BIBLE EXPLORATION
*PRAYER REQUESTS*
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"THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER"
CHAPTER 2
OBJECTIVES IN STUDYING THIS CHAPTER
1) To examine Peter's detailed description of false teachers.
2) To be aware of their techniques in leading others astray, and their sad end.
3) To ascertain whether or not these false teachers had ever been true Christians.
SUMMARY
One of the themes of Peter's second epistle is "beware of false teachers", and such is the focus of the second chapter. Just as there were false prophets in Old Testament times, so there would be false teachers.
Peter first describes the destructiveness of false teachers. Denying the Lord who bought them, they will secretly introduce destructive heresies (untruths). Many will follow them, and the way of truth will be.
blasphemed. But they will bring swift destruction on themselves (1-3).
Illustrating the doom of false teachers, Peter reminds his readers of what happen to the angels who sinned, the ancient world destroyed by the flood, and the fiery end of Sodom and Gomorrah. Surely God knows how to reserve the wicked for the day of punishment, and the example of Lot shows that He also knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations (4-9).
Peter then discusses the depravity of false teachers. In arrogance they revile against authority, all the while reveling in pleasure and lusts as they circulate among the Christians they seek to influence. Like the prophet Balaam, they are motivated by the wages of unrighteousness and have forsaken the right way. Empty of true substance, they are like wells without water, clouds tossed by a tempest (10-17).
Finally, Peter describes the deceptions of false teachers. In both their methods and promises they seek to deceive those who like them had once escaped the pollutions of the world. But the false teachers are
once again enslaved by such pollutions and their last end is worse than the beginning (18-22).
"THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER"
CHAPTER 2 cont'd
OUTLINE
I. THE DESTRUCTIVENESS OF FALSE TEACHERS (1-3)
A. THEIR DESTRUCTIVE HERESIES (1-2)
1. Just as there were false prophets, so there will be false teachers.
2. They will bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them.
3. Many will follow their destructive ways, and the truth will be blasphemed.
B. THEIR DESTRUCTIVE METHODS (1,3)
1. They bring in their heresies secretly.
2. They will exploit through covetousness and deceptive words.
C. THEIR DESTRUCTIVE END (1,3)
1. They will bring swift destruction on themselves.
2. Their judgment is not idle; their destruction does not slumber.
II. THE DOOM OF FALSE TEACHERS (4-9)
A. THE EXAMPLE OF ANGELS WHO SINNED (4)
1. God did not spare the angels who sinned.
2. He cast them down to hell (Tartarus)
3. Delivered them to chains of darkness, reserved for judgment.
B. THE EXAMPLE OF THE FLOOD (5)
1. God did not spare the ancient world, bringing the flood on the ungodly
2. He saved Noah and his family of eight, a preacher of righteousness.
C. THE EXAMPLE OF SODOM AND GOMORRAH (6-8)
1. God turned the cities into ashes, condemning them to destruction.
2. He made them an example to those who would live ungodly.
3. He delivered righteous Lot.
a. Who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked.
b. Who was tormented daily by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds.
D. GOD WILL DELIVER THE GODLY, PUNISH THE UNJUST (9)
1. The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations.
2. He will reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment.
III. THE DEPRAVITY OF FALSE TEACHERS (10-17)
A. REVILING AGAINST AUTHORITY (10-13a)
1. They walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness.
2. They despise authority, are presumptuous, self-willed.
3. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries, unlike angels.
a. Who are greater in power and might
b. Who do not bring reviling accusations before the Lord.
4. They are like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed.
a. Speaking evil of things they do not understand.
b. Who will utterly perish in their own corruption.
c. Who will receive the wages of unrighteousness.
B. REVELING WITH GREAT PLEASURE (13b-14)
1. They count it pleasure to carouse in the daytime.
2. Spots and blemishes, they carouse in their own deceptions while feasting with Christians.
3. They have eyes full of adultery that cannot cease from sin, beguiling unstable souls.
4. They have hearts trained in covetous practices and are accursed children.
C. REVOLTING AGAINST THE RIGHT WAY (15-17)
1. They have forsaken the right way and gone astray.
2. Like Balaam, who loved the wages of unrighteousness.
a. Who was rebuked for his iniquity.
b. His madness restrained by donkey speaking with a man's voice.
3. They are wells without water; clouds carried by a tempest.
4. For who the gloom of darkness is reserved forever.
IV. THE DECEPTIONS OF FALSE TEACHERS (18-22)
A. DECEPTIVE IN THEIR METHODS (18)
1. They speak great swelling words of emptiness.
2. They allure those who have escaped through the lusts of the
flesh, through licentiousness
B. DECEPTIVE IN THEIR PROMISES (19)
1. They promise liberty, while they themselves are slaves of corruption.
2. For by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage.
C. WHOSE LATTER END IS WORSE THAN THE BEGINNING (20-22)
1. Having become entangled and overcome by the pollutions of the
world which they had escaped through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
2. It would have been better not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to
turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.
3. It has happened to them according to the proverb.
a. "A dog returns to his own vomit"
b. "A sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire."
