A little boy grew up wanting to play professional baseball. As a child he lived baseball; he dreamed baseball, he watched baseball; he studied baseball. He played catch with his dad and his uncle. He played five hundred with the neighboring kids. He played baseball at every opportunity. He played after school when possible and constantly during the summer. He played organized ball and disorganized ball. He played baseball in every size and shape he could. During middle school he became a right-handed pitcher and developed a good fast ball for his age. Over the years, people helped him to add a few other simple pitches to his repertoire. And at some time, a pitching coach showed him how to hold the ball with his fingers slightly off-center. The idea was that as he released his off-centered fingers, the ball would take on a different kind of spin. If done perfectly, when the balled crossed the plate, it would dive toward the left, away from right hand batters and toward the feet of the lefties. The pitch is called a “cutter.” The little boy went to college, playing well against other kids older than he was. Scouts came around and saw the boy’s talent. He was eventually drafted by a major league team, and after college he began playing in the minors.
Then came the big day, when he was “called up,” playing his first came as a rookie in the majors. In his first inning, after a couple outs and two men on base, the other team sent their best hitter to the plate. The catcher signed to our pitcher to throw a cutter just as fast as he possibly could. Our boy KNEW WHAT to do, and he knew he COULD do it, because he’d done it many times. The question was: when pressure was on and the game was on the line, in the summary at the end of the game, DID he DO it? I will conclude this little fiction by saying, “The mighty Casey has struck out.”
Peter, after telling us that the scriptures were given by “holy men of God (who) spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost…” After he has warned us that as there were false prophets in the days of Moses, David and Isaiah… After he said, “there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies…” and after: but their “judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not…” After all these things, he went on to give us three illustrations: The angels that sinned – did not, and will not, escape their just judgment. And the people living in the days of Nimrod and Noah were destroyed with a world-wide flood. However, Noah and his family were spared. And then in another illustration, God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, but Lot was spared. All of which leads to this conclusion: “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment.” The Lord knows how to deliver a cutter; he has the ability to deliver a cutter – plus HE does it perfectly.
The Lord knows HOW to DELIVER, and He knows how to JUDGE.
He also knows who are godly and who are ungodly – those who are to be spared and those who are not. Of course, it is foolish to think otherwise – that God doesn’t know all about all the people of His world. And yet, there are millions of people who seem to think that God doesn’t see them for who they really are. Paraphrasing of what Austin often reminds us, every religion on earth except Bible Christianity preaches that salvation is based on the worthiness of our works – weighed against the wickedness of our ways. But when all is said and done, it doesn’t matter whether our peers think we are good pitchers or poor pitchers. It doesn’t matter whether are lives are more positive than negative. It doesn’t matter if we have been nice, mean or in between. What matters is whether or not – in the language of this verse – we are “godly” or “unjust.”
I may be overstepping Peter’s thought just a bit – he may be looking at people’s good and bad exteriors. But what if we looked at the people who are “unjust” in the same way that the Bible sometimes speaks of “the just?” For example, many scriptures say “the JUST shall live by faith.” “The just” are a specific group of people, whom we might say are the opposite of “the unjust.” In those verses “the just” are not being described by their actions, but by their hearts before God. When Paul was defending himself before Felix he said that he had “hope toward God… that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the JUST and UNJUST” – both of the saved and the lost. Whether or not Peter was thinking as I am right now, “just” people are those who have been “justified.” And on the opposite side, “unjust” people are those whom the Lord has NOT declared righteous. So it is not simply a matter of people’s works – some are living out their “godly souls” while others are wicked and unjust toward their neighbors because that is their nature. The important question is: Have they actually been made righteous in God’s sight? – “Justified.”
Peter tells us, “the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of (their) TEMPTATIONS.” The word “temptations” in this context doesn’t speak of temptation to sin, although it could come to that. This is speaking of “testing.” In his earlier letter, Peter used the same Greek word, when he said, “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery TRIAL which is to TRY you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s suffering; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye…” – I Peter 4:12-14.
God knows how to deliver His people from the various tests Satan throws against their faith. Go back to Peter’s example of Abram’s nephew. He tells us that Lot was a “righteous man” – we might say he was a “justified” or “just man.” As I said Sunday, I think that makes more sense than to say that Lot lived a godly life. Did he really? When he was faced with the test – the temptation – to pitch his tent either toward Sodom or toward Jerusalem, what did he do? I don’t think he rationally said, “I think today, I’ll make a terrible decision,” but he did. And later, on the eve of destruction, he was again tempted to go or stay in Sodom. God gave him the choice. But when he hesitated, learning toward staying in Sodom, God’s angel forced him out the door and down the road.
And here is probably a good place to introduce my second and third thoughts –
God not only knows HOW to deliver the godly out of temptation, He has the ABILITY and DOES deliver.
God spared “justified” Lot, whether or not he really wanted to be spared. And then there is Noah. Did Noah, at the age of five hundred, think about what it would take to carry several thousand creatures through a flood? Before there was rain; before there were tsunamis and floods, did Noah even think about that kind disaster? My guess would be that he had not. He hadn’t ever considered water of that magnitude. And he hadn’t considered the need of saving a bunch of animals which usually took care of themselves. “Noah, there is a test coming. There is coming a temptation beyond anything your half century of life has ever cast at you.” But the Lord not only knew HOW to deliver Noah out of that temptation, He gave to Noah the ABILITY to be delivered, by giving him the blueprint of the first ever floating water craft. And then by grace, God ACTUALLY spared Noah – the Lord delivered Noah. “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of (their) temptations.”
Herod Agrippa, in his efforts to please his Jewish constituency, had the apostle James arrested and executed. Then he snared Peter, the penman of the letter we are studying. It looked like another Apostle was soon to go down to an early grave. Under the circumstances, Peter was being tempted and tested beyond any level of our temptations at least so far. Potentially, in order to preserve his life, he could have recanted his faith in Christ. He did that earlier just before Jesus’ crucifixion, and he could have again. But if he had, I doubt it would have spared him – Herod, the shark, had already tasted blood. On other hand Peter could have been crushed into a lump of quivering, crying, spineless jellyfish flesh. He could have been persuaded to hate Christ, for permitting the death of James and himself. But no – “when Herod would have brought him forth… Peter was (peacefully) sleeping between two soldiers.” He was as snug as a bug in rug – cool, calm and collected – ready for whatever the Lord had for him. That godly man had already been delivered out of the temptation of the hour But a more literal deliverance was just above his sleeping head and ready to enter his cell. God not only knew how to deliver him from his temptations, He had the ability and the WILL to deliver him. Jehovah delivers the godly from temptation when it is best thing for the Lord’s glorification.
From among many other possible Biblical examples – there was Paul in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea and in the midst of an Euroclydon. The little ship transporting him to Rome to be tried and possibly executed, was hit by a hurricanish storm. In order to keep the ships’ mast, the sailors struck the sails, and later threw the tackling over the side. And in order to keep from being swamped, they cast their cargo overboard. For several days they couldn’t see the sun, and they hadn’t eaten or had much to drink. “But after long abstinence Paul stood forth in the midst of them and said… I exhort you to be of good cheer; for there shall be no loss of any man’s life among you, but of the ship. For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve, saying, Fear not, Paul… Wherefore sirs, be of good cheer; for I believe God…” Paul could have shouted above the roar of the wind, “I believe that the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation…”
Not only does the Lord know HOW, but the Lord DID deliver godly Paul and his few companions. Furthermore he delivered every one of those heathen sailors and soldiers – at least temporarily. “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, (but He also knoweth how to) reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished.” I wonder how many, if any, of the sailors and soldiers who witnessed Paul’s faith in Christ – later put their own trust in the Lord Jesus? The Lord knows HOW to deliver the godly; He also has the miraculous ABILITY and MEANS to deliver. Plus, He has often EXERCISED that ability by actually delivering.
Our Saviour is the Lord God. He is the almighty God. “He shall deliver thee in six troubles; yea in seven there shall no evil touch thee” – Job 5:19. “Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisesome pestilence” – Psalms 91:3. Verses similar to these could be quoted dozens of times. But a better known verse would be I Corinthians 10:13 – “There hath no TEMPTATION taken you but such as is common to man, but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will with the TEMPTATION also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” Again, “there hath no TEST taken you that God can not enable you to escape.”
I won’t foolishly try to tell you that God ALWAYS delivers the godly from of their trials and temptations. Once in a while it is the Lord’s will that someone like the Apostle James be killed by Herod’s sword. And it may be best for the glory of Christ’s kingdom for John the Baptist to die under the sword of another Herod. And then Peter was eventually martyred as well. But notice the precise language of verse: “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly OUT OF temptation.” Peter didn’t try to say, “The Lord will deliver us FROM our temptations.” Sometimes it is the Jehovah’s will that we be delivered by going out the back door of our tests. James and the Baptist were delivered from their trials, but they had to pass all the way through them. They passed through them out the other side and into the glory.
We need to realize and memorize – we need to memorialize and notarize – “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations.” Furthermore, our God loves us so much and so sweetly that He will not let anything happen to us that He won’t bless to His glory and to our benefit, if we are willing. Even when the test leaves a thorn in our side, we can be sure it is good.
And as to the last part of verse 9 – “The Lord knoweth how to reserve the unjust unto day of judgment to be punished…” I think I sufficiently dealt with that last Sunday. So I’ll conclude with the positive – “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation.” Praise His name!