2 Peter 2:4-9

4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment; 5 and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter; 7 and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men 8 (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds), 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,

In this passage, Peter proceeds to explain the judgment of God “from long ago.”  He gives us three examples of His judgment, and in the last two, He also tells how He spared the righteous from His judgment.

1. God casted sinful angels into hell (Gen. 6:1, 2; 1 Pet. 3:18, 19). This place of judgment, apparently, is a temporary holding place (of torment) until they will be cast forever into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:10).

2. The ancient world refers to those who lived before the flood. They all, except for Noah and his family, were thoroughly wicked— “every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5). God’s judgment on them was a world-wide flood that blotted out all life except for Noah and seven others (his family), and the animals (two of every kind, 6:19), which were saved in the ark.

3. The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. They all, except Lot and his two daughters, were destroyed by fire because of their extreme sensual ungodliness. Lot was also saved from being constantly oppressed by his unrighteous neighbors.

These examples of God’s judgment were given in order to show how God judged some of the worst sinners and how He saved the innocent. And He is still in the business of bringing the guilty to judgment and rescuing the innocent, godly ones out of judgment. Thus, as Peter wrote, He knows how to rescue the godly and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment.