Untitled Sermon (2)

Main Idea: God protects and preserves His people, and those that pervert God’s Word are currently under judgement, which will be completely carried out in the end.

In our last sermon we saw Peter describe the tactics of false teachers, and he ended his introduction to them with a promise that they will face destruction.

Here in the body of this discourse on false teachers, Peter bolsters his argument with a few references to the past where we see God’s judgement and preservation carried out.

V.4

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment

Here we have a very difficult verse to try and understand.

Peter is likely referring to Gen 6 where angels had departed there natural way of life, because according to Jesus angels in heaven do not marry, their entire focus on God.

These angels departed there place and had relations with women.

God brings these angelic beings to judgement and condemns them until the final judgement at the end of history.

V. 5

if he did not spare the ancient world,

Here we have our second judgement, God wiped out most of the earth because of the severity of mankinds sin.

but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;

Despite the seriousness of sin on mankind, God preserved Noah and His family as they were the few that still worshipped and acknowledged Him.

V. 6

if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction,

This is the second most well known judgement of evil in the Old Testament carried out by God.

These two cities were absolutely corrupt, to the point that God promised if there were just a few righteous in the cities He would not destroy it, but there were none.

making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly

Peter here is introducing us to the reason behind these references to wrath.

There is a reality that too often gets abused by either neglect or obsession by the church, and this is that God takes sin seriously.

Sin cannot go unpunished for our God is a just God.

But even in judging the wicked we see the mercy of God.

V.7-8

and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard)

God preserved the ones that belonged to Him, and there are two further points that need to be made here.

Look at how Lot’s disposition is described, his soul was tormented by the lawlessness he witnessed.

The sin around him made Lot miserable, and we have to ask ourselves as God’s people do our hearts hurt for how sinful our world is.

Are we in languish because of sin or have we numbed our hearts and mind to the things that God hates.

Calf being dehorned.

Second, while Lot and Noah are described as righteous and godly, anyone who knows the stories of these men knows they were far from perfect.

What set them apart was not there moral perfection, but their recognition and acceptance of the one true God.

God preserves those who know and follow Him, whose sins are forgiven by Christ, not the morally perfect because there are no morally perfect.

This leads us to the final point.

V. 9

then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment

Our lives will not be trial free, however God promises us that His grace is sufficient for us.

So the best way to make this point is this: that God preserves those whose sins have been forgiven in Christ because only in Him can we have our sin atoned for, but those are not forgiven and stay in their sin will suffer until they are finally condemned.

One final note:

V.10

especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority

Peter is warning against those who do nothing but fulfill there own passions, and if we look at all the examples of destruction that he lists, all of these groups were completely corrupt and given over to unnatural relationships.

This is the very thing that our society is trying to normalize and we have so many false teachers that are trying to vilify Christians for holding what God says to be true.

Be watchful for who is influencing you, and seek after holiness.

Discussion Questions:

Why do you think Peter used these examples of God’s judgement to make his point?

How should these examples of God’s judgement make us look at sin?

What can we find comforting about God rescuing Noah and Lot? How does verse 9 encourage us to trust God?