"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 lives 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 by 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."
The Bible is filled with contrasts between the ways of the righteous and
the ways of the wicked. Only the perfect righteousness of Christ
can justify a person, and those who have been justified endeavor to obey
God’s righteous law. The righteous are those who will be saved, the righteous will be troubled by the
wickedness around them. The righteous are sensitive to
and disgusted by wickedness, even as they seek to lead others out of its darkness.
Throughout history, God has destroyed wickedness and through His Word, gives us the confidence that He will one day remove it completely from all creation. In the days of Noah, in the flood, God destroyed those who had no regard for Him. He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, pronouncing His judgment on evil and the unrepentant. And if God preserved the righteous before, and He did, we can be confident He will do it again.
Let us pray
Heavenly Father,
Father, we thank You for Your Word for us today, help us to understand it, to be faithful to it and to live it. Lord, we pray for those who are caught in the lies of false teaching, those who name the name of Christ, yet deny His sovereign Lordship in their lives. We pray that You will rescue them from those people from those situations, that they might escape the judgment which is to come, judgement that is inevitable. We know that You will not spare unrepentant sinners but will rescue the righteous.
We know that You are a God of truth, and we pray that those who are lost might know the truth in Christ. Thank You for protecting those of us who love You, who love Your Word and obey it. We are grateful for the surety of that promise. Thank You for reminding us that You delivered both Noah and Lot through the most trying opposition and ungodliness. Help us to make it known, that we need to be in Christ, if we are to be protected.
In His name we pray
Amen
Today's Message: The Tragedy Of A Wasted Life
In our society today, judging
others is a major topic of discussion. People
always seem to have their opinions on everything and want to make them known. What the world doesn't seem to realize, is that beneath this force of judging, we will have to answer for their lives. Jesus Christ, will return to convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. Christ
will evaluate your life, your behavior, your speech and your deeds. Though those in Christ will pass judgment, all believers will face
Christ to give an account and be evaluated for what you have done in this life, your behavior, your service, and your priority. Unbelievers, will be condemned
to eternal damnation and torment.
There is a difference between judging and pleading with people to obey the Scripture and honor Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Evaluation of
clear disobedient behavior is not judging, it is exhorting, admonishing, and
encouraging obedience to the Lord.
Matthew 25:31-33 says "But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left."
As Christians, we are not to make a practice of
trying to read others hearts, their intentions, motivations, leanings that drive their
actions. For only God can judge the heart.
I Samuel 16:7 reminds us, that we are not to judge the outward appearance either. "Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."
Our judgments are often capricious and inconsistent, however, God’s judgments are perfect, just and always consistent.
Open with me your Bibles to II Peter, as we continue our study of this wonderful epistle, we come to verses 6 through 10. As we noted before, this passage run from verse 3b to 10a, which we have been breaking down into smaller sections, today we will look at those remaining verses 6 through 10a.
I invite you to follow along as I read the entire passage to set it in our minds, as we prepare our hearts for a Word from the Lord. Listen for the voice of the Lord. II Peter 2:3b-10a.
"Their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. 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; 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; 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 lives thereafter; and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous
soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds), then the Lord
knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the
unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially
those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise
authority."
In spite of what many people think today, the entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, reveals a God who will
bring judgment on sinners, but Who shows mercy to those who repent of
their sins and trust in Him.
For years, those in the pulpits teaching a twisted and perverted version of the Word have been deceiving God’s people, misleading believers, corrupting
make-believers, modeling impurity, justifying gross immorality and distorting
God’s truth. God's judgement of them will be heinous.
I want to make clear today, so that you the difficult reality, that God will not overlook sin. Those who are without Christ will be judged, those who name the name of Christ, yet do not submit to His Lordship, who choose to
continue to live immorally and are a horrible testimony for the truth of God’s Word, will be dealt with. I want you to understand the magnitude of what Christ has done for you in delivering you, and encourage you to live your lives accordingly.
In our last message, Peter had been pointing to three familiar examples of God’s judgment from the book
of Genesis. Because some believers had bought into the lies of the false teachers, the testimony of the Church was
damaged. In fact, some were beginning to doubt they would be judged
by God at all. So, Peter reminds us that God’s wrath will be poured out on
these heretics and those who follow them.
In verse 5, he said that "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." He's talking about the whole unrighteous system, the world before the Flood, that had developed since the fall of Adam and Eve. A study of the early chapters of Genesis will show you the progress of wickedness from the Fall onward. "Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth. And that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil
continually and the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth and
He was grieved in His heart."
So, Peter says, since God is so committed to truth and so committed to righteousness that He would drown the entire world, what makes us believe that He would spare who have lived the same way, corrupting His truth and living in unrighteousness. Long before Noah, out of the mouth of Enoch, there had come a warning of judgment against the ungodly.
Jude 1:14-16, says "It was also about these men that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, "Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, to
execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their
ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the
harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him." These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts; they speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage."
We need to understand, that God doesn't hesitate to destroy the wicked even if it means He has to destroy the whole earth. Those today who don't think God's going to judge them, have forgotten that He already has. There is a sense in which they by their conduct and lives, have brought that judgement upon themselves.
God will gather His own, put us in a safe place during judgment to be brought back afterward to a new world of righteous people.
Now, in verses 6 to 8, I believe that this is an absolutely powerful illustration of God's judgment on those who rebel against His truth. In verse 6, Peter says "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 lives thereafter"
Peter names two cities, Sodom and Gomorrah, and according to Deuteronomy 29:23 there was also Admah and Zeboiim. So, there were four cities and surely there were people living in other little villages in the area. The word condemned is the Greek verb "katakrínō," means worthy of punishment. The judgment was totally devastating, it killed every single person and everything else that was living,
and what
was left was ashes. I believe that it is interesting to note, that they can't even find those cities. They're completely non-discernable.
Archaeologists around the land of Palestine have found almost every ancient city, being able to uncover the rubble of almost all of them. However, they cannot find even a trace of those two cities. God totally obliterated them. He wanted to send an unmistakable message to all future generations that
false teachers and those who follow their lies will feel the fury of His incinerating vengeance. His
vengeance will be justly meted out on all who oppose Him.
Remember in Genesis 18, Abraham being so concerned about these cities said "Abraham came near and said, "Will You indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will You indeed sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous who are in it? Far be it from You to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?" So the Lord said, "If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare the whole place on their account."
By the way, the number kept dropping, forty-five, thirty, twenty. Guess what, there weren't even ten! Not even the prayers of Abraham, the father of faith, couldn't stay God's hand. If you look in Genesis 19, you can find out for yourselves the reason why God destroyed them. This
scene is so depraved.
So Peter is giving us a graphic illustration of how God judges in fiery judgment. By the way, in Revelation 11, the city of Jerusalem is called Sodom. "And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which mystically is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified."
In verses 7-8, "And if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds)"
Peter was obviously wanting to be sensitive to his pastoral duties, so he speaks a word of comfort to reassure the believers. Notice in verse 7, that he doesn't say anything about Lot's daughters being righteous, which if you read the narrative story you can understand why. Therefore, we will not go so far as to say they were righteous, however, God did spare them mercifully.
If God says that someone is righteous once, then, he's righteous. If He says it three times, He's trying to make a point. Notice that three times, in verses 7 and 8, Lot is called righteous. Abraham believed that Lot was righteous. He had faith in God, which was accounted to him for righteousness. He sought to obey God.
In verses 7-8, Peter marks his righteousness as "oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds.) He was righteous because he hated sin. He wouldn't have any part with the filth of the culture that he lived in. Like Noah and his family, Lot stood against sin in his day.
Do not think God is inactive. God is currently
judging this world by giving people over to their sin, He is punishing sin with
the corruption and consequences of sin itself.
Paul says in Romans 1:18-19, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them."
And, in Romans 2:5, he says "But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God."
We saw the promise of judgment, the precedent for judgment, and we arrive at the pattern of their judgment. Verses 9 and 10, "then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority."
The Lord knows how to rescue the godly, He is going to deliver His redeemed people. Paul says in I Thessalonians 4:13-18, "But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words."
Rapture first, then Day of the Lord. The Lord is going to rescue us, even as He did Noah and his family, even as He did Lot.
In Luke 17:27-30, the Lord reminds us that "They
were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being
given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the
flood came and destroyed them all. It was the same as happened in
the days of Lot: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying,
they were selling, they were planting, they were building; but on the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed."
It will be the same, God will rescue His own and judgment will come. , Jesus said "Remember Lot’s wife. Whoever seeks to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it." Don't look back. So, beloved, the pattern of the plan of God is to rescue the godly out, before His judgment falls, and fall it will.
Keep this is mind, God is going to judge, look at verse 10, "and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority." Remember back in verse 2, he said "Many will follow their sensuality." They are sensual, sexual, lustful, they lust for defilement. Peter says God especially is going to judge those sensual, lustful, sexually perverted false teachers. And, the second characteristic, is they despise authority. The word despise is the Greek verb "kataphronéō." Authority is the word "kuriotés." It means they look down on the sovereignty of Christ in their life. They despise His Lordship. They identify with Christ, in name only, they do not live under His authority. Instead, they live sensual lives of disobedience to His sovereignty. And God is going to destroy them all.
In Closing..
Even as a Christian, what you do with your life still matters. You can't just claim the name of Christ, and reject His Lordship in your life. God
severely judges all those who oppose Him and reject His Word. You must turn from your sin, your sexual immorality and with your entire life, serve Christ.
When Christ returns, there is no excuse that will be good enough to escape God's wrath. The good news is God knows His own and His own have nothing to fear.
May it be so..
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
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