Please take your Bibles and turn to the book of 2 Peter, 2 Peter chapter 2. This evening we'll be looking at verses 4 through 9. 2 Peter 2, beginning with verse 4. Hear now the words of the living God. 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, if he did not spare the ancient world but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly, if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes, He condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly. 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. then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. Beloved congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, as we continue our study of Peter's second epistle, I remind you that Peter has written this epistle in order to challenge the false teachers who are causing problems in the church. The kinds of problems they were causing were that they were leading people astray. They were teaching a gospel which, as the Apostle Paul would point out in Galatians and in other places, was really no gospel at all. They were teaching the people that there was some level of secret knowledge, and there was really no reason to seek to live a holy life. And they were committing various other heresies, as Peter has pointed out. He's made the connection, and we read this last week, chapter 2, verses 1 to 3, making the connection between the Old and the New Covenants with regard to false teachers. Peter said that just as there were false prophets in the Old Testament, so now there will be false teachers. And the Apostle Paul affirms this again in his letters, whether it's to Timothy or to the Corinthians or to the Galatians. Jesus warned that there would be many false Christs who would rise up and draw many away. It is something that is not just a warning for times past, but is a warning for all time. Just as many followed those false prophets in the Old Covenant, many will follow, and did follow at this time, the false teachers, so even now, many continue to follow false teachers. The Church is to be aware of this reality, and to always be on guard. This is why we are called, one of the reasons we are called, the Church Militant in this age. There is the Church Triumphant, that is, the Church as it surrounds the Savior in heaven, and in that final reality of the new heavens and the new earth. But until that day, and until that time, such as our membership, as they say, is transferred, to the Church triumphant. We live in an age of militancy. We live in an age where we must be careful of our theology. We live in an age where the doctrine of justification or other doctrines such as sanctification and other doctrines pertaining to salvation and to the person and work of Christ must be studied, must be understood so that we are not led astray. This is what we looked at last week, and I just bring it up by way of reminder to bring us into what Peter is talking about this evening in this passage, because he begins with just an if-then statement. If God did not spare the angels, he's picking up from what he was talking about in the previous verses. You see, such a reality of false teachers might make those first century readers think that God does not know what He is doing. Or perhaps they might think that God is not completely involved with history, that it's sort of a functional deism, that God just sort of steps back and allows these false teachers to do whatever it is that they will do, and He either is unable to stop them or doesn't wish to stop them. But nothing could be further from the truth. Peter wants to give a double assurance in these verses. And it's actually found there in verse 9, the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment. In order to substantiate this claim, Peter provides several examples for us in the text that we're looking at this evening. But the key point is to see the pattern. God knows how to punish the unrighteous. God knows how to rescue the godly. Therefore, He knows how to rescue you when you struggle. Those who are led astray or seem to be led astray by the false teachers will never be finally and fully led astray if they belong to God. God will save them, even if it is, as Peter relies on the example of Lot at that last moment. Now, just a grammatical note, as we begin this study this evening, this is a very long and complicated sentence, both in the English and in the Greek. The translators have made a great use of the commas and semicolons, so that we read all the way through it as one sentence, and it continues on, even through verse It looks somewhat unbalanced, though, because Peter seems to be giving an example of judgment and an example of salvation, or being rescued. And so, when he talks about the flood, he talks about Noah. When he talks about Sodom and Gomorrah, he talks about Lot. When he talks about the angels, it seems that it's unbalanced, because there doesn't seem to be a counter to it. That's when we need to realize, or I just need to point out, that in the Greek, there really is only one if in this sentence. And it's in the very beginning, in verse 4. All the other ifs are added in order to help the flow of the sentence in the English. There's only one conditional. If he did not spare the angels, then, and the then that follows is in verse 9, about how God is able, the Lord is able to rescue the godly from trials and keep the unrighteous under punishment. What I want to point out there is just, it's not as unbalanced as it looks. There is a salvation or a redemption example along with the angels. It's you and I. We are the ones that God keeps, just as he kept Lot, just as he kept Noah, so he keeps the readers of this epistle, so he keeps you and I, even this evening. Well, let's turn to look at these examples just one by one. and work through them this evening briefly. I may not answer all of the questions with regard to some of these examples, and so I encourage you to ask me questions if you have any more, but I just want to give us an understanding of what Peter's talking about here. And he begins first with the angels who sinned. The angels who sinned there in verse 4. If God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness, to be kept until the judgment. Now, there are two opinions primary opinions, I should say, two major opinions with regard to what this passage is talking about. The first is that it has to do with Genesis chapter 6, verses 1 to 4. And if you've read that passage, you know that that talks about the sons of God coming and taking the daughters of men and having children by them and the giant being born from them and so on. I'm not going to take that perspective on this passage. When I preach Genesis chapter 6, The view that I took at that time, and I continue to take, is that the sons of God were the line of sack. They were the line of the righteous, the righteous seed that God had preserved. And so I don't believe that's referring to angels. And that's the first problem that I have with that interpretation of this passage in Peter, is that Genesis 6, 1-4 is not clearly referring to angels. Some of the oldest commentators do not believe that it was referring to angels and spoke about it just the way that I have presented it just now and also when I was preaching through Genesis. Nor does Genesis 6 speak of them at all being cast into hell or put into chains. And so this seems to be dealing with something else. In fact, the other view, and this is the view that I take, is that this is referring to the fall of the angels, one of whom was Satan. of that fall that took place at some point. Now, I say at some point because there's not a lot that we can say about the fall of the angels. John Calvin writes this on this passage, the argument is from the greater to the less, for they were far more excellent than we are. This is the angels. And yet their dignity did not preserve them from the hand of God, much less than can mortal men escape when they follow them in their impiety. But as Peter mentions here, but briefly, the fall of angels. And as He has not named the time and the manner and other circumstances, it behooves us soberly to speak on the subject. Scripture doesn't tell us, and this is just a point about Scripture, it is dealing with the redemption of mankind. It is dealing with the fall, with the creation, the fall, the redemption, and in some ways, although not completely, the consummation. We don't really know what that's going to look like in the end. And so we should not be surprised that we don't have a lot of information about the fall of Satan and the angels that followed him. But just because we can't say much, it doesn't mean that we can't say anything at all. First of all, the fall of the angels occurred sometime after the creation, after they were created and after the sixth day when everything was very good. But before the time when Satan tempted Adam and Eve, this was something that Jesus himself witnessed, something that he was aware of in Luke 10, 18. He said, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. And he affirmed with regards to the last judgment in Matthew 25 and verse 41. separating the sheep from the goats, when he tells those on his left, depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. There are three texts, if you want to look into this at another time, there are three texts that primarily have been thought to deal with the fall of Satan and the angels. Isaiah 14, verses 12 to 14, Ezekiel chapter 28, verses 12 and following, and then, thirdly, Revelation 12, verses 7 and 8. They all speak in some sort of picture way of one who rises up against God and who is cast down. Now, the passages in Isaiah and Ezekiel are dealing, at least the context of them, they are dealing with the kings of Tyre and Babel, not directly dealing with Satan, And at the same time, what they say of those kings is far greater than it should be. For example, Ezekiel 28 says this, Son of man, raise a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and say to him, Thus says the Lord God, you were the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone was your covering, sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle, and crafted in gold were your settings and your engravings. On the day that you were created, they were prepared. You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you. You were on the holy mountain of God in the midst of the stones of fire you walked. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till unrighteousness was found in you in the abundance of your trade. You were filled with violence in your midst and you sinned. So I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God. And I destroyed you, O Guardian Cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Your heart was proud because of your beauty. You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. I cast you to the ground. I exposed you before kings to feast their eyes on you. By the multitude of your iniquities and the unrighteousness of your trade, you profaned your sanctuary. So I brought fire out from your midst. It consumed you. I turned you to ashes on the earth in the sight of all who saw you. You see, it goes back and forth between the King of Tyre and what it seems is someone far greater than that. One who was, in the very beginning, in the Garden of Eden, one who was a guardian angel, a guardian cherub, who guards the presence of God. So many have seen this passage in Ezekiel, this passage in Isaiah, as referring to the fall of Satan. Again, at some point in the past, described for us in Revelation 12, Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. This also lines up with how the Apostle Paul speaks of the sin of Satan, the sin of the devil, which is pride, thinking again of the passage in Ezekiel. And so Peter seems to be relying on this understanding that the angels, that Satan and the angels, were cast out of heaven, that they were cast out and kept, if you will, in bondage, under chains, until the day of judgment. Again, Paul references this in 1 Thessalonians, I believe it is. Well, beyond getting too far into the details of what Peter is talking about, what is the point of their being confined? cast them into hell, committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment. It's a reminder of the judgment that is to come. God did not spare the angels who rebelled. Much less will he spare the false teachers who are leading people astray. This is what Peter's trying to drive home. God's just judgments will prevail. Beloved, this is a message that needs to be told again and again and again. For we live in a world, just as Peter's readers, original readers, lived in a world where it seemed as though God's judgments would not prevail. It seemed as though the local rulers were stronger than God, for they were the ones who could throw Christians into jail. The false teachers were stronger, for they were the ones that could lead people astray, that could feed upon them and take from them. Peter reminds his readers that judgment will come. It's a reminder of that judgment, it's also a reminder of God's power. Evil does not exist alongside of God, as though there is an ongoing cosmic duel with an uncertain outcome, as though we sit on the edge of our seat, biting our nails, wondering, will God win, or will evil prevail? Evil has no such power. God's will is that which is done in Heaven, on Earth, even as it is in Heaven. So Peter points out that these angels have been confined as a way of encouraging God's people, that those false teachers will not be allowed to run rampant forever. Peter's second example comes from the ancient world. Look again at the text there in verse 5. If he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly. First of all, we recognize the flood was a judgment on mankind. So, we have yet another example of judgment. Genesis 6 and verse 5 says, The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And in verse 7, So the Lord said, I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them. sin and wickedness so consumed mankind that the Lord brought judgment upon all of creation. And yet, there was mercy even in the judgment. To the flood was, in fact, God's judgment upon the sinful world. But there was mercy, and the mercy was seen in Noah and his ark. For God preserved Noah, as Peter says here in verse 5, a herald of righteousness. with seven others, speaking there, of course, of Noah and his wife and his sons and their wives. God could have just hit the reset button, if you will, on all of creation. He could have, if he wanted to have destroyed the whole world, recreated the whole thing, recreated a new garden, a new Adam and Eve, perhaps. God could have done that. God chooses not to, and in His mercy, He spares eight people in the midst of that blood. Now, this is not Peter's first use of Noah as an illustration. Just to remind us that we looked at this some time ago. In fact, we looked at it a couple of times together as a church. It's 1 Peter 3, verses 18 to 22. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God. being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formally did not obey when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being repaired, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels' authorities and powers having been subjected to him." You see, the point of Peter bringing up the story of the flood, both in his first letter and in his second letter, is to encourage God's people In Noah's day, though God was bringing complete judgment, He provided salvation. In fact, the entire flood narrative is about God's covenant and His remembering His people. The very center of the story of the flood in Genesis 6-9 is in chapter 8, verse 1. The Lord remembered Noah. It is true that there were only eight of them that were saved. But what this reminds us of is just how all-consuming the sin of that day had become. Scripture reminds us many times that those who will be saved through faith in Christ are not the majority. They are large in number. They are a number that cannot be counted in the end. But we know that we live in a fallen world, and the enemy of our souls continues to deceive and lead many astray. Interestingly, Peter refers to Noah here as a herald of righteousness. Peter's referring to teachings that are found elsewhere that speak of Noah's preaching to those who were going to die in the flood, exhorting them to seek salvation. As one commentator writes, this might have been explicit or simply through Noah building the ark in their sight. There were certainly Jewish teachings in Jewish circles that referred to Noah as a prophet But simply by being a boat builder in a desert, Noah would have displayed his faith in the judgment and mercy of God. Those in Noah's day would not heed the call for salvation. And by bringing this up, Peter is reminding his readers that they are those who have heard the call. They have heard the call for salvation. They have been brought to God by Christ. And they are just as secure in Christ as Noah was. in the ark during the flood. Just as secure in Christ as Noah was in the ark during the flood. See, that's the point, again, to drive home of this passage. Peter's bringing up the judgment and the mercy, the judgment and the salvation, that God was working simultaneously in God's faithfulness through it all. Peter's last illustration comes from Sodom and Gomorrah. If by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes, he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly, 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. Now, again, we've gone through Genesis 19 and 20. We know, and if you haven't read them recently, I encourage you to go back and read them. I mean, it's a messy story. Not just Lot and his wife, but Lot's daughters and what happens following the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Peter's point here is to show again God's judgment and God's mercy. It began with the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah. In Genesis chapter 19, we read of how the angels came down to Sodom and Gomorrah to see the sin of the city. Lot was the only one to extend hospitality to them, to bring them in, to protect them. And in the middle of the night, the men of the city turned up and demanded from Lot that the two men be given over to them so that they could know them. Lot refuses. And as they are beating down the door, seeking to bring Lot out and to hurt him as well, The angels intervene so that Lot and his family can be saved. We read also another take on this in Ezekiel 16, verses 48 to 50. Ezekiel said, As I live, declares the Lord God, your sister Sodom and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done. Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom. She and her daughters had pride, excess of food and prosperous ease, but they did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty and did an abomination before me, so I removed them when I saw it. I bring up Ezekiel because we tend to think of Sodom and Gomorrah and we focus solely on the sexual sin. It's not just that. There was so much more that was going on and extended beyond that, although it included it. I think all of it is in Peter's understanding here, when he thinks back on Sodom and Gomorrah. For Peter, they are an example of judgment. The story of Sodom and Gomorrah is more than just a historical tidbit for Peter. In fact, for Peter, there is a clear connection between what happened to them and what is coming in the judgment of the world. For in Genesis 19, verses 24 and 25, we read, Then the Lord rained down on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven, and He overthrew those cities and all the valley and all the inhabitants of the cities and what grew on the ground. And in 2 Peter 3.7, a passage we'll come to toward the end of the summer. Peter says, by the same word, the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. You see, Peter is looking at Sodom and Gomorrah and seeing the connection, not just in the fact that God judged then and God will judge in the future, but really in the way in which God judged a judgment by fire. There's more to this, too, as we think about what Peter is reflecting on. See, Peter has this approach at looking at biblical history and seeing the judgments that God had done in the past and recognizing that they are but signs of the judgment that will come in the future. And this is something that he learned from Jesus himself. In Luke chapter 13, verses 1 to 5, people come to Jesus and they ask him about something that had happened, something terrible that had happened in time past. Not too far past, actually, it was it was something recent. Luke 13, one to five said this. There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them. Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you. But unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. or those 18 on whom the tower in Salome fell and killed them. Do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Whether we're thinking about the examples that Jesus brings up or Sodom and Gomorrah or really anything that happens in this world of a judgment type nature, the reality is that they are nothing but rumblings of the judgment that is to come, and yet it reminds us also of God's mercy. For the final judgment does not immediately follow rebellion. The truth is that judgment will come, but God provides mercy. And we see that in this illustration with the rescue of Lot. Peter uses the word righteous to describe Lot three times in this passage. Remember, just For those who might not be aware, Lot was Abraham's nephew. He lived with Abraham until their flocks got too big to dwell together. Abraham lets Lot choose where he is to go, and Lot chooses to go closer to Sodom. He moves his sheep, he moves his entire household toward Sodom. Now, what we hear about Lot, usually when we read Genesis or when we hear Genesis preached on and things like that, we don't normally hear about how righteous Lot is. We normally hear about how he chose to dwell near Sodom, and how he was greedy when he separated from Abraham, and how he was barely saved. But according to Peter, Lot was none of those things. He was like Noah and Abraham, one who had faith in God. He was, as Peter says three times, righteous. Indeed, he points out that the actions of Sodom and Gomorrah were distressing to Lot. It was tormenting to his soul. soul, and so God saves Lot. He rescues him, and that's the word that's used here, and that's Peter's point. If God is able to do all of those things in time past, whether we're talking about an unknowable point in history when the angels fell, or at the points in history where we can know the flood and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, then we know that the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials. and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the Day of Judgment. Beloved, Peter's point here is so simple. It's so common in every day that we're tempted to miss it because Sodom and Gomorrah and the flood and the angels falling are such big events that we don't see the connection to our lives today. What Peter is saying is that God can rescue the godly from the trials of temptation that they face. God can rescue believers from the false teachers who propound false doctrine and seek to lead them astray, God will judge and is going to judge those false teachers. You see, we need to hear this because there are still false teachers. There are still those who lead people astray. We need to hear this because the world around us seems to lack justice and judgment And sometimes we can find ourselves, like the readers, like those who lived at the time of the New Testament and even the Old Testament, wondering if judgment will ever come. God is assuring us, through the words of Peter, that judgment will come. We need to hear this because we all know that we continue to wrestle with sin. And we need to hear that God can rescue us from the sin that is within. that God has, in fact, sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross, to redeem His people. And what Christ has done on the cross is more powerful and is able to save far greater than anything we can do in our lives. What I mean by thinking there is in Paul's words in Romans 8, that nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. This passage is important to remind us that God will indeed rescue his people. Close with these words from Calvin again. He writes, by these words, Peter reminds us that this office ought to be left to him, that is the office of judgment, and that therefore we ought to endure temptations and not to faint when at any time he defers his vengeance against the ungodly. This consolation is very necessary for us, for this thought is apt to creep in. If the Lord would have his own to be safe, why does he not gather them all into some corner of the earth, that they may mutually stimulate one another to holiness? Why does he mingle them with the wicked, by whom they may be defiled? When God claims to himself the office of helping and protecting his own, that they may not fail in the contest, we gather courage to fight more strenuously. Beloved, your Lord knows how to rescue you, to keep you, and He will and is doing that in Christ Jesus. Let's pray.