Sermon: A Faith That Fizzles – 2 Peter 2:20–22 (9/20/26)
Introduction
Service Times
We made a big announcement last week about an upcoming Sunday schedule change.
I have been so encouraged in the last seven days to hear our church talk about this change with enthusiasm and excitement.
I am so thankful for a church that is COMMITTED TO THE MISSION!
The Sunday October 4 worship schedule...
8:30 – Summit Worship #1
Same as our Summit Worship today...
I'll be preaching in the room...
Grant will be leading alongside our current praise teams...
Same Kid's Worship as we offer today...
9:45 – Sunday School for all ages...
Preschool
Children
Youth
College
Adults
11:00 – Celebration Worship & Summit Worship #2
Preaching plan is the same as what we do today in our 10:15 services.
Celebration Worship will be the same as it is today...
Summit Worship will be the same as it is today...
Same Kid's Worship as we offer today...
More information...
Take the time to watch our Pastor's Show from last week...
Available on our Facebook and YouTube pages...
How to pray for the change...
Pray FOUR WAYS...
THANK the Lord for the growth and the health...
Pray that our new schedule will EXPAND OUR OUTREACH into the community...
Pray the Lord will SAFEGUARD the identity of our services...
Pray the Lord will PROTECT our little faith family...
Changes require grace and patience...
No matter what service you attend, we will all be worshipping with a slightly different cross section of the church than we worship with today.
Scripture
Turn in your Bibles to the New Testament book of 2 Peter 2.
Today, we continue our series through this short but important New Testament book.
What if I told you...
Last week we looked at key truths about false teachers...
The danger of false Bible teachers is that they can cause confusion about the most critical things.
CHURCH, MAY I JUST HAVE A HEART TO HEART THIS MORNING...
JUST AN APPEAL FROM YOUR PASTOR WHO LOVES YOU...
NO...
NO STORIES...
NO JOKES...
THE END OF 2 PETER 2, JUST LAYS OUT THE MATTER THAT IS THE MOST DANGEROUS THREAT MANY OF US FACE.
What if I told you that many people who sincerely believe they are right with God will discover, one day too late, that they had been misled.
It is not me telling you this.
Jesus said it!
Matthew 7.21 | “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. (CSB)
Matthew 7.22 | On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, drive out demons in your name, and do many miracles in your name?’ (CSB)
Matthew 7.23 | Then I will announce to them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you lawbreakers!’ (CSB)
At the end of 2 Peter 2, after warning us about the general danger of false teachers, which we studied last week, Peter shows us just how deceptive and destructive false teaching can become when it distorts and confuses the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Scripture
Context of 2 Peter 2...
Last week we learned that there will be false teachers "among" us.
And that their false teaching is DESTRUCTIVE.
Scripture
2 Peter 2.1 | There were indeed false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, and will bring swift destruction on themselves. (CSB)
The most dangerous aspect of false teaching is that it might lead people to have a false faith.
The Bible warns us of this repeatedly...
In Matthew 7, Jesus says there will be many people who will be surprised to find themselves separated from God at the end of life.
False teaching led to false faith...
In 2 Corinthians 11 and in Galatians 1, Paul warns that people will come preaching a different gospel and any other gospel only serves to separate people from the Lord.
False teaching leads to false faith...
Listen to 1 Timothy 4.1–2...
1 Timothy 4.1 | Now the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will depart from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons,(CSB)
1 Timothy 4.2 | through the hypocrisy of liars whose consciences are seared. (CSB)
False teaching leads to false faith...
Romans 16 says that those will come who will "deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting" (Romans 16.17–18).
False teaching led to false faith...
Acts 20.29–30 says savage wolves will enter the church to distort the truth to lure people away.
False teaching led to false faith...
John writes in 1 John 2 that he is writing that letter to protect those that false teachers are trying to deceive.
False teaching led to false faith...
So, in the last three verses of 2 Peter 2, we get some CLARIFICATION OF THE TRUTH...
A clarification of the gospel...
And we learn how to distinguish between...
The true gospel and the false gospel...
Genuine faith and counterfeit faith...
So, Peter continues to write about false teachers and those who have embraced false "truth."
Let us read these three important verses...
2 Peter 2.20 | For if, having escaped the world’s impurity through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in these things and defeated, the last state is worse for them than the first. (CSB)
Having escaped the world's impurity...
This is interesting because he is talking about false teachers and those who have embraced false teaching...
And he says they have escaped the world's impurity...
They did not just appear to have escaped...
This escape is parallel with the "escape" of the believers mentioned in 2 Peter 1.4.
Scripture
2 Peter 1.4 | By these he has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire. (CSB)
Same Greek word: ἀποφεύγω.
We will learn as we go through our study this morning that there are different mechanisms for these similar changes.
In 2 Peter 2.20, man changes his conduct.
Through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ...
According to Matthew Poole, these false teachers do learn instructions from the Lord and seek to follow these instructions.
In 2 Peter 1.4, God changes man's nature.
... Through them you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world...
Peter will confirm this perspective in 2 Peter 2.22.
The important take-away here is that...
Often people with a deficient and false faith still both know Jesus-truth and may see moral and ethical improvement because of that knowledge.
Turning over a new leaf, even a biblically informed leaf, is not the same as the Lord changing your very nature.
Knowledge of Christian truth can genuinely reform someone's behavior without regenerating the heart.
This is going to be important tonight...
Tonight, as we talk about people who have embraced a false faith...
As we talk about a specific Christian cult...
We will talk about people who extoll their morality.
And rightly in some ways...
But who fit 2 Peter 2.20 to a tee...
They have escaped the world impurity...
But they are separated from Christ and lost in their sins!
They are again entangled in these things and defeated...
Again...
This is a reversal of the previous change.
Entangled...
Not simply that they commit the same sins again.
They become caught up in sin again...
Notice the passive voice...
Sin is not merely something they do.
Sin becomes something that captures them.
Defeated...
The word here (ἡττάομαι), is only used in the New Testament by Peter and only in 2 Peter.
And in Peter's other use of the word, he helps define the word's meaning here...
Scripture
2 Peter 2.19 | They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption, since people are enslaved to whatever defeats them. (CSB)
Defeated means to be enslaved by something...
For something to control us...
So, these false teachers and false believers experienced some self-improvement, but their nature never changed.
They returned to being entangled and controlled by sin and their sinful nature.
They did not simply sin again.
Their return to sin exposed the fact that their fundamental nature had never been transformed.
There is a difference between struggle and slavery...
Even with a changed nature, a Christian will struggle with sin.
But without a changed nature, a person will be in slavery to sin.
The last state is worse for them than the first...
What was their first state?
Lost...
Ignorant of God's grace...
Blind...
What is their last state?
Still entangled and enslaved in sin...
But now with a knowledge of God's grace and mercy...
How is this last state worse than the first?
Let us go ahead and read the next verse and then we can better answer this question.
2 Peter 2.21 | For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy command delivered to them. (CSB)
Why is the last state worse than the first?
Two reasons...
An immediate reason and a future reason...
A. The Immediate Problem
Sin returns with a vengeance and with even more power to enslave.
These people have gone from...
Corruption...
To escape...
To re-entanglement...
To defeat...
B. The Future Problem
The Bible repeatedly teaches that those who have heard the truth (or should have heard the truth), face an even greater judgment in the end.
Matthew 11.21 | Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented in sackcloth and ashes long ago. (CSB)
Matthew 11.22 | But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. (CSB)
And this creates another terrible danger...
Temporary reformation can be mistaken for salvation...
Someone can become almost INOCULATED against the gospel...
Because he mistakes what Christianity has done around him and in his behavior for what Christ must do in his heart...
Notice Peter says they...
Have known the way of righteousness...
After knowing it...
This is the grave danger that many people face...
Before we even get to our final verse this morning, let us identify four theological truths that are emerging from this passage.
1. There is a genuine faith and a counterfeit faith.
Not everything that looks like conversion is conversion.
Knowledge, religious experience, moral improvement, and Christian association can all exist without regeneration.
2. Genuine faith perseveres.
Perseverance does not earn salvation.
Perseverance is evidence of genuine salvation.
Genuine believers may stumble badly, but they do not finally abandon Christ.
3. Counterfeit faith may reform behavior without transforming the heart.
The Christian faith is not primarily a tool to improve bad behavior.
Jesus did not come merely to make bad people behave better.
It is that view that gets us started off on the wrong track.
When we see that as the ultimate goal, then we will quickly find ourselves in a self-improvement system.
The Christian faith is about Jesus...
Needing Jesus to forgive...
Needing Jesus to change you...
So, as we see in these two verses, self-improvement can make a temporary difference while at the same time missing the entire point!
A heart transformed by Christ.
4. Greater light brings greater accountability.
This is not about choosing to know less so we might face less accountability...
The problem is not possessing greater light...
The problem is receiving greater light and then rejecting it.
This is about embracing the light we have been blessed to hear.
Let us look at the last verse in our passage...
Peter gives us one final picture that ties almost everything together.
2 Peter 2.22 | It has happened to them according to the true proverb: A dog returns to its own vomit, and, “A washed sow returns to wallowing in the mud.” (CSB)
Intentionally ugly pictures...
Dog...
This does not evoke the modern Western picture of a beloved house pet.
In the biblical world, dogs were often scavengers and could symbolize uncleanness, degradation, and contempt.
Returns to its own vomit...
This aligns perfectly with what we read in verse 20.
The vomit represents corruption that had genuinely been expelled from their lives.
The dog expelled something, but it was still a dog...
It returns to what it expelled.
Sow...
A sow is a female pig...
This was an unclean animal under Mosaic law.
Washed... Returns to wallowing in the mud...
Washed indicates something real happened.
The outside was cleaned...
The outside was changed...
Wallowing is different from accidentally stepped into mud...
The pig does not hate the mud.
The pig LOVES the mud.
What is this picture?
This is a picture of self-effected outward change...
Counterfeit faith may reform behavior without TRANSFORMING the heart.
But there is no real change of nature...
The dog is still a dog doing what dogs do...
The pig is still a pig doing what pigs do...
Faith the fizzles before the finish was faulty from the first.
A person can...
Quit drinking...
Stop sleeping around...
Save a marriage...
Start attending church...
Become financially responsible...
Clean up his language...
Learn doctrine...
Serve in ministry...
Raise moral children...
And still need to be born again!
Because the gospel does not merely clean us up; the gospel gives us new life.
Jesus did not tell Nicodemus, ‘You need to improve.’
He said, ‘You must be born again.’
What qualifies as returning to wallow in the mud?
We see the answer in the word "wallow."
Peter is not talking about a Christian whose story looks like this...
He sins...
Battles pornography...
Loses his temper...
Struggles with alcohol...
He hates his sin and repeatedly repents...
He cries out to Christ...
He gets up and keeps fighting...
Peter is talking about those who WALLOW in sin...
So the better diagnostic question is not merely, ‘What have I stopped doing?’ but...
‘What do I now love, and what do I hate?’
So how do I make sure my faith is genuine rather than counterfeit?
How to Embrace a Genuine Faith
There is much confusion about the gospel.
Let us see if we can bring some clarity...
I am going to give you three how-tos...
I am going to give you ten clarifications...
I. Trust
Genuine faith is embraced first through faith.
Belief...
Trust...
Gospel Math
Faith = Belief + Trust
The chair illustration...
Gospel Faith...
We have not and cannot live a sinless life...
Christ did for us...
And he paid for our sins on the cross...
Gospel faith is shifting from trusting ourselves to trusting what the Lord has done.
Diagnostic Question #2...
Suppose you were to stand before God and he were to ask you, "Why should I let you into heaven," what would you say?
The answer to that question points to what you are likely trusting in!
Clarifying the Confusion
1. Stop confusing agreement with faith.
2. Stop confusing admiration of Jesus with dependence upon Jesus.
3. Stop confusing religious emotion with saving faith.
II. Surrender
The Two Key Bible Words
Repentance
Lordship
Gospel Math
Repentance + Lordship = Surrender
What is surrender?
Surrender self...
Surrender sinful desires...
Clarifying the Confusion
4. Stop confusing moral improvement with surrender.
5. Stop confusing guilt with repentance.
6. Stop confusing being sorry about sin’s consequences with being sorry for sin.
7. Stop confusing wanting to escape hell with wanting to belong to Christ.
Romans 10.9 | If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (CSB)
III. Follow
Perseverance and Assurance
We are not saved by perseverance...
But perseverance is a quality of genuine salvation...
What does perseverance look like?
Not...
Never sin...
Never a season of sin...
Never failure...
But you don't quit fighting...
Never quit following the Lord...
Never quit striving to honor him with your life...
Clarifying the Confusion
**8. Stop confusing saying a sinner's prayer with following the Lord.
9. Stop confusing having been baptized with following Jesus.
10. Stop confusing trying harder in your own strength with walking with Christ.
Conclusion
Pray...
For clarity...
For perseverance...
For others...