, the prize, it might be large.
[01:13:47] It might be the prize of a friend, a relationship, a career, I just compromised, a promotion, money, an A on my test. It might be large. It might be small. It might be 18 cents
[01:14:13] and a gallon of stain. So, beloved, whatever the lure is, if it's little or large, your character cannot be for sale.
[01:14:30] Make up your mind.
[01:14:31] You might be at an intersection today and your mind is whirling way beyond what I'm talking about.
[01:14:39] Make up your mind.
[01:14:41] Your character cannot be, will not be, is not for sale.
[01:14:52] Amen?
[01:14:53] Stand with me.
[01:14:57] Let me pray.
[01:14:58] I'll let you go.
[01:15:05] The truth is, Father, we recognize it every day.
[01:15:08] bait is put on the hook. It could just lead us to apathy or discouragement, resentment.
[01:15:24] It could lead us to walking away from difficulty. It could lead us to complaining against you for what's happening in our lives. We recognize that Satan is the expert fisherman.
[01:15:56] And he will not only bait that hook in our lives every day, he will watch us, his minions know, to put their finger on our pulse and see what makes our heartbeat, see what we look at twice,
[01:16:19] see what our motives are, our conversations that betray what we really want, and then promise us that.
[01:16:35] We thank you that through Peter, you are not warning the world.
[01:16:45] You're warning the church.
[01:16:46] You're warning the believer.
[01:16:48] You're warning us.
[01:16:50] Thank you.
[01:16:52] That's how much you love us, to tell us the truth, to warn us.
[01:16:58] And perhaps, Father, for anyone here who's at that intersection and is tempted to wander, protect them.
[01:17:06] if they're not a believer even this message this text Father use it as an invitation to pursue the right path to follow you our Lord we pray it in Jesus name now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
[01:17:31] and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all amen go in grace