Welcome to Day 2439 of Wisdom-Trek. Thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Day 2439 – The God of Wrath and Rescue – Daily Wisdom

Putnam Church Message – 08/04/2024

Denunciation of False Teachers – The God of Wrath and Rescue- 2 Peter 2:4-11

Last week, we learned to be on guard against false teachers by knowing God’s Word and taking time to Stop, Look, Listen, and Think about what is being taught compared to God’s Word. If you miss any messages, you can watch them online on our FaceBook page or at PutnamChurch.org.

Today’s passage is 2 Peter 2:4-11, on page 1895 of your Pew Bibles. Because of the complexities of the subject matter, I will read it from the NLT for clarity of flow.

 ⁴ For God did not spare even the angels who sinned. He threw them into hell,^[a] in gloomy pits of darkness,^[b] where they are being held until the day of judgment. ⁵ And God did not spare the ancient world—except for Noah and the seven others in his family. Noah warned the world of God’s righteous judgment. So God protected Noah when he destroyed the world of ungodly people with a vast flood. ⁶ Later, God condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and turned them into heaps of ashes. He made them an example of what will happen to ungodly people. ⁷ But God also rescued Lot out of Sodom because he was a righteous man who was sick of the shameful immorality of the wicked people around him. ⁸ Yes, Lot was a righteous man who was tormented in his soul by the wickedness he saw and heard day after day. ⁹ So you see, the Lord knows how to rescue godly people from their trials, even while keeping the wicked under punishment until the day of final judgment. ¹⁰ He is especially hard on those who follow their own twisted sexual desire, and who despise authority.

These people are proud and arrogant, daring even to scoff at supernatural beings^[c] without so much as trembling. ¹¹ But the angels, who are far greater in power and strength, do not dare to bring from the Lord^[d] a charge of blasphemy against those supernatural beings.

The early church reacted quickly and decisively against heresies in the first and second centuries, but the “problem” of the two sides of God’s character still puzzles believers. Like two sides of the same coin (coin), scripture does seem to present two sides of the same God—the attributes of justice, judgment, and wrath on the one side and the attributes of mercy, salvation, and blessing on the other. These two “sides” of God are reflected well in Exodus 34:6-7.

⁶ The Lord passed in front of Moses, calling out,

“Yahweh!^[a] The Lord!
The God of compassion and mercy!
I am slow to anger
and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness.
⁷ I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations.^[b]
I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin.
But I do not excuse the guilty.
I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren;
the entire family is affected—
even children in the third and fourth generations.”

The first part of this description is the picture we all want to frame and hang over the mantle—the loving Father who sends forth kindness, forgives our sins, and overflows in blessing. But the second part of this verse reminds us of the sobering reality that God refuses to wink at sin. His judgment is sometimes so severe that its blast waves ripple forward three or four generations!

Whether God appears as a kind, loving Father or a vengeful, wrathful Judge depends on our relationship with Him. Paul says, “Notice how God is both kind and severe. He is severe toward those who disobeyed, but kind to you if you continue to trust in his kindness. But if you stop trusting, you also will be cut off.” (Rom. 11:22). In fact, Paul says the message of the gospel itself can appear either sweet or sour, depending on whether a person believes or disbelieves: “Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God. But this fragrance is perceived differently by those who are being saved and by those who are perishing. ¹⁶ To those who are perishing, we are a dreadful smell of death and doom. But to those who are being saved, we are a life-giving perfume. And who is adequate for such a task as this?” (2 Cor. 2:15-16).

These same two sides of God—His compassion and His judgment—come together in 2 Peter 2:4-11. For the false teachers, judgment is coming. But for those who are saved, God will rescue them from wrath. In this passage, Peter shares a warning, a promise, and a hope—calling believers to persevere diligently in sound doctrine.

By the way, |you may be startled to realize that 2:4-10a is one large sentence in Greek. In most English translations, it reads like a massive run-on sentence. Structurally, though, it’s quite simple. Bulletin- It follows a basic “if… then” structure in which Peter basically says: “If God has historically established a pattern of reserving judgment of the wicked for the proper time while rescuing His righteous people,/ then we can be confident that He will do the same in the future—rescue us from the coming great wrath and leave the wicked false teachers behind for judgment.”

Knowing the basic argument, let’s examine how Peter builds his case in 2:4-10.

— 2:4-8 —

We can divide the “if” side of Peter’s “if. . . then” statement in 2:4-10 into two historical episodes—the judgment of the world in the days of Noah and the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah in the days of Lot. The first episode included the judgment of wicked divine beings (2:4) and wicked men and women (2:5). The question comes up: who are these divine beings (angels) that God placed in the gloomy pits of darkness? Bulletin Insert

Who are the divine beings we call angels that sinned (2:4)? We have three options. First, some have held that Peter refers to the original fall of angelic beings that coincided with the fall of Satan, after God created humans and put them in charge of His creation. (Ezek. 28:11-19). However, 2 Peter tells us that all of these sinning angels referenced in V4 were cast into pits of darkness and reserved for judgment. But in contrast, we know that the Satan and his evil cohorts are free and active in the world (Matt. 12:27-28; 1 Pet. 5:8).

As a second option, some have considered this to be a second fall of good angels that took place sometime after the first fall of the Satan and his cohorts. This group could have been the divine beings God put in charge of the nations when he divided humans up at the Tower of Babbel. It is thought that after they received authority, they, too, turned the humans away from God. However, we have no record of such a second fall, so they may have already fallen when they received the authority over the gentile nations. (Remember that gentile means not of Israel). From that point on, it seems likely that the remaining angels who did not fall with Satan were sealed in their state of righteousness. Paul refers to “chosen angels” (1 Tim. 5:21), and this has often been understood to refer to angels who passed the test of Satan’s fall and were sealed in their state of tested perfection, never able to fall.

The most likely option, then, is that the wicked angels referred to in 2 Peter 2:4 were among the angels who fell with Satan, but they then committed some subsequent sin—a sin so heinous that it necessitated a more severe judgment than what had already befallen them. Peter does not tell us what sin the wicked angels committed in this particular passage. It seems his readers would have already known what event Peter referred to. Peter helps clarify the meaning of this text when he talks about their judgment.

Peter says that God “threw them into hell,^[a] in gloomy pits of darkness,^[b] where they are being held until the day of judgment” (2:4). He uses a unique word for “hell,” different from the typical New Testament terms hadês (place of the dead) (Matt. 11:23). He uses orgehenna (Matt. 5:22). In fact, he says God cast the angels who sinned into Tartarus. Tartarus was regarded as a place of torment and punishment in the Greek world beyond Hades. Not only does Peter draw on Greek imagery to reinforce the severity of this judgment on sinning angels, but he also refers to a popular book among Jews and Christians in the first century called 1 Enoch. The writers of that book creatively recast the biblical account of the flood (Gen. 6), describing the sins of the angelic beings who cohabited with human women. For this heinous and unnatural crime, they were cast into the place of deepest darkness and reserved for the day of judgment. On that day, the spirits of wickedness would be cast into fire (1 Enoch 10.6-9). If you remember our lesson from 1 Peter, Tartarus is where Christ appears on Saturday between his crucifixion and resurrection to proclaim his victory over death and evil.

In this light, it seems that what Peter calls “Tartarus” is the same as the “abyss” (abyssos), which the New Testament mentions several times. During Jesus’ ministry, demons implore Him not to send them into the “abyss or bottomless pit” (Luke 8:31). Satan himself is cast into the “abyss” after the return of Christ (Rev. 20:3) before he is finally consigned to the lake of fire (Rev. 20:10). This seems to be a deep, dark holding place for wicked spirits that prevents them from having any contact with or influence on the world. This is like a cross between solitary confinement and death row; Tartarus is the holding cell where the most wicked spirits await judgment. This interpretation fits Peter’s argument best.

In 2:5, Peter connects the timing of this sin of the fallen angels to the time leading up to the Flood. All humanity had reached such a degree of wickedness that “everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil.” (Gen. 6:5). Because of the depths of evil, God did not spare the ancient world but brought a flood upon the earth to destroy the ungodly (2 Pet. 2:5).

Yet amid this judgment, God preserved eight people—Noah, “a preacher of righteousness,” his wife, his three sons, and their wives. This salvation of the righteous amid the judgment of the wicked angels and humans serves for Peter as an example of God’s pattern of deliverance. In the coming judgment, God will preserve Christians who live rightly in their own day, and at the same time, He will condemn the wicked false teachers.

The second historical episode Peter chose to illustrate the “if” side of his “if . . . then” argument was the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19). God did not overlook the wickedness of the inhabitants of those cities. Instead, He made them examples of how serious He is about judging sin. These cities had not been given the Law, but God nevertheless held them accountable for their extreme wickedness and violence. Genesis 13:13 says, “But the people of this area were extremely wicked and constantly sinned against the Lord.” In Genesis 18:20 So the Lord told Abraham, “I have heard a great outcry from Sodom and Gomorrah, because their sin is so flagrant.” Because of this, God condemned them to destruction.

Yet Abraham inquired, Will you sweep away both the righteous and the wicked? (Gen. 18:23). God’s answer gives us an essential picture of the mercy of God amid His judgment and wrath. God will not destroy righteous inhabitants of the city together with the wicked (Gen. 18:25). Even if there are ten righteous in the city, God will stay His hand of judgment (Gen. 18:32). So, because God is just and will not pour out His wrath on the righteous, He sent two angels into Sodom to retrieve Lot and his wife before judgment fell. This is the aspect of the illustration that Peter emphasizes. But God also rescued Lot out of Sodom because he was a righteous man  (2 Pet. 2:7) by removing him and his family from Sodom to pour out His judgment upon that wicked city. In many ways, Peter’s original readers could relate to Peter’s description of Lot, who lived among the evil people of Sodom. Peter says that Lot “was sick of the shameful immorality of the wicked people around him. ⁸ Yes, Lot was a righteous man who was tormented in his soul by the wickedness he saw and heard day after day.” (2:7-8).

Peter uses this illustration of the salvation of the righteous amid the judgment of the wicked men of Sodom and Gomorrah as an example to inspire hope among believers. In the coming judgment, when Christ returns, God will preserve Christians who live righteous lives amid the day-to-day immorality and lawlessness of the pagan world. And He will condemn the wickedness of those who do evil in the judgments that precede the coming of Christ.

— 2:9 —

Having illustrated the “if” side of his “if. . . then” argument with two well-known examples of God’s pattern of rescuing the righteous before sending judgment, Peter presents the important “then” side of his statement: So you see, the Lord knows how to rescue godly people from their trials, even while keeping the wicked under punishment until the day of final judgment. (2:9). Peter’s point is that God’s coming judgment will not sweep up the righteous with the wicked. Because God is just, He will spare the righteous believers in Christ, rescuing them from coming judgment. But the wicked stand condemned, awaiting future wrath.

The word translated “trials” in verse 9 (peir/as/mos) can refer to tests that challenge the integrity of our faith (1 Pet. 1:6) or to “trials” that challenge our moral integrity by appealing to our sinful tendencies (Luke 4:13). It can also refer specifically to the difficult times before Christ’s return in Revelation 3:10. In that Christ promises believers Because you have obeyed my command to persevere, I will protect you from the great time of testing that will come upon the whole world to test those who belong to this world. [peirasmos]. Paul reiterated this promise: For God chose to save us through our Lord Jesus Christ, not to pour out his anger on us. (1 Thes. 5:9).

Based on Peter’s argument, we can confidently conclude that, like Noah and Lot in the Old Testament, New Testament Christians will be preserved when Christ returns to earth to deal with those who rejected him before transforming the world into God’s Kingdom, His global Eden. That judgment is meant for the ungodly false teachers and the evil ones of the unseen realm. Instead, believers can look forward to God’s protection of the righteous. Peter does not spell out how that protection will take place, nor does it mean that we will not be persecuted, but his references to Noah and Lot suggest that God will remove or insulate believers from the time of great wrath as His judgment falls upon the earth. We know that at some point during Christ’s 2^nd coming, Paul’s teaching in 1 Thessalonians indicates, the dead in Christ will rise first, and then all remaining believers will rise as we are outfitted with our immortal ‘forever’ bodies.

-2:10-11-

Peter ends this section with a further description of the nature of the false teachers. He has already painted a disturbing picture in the first several verses of this chapter. As we learned last week, these false teachers:

• deceptively introduce heresies
• deny the Master who bought them
• invite destruction upon themselves
• indulge in sensuality
• cause the truth to be maligned
• greedily exploit believers

Peter now adds two other attributes to this list of already dismal descriptions. These false teachers stand under condemnation because they

• indulge the flesh in corrupt desires
• despise authority (2:10).

The first summarizes the kind of sinfulness illustrated by the sexual immorality of the days of Noah and the times of Lot. The second relates to the false teachers’ general disposition toward those who have been placed in positions of authority.

The Greek word for “authority” (ky/rio/tës) generally refers to angelic authorities in the unseen realm. (Eph. 1:21; Col. 1:16). It allows for both human and angelic authorities in this context. Peter describes them as “daring” and “proud and arrogant” dispositions opposite the humble and submissive spirit Peter elsewhere desires believers to exhibit. In his first letter, Peter encouraged his readers to submit to “human institutions” (1 Pet. 2:13). Yet the false teachers described in 2 Peter 2 do not even hesitate to revile divine (angelic) beings (2 Pet. 2:11).

We get the picture of cocky, defiant, indulgent, and out-of-control leaders willing to say or do anything to feed their own appetites of lust and greed. Such people are not among God’s people. And such people, Peter says, can expect to receive wrath, not mercy, from the God of justice when Christ returns to rescue His people and judge the world.

APPLICATION: 2 PETER 2:4-11

We Are Rescued from Wrath

Ask yourself: Is God a frightening Judge or a good and gracious Father? Is He the source of wrath and destruction or the fount of eternal blessing? The answer depends not on who God is_; but on who you are. God does not change. Because He is holy_; |He stands against wickedness;| because He is just;|He will judge sinners justly.| Yet God is also merciful and gracious,| forgiving and blessing those who have placed their faith in Christ,| whose death and resurrection bring forgiveness for their sins. God justly condemns sin and justly forgives it based on Christ’s death. This leads me to two important facts to remember.

First, God’s compassion will result in the rescue of all believers. Because He is just and faithful, He will never forget even one of His children. This promise applies to all His children—the stubborn and the submissive, |the weak and the strong, |the mature and the adolescent.| God’s grace covers you if you are a child of God by having placed your faith in Christ alone to save you from your past,>present,>and future sins. And if that’s you, then God’s promise to rescue you from the coming wrath applies to you. You won’t be overlooked. He won’t accidentally sweep you up with the wicked and send you into their judgment.

Second, God’s judgment will result in the punishment of all unbelievers. Just as God is faithful in His compassion toward believers, whom He has declared “righteous” by His grace, He will be faithful in His judgment toward unbelievers, whose guilt remains on them because they have rejected Him and His gift of eternal life. Those who turn up their noses at God’s gracious offer of forgiveness will not evade the consequences. Those who turn their backs on Christ’s death and resurrection will endure the wrath of God. The choice is ours.

How should we respond to these two truths? You should respond with praise and prayer if you’re a Christian. Praise God for His great mercy toward you. Though we all deserve the same just punishment for our sinfulness, God has placed our sins on Christ, who bore the punishment for us. And He has credited Christ’s righteousness to us so we can partake of His life and blessing. None of this has anything to do with your keen insight, personal holiness, or any earned merit. It is all because of His matchless grace. God’s grace has redeemed us, and we can stand with humble confidence before Him as our loving heavenly Father. And what a day that will be!

But you should also pray. Pray for those who don’t know Christ. Peter has vividly described their destination—judgment. Pray for friends, loved ones, coworkers—people you know who already stand before God as a just Judge. Petition God to intervene in their lives, to bring about the circumstances necessary to soften the hardness of their hearts, to break through the shackles of sin that bind them, to shine a light of hope in the darkness of deception. Then, think of ways you can become the answer to your own prayer. Ask God to reveal ways you can help bring them closer to the cross and the good news of salvation by living out God’s kingdom in your life each day.

Next week, we will continue the letter of 2 Peter in the Denunciation of False Teachers section, in a message titled ‘Disobedience Gone to Seed.’ Invest time reading 2 Peter 2:12-22 for next week’s message.