Rooted 7 – The Destruction of Destructive Heresy

But there are also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction... For if God did not spare the angels who sinned and cast them down to hell... and did not spare the ancient world but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness... and turning to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction... and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked... then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment. (2 Peter 2:1–10)

God is merciful and gracious—but His mercy never cancels His justice, and it is foolish to test its limits.

The Conversation That Cuts to the Core

This last week I was speaking with a gentleman in our church who had gotten into a conversation—really an argument—with someone from the Jehovah's Witness background, the Watchtower Society. Maybe you've found yourself in a conversation like that, with someone from the Latter-day Saints knocking on your door, or someone from the Watchtower Society. These talks can easily devolve into an argument as you discuss the finer points of orthodox Christian doctrine. And rarely does argument persuade anybody of anything—just turn on the news commentary shows to confirm it.

As I talked with this friend in my office, he was asking questions and seeking answers to share. I told him that in my experience, those conversations seldom go anywhere helpful. You can go on all day about whether it's okay to celebrate Christmas or birthdays, whether Jesus is the spirit brother of Lucifer, whether we existed as spirit bodies before earth. But it really comes down to a few simple things: Is Jesus Lord and God, and was His death on the cross necessary and sufficient?

False Teachers Deny the Lordship of Christ

That is exactly what the Apostle Peter is dealing with in 2 Peter 2. Two thousand years ago, in the earliest days of the church, there were already arguments over these important truths. Peter knew that false teachers would come in the future and deny these basic things—the lordship of Jesus and the necessity and sufficiency of His death on the cross. Just as there were false prophets in the Old Testament, so there shall be false teachers. Paul, Jude, John, and Jesus Himself all foresaw that day.

These individuals don't announce themselves. They come in secretly. Jude says they creep in unnoticed; Jesus said they are wolves in sheep's clothing. Yet they bring in destructive heresies—the King James calls them damnable heresies. A heresy is teaching outside of revealed Scripture, and a destructive heresy leads to damnation, to destruction. Verse 1 says they bring upon themselves swift destruction. At the core, they "deny the Lord who bought them."

So here is the first point: False teachers deny the lordship of Christ and the necessity and sufficiency of His death on the cross. Forget the distracting arguments about Christmas, birthdays, and pagan this or that. Apply the simple test: Is Jesus Christ Lord? Is He God? Was His death on the cross necessary? And is it sufficient—enough to deal with our sin and save us? If a person cannot answer yes to those three questions, they have followed false teaching, almost certainly without realizing it. Every cult denies the deity of Christ and the necessity and sufficiency of His death.

Destructive Teachings Bring Destruction

Here is the problem: these teachings lead to destruction. Four times in the first three verses Peter uses that word. Verse 1—destructive heresies; verse 1—they bring on themselves swift destruction; verse 2—many will follow their destructive ways; verse 3—their destruction does not slumber, or as the New Living Translation says, will not be delayed.

There is a damnation that comes upon those who deny the lordship and deity of Jesus, who deny that His death was necessary, or who say it was not enough—that you must also be baptized in this church, in this way, partake of communion this way, believe that way, worship on this day, or do this good work. But that goes against grace entirely. Grace is unmerited, undeserved favor. None of us deserve salvation; it is completely of God's grace. So the second point is the simplest of all: Destructive teachings bring destruction.

Peter reminds us of this on purpose. In 2 Peter 1:12 he writes, "For this reason I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know them and are established in the present truth." Knowing he would soon put off this tent, this body, he was careful to leave a reminder.

How God Introduces Himself: Merciful and Gracious

Someone might object: What about the grace and mercy of God? Isn't God gracious and merciful? It's a valid question, and I'm grateful—as I'm sure you are—that He is.

One of my favorite Old Testament passages is in Exodus 34. Moses is on Mount Sinai, and in Exodus 33 he has said, "God, I want to see Your glory." But God is so uber-glorious that if we came in contact with His glory we would be obliterated. So God finds a way to reveal something of His glory. More important than what Moses sees is what God says.

In Exodus 34:6, "the Lord passed before Moses and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth." This is God's introduction of His own nature. We define ourselves by what we do—I'm a doctor, a teacher, a mom. But God says, "I am the Lord God," and the very first thing He chooses is merciful.

Of all the attributes He could have named, consider this: the Bible certainly says God is holy. He could have said, "I am the Lord, the Lord God, holy." But if He had defaulted to His holiness, none of us would be here, because He is so holy and we are so far from it. What do we sinners need? We need His mercy. Mercy is not getting what you deserve. Go back to Genesis 1–3 and you find that all of us deserve just punishment from a holy God.

Then He says gracious—getting what you don't deserve, receiving good gifts you never earned. Then patient, longsuffering, slow to anger. I need that—as a dad, in the work environment, all of us need mercy, grace, and patience. He is abounding in goodness, full of chesed, steadfast love, and truth. That is the kind of God I want to draw near to and know.

And notice: this is in the Old Testament, the second book of the Bible. Many people think the Old Testament God was cranky and got nicer over a couple thousand years. No—merciful, gracious, patient, abounding in good love and truth. Verse 7 continues: "keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin." This is a good God.

God Is Relentlessly Committed to Justice

So what about God's grace when He judges sin? Look again at 2 Peter 2:4–8. Peter does not miss the mercy and grace of God, but he wants to remind us that God is also just. He illustrates this justice with three pictures from Genesis. This is the third point: God is relentlessly committed to truth, holiness, justice, and His glory.

First, God "did not spare the angels who sinned but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved for judgment." The most common view connects this to Genesis 6, where the sons of God—angels—came down and committed sexual immorality with the daughters of men. It sounds off the wall, but it is there. God dealt swiftly: these angels are reserved in chains of darkness until the day of judgment in Hades, Sheol.

Second, "He did not spare the ancient world but saved Noah." Just after Genesis 6, the world was filled with such chaos, sin, and rebellion that God was grieved, and He determined to bring the great flood. Yet in the midst of judgment we see mercy: "Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord." God saved eight people—Noah, his wife, their three sons, and their wives—through the flood on the ark, along with the animals. (And no, there were no rock people, and God was not on a green agenda. Russell Crowe makes a bad Noah, I'm sorry.)

Third, God turned "the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes," making them an example. Yet again, mercy. In Genesis 18, God reveals His plan to Abraham, and Abraham intercedes: Will You spare the cities for fifty righteous? Forty-five? Forty? Thirty? It becomes almost an auction, down to ten. "Will You spare it for ten?" And God says yes. But God did not even find ten. So what does Peter say in verse 7? "He delivered righteous Lot"—one man. Even in God's judgment in the Old Testament, we find His mercy. But God remains relentlessly committed to truth, holiness, justice, and glory.

Mercy Does Not Void Justice

These pictures bring us to the fourth point: God's mercy does not void His justice. Yes, He is merciful and gracious, but His mercy and grace do not nullify His justice. Right after Exodus 34:6–7 describes Him as merciful, gracious, slow to anger, forgiving iniquity, the very next words say He will "by no means clear the guilty." Abraham himself asked in Genesis 18:25, "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" If God is going to judge everyone, He must be just.

This matters in real conversations. You're talking with a neighbor or family member about spiritual things—even though we're told never to talk about religion, politics, or maybe football—and you mention the bad news of sin and judgment, because the gospel includes both the good news of salvation and the bad news of sin and judgment. The person says, "I believe in a God of love who would never send anyone to hell." The response: Yes, I believe in a God of love, mercy, and grace too—but that doesn't mean He will not deliver justice.

When we speak of mercy and grace, we are speaking of gifts found only in God through Jesus Christ. Paul writes "grace and mercy and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord" (1 Timothy 1:2; 2 Timothy 1:2; Titus 1:4), and John writes the same in 2 John 1:3. Mercy, grace, and the peace they bring are found only in Jesus Christ the Lord. Outside of Him you will not find them. Jesus is merciful and gracious, but He is also relentlessly committed to truth, holiness, justice, and His glory.

The Final Picture: Jesus the Judge

The last picture of Jesus in Scripture is in the book of Revelation—"the revelation of Jesus Christ." When He comes, all the tribes of the earth will mourn. Why? Because in Revelation 1:18 Jesus says, "I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death."

What does that mean? About twenty chapters later we get the summary. In Revelation 20, Jesus is seated on a white throne, and death and hell are opened—Hades, the prison where the unjust and ungodly are kept awaiting judgment. Then the last verse says death and hell were cast into the lake of fire, and this is the second death. I'm not entirely sure what a lake of fire is, but it sounds bad—really bad. The final picture of meek and mild Jesus is Jesus the Judge bringing just judgment.

So 2 Peter 2:9 says, "the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment." Jesus knows how to save—Noah and his family, Lot and his daughters were delivered—but He also knows how to reserve the ungodly for the day of judgment. Throughout the prophetic and apocalyptic passages—Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Obadiah, Revelation—we find "the great and terrible day of the Lord," any time God intervenes in human history for judgment, culminating in the day of judgment Peter speaks of here.

Who Are the Ungodly?

Who are the unjust reserved for judgment? Verse 10: "especially those who walk according to the flesh, in the lust of uncleanness, and despise authority. They are presumptuous, self-willed, and are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries." Paul describes walking after the flesh in Galatians 5:19–21: "adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like... those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God."

They also "despise authority"—they reject the lordship of Jesus Christ, saying, "We will not have this man to rule over us." Then they are presumptuous. That Greek word appears only once in the New Testament; it literally means "daring men." To be presumptuous is to arrogantly stand against a power you cannot defeat. It's like a story about Muhammad Ali at the height of his career, sitting on a plane on the tarmac. The stewardess asked him to fasten his seatbelt. He said, "Superman don't need no seatbelt." She replied, "Superman don't need no plane. So buckle up." That's presumptuousness.

They are also self-willed—brazen and arrogant—and "not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries," which literally is the Greek words for blasphemy and glory. They are unafraid to slander God, to speak evil of Him.

It Is Foolish to Test His Mercy

So the fifth point is simple, almost a "well, no duh": It is foolish to test the limits of the mercy and grace of Jesus. It is wonderful to rejoice in His mercy and grace. His mercies are new every morning; great is His faithfulness. Hebrews says we can come boldly before His throne of grace to obtain mercy and grace in our time of need. You will never come to His throne and hear, "I'm sorry, Kevin was just here and took it all—come back later." That won't happen.

But there are limits to the mercy and grace of God, and I don't want to find out what they are. There are those who arrogantly, presumptuously stand against the coming day of judgment, blaspheming the glory of Jesus Christ, and one day judgment will come.

Some will scoff, "I don't see that happening—it's been 2,000 years." Look at the next chapter, 2 Peter 3:3–9: "scoffers will come in the last days... saying, Where is the promise of His coming?... They willfully forget" that the world once perished in a flood. "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise... but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance."

Why has it been 2,000 years? Why didn't Jesus come back in 1981, despite the book 88 Reasons, or The Late Great Planet Earth on your bookshelf? Because there are still a whole lot of people who need Jesus. Thank God He is slow to anger—I'm not. It is foolish to test the limits of His mercy and grace, because though He is merciful and gracious, that does not void the fact that He is just and will one day bring justice.

This world is in desperate need of His grace and mercy. But those who refuse to receive Christ as Lord and Savior, who do not recognize the necessity and sufficiency of His death, burial, and resurrection, have followed a false teaching that leads to damnation. He holds the keys of hell and death. One day those doors will open, and death and hell will be cast into the lake of fire—the second death. There is no mercy and no grace in the lake of fire. The limits are at the edge. So may God grant that we would know His grace and mercy, and extend it to others. Amen.

Closing Prayer

Father, these are simple truths from Your word, but truths we need to be reminded of, and I pray we would not soon forget them. Jesus, I thank You for Your grace and for the salvation we have purely because of Your goodness, mercy, and grace, having nothing to do with our works. We thank You that You are faithful to forgive us and cleanse us of all unrighteousness as we confess our sins to You. But God, we need Your cleansing touch.

If you realize today that you need the forgiving grace of God, the Scriptures say that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Pray with me where you are: Dear Jesus, I need Your grace. I pray that You would come into my life and forgive me of my sin, and help me to follow You by faith for all of my life. In Jesus' name, amen.