In his sermon titled 'Deliverance and Judgement,' Jason Dohm explores the themes of divine judgment and deliverance, as outlined in 2 Peter 2:4-11. Dohm emphasizes that God did not spare the angels who sinned, the ancient world during Noah's time, or the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, highlighting the certainty of God's judgment against sin. These examples serve as warnings for the ungodly and unrepentant. The sermon also addresses Peter's teaching on false teachers, describing them as presumptuous and self-willed, and how they pose a significant threat to believers. Dohm reassures that God knows how to deliver the godly from temptations, as demonstrated by the deliverance of Noah and Lot. The sermon concludes by underscoring God's unchanging nature and the offer of mercy and repentance through Christ, urging listeners to heed the warnings and embrace salvation.

Starting in verse 4. For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved for judgment, and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly, and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly, and delivered righteous Lot who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked, for the righteous man dwelling among them tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds. Then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment and especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority. They are presumptuous, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries.

Whereas angels who are greater in power and might do not bring a reviling accusation against them before the Lord." The title of the sermon this morning is Deliverance and Judgment. That's what the text is about. Deliverance and Judgment are really in the punchline of the text, which is verse 9. Both Deliverance and judgment are spoken of in verse 9. It's a nice summary of what leads into verse 9.

Last week we began Chapter 2, which begins Peter's teaching on false teachers, it's the major theme of the letter. If the major theme of 1 Peter is making a people ready for persecution, then the major theme of 2 Peter is making a people ready for false teachers. So this is what Peter begins to speak of at the beginning of chapter 2. He's helping us be able to recognize false teachers. You might not be able to recognize every single false teaching immediately, but if you can recognize a false teacher because of their common characteristics, you're ahead of the game in being able to defend yourself against both false teachers and false teaching.

So this is what Peter is doing. In the beginning of the chapter, he helps us recognize some distinguishing marks of false teachers. So we will be able to spot them. Now, that text that we studied in depth last Sunday ended this way. Look at the end of, or the second half of verse 3 leading into this week's text, it says, For a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.

He's talking about false teachers, and He's talking about the certainty of judgment and destruction for false teachers. God will judge false teachers. God will destroy false teachers. So That is the backdrop of the text that we're studying this week. This week there are really two things in the text.

The first thing is a great encouragement. A mound of encouragement for the Lord's people who must contend with false teachers. Peter says that God knows how to deliver them. He must be a master of understatement there. God knows everything.

Of course, he knows how to deliver his people from false teachers. But one of Peter's primary objectives in today's text is to encourage the Lord's people. That God knows how to deliver them from all the threats that they'll face, one of which being false teachers. The second thing is that it is the sternest of warnings. So it is an encouragement to the Lord's people that God knows how to deliver them, but it is also the sternest of warnings to those who would dare to be false teachers.

And actually to all who are unrepentant. We're going to find this passage to be about false teachers, but to be much broader than that. Peter's going to start very broad and talk about all unrepentant. And then at the end of this week's text, at the very end, he narrows it down. So there's the sternest of warnings to the unrepentant in this text.

And then towards the end he says, especially, and then he dials right back into false teachers. As we go to the text, Let's pray. God, You have made the most secure of promises. You are willing and able. You know how to deliver Your people from all the threats that they face.

God, I pray that today's text would be such an encouragement to the hearts of your people today, knowing that you are abundantly willing, abundantly able to deliver, to rescue your people. God, I thank you that you give us the sternest of warnings against unrepentance. This is a mercy, God, that you would not leave us to destroy ourselves in our own inclinations, following our own inclinations, but you would warn us what happens to a people who will not repent and trust in Christ. These are beautiful things. Drive these truths deep into our hearts, O Lord, in Jesus' name.

Amen. So the first thing that Peter teaches in our text, and that you have right there on your outline, is that God did not spare. Those words are straight from verse 4. God did not spare. And then they're repeated in verse 5.

So we get these three examples in quick succession. An example in four, an example in five, an example in six. And it's all examples where God did not spare. Example number one is in verse four, God did not spare the angels who sinned. There is a lot of wacky speculation that comes from this text.

Specifically from this verse. Speculation about the angels that sin and how that relates to other passages. But I just want to begin by saying that we don't need speculation with this verse. Much less wacky speculation. In other words, this is not an excuse to take what's said here and then connect it with other data points elsewhere that may or may not have a clear connection and then to form a doctrine about angels and what we know about angels and how they function today.

That's not in this text. If you do that, you've done that completely without warrant from Scripture. So There is a lot of wacky speculation about this verse. I'm just here to say we don't need any kind of speculation from this verse, wacky or otherwise. Here's the point.

Holy Spirit inspired Peter, who spent three years with our Lord Jesus, says that angels sinned, and as a result of their sin they were cast down to hell and delivered into chains of darkness to be reserved for judgment. That's what we need to know. That's what's in the text. Peter knows because he's inspired by the Holy Spirit, because he lived with Jesus for three years, he knows that there were angels who sinned, and as a result of their sin they were cast into hell. And they are reserved there in chains of darkness for punishment.

Reserved for judgment. Now to me, The most obvious place that you would go in Scripture, or the most obvious events from Scripture that could be referred to here, is the rebellion in heaven against God. We can agree that was sin. We can agree that was angels. I believe there are three texts.

I just want you to jot them down. I'm not going to go there and give an exposition of these texts. Isaiah 14, 12-17. Later go look at Isaiah 14 verses 12-17. Later go look at Ezekiel 28 verses 11-19.

And later go look at Revelation 12, verses 1-12. Here's what you find. I believe that all three of those are addressing the same events, the rebellion that happened of angels against God. In Isaiah 14 you have the five I will statements. This is Satan saying, I will do, I will be.

And in these five I will statements, he's raising himself up in incredible arrogance against the God of Heaven. Raising himself above the God of Heaven in his own mind and in his own aspirations. But then in verse 15 we read, Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the pit. That sounds like our text in 2 Peter. In Ezekiel 28, we read about the exalted position enjoyed by the devil.

The place of honor enjoyed by the devil. He's called the King of Tyre in that text. I have no idea why. I do believe it is the same set of circumstances. It is definitely talking about an exalted angel who is enjoying an incredible place of honor.

But yet in verse 16 of Ezekiel 28 we read this, And you sinned, therefore I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God." It sounds to me like what Isaiah is addressing in chapter 14 is what Ezekiel is addressing in chapter 28. These are the same events that are covered with greater clarity and more detail in Revelation 12. In Revelation 12 verses 1-12, we get the events of a great war in heaven between the devil and a third of his angels. In Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28, it's the devil alone that's mentioned. In Revelation 12, we get more details, which is the devil wasn't alone.

He was leading a rebellion against God. And there's a war in heaven with The devil and a third of the angels waging war against Michael, the archangel, and the rest of the angels. But they did not prevail, and they were cast out of heaven. So I believe that Peter is referring to that. You have angels and you have sin.

That's what's needed in 2 Peter. So I believe it was that. Whatever it was, The point that Peter is making is that angels excel us. In verse 11 of our text today, in 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 11, Peter says that angels are greater in power and might. You didn't need Peter to tell you that because you know the other instances in scripture where men or women encounter angels.

What does the angel always have to say? Fear not. Get up off the ground. Stop worshiping me. That's what happens when men or women meet an angel.

They're afraid. Usually they drop to the ground and the angel has to say, Don't be afraid. Stand up. Stop worshipping me. So we know that they are greater than us in power and might, which Peter says explicitly in 2 Peter 2 verse 11 in today's text.

Regardless of an angel's excellence, power, might, God did not spare them. Here's what Matthew Henry says, No excellency will exempt a sinner from punishment. If the angels who excel us vastly in strength and knowledge violate the law of God, the sentence which that law awards shall be executed upon them and that without mercy or mitigation for God did not spare them. The point that Peter is making is that angels are better than us. They are more excellent than us.

They have more power than us. They have more might than us, and God did not spare them. And if God did not spare them, He will not spare us if we do not repent. In Matthew 25, Jesus is teaching the parable of the sheep and the goats. That great day where there will be a separation between those who are in Christ and those who are out of Christ.

In Matthew chapter 25 verse 41, Jesus says to the goats on his left hand, those who are out of Christ, depart from me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. This is the end of the rebellion against God of the angels. A place has been prepared for them. An everlasting fire has been prepared for the devil and his angels. The unrepentant will join them there.

We have that on the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ. So example number one was God did not spare the angels who sinned. Example number two is that God did not spare the ancient world. This is in verse 5. God did not spare the ancient world.

Peter calls it the world of the ungodly. It's the world at the time of Noah. The world of the ungodly. In Genesis 6, which records what Peter is referring to. In Genesis 6, the Lord sees that the wickedness of man has permeated the earth.

There is not a corner of the earth that the wickedness of man has not overrun. In fact, in Genesis 6, verse 5, It says that every intent of the thought of his heart was only evil continually. Every intent of the thought of his heart was only evil continually. That's about as bad as it gets. By the way, man's heart hasn't changed.

This is what the fall has done to the heart of natural men. So God in Genesis 6 says, I'm starting over. I'm sorry I made them. I'm starting over." And he sends a flood. And it wipes out all but eight.

Now from Adam to Noah is about 1700 years. Long lives, lots of children. And it's not hard to build a model that gets you to a billion people on earth. Now the Bible doesn't say a billion people, that is speculation. But all I'm saying is if you just assume people are living this long, people are having this many children, you can use over a 1700 year period pretty conservative assumptions and end up with a billion people at the time of the flood.

So if you've had in your mind that there was a few primitive villages, with a few thousand people sprinkled on the face of the earth, and there's a flash flood, and then they're gone, It's not the picture of Scripture. Many hundreds of thousands, millions, tens of millions, maybe hundreds of millions, maybe a billion people on the earth and all but eight died. God did not spare them. And They were either swept away by the rushing waters, or they were drowned by the rising waters. One by one, person by person, they couldn't keep their head above water, and their lungs filled up, and they drowned.

It's easy just to read that account and not think that it's an individual who can't get air. But God did not spare them because they were a wicked and unrepentant people. Here's what Matthew Henry says again. The number of offenders signifies no more to procure any favor than the quality. If the sin be universal, the punishment shall likewise extend to all." So Matthew Henry looks at the angels and says, they're stronger than us, They excel us in every way, but it did not save them.

Now he looks at the overwhelming number and says, the numbers didn't save them. The people of the ancient world, the people of this ungodly world. They were not saved by the fact that they were the overwhelming majority. God does not grade on a curve. Most of you are home schooled.

You have no idea what grading on a curve is. Here's what grading on a curve is. You have 30 people in the classroom, five get A's and five flunk and the middle get grades in the middle. Okay? No matter how much, how many questions you got right.

No matter. If, if the class was lousy and didn't know very much, if you were a point or two better than lousy, you got an A. That's grading on a curve. So that you just have to be a little bit better than your neighbor. This is not the lenses through which God looks.

So that the people who say, God is putting a line between those who will be out and those who will be in, surely I'm on the good side of that line. May it never be that you would think that way. That is not the God of the Bible. It is not. God says the wages of sin is death.

If you sin, you die. So that if there were a billion people, eight were saved, the rest drowned. Example number one was the angels who sinned. Example number two was the ancient world, this ungodly world. And almost everybody, overwhelmingly, they drowned.

Example number three, God did not spare Sodom and Gomorrah. Verse six, He did not spare Sodom and Gomorrah. The account of this is in Genesis 19, and in Genesis 19, very quickly, you begin to understand that the fear of the Lord is long gone from this place. These people don't have God in mind at all. They are not afraid to do anything.

Afraid to do anything. They believe they have nothing to fear. They're secure even in the most outrageous sins. And man do we get outrageous sins in Genesis 19. But they're not afraid to do them.

They had the best of everything. You remember when Abraham and Lot, they get too numerous, their flocks are too big to stay together, their shepherds are starting to quarrel, because there's not enough resources to stick together. They have so much. God has blessed them so much. So Abraham wants no part of a contention against his nephew and he says, you choose.

If you go this way, I'll go that way. If you go That way, I'll go this way. You pick. So Lot picks the best. And he ends up down in Sodom.

So these are a people with the best of the best. The promised land is the land flowing with milk and honey. If the promised land Is the land flowing with milk and honey? If the promised land is the land flowing with milk and honey, this plain must have been the land flowing with milk and honey and gold and silver. It was the best.

They had the best and they felt secure. They thought that God did not see, but God did not spare them. God rained brimstone and fire and turned them into ashes. That's what our text today says. Turn them into ashes.

Total sudden destruction. Total annihilation of the population. So God did not spare the angels that sinned, though they excel us in every way. God did not spare the ancient world, though they were so numerous. Their numbers did not save them.

God did not save Sodom and Gomorrah, though they felt so secure. Though they had the best of everything. So God did not spare. The second thing that Peter teaches is that God does not spare. He did not in the past, and He does not now.

Look at verse 6. These things are an example to those who afterward would live ungodly. So he gives the three examples. One, two, three, and then he says, those are examples. To those who afterward would live ungodly.

Those are examples that ought to make you wise. They are types. God gives us the angels cast into hell. God gives us a flood that wipes out the population of the earth. God turns cities in the plain to ashes to point forward to a day when He will judge those who will not repent.

They are just a picture. They are just a picture of a day in the future. So you will know what happens to those who refuse to repent. To the ungodly who will not repent. Listen to Ecclesiastes 8 verse 11.

In Ecclesiastes 8 verse 11 Solomon writes this, because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. Do you understand what Solomon is teaching there? Because the sequence is rarely sin, death. Isn't that true? Rarely is it Ananias and Sapphira who lie and are killed on the spot.

It almost never works that way. Why is that? Because God is merciful, because God is long-suffering, but God doesn't want us to get the wrong idea from His mercy and His long-suffering. So this wise man Solomon is writing in Ecclesiastes and he is saying, because death doesn't follow right on the heels of sin, men get the wrong idea and their hearts are bent towards evil because they think God never saw. God won't bring it into judgment.

So God has been kind and merciful to give us these three examples. And by the way, Peter had a lot to choose from. He could go way deeper than three examples in the Old Testament. Where God brought judgment because he is a righteous God and men are sinful. Sin deserves death.

The Bible teaches that so plainly. The wages of sin is death. Because the wages aren't usually paid right on the heels of the sin, people misinterpret the long suffering of God. God doesn't want it to be so. God wants you to be wise.

And so He gives you these examples. So you'll be warned. So you'll walk in wisdom. So you'll walk in wisdom. James 1 verse 17, James writes, there is no variation or shadow of turning with God.

There is no variation, there is no shadow of turning with God. Theologians call this the immutability of God. It means that He does not change. There is not an Old Testament God and a New Testament God. There is a God of the Bible.

There is no variation. There is no shadow of turning with Him. Hebrews 13 verse 8, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, forever. He does not change. Romans 6, 23, the wages of sin is death.

That was true with Adam. So in the early chapters of Genesis after the fall you get, and he died. In the genealogies. Remember that? And he died.

And he died. And he died. Why is that? Because the wages of sin is death. God wants us to know it.

So he punctuates the genealogies with, and he died for his sins. Turn in your Bibles to Luke chapter 13. Luke chapter 13. Luke 13. Luke 13 verses 1-5.

Luke 13, beginning in verse 1. There were present at that season some who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. There were people who were sacrificing and Pilate killed them while they were sacrificing. Verse 2, and Jesus answered and said to them, do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered such things? I tell you no.

But unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them. Do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you no. But unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.

Jesus is teaching that judgment and destruction isn't for worse sinners. Some people are sacrificing and they get killed by Roman soldiers. The judgment and destruction isn't saved for worse sinners, it's saved for sinners. Because the wages of sin is death. If a tower falls on some people, you don't say, they were worse sinners, and we'll be okay.

That's the implication is the bad guys got it. But surely we're on the right side of that line so towers won't fall on us and we won't be killed when we're sacrificing. Jesus says no, away with that kind of logic. Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. You are not in a special category from the angels that sinned.

You're not in a special category than the people of the ancient world who drowned in the flood. You're not in a special category than the people who were turned to ash in Sodom and Gomorrah. You'd like to think they were worse sinners than you. They were just sinners. And they were suddenly paid their wages in a way that's unusual.

As an example, you'd know that one day every sinner will be paid his wages. This brings us to Romans chapter 9, The great chapter on the electing grace of God. It's the election chapter. It says Paul teaches that God has mercy. God has compassion.

He has mercy on people who don't deserve it. That's what mercy means. If you deserved it, you wouldn't need mercy. God is a God of mercy, and God is a God of compassion, and so he saves some. And it's not the will of man.

And You say, well that's not good, it's out of my control. That is good. If it was in your control, you would destroy yourself. Our natures since Genesis 3 and the fall are bent against God. If God just leaves you to go in your own trajectory 100% of the time we will destroy ourselves.

100%. No exceptions. That is the nature of man. So you should be glad that it isn't the will of man. And then in verse 29 of Romans chapter 9, Paul says this, unless the Lord of Sabaoth, Sabaoth means hosts, armies, Unless the Lord of armies had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom.

We would have been made like Gomorrah. If God leaves the human race alone, what you have is Sodom and Gomorrah. Judgment. Richly earned, richly deserved judgment. That's what you get, unless God is merciful.

Unless the Lord of armies had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom. We would have been made like Gomorrah. The good news of the Gospel is not that God overlooks sin. May it never be. The God of the Bible cannot overlook sin.

The good news of the Gospel is that God deals with sin in his son Jesus Christ for those who trust him. So that sinners who deserve what Sodom and Gomorrah got can come to Christ and their guilt can be transferred to His innocence. And His innocence can be transferred to them. This is not God overlooking sin and pretending like it doesn't matter that you sinned. This is God taking the righteous anger that He has towards sin and putting it on his innocent son and crushing his innocent son so that sinners can go free.

This is the good news of the Gospel. Not an unjust God who just says sin doesn't matter, but a just God who is not only just, but is also merciful. And so, he is willing to crush his son for sinners to be pardoned. So God did not spare. God does not spare.

These things are an example to tell you that He hasn't changed. He is the same God. And God delivers. Peter gives us two examples of the deliverance of God. The first is Noah in verse 5.

The text says, And did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight. Peter is pointing us to this account, so we'll understand God's salvation from judgment. He's giving us a little microcosm, a little mini world of salvation from judgment. So we'll understand that he saves and the nature of that salvation. Listen to Genesis 6 verses 7 and 8.

In Genesis chapter 6 verses 7 and 8, Moses writes, So the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. So God announces the judgment and then says, but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. This is why Noah was saved from the destruction. Because though God is just, he is also merciful.

And Noah found grace in the eyes of this just God and he was saved. Turn to Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11 drives this point home about Noah in the most remarkable way. Hebrews 11 is the great faith chapter. So you have those who were saved by faith profiled, one right after the other, after the other, after the other.

And Noah is here in the middle of them. Hebrews 11. Reading verses 6 and 7. Hebrews chapter 11 verse 6. But without faith it is impossible to please him, God.

For he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. Verse 7, By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. Noah believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. Now the Bible says that of Abraham but it practically says that of Noah here. He believed God.

That was the righteousness of Noah. When God said, I'm going to flood the earth, build an ark, and he couldn't see any water, he believed God, and that faith was credited to him as righteousness. He acted on his saving faith. His action, the building of the ark, it might have been close to a hundred years he worked on that ark. If you look at the text, That's likely.

He's building that ark and building that ark and building that ark. Is he earning his salvation? No. He's giving evidence of his saving faith. There was saving faith there.

And he believed God. And because he believed God, he built and built and built and built that ark. It was evidence of genuine faith. And not only did he build the ark, Peter says he was a preacher of righteousness. That word literally means herald.

New King James has rendered it preacher, which isn't bad, but it literally means herald. One who has the message of the king and is declaring the message of the king. That's literally in the Greek what Noah was. He was a herald of righteousness. So the people of that ungodly world had three witnesses.

It isn't as if God drowned an ignorant innocent people. That's not what happened in the ancient world. God didn't drown an ignorant innocent people. God drowned a people who had been given three witnesses. One, the law of God was written on their hearts in the early chapters of Romans.

Paul makes it so clear that those who have never seen a Bible in their life have a conscience, have coding in their heart, and they run right through their conscience. Paul says in the early chapters of Romans that on the day of judgment, their conscience will stand up and testify against them and they will be guilty, never having seen the written law of God because there was a law written on their hearts and they ran right over it. That was their first witness, the law written on their hearts. Secondly, they had the preaching of this preacher of righteousness, Noah. He was a herald.

He was declaring the message of the king. Peter records that for us. Thirdly, they had a massive boat rising out of the landscape. As construction progresses, it's more and more and more of a wonder of the world. How many people came to see this boat before it started raining?

To see, and maybe to laugh and to scoff. That's Noah. He's an example of one who God delivered. The second example is Lot. Sodom and Gomorrah is turned to ashes.

But verse 7 says that God delivered righteous Lot. It was almost total annihilation. It was sudden annihilation. But God delivered righteous Lot. Now knowing what we know about Lot, does anyone think this is works righteousness?

Are you a little surprised to see Lot described this way in 2 Peter. Righteous Lot. We know a lot about Lot. Anybody think that's works righteousness? That Lot has earned his spot with God?

I'm thankful for Lot in that sense. You can tell it's not works righteousness. He also believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. Listen to Genesis 19 verse 16. This is from the account of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Genesis 19 verse 16, And while Lot lingered, the men took hold of his hand, these are the two angels, the men took hold of his hand, his wife's hand, and the hands of his two daughters, the Lord being merciful to him. They brought him out and set him outside the city. These two examples are so clear. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Genesis 19, Lot is the second example.

It says, the Lord being merciful to him. They took them by the hand and drugged them out of the city. So they wouldn't be destroyed by this judgment. Though Lot foolishly made his home in a wicked city, Sodom, he was not unaffected by what was going on around him. He was deeply affected by what was going on around him.

He was deeply affected by what was going on around him. Verse 8 says, He tormented his righteous soul from day to day, seeing and hearing their lawless deeds. He was in Sodom. All these unrestrained acts of wickedness going on all around him. And the text says he tormented his soul from day to day, His righteous soul from day to day, seeing and hearing their lawless deeds.

This is how it is with the children of God. They may be among, living in, and around unrestrained wickedness, but they are not unaffected by that. They are deeply affected by that. Listen to the psalmist in Psalm 119. This is probably David, but it's at least the psalmist in Psalm 119.

Here's three verses. Psalm 119, 136. Rivers of water run down from my eyes, because men do not keep your law. When the children of God are around unrestrained wickedness, they are like this. They say, rivers of water run down from my eyes.

I can't stop weeping. Because men do not keep your law. Now verse 139, a few verses later, Psalm 119 verse 139, My zeal has consumed me because my enemies have forgotten your words. Verse 158, Psalm 119 verse 158, I see the treacherous and am disgusted because they do not keep your word." This is the disposition of the children of God when they are awashed in unrestrained wickedness. Listen to Paul in Acts 17 verse 16.

In Acts chapter 17 verse 16, Paul has gone ahead of Timothy and Silas to Athens. Acts 17 verse 16, Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, His spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols. Paul is walking around Athens waiting for Timothy and Silas to join him. He is seeing that The whole city is given over to idols and it says that his spirit was provoked within him. This is the disposition of the children of God when they are around unrestrained wickedness.

Here's the question. Here's the application for you. Are you like this? You're in a culture that's drifting away from the ways of God, the words of God. They're calling evil good, and they're calling good evil.

Does it provoke your spirit? Does it make rivers of water run down your face because they don't remember the words of your God? We're in the middle of idolatry, aren't we? Do we have spirits like Paul, spirits that are provoked within us, as we see people worshiping things that ought not to be worshiped, and our God not being worshiped when He ought to be. If we find ourselves losing sensitivity to the unrestrained wickedness that is rising, and not being provoked for God's glory because he ought to be worshipped.

That's trouble. That signals that we need to go back to the basics and kindle love for God in our hearts. Finally the implications for false teachers. The implications for false teachers. It's been so broad so far.

There were so many who died in the flood who weren't false teachers. They were just unregenerate people. Unrepentant people, not false teachers. There were many, I'm confident, in Sodom and Gomorrah who weren't false teachers. They were just unrepentant people.

Now, so it was broad, now Peter narrows the scope. And we get to verse 9. And it's a long if-then argument. The whole text in verse 4 started with if. If God didn't spare the angels who sinned.

If God didn't spare the ancient world. If God didn't spare Sodom and Gomorrah. If those examples tell us about our unchanging God, then. Read verse 9 with me. We're back in our text, 2 Peter 2 verse 9.

Then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment. If those examples tell us about our unchanging God, then we know that God knows how to save, deliver, rescue the godly out of temptations. Like He did Noah. Like He did Lot. And he knows how to reserve the ungodly under punishment for judgment.

Like he did the angels that sinned. Like he did the ancient world. Like he did Sodom and Gomorrah. False teachers are in themselves a temptation, a trial, a test. That Greek word that's rendered temptation here, can be rendered faithfully test or trial.

It can be any of those things. A temptation, a trial, a test. It's a proving ground. And false teachers are a proving ground. Listen to Deuteronomy 13 verse 3.

Deuteronomy 13 is about false prophets. Listen to Deuteronomy 13 verse 3. You shall not listen to the words of that false prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. When a false teacher comes with false teachings, you are being tested by the Lord to see whether you really love him.

That is what Deuteronomy 13.3 says. A false teacher in and of himself is a test, it is a trial. It is a temptation sent by God to test you to know whether you really love him or not. His children reject false teachers. They know the voice of the shepherd.

So false shepherds, they recognize as such and they reject. What Peter is teaching in these last verses is that those with saving faith are preserved. The unjust, the unrepentant are reserved. Those with faith are preserved, they're rescued, they're saved. Those who will not repent are reserved for the Day of Judgment.

Verse 10 says, especially. Judgment is for the unrepentant. Judgment is for the ungodly. But especially, King James says, chiefly for people like this, false teachers. So now we're getting more in verses 9-11 about the distinguishing marks of false teachers.

So there is more content here. Peter helping us to understand and recognize false teachers so we can see them. There are two things he says about them here. First, that they are governed by their appetites. Peter says that about false teachers.

False teachers are governed, ruled, dominated by their appetites. To put it in the words that Paul uses in Philippians 3.19, their God is their belly. Worship their appetites. Verse 10, they walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness. That's to have your god as your belly.

You walk according to the flesh. Whatever your flesh wants, you do. You serve it. You're a slave to it. You're governed by it.

Now this is supposed to be the anti-elder. Remember, it hasn't been too far back, we were going through the qualifications of elders. 1 Timothy 3, Titus 1. This is the anti-elder. An elder is supposed to be anything but governed by his appetites.

He's supposed to be sober-minded. He is not to be self-willed. Peter here says these men are self-willed. So number one, they're governed by their appetites. Number two, Peter says that they hate authority.

They hate authority. They won't submit to it. And they're totally unafraid to slander those in authority. So all the way around, they won't submit to it and they're totally unafraid to slander those in authority. There's a few ways you can take this last verse.

Because it says that angels who are greater in power and might do not bring a reviling accusation against them before the Lord." You've got to figure out who the them is and how this makes sense with the passage. There are a number of interpretations. I'm not going there. I'm going to tell you the one I think it is. I think John Calvin gets it right.

Here's what he says. So John Calvin takes the position that the angels will not bring a reviling accusation against human authorities." That's his position. I think he's right. Here's how he explains his position. When we consider the circumstances of the time that Peter was writing in.

What is said applies very suitably to holy angels. For all the magistrates were then ungodly and bloody enemies of the gospel. In other words, the ruling governing authorities at the time when Peter is writing this letter are at war with God's people and the gospel. They must, These holy angels, therefore, have been hateful to angels, the guardians of the church. Peter however says that men deserving hatred were not condemned by these angels in order that they might show respect to a power divinely appointed.

While such moderation, Peter says, is shown by angels, these men, these false teachers fearlessly give vent to impious and unbridled blasphemies. What John Calvin is saying is, you have all these ungodly governors. The world at that time is awash with gospel hating, people of God opposing governors. Caesar on down. And the angels hate that Because the angels are the guardians of the church.

In Hebrews 1 we find out that angels are ministering spirits sent to help people who have trusted in Christ. They are the guardians of the church. How much the guardians of the church feel about God-hating governors? They don't like them, but even so, they will not bring a reviling accusation. Why?

Because they know that every authority is appointed by God, not just the good ones. Remember back to 1 Peter chapter 2. 1 Peter chapter 2, Peter teaches us that Christians relate in a certain way to authorities, even bad ones. It's not that Christians obey good authorities and are free to disregard and slander bad authorities. That's not what Peter teaches at all.

Peter teaches that Christians submit to their authorities even the bad ones because they know that those authorities were appointed by God. Even the bad ones for his own purposes according to his own wisdom. Okay, Where have we been? Where have we been? God did not spare the angels who sinned, the ancient world, Sodom and Gomorrah.

God doesn't change, so God does not spare. Those were given us as examples, so that we wouldn't misinterpret the long suffering, the mercy of God. That he doesn't always pay the wages for sin right away. That he gives sinners time to repent. There's going to be more of that as we progress through 2 Peter.

I'm going to say that more explicitly. So God did not spare, God does not spare, God delivers. He knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations. Listen to Ezekiel 33 verse 11. This is so critical to our understanding of the judgment of God.

Ezekiel 33 verse 11. As I live, says the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways, For why should you die, O house of Israel?" Whatever you think of God, your theology must accommodate Ezekiel 33, 11 as true. God was glorified in the flood and in the judgment of those wicked. But God was not rejoicing over the drowning of those wicked.

Ezekiel 33 verse 11 says so clearly, it's God Himself speaking, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Why would you die? Turn! Turn from your wicked ways. Pardon is offered in Jesus Christ.

Your sins can be forgiven if you will turn and trust, repent, and believe the gospel. God knows how to deliver. He knows how to deliver you. The Lord knows how to deliver the ungodly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment. The people of God should be so encouraged from this text.

Those who have yet to repent should be terrified. That's how God would have it. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for your truth. I pray that you would press these things home in Jesus' name, Amen.