Sunday School: Rescuing the Godly, Judging the Wicked (2 Peter 2:4-10)

You are listening to the teaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on this podcast we feature 20 minutes of Bible study through a

New Testament book. On Thursday is a study in the Old Testament and then we answer questions from the listeners on Friday.

Each Sunday we are pleased to share our sermon series. Here's Pastor Gabe. 2

Peter chapter 2, and I'm going to begin reading again in verse 1.

We'll go through about midway through verse 10. But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the

Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed.

And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation 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 chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment, if He did not spare the ancient world, but preserve

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, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, as we look at these words again today, I pray that our minds are sharpened, our hearts are sensitive to know the word of Christ as has been given to us, all that is contained in your word between Genesis 1 to Revelation 22, and we are feeding upon these words and they are stored up in our hearts, that we may know the difference between the truth and the lies, that we are able to discern the teachers who come with the word of God versus those who speak from the world, and we will not be led astray and to error, but we will continue on the straight and narrow path of your truth.

We ask for discernment this morning, for guidance, for conviction. It's in Jesus' name that we pray, amen.

So we're reminded once again of Peter contrasting the truth with the lie.

The truth that he proclaimed in chapter 1, saying what we proclaim to you, comes from eyewitness testimony.

We talked about the authenticity of the scriptures, the guarantee, the confidence that we can have that what we read in the

Bible is indeed true. And as Peter shifts into chapter 2, he says there's going to be other guys out there though that are speaking what they do not know.

They're going to come to you bold and willful. They're going to have confidence in their words. They'll be charismatic.

You'll be captivated by what it is that they say, but they bring destruction and not life.

The word that they have for you is not of God. It is of themselves. It is of this world.

It is of Satan, false prophets arising among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you.

There were false prophets before in Israel that led them astray, and they're going to be with you as well.

This is starting to ring again. I apologize for that. So I'm going to switch mics. Check.

All right. I've spent more years doing sound equipment than I've spent years preaching.

So sound equipment, that really gets distracting for me. So to eliminate the whistle,

I hope you don't mind that I'm going to switch over to this. So again, there's our recap there with Peter talking about the truth versus the lie.

He presents himself as one of those true apostles. Watch out for the false teachers.

The apostle Paul in Acts chapter 20, speaking to the elders in Ephesus, had said that wolves will even arise from among yourselves.

And how intimidating would that have been to those elders that were there listening to the apostle Paul and hearing him say to them, hey, there's going to be wolves that will rise up from among you.

The reaction must have been like the disciples around the table at the last supper when

Jesus said that one was going to betray him. And they're looking at each other going, you? Is it I, Lord?

Is it going to be me? And Paul says that to the elders in Ephesus. Might have been the same reaction. Is it going to be me?

Is it going to be you? But we are given the truth that we would remain fixed upon the truth, that we would not be led astray by the lies.

And then Peter gives us examples of those false teachers, those liars who are going to attempt to lead you astray.

He warns that their condemnation from long ago is not idle and their destruction is not asleep.

In verse three, judgment will come upon them. Why would God allow there to be false teachers?

As I mentioned last week, the two reasons that were given in scripture is for testing and for judgment.

As God said to the Israelites in Deuteronomy, false prophets will come among you.

Chapters 13 and chapter 18. And he says to test you, to see if you love the

Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. In second

Thessalonians chapter two, we are told that false teachers are given as a judgment so that the people would believe what is false and then continue in their unrighteousness and come into judgment.

So God will give false teachers either for testing or either for judgment. God has a reason and a purpose for why those false teachers exist.

We shouldn't look at false teachers in the world and even in the church today as evidence that God's apparently not doing anything about this.

When's he coming back? That's what the scoffers end up saying in chapter three. Well, where is this return that you've been talking about?

Everything's been going the same way from the beginning of the world until now. So scoffers come with their scoffing.

That's going to be the result of the scoffers to these false teachers. But Peter says the judgment is coming upon them.

Do not go in their way or you will fall into judgment with the rest of them. Now consider the examples that Peter gives of the judgment that comes upon those who have dealt falsely, who have gone astray from the way of God.

The first example he gives is of heavenly beings. 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.

Now we got a semicolon there, but then just skip ahead to verse nine. So read that verse four again.

I'm going to read verse four and then read verse nine right after it. 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, then the

Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment.

If God's going to do that with unholy angels, the unholy beings that had rebelled against God, then he knows how to do that with mankind that rebels against God as well.

That's kind of the point that's being made there. Now there are a lot of people that will take angels and demons.

And he kind of mentioned that we have of that in the scripture, and it kind of becomes a hobby horse for a lot of people. And then there's explanations as to what this means regarding angels being in hell and committed to chains.

And where the demons come from and all this kind of thing. There's a teacher out there by the name of Michael Heiser.

I consider Heiser to be a false teacher. For one, he denies the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement.

That's always the one doctrine that you can kind of come to and go, where does this guy land on penal substitutionary atonement?

If he's wrong on that one, then he's gonna be wrong on a whole lot of other doctrines as well. So just with penal substitutionary atonement, we understand that Christ died on the cross for our sins.

That he died as an atoning sacrifice, as a substitute. We deserve that judgment, but Christ died and took the wrath of God upon himself with his death on the cross.

So the judgment that we deserve for our sin, Christ took instead. Our sin was imputed to him upon the cross.

And he imputed his righteousness to us, all who would have faith in him. Where do we find penal substitutionary atonement?

In Isaiah 53, where it says that the Lord has laid upon him the iniquity of us all.

In 2 Corinthians 5 .21, where it says, for our sake he became sin who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

There we have even the double imputation. Our sins imputed to Christ, his righteousness imputed to us.

That's simply what we mean by penal substitutionary atonement. It's a thoroughly biblical doctrine.

It is an essential doctrine, as Pastor Tom has talked about. Somebody denies penal substitutionary atonement, they're a heretic.

So Michael Heiser is one of those guys that has denied PSA. Last week

I gave the example of Michael Gunger. He's another one that has denied penal substitutionary atonement.

And you see where that took him. He went into universalism. But anyway, Heiser rejecting that doctrine loves to wander off into myth, into silly myths and irreverent doctrines.

The things that Paul warned Timothy about in 1 Timothy chapter 4 have nothing to do with irreverent silly myths, but rather train yourself for godliness.

Heiser is one of those guys that likes to wander off into myths. And his hobby horse is angels and demons.

If you ever look up like a book from Michael Heiser, I think he's got a book called The Spiritual Realm, might be the name of one.

He's got one called Angels, one called Demons. So he's got like a library of these spiritual warfare books.

And they're full of myths. There's a lot of speculation. Those that I know who have done deeper studies in the stuff that it is that he's written, they will tell me that, well, he wanders off in a lot of extra biblical references.

So a lot of what he's referencing doesn't even come from what scripture actually says about angels and demons.

It's even from like Jewish myths and some of those ancient literatures that don't have anything to do with the canon of scripture.

So you'll hear from those guys that'll take a passage like this, if God did not spare angels, they cast them into hell, they were committed to chains, they're going to go in all different kinds of directions with that.

There's nothing mysterious for us going on here that we need to delve into to kind of understand, okay, well, what's happening here?

Angels and hell and chains, like what's that supposed to mean? The point here is simply that God has judged those angels that rebelled against him.

And they even know of the greater judgment that's coming upon them in the future.

They've already received one judgment in that they've been cast out of his presence. And there's a greater judgment that's coming that we read about in Revelation where they're cast into the lake that burns with fire and sulfur along with everyone else who followed

Satan and rejected Christ. So, you know, you think, for example, of the demon legion that faced

Christ in the Gospels, in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and legion encountering

Jesus says, what do you have to do with us, O son of the most high? Have you come to judge us before the appointed time?

So they know a judgment is coming. They've already received one, they're going to get another judgment. And God was not idle when a judgment came upon those angels.

And there's even a judgment foretold that is going to go deeper than that when the final judgment of Christ comes against them.

So if God did not spare angels when they sin, then he's not going to spare people when they sin either.

That's simply the point that's being made here. It's not a reason for us to have to understand more deeply or more intensely some of the spiritual warfare aspects of this that's going on.

The reference is simply made that we would know. God has judged angels, he's going to judge mankind as well.

That we would cling to truth and not wander off into lies. That we would understand the severity of judgment that comes upon those who go after that which is not of God.

The angels rebelled against God. We rebel against God when we go after things that are not of him.

That the words that did not come from him or his prophets or his apostles. When we wander after those things, that's serious.

That's rebellion against God. That is a declaration that we can be righteous without God. That there is a truth or there is something to be known that God does not know.

And so I have to go over here in order to find that thing that will fulfill me, that will appease my mind.

All of this is in rebellion against God. It is the pride of man. It is I know better than God knows.

And as God judged angels who declared that same thing, so he will judge mankind as well.

The next example, if he did not spare the ancient world, this is verse 5, but preserved

Noah a herald of righteousness with seven others when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly.

Noah a herald of righteousness. We often ask of Noah, like, did he warn people about the flood, the judgment that was to come?

According to what Peter says here, the likelihood would be yes. That Noah did tell the people, judgment is coming, repent.

But they did not. He proclaimed the righteousness of God. He was a herald of righteousness, not just heralding it with his voice or with his words, but this was a man who lived righteously among the people.

And so they should have been able to observe from Noah's conduct that this was a man who did not live as we lived.

And yet they did not heed the testimony and continued to rebel against God.

Great sexual depravity, great violence that the people committed against one another, that we read about in Genesis, before the flood came.

He was a herald of righteousness with seven others, of course, his three sons, their wives,

Noah's wife as well, when God brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly.

So we start with God's judgment of angels that had rebelled against him.

And we know that that rebellion happened before the flood because Satan's in the Garden of Eden in Genesis chapter 3, tempting

Eve, tempting mankind to do that which God said not to do.

So we start with the angels, then we go to the next great judgment that we read about in Scripture.

And that is the judgment that came upon the world. God having wiped out all of mankind except eight people whom he was gracious toward, showed mercy upon, upon an ark with animals that were spared from the flood that destroyed creation.

The next example is verse 6. 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.

You see the progression as we're going through Scripture here. We know of a judgment that came upon angels.

We know of the judgment that came upon the world. We see a judgment that came upon Sodom and Gomorrah, which was in Genesis chapter 19.

And God used Sodom and Gomorrah to serve as an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly.

Jude chapter, or chapter, yeah, there's only one chapter in Jude. But Jude verse 7, where it says the same thing there, that God brought fire upon Sodom and Gomorrah because they burned with unnatural desire, so God burned them with fire from heaven, to serve as an example of judgment that comes upon those who live in sexual immorality.

Verse 7, 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 look at that again, verses 7 and 8. How many times do you see the word righteous in there?

Can you count that? Verses 7 and 8, how many times do we see the word righteous? Three times, right?

Once in verse 7, twice in verse 8. He rescued righteous

Lot. Verse 8, that righteous man lived among them day after day.

He was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard.

God rescues Lot out of the judgment that is coming upon them. God rescues

Noah out of the judgment that is coming upon them. These are examples of God rescuing the righteous out of the judgment that he will pour out upon the wicked.

Noah was a herald of righteousness. Lot was a righteous man with a righteous soul.

Was Lot righteous? Was Lot righteous? Yeah. 2

Peter says he was. Three times it says he is. I mean, how do you argue with that? If God says three times that Lot is righteous, then surely we have to believe that Lot is righteous.

Let's go to Genesis chapter 19. Let's go ahead and turn there together. You held up a hand there,

Jason. Yeah. Oh, he was oppressed.

Okay. LSB and the NASB say oppressed and ESV says distressed.

Genesis 19, let's look at... Now, at least in the

ESV, I've got a certain title here. If you're reading NASB, maybe you have a different title. But what's the bold heading above Genesis 19?

The doom of Sodom, right? Anybody got anything else above chapter 19? God rescues

Lot. Isn't that interesting? We got a couple of different titles. Sodom's depravity, yeah.

So we got some very... There's different takes here. Where are we looking? Are we seeing the destruction that comes upon a city?

Are we seeing the mercy of God that comes upon a man that God had rescued out of the judgment that is coming there?

The answer is both are true. God is rescuing Lot, and he's also bringing judgment about Sodom.

So let's start at the beginning here. Genesis 19, verse one. The two angels came to Sodom in the evening. Remember, God and Abraham have had a conversation here.

God is gonna destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. He sends two angels there to rescue

Lot and his family out of the city. So the two angels come to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom.

Where was he? In the gate. What happens in the gate? Judgment.

Yeah, that's exactly what happens in the gate. When you read the law of God, let's summarize it just to Deuteronomy.

So not the whole first five books of the Bible, but in Deuteronomy itself, when God is giving instructions to Israel about how they're gonna deal with matters of judgment among them, he's sending them into the promised land.

They're gonna capture those cities and they're gonna dwell in cities that other people have built. And when

God is giving them laws and how they're going to execute those laws among the cities that they're gonna settle in, he says to them, when you handle this matter, you will meet where?

At the gate of the city. So God is telling Israel, here's where the judgments are gonna be handled.

They're gonna be among the elders. They're gonna be right there at the gate of the city. That didn't start with the law of God.

That had been going on in the ancient world long before that. Even among pagan wicked cities, traditionally judgments were held in the city gate.

And it was a testament, not just to everybody in the city, but everybody who would come from outside.

If anybody comes and visits that city, they know where judgment is being held. And they know that these are the laws of this city.

If I break this law, here's where judgment is gonna be upheld, right here in the city gate. The righteousness of that city begins and ends right at the entrance.

And so lot is there in the city gate. And by all accounts here, at least what's given to us in Genesis 19, he's the only one there.

How many righteous people did God know were in Sodom and Gomorrah to be rescued out before he destroyed it?

Only lot, he was the only one. Abraham had managed to break that deal with God or make that deal with God.

Hey, if there's 10 righteous people, will you spare the city? God says, yes, for 10 righteous people,

I will spare Sodom and Gomorrah. And we know there was only one. And there's the answer to the dilemma right there.

The one righteous man is right there in the city gate to be a judge over legal matters in that city.

And he sees the angels coming when they arrived. Lot saw them, he rose to meet them, bowed himself with his face to the earth, verse two, and said, my lords, please turn aside to your servant's house and spend the night and wash your feet.

Then you may rise up early and go on your way. And they said, no, we're gonna spend the night in the town square, but he pressed them strongly.

So they turned aside to him and entered his house and he made them a feast and baked unleavened bread and they ate.

So I ask you this question again, was Lot righteous? Yes, Lot is a righteous man.

Verse four, but before they lay down the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man surrounded the house.

And they called to Lot, where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them.

And we know the biblical inference there of these sick, perverted men and what they wanted to do with those angels.

Lot went out to the men at the entrance. He shut the door after him and he said,

I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly.

Let me ask you again, was Lot a righteous man? Yes, Lot is a righteous man.

Verse eight, behold, I have two daughters who have not known any man.

Let me bring them out to you and do to them as you please. Only do nothing to these men for they have come under the shelter of my roof.

Why would he do that? Let me ask you again, was Lot a righteous man? Suddenly the answer to that question is a little, you hesitate on that a little bit more.

Like, wait a minute, this guy who's taking care of these men, who's bringing them into his house, who's trying to protect them from these wicked people in the city and yet he wants to give his daughters to them?

Why would he do such a thing like that? What's that? Yeah, he was trying to appease them, right?

Yet they'd never known a man, right? So coming back to the question again, how can we know that Lot was righteous?

If Lot was gonna do something like this, I think we're all sitting here agreeing that's a pretty awful thing to do.

He knows what these men want to do with the two angels that came and he's gonna offer his daughters to them?

He wouldn't have accepted them because they were virgins. Yeah, I think we're speculating there though.

I mean, like, I wanna do the same thing. I wanna come to this text, I wanna try to explain why would Lot do something like that?

Let me ask you this question. Do righteous people do sinful things? Yeah, they do.

Let's keep a finger here in Genesis chapter 19. Hold onto this. Let's go over to Romans chapter three.

So keep a finger here in Genesis 19 because I'm gonna come back to it.

Let's go to Romans three, beginning in verse 10. You knew

I was gonna go here, right? As it is written, none is righteous. No, not one.

No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside.

Together they have become worthless. No one does good, not even one.

So if no one does good, then how is Lot a righteous man? Is Lot a righteous man?

Peter says he is three times he says that Lot is a righteous man. So we have to believe

God's word says it. Lot's a righteous man. Skip down to verse 21,

Romans 3, 21. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it.

The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe for there is no distinction for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom

God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith.

There's that penal substitutionary atonement again, even here in Romans 3. This was to show

God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins.

It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

So was Lot a righteous man? Yes. How can we say that he was a righteous man?

Say again? God passed over his sins. God had atoned for his sins through the blood of Christ, which by the way,

I mean, we don't often think about this because we're on this side of the cross, right? We're on the New Testament side of the cross.

So we know Jesus has atoned for our sins. We can go back and read about it. He's died on the cross for us.

He was the lamb that was sacrificed for us. Everything else was types and shadows in the

Old Testament is pointing to Christ. We don't really think about the perception of Christ from the

Old Testament perspective. Those that were on the other side of the cross, how did they have their sins atoned for?

Because Hebrew says the blood of goats and rams and bulls did not have the power to atone for sins anyway.

So how did they have their sins atoned for? Same way we have our sins atoned for, by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

Now they did not yet know that name in the Old Testament, but they had the promise of God that was given that through Abraham would come one and that seed would be the promised seed that would take away the sin of the world.

And so Lot who God has shown mercy and grace to, though he also is wicked, yet it's by the grace of God and Lot's belief in a promise that was given even to his relative

Abraham that he would be delivered. This man continued in righteousness though the rest of his city had been wicked.

And it's a righteousness that came not from himself. It came from God. I'll get hers first and then

I'll come back to you, Jason. Okay, go ahead. Yeah, it was panic.

Sure, definitely. I mean, it was stupid. He did a stupid thing. Right, I don't think we can read that and think that Lot was really doing anything strategic there because he did do dumb things.

Lot did, he made ignorant decisions. Why was he even there in Sodom and Gomorrah in the first place?

You know, that's one that always baffled me. But of course I'm no better.

I mean, how many of us continue to sit among unrighteousness and just continue to tolerate it instead of saying something about it or doing something about it?

So we're all the same. God showed mercy. Lot is called righteous because God was gracious to him.

That's really what it comes down to. Jason? Yeah, right, right.

So God is giving him a revelation, an understanding of who they are. Now, Lot doesn't know why they're there because he's inviting them, hey, come eat and then you can go out in the morning.

So he doesn't know that they're there to judge and destroy the city. Yeah, he's hoping they're gonna find some more righteous people there and they're not gonna destroy the city too.

That's right. That's where Abraham's heart is. And we're talking about two men who in and of their own merit are unrighteous, right?

Lot and Abraham. Was Abraham a righteous man? Yeah, by grace through faith, yes.

Because he has the righteousness of God, yes. But Abraham by his own merit, was he a righteous man?

No. I mean, giving his sister to Pharaoh or his wife to Pharaoh and saying, oh, this is my sister, you know?

Lying so that he can save himself and basically treating his own bride as a harlot.

I mean, that was awful thing for Abraham to do. Terrible thing for him to lie about that and it was not trusting

God. God had told Abraham that he was gonna make him into a great nation. And yet Abraham goes into Egypt and he goes, oh, they're gonna kill me.

So he doesn't trust God that God is gonna protect him. Instead, he lies about his own wife in order to try to protect himself.

So Abraham's not a good man either. Lot's not good, Abraham's not good.

Yet we call Lot righteous because of the grace of God.

Because he has a righteousness that is not his own. It is a righteousness that comes from God.

Let's continue on. Let's finish up Genesis 19 and then we'll go back to 2 Peter. So in verse nine, but they said, stand back.

This fellow came to sojourn and he has become the judge. Now we will deal worse with you than with them.

How did the people of Sodom respond? Do they think Lot's a righteous man? They actually think he is, but they're offended by that, right?

He's not righteous based on our standard of righteousness, but we know that this guy has become a judge.

Where was Lot sitting when the angels came up? He was in the gate. This is a man who is not a native to Sodom and yet he's in the gate making judgments between right and wrong for the people of Sodom that he might bring righteousness to the city, but they won't listen to him.

They're offended by the goodness that Lot aspires to have.

And Paul said to Timothy that people will hate you because you desire godliness.

Those who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,

Paul says. He doesn't say there, Timothy, if you go out into Ephesus and you proclaim the gospel, people are gonna hate you for that.

That's not what Paul says. Just because you desire to be godly, people are gonna hate you for that.

And wouldn't you know it, Peter said something similar as well. We'll look at that when we flip back over to 2 Peter chapter two.

But for here, the men reached out their hands. They were going to destroy

Lot into verse nine. They pressed hard against the man Lot. They drew near to break the door down, but the men reached out their hands, brought

Lot into the house with them and shut the door. And they struck with blindness the men who were at the entrance of the door, both small and great, so that they wore themselves out groping at the door.

They're blind and they're still trying to get in. They were blinded with wickedness.

They're physically blinded and they continue in their wickedness to try to destroy those who lived righteously.

Then the men said to Lot, have you anyone else here, sons -in -law, daughters or anyone else in the city, bring them out of this place for we're about to destroy it because the outcry against its people has become great before the

Lord and the Lord has sent us to destroy it. So Lot went out and said to his sons -in -law who were to marry his daughters, up, get out of this place for the

Lord is about to destroy the city. But he seemed to his sons -in -law to be jesting. As morning dawned, the angels urged

Lot saying, up, take your wife and two daughters who are here lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city.

But he lingered. So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the Lord being merciful to him.

And they brought him out and set him outside the city. And as they brought them out, one said, escape for your life.

Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills lest you be swept away.

And Lot said to them, oh no, my lords, behold, your servant has found favor in your sight and you have shown me great kindness in saving my life, but I cannot escape to the hills lest the disaster overtake me and I die.

Behold, this city is near me to flee to. It's a little one. Let me escape there. Is it not a little one?

And my life will be saved. And he said to him, behold, I grant you this favor also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken.

Escape there quickly, for I can do nothing until you arrive there. Therefore, the name of that city was called

Zoar, which means little. The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar, and then the

Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah, sulfur and fire from the

Lord out of heaven. The Lord rained from the Lord fire and sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah.

And he overthrew those cities and all the valley and all the inhabitants of the cities and what grew on the ground.

But Lot's wife behind him looked back and she became a pillar of salt. And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the

Lord and he looked down towards Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the valley. And he looked and behold, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace.

So it was that when God destroyed the cities of the valley, God remembered Abraham and sent

Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities in which

Lot had lived. What do we read about next in Genesis 19? 20 to 38, or I'm sorry, 30 to 38.

What do we read about there? Yeah, I see some heads shaking. What's that?

The descendants of Lot. That's a good way of putting it, yes. So what did Lot's daughters do?

I'm not asking you to answer that question, but we know what Lot's daughters had done with Lot.

Got him drunk, slept with him. So we see more unrighteousness come out of this family as we go.

But was Lot a righteous man? Yes. Why was Lot a righteous man?

Because he had a righteousness that was not his own. He had a righteousness that came from God.

Let's go back to 2 Peter now. Well, hang on before doing that. So as you're flipping back to 2

Peter, stop in 1 Peter chapter four. I'm gonna start in verse one.

1 Peter 4 .1. Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking.

For whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. So as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh, no longer for human passions, but for the will of God.

What are we taking out of what we have read today? But my encouragement to you, flee from sin and cling to Christ.

Verse three. For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles, what the pagans want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.

With respect to this, they're surprised when you don't join them in the same flood of debauchery and they malign you.

What did the people of Sodom do with Lot? They hated him because he would not join them in their flood of debauchery.

The world will hate us just because we desire righteousness. The world will hate us just because we will not go their way.

But as Peter is setting before us here in 1 Peter and in 2 Peter, a contrast. Here's righteousness, here's lawlessness, that we may know righteousness and choose the way of God and not be led astray into lawlessness by false teachers.

Peter goes on here in verse five. Same thing we're reading in 2 Peter 2, but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

They will give an account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

Let's finish back in 2 Peter 2 again. 2 Peter 2, let me read verses seven and eight once more.

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.

That's what God is doing even in our wicked culture right now. He's rescuing the godly from trials and he is keeping the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment.

And so my friends know the difference between the righteous and the unrighteous.

Choose the way of righteousness for we who are in Christ have been called to be slaves of righteousness.

As Paul says in Romans chapter six, we finish with the half verse of 10, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.

May we know the authority of God's word, may it be stored up in our hearts, may we know it, may we keep it, may we do what it says.

We're gonna be tormented in our righteous souls as we live in these unrighteous times, but hold fast to Christ.

He has the last word and we will reign with him in victory. Amen. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for what you have shown us here in this word. I pray that we would not think too highly of ourselves.

We would not think of ourselves as I'm better than everybody else. For as we've read in the scriptures, even those who desire to do right will do stupid things.

We read in Ephesians chapter two, that we were once like the rest of mankind, following the ways of the world, the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work and the sons of disobedience.

But it is by the grace of God that we have been turned from wickedness to righteousness and turned from children of wrath into children of God.

May we live as children of God in these present days. May we be heralds of righteousness, proclaiming the goodness of God that is shown in his son,

Jesus Christ our Lord, that others may hear the good news of the gospel and turn from their sin to Christ and live.

Be with us, Lord Jesus. We pray in his precious name and all God's people said, amen.

Thank you, you are dismissed. Amen.