No Water At The Well

II Peter 2:17-22

Several years ago, I took a group to see the cliff dwellings in St. Michaels, Arizona. Most of the kids didn’t take any water, and after a couple hours of hiking around, became quite thirsty. Driving back we passed the old hand pumped well and stopped so the kids could get a drink. Apparently the pump had lost it’s prime, and would not pump any water. After pumping a while everyone was a lot thirstier, and we were desperate to get back to the house for a drink. The half hour drive seemed to take forever.

The well indicated the water we needed was available and led us to further expend time and energy trying to get it, and making us worse off than before. False teachers are like that old well. They divert us from the truth with promises of things we want, and use our energy in fruitless effort.

“These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever. For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.” (II Peter 2:17-18)

Most businesses use targeted advertising, because they know that the most likely buyers fit a certain profile. Whether you are selling cars, furniture, toys, shoes, or drugs, knowing what the customer wants makes it much simpler. Shoe manufacturer, for example, have found that by making a shoe appeal to a certain age group, they can get a premium price. A pair of five hundred dollar Nike basketball shoes provide the same protection and traction as a twenty-five dollar pair of Spalding basket ball shoes. They do not promise the same social prestige, and it is the prestige some people are after.

In a similar way, false teachers focus on specific desires and adjust their teaching to satisfy those wants, whether for more material belongings, a higher spiritual level than others, or an exclusive place in heaven. There is always that appeal to be better than other people in some way. The idea of being a better Christian than others is especially appealing to those with a sincere desire to serve God, who have turned to Christ and away from sin.

Some false teachers are like Balaam, knowing God, but so craving what they desire that they are willing to modify God’s word to attain it. Others are like Jezebel, not believing in God at all and ths free to teach anything they think will accomplish their goals. More complete descriptions can be found in the Messages to the Churches. While the teachers promise spiritual and financial freedom, they are slaves to their own lusts, and controlled ultimately by sin.

“While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.” (II Peter 2:19)

Romans 16;17-18 to avoid those who deliberately cause division because they are serving their own lusts. “Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.” The problem is that as Romans 6:16 says, when we become slaves to what we serve. “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?” Hebrews 10:26-27 warns of the danger of deliberately turning away from God. “For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.” When they knowingly and deliberately turn away there is no longer any hope of turning them back to Christ.

“For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.” (II Peter 2:20-21)

Judas Iscariot gives us a great example of what Peter is talking about. In Acts 1:16-17, Peter himself said that Judas was considered one of them and had a part in their ministry. “Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus. For he was numbered with us, and had obtained part of this ministry.” This despite the fact that in John 6:20, shortly after calling him, Jesus himself said he was a devil. “Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?” John 12:6 states that Judas’ interest was in the rewards, not the ministry, because he was a thief. “This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein.” While praying in the garden, before he was betrayed Jesus referred to him as the ‘son of perdition,’ in John 17:12. “While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.”

Judas was one of the twelve who went out, performing miracles and casting out devils in Mark 6:6-13, helping at the feeding of the five thousand, and watching all the miracles. In spite of this Jesus still said he wasn’t one of them, and he turned against the Lord. I John 2:19 makes it clear that while they were considered as part those who turn back really weren’t part. “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.” As he says, if they had been part of us, they would not have gone back to the old life.

“But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.” (II Peter 2:22)

Though they can act like a Christian for a while, the old nature will eventually overcome the training and they revert back to acting what they really are. They have not lost their salvation, it just becomes obvious they weren’t really saved.