The Lord Knows How (2 Peter 2:4–10a)
What hope do we have against the devastation of false teaching? Peter’s pastoral answer in 2 Peter 2:4–10a is an “if…then” argument drawn from God’s past acts in history. If God did not spare the angels when they sinned; if he did not spare the ancient world but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness; if he condemned Sodom and Gomorrah yet rescued righteous Lot—then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment.
This sermon offers deep comfort for a church wearied by false teachers: the Lord knows how, and he will do it.
Introduction
“Desperate times call for…desperate measures.” So they say. Sadly, as goes the culture, so goes the church in America. And not vice versa.
Within the visible church there are two choices it seems to the times we’re living in: capitulate to the power of the world and embrace the ideology of the new sexual revolution; or, try to embrace that worldly vision of totalitarian power and join the Christian Nationalist crusade.
But these desperate measures of so many churches reveal precisely what Peter is warning us again here in 2 Peter 2: the church is full of false teachers. There were false prophets in the Old Covenant; there are false teachers in the New. Because false teachers are within the church, Peter is exhorting us to be alert. Look again at verses 1–3: false teachers among you (v. 1); many will follow (v. 2); they will exploit you (v. 3). False teaching has damaging effects on the people of God. To that Peter said, their condemnation is from long ago, not idle, and not asleep. But it sure looks like it, doesn’t it?
Here's the practical and pastoral problem with this: what hope do we against such devastating teaching? Why do we go through all the pain of false teachers and false teaching? I mentioned last Sunday, whether you realize it or not, that in 24 years of me being a pastor here that we’ve had false teachers and their teaching arise from within, sadly. We’ve had trusted elders renounce the faith! We’ve had beloved members apostatize! It’s painful to remember.
Theme
Peter’s apostolic and very pastoral answer to the problem of false teachers is that the Lord knows how to do two things: first, rescue the godly from trials and second, reserve unrighteous false teachers for judgment. He does this with a rhetorical device called a protasis…apodasis argument: if…then. If God did this, then he certainly knows how to do that!
“If…”: Examples of the Lord’s Past Acts (vv. 4–8)
Peter begins with the “if” of his argument: examples of the Lord’s past acts. Peter gives a series of examples in canonical order.
The Angels
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains (NIV follows variant reading of “dungeon” in parallel with Jude) of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment (v. 4). This is one of those dicey texts with a difficult interpretation.
John Calvin said this referred to the fall of the angels at some unknown point in the past, which we don’t have a lot of information of in the Bible.
Most modern commentators, though, say because the fall of the angels doesn’t have a clear biblical story like the Flood and Sodom and Gomorrah in the verses that follow, that this must be referring to Genesis 6 where the “sons of God”—angels—had sex with “the daughters of men.” But this isn’t clearly in the Old Testament. Scholars link Peter to the Jewish tradition in a book called 1 Enoch. This leads us into other hard questions like what role do books we don’t consider inspired have on our faith?
The big picture is God knows how to deal with the unrighteous and righteous. I encourage you to go back and listen to my Genesis 6:1–8 message from October 10, 2021. I don’t think the interpretation of “sons of God” as angels having sex with women is on solid footing. Thus, I’ll follow Calvin here and say this is a reference to the fall of those angels that sinned against God along with Satan in the ancient past. When they did, God did not spare them, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment (v. 4).
The translation hell here isn’t the best. Note Peter says this is a place of temporal waiting for judgment. Like a convicted criminal, they’ve been sentenced, are being held, but are awaiting transfer to their place of final punishment. Even more, the word translated hell is Τάρταρος or Tartarus. This was the mythological netherworld underneath Hades. The imagery of chains and gloomy darkness obviously metaphorical of being kept in a place until the judgment. Of chains holding fallen angels until the judgment, we read in Revelation 20:
Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must bereleased for a little while (vv. 1–3).
“False teachers are within and it doesn’t look like God is dealing with them!” Beloved, the Lord knows how.
The Ancient World
If he did not spare the ancient world (v. 5). This is Genesis 6 and the subsequent Flood through Genesis 9. Recall that every intention was only evil continually.
“False teachers are within and it doesn’t look like God is dealing with them!” Beloved, the Lord knows how.
Noah & his Family
But preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly. Note that phrase with seven others. Literally it’s“eighth” or “one of eight.” What’s he saying? The apostle John tells us Jesus was resurrected on the eighth day (John 20), so the ancient church believed the number eighth was significant of a new creation.
Why does Peter mention the eight when it was Noah who was declared righteous? Obviously, this is what Genesis says, but even more, this must have encouraged the persecuted believers who must have felt like a remnant of eight in a world of unbelief.
“False teachers are within and it doesn’t look like God is dealing with them!” Beloved, the Lord knows how.
Sodom & 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 (v. 6). The word ashes was used to describe the destruction of Mount Vesuvius in AD79. It’s a devastating judgment, to say the least.
Why with Sodom and Gomorrah? The city wanted Lot to let out of his house the two angels who looked like men to be brought out so they could gang rape them. Later in Ezekiel, the prophet says Sodom and Gomorrah was judged for pride, apostasy, complacency, and unconcern for the poor and needy. LGBT apologists run to this text and say, “Aha, you see, it wasn’t for homosexuality that God judged Sodom and Gomorrah, but for being inhospitable.”
First, Ezekiel isn’t excluding men having sex with men from their sin.
Second, of course they were inhospitable! What could be more inhospitable then raping guests to your city? In fact, the prophet Ezekiel by virtue of being a prophet was prosecuting on the basis of the Law of Moses. So when he says in 16:40 that Sodom and Gomorrah was guilty of “detestable things,” he uses the word toebah, which comes right from Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13—men having sex with men. Thus, Peter’s parallel in Jude 4 says this very thing.
“False teachers are within and it doesn’t look like God is dealing with them!” Beloved, the Lord knows how.
Lot
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 (vv. 7–8). His soul wasn’t tormented, but he was tormenting his soul. Do you see the difference? This was not something done to him, but what he was doing himself. He was in the world, but not of it. He grieved his hometown. He was praying and fasting for his city. Sounds a lot like what we should be doing. Amen?
“False teachers are within and it doesn’t look like God is dealing with them!” Beloved, the Lord knows how.
“…Then”: Applications of the Lord’s Present & Future Acts (vv. 9–10a)
This brings us to Peter’s concluding “then” of his argument: applications of the Lord’s present and future acts. If the Lord did all that, then certainly he knows how to do it again for you!
The Godly
If…then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials (v. 9). Trials are different from temptations. Temptations come from within (James 1); trials come from without. Look at 1 Peter 1:6, 4:12.
The Lord rescued Noah and his family from a cataclysmic flood of judgment. The Lord rescued Lot from cities engaged in the most heinous sexual sin. The Lord knows how to rescue and preserve you, OURC.
Brothers and sisters, this is why the grass is never greener elsewhere. “I have to leave California because you just can’t be a Christian here anymore.” Really? What was Noah doing all those years building the Ark amidst the ungodly? He was worshipping and catechizing his family. Lot even chose to go to a place he knew was wicked, but there he was preserved. He cried out over his decision and the sin all around him. The Lord knows, brothers and sisters. Whatever the Lord is doing in our nation, state, and cities, let’s trust him to preserve us. California needs more believers, church plants, churches revived from their slumber, churches reformed according to the Word of God! Amen?
Should God decide to bring utter judgment upon our land, we know that like Israel in Egypt, he will make a distinction between us. Within the church, false teachers abound; it doesn’t look like God is dealing with them very swiftly. Beloved, the Lord knows how deal with them. He’s reserving them for their judgment. In the meantime, he knows how to rescue you and I from their temptations. Amen?
The Unrighteous
He also knows how to reserve the ungodly for judgment: to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority (vv. 9–10). Under punishment is a present tense, meaning, while there is a certain future judgment, there is something of God’s judgements now in the unrighteous.
But why does he permit the false teachers who are leading so many believers astray and causing the way of truth to be blasphemed? The Lord knows. He has his reasons. There are times when God’s children are severely abused and persecuted and when the Lord commands an unjust leader, “Let my people go” (Ex. 9:13), but the unjust leader hardens his heart, we read the “why”: “But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth” (Ex. 9:16).
Conclusion
Be the church gathered: Lord’s Day, preaching, sacraments, prayer, encouragement, and weekly gatherings.
Be the church dispersed: Be in the world, but not of it. Get involved in local politics or local committees. Be salt in a place that’s reserved for judgment; be light in the darkness.