Judgment is Coming and Real!
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Mic
Prayer
The painting on the screen is called “Last Judgment” by a Flemish artist - Lieven van den Clite, in 1413.
You could say he is from modern day Belgium which is located between the NE border of France and Germany.
You can see Jesus seated on top of the world in judgment surrounded by His angels.
He is sitting on a rainbow of mercy. Below him are the 12 apostles judging the 12 tribes of Israel.
on the left you can see the church and saints rising from the dead while on the lower right you can see those who are cast into the flames of hell and the all-consuming fire.
There are people today who will try to tell you that our God is a God of love and he would never send anyone to hell… but is that what God and the Bible teaches us? Let’s look at our text for today.
2 Peter 2:4-10a that’s pg 1216 in your pew Bible or pg 184 in the back of the skinny Bibles in the back of the room.
7 Slides (ending vs 10)
4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment;
5 and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;
6 and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly thereafter;
7 and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men
8 (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day with their lawless deeds),
9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,
10 and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority.
God, through Peter, is warning us that God will most certainly punish not only the false prophets, but those who follow their teaching. Do not make the error of thinking that Peter’s warning is ONLY directed toward the false prophets and false teachers. Note in the examples given...
, in the flood everyone on the earth with the exception of Noah and his family died. they were all judged.
Similarly, with the example of Sodom and Gomorrah, everyone in those towns died .. with the exception of Lot and his two daughters. Everyone was judged. Finally, note verse 9.
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9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,
He gives us three examples to illustrate his point concerning the certainty and reality of judgment.
1) He points to the angels whom God cast into hell when they sinned.
The word for sin is ἁμαρτάνω which we have pointed out means to “miss the mark” of God’s plan for our lives.
a similar passage in Jude says
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6 And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day.
The text here is not referring to the third of the angels who followed Satan and were cast out of heaven. Those angels are the demons who wander around on earth today and influence people to sin. These angels have not been placed in eternal bonds.
Here he is referring to Genesis 6.2 where the disobedient angels are referred to as “sons of God”.
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2 that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose.
The proper domain of angels does not include having sex with human women and conceiving children with them.
It is the angels who took wives for themselves, God cast into hell.
The word for hell here is not gehenna with which we are more familiar, but Tartarus borrowed from Greek mythology. In Greek mythology it refers to the lowest and deepest pit even below hell to which only the worst of the worst were cast .
Further, Peter describes these demonic prisons by saying that God committed the fallen angels to pits of darkness. The word for “committed means to “Hand over” He handed them over or turned them over for imprisonment into pits of darkness (or as the KJV translates it to “chains” of darkness. Whether the rendering is “pits” or “chains,” the idea is the same—it refers to loss of freedom in a place of confinement in eternal darkness, a fate demons fear . Those who were sent there were reserved for judgment, like guilty prisoners awaiting final sentencing and execution at the last day.
We read about that in …
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10 And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
As we have said the proper domain of angels does not include having sex with humans. In the days of Noah , some of the angels went after strange flesh.
The transgression of those demons (also referred to as angels or sons of god) was a clear violation of the boundaries God had set for them.
Jude 7 compares their “gross immorality” to that of Sodom and Gomorrah who “went after strange flesh.” In the case of Sodom and Gomorrah they practiced homosexuality, a perversion which God wholly condemns. The angels went after human flesh. while in Sodom they refused the natural order of male and female and went after those who were of the same sex as themselves - a clear violation of God’s order, even though the law of Moses had not yet been given.
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22 ‘You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination.
or
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13 ‘If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death. Their bloodguiltiness is upon them.
or
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9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, .… shall inherit the kingdom of God
I emphasized both fornicators and homosexuals in this passage. Fornicators refers to anyone having sex with someone when they are not married. So if two young people are sleeping together either on a date and then go home… or move in together before they are married (even if they love one another); it is the same as homosexuality. It is a gross offense in the eyes of God.
However, we don’t want to get lost in the weeds. The point Peter is making is that these angels (along with false prophets and false teachers and those who follow them will face divine wrath). God will render judgment and that judgment is certain.
He then moves on the to a second example.
2) the flood
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5 and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;
This is talking about the flood in the time of Noah that covered the entire globe. It is not only the angels who faced judgment in the time of Noah.
In fact, He wiped out the full breadth of earth’s population by drowning all of the ungodly with a worldwide Flood.
The ancient world refers to the people living at the time of the Flood, all of whom were wicked. The world was destroyed because of their sin.
Only Noah and seven others were spared. The seven others were his wife, his 3 sons and their wives.
All of the animal life on earth was wiped out as well … except for those who were on the ark. 2 of every unclean animal and 7 pairs of the clean animals.
Peter is going to refer to this flood again in chapter 3.
4 Slides (ending vs 6)
3 Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts,
4 and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.”
5 For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water,
6 through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water.
This is recorded for us in Gen 6.5-7.
Slide
5 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
6 And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.
7 And the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.”
Anyone who tries to blow off the consequences of sin… is either lying to you or has not read the Bible. They are a false prophet or false teacher.
God looked at the wickedness of mankind and judged the world because of it.
and friends, all you have to do today is open your eyes and look around and you can see sin is rampant on the earth today just as it was then.
While not all, some of our elected officials are sleeping around.
Others take advantage of public resources for their own personal gain.
They lied to us about covid. This last week… it has come out that there was no evidence…
Zero evidence that supported wearing masks during covid, but they crammed it down our throats anyway.
They lied about the origin of covid.
They manufactured false evidence with the Russian Hoax. and that was just our government whom we should be able to trust.
That is not counting all the immorality that is going on in the world today.
at the beginning of the 20th century (that would be the early 1900’s it was reported that 80% of the brides in the US were virgins.
By 1980 that was down to 20% and
today it is estimated that it is around 5% although another article said 12%. Since a white wedding gown is a symbol of virginity, we should not be seeing white wedding dresses at most weddings. Even in their wedding, these brides are proclaiming a lie.
Our own sheriff was arrested for sex crimes against women.
Drugs are prevalent everywhere.
2 Timothy does a great job of describing America 2026
4 Slides (ending vs 5)
2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,
3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good,
4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God;
5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; ...
We even have the public schools aiding the children in their disobedience to their parents. They will cover up their sin of trying to be a sex that they are not. Schools have been know to provide transportation to get an abortion (which is really to murder their own baby and cover up the sin of fornication).
Welcome to the 21st century.
However, God did preserve Noah a preacher of righteousness. All the time that Noah was building the ark, he was preaching a message of repentance. He was warning them about the flood. He was encouraging them to come to God. How many took him up on the invitation?.. a big fat zero.
In the end, only Noah and his family were saved.
Peter is telling us… don’t be a fool. the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent! turn away from your sins. Turn away from an ungodly lifestyle before it is too late. We are living in the last days. You can’t afford to wait. and he is warning us about these false prophets and teachers.
The word for the flood is κατακλυσμός from which we get our word cataclysm. and the flood was the cataclysmic event of all time. That is until the Great tribulation and the replacement of the current earth with a new earth and a new heaven.
and who did God bring the flood upon. It was the ungodly. The word here refers to those who were not worshipers of God. They didn’t have time for God.
Other things were more important to them.
Maybe it was baseball, or fishing, or boating, or hunting.
Maybe it was work or family. You tell me.
A recent Gallop survey reported that 56% of Americans say that they rarely or never attend church.
and even then, Less than 30% say that they attend church weekly
Friends, keep in mind that even the 30% who do attend church regularly includes many who are not Christians for example Mormons, Jehovah witnesses, Jews, Buddhists, Muslims.
God’s judgment will not be only on criminals, or adulterers. It will be on many who consider themselves to be basically good people.
Jesus Himself taught us:
Slide
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.
Anyone who is not trusting in Jesus and following him will be judged.
and that brings us to example 3 for the certainty that judgment is coming.
3) the case of Sodom and Gomorrah.
3 Slides
6 and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly thereafter;
7 and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men
8 (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day with their lawless deeds),
At one time, Sodom and Gomorrah were major cities in the plain of Jordan.
Lot,… Abraham’s nephew, .… looked out on the Jordan valley and chose it for himself because of all that it had to offer.
4 Slides (ending vs 13)
10 And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the valley of the Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere—this was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah—like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as you go to Zoar.
11 So Lot chose for himself all the valley of the Jordan; and Lot journeyed eastward. Thus they separated from each other.
12 ... Lot settled in the cities of the valley, and moved his tents as far as Sodom.
13 Now the men of Sodom were wicked exceedingly and sinners against the Lord.
Think of it, “Like the garden of God”. The land was great! but the people there were wicked.
It was an ideal place for raising crops and cattle.
But, because of the gross sin of the people in those cities, God condemned them to destruction. The judgment described in Genesis 19 was a small-scale parallel to the worldwide Flood which occurred about 450 years earlier.
Like Noah and his family, … Lot and his daughters were the only inhabitants to escape. All of the other citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah were obliterated. This time by incineration and asphyxiation rather than drowning.
Genesis 19:24–25 sums it up:
2 Slides
24 Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven,
25 and He overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.
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6 and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly thereafter;
Depending on your version, there may be a slightly different wording.. but the point is the same.
They were reduced to ashes as an example of the judgment that will come upon those who choose to live an ungodly life. on the sons of disobedience. You don’t want to be a part of them.
Josephus in the 1st century refers to how their ruins, .… which can still be seen even today, … is a barren land reduced to sand, ashes, and salt. It still serve as a witness.
The judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah is not merely a historical curiosity but functions as an example of what God will do in the future. It is a preview of the condemnation that will come upon the false teachers of Peter’s day (and today) and to those who succumb to the influence of those teachers.
However, not everyone was destroyed in Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot and his 2 daughters escaped with their lives, just as Noah and his family were saved from the flood.
In fact, both in the time of Noah and with Sodom & Gomorrah.. God gave the people ample warning. They could have repented. They could have chosen to follow the way of escape that God provided… but they ignored the warnings to their own demise.
This also demonstrates how God knows how to preserve the righteous while He pours out wrath on the ungodly.
From reading the Genesis passage we would not get the idea that Lot was all that righteous. He was clearly focused on his own interests when he chose the Jordon valley. He offered up his 2 daughters to be raped by the men of the city. He even got drunk and commited incest with his daughters. To say the least, he had his problems
His own son-in-laws-to-be .… did not believe him, but thought he was joking … when he warned them of the coming judgment.… but in this passage Peter (under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit) calls him righteous 3 times.
2 Slides
7 and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men
8 (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day with their lawless deeds),
Lot felt “Oppressed” by their sensual conduct. His soul was tormented and brought to grief by what he heard and saw every day.
This starts to reveal what was going on in the heart of Lot. If we think about it, Lot did reach out to the two angels and offered them a place to stay… a place of hospitality. He also tried to protect them from the men of that place. Lot also warned the fiancé's of his daughters of the coming judgment. He tried to save their lives.
and while he did not want to leave Sodom… He did obey the angels command and he got out of there without looking back .. which his wife failed to do.
The main sin in Sodom was homosexuality. They went after other men to have sex with them as we can see in .…
2 Slides
4 Before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter;
5 and they called to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have relations with them.”
However, Ezekiel also informs us that they also had hard hearts. They were arrogant and proud and were not willing to help those in need.
Slide
49 “Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had arrogance, abundant food, and careless ease, but she did not help the poor and needy.
In this case though, Peter is making a comparison to the angels who went after strange flesh
and so in this example Peter is referring to the homosexuality that was pervasive in Sodom.
from which we get our word - - sodomy.
While Peter focuses on the sin of sodomy in this passage,
Ezekiel states that they were also judged for their pride, their arrogance, their seeking after their own pleasures, while ignoring the poor and needy.
The point Peter is making is that God did judge them… but rescued the righteous Lot and his 2 daughters. He knows how to save the righteous in the midst of judgment.
While those who refused to repent were condemned and a lot sooner than they expected.
Now verse 4 through verse 10 is one long sentence. It begins with an “if clause.”
If God did not spare the angels,
if God did not spare the ancient world,
if God did not spare Sodom and Gomorrah, but condemned them
then… then what
2 Slides
9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,
10 and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority. ..
Probably it would be better to translate this as “since” rather than “if” because that is the point that is being made. Since God not only judged but condemned them to destruction, He will also judge and condemn these false prophets and anyone who listens to them and follows them.
He is warning us against these false prophets, just as I am warning you.
Note that this warning is especially directed to those who indulge the flesh. I have already pointed out that while the phrase “to indulge the flesh” points to all sorts of sexual immorality. Fornication, adultery, homosexuality, it is also much broader and would include.
lusts of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life.
It would include covetousness, those who give in to anger, envy, jealousy, and pornography.
even those who just don’t have time for God or to worship God… they have other priorities in their life. These are all included in the very broad term… the ungodly.
the opposite of this is what has been our theme for this year.
2 Slides
15 but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior;
16 because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
God knows how to rescue the righteous and He has given us the gift of the Holy Spirit to help us in just this battle.
So what is our take away:
Friends know this for certain.
God will judge the unrighteous, just as
He judged the angels
He judged the ancient world and except for Noah and his family killed everyone.
He judged Sodom and Gomorrah.
Don’t let these false prophets deceive you. Don’t be suckered in by them. There judgment is coming. Don’t get got up with them.
And remember judgment day is coming a lot sooner that we may think. It could be tonight or tomorrow. You don’t want to put off… making a decision to devote your life entirely to God and to serve Him today. Choose to follow Jesus before it is too late!
Let’s make it our goal to pursue righteousness!
And teens… don’t get caught up with the crowd in their sexual immorality. Keep yourself a virgin until you are married. In fact.. why not take a moment and ask God to keep you from temptation now. Make a promise to God that you are going to save yourself for your future husband or wife. Will you do that?
Let’s pray.
