Well, good morning church, hopefully you are recovered from yesterday's disaster of Georgia sporting athletics. All the way through. I started this morning thinking, Lord, do we need a moment of silence for today? Or is that a little bit going too far? And I'm still not sure where I'm at in that, theologically, but I've got it, I got a really important question for you. And this one's gonna take a little bit of humility. And I mean, it really will. And here's the question, have you ever been just absolutely duped? I mean, I'm just talking to absolutely deceived, absolutely tricked, absolutely, just made to look like the biggest fool on the entire planet. Have you ever found yourself in that situation? Well, if you're around me a whole lot, you'll know that I love sports. In fact, if money was no object, I would have season tickets to every Braves game, every Falcons game and I would even entertain Atlanta United.   I'm not sure where I'm at with soccer yet but I'm almost there with that. And Melissa and I we have a little bit different love of sports. I love the game. And I love watching the game. She loves to people watch. So, we get along really good at being at athletic events. And so one January, we were on an anniversary trip downtown, Atlanta, we try to do something at least once a year together when no kids just hanging out together. We were downtown in January a couple of years ago and in the city was packed. I mean, it was going crazy. And it happened to be the year that the Atlanta Falcons had somehow made the playoffs. And it was at home. And I mean the town was blowing up, we were staying in a hotel where we could see the dome. And you could just feel the energy, the excitement and being an Atlanta sports fan. And being an Atlanta home grown boy, it was just too much for me. I just couldn't handle it. And all day long the day before seeing people come in and stay and have all their gear and all this stuff and waking up on that Sunday morning just hanging out. I found myself going and getting some coffee that morning just being in the hustle and bustle of all this stuff going on. And I'm just gonna tell you it was just too much for me. It was just too much in that moment. And I realized I've got to do something about this. But here's the problem. The game was sold out. So, what do you do when a game is sold out? You find the most honest guy you can find who has a 2 in the air saying, yeah, I got 2, I got 2.  I was like, well, you got 2 and I got money, so we can be friends. Right? We can. And so I walked up to the guy I struck up a little deal with him. I handed him the green pieces of paper, he handed me the printed pieces of paper and we shook hands and we were friends. Now it gets even better. I, at this moment just became the husband of the year. I mean, I am the knight in shining armor. I have fulfilled Melissa's every love language that Gary Chapman can come up with. And now I am walking back with coffee in hand with tickets to this afternoon's game and it's gonna be good. Matt has saved the day. 

So, I get back and we get into the room and I'm like, hey, you're never gonna believe it. And anytime I say that Melissa's response is always the same. I'm not sure I want to, and she said what is it? I was like, I got us tickets. And she was like, Oh, great. Oh, that's incredible. And then what happens after you get tickets to something, you're female and you're not prepared for that sporting event. Then you have to go find a shirt for the sporting event so we kind of handle that. Get all this handled. We pack up we check out of the hotel. We walk up with our tickets. I'm like a kidney candy shop. I'm going to play a football game. She's never been to a Falcons game. This is gonna be incredible. I mean, this is gonna be like the best anniversary ever. Stand in line. I hand the lady our tickets and I will never forget. I will never forget. I went from feeling so good about myself. I mean, so good til this lady is scanning our tickets. I will never forget the noise that came out of the scanner at that moment. It was like Aaaaaaaaaa, and then she just looks up and she says um, I'm sorry. And I quote, "these tickets have already been used."  Have already been used. And I didn't know what to say. And look, I talk for a living.  

Very rarely in my life do I not know what to say. And I just felt like somebody stabbed me. And I was like, oh, my, and of course, Melissa's like, mmm hmm. Because this just happens in life a lot in our house. All right, she just I mean, you know, the look you give. I mean, all of you females know that look, I mean, I don't know if they took you and taught you how to write and how to give that look in the  third grade, but or what, but you know, that look, and I was like, yeah, yeah, it happened. And at that moment, I realized that we, let me rephrase that, so I can go to lunch with my bride, I had been duped.  I've been taken advantage of. And evidently, this guy had sold, I don't know how many Falcons tickets that he had already used. Here's the deal. The book a 2 Peter, is an incredible word picture, and example of what it looks like to warn somebody of how to position themselves in a place to where they don't get taken advantage of, or they're not a counterfeit.

See, I love I love I love the fact that 2 Peter, Peter realizes in this letter of 2 Peter, that he needs to give us what it looks like to be a real or a true believer that is not a counterfeit, because here's the problem, I just had two pieces of paper in my hands, that meant nothing. There was no eternal consequence from that, right? I mean, there was a little bit or a medium amount of money that was spent, but there was nothing eternal when that happened. But Peter, what he's doing in this letter that we're looking at is the Apostle Peter, in 2 Peter, chapter 2, is going to give us a warning of what a counterfeit believer looks like. And he's going to give us a warning of how we shouldn't get duped, or how we shouldn't look at other people. And he's also going to just challenge us.  He's going to challenge me, and he's going to challenge you to ask yourself the question of, are you a true believer. And Peter goes inside of us. And he looks at what that looks like. So let me remind you where we've been in the series, we've been two weeks strong in this series called Forever Faith, where we've looked at chapter 1, we've taken two weeks to walk through chapter 1. And chapter 1, the apostle Peter, the leader of the disciples, walks us through this idea of what it looks like to receive this gift of salvation. This gift that is based not on our merit, or not on anything that we have done, but based on what God has done and the gift that God has given us. It is based on the fact that He shed His blood and He died, and He rose, and now He's offered us this gift, this eternal prize of salvation, and with salvation comes grace and comes peace. But our job is to walk that salvation out. In other words, you don't just get saved, and kind of hit the pause button. Our job is to live that out. We don't live to get it, but we live because we have it. And he gave us these qualities that we should be living and give us these ideas that we should be pursuing. And then last week, we looked at this idea last week, that that we live in a way that we live with eternity as kind of our gaze, we live to leave a godly leadership or godly legacy life following the Bible and always allowing the Holy Spirit to lead us. That is chapter 1 and a nutshell.  It's Peter giving us the prime example of what it looks like to live in a godly way. But we ended last week in chapter 1:21, it's the last verse in that chapter. And I just want to remind you that when Peter wrote this letter, there were no chapter breaks in it, all right?  I know that when you grow up reading the Bible, it's just kind of how the Bible works out for you. It's not like Peter was writing this. And he's like, in chapter 2, those didn't come out until about the 1300s. Just so that we could find things a little bit easier. In fact, verses even came a little bit later, just so we could reference things. So sometimes when you're reading the Bible, it's not really the best thing just to stop at a chapter marker. Sometimes you just kind of need to continue through to see what's happening. And what we see what Peter's doing here is, he gives us chapter 1 as this incredibly prime example, of a follower of Jesus.  And, then we get to this next verse. In fact, let me read to you chapter 1, verse 21 again.  He says this to us, he says, "For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." Now, what did that mean? We talked about it a good bit, but it literally means that they received from God a message for all of us to have. And God carried them in this message. It's kind of a summary of chapter 1. But now we get to chapter two. And Peter, he swaps gears a little bit. And he goes from talking about the faithful follower. And now he makes a case, a contrasting case, if you will, in what it looks like to be the counterfeit follower. He gives us this idea that, there are deceivers, and there are counterfeits that are out there. And Peter knows, he knows this incredible truth that anything that God creates Satan's main goal in life is to counterfeit it. If you look at it, where God creates love, Satan counterfeits love where God creates peace, Satan counterfeits peace, where God creates language, Satan counterfeits language. And so, Peter dials into this and he looks, and he gives us an incredibly big morning. And I think it's pretty interesting when you think about the context to this, that Peter is writing his last letter to the church. This is the last thing that we have in the canon of Scripture that Peter wrote, and he's writing this last letter and he spins, check this out, one third of this little bitty last letter writing to the church, a warning against false believers. He spends a third of it talking about it. And look, I'm just gonna be really honest. It's not fun. All right?  It's just really not, if you came here today looking for like a message to put on a bookmark. Today's not your day. I'm just gonna, I just want to put my cards on the table and go all week long, God, that's kind of harsh. I mean, that's kind of strong. Are you sure God? I mean, why don't we just pick the Psalms again? Those were fun, right? I mean, look at this. I mean, but I want you to hear, listen to what D Martin Lloyd Jones said about Peter, chapter 2. 

He says this, he says, "Of all the chapters that are found in the Bible, 2 chapter of 2 Peter, is among the most terrible. Anyone who enjoys reading a chapter like this is surely abnormal."  Now, I felt like I just needed to say that for two reasons. Number 1, if you get excited about reading about false believers, there's something wrong with you, all right?  There's just really something wrong with you, and you are a really judgy person. But number 2, how cool is it to be spiritual enough to call someone else abnormal? Alright?  That that was a second thing that I saw there. So, I want you to notice as we go through today, this is not an attempt to be heavy, it's not an attempt to just ground somebody in the ground. This is an attempt to show us an incredibly big truth and that is that sometimes we need the hard things in Scripture to galvanize who we are and press us in a direction that those little coffee table conversations sometimes don't get us to. That's what he's saying here. So, with that being said, chapter 2:1, here we go. ""But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you.  They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Sovereign Lord who bought them, bringing swift destruction on themselves." And I want you to notice what Peter does. He swaps gears, right? He's going from the faithful to now he's like, but there's also those people. And he makes a definitive statement right here. And it kind of has two sides to it. He says, there's always been false people. There's always been false prophets. And there's always been false or counterfeit believers. Now, this is incredibly true, if you read the Old Testament.  If you read the Old Testament, anytime God does something, there always seems to be a prophet, somewhere. That's a false prophet lurking in the background and really, and truly, the penalty for being a false prophet in the Old Testament was death. But nobody ever really carried that out. And they just continued to grow and live among the people and there was always consequences. But he's so, Peter is looking at this group of believers going, there's always been this, it's always happened. It's always been this way. There’re people among you that really aren't what they say that they are. But then he also goes on to say, and remember, they're always going to be with you. And what does that mean? That means that when we see this burst, we don't look at it as just past tense. We also look at it as present tense, and future tense. And he's saying to this church in 2020, that there are probably people among us that may claim to be believers, but they might not be real believers. They might be false teachers and maybe false prophets. And look, I'm not saying that is exactly you, but I'm just saying this is what Peter's telling us and so he's saying remember that they're going to be with you. They're going to be in your church. And you Peter says you might be one. And he reminds us that there really is no perfect church. Did you know that? There's no perfect church? I mean, how many times when you begin to share the gospel with people or invite them to church, this is an incredibly big excuse, is it not? Hey, how about coming to church with me this weekend?  Well, you know, I tried the church once and it's just a bunch of hypocrites. I mean, you know, you've heard this before, which Peter goes, Yeah, I know. I just told you it is right. I just told you, they've always been there. They're always going to be here, and they're always gonna be there. 

So, look, take that off and take it up with Peter. It's just not gonna happen. Why? Because anytime there is a person of God, or anytime there is wheat present, Jesus says there's also weeds present, it's always here. I love what Warren Wiersbe says about this? He says this. I mean, he died last year an incredible theologian. He says, "Satan is the counterfeiter. He has a false gospel preached by faults ministers, producing false believers, and Satan plants his counterfeits wherever God plants, his people. It's an incredible tactic, isn't it? Why? Because that's Satan's tool.  Satan's tool is to counterfeit anything that God has created. And that's what he wants to do. 

So, Peter, in chapter 2, he's given us this warning.  This incredibly heavy warning and I think we need to answer two questions this morning. The first question that we need to answer is, how do I recognize a counterfeit? How do I recognize 1 and number 2, and this was even more important? Am I one? Am I one?  So I'm gonna start with the first one and I want us to see this incredible case and how Peter does something, I think he does it more beautifully here than anywhere else in the entire Bible that he takes chapter 1, and he puts it up beside chapter 2 and he gives us a contrasting story between a true believer and a false believer. And here's what I want to do this morning, I'm going to give you seven differences. Seven differences from this letter of what it looks like to be true, or what it looks like to be counterfeit. And here's my goal for you. All right, I want you to remember this. This week, I want you to use this list and I want you to pray through everyone. I want you to pray through one a day, there are seven of them.  One a day till we get back together next Sunday. Peter says number 1, if you look at counterfeit believers, and if you look at true believers, look at this number 1, they operate with different sources. He says they operate with different sources. Now, obviously, a source is the kind of the inspiration from which something comes.  It is the building block from which something comes.  It's where something gets its meaning. That's what a source means. In fact, in 2 Peter 1:16, let's look at the true believer's source. 

He says, "For we did not follow cleverly devised stories."  That's what they said. Right? So, what is the source of a true believer?  The source of a true believer is the word of God. It is God's message. It is the eyewitness accounts from God's word. But he flips the script in chapter 2 and we're gonna do this all day, we're gonna look at chapter 1, verses chapter 2 and in chapter 2, he says this about the counterfeit source in verse 3. He says, "In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories."  Now, I hope you're feeling the difference between those two, right? We're looking at the true believer, they rest on the Word of God, that is their source. That's their motivator. We look at the false believer, and what are they doing? They are fabricating stories.  Now, to fabricate something, if I own a fabrication shop, what that means is, is I take a bunch of pieces of other things, and I take a vision that is in my mind, or in a piece of paper, and I build something to match the vision that I have in my mind. And that's exactly what a counterfeit does. They get something in their mind that gets something in their spirit, they get something in their heart, and they fabricate a plan and ideal or a philosophy that wraps around that, that's completely contrary to what God's word is. Peter says this, followers of Jesus their source it's eternal it's dependable, and it's God given truth. But he says the counterfeits what they do is they allow their minds to be wrapped into situations to where they come up to what they feel is best what they feel is right here's where we need to caution ourselves.  Anytime someone comes up to us and says something like this, hey, I just heard a new word from God.  That is an incredibly dangerous statement.

Or they may say like this, hey, we're doing a new thing here. You ever heard that? Or we got a new this or a new thinking you may even hear this of churches that are even in our area, right? And I'm not talking about how they use a procedure. I'm talking about theology, right? I'm not talking about what kind of music they have or or what or they shake hands or not. That doesn't even matter.   What I'm talking about is anytime somebody pulls down a new revelation from God, we should always question it and if it does not line up with the source of the gospel, then it is not truth. It's not truth.  He has sealed that.  He has finished that.  Therefore, if you are operating out of the mindset of, I'm going to just follow where this leads me, then you are not a believer. You're not.  You cannot be if your sources different. But number 2, he keeps going. He says they also share a different message. They share a different message. Because. and here's what I know about us.

We talk most often about the things that mean most to us.  You know what I mean? Right? You ever met somebody that just stepped into a new relationship, and they just won't shut up about it? You ever met somebody that got a new house or a new car? You ever met somebody that has a team that has never won a ball game, but they want a ball game, right? It tells a lot about a person; you could tell a lot about a person about but what they speak about the most. That's the point that he's making here. He says true believers, what do they do? Look at chapter 1:16, "we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power," that is the message of the true believer, the true believer speaks of Christ, speaks to Christ, speaks what he has done, and what he's going to do. So he's saying, if you're a true believer, what is on your mouth most often is the fact that Jesus is Lord and what he has done, but I want you to see the counterfeit message that he gives us in verse 1 of chapter 2, they anytime it says they, it's always the counterfeits, right?  "They will secretly introduce," that's a big word, "destructive heresies, even denying the Sovereign Lord who bought them-" this means that they not only have a new message, but they have a new goal and that new goal is to secretly introduce things that are not of God.  They have nothing to do with who God is. And it means that we really have to listen to what people say. And I'm not just talking about the people holding signs up in downtown Atlanta saying that we hate God. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about we need to listen to what people say even about God, even about the relationship with God, and we need to weigh them and study the Word of God to know the truths around the Word of God. Why? Because most false teachers, most counterfeit believers do not really see the Lord Jesus Christ and His redemption power as the key message for their life. They see things more like hey, we just love community. We just love to love people. We just love to provide an experience.  And I get that those are good things.

But if Jesus is not number one, it's counterfeit, it's a counterfeit relationship. And here's the thing counterfeits they don't hold that message of the redemption power of Jesus as being number one, they just can't.  But look, he walks through source and he walks through messages different. But look at number 3, I love this one.  They also, he says, they have a different position. They have a different position. 

Now this is important, because our position of where we stand motivates things about us. In fact, look at the true believers position, chapter 1, verse 4, he says, "He has given us His very great and gracious promises, so that through them you may participate," catch this, "in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires."  What does that mean? It means that God's redemption plan has offered you a way of escape. He's given you the ability to escape sin, to escape the pain of sin, and he's not only giving you the escape, but he's also giving you the ability to live as a divine son and daughter of the King. That's incredibly different. Because I want you to hear the position of the counterfeit. Look at verse 19 in chapter 2.  "They" I told you, there's always a they.  "They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity-for people are slaves to whatever has mastered them."  That word depravity there just means that they are slaves to their very nature, to their very nature. And we're seeing two really big things right here, right? The two dynamics going on is that true believers are escaping the pain of culture. They're escaping the pain of corruption and evil desires. But what is it saying, the counterfeits they are mastered by the corruptible desires. And here's the thing, they don't even know it. They don't even know it. Why? Because how many people have you met that are not walking with Jesus that looks at people who are walking with Jesus, and what do they want to do? They want to offer them an escape from some kind of oppression. Where I want to look at them and go, you're a slave and you don't even know it. Don't even know. You're not pressing towards the kingdom of God.

I love this. But here's the problem, counterfeits they don't even know that they're being mastered by something until it's way late. Look he keeps going, number 4, he gives another one. He says that, there's also, they're defined by different character. You see a counterfeit versus a real believer, they're defined by a different character about them.  And, in week one we looked at verses 5 through 7 in 1 Peter, chapter 1 where we looked at the character of the believer always has the goodness and the knowledge and self-control and perseverance and kindness and love and we're pressing towards these things, I just want you to see the difference. I want you to see the anti of that in chapter 2 of the counterfeits character, Look at verse 10. It says, "This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the flesh and," catch this, "dispise authority." They're experts in greed. Now, I hope you're feeling the weight of what's going on here. I hope you're feeling it. So, what is Peter getting at?  He's saying this, he's saying if you find yourself pushing against the authority of God, if you find yourself continually in the mode of that my way is better, my thinking is better my ideas are better, if you find yourself continually pushing it,  Peter is saying, you might need to check yourself.  You might need to see about your spiritual condition. And then he keeps going in verse 14, he says, "With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning." Not only that, he goes farther, look at this, "they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed-an accursed brood!".  In other words, it's not just about them sending, it's about them being full of sin to the point to where they want to bring people with them on their behalf. And then he uses the story of balem, we don't have time to look at it. But in verses 14 through 16, of the 2 chapter it gives us this example of this prophet named balem that basically sold himself out to give false prophecy for money. And basically what Peter is doing is going, hey, remember that guy, it's a different character, it's a different meaning, not only did they have adultery in their lives, not only did they have depravity in their lives, they're bringing other people with them. And when someone gets to a point in their life, to where they're so bad off and they're dragging others with them, they need to consider themselves and see, am I really a believer in Jesus? Or have I just had some kind of emotional experience,

Look at where they've come from, they're different. They have a different source, a different message, and they have a different position, they have a different character. And then number 5, they make different appeals. They make different appeals. Now, this word appeal is a little bit hard, but it basically just means that the counterfeit versus real believers, they steer people in different directions. That's what it means.

They steer people in different direction. And it's always an important question to ask when you need to see somebody, or you meet somebody of what direction do they steer people in? Are they steering people in the way of godliness or are they steering people in the way of not godliness? Or possibly, are they just trying to remain neutral, right? Which is just as bad.

So, he's saying this counterfeit believers, they don't steer people in the way of God, they don't push people, they don't appeal to people with God. Look at verse 19. In chapter 1, let's look at what it means to be a true believer. He says, "We also have the prophetic message as something that is completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it."  What is it saying?  As a believer, I'm pointing people towards the will of God, towards the Word of God. It's an appeal to do that. But look at chapter 2:18, look at the other side. "For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of the flesh they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error."  What does this mean? It means kind of for believers, they don't just press towards, towards themselves and towards the world. They appeal to others to go with them.

How many times in your life have you felt like wow, I may be in sin. And I can't believe I just brought that person with me.  That's what he's saying look at number 6 he says, "they also produce different fruit."  They produce different fruit a counterfeit believer versus a real believer they produce different fruit in their life. What is the fruit, 2 Peter 1:8, "For if you possess these qualities and increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." If you're a believer, you're producing fruit in the name of Jesus. But if you're not a believer in your counterfeit, look at your fruit, chapter 2:17, "These people are springs without water." That's my favorite. That's my favorite line in this whole deal. Your Bible might say, a well without water. I mean, what is a spring that doesn't have water? It's just a hole, right? I mean, it's nothing. It's a really big disappointment is what it is. I mean, you're like, if you're famished and you need some water, you're looking up and you're like, ahhhhh, man a spring. Thank goodness and you get up to it and there's nothing in it. Some of you right now you're just picturing man, there's been sometimes in my life where that's been me. You see, here's what that means they promised much, but they deliver nothing. They don't do anything to provide life. That's the difference between a real believer and a counterfeit believer. And I want you to see this last contrast. This one's the heaviest one. Number 7, they face a different end. You see a real believer versus a counterfeit believer, and it gets heavy right here, right? They face a different end. 

You say, Matt what do you mean by that.  When I say that, I'm talking about an ultimate eternal end? There is a different end for those of us who know Jesus, who walk with Jesus, who are with Jesus and those of us who are just playing the game. There's a different end he says, true believer, verse 11, chapter 1, you will receive a rich welcome into the kingdom of God, of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  The counterfeit believer chapter 2:1, "bringing swift destruction on themselves." Chapter 2:3, "Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping." What does this mean? It means that God, it may look like He's sleeping in this condemnation right now. But it's not. It's not, because there's a different end, it means that you just can't live how you want to and pull up right at the end and go, man, I think that's where I'm at.

That's not how it works, He's saying.  You say Matt, why in the world, would we give all these seven? Here's why, I just really think it's important for us to see that there are those who are not believers. And I think we forget this sometimes. I think sometimes we lump all moral people into the idea that they just know who Jesus is. But Peter said no. He's saying no, you need to know this stuff. And look, there's two primary applications, I'm going to give them to you real quick, just so you have them as part of the notes for your 2 Peter chapter 2 notes right here. The first one is this, it's incredibly important to know, because this passage gives believers the framework to identify and to protect the church from false teaching. It just does. Why?  Because if it's not the right source and it's not the right message, doesn't have the right position, character, appeal, fruit and eternal in looking then we shouldn't be teaching it in a church. That's what it means. All right?  It doesn't mean that people that don't agree with those things are not welcomed here. It just means that they don't have influence here. That's what it means. But number two, this is the more important application, this is one we're going to kind of land on for a couple minutes, as we land is this.  This passage gives every single one of us, it gives us a test to see if we are real, or if we're counterfeit believers. It gives us a test. You know, you may have grown up in a church that didn't talk like this a whole lot. Well, Matt I'm eternally secure. Yes, you are, if it's real. Well, Matt, I made a decision when I was eight. I don't remember a whole lot about it. But my dad gave me a good kick. And I walked down to the pastor and he hugged me. And it was true, right? But here's the question, was it real? Matt, are you trying to make me question my faith? 

Not to question it, just test it. But here's the question, is yours real? Remember what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 7:21. He says, "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 who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles? Then I will tell them," Jesus says, "plainly, I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers." What's Jesus saying?  Jesus is saying, hey, there's a whole lot of people in a whole lot of churches in a whole lot of areas, that may claim to be religious, may claim to be church members, may claim to have experience with God, may claim to even had an emotional moment with God, or even had a moment that they were on a mission trip or on a deal and they even talked about God and somebody might have even listened to them. But they are not real believers. You say, Matt that's kind of harsh, yeah, it is, but eternity is on the line. So, it's okay. Because here's what I know, God is offering us a chance to make it right. He's offers an opportunity to make it right. And my question to you is, how do you know if your experience with God was a true experience for God? Because here's the deal, I don't know. And I will never know. And I don't have the right to judge that. That is only between you and God. But I want to show you a distinguishing trait, that Peter slips in the middle of this incredibly long, kind of back and forth between chapter 1 and chapter 2. He gives us an overarching distinguishing trait. Now it's not the only trait, but it's just one that he lists here.  And, this is what Peter says of how you can know if your experience was right. He says that true believers, that Christ has redeemed, are distressed over sin.

Now this hits home right here just for a minute. What does that mean? That means that if you truly are a follower of Jesus, there is something about sin that just makes you cringe. Something about sin. You say Matt, where do you get this from? Well, Peter reminds us in chapter 2, you've been reading it right?  And we talked about this already. Peter reminds us in chapter 2 about a guy named Lot. Now, anytime I've preached on Lot, I've always dogged Lot, a little bit. Why? Because he moved his family to Las Vegas basically, or kind of a Las Vegas meets Los Angeles kind of deal. He moved his family to this raunchy city that was just living in sin, and I've always looked at him like, Dude, why don't you lead your family?  Well, why don't you do this, but this guy makes this incredibly bad decision. He moves his family to this place. But Peter introduces us to this guy and I want you to notice what Peter does. Does Peter ever talk about the nastiness of that decision of Lot? No. What does Peter talk about? Peter talks about the idea that Lot was a righteous guy.  And I love this point. Because here's the idea. I'm not saying that if there is sin in your life, that you are not a true believer in Jesus.  What I am saying that if that sin doesn't bother you, it doesn't eat at you and there's not a part of your life that that just gets to you, then you need to check up on yourself and see if you are a follower. I want you to see what Lot says right here because Peter calls him righteous three times. Look at verse 8. It says, "For that righteous man, living among them" all right, that's the them the counterfeits, "day after day, was tormented in his  righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard."  What is Peter saying? He's saying that he is distressed, he was tormented for the sin that was around him for the sin that was in him. He wasn't without sin. Nobody's without sin, but he hated the sin. So here's my question to you.  Have you hated the sin that is in your life, or you were just accommodating it, excusing it, being comfortable in it, letting it go, or maybe even celebrating it? Peter says this, if you are not at a point, that sin bothers you, then your experience was not a real experience. And you were a counterfeit believer. Now look, I know that you may be like, all up in my business after this, but I'm okay with that. Because I can back it up. Because here's what Peter's telling us. You're despising of sin. I'm not saying you fall into it. That's a different deal. Right? Your despising of sin indicates where your heart really is. That's what he says. And he even refers to the people who don't hate sin. Look at it. 2, Peter 2:22 is the best Middle School verse on all the planet.  It says this, "Of them, the Proverbs are true:  A dog returns to its vomit and a sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud."  What does that mean? It means that they don't hate sin, they just keep returning back to it. It might feel good just for a minute to get involved with church, but they're gonna go back to it, they're gonna keep returning back to it. It's not a nature change. Let me just get really personal for a minute and ask you this. Has there been a moment in your life where your nature has changed from worldly and where you have given your life over to Jesus and submitted yourself over to Him and the Holy Spirit is entered into your life and you know, now that yes, I do fall into sin, but I hate it. Has there ever been that moment in your life or have you just lived a religious life? That's the mark of salvation.

It's the mark of Jesus doing something in you and wants you to see that God condemned those people. He condemned those counter Christian people. In verse 4, he condemned the angels in verse five, he condemned the whole world except for Noah and his family. In verses 6through 8, he condemned Sodom and Gomorrah, we see it and here's the deal. The gospel is here for you just like it was here for Lot. Verse 7, God rescues the righteous. And here's the reminder, because I gotta leave you with something positive. This has been heavy.Alright. Here it is.

The Lord knows how to rescue the godly. He knows. So, listen, you're gonna fall into one of two categories here. And let me just talk about them as we get right to worship a little bit.  The two categories are this, either A, I'm an incredibly religious person, that I'm not sure that I've really and truly given my heart and life over to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, to where the sin that is in my life just kind of makes me sick a little bit. That's one person and let me say this to the people that that's you. Just give your life to Jesus. Surrender your life to Jesus today because he wants to rescue you. He wants to rescue you.  That might be you today.  The second group of people, there's three groups, the second group are the people that just really, don't care anymore. In fact, he speaks to this group a little bit. 

He speaks to them on down in verse 21, he says, "It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness,  than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them."   What does that mean? It means it's really hard to lead somebody to know Jesus, when they have sat and heard about Jesus their whole lives and just built up this shell and this armor around them to not surrender to Jesus, it would be better for you to be a first time hearer of the gospel. But here's the deal. God wants to rescue you. He wants to rescue you. He wants to give you hope. Here's the third group of people that are here. You're believers in Jesus. You know, Jesus.   Jesus has changed your life. You know that you're set on a path, you've filtered yourself through the grid this morning. And this morning, you were just celebrating the fact that though yes, I sin, Jesus covers it. He covers it. This is the message of Peter.   Peters looking at these people that are scattered all over the world going hey, there's false people among you. But who are you? That’s my message this morning. 

Do you know Jesus?  If you need to meet him today, we talk about our next steps text all the time. And I'm just going to tell you, there's somebody that is sitting on the other side of that text ready to meet you right where you are, and to walk with you right where you are. And just to walk with you and show you what it looks like to move from counterfeit to real.

Maybe today you're in that category. I just haven't really been walking what Christ has done in me. And today, maybe this is just a checkup for you to go today, Lord, I'm surrendering who I am.  Lord, walk with us in these next moments, and show us Lord, that you desire to rescue us. 

Thank you, Lord Jesus for just the heaviness of this moment. God thank you for the rescue in this moment. In your name Jesus, Amen. 

Let's stand and sing and I encourage you during this moment if you need to give your life to the Lord, that button is their text it. If you need to spend some time in here amongst yourselves, praying, go for it. Let's worship together.