PETER’S EPISTLES: PREPARING FOR ETERNITY

XXV. God’s Judgment Of And Deliverance From False Teachers

(2 Peter 2:4-10a)

I. Introduction

A. Before the Apostle Peter began to minister for the Lord in the Church, his outlook was impacted by Christ’s prophecy in John 21:18-19 that he would be crucified for Christ. Eternity was thus often on Peter’s mind.

B. In accord with this theme, 2 Peter 2:4-10a present’s Peter’s encouragement that God was willing and able to judge false teachers and deliver godly believers from false teachers so believers could be confident that they could overcome error after Peter’s passing. (2 Peter 1:14-21)

C. We view this passage for our insight, application and edification (as follows):

II. God’s Judgment Of And Deliverance From False Teachers, 2 Peter 2:4-10a.

A. God is able and willing to punish the most formidable of false teachers we face, 2 Peter 2:4-10a:

1. God is willing and able to judge the most powerful of false teachers we face, 2 Peter 2:4, 9b:

a. 2 Peter 2:4-9 is actually one long sentence, the protasis, or “if clause” running from verse 4 to the end of verse 8, and the apodosis, the “then clause” comprising verse 9.

b. Accordingly, 2 Peter 2:4 wrote that God did not spare the powerful angels that sinned in Satan’s fall before the creation of the universe (Ez. 28:14-15), but He cast them down to “gloomy dungeons” (tartaroo in the Greek, what is translated as “Tartarus” Arndt & Gingrich, A Grk.-Eng. Lex. to the N. T., 1967, p. 813), a holding prison until they are finally cast into the lake of fire (cf. Revelation 20:10; Matthew 25:41).

c. Thus, the Lord is willing and able to punish the most powerful of false teachers we face, 2 Peter 2:9b.

2. God is willing and able to punish the largest number, the most corrupt and the most violent false teachers:

a. In 2 Peter 2:5, 9b, Peter wrote of God’s not sparing the whole world of people in Noah’s day for its sin.

b. Genesis 6:11-12 states that the entire antediluvian world was very corrupt and violent, and God’s destroying it was likely necessary in order to preserve the human race from eventually destroying itself!

c. Thus, the Lord is willing and able to punish the largest number, the most corrupt and the most violent of false teachers that God’s people will face in Church History, 2 Peter 2:5, 9b.

3. God is willing and able to punish the most vexingly evil false teachers we face, 2 Peter 2:6-9:

a. The Lord destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, sending fire and brimstone down from heaven to turn those cities into ashes as an example of His judgment on such ungodly people, 2 Peter 2:6.

b. We know from Genesis 19:4-5 that these cities were given over to sexually perverse wickedness, and Abraham’s nephew, righteous Lot, was very tormented in living among such people, 2 Peter 2:7-8.

c. Thus, the Lord is willing and able to punish the most vexingly evil false teachers we face.

B. God is able and willing to deliver the righteous from the most formidable of false teachers, 2 Peter 2:4-10a:

1. God spared the world from exposure to the extremely powerful, wicked fallen angels by confining them to gloomy dungeons until they would be cast into the lake of fire in Revelation 20:10. Thus, He is able and willing to deliver His godly ones from the most powerfully evil false teachers! (2 Peter 2:4, 9a)

2. God spared Noah and his wife, his sons and his sons’ wives in the ark from the whole world of corrupt, violent people, so He is able and willing to deliver His godly ones from the greatest number of corrupt, violent false teachers they will face. (2 Peter 2:5, 9a)

3. God spared Lot and his family from the most vexingly evil kind of sinners in Lot’s day, so God is able and willing to deliver His godly ones from the most vexingly evil kind of false teachers today. (2 Peter 2:6-9a)

C. Peter added that this divine judgment of false teachers and His deliverance of the godly from them is especially true of “those who follow the corrupt desire of the flesh and despise authority,” 2 Peter 2:10a NIV. These teachers were probably not yet fully developed Gnostic heretics, but they possessed the later Gnostic traits of lawlessness and licentiousness. (Donald Guthrie, New Testament Introduction, 1971, p. 856)

Lesson: Due to His past record of dealing with formidable evil parties in the Biblical past reveals that God is willing and able to judge the worst false teachers the godly will face in Church History. God’s deliverance of the world before Noah, Noah and his family and Lot and his family from such formidable evil parties shows God is willing and able to deliver the godly from similarly formidable false teachers throughout Church History.

Application: May we rest assured that God is able and willing to judge all the false teachers we face, and that He is just as willing and able to deliver us from their error and the effects of their errors as we trust God for His help.