2Peter 2:4-8 - Judgment is Coming

4-8 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; 5. and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the ungodly; 6. and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward lived ungodly...

This is a huge sentence, worthy of comparison for size with anything that Paul wrote - even in Ephesians 1, and this is only a part of it.

Peter is assuring believers that God has proven in the past that He will judge the ungodly. History testifies to it. He uses three examples for history to illustrate his point.

The first is the fallen angels, who have already been cast out of heaven, many of which are in hell awaiting judgment. God, in His wisdom, has provided no redemption for these. God may be love, but His character demands that He judge and punish evil. Peter reminds us that He has done so before and is sure to do so in the future.

The second is that of Noah and the flood. And it was not just angels that felt God’s judgment. The whole world of mankind was judged and destroyed in the time of Noah, with the exception of only 8 people. God gave men 120 years to repent while Noah built the ark, but they would not. Then God judged. Judgment is certain. Judgment is coming. Professing believers need to be warned. The unsaved need to be warned. "As sure as eggs is eggs" the elements will one day melt with a fervent heat and this whole creation will pass away, with the works thereof. And those not found in Christ will be judged at the great white throne and cast into the lake of fire, along with the antichrist, his false prophet, the devil and his angels - experiencing eternally the torments of the second death.

The third example of God’s eventual and inevitable judgment is Sodom and Gomorrah, which were destroyed for their wickedness. Today we tend to think, rather self-righteously, that Sodom and Gomorrah must have been places far worse than anything we see today. Certainly worse than we see in the "civilized" world. No doubt we conjure up images from movies we have seen, or pictures by the great art masters of the classical period. Debauchery on the streets. Open lasciviousness. Perversions flagrantly flaunted and approved of.

But it is doubtful that Sodom and Gomorrah were any worse than Toronto or San Francisco or Bangkok. Today little children are enslaved, tormented and sexually abused for money. Today homosexuality is openly and proudly paraded on city streets with the full approval of all levels of government. Today sex is used to lure customers and to market almost every imaginable product from beer to brassieres, promoting the lust of the eyes and of the flesh openly and approvingly, and with casual humour.

Today cheating and corporate dishonesty are commonplace and perpetrators are frowned upon more for being dumb enough to be caught than for doing the dirty deed in the first place. There is widespread cheating in schools, and also widespread violence. There is the government sanctioned murder of absolutely defenceless babies and the intention to harvest babies (they call them fertilized eggs or some such distortion of truth) for stem-cell research. In some societies it has become au fait to kill the old, the sick or the infirm with or without permission.

Many of these crimes go beyond anything that the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah would have considered on their blackest day. Yet Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed with fire from heaven for their wickedness. What does this say about Toronto, San Francisco and Bangkok?

But we know what it says about God. It says that he will not endure the wicked forever. He has set a limit. He set a limit upon the angels and upon Adam. He reached a limit with the world in the time of Noah. He exhibited His limit to the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah. He will exhibit His limits to the unbelieving world. God is patient and forbearing. God is kind and merciful and gracious. God is loving. But above all else, God is holy and will not look upon sin. In chapter 3 we shall see the underlying reason for God’s forbearance.