Spotted preachers sport themselves as 'the dumb ass speaking'

(sure enough I went from a scratchy throat and some coughing yesterday afternoon to a full-blown cold with raging headache from sinus pressure and plugged up nose. I took Mucinex P.M. after cleaning up from dinner and it is doing its job--I am too tired to even type. So, new article tomorrow for certain)

Just like with II Timothy, II Peter 2 gives a description of false teachers and the results of their teachings.

Verses 14-16 read: [14] Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children:
[15] Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;
[16] But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man's voice forbad the madness of the prophet.

“When he talks about ‘the madness of the prophet,’ he’s not talking about some hooligan on the street corner; he’s talking about religionists and the attitude going on in the ‘Christian’ churches of the last days,” explains Preacher Richard Jordan. “It’s that issue Paul describes in Romans 1:32: ‘Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.’

“That’s the depths of sin. That’s when sin has reaped its harvest in a person’s life to the place where they are just exactly like, in attitude and actions, their father the devil.

*****

“In Ezekiel 32 is a description of Satan that is one of the most fascinating things. You read this stuff back here and you say, ‘Man, what in the world?!’ You have to say, ‘Well, it’s God’s Word.’

“Prophetically, Ezekiel 28 is a description of the Antichrist. First he’s ‘the man of sin,’ then he’s ‘the son of perdition.’ You know, it’s not simply a description of the king of Tyrus, but it’s a description of Satan himself under the symbol, or the picture, of the king of Tyrus.

“In Ezekiel 29:3, you see Satan under the picture of another one of his dupes, Pharaoh. The verse reads, [3] Speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself.’

“Who is the great dragon in the Bible? Satan. Look at Revelation 12, Job 41, and Isaiah 27.

“At the end of Ezekiel 32, as he describes Pharaoh, he’s also describing Satan. Verse 32:31 says, [31] Pharaoh shall see them, and shall be comforted over all his multitude, even Pharaoh and all his army slain by the sword, saith the Lord GOD.

“This, by the way, is described in Revelation 2:24 as ‘the depths of Satan.’ The verse says, [24] But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden.

“He’s going to see all these people who’ve been slain and shall be comforted. That army referred to is a bunch of people God slew and damned to hell. The picture is Satan comforted over the damnation of his own people.

*****

“What Romans 1:32 says is that you’ve got that same nature in you; it’s part of Adam. It’s called a ‘sin nature.’ Don’t you ever think that sin is any different in you than it is in anybody else and that’s why things get to the place they get. Sometime you look about you and what goes on and say, ‘Well, how could that madness go on?!’

“If you’re saved, you’ve got the Holy Spirit in you and the ‘new nature’ to check it in you. But these birds were reading about aren’t that way. You see, sin can never be satisfied. You can’t satiate it.

“What sin does is deaden you. You start with it and you adjust to it, and you get dead to the stimulus of it, and now you’ve got to have a little more stimulus because you’re living based on your feelings. What happens when you, instead of living on the basis of truth, you do just what he says in Romans 1: ‘Their foolish hearts were darkened.’

“When you aren’t going to go on the basis of the truth of God’s Word rightly divided, then what happens is you can take God’s Word . . . That’s why in II Peter 3 he says these people take the Scripture and wrest it, twist it, mix it all together to their own destruction. He’s talking about them here!

******

“II Peter uses Balaam as a prime example of what’s going on in these covetous, false teachers who’ve lined up as the personification of the satanic policy of evil. They wind up in the last days under the ministry of the Antichrist who rides to power riding the horn (Revelation 17), riding the system of religion to power and these people are right in there with him.

“He writes in Verse 13, [13] And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you.

“You see it says ‘spots they are and blemishes.’ The other time that’s used is in I Peter 1 when he says the Lord Jesus Christ was ‘without blemish and without spot.’ They’re the exact opposite of Christ.

“James 1:27 says, [27] Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

“That issue of ‘spots’ has to do with a sore spot, literally, that comes up on their body for having taken ‘the mark of the beast.’ Revelation 16 describes it as a grievous running sore like leprosy. Revelation 3:4 says, [4] Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy.

“This stuff’s talking about people in the last days, in the tribulation. It’s talking about how they are a part of this polluted religious system that promotes, through the false prophet, the activity of the Antichrist and they wind up with the judgment of that, and in the midst of that judgment don’t even understand.

“Still deceived, still dead to see it, sporting themselves, reveling. ‘Sporting’ means you’re trying to call attention to yourself. That’s the depths of sin’s dominion. They’re under the total, complete control of sin.

*****

“You know where the defilement comes from? In Luke 6, he talks about ‘an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.’

“Luke 11 tells us the ‘light of the body is the eye.’ It’s not just the issue of the external; there’s something inside of you and it gets contacted. Luke writes, [34] The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness. [35] Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness.

“That’s II Peter 2:14! He says they have ‘eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin.’

These men in II Peter succumb to that; they’re not like Job who said, ‘I’ve not looked upon a maid to sin.’

“They’re like Christ was warning people in Matthew 5 about: ‘If you LOOK you’ve committed adultery in your heart.’ I mean, they literally can’t even look without sinning; without it triggering thoughts inside of self-consuming, self-indulgent sin. Completely captivated by it. It’s a heart problem.

“When it says they’re ‘beguiling unstable souls,’ that word ‘beguile’ is translated from a word that has to do with people who would go out and put out bait in a trap to catch people. The problem is in the soul; hearts not stabilized and fortified with some sound doctrine.

*****

“Balaam made a deliberate choice to go the wrong way when the right way was known to him and he loved the wages of unrighteousness for money’s sake. These folks pose as prophets yet they teach ‘license’; they teach false doctrine for the sake of money.

“Old Man Bob Jones used to say, ‘When it doesn’t make sense, there’s a buck in it somewhere,’ and there will be in this. That’s one of the reasons in the law, God told the leaders of Israel not to take gifts. Notice adultery and money are two things that go together in these passages. You’ll see in Micah 5 that those are two sins people are judged especially for.

“Now, those are not the sins of all the ages. Those are not necessarily the sins you and I are going to face today because we don’t live in ‘the last days.’ We’re not in the tribulation.

"But the attack that’s going to come upon the nation Israel is going to focus on seeking to corrupt Israel and debilitate Israel and deceive Israel so they are corrupted into not being able to be used as the instrument God’s designed them to be for the restoration of His authority over this planet through the kingdom that is to be inhabited by people who walk righteously and humbly with their God.

*****

“You and I are something entirely different than that; we’re members of the church the Body of Christ, but you know we still have the responsibility to be who God has made us in Christ. That’s the whole issue in understanding your identity.

“I get mail all the time saying, ‘Well, these people are good people; they’re godly people. Good, godly, wonderful people, better on their poorest day than I guess I would be on my best. Wonderful, sweet, kind, gracious, effervescent, outgoing, loving, generous people that everybody wants to be around.’

“But they have no idea who they really are, trying to be Israel, trying to follow Israel’s program, trying to use Israel’s commissions, trying to use Israel’s activities.

“They go around trying to be somebody they aren’t rather than rejoicing in who they really are in Christ and the completeness you have in Christ and the all spiritual blessings you have in Christ and all that God is free to do for you through the finished work of Calvary.

“Rather than rejoicing in that, seeing that that’s what lives in them, they’re out stumbling along, trying to gain God’s favor by their activities, by what they hang on to, by what they let go of, by what they do and don’t do.

“These people need your testimony! They need to be able to look over to you and see an example; a pillar and ground of truth for them when they get weary from it all.

“When they aren’t weary, they’re not going to be looking, so you need to be at every stage in the journey what they’re going to need you to be when they do need you, even when they think they don’t need you, so that when they do need you—and that come-around comes real quick sometimes—you’re always there.”