II Peter 2:4-10

We will stop there for a minute. So we read here that our holy God cannot tolerate sin. He is a righteous judge. Psalm 11:7 and 146:8 declare, "For the Lord is righteous, He loves righteousness"; "The Lord loves the righteous." We could add Psalm 5:12, "For you, O Lord, will bless the righteous." or Psalm 34:15 (we actually see this repeated in I Peter 3), "The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry."

In II Peter 2:5, God saved only Noah, the preacher of righteousness, and his family from the Flood. And we see the Greek noun here, it is Strong's 1343. It is a bit of a doozy. dikaiosuné, translated righteousness all 92 times in the New King James. It is from an underlying adjective that means righteous. It is the underlying adjective version is Strong's 1342. dikaios, meaning righteous, upright, just, innocent, thoughtless, and guiltless. And we see these same words used in Revelation 15:3; 16:5 and 7; and 19:2 to describe our very great God: "Just and true are Your ways"; "You are righteous, O Lord. . . . True and righteous are Your judgments"; "For true and righteous are His judgments" those scriptures read.

Now, despite some of the most disturbing scriptures in Genesis 19, we read here in II Peter 2:7 that God delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked. And again, we see the underlying Greek adjective form for righteous here, Strong's 1342 dikaios is used twice. It is used twice to describe Lot. The same word in Revelation describing God as righteous is used to describe Lot. I found that troublesome at first, I have got to tell you.

Lot was actually oppressed and afflicted with the evil that surrounded him we read here. He was a righteous man, verse 8 tells us, dwelling among the evil. He was actually tormented daily by their lawless deeds, and the use of the word torment here should bring a significant description on Lot's pain. It is the same word we see in Revelation 9:5 and 14:10. I will read those. Same word here for torment.

In this section on God's righteous judgment, we learn only the righteous Judge knows how to deliver His people from sin. It is not something we can do for each other. God will bring His righteous judgment and punishment on the unjust in His due time, and His judgment will be especially hard, brethren, on any that despise or reject or despise in any way, authority. "No pride, no problem." Judgment is coming on anyone that speaks evil of those in charge.