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Hello and welcome
to Books of the Book.
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This is a program where we study
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the Bible and we take a book
from the Bible and we study it
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thoroughly. Today we're talking
about the writings of Peter.
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With us is Dr. Tom
Shepherd. He is a New Testament
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Interpretation professor at
Andrews University. Dr. Shepherd
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the program title for today is
The Angry Pastor. What's up with
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that? Well
church services that you
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remember well are interesting.
They usually come in two types.
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Either it's one where you were
deeply blessed. The word of God
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just spoke to you, the Holy
Spirit touched your heart, you
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gave your life to Jesus or you
saw some new wonderful truth.
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That's one type of unforgettable
church service. The other type
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of unforgettable church service
is when something goes terribly
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wrong. And I have a story. It's
from an unknown time, unknown
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place, you know distant and all
that, long ago far away type of
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thing. It was a Sabbath morning
and the pastor, I don't quite
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remember why but the pastor
was angry. He was angry with the
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church. And the pastor stood up
in the pulpit and took his Bible
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and he was turning from text
to text and he was just really
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giving it to the congregation
and telling them how they had
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done things wrong and how
bad they were and he was really
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quite upset and he talked for
about 15 minutes, he shut his
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Bible and he walked right out
of the church. And we were just
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all stunned in this service.
I mean when the pastor walks out
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usually you're going to go shake
his hand you know but there was
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no closing hymn and everybody
was just kind of... they were
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just stunned by
this whole experience.
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It would make me think did
he have the problem or was the
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problem with the church?
Well, probably the answer is Yes
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We formed a little committee and
we went and we saw our pastor
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and we found reconciliation
and I'm still friends with this
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pastor today. But it was
something that kind of shocked
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people. When somebody gets so
angry in church we're not used
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to that. This is kind of a
preamble to what we're going to
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read here in 2 Peter chapter 2.
We're going to start in verse 1.
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The whole chapter has this
rather angry pastor tone to it
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and we're going to read for...
We're going to talk about this
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passage of scripture, 2 Peter
chapter 2 during this program
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and the one following and we're
going to talk about the people
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that are involved in this story,
but we're going to start by
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reading chapter 2 verses 1-11,
2 Peter 2:1-11. It's a little
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bit of a longer passage so I'll
read the first three verses and
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then you can read the next part.
But false prophets also arose
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among the people just as there
will be false teachers among
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you who will secretly bring
in destructive heresies even
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denying the Master who bought
them, bringing upon themselves
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swift destruction. And many
will follow their sensuality and
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because of them the way of truth
will be blasphemed and in their
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greed they will exploit you with
false words. Their condemnation
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from long ago is not idle and
their destruction is not asleep.
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And we're in verse 4: For if
God did not spare the angles who
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sinned but cast them down
to hell and delivered them into
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chains of darkness to be
reserved for judgment and did
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not spare the ancient world but
saved Noah, one of eight people,
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a preacher of righteousness
bringing in the flood on the
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ungodly and turning the cities
of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes
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to condemn them to destruction
making them an example to those
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who afterward would live ungodly
and delivered righteous Lot who
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was oppressed by the filthy
conduct of the wicked. For that
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righteous man dwelling among
them tormented his righteous
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soul from day to day by seeing
and hearing their lawless deeds.
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Then the Lord knows how
to deliver the godly out of
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temptations and to reserve the
unjust under punishment for the
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day of judgment and especially
those who walk according to the
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flesh and the lust of
uncleanness and despise
authority. They are
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presumptuous, self-ruled. They
are not afraid to speak evil of
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dignitaries whereas angels who
were greater in power and might
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do not bring reviling
accusations against them before
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the Lord. Well we've started
off here. It says Peter...
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The page almost feels warm even
after 2000 years and we will see
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as we get to the last part
of the chapter it's even warmer.
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Yes. So the angry pastor
you're talking about is Peter.
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Okay. In verse 1 of chapter
2 Peter says that there will be
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false prophets among you. Wasn't
there already false prophets?
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Why does he say that there
will be as if there wasn't?
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Yeah. It's very interesting.
Here he describes them as though
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they're in the future and yet
when you get further into the
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chapter and especially when
you get into chapter 3 is sounds
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that they're right there right
then. It's like he's kind of
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mixing these two together and
this becomes a useful time for
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us to discuss the relationship
between 2 Peter and Jude.
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Now when we first talked about
2 Peter we briefly mentioned
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that there is a literary
relationship between the two
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books and it has led many
scholars to think that actually
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that Jude was written first
and then the author of 2 Peter
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borrowed from Jude when he
was writing 2 Peter. Now you can
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still argue that Peter wrote the
book and he used somebody else's
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writing. We know that that
happens sometimes that people
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will make use of somebody else's
work and that in the ancient
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world this wouldn't be...
You know we have modern laws of
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plagiarism we talk about and
those laws are kind of a recent
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kind of development in
relationship to publication but
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it wouldn't be necessarily
an issue for Peter in his time.
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But we want to kind of
understand the relationship
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between these two books and
it helps us to understand what's
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going on in 2 Peter 2 when
he uses a future tense, okay.
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First there is a close
link between the two books, a
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literary linkage and the
question comes as to which of
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the two books was written first.
There is evidence that actually
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Jude used Peter. Now some people
say it's the other direction,
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that Peter used Jude but I lay
out before people two concepts
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that help point toward Jude as
using 2 Peter. There is a change
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of tense in Peter. It says that
the false prophets will come,
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the false teachers will come
and in Jude verse 4 it says that
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they're here, they've
come, they're already present.
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So Peter is predicting them and
Jude says here they are, they've
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come. So that would suggest that
Peter's written earlier, he's
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predicting what will happen and
Jude says what Peter predicted
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here it is, it's already arrived
But one of the most interesting
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linkages between the two books
is the relationship between Jude
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verse 17 and 18, and 2 Peter 3
verses 3 and 4 that we're going
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to study a little later in these
programs. So we have a graphic
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here of this relationship
between Jude 17 and 18 and
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2 Peter verses 3 and 4 and we
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get a picture of the text and
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you'll notice that if we read
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the part about Jude it says
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that you'll see there I've
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underlined certain words, the
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predictions of the apostles it
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says of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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It said, They said to you in the
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last times there will be
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scoffers following their own
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ungodly passions. Okay. And of
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course this has its closest link
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to 2 Peter chapter 3 and it says
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he also refers to predictions of
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the holy prophets and the
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commandment of the Lord and
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Savior through your apostles
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knowing this first that scoffers
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will come in the last days with
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scoffing following their own
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sinful desires. And then they go
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on to say where is this promised
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second coming. Now it's very
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interesting if you look at these
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two passages carefully, there's
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very clear literary relationship
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between the two passages and
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Jude says he's quoting somebody.
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He's quoting somebody. And the
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interesting thing is there is
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no other text in the New
Testament that has such a close
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relationship, very close
relationship to the words in
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Jude as these words in 2 Peter.
Now if Jude was written first
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and Peter, or whoever, is using
Jude to write his document, then
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we're left with the question,
so who was Jude quoting? But if
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Peter writes first, it's obvious
who Jude is quoting. He's
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quoting from Peter. Because
there is no good parallel
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elsewhere in the New Testament
for these words in Jude it makes
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sense that 2 Peter was written
first and Jude is quoting
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2 Peter and that Peter talks
about the false teachers coming
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and it seems as though they're
already on their way. Maybe they
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have arrived. Remember Peter
is writing to a group of people
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over a broad area of territory.
Some of them may have already
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arrived and were arriving in
other churches and Peter says
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they're coming, they're coming,
they're going to be here soon
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and Jude when he writes says
they've already gotten here,
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here they are. And
if they're coming from
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somewhere, where are they coming
from and how do these false
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teachers or how did
these teachers become false?
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Aw, well, that's a great
question, but before I go there
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I need to lay out the linkage
between 2 Peter chapter 2 and
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2 Peter chapter 3. We have
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another graphic here that shows
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the comparison between these
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two. It's quite interesting.
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You'll see there the parallel
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pattern deals with the Old
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Testament, the Christian setting
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the warning and the two paths
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and there are false prophets in
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2 Peter 2 and there are true
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prophets, these are the prophets
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that refer to the text we just
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looked at in 2 Peter 3. There
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are false teachers and they are
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the mockers that are there in
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chapter 3. There's a warning
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about their destruction, their
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heresies. Many will be deceived
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in chapter 2 and then he says
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you know that the mockers will
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question the second coming in
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chapter 3 and then the two paths
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to destructions for the false
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teachers, salvation for the
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righteous is one of the themes
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of 2 Peter 2 and you'll notice
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defeating the false teachers and
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protecting the Christians from
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destruction, the destruction of
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the wicked and salvation in
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chapter 3. So the two chapters
really kind of have a parallel
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structure to them and help us
to recognize what's going on and
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how he is fighting these false
teachers in both chapters and he
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comes at it in a little bit
different way. In chapter 2 he
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is going to focus on the
questions of their deceptive
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character and what they're like
and then finally in chapter 3
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he's going to get down to the
issues and start talking about
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what they actually said and how
Christians can understand that,
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counter that and be secure
in the truth. Peter is angry and
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he's angry for a good reason
because somebody is threatening
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his flock. He's a good shepherd
and he's watching over these
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people and when wolves start
to come towards the flock the
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shepherd takes out his club and
starts swinging because it's no
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small matter. So
he's angry in a good way?
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In a good way, that's exactly
right. You see if you were next
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to a precipice next to a cliff
and you were about to fall off
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and I said, Oh Deyvy, please
come away from the cliff, you
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might get hurt. And you fell off
Woo hoo and I said Deyvy it's
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too bad you didn't hear what I
said. No, we have to give clear
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warnings. Sometimes you speak
a little more loudly. You pull
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somebody out of the street that
is about to be hit by a car.
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So Peter is doing some of this
very kind of thing. He's warning
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them very carefully about what
is coming and how these false
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teachers will mislead them. Well
we'll take a break right at this
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point because we need time for a
little bit of messages. We'll be
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back to talk more
about 2 Peter chapter 2.
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