2 PETER 2
We are told that there were false prophets among the people; they were probably those who said that Israel would not be carried away captive, but they were carried away.
To deny the Lord is to deny His authority. Unitarians go further, they deny His Person, but the class here spoken of deny His authority.
[p. 119] People speak of free will, but free will is an absolute impossibility. It is not true even of God, much less of man. God’s will is the expression of His love; His will is the answer to His nature. It is not possible for God to do an act of evil, therefore there is no such thing as free will. All moral foundations exist because of what God is. The armour in which Satan trusted was man’s ignorance of God.
This epistle gives a remarkable sketch of the decay and ruin of Christianity. It is all prophetic: “there will be”. It is a dark picture, because the apostle gives no hope of any amendment. This chapter speaks from beginning to end of the corruption of the truth. It is getting away from government to lawlessness. It is true spiritually that if people get away from government they get to unrighteousness, and become lawless and self-willed. Defection set in by turning away from the kingdom; they turned to law, that is, to a previous state of things; they turned away from the Spirit and they turned to the flesh. Of necessity they go back to the flesh; it is just where Christendom has got back to. When people turn away from the kingdom they turn away from government. If you turn away from one thing you always turn to another, and so if people turn away from the Lord they are sure to turn to man. This accounts for the present state of things, the existence of the clergy, and so on. That kind of thing does not enter into Scripture, it is the result of turning away from the Lord for light and guidance. Depend upon it, if people turn from the Lord they must turn to man, and if from the Spirit they must turn to the flesh, of which the ruling principle is self-pleasing. A man who is spiritual makes God the object, and refers everything to Him. The only safe thing for the Christian is to submit to government. The moral government of God, which was always true and is universal, is what comes out in the first epistle, but in the second we get something more [p. 120] definite, that is the kingdom — subjection to the Lord. In this chapter we find people denying the kingdom in its present form, and in the third chapter they are sceptical in regard to the kingdom in its future form; they scoff and say, “Where is the promise of his coming?” But what is denied now is Christ’s place as Lord at the right hand of God. All the arrangements of Christendom have the effect of coming in between the soul and the Lord. The denial of the presence of the Spirit would involve this, for no one can say that Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Spirit.
All that God is is presented to us in the Lord. All divine authority is vested in Him, and therefore I submit myself to Him; in going to the Lord I go to God. There is more semi-Arianism in the public creeds of Christendom than people are aware of; there is very little sense indeed in them of the true deity of Christ. The statement of Scripture in regard of Christ is, “In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily”.
The way in which the apostle deals with moral principles is very interesting. He speaks of the angels that sinned; of the old world that perished; of Sodom and Gomorrah that were destroyed. These were dealings of God which expressed great moral principles. It gives us the true object of Scripture, which is not to give history, it is the revelation of God and of His will. Its character is that it contains great moral principles. Take out of Scripture all that is supernatural, and see how much is left! There would be scarcely anything left. Scripture makes known to us what we never could have known if it had not been made known. We not only get the record of the catastrophe, but also the revelation of the thought and mind of God with regard to it; we find in this epistle what God thought of the old world.
In verse 9 what the apostle deduces from the cases cited is that the Lord knows how to deliver the godly [p. 121] out of temptation, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment. We see deliverance on the one hand in Noah and Lot, and on the other hand the reservation of the wicked for punishment; these are the two principles brought forward. We are here in a scene of moral confusion, and it is important in such a world to realise these two principles — that the godly are delivered out of temptation, but the wicked are reserved to judgment. Godly men are often exposed to temptation, and it is a great mercy to see how God can keep them from evil influences. God keeps His hold upon a man through his soul, not through his mind; otherwise, under the influence of a stronger mind than my own, I might not be able to resist. The Lord knows how to deliver the godly; God keeps a hold upon the soul of the righteous, but the wicked are reserved for judgment.
There is really no greater wickedness than to set to work to turn people away from the God who is revealed, for they have no God to turn them to.
I do not want to know the letter of Scripture apart from the spirit of it; I want to know what Scripture speaks of. I believe all the knowledge of God is at the cross; it is there we get it. We may get a knowledge of divine principles elsewhere, but it is at the cross that we learn the glory of God. People may conjure up difficulties in regard of Scripture, but the true answer to all such things is, I am in the light of the cross.
One thing strikes me about Scripture: there is no uncertainty in its statements, there is no margin left for possible discrepancies. People who give forecasts leave margins for contingencies, but in the prophetic utterances there is no uncertainty; they speak in the most decided, positive way.
How could we have known that Lot vexed his righteous soul from day to day with the wickedness of Sodom, if we had not been told it, for it looked as [p. 122] if he rather acquiesced in it. Noah was a preacher of righteousness, but Lot was in a false position, and I believe there is no more pitiable sight than that of a Christian in a false position, as for example, that of a magistrate, for he is obliged to condemn a man, contrary to the very principles upon which God has acted towards him.
Nothing could be more humiliating than the corruption of the best thing that was ever set up on earth. The true character of the house of God is brought out to us, yet here (verses 10, etc.) we get pictured the worst state possible. The church has become a profession now as much as medicine or the law. The clergy, in most cases, go into the position not with a desire to serve the Lord, but probably put into it by their parents. It is what is set forth in Balaam, it is teaching for reward.
The dumb ass speaking (verse 16) was a great reality to Peter; and then he adds, “forbad the madness of the prophet”. It is very interesting to me the way in which the moral element is recognised when Scripture is quoted.
“Corruption” probably goes deeper than “pollution”. The latter is a reference to baptism; but those spoken of (verse 20) came into the profession with an unchanged nature. They were still “the dog” and “the sow”.
The consistent effort of false teachers was to lead saints back to a previous dispensation. The effort was subtle because what had gone before had the sanction of God; but if God had introduced another dispensation, the previous became a false one if adhered to.