"The Dog Returns to Its Own Vomit" Sermon: II Peter 2:17-22

“The Dog Returns to Its Own Vomit”
[II Peter 2:17-22]
July 20, 2008 Second Reformed Church

Peter concludes his warning against the false teachers by painting for us three picturers of them:

First, Peter tells us that the teaching of the false teachers is empty – it’s vain – it’s a mirage. And let us remember that Israel is largely a barren and dry land, and the people of the day were largely involved in agrarian work. Imagine, if you will, you have been traveling for days through an arid section of Israel, you haven’t had a drink in days, there has been no grass or water for your flocks, and then you see a well. You start to run – you get to the well – you drop the bucket down to bring up water for you and your flock, but the bucket hits dry ground – the spring has dried up. That’s what the false teachers are like – they seem like a spring of water – the spring you have been desperate for – but once you get to them, and hear their teachings – it’s nothing – it leaves you desperate and thirsty.

Imagine again, you are a farmer, and there has been no rain for weeks. The crops are dying. But then you see black clouds on the horizon, the wind begins to pick up. Trees snap, everything has gone dark – a mist is rolling in. But then it rolls out, and the winds dies, and the clouds disappear – it’s over. You could have sweat more water than the hurricane has dropped. Such are the false teachers – they get you all worked up with their promises, and then they leave. And you’re exhausted, but nothing has changed.

Peter says these are reserved for the “gloom of utter darkness” – this is an expression Jesus uses to refer to Hell. Like we saw two weeks ago – eventually, the false teachers will be damned. But for now, they are like dried up springs and mists driven by a hurricane. They are loud and full of words – like Shakespeare and Faulkner said they are filled with “sound and fury, signifying nothing.” Nothing Everyone should be so lucky as to only receive nothing from the false teachers, because they can do so much more – so much harm.

There is only One Hope and Salvation, and He is not to be found among the false teachers, Jesus said, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. ... Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water I will give him will never be thirsty forever. The water that I will give will become in him a spring of living water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:10, 13-14, ESV).

Peter, secondly, tells us that the false teachers desire to corrupt you through the sins of the flesh. The false teachers go after the weak – after those who have not fully committed themselves to Christ, to the doubters and the confused, and they make grand offers of freedom and liberty – to be free of mother and father and society and the Church – but, if they would only look behind the false teachers, they would see that they are chained up awaiting the judgment. The false teachers are already bound and waiting for prison. How can they claim to offer freedom when they are enslaved? How can they say they are free from the Law, that nothing matters, that they are free to do what they want, when they are not free to do anything.

Paul wrote, “For you were once called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love, serve one another” (Galations 5:13, ESV). And “Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey, either sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?” (Romans 6:16, ESV). We are all servants or slaves – it’s the same word. Bob Dylan is right when he sings, “You may serve the devil, or you may serve the Lord, still you’re gonna have to serve somebody.” And as Peter put it, “For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.”

And as it sinks in that we all serve someone, let us hear the warning Peter gives at this point: “For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.”

What does that mean? It does not mean that people can become Christians and then “unconvert.” Someone cannot receive salvation and then “lose” their salvation. If salvation is wholly the Work of God, and it is, then it is God Who chooses and makes us His, and we’re not strong enough to remove ourselves from His Hands.

What Peter is saying is that if someone comes into the Church, hears the Gospel preached and rejects it, he is worse off than if he had never heard it. Once someone has heard the Gospel, he is responsible for what he does with it. If he hears the Gospel and rejects it, he is liable for rejecting the truth. For example, if someone is in a dark room and complains that he can’t see, he would be held guilty for not turning on the light. But if someone went into a dark room, turned on the light, rejected the light and turned it off, and then complained that he can’t see – he would be more profoundly guilty than the first man.

The writer of Hebrews wrote, “For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they then fall away, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt” (Hebrews 6:4-6, ESV). In other words, if you never believe in Christ, you’re guilty and damned in your sin, but if you have heard the Gospel – if you have heard that there is Salvation in Jesus Christ Alone – and you reject Him – if you crucify Him again, as the author of Hebrews puts it – you are all the more guilty.

And there are people like that – there are people who come into the Church, seem like they are believers – and then leave. And we wonder what happened. John explained to the early church one reason they leave: “Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard the antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they were of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us” (I John 2:18-19, ESV). Not everyone of us in the Church is part of the Church – there are imposters – there are false teachers – and one day they will be exposed, or they will expose themselves by leaving us.

Third, Proverbs 16:11 reads, “Like a dog returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly” (ESV). This is the proverb Peter is quoting in this morning’s Scripture. It’s where the sermon title comes from that is out on our sign. And this week, I did have people ask me about the sign – I thought I would get questions about last week’s sign, and I didn’t, but this week I did.

I know from people who have dogs that dogs do, occasionally, vomit and then eat their vomit – it’s actually a fact. But I wanted to know why they would do such a thing, so I went to the Internet for answers. And what I found out was interesting: humans beings, over history, have become very particular about the smells and tastes that we enjoy – it’s actually a very small percentage of the smells and tastes in the world. Humans consider dog vomit to be foul and repulsive smelling – not to mention not being a food we would eat. But dogs, thus say the Internet folks, find the smell of vomit enjoyable – they are drawn to the smell as one that is pleasurable and pleasant – and the contents of it are, for the most part, nutritious.

That’s what the false teachers are like – that’s what the people who follow them are like. The false teachers are like dogs who vomit up their false teaching and then go back to that foul smelling mess and say, “Oh, isn’t this delightful ” And then they eat their vomit again, all the while proclaiming it a delicacy. And they invite you to join them, “Eat my vomit – it smells good; it tastes good; it’s good for you ” And if you’re hoping I drop this because it’s not a very pleasant picture – then you’ve got Peter’s point – we ought to smell their vomit and be nauseated and not want anything to do with it or them. We should flee from people who offer us plates of vomit, rather than the Wedding Feast of the Lamb.

He says false teachers are like “the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.” The false teachers look at the wedding clothes for the Marriage of the Lamb and they say, “Oh, no, we look much better covered in the muck and the mire – forget that crisp, clean white dress, you should be covered in slop, too – you’ll look much better coated in slime.” If you wouldn’t prepare for worship by dumping mud over you head, then reject the false teachers when they come into our midst.

The teaching of the false teachers is empty.

Their desire is to corrupt you – and enslave you to sin – through the sins of the flesh.

And they want you to believe their vomit is gourmet food and slime is fancy dress.

Let us pray:
God of Truth, we wish that the teaching of the false teachers was as blunt and repulsive as the pictures Peter has painted, for then we would certainly run from them. But they are skilled in making their filth look beautiful. O Lord, be with us, give us Your Wisdom, protect us, and keep us in Your Word. It is easy to fall for the lies of the false teachers, so we beg You to deliver us by the Holy Spirit. Lord, our Only Hope is in You, save us from the creatures among us. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.