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If at the close of this meeting there's anybody here that, uh, would want to know the way to Bangor, you might find plenty of people here to help you and give you some idea. There might be people, certainly not I myself, that could tell you the name of every street, road, alleyway that you would have to go through to get from here to Bangor. I myself have never bothered to learn every name of every street and every road from Apsley Street to Bangor. I find a much easier way. Uh, I might say to you, well, if you like, you can go down the road here and down past the city Hall, you see, and do a bit of a squiggle there, a- a- a- and go along that old Sidman bypass affair by Shorts and things. And you say, well, where will that bring me out? Well, that will bring you out, uh, along the road. You'll have to go over the hi- uh, the hills a bit. Oh, I tell you what, if you don't know that, go from here along Shorts up to Bangor, then turn to the right, you see, and that will bring you to, uh, uh, wherever you want to go. I could say, well, you don't want to go that way. Hmm. Well, go out here and turn left and go up the Malone Road. And if you go up the Malone Road, of course, then you'll go by the Knock Bypass. You say, where will that bring me out? Well, that depends, uh, where you want to fork off, but if you go around there, aim in this direction and that direction, and you will come perhaps to Newtonards. Well, when you get to Newtonards, go left and or whatever it is, north, south, east, west, and come to Bangor. So I'm giving you broad notions of how you get from here to there. And that's the easiest way to remember it, really. Say, here I am, I got to get to Bangor. Now, how, what, by what routes could I possibly get from here to there? This is the second chapter of Peter. It begins with false teachers, and it ends up with dogs and pigs. How on earth does he get from here to there? Well, if you like, you can remember every word in it, and that's not a bad thing to do. A better way even, perhaps, is to understand how you get from here to there, so that even if you can't remember every word, you can work it out logically in your mind. What are the steps of the argument that get you from here to there, and why on earth false teachers should end you up with pigs and dogs? Well, how is that? Well, if you've understood the flow of the argument, then you'll see how you get from here to there. And so we've noticed today you start off with the description of the false teachers and their bad characters and their bad doctrine, and that judgment is coming. And then the apostle describes how it will come. God knows how to bring it and simultaneously to relieve the godly from temptation. And then once more we return to thinking about the false teachers and the judgment that will come upon them. And this time we have explained to us not how the judgment will come, but why it will come, because of the terrible effect of their doctrine on those who are reformed but not regenerate. Now, in our last session, as we were thinking of these things, we thought together in some detail of the false teachers, their character and motivation and doctrines, and we ended up by talking about Balaam, who is mentioned here in the, uh, third division here in the second paragraph. And we noticed that the story of Balaam encouraged us with a sense of the faithfulness of God, that God cannot lie, and that God's people therefore will be saved. No enemy will ever be allowed to curse them or bring upon them their destruction because God is faithful. We noticed, on the other hand, in the story of Balaam, how Israel fell, tripped and stumbled by Balaam's crafty ways, and how they came under the discipline of God. And we were reminded that as believers, we are expected to discipline ourselves, and if we don't, and we live carelessly in sin, then God will discipline us. And that is a sad and a sorry thing. We thought this morning of two examples of salvation, of Noah and Lot, both of them righteous men. But we did notice that though Ro- uh, Lot was saved from the wrath of God, as all believers will be saved from the wrath of God. God has not appointed us to wrath. Yet Lot was saved, as it were, so as by fire. Contrast him with Abram, and the contrast is sad. Because of the decisions that Lot made in his life. Righteous man that he was, justified and secure. Nonetheless, one cannot help feeling that a great deal of his life was wasted. He started out from the great glorious cities, Ur of Chaldees, along with his uncle Abraham. He too, perhaps, set out looking for the city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. He ended up as a caveman in a cave and living like one. If the Bible hadn't have called him righteous, we perhaps wouldn't have dared to. And so it is important in thinking about these things, isn't it, that we maintain a balance in our hearts and in our lives, rejoicing in the security that we have in God and the promise of his word that we shall not perish, neither shall any man pluck us out of the, out of his father's hand. There is therefore no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. We may have strong security who fled for refuge to take hold of the hope set before us because of this great and glorious fact that God cannot lie. While we cannot lose our salvation, we can waste life, lose our reward, and end up in eternity lesser people than otherwise we would. Let me therefore say a little word about this before I proceed. The need to hold a balance in our thinking and not to go one side or tother too far. When I was a young man, and that's a terrible long while ago, but not so long as you think, uh, and began, as young men do, to get keen to know the Lord and to finish with just fooling around and playing about with spiritual things and coming to that decision that if God was real and his word was real, there's no sense in fooling about with it. It's got to be a hundred percent or nothing, and deciding by God's grace to make it a hundred percent then, and among other things, being interested in the preaching of the gospel and also in serious study of the word, I nearly went over the precipice. Some people think I did, but, uh, I nearly did. And I tell you why. I was, uh, talked to and given books by certain good Christian men who were very keen for my spiritual development. Men that grieved over the laxity of many of God's dear people. And they urged upon me that the reality of the situation is that there are only two unconditional gifts that God gives us. Only two things that a believer has given and he can never lose. And they said that those two things were eternal life and justification. Those, they said, were unconditional gifts. Everything else they said was conditional. And they further warned me that if I didn't really maintain rigorous and devoted service to the Lord, I could be left behind when the Lord come. I could be excluded from reigning with him in his kingdom and from his kingdom altogether. And you know, as they applied their scriptures to me, it seemed to make sense. Though it worried me not a little. Studying the word of God as best I could to see whether these things were so, I was first alerted that there was something unsatisfactory in what they were saying, because whereas they said that the only things that were unconditional gifts to faith were justification and eternal life, and that a believer could lose everything else if he didn't behave properly. I discovered that the Apostle Paul says that that is not so. Here is Paul's list of unconditional gifts. In Galatians chapter three, there is the question of justification. How are we justified? Even as Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness, not by works, but by faith. So here is an unconditional gift indeed. It's not given on the basis of behavior and of works, but of repentance and faith. But in that same chapter at verse eleven, Paul reminds us that likewise eternal life is a gift. And of course, there are many scriptures that talk about that same thing too, all over the New Testament. But look what Paul says also is given to us through faith, that the blessing of Abraham should come upon the Gentiles through faith. And not only the blessing of Abraham, but the promises are given, he urges, on those very same ground. Indeed, to ram home the fact that justification is by faith, Paul goes on to point out that the covenant itself is by faith. And along with the covenant, of course, the inheritance that is guaranteed by the covenant is given to us on the grounds of faith. Now that, of course, is exceedingly important, because that covenant guarantees to Abram's seed, which is Christ, universal dominion. That was an unconditional covenant made by God to Abram and his seed. And, says Paul, if you are Christ's, then you are heirs of that promise. You are Abram's seed because you've been incorporated in Christ, and he is the seed to whom that great inheritance is covenanted and guaranteed by God. And if I were to say, how did you get into Christ? By your good behavior? Certainly not. Paul tells us, we're all the sons of God through faith in the Lord Jesus on exactly the same terms as the terms upon which we receive our justification. Therefore, by a very tight and careful and legal argument throughout chapter three, Paul is pointing out to us the glorious fact that here are unconditional gifts to faith, not just justification, not just eternal life, but these things too. So I mustn't go over the edge, and by God's grace I didn't then, or if I did, I got back again. I mustn't teach that the only two gifts that are unconditional are justification and eternal life, and that a believer can't lose these, but he can lose all these. Because if I were to teach that, Paul would be after me with some very strong words, such as he uses to those who preach a wrong gospel. Words that he uses against those who tell people that things which God has made to depend upon faith, depend upon their works. We mustn't do that, may we? We shall not promote holiness in people by telling them that things that God has given them unconditionally in Christ, by making out that they depend on their behavior. Having said that, let us not, uh, go to the other extreme. We can't lose these things. There's a lot we can lose, isn't there? One Corinthians three says we can lose our reward. If we in this life have built unworthily wood, hay, and stubble, we can see life's activities go up in smoke. With nothing to show for life as a believer, we can lose our reward, so that's two losses. Though, of course, we ourselves, if we're believers, shall be saved, yet so as by fire. And Peter is reminding us that while all believers shall be in that eternal kingdom, there will be a very big difference between just getting in and having an abundant entrance into that kingdom. Sure it is that when we see the Lord, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is, every believer like the Lord, what there is of us will in part depend on how well we have progressed, how diligently, by God's grace, we have used our resources to add, add, and add. Now we come to make another distinction in our thinking. As we come to the fourth and the final part of our study today. Here, let me put up again the basic ideas of the second and the fourth paragraphs. The second paragraph, in the course of his argument, gave us two illustrations of God's deliverance, of God's final salvation. How, uh, Noah was saved when God intervened with the flood. How Lot was saved when God intervened with the destruction of Sodom, encouraging us to think of our final salvation when the Lord comes. And God will deliver the righteous finally and forever from temptation. Now we come to the fourth paragraph. Warnings, very serious and sad and solemn warnings of the possible end of people who have been reformed in some sense, but not Regenerate. regenerate. You say, is there a difference? There is indeed. And is it exceedingly important that we understand the difference ourselves and make sure that we're not just reformed, but we have been regenerated? And it is also exceedingly important that we understand it so that we can help our fellow men and women. And with all kindliness when we preach or in our personal work and our pastoral care, can do our very best to make sure that the persons we are talking to understand the difference and are not just religious, not just reformed, not just decent, but are positively regenerate. There is a difference. It is fundamentally important. God God was was able to save these. Why didn't he these? Well, for a beginning, we could start, couldn't we, by considering what, uh, the passage says about the false teachers, and so leads on into our topic. Two Peter chapter two, Verse eighteen. it says of these false teachers, for uttering great swelling words of vanity, they entice in the lusts of the flesh by lasciviousness. Now notice what the true reading should be. Those who are just escaping, not as the authorized, I think, and some others, those that have completely escaped. No, no, that is the point. They haven't completely escaped. They are beginning to. They are just beginning to escape. Conscience is beginning to work. They see the filthiness of this world. They are beginning to escape it. They hear the moral claims of Christianity. They can see their lives need to be cleaned up. They take a few steps in that direction. They are beginning to escape. And along come these teachers, and they say, you don't need to take things so seriously, you know, you'll get religious dementia or something if you go on like that, you'll become a religious maniac. No, no, no, you don't want to be so strict. And they promise them liberty. Well, now it is the fact that our Lord Jesus promises us liberty. He says, if you continue in my word, you shall be my disciples indeed, and you shall get to know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. He promises liberty. These people promise liberty. What's the difference? They promise you liberty to do as you like, to live indulgently, immorally if need be, and they say it doesn't really matter. That's freedom. Is it freedom? You watch them themselves in the end and see them utter slaves to their passions. Verse thirteen says something more. In some English translation, it reads, they suffer wrong as the hire of wrongdoing. We know our Greek just a little bit better these days from the papyri, and what Peter actually says there is not they suffer wrong, but they are cheated out of the hire of their wrongdoing. Sin is like that, young folks. It comes to you promising you freedom from restraint. What a lovely time you're going to have. You're going to kick over the traces with impunity, and oh, what thrills you're going to. And it has a promise. You're going to be held down by the foggy daddies that, uh, have been around you. Why shouldn't you be modern? It has a promise. And in the end, it will cheat you. You get the first thrill, and the next, and then just as you're going to get the prize, instead of get better, it gets worse, and you've got to screw it up a bit and heighten it. And bit by bit by bit by bit by bit, it goes sour. For you cannot pervert God's ways and suppose in the end it's going to bring you great reward. In the end, it will cheat you. And look at them, says Paul, says Peter, they are themselves slaves and they cannot break free. I remember when I lived a long way away from here and used to go along to the local YMCA in the days of the Teddy Boys. That's a long while ago. What marvelous jackets they did wear, nearly down to their calves. They were beautiful jackets, I must say. Hmm. I wanted to be free. You couldn't even get them to to play a decent game by that stage. Couldn't abide the rules. They couldn't abide anybody's rules. They about bashed the YMCA to bits. I remember one of them coming up to me when he'd had enough drink to make him tell the truth. He said, Mister, you know, we're going away to Blackpool tomorrow. I know what's going to happen, he says, as soon as the pubs are open, we shall be in. And he says, like putting your money down a drain, he says, my father died a drunk and killed by drink, and I know what it's going to do to me, and I dare not go. How about that for freedom? I'm free if I want to, to put a hammer through my TV set. Perhaps it would be a good thing to do sometimes. But I'd make a mess of it, wouldn't it? The only way to get the best out of it is to make it go according to the book and the rules of the man who invented it. And we have the power to abuse our bodies and abuse our relationships, he'll destroy us. True freedom is using ourselves and our lives according to the rules of him who made us, and him who, when we have spoiled ourselves, died to redeem us, and so set us free. And he would have done it for these people. But you see, learn what happened by what Peter says. Their last state is become worse than the first. Peter is quoting a saying of our Lord Jesus, which is given us in two gospels, and I'm going to ask us to read both of them so that we get the full account of it. First of all, we'll read in Luke and chapter eleven where our Lord taught this lesson that doubtless Peter learned from him. Pe- Luke's gospel, chapter eleven and verse, uh, twenty four. The unclean spirit, says Christ, when he has gone out of the man, passeth through waterless places, seeking rest, and finding none, he saith, I will turn back unto my house whence I came out. And when he has come, he findeth it swept and garnished. Then goeth he and taketh to him seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter in and dwell there. And the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. That is Luke's record. Matthew has the same story, and he records certain other tiny features that are nonetheless important. So let us read, uh, Matthew this time, chapter twelve, beginning at verse, um, forty three. Matthew twelve forty three: But the unclean spirit, when he is gone out of the man, passeth through waterless places, seeking rest, and findeth it not. Then he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out, and when he has come, he findeth it... empty, swept and garnished. Then goeth he and taketh with himself seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter in and dwell therein, and the last state of that man becometh worse than the first, even so shall it be also unto this evil generation. What a picture. Our Lord pictures the human personality as a house. In it there had been an unclean demon. But now the unclean demon has gone out, and you say, that's marvelous, the man has been converted. No, he hasn't. You say he has, the unde- unclean demon's gone out, and the man is much improved, and now he's respectable. Ah, yes, but since when was respectability the same as salvation? You say, but what is salvation then? Well, let's notice first what it isn't. Says our Lord, the unclean spirit having gone out, he comes back and he finds the house, oh, much improved. Whew, no longer a filthy old den now. The place have been scrubbed, beautifully swept, clean as a pin. You could eat your food off the floor. No old takeaway cartons over the carpet. And a beautiful wallpaper, lovely design, delightful. You say this place has saved this. Ah. But now did you notice, says Matthew, the evil spirit finds it swept, decorated, empty. Evil spirit gone out, no Holy Spirit come in the place. The unclean things booted out, Christ not having come in. And this is tragic. To have the one half and not the other. To have the negative but not the positive. The unclean spirit gone out, the Holy Spirit not having come in. The place cleaned and decorated, but empty. Vivid picture of a reformation that is short of regeneration. That can be disastrous. A state like that continued in can be disastrous indeed. Needn't be perhaps always. I do remember some years ago reading the story of a prison visitor. He was, under God, a genius for visiting people in their prison cells and graciously, gradually bringing them to the Savior. It tells the story of two young men that he found in jail. They were in jail for blackmail, and he got to know their past. They were once leading members of the church in the north of England. The temptation had come their way, and the chance of big money, and they fell. And they were in prison. And after wise and careful and kindly speaking, he led those two young men to Christ. It was a marvelous time when eventually they got home and they went back to their village. And of course, the church where they had been members had to welcome them. They invited the prison visitor too. And the prison visitor really records the moving scenes in that church. When two of the elders of the church, gray-headed elders, got up and confessed with tears, it was our fault. We were content to Christianize them without making sure they were born again. Could happen, couldn't it? In this matter, we cannot be sentimental. We must be ax- absolutely clear in our thinking if we love people's souls, to know the difference between mere reform and positive regeneration, between mere cleaning up and the receiving and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Oh, let's be utterly sure that our lives are not just reformed empty homes, but are houses in which the blessed Lord himself abides. After all, we mustn't forget the gate, may we? We were talking about th- that this morning. True Christianity is not just a way, it's a gate, and you have to start at the gate. And if you don't come through the gate, you'll fall by the way. And the gate is this, except a man be born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Nothing short, then, of regeneration will do. And then finally, Peter uses an analogy. The analogy of a dog, the analogy of a sow. The very analogy he chooses seems to me to be, uh, eloquently significant, because Peter, when all is said and done, wasn't an Irishman. I don't know how that is, but there he just wasn't. And he was brought up in a community for whom dogs weren't nice little creatures that could sit on the lap of however elegant a lady in a most splendid drawing room. They were horrible creatures, pariahs that went about the street, filthy things. Dog, therefore, to call anybody a dog was an insult of the highest order. I don't think Peter in his wildest imagination would ever have got round to use the dog as an illustration of a genuine believer. And of course, with Jews, as distinct from certain other nations, pigs were the abomination of the earth. By definition, unclean animals, and you didn't touch anything from its hunk to its tail. Pigs. By the strongest stretch of imagination, I don't think Peter was ever going to use the pig as an analogy of a genuine believer. Now, all believers, there is one animal that they're likened to amongst others, and that is a sheep. So now we have a dog. It's been eating some filthy garbage. He's got a horrible feeling in its chest. Ooh. So after a while, I can't stick it any longer, and it leaves it all out. That filthy beast. And then it feels better. Ah, it goes on wagging its tail. Phew, glad to get rid of that. Phew. That was a bit indigestible. You watch the filthy beast, though. Presently, they go back sniffing all around it. Ugh. Start eating up again. Ooh, horrible. And a sow. The sow that was washed. Well, it's possible to translate the Greek as a passive. It's really a middle. It's more likely it means the sow that took a bath. You see, the ancients had a parable about that little ditty, a little story they used to tell of about a sow that got uppish in the world and began to give itself airs and graces and went down to the public baths along with the gentry. Ha! And took a bath and put an earring or two on and a jewel in his snout, and went back home along with the gentry, starting beside them, feeling that she'd arrived really in high society. She could do what these others did. She took a bath, but then forgot halfway home, saw a puddle of mud, jewels and all, went down in it, wallowed in it. How is it that dogs do that kind of thing, sows do it and sheep don't? How you say, it belongs to the nature of the beast. And now you'll hit the nail on the head. Why does the dog go back to his vomit? That is its nature. Sheep would never do it. A sow wasp go and wallows in mire? It has its own reasons. They say they do it for a bit of recreation when it gets hot. Mm, you know, when the summer is hot, and they like to find a nice old juicy muddy spot and wallow in it. It refreshes them. It's funny what some people will do by way of recreation, the kind of filth they look at. Won't they? In the name of recreation. Wow. Well, I was talking about sows. Sows will do the kind of thing. It's their nature. A sheep won't do it. It isn't its nature. Herein is the secret of the whole thing. True Christianity. It isn't just getting rid of a few uncomfortable and rotten things that we may have been feeding on. It isn't a question of washing us externally and putting a few jewels upon our ears. True Christianity is nothing short of a completely new life received, and with that new life, a new nature. Doesn't mean that when we come to the Savior and receive eternal life and the very nature of God, the divine nature, that we've lost the old nature. That old nature is still there. But we do have a new nature. And with that observation, Peter started his epistle. Now he recurs to it. Nothing short of regeneration with a new nature will do. It doesn't mean that a sheep will never fall, never fall into a puddle and get muddy and dirty and filthy. It won't willingly wallow in it. The Bible makes it clear. It does not say believers will never fall, they'll never sin. But the mark of a true believer is he will not persist in it. All the time, deliberately, and unrepentantly. And if you find a man that wallows in it and carries on and has no intention of changing and constantly commits iniquity and wrong, says John, you will have to decide about that man this, that he is not of God. God. How nice of God to teach us these things through Peter. Peter fell, didn't he? Oh, what a big old ditch Peter fell into. There's not one of us that is liable to fall. But Peter is there to remind us that he was not only Simon. When he came to Christ, Christ gave him a new life and a new nature, and he became Simon Peter. And when he fell, then he cried and broke his heart and cried to the Lord. And the shepherd came and restored him. It's that Peter that's talking to us. And we have fallen. That doesn't prove you're not a believer. What will show you're a believer is this, that if you're fallen, you'll cry to the shepherd and ask him to come and restore you. It is written of him that he restoreth our souls. But if someone can fall and carry on in sin and enjoy it and persist in it and go on with it, then it raises the question, is that person one of the Lord's sheep, or is it a temporarily refined dog and a temporarily bathed sow. The Lord uses word to speak to our hearts, to make sure our relationship with the Lord now is built on solid foundations, that we've entered the gate, that we are born again, we have a divine nature, and if we've got it clear ourselves, God give us the compassion to make our preaching of the gospel clear, that we impress upon our hearers that they do not content themselves with mere reformation short of regeneration, because it can be disastrous in the end. And so finally, to our question session. Session eight, Moral apostates. Question one, Those who advocate permissiveness promise us freedom. Chapter two, verse nineteen. Christ promises us freedom. John chapter eight, verses thirty one and thirty two. What is the difference between the two? Question two: What consideration shows that the claim of the false teachers is false. What consideration shows that the claim of the false teachers is false? Question three: The phrase, the last state has become worse than the first, seems to be a quotation from our Lord's words in Luke chapter eleven verse twenty six. Part A. What is the meaning of our Lord's warning in Luke chapter eleven verses twenty four to twenty six? The phrase, the last state has become worse than the first, seems to be a quotation from our Lord's words in Luke chapter eleven verse twenty six. Part A. What is the meaning of our Lord's warning in Luke chapter eleven verses twenty four to twenty six? Part B. Matthew twelve verse forty five applies the warning to Christ's contemporaries. Could it apply to people nowadays? Question four: Is it possible for someone to be Christianized without being born again? Would you draw a distinction between moral reform and regeneration? Question 5. Why does a dog return to its vomit, a sow to wallowing in the mire, but sheep do neither? Question six: What relevance has chapter one verse four in this connection? What relevance has chapter one verse four in this connection. Question seven: Can a believer fall into sin? Can a believer fall into sin? Question eight: Does a believer habitually and unrepentantly live in sin? Question nine: Both Peter and Judas fell. What was the d- essential difference between them? Both Peter and Judas fell. What was the essential difference between them? Question ten: Why was it better for the people of chapter two verses twenty to twenty two not to have known the way of righteousness? Why was it better for the people of chapter two verses twenty to twenty two not to have known the way of righteousness. Question eleven: How would what we have learned from this chapter affect our preaching of the gospel? How would what we have learned from this chapter affect our preaching of the gospel?