In 2 Peter chapter 2:10-11 we read, “And especially those who go after the flesh in its corrupt lust and despise authority. Daring, self-willed, they do not tremble when they blaspheme glorious ones, whereas angels who are greater in strength and power do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the Lord.”

In this second chapter again, Martin Lloyd -Jones said of this chapter famously that this was one of his least favorite in all the Scriptures because he did not like that Peter had to deal with false teachers and with their nature and with the fruit of their teaching and their living. This really, as we look at false teachers, especially in verses 12 through 17 coming up next, we see the absolute depravity of false teachers – the life that they live and the fruit that their false doctrine brings forth.

This really is an ugly text to see what false teaching does and to see what false teachers do and to understand the threat that they are to the church. Remember that Peter is writing to the church and he’s telling them in the midst of persecution that they need to hang on with hope and with patience and with endurance because Jesus is coming back. Between Peter’s first and second letters four years have elapsed. He’s told them that Jesus is coming back, but He hasn’t come back yet.

There is a sense of urgency because if Jesus comes back, we don’t have to be persecuted anymore. Even so, come Lord Jesus. Well, He had not come. Doubts began to be sown. People began to fear. And so in the first chapter, He’s told us how we can know that Jesus is coming back, giving us assurance. Now, in the second chapter, he is warning them that while they wait, while they work, while they persevere, while they endure under this suffering and persecution, false teachers were going to arise in their midst.

There are examples of this happening all throughout the Old Testament. He said, “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.”

In talking about the false teachers, again, Peter is telling us two things. First, he’s telling us about their character and the nature of their teaching, the destructive heresies, the factions that they cause with what they teach. Secondly, he’s also telling the church to know that their judgment is sure, that as they bring in division within the body, as they bring in this false teaching, they will be judged for that. They are chained and reserved in judgment for that.

Peter is saying this for a couple of reasons. One of the main reasons that he does say this is because it is very often the case that we firmly believe that false teachers, sinful and ungodly people, aren’t being judged quickly enough, right? We just wish God would shut their mouths and stop them from their false teaching. How is it that they are still on the television and online and still publishing books? How is it that they are still spreading their evil influence?

Why doesn’t God stop them? Now you notice how we apply the judgment of God though. If it’s somebody else, we want it to be swift. If it’s us, thank God He is patient and long suffering toward us who believe. We really don’t want the discipline of God to be swift with us do we? We want God to give us time to think about it and to come to repentance eventually when we’re finally sick and tired enough of the sin that we determine that a change needs to be made.

Well, the church here is suffering and certainly they want deliverance and certainly there probably was a thought that Peter has told them that these false teachers are going to be judged, and that the judgment’s not sleeping, it’s not waiting, it’s sure, it’s certain. So come on already. Judge!

We have to see in the delay of judgment the grace and the mercy of God. We have to see always the opportunity for the preaching of the Word of God and for repentance and for reconciliation. We can look at ourselves and our lives before Christ and surely we have sins to the extent that God would have been just in judging us immediately at any point in time before we repented and came to Christ. And yet He was long suffering and patient with us. The long suffering and the patience of God does not mean that He is excusing sin. It doesn’t mean that there’s not going to be a judgment for sin. There will be judgment, but this is the message that needs to be preached so that they can be warned to flee from the wrath to come.

Do you notice that we’re telling people now to come to Jesus, not because they need to repent and flee the wrath to come? You notice that the gospel being preached today from many pulpits is that you need to come to Jesus because He’s just wringing His hands watching over the threshold of heaven, just hoping and begging that maybe you’ll cast a glance His way? He loves you so much if you would just love Him back.

The message we should preach of the gospel gives us the good news because first we find the bad news. The bad news is we are sinners by nature, children of wrath. We are doomed. We are under the threat and the sentence of judgment, and if we do not repent and come, we will be judged. This is a message that seems to be lacking today, the wrath of God, the holiness of God.

When we see how holy God is, we see how sinful we are. And we see how certain and sure the judgment should be, and we see how generous and merciful God is with us. These are the truths that judgment is coming and that God is a God of salvation, a God who delivers by sending His Son.


Next time, we pick up with verse 11…