2 Peter 2:17-22.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, September 06, 2026.

Here is the audio.  The article will be up later.

2 Peter 2:10-16.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, August 30, 2026.

Today, we continue Peter’s warning against false prophets and false teachers.

He has warned them that the Church will face false teachers just as Israel had.  He has also reminded them that the judgment of God will certainly fall upon these false teachers as it had in the Old Testament.

Verse 10 serves as a transition from two Old Testament examples of God’s judgment to a description of the false teachers and false prophets that the Christians will face.  We can leave their judgment to God.  He knows how and when to judge them.  Our focus is to recognize them.

Let’s look at our passage.

Further Descriptions (v. 10-16)

Peter says that God’s judgment is especially for those who indulge the corrupt desires of the flesh and despise authority.  These two are connected because a person who is indulging their flesh will not like godly authorities.  The godly authorities (like Peter) will remind them that they are not to live for their flesh but for Christ.  Of course, they then use rationalizations and human reasoning to justify their rejection of such godly men and women.

Verse 10 describes them as daring.  Daring can be good in certain contexts, but it is not good here.  They are bold in stepping over the proper boundaries and purposes of God in order to promote their own ideas and flesh.  Thus, daring here could be thought of as audacious and presumptuous.  To be bold in your areas of ignorance is not wise.

They are also called “self-willed.”  The word has a sense of pleasing yourself.  Such people over-value their own ideas and opinions about Jesus and God’s will and reject those who walked with Jesus and received the truth directly from him.  In the end, it is a rejection even of Jesus.  Many a false prophet has redefined Jesus into their own image.  They see Jesus as a helpful symbol, but they want to hollow out the true content of the character, work, and teaching of Christ, so that they can fill it in with their own desires.  Instead of praying “Not my will, but thine be done,” they put their will in the place of God.

It says that they are not afraid to revile majesties.  To revile or to speak evil of someone comes from the word for blasphemy.  They speak things that are untrue of God, of Jesus, of the heavenly beings, etc., without fear (remember they are daring).  It is not so much that they know they are saying something untrue.  This is certainly possible.  However, it is also possible that their slander is just wishful thinking, and uncareful projection.

Who are the “Majesties” (NASB) or “Dignitaries” (NKJV)?  The word is literally “Glorious Ones.”  In light of the commentary in verse 11, it is speaking of heavenly beings.  This fits in with Paul’s language of a hierarchy of heavenly beings in Ephesians 1:21; 6:12 and elsewhere.  Peter is not envisioning himself as a glorious one that they are slandering, though they most likely would do that.  He speaks of people who have no fear of blaspheming spiritual beings of the heavens.  Because this is a general warning, we can understand that the specifics of the blasphemies and their targets are left unsaid.  We can imagine untrue things being said of the good angels, and even Satan and his angels (fallen).   Of course, we should recognize that the Most Glorious One who has authority over all the heavens, Jesus, will be slandered and blasphemed as well.

If a teacher or prophet speaks of heavenly things revealed to them, how can you verify the veracity of these things?  Do I have to wait until I go to heaven for myself to verify?  And how would that stop false teachers?

First, we can compare what the teacher teaches to what the Holy Spirit has already revealed and confirmed in the Scriptures.  If you know the truth, then the contradictions will stick out for what they are, lies, vain imaginations, and fantasies.

Second, there are times when a so-called revelation speaks of things that we are not told in Scripture.  It doesn’t contradict per se but goes beyond what Scripture reveals.  In such a case, do not lean upon what the teacher teachers.  Don’t build your life on it because we already have everything we need for life and godliness.  Put it on the “back burner” and let the teacher’s life prove out the veracity or deceitfulness of such revelations.  No false teacher will be able to hide the fact that they are as this chapter describes.  It will be obvious to those who observe their teachings and life.

In regard to their daring blasphemy towards spiritual beings, Peter warns that even angels are careful with the things they say to one another or charge against one another.  His main point is that angels (who are greater than us) are careful in bringing charges against one another.  Therefore, how much more ought we to be careful?  The answer is that we should be much, much more careful, fearful even.

Where is Peter getting this idea?  There is an example in Zechariah 3:1-2.  God shows Zechariah a vision of a man named Joshua who was the high priest in the new community of Jerusalem that had come back from exile in Babylon.  He saw Joshua standing before the Angel of the Lord and Satan at Joshua’s side to accuse him.  The Angel of the Lord responds to Satan’s opposition, “The LORD rebuke you, Satan! The LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you!  Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?”

For the sake of time, let me just point out that the Angel of the Lord doesn’t personally stand against Satan’s opposition.  He stands in the truth of the Father’s purpose.  God was plucking burnt branches out of the fires of the Babylonian judgment on Israel.  Whatever the Angel of the Lord had come to do with Joshua, Satan’s resistance is not taken personal.  The Angel calls upon God the Father to rebuke Satan.  Essentially, this is a challenge.  If Satan really thought he was in the right, then he should press his luck in opposing Joshua.  However, the Angel knows God’s will.  The Father will back up those He sends in His service.  The point is the Angel in the right does not blaspheme Satan (even though we might say he warrants it).

Another example comes to us in Jude 1:9. It is unclear where Jude obtains this information.  In Deuteronomy 34:5-6, we are told that Moses died on the mountain, unable to enter the promised land.  It only says “he” buried him in Moab, and no one knows where his burial place is to this day.  Since no one was with Moses, it must be God having Moses buried, which would presumably be accomplished by an angel of God.  In the first century, there was a tradition that Satan tried to stop the angel from taking Moses to bury him.  It is irrelevant at this point why he might oppose this.  The main point is that the angel said to Satan, “The LORD rebuke you!”

Whatever the source of this story, Jude is not saying that the document this story comes from should be Scripture.  Rather, he is using this story as an example.  In both cases (Zechariah and Moses), a spiritual being is standing against Satan, or the devil, yet calls upon Yahweh to rebuke him (as opposed to themselves).  Instead of railing on about how bad the devil is, they call for the judgment and help of God who knows all things about Satan’s evil and slanderous work.

False teachers through the ages have had no problem saying untrue things of all the spiritual beings, our Lord Jesus and the Father included.

Let me just say that, in Christ, we do not need to fear any wicked spiritual being from Satan down to the weakest imp in his fallen empire.  Yet, neither should we become arrogant nor vocally swagger before them.  Our power is not just from Jesus but is in him.  Satan fear Jesus not you.  However, he does fear you standing by faith in Jesus and his work.

Verse 12 compares them to unreasoning animals.  Animals are creatures of instinct alone.  When Peter says “to be captured and killed,” he is not saying this is the only design of animals.  These false teachers are predators on the level of an animal.  In the end, a predator will not be reasoned out of its prey.  The predator is incapable of feeling guilt and shame for its actions.  False teachers, such as Peter describes here, are also predators.  God has a day of capturing and killing them.  Their judgment is certain.

Like an animal, they revile where they have no knowledge (like with the angels).  However, they also revile the true Gospel, the why and the how of God’s salvation through Jesus.  They revile the Lord Jesus Himself in a variety of ways (He’s not completely God; He wasn’t really human, etc.).  They revile the teaching of the apostles on how we ought to conduct ourselves in this life, i.e., in holiness and righteousness.  They daringly say all manner of untrue things about all of these.

Verse 12 states that they “will in the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed.” The word creatures is added for understanding.  It is simply the pronoun “them.”  So what plural noun is “them” referencing?  The closest and most likely candidate is “animals.”  What destruction of the animals that false teachers will also be caught up in is in mind?  Most likely, Peter is referring to the ultimate day of judgment where the current heavens and earth melt in fervent heat, destroying all material things (animals included).  The only way to survive such a judgment is to be in right relationship with God, and these false teachers are not.  They will die like the animals in that great heat, being cast into the Lake of Fire where all rebel imagers will be banished.

Verse 13 speaks of their wages.  There is a textual issue.  Some manuscripts have “receiving the wages of doing wrong (evil).”  Whereas other manuscripts have suffering wrong as the wages of doing wrong.  Regardless of which verb we use, the connection to wages is clear.  The wages of sin is death, not just the first death (separation from our mortal body), but also, the second death (separation from God and His good creation).

Verse 13 further describes them as stains and blemishes in the midst of the Christian community, “reveling in their deception as they feast with you.”  If we picture the Christian life and even the life of the Church (its witness and worship) as a volunteer sacrifice to God, the idea of spots, blemishes, and stains reflects an unacceptable sacrifice.  We cannot leave false teachers and false prophets in our midst.  They will defile our ability to be an acceptable worship of the Lord Jesus Christ.  They are not to be tolerated and accepted.  They are to be rebuked and, if necessary (in the case of refusing to repent), cast out of our gatherings.

This is not a call for perfection, but of being truly under the saving work of Christ.  The Christian is cleansed by the work of Christ, the Spirit of Christ, the Word of Christ, and this through our faith in the One who supplies these things.  The false teacher has no faith in Christ, no faith in God.  They only have faith in their ability to manipulate these things to their own ends.

They are “reveling in their deceits.”  What a horrible picture of intentionality that is opposed to the work of Christ.  Some versions have “as they carouse with you.”  I think this is a misunderstanding.  Carousing in English fits well with the feasting of the wicked.  However, this is a feasting they are doing with the true Christians.  I believe Peter has the Love-Feast of early Christians in mind.  Their times of communion were part of a meal that they ate together.  The Apostle Paul gives us insight into some early problems with this in the Corinthian Church in 1 Corinthians 11:20-22.  Some people were over-eating while others didn’t get any.  Others were over-drinking to the point of drunkenness.  Paul rebukes this lack of Christian love and propriety.  He tells them to go home and eat if you are that hungry.  Our gathering together must not be about gorging our flesh but honoring our Lord Jesus by ministering to each other in love.  These false teachers are such.

Verse 14 describes them as having “eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin…”  The eye here can be compared to a greedy or evil eye.  They may be literally looking to commit adultery, but they are most assuredly also symbolically lusting for ways to be unfaithful to the Lord Jesus Christ.  A false teacher may be the definition of restraint when it comes to food, drink, even sexuality (of course, many are not).  Yet, they will always prove unfaithful to the Lord Jesus himself.  They will present themselves as in close relationship, but their lives will look nothing like the true Lord who bought us from slavery with his own blood.

Notice the idea that they never cease looking for ways of being unfaithful (that they can get away with doing). Without pause from sin is the sense of no true restraint within them.  If you see restraint in an area, it is only as a means of deception and satisfying their flesh in another area.  In fact, many who look restrained in public are anything but restrained in private.  Do not overly trust a person’s public image.

They also entice “unstable souls.”  New believers are necessarily unstable in the sense that they have not yet been strongly rooted in the things of Christ.  It is important for mature believers to help new Christians develop a good understanding of what God desires of them and a good spiritual relationship with Him by the Holy Spirit.

Some believers should be mature by now, but through neglect, they are easily misled by false teachers.  They will appear steadfast until their foundations are tested by the false teacher.  Martyrdom is another test of just how steadfast our foundation has become.

They also have a heart “trained in greed.”  The picture is that they go to the gym and train so that they can win the Olympics of greed.  They are well practiced in it, experts even.

“Accursed children” reminds us of Cain.  They are not cursed because of their genetics.  It is a spiritual thing that developed over time in their lives.  It was a series of decisions in opposition to the Spirit of Truth that has taken them down a cursed path.  Like Cain, they bear a curse, but they also are a curse to others who cross their path.  God did not purpose for them to be like this.  They are choosing it over the top of His warnings and calls to repentance.

Verses 15-16 end with the imagery of Balaam.  They forsake the right way and follow the same path as Balaam.  Of course, the right way is the way of the Lord, the way of Jesus.  It is not only right because God points us in that direction, but it is also right because the Lord Jesus has blazed that path before us.  He also empowers us with his Spirit to walk it. 

Balaam is presented in Numbers 22-26.  While Israel was in the wilderness, the king of Moab contracted the prophet Balaam to curse Israel for him.  Balaam starts out saying the right things like, “I can only say what God tells me to say.”  However, God rebukes him.  The whole story of the Angel of the Lord and the “mute donkey” speaking a rebuke to Balaam shows us that Balaam was excited at the prospects of making a lot of money.  The story looks like Balaam only blessed Isreal and that is the end.  However, a brief statement by Moses in Numbers 31:16 shows us that the counsel of Balaam was behind a seduction event that happened at Peor (Numbers 25).  Balaam could not directly curse Israel because God would not let him.  However, he taught the king of Moab how to get Israel to show unfaithfulness to God, thus bringing God’s punishment upon them.  What was the idea?  Send your scantily clad girls out to the edge of the Israelite camp and invite the young men to come worship with you.  Keep in mind that the worship of these false gods involved sexual immorality.  Through sexual seduction, and this in the guise of honoring a god other than the One True God, 24,000 Israelites were caught up in this sin and died in a plague from God.

This is the heart of a man who wants the wages of unrighteousness (whatever can be obtained by not following the Lord).  It cares not that thousands will come under the judgment of God.  It only cares about satisfying its own wicked lust.

Such men come into churches.  They even have websites and are on TV.  Yet, they are standing against the truth and purpose of God in true believers.  We must be careful and refuse to come into relationship with these false teachers.  As Ephesians 5:11 says, we must “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.”

2 Peter 2:6-10. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, August 16, 2026.

We continue today looking at the examples of divine judgment that Peter gives in 2 Peter chapter two.  Last week, we talked about the judgment of The Flood in the days of Noah.  God judged the rebellious angels and wicked humans who followed them in sin.  At the same time, God rescued Noah and his family from the waters of The Flood by having them build an ark that could raise them above the destruction.

Peter then turns to the example of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.  At this point, let me insert that God is not trigger happy with His destructions.  They always come after long periods of wicked people “getting away with” wicked deeds.  This was true in The Flood episode as well as with Sodom and Gomorrah.  We can also recognize that same grace being extended to the modern world.

The modern world can be very hypocritical in this area in its attacks on the God of the Bible.  On one hand, it can complain that a truly good and all-powerful God would not allow so much evil on the planet.  Yet, on the other hand, they are also the loudest voices of complaint against God’s judgments that are recorded in Scripture.  Thus, God is accused when He judges and when He doesn’t judge.  In the end, this is an assertion of human wisdom over the top of the divine wisdom found in Scripture.  This assertion never ends well for those who insist on casting off God’s wisdom for their own.

The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah stands as a warning to those who think God’s judgment is “sleeping” or a myth.  The day will come as sure as the fact that many will not be ready though they were warned well in advance.

Let’s look at our passage.

Example # 2 Sodom & Gomorrah (v. 6-10)

The destruction of Sodom and the other cities is found in Genesis 19. However, in Genesis 18 God tells Abraham what He is about to do.  He is going down to investigate whether the condition in these cities is as bad as the “outcry” that has come up to God against them.  It is not explained, but we can imagine people crying out to God in prayer or just venting to the “heavens” about the treatment they were receiving from these places.  Thus, the angels coming into the city is the investigation by God.

This also leads to a discussion between Abraham and God about any righteous people who may be impacted by such a judgment.  Would God really destroy the cities if there were at least 50 righteous people in them?  Abraham continues this questioning all the way to 10 righteous people.  Genesis 18 ends with a statement from God, “I will not destroy it for the sake of ten.”

Of course, the cities are later destroyed with only four people heading the call to escape the coming destruction.  We should note that the events of Genesis 19 contain within them a statement of God, to Abraham or any who have the same question, regarding his judgments upon the wicked and any righteous people who may be caught up in it.  The message is simply this.  God knows how to judge the wicked while rescuing the righteous.  His rescue doesn’t have to always look the same, but He will rescue the righteous.  We saw this with Noah and his family (note that the whole planet had less than 10 righteous individuals).  In this passage, Peter emphasizes God’s rescue of “righteous Lot.”

Peter also tells us that the judgment of destruction upon Sodom was “an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter…”

Sodom and the plain around it were struck by brimstone raining fire upon the area.  This was most likely a meteor that exploded in the atmosphere above the area.  This would have heated the air to thousands of degrees in a fraction of a second, moving forward in a blast wave and followed by burning particles that would pepper the area. 

This is what happened to those cities.  The warning is not so much about the details of the judgment.  Whether God sends a great flood or rains down fiery meteors, the warning is that He will eventually judge men for their wickedness.  His judgment is a real thing that all people will have to face in one way or another.

The men of Sodom had given themselves over to sin that was transgressing all kinds of moral boundaries.  When you transgress boundaries, you don’t always know where it will take you or how far it will take you.  How many visiting strangers had they violated and “got away with it?”  The point is not so much that they picked on the wrong guys (i.e., angels who they thought were men).  Rather, this was the day of judgment.  God was beginning to hold them accountable, and they demonstrated the righteousness of His judgment in their grotesque activity.

This is true of all nations or empires no matter how great they are.  God is able to judge them in a second, bringing them down to destruction.  How then ought we to live in light of this?  Are the cities of America more righteous than this?

The ultimate destructive event is found in Revelation 20.  Fire comes down out of heaven melting the elements of the earth.  Heaven and earth are found no more, and all humanity stands before the Great White Throne to be judged.  The wicked are cast into the Lake of Fire, walled off from God’s new creation.

We might ask, “How does this connect to the false teachers and false prophets that Peter is saying will come?”  Where did Sodom learn the wicked things that they were doing?  They didn’t learn it from Noah.  Over time, men led by wicked spiritual forces taught others to transgress the proper, moral boundaries passed down by those who had seen God’s judgment in the past.  They became perverted sexually and perverted religiously through idolatry.  Their degrading domination of strangers was completely antichrist, demonic.  Do we not have such things today?

Not all false teachers are religious and show up in churches.  We have many false teachers within philosophy, the sciences, education, the entertainment industry, government, and false religions.

Thus, we have this ancient problem.  There are those who do not want to retain the knowledge of God and quickly grasp at the teaching of those who say, “Did God really say such and such?”

Peter describes Peter as righteous.  He may not appear very righteous in all of his actions, but he did remain faithful to God during his time there.  He protested the wickedness of the men of the city.  In fact, Genesis 19:9 describes their disdain for him.  “This one came in as a sojourner and is already acting like a judge…”  They didn’t want to be reminded of righteousness.  They wanted to pursue wickedness.  If you serve the purposes of Christ, warning people of the dangers attached to their sinful activity, many will hate you for it.  Lot was acting as a teacher of righteousness in the face of recalcitrant, moral renegades.

Peter also describes Lot as being “oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men.”  These men recognized no boundaries to their desires.  The oppression of Lot displayed in the Genesis 19 story is their willingness to disgrace those who were his guests.  They then told Lot that they would do worse things to him after they were done with the two visitors (the angels). 

God was there that day.  The threats of these wicked men were empty and hollow.  By the morning, they would be gone.  However, how many people were violated by them or perished under their hand without God’s intervention?  This can be troubling to us.  The timing of God’s judgment may feel like it is too late.  However, before we pull on that thread, we should note that the oppression is not just the external things that happen.

Peter speaks of Lot’s righteous soul being “tormented day after day by their lawless deeds.”  We have people and cities who are currently living wickedly in the face of such examples and warnings from God.  Yet, none of them are “getting away with it.”  Their destruction is just as sure as the people who were destroyed by The Flood and those who perished in Sodom and Gomorrah.

The question is this.  Am I being corrupted by the constant pressure towards sexual immorality, materialism, unloving actions, and overall godlessness?  Or am I living for Christ and sharing the torment of my soul with him and with other believers?  We can also carry this internal burden as we attempt to break through their desire to live for the flesh by sharing the truth about God’s Judgment, Repentance, and God’s Grace.

Verse 9 serves as a conclusion to what these examples illustrate.  The judgment of false teachers and those who live in wickedness is surely coming.  However, this conclusion focuses on God’s ability or knowledge in matters of bringing judgment.

We can look at a powerful government, powerful rich person, a powerful supernatural entity and think to ourselves, “That’s impossible.  No one can stop that.”  However, God knows how to deal with these things.  We might think it is impossible, but that isn’t important.  So what?  Are you now going to refuse to do what God has told you to do?  It may seem to be impotent in front of the wicked and powerful.  However, the same God who has told what He desires of you is also planning the judgment of those powerful, wicked forces.

Peter first speaks about rescuing the godly from “trial.”  Dealing with false teachers and those who belligerently live wicked lives is a temptation and a test.  We can be tempted to go along with them by our own flesh.  Or we can be tempted to give up on righteousness out of discouragement.  Yet, the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from such things.  He supplies spiritual strength and wisdom from the Holy Spirit in the present.  Ultimately, there is a great trial that is coming upon the whole earth.  It is sometimes referred to as the Great Tribulation of the Last Days.  Only God can deliver the righteous from the trial of the wicked and the trial of His judgments upon them.

Both the example of Sodom and The Flood have to do with ultimate judgments.  There seems to be a pattern here that Peter is describing.  God either removes the righteous (Enoch, Lot) or He protects them through the judgment (Noah).  So, it will be in these last days.  God has a plan that will remove the righteous before He pours out His wrath upon the nations.  Yet, those who repent during this time of wrath can be protected through the trial.  In fact, even if they physically die, their spirits are protected and held unto a time of resurrection.  This is the ability of God to rescue the righteous in various ways that only require us to trust Him.

The flip side of this is that God knows how to reserve the unrighteous for the day of judgment.  In verse 4, Peter spoke of the angels “reserved for judgment.”  Also, there were the spirits of all the wicked humans held in reserve in the grave awaiting the judgment day (they are still there).

The great Judgment Day that is scheduled for the Nations of this world, leading up to the Second Coming of Jesus, is only a taste of the greater Judgment Day that happens a 1,000 years later at the Great White Throne Judgment.

God knows how to judge the wicked while protecting the righteous.  It is not that we cannot be touched by difficulties.  It is a sure protection that brings us through all that we may have to face and brings us to the great future that He has prepared for those who love Him and are called according to His purposes.

Verse 10 begins the transition out of the illustrations back to the false teachers that we face in this Church Age.  He describes them as “especially those who indulge the flesh and its corrupt desires and despise authority.” 

Indulging the flesh is similar to Paul’s phrase “walking in [according to] the flesh.” This is a person who let’s their flesh make the decisions of what they do instead of listening to God’s Word and the Holy Spirit. 

Peter says that these desires are corrupt.  The word has the sense of being polluted or defiled.  Desires in and of themselves are not bad.  Desires become corrupted when we do not recognize God’s ordained boundaries withing them.  Thus, sexual desire is not the problem.  It is that our flesh desires that there be no boundaries in our sexual activity (at least only boundaries I give myself). There is no end to the boundaries that sin will pull us past in the name of satisfaction.  However, it never satisfies.

False teachers are not happy with the proper boundaries that God has given to truth and right living.  They develop interpretative schemes and stories that reinterpret the clear truth of God’s Word. 

They also despise authority.  This area is fraught with problems.  Many church leaders have abused their authority.  However, all true authority comes from God.  It is God who gives parents authority over their children.  However, He does not want them to abuse that authority.  Rather, they are supposed to image His loving purposes.

These false teachers despise the authority that God gave to the apostles like Peter, Paul, John and others.  They were to lay down a foundation of teaching and principles that Christians could live out and know that they are good with God.  False teachers don’t like what Peter has written.  They don’t like what Paul has written, so they write their own ideas down and promote them against the truth sent by God.

We see each of these components (walking in the flesh, despising authority) in the two examples.  The angels rebelled against God’s authority out of a fleshly desire to have offspring like humans.  The ancient world followed in this rebellion against God for their own fleshly reasons.  Sodom and Gomorrah cast off the restraints of morality even despising those who reminded them of the boundaries.

We must not be deceived.  God is not mocked.  If we sow to the flesh, we will reap corruption from the flesh.  However, if we sow to the Spirit, we will reap eternal life!  Let us follow Jesus and his commands by faith.  We will be tempted and tested.  However, God has a plan for rescuing us and dealing with the wicked around us.  In fact, this is so sure that we can offer salvation to those who are in the camp of the wicked.  Of course, they will not all repent.  However, it is always surprising when people break down and repent of the choices they have made.  Until Jesus comes, let us focus on being teachers of righteousness but also teachers of repentance and grace, teachers of God’s great love for whoever would put their faith in Him.

2 Peter 2:3b-5.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, August 9, 2026.

Today’s subject connects with 1 Peter 3:19-20.  We preached on this verse on March 8, 2026.

Peter brings up the rebellion of certain angels before The Flood of Noah’s days in order to make the point that false teachers will not get away with their rebellion against the truth of God.

Chapter 2 starts with the point that false prophets and false teachers will be a problem for churches.  However, verse 3 makes it clear that their judgment from God will catch up with them.  Thus, Peter follows this statement up with several examples from the Old Testament demonstrating just how certain the judgment of God is.

In our modern world, science and technology tend t create in us a snobbery towards things in the Bible, i.e., an attitude that we know better than what is recorded.  It also tends to create a myopia in which we only see things that our “greatness” will allow us to see while ignoring (or missing completely) other important things.

We can end up reinterpreting what the Bible says and what the apostles believed because we are smarter and know better.  An example of this is how many Christians follow in the footsteps of the Sadducees before them by denying the existence of demons.  They believe that mental illness was misunderstood and called demon possession in the biblical days.  Of course, this undermines the veracity of the Bible which is supposed to be the very words of God.

The reality of what Peter is talking about in this passage is another area where modern Christians tend to reinterpret so as to make the passage more palatable to our senses.

God has revealed in His Word that there are things in our future that He has been restraining.  Real, spiritual enemies who have been locked up for thousands of years by God will eventually be released upon a world that has rejected Jesus.

This restraining of particular spirits is of a greater nature than the restraints placed on Satan.  Satan is not locked up right now.  Yet, there are limitations on what he can do, as we see in the book of Job.

Only those who read the Word of God and believe it have a true picture of where this world is headed.

Let’s look at our passage.

Peter warns about false prophets and teachers

Their judgment will come (v. 3b-5)

All false prophets will be judged by God.  If we look at a particular individual, that judgment may come quickly or appear to never come at all.  However, all false prophets will find themselves in torments in the grave at their death.  Eventually, they will stand before the Great White Throne of God to receive the judgment upon their wicked actions.  We don’t know when, but we do know their judgment is certain.

Peter parallels the ideas of judgment and destruction.  Their judgment is not idle.  If you imagine a car idling, you may get the wrong idea.  An idling car is a picture of a car that is ready to go.  Whereas an idle worker or an idle officer of the law is a picture of something that is inactive or not operating.  The judgment of God is His decision about the things the people do.  A person who misleads others through false prophecies or false teaching will be held accountable for destroying the lives of others.  They are not “getting away with it.”

Peter also says that their destruction is not sleeping.  This is the same image as the idle judgment.  Their destruction is alive, awake, and coming for them. 

All false teachers and those who mislead others will be destroyed by God Himself.  They have destroyed the lives of people in the now and also destroy their future.  They are one with The Destroyer, whether we think of the devil or the angel king held in the bottomless pit of Revelation 9.  Whoever works with the devil to destroy people’s lives will find themselves participating in God’s judgment that the devil and his followers will be destroyed.

A similar picture is given in the book of Revelation.  All humans must pick a side.  Who is your champion?  Is it the ferocious beast, or is it the slain lamb?  Through the prophets of Israel, God has made His decision clear to all the world.  A day is coming when all the rebels of the heavens and of the earth, angelic and human, will be removed from God’s good creation.

Peter gives an example of God pouring out His judgment in the past.  He mentions God not sparing the “angels who sinned,” but instead casting them down to hell.  Verses 4 through 11 parallel Jude chapter 1.  Both Peter and Jude use the judgment on the pre-flood world and the judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah as examples and warnings to us today.

What is this mention of angels who sinned before the flood and were cast down to hell?  We can piece some of it together with Scripture.  Genesis 6:2-4 states that the Sons of God took wives from among humans and created giant, hybrid offspring. 

It is common today to claim that these Sons of God were actually sons of the godly line of Seth, or that they were human kings.  The problem with this is that the phrase Sons of God elsewhere in the Old Testament is used of spiritual beings and not humans.  Also, it is hard to imagine how the intermarriage of godly people and ungodly people would give rise to giants.

The truth is that until the late AD 300’s most bishops and teachers taught that these were fallen angels.  Over time, it became more and more uncouth to believe and teach such things.

By the way, this is what Jude 1:6 is talking about.  “The angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day…”  Their proper domain was the spirit realm.  Any interactions with humans and the earth would have to be sanctioned by God for His purposes. They abandoned their posts in the heavenlies and interfered with humans on earth for their own purposes in rebellion against God’s.

This is also connected to the “spirits in prison” to whom Jesus proclaimed his victory after his death (1 Peter 3:19-20).

You could say that Genesis 1 through 11 is depicting the fallenness of humanity as not just a problem of human sin.  Rather, at all three points, there is some spiritual interference.  Genesis 3 depicts the devil interfering in God’s relationship with Adam and Eve causing the fall.  Genesis 6 depicts a group of angels who also follow the devil in his rebellion.  Genesis 11 is not as clear, but the fact that Nimrod was trying to build a tower into the heavens begs this question.  What did he really think he would accomplish?  We know from the ancient writings in this area that they used pyramidal structures to serve as a gate or portal for connecting with the spirit realm.  Humanity has a sin problem, but it also has a problem of spiritual entities who are working to separate us from God.

Genesis does not tell us exactly what spirits were imprisoned for their sin.  However, the Old Testament does show God giving judgment and punishments upon these spiritual interlopers.  Genesis 3 actually gives God’s judgment against the ancient serpent, the devil.  Isaiah 14:12-15 also uses the imagery of judgment against a spiritual being.  We see it again in Ezekiel 28:12-17.

It is in the book of 1 Enoch that we have the details filled in for us.  1 Enoch is being referenced by Peter and Jude.  In fact, Jude even quotes from 1 Enoch at Jude 1:14-15.  Let’s be clear that 1 Enoch was never regarded as Scripture.  Just like we would not treat a modern commentary on the Bible as Scripture itself, so the Jews did not treat 1 Enoch as Scripture.  Yet, it represented a commentary on the Genesis 6 event that was in existence at least 200 years before the apostles and Jesus.  It isn’t scripture, but it tells us what is in the minds of men like Peter and Jude as the Holy Spirit directs them to warn us about the reality of the judgment that lies ahead for all who join in league with these fallen spirits.

In 1 Enoch, it is the fallen angels of Genesis 6 who are imprisoned.  God did not spare them.  Instead, He had them cast into a pit and bound there.  Almost all translations of 2 Peter 2:4 say that they were cast into “hell.”  This is an unfortunate translation because it masks the reality of what is being said.

In fact, three different Hebrew and Greek words were all given the same translation of “hell.”  The Hebrew word “Sheol” (Greek Hades) is probably best translated as the grave.  The Grave is a spiritual holding place for the spirits of departed humans.  Jesus pictured it as having 2 compartments in his story of The Rich Man and Lazarus.  One side was for the wicked and sounds a lot like what we imagine in “hell.”  However, the other side was for the righteous and was a paradise called Abraham’s Bosom.

The word translated as hell in our passage today is literally to be cast into Tartarus.  If you know your Greek mythology, then you know that Tartarus was pictured as being as far below Hades (the holding place for human spirits) as Hades was beneath the earth.  It corresponds to the Hebrew concept of The Pit.  In the book of Revelation, it is called the Abyss or Bottomless Pit.  So, the rebel angels of Genesis 6 were chained in the bottomless pit in order to be held until the great judgment day.

Thus, Peter pictures these angels as committed into pits of darkness, being held for judgment.  This is the background to the opening of the bottomless pit in Revelation 9 which allows a horde of scorpion beings to exit with their king being an angel named Apollyon (Abaddon in Hebrew), which means The Destroyer.

Revelation is depicting the end times judgment of God upon mankind as a kind of spiritual copy of The Flood.  Just as flood waters fell upon the earth from the heavens and also shot up as geysers from under the earth, so the spiritual rebels will be pushed out of the heavens down onto the earth.  At the same time, the bottomless pit (Tartarus) is opened, and spiritual rebels flood the earth with a fury.  Both these spiritual beings and the wicked humans they torment will then come under the judgment of God.

Just as these angels were not spared, so too the humans of the ancient world who followed them were not spared.  Those who turn away from God’s ways and follow the powerful rebels will receive a rebel’s reward, aka destruction. 

A judgment of global proportions may evoke fear in those who are righteous.  However, the flip side of the judgment of those who lead others into wickedness is the protection (vs. 5) and the rescue (vs. 7) of those who were spared.

In the flood, Noah and his family were spared.  Genesis 6:5 shows us the effect of the Genesis 6 rebel-angel incursion.  “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”  Yet, “Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD!”  How?  By trusting God in the midst of a world that was falling away from truth into apostasy.

Noah is described as a preacher of righteousness, a proclaimer of following God’s ways and not the ways of the fallen angels and their gigantic, wicked offspring.  Through the wisdom of God, Noah constructed an ark and saved his family.  He is a type of Christ.  Jesus is the Greater Noah who has constructed a means by which all his family (those who believe on him) can be protected and rescued from the coming judgments upon humanity.  In fact, the seven family members represent the whole group of the righteous, however many that will be.

Humans seem bent on rejecting the Father and His Messiah, Jesus.  In doing so, they ally (whether knowingly or unknowingly) with the devil and his rebel angels.  Part of the wrath of the Lamb (see Revelation 6:16-17) will be to stop restraining all the wickedness that the devil wants to bring forth upon this earth.  When the rejection of the love of the truth (that is found in the Gospel of Jesus) is completed, then God will allow these things to come forth.  This will be the final days of the world as we know it.

Let us remain faithful to the Lord.  Let it not be because we imagine this will procure for us a future absent any suffering.  Rather, let us suffer whatever it takes now to join in the glory that is coming for all the righteous!

2 Peter 2:1-3a.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, August 2, 2026.

In chapter one, Peter has shared some things that he does not want believers to forget.  However, he now turns to encouraging them to be vigilant in defending these things from false apostles, false prophets, false teachers, false Christs etc.

The devil doesn’t want us to know and live out the truth because it is a threat to him and his purposes.  Thus, he attacks believers through the temptation of false teaching.  It is important for Christians to be aware of this and to guard against it.

Let’s look at our passage.

Peter warns about false prophets and teachers

One way that the enemy of our souls robs us of truth is by undermining its foundations.  Once the foundation is greatly removed, then greater truths can be supplanted and replaced by lies and twisted truths.

False teachers can come in a multitude of ways, and this is made more complex by the sheer number of them.  They can be deceptive with partial lies, and they can be bold with complete lies.  I’m reminded of Miss Poppin’s song that says, “A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.”  We should always understand that a spoonful of “sugar” can help the poison (lies and half-truths) go down as well.

Though believers were receiving the pure and true teachings of the Messiah from his apostles, they should not expect to be somehow protected from false apostles.  In this age, Christ himself commands us to beware of false prophets and their false teachings.  His apostles went on to not only warn against them but also to rebuke them.  Essentially, we must not be deceived.

In Matthew 24:4, Jesus says, “Take heed that no one deceives you…”  He then warns of false christs in verse five, “many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.  In verse 11, he warns of false prophets, “Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.” Later in verse 24, he again warns, “For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.”

The Church will have false teachers just as Israel did. (v. 1-3a)

Deception was a big concern for Jesus.  He not only points to the real threat of deception but also speaks to it being a powerful deception.  Of course, we can overcome it, if we pay attention and guard against it.  This is what Peter is doing here.  He is passing on the Lord’s concern that we be not deceived.

It is easy to think that you cannot be deceived, but that is itself the beginning of deception.  I can be deceived, so I take care to watch carefully.

Peter’s description doesn’t use the words Church and Israel, but it is the natural understanding of what he is saying.  He uses tenses here that emphasize what has happened in the past and the expectation that it will continue into the future.  The Church will have false prophets just as Israel did.  We are not immune from it.

I do not believe Peter is making a distinction between false prophets and false teachers here.  Both of these words recognize that there are real prophets and real teachers.  Yet, false ones will also show up.  The word false here emphasizes lying and deceiving.

A person could be promoting the teachings of a false teacher.  He would be a false teacher as well.  We can make a distinction between false teachers who are “wolves in sheep’s clothing” versus those who are simply deceived.  Both are dangerous and need to be rebuked, but the simply deceived group may be saved.  We need God’s wisdom in calling people on false teaching.

The best defense against false teaching is to be focused on being a true follower of Christ.  To do this we must be students of the words of our Lord and his apostles.  We must be a faithful brother or sister in the Lord.  We see this in the life of Jesus.  He spoke the truth while loving the disciples to the end.  They all made mistakes and their flesh often was in the way of spiritual maturity.  However, Jesus was a true brother even to Judas.  Jesus knew who was going to betray him and who wouldn’t. We don’t have that same knowledge.  All we can do is be faithful in the truth to one another.  If a person is a wolf, or simply deceived, the truth in you will eventually provoke it into the open.

Peter then explains the work and effect of false teachers.  They will introduce destructive heresies in a secretive or crafty way.  They are generally not honest in the way they promote their ideas.

Heresy is a word that we rarely use outside of church.  Heresy refers to a teaching or idea that is outside of the truth and captures people from within the truth.  A person can still desire to love Jesus but have a weakness for a heretical idea.  It depends how foundational the lie is.

It is called destructive for many reasons.  Heresy, or false teaching, misleads us and affects us spiritually.  Even heresies about small matters need to be corrected.  However, some heresies are far more destructive than others. 

Paul dealt with this in the letter to the Galatians.  If it was simply a matter of choice, circumcision was not a bid deal.  In Galatians 5:6, he states, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love.”  However, this was precisely the point.  The Galatians were not being motivated to circumcise themselves out of faith in Jesus, or love for others.  They were being motivated to do so as a necessary work for salvation.  Paul recognized that the importance of Jesus was being diminished and the importance of our work was taking its place.  Thus, he strongly states in 3:1, “You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?”  Their desire to be circumcised was in order to be acceptable to certain false teachers.  Yet, Paul saw this as a bewitching.  Somehow, they were so impressed by these false teachers that they were willing to let the cross of Christ be diminished in their lives.  Paul saw this as a separation from Christ himself.  To let yourself be separated from Christ is to be separated from the grace that is found only in him (5:3-4).  Paul is not being contradictory.  He is sifting the motivations behind the actions.

Peter then says that these destructive heresies can be to the point that they are “denying the Master who bought [them].”  I believe this is the main point of the Galatian heresy.  They were beginning to turn their back on Christ.  Peter doesn’t give examples of what he is thinking.

There is no question that the Master he has in mind is the Lord Jesus.  How does false teaching “deny” Jesus?  It can do so as a full rejection of Jesus.  Peter actually was guilty of this on the night of the betrayal of Jesus.  He denied knowing Christ.  Of course, this was a dangerous thing to do.  Jesus had warned his disciples that those who deny him before men will be denied by him before the Father.  How thankful we can be that this is not about ever doing it once.  If Peter had never repented and believed upon the Lord later, then he would have had to face that fearful denial of Jesus before the Father.  However, Peter did repent.  He believed upon the Lord Jesus Christ and faithfully confessed him before men.

To deny the Lord Jesus can also be to contradict particular things about Jesus that were revealed to the apostles.  In the words of Galatians, this is following “another Jesus” or “another Gospel.”  (See Galatians 1:6-10). 

Throughout history many heresies have centered on the true person of Jesus.  They will either reject his divinity, or they will reject his humanity.  Heresies have even developed around the cross and exactly what Jesus was doing.  Some diminish the price that is being paid (1 Corinthians 6:20).  They teach that Jesus was only showing us an act of love.  His lordship is often challenged.  He may be the first in time, but now that he has shown the way, we can take it from here and eclipse him.

Such heresies always diminish a core truth about our Lord Jesus.  Today, it has become vogue for society to co-opt ideas from Christ and reinterpret them.  Thus, Christ taught that a love for God and a love for one another is the whole of the Law of God.  The modern world reinterprets love to mean that you approve of all that a person chooses.  You must even approve of sinful lifestyles, otherwise you are not loving them.  This is heretical.  Jesus is the very definition of love.  He who said, “Go and sin no more.”  It is not love to pat the homosexual on the back and tell them to just be a loving homosexual.  Love speaks the truth in love.  Love challenges us to see their bondage to the flesh and its desires.  It challenges us to plead with them and love them enough to warn them.

The flip side of this is some callous Christians who so despise homosexuals that they can’t show them even the least bit of Christian love.  Jesus demonstrates what this could look like with the woman at the well in John 4.

Peter then states that these false teachers are bringing swift destruction upon themselves.  The word swift is a related form of the word used in Revelation 22:7 (one is an adjective and the other is the adverbial form).  Some versions translate the Rev 22:7 passage as “I am coming soon.”  You may note that other versions have, “I am coming quickly.”

This word can mean both.  It essentially means to be quick.  That quickness can be emphasizing the timing between now (when the statement is made) and then (when the event happens).  In this case, I am coming soon translates that meaning well.  However, it can also emphasize the quickness of the event when it happens, whenever that may be.  In such case, I am coming quickly would be a better translation.

Why is this important?  There are some who like to emphasize that Jesus and his apostles thought that he would be coming back within days, weeks, months, at most years.  However, this does not fit with many of the parables of Jesus that he used to explain the kingdom of God.  He commonly speaks of a king who is gone for a very long time.  It is so long that the stewards put in charge of his estate begin to act as if he will never return.  They drink the master’s supply and beat their fellow servants.  In each of these parables, the master shows up and quickly dispatches justice upon their heads.  The emphasis is not on the length of his absence but on the quickness of his arrival.  No one will be able to get ready once he arrives.  Judgment will be quick and swift.  Now is the day of repentance, while there is still time.

I believe that the swift destruction here should be seen in a similar way.  Many false teachers have lived long lives and did not appear to have “swift destruction.”  All judgment is in the hands of our lord Jesus.  His slowness to judgment may challenge our faith because of its timing. In fact, God may allow a false prophet to live to an old age just to test our faithfulness to His Word and the witness of His Apostles.

Every false teacher who neglects to repent before Christ will find themselves standing before Jesus one day.  They will not have a long, drawn-out appeals process. Their destruction will come swiftly.

In verse two, Peter makes it clear that false teachers will affect many, causing the Way of Truth to be maligned.  It would be one thing if false teachers only affected their own salvation.  However, they can affect the destinies of people we love.  Peter emphasizes many just as Jesus did in Matthew 24.  We cannot over-emphasize that even among those who embrace the Gospel of Jesus, many are susceptible and will succumb to these deceptions.  The word “many” says nothing about the percentage.  Yet, it should still be concerning.  Our being on guard against false teaching is not just for our own sake but also for the sake of our brothers and sisters.

Peter says that many will follow their “sensuality.”  They are living for the senses of their flesh: what tastes good, what feels good, what looks good, etc.  Of course, bodily pleasures are a part of God’s design.  There is nothing wrong with enjoying them properly.  However, we must never let the desires of our flesh become more important to us than the will of God and pleasing Him.  These false teachers live for their flesh and not for Christ.  They are led by their appetites and not by the Spirit of God.  Those who follow their teaching are being led astray into such sensuality as well. 

Jesus told us that we would know false teachers, false prophets, by their fruit (Matt 7:16).  What is produced in their lives and the lives of people who follow them?  It is not always evident immediately, but it will eventually surface.  A good tree does not produce bad fruit.  Jesus described them as those “who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.”  A wolf may put on pretense around the sheep, but eventually a ravenous wolf will satisfy his belly with one of the sheep, however that comes about.

These false teachers will always have trouble in the area of the desires of the flesh.  They may be sexually immoral, but they may also appear quite moral in that area.  Whether they are hiding it, or they simply have other appetites, the point is not about any one sin.  The lust for money, the lust for power, or the lust for sexual immorality, all of these things can be a part or most of the motivation.

Ultimately, they give the Way of Truth (i.e., Jesus) a bad reputation.  The word for maligned is the word for blasphemy.  People will think and say untrue things about the Gospel of Jesus when we do not do a good job at exposing false teachers and protecting the body of Christ.

Verse 3a states that they will “exploit you with false words.”  The lust of their flesh will push them to use their followers for their own gain in many ways.

They obtain this through false words.  The word false here is not the same as the false prophets and false teachers.  The false teachers are liars and deceivers.  “False” in this verse is a different word that is the root for our word “plastic.”  It speaks of words that are shaped and formed not for veracity but for the ensnaring of those who will swallow and believe them.  Scammers employ these methods today.  In fact, they are most effective when we are not controlling our own greed and strong desires.

We must beware of deceptive teaching that leads us away from following Christ in righteousness by faith in him.  Or, as Paul put it, we must have faith in Christ working itself out in actions of love for God and for one another.

The deception in this world is only going to become worse.  Yes, charlatans may be somewhat easy to spot.  Like the spiritists and their seances in the 1800’s, they can employ a modern equivalent of “spirit knocking” and “smoke and mirrors.”  Yet, Jesus and the apostles all warn of great and powerful signs and wonders done by deceivers in the end times.  We must not bank on our ability to sniff out liars because of their tricks.  We must continually feed upon Christ’s Word and His Spirit so that when the day comes of great delusion, we will not become casualties.  Instead, we will rescue others from the jaws of the wolf!

2 Peter 1:16-21.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, July 26, 2026.

This passage is among several in the New Testament that speak of the glory and majesty of Jesus Christ our Lord.

In Hebrews 1:1-3, Jesus is called “God’s Son” and is described as the “Radiance of God’s Glory” and the “Exact Representation of His nature.”  In Colossians 1:15, Jesus is called the “Image of the Invisible God.”

All of these emphasize that Jesus is far more than just a man.  His glory and majesty are themselves a manifestation of the Father’s glory and majesty.  We will see similar descriptions in our passage today.

Let’s look at our passage.

Peter gives a final exhortation

We have given you a witness of our Lord Jesus Christ. (v. 16-18)

Though Peter does not explain who the “we” are in verse 16, it seems obvious from the context that he is speaking about the other apostles, but particularly the three of them who witnessed the event called The Transfiguration.

It is important for us to understand what men like Peter had been given for our sake.  Peter is important.  He needs to speak and be led by the Holy Spirit as a witness, especially since he would not live forever in his mortal body.  Yet, Peter could not do what he has done and say the things he has said unless God hadn’t given him the experiences in the first place.

Everyone in Israel during the days of Jesus saw some remarkable things.  However, the twelve disciples of Jesus saw many things beyond what others saw.

This sharing from Peter (and the rest) to others was a critical part of God’s plan for humanity.  Peter could do nothing before God did what He did.  But, once God gave a witness to him and others, Peter had an imperative to share it.  God would not do it for him.

Peter also emphasizes that the witness given by those Apostles of Jesus were not cleverly devised tales.  Instead, they spoke of things they had seen with their own eyes.  Today, there are many who state that these things were not written down for a long time.  This is not the case.  Paul was writing his letters within 15 to 20 years from Christ’s resurrection.  Even this letter from Peter was written in the early 60’s AD, i.e., at most 30 years after the resurrection.  It would make sense that these men would write things down as they neared their deaths.  In fact, the Apostle Paul wrote down many of his letters because he was in prison.  They were eyewitnesses of powerful things.

Peter is alluding to the fact that it was common in those days for charlatans to travel from town to town seeking people who would pay to hear their lectures.  They used cleverly designed tales that were designed to capture the imagination of people (their attention) and to loosen their purse strings.  These kinds of men did not set people free from their sins and give them an inheritance in God’s kingdom.  They did not raise humanity from its fallen state to become the children of God.

We have a similar thirst for nice stories today.  Whether we buy it, or enrich people through interactions online, we can be hungry for things that are not truth.  Peter was not such a man.

Peter only focuses on The Transfiguration, but before we talk about that, let’s walk through some of the amazing things he saw.

He saw Jesus cast demons out of people with just a word of command.  These men went from tormented souls to being in their right mind within seconds.  Modern man can try to diminish these miracles by stating they were only psychological problems.  However, modern psychiatrists would love to have the power Jesus had.  They too are often impotent in the face of troubled minds, much less demon possession.

Peter also saw Jesus feed thousands of people with only the lunch of a boy.  He saw Jesus walk on water, even command a storm to stop, and it obeyed. 

Jesus told his disciples that he would be put to death but would rise again on the third day.  The resurrection of Jesus rocked their world, as he appeared to them multiple times over the course of 40 days.  On top of that, they witnessed Jesus ascend into heaven before their eyes.  Just one of these things would be unbelievable.  However, Peter witnessed each and every one of them.  They were all left with the truth that this is not just a normal man.

It was on the mountain (vs. 18) that Peter, James and John saw the Transfiguration of Jesus.  The descriptions in the Gospels can be found in Matthew 17:1-8; Mark 9:2-13; and Luke 9:28-36.

The word “transfiguration” is somewhat strange in modern English.  The word “transformation” might serve us better.  In our passage, Peter describes two aspects to this event.  Jesus was visibly honored and glorified in front of them as well as God speaking from heaven about him.  What they saw and what they heard pointed to the glory and majesty of Jesus.

Matthew 17 gives the description that his “face shone like the sun.”  His “garments became white as light.”  Mark gives the description that his clothes were “exceedingly white like snow…” and as “no launderer on earth can whiten them…”  Luke states that his “face was altered” and “his robe became white and glistening.”

Now, Jesus did not normally shine.  He walked around in human flesh looking and doing human things.  However, there was something greater about Jesus that was cloaked by his humanity.  Similar to the way the face of Moses was shining when he came down from the mountain where he talked with God face to face, this shining of Jesus is described in greater terms.

The voice that comes from heaven is clearly that of God the Father.  He says, “This is My Beloved Son with whom I am well pleased!”  Though Peter doesn’t mention this in his letter, the voice added at the end, “Listen to him!”

This is similar to the voice from heaven that spoke at the water baptism of Jesus (Matthew 3:17).  Yet, this connects back to Israel coming out of Egypt.  When they arrived at Mt. Sinai, God spoke to them from the mountain.  A close study of this event makes it clear that the ten commandments were spoken by God from the mountain to Israel.  This so freaked them out that they asked Moses to go and speak to God for them.  They were too scared to hear God’s voice.  All true revelation has its source in God.  However, because we humans are commonly not close to God, He speaks through prophets.  The voice from heaven in these three events appear to emphasize that it is God who is speaking.  No one doubted that God spoke to Moses after that event.  Similarly, those who heard the voice from heaven regarding Jesus did not doubt that they needed to listen to Jesus.

It is one thing to read the Scriptures your whole life about God’s promise of a Messiah.  It is quite another thing to have the experiences that Peter and his fellow disciples had with Jesus.

We now have the prophetic word made even more sure. (v. 19-21)

Verse 19 presses the point home.  It may come across as if Peter is saying that the prophecies of Scripture weren’t certain before, but they are now.  This is incorrect.  The Scriptures were retained by Israel because they had proven to be true, and the men who spoke them had proven to be true.  Of course, these proofs were in the past, but it was the national history of Israel and God’s revelation to them.

Thus, the proven, trustworthy Scriptures were now even more proven by the events surrounding Jesus.  Peter witnessed Jesus demonstrating his glory and power on that day.  It was a demonstration that underscored all that had been said and all that Jesus taught his disciples.  It was a demonstration that exampled what the glorified Jesus would look like at his Second Coming.  Thus, the effect of what Peter is saying is this.  The Scriptures were already sure, but now they are even more sure!

Because it is so certain, he tells them that they would do well to pay attention to it.  The clarity of God’s Word through the work and person of Jesus puts even more responsibility upon those who hear it.

Peter uses the imagery of a lamp in a dark place.  The eyewitness testimony of Peter, especially the written record of it, is the lamp here.  Jesus is the light of the world, but he told his disciples that they too were the light of the world.  This is because Jesus had witnessed to them of the Father.  Peter then could witness to others what was told to him and what he saw.  This lamp metaphor is very important.  The light does not come from Peter or from us.  We are simply containers.  Yet, we must be faithful to share the witness that we have received for the light of Christ to shine through us.  We also need to be careful to live a godly life as Peter has just exhorted us to do in order to be a light.  We today need to take up this torch of truth and continue to spread the light of God.

Of course, the dark place is this world.  Even after 2,000 years of the Gospel light of Jesus, we see humanity pursuing their own dark ways over the top of it.  It is as if they have fingers in their ears saying, “We don’t want to hear it.”  It is as if they have hands over their eyes, “We don’t want to see it!”

If we don’t pay attention to the revelation of Jesus found in the New Testament, then we will not do well (the failure to listen to Peter’s command in verse 19).  In light of what Peter said in verse 11, to not do well is to have the “entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ [not] supplied to you.”  We ignore God’s Word to our own peril.

Not to pay attention to these things is to be shut out of His eternal kingdom.  To follow our flesh will lead to destruction, but to follow the Spirit of God will lead to eternal life.  In fact, both the destruction and the eternal life are partially experienced on those two alternate paths.  In many different ways, God supplies eternal life to those who believe, and the consequences of unbelief supply countless small destructions leading up to a final destruction.

In verse 19 we have the word “until.”  So, we would do well to pay attention to the witness of men like Peter “until” the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.  This represents an ending point to paying attention to the eyewitness testimony of Peter and others.  This may sound strange or even heretical, but there will come a day when we won’t have to read a passage about what Peter saw.  Why?  We won’t because we will witness something even greater.

The daybreak here is a reference to the Second Coming of Jesus.  All prophecy points to a coming in great glory, riding on the clouds.  This will be a spectacular event.  It is understandable that some may read the phrase, “the morning star arises in your heart,” as a reference to a person being saved (having faith in Jesus).  However, this does not make sense.  Peter would be saying that we should pay attention to his witness until we are saved.  This is contrary to all the other places that emphasize the importance of the Word of God in our Christian walk.  Jesus is the morning star, but he is also the glory of the dawning day.  The picture is of a person witnessing the glory and majesty of Jesus for themselves in an event that will remove the false governments of this world.  This is not talking about our salvation today, but about the solidifying in our hearts that will happen on that day.

No one will have to explain to you how glorious Jesus is anymore.  No one will need to convince you that his words are trustworthy and should be obeyed.  It will rise up in your hearts the same way that it did to the apostles as they received a glimpse of his glory on that day.

We are still before the “until” of this passage.  Therefore, we need to continue paying close attention to the witness of Peter and the other apostles.  We need to closely follow the words of God given to us by these men.

In verse 20, Peter reminds us that true prophecy (that was written down) has never been the result of a prophet’s own interpretation or idea.  In fact, that is the definition of false prophets and false prophecy.  There were many false prophets throughout the world and even in Israel.  Their words proved to be false and untrustworthy.  Those who truly heard from God were proven to be true and trustworthy.  Thus, true prophecy is not something men can make happen.  It can only have its source in God.

Israel often did not listen to the prophets while they were alive.  Yet, their words would prove true.  They didn’t listen then, but later they understood that the words were from God.  It also helped that there was always a remnant who clung to the words of God and refused to let them be lost.

Thus, Peter says that true prophecy was not made by an act of human will.  It came about as men were moved by the Holy Spirit.  The word moved has the sense of being carried.  Some use the image of a river, and this would be fair.  They were carried along by the current of the Holy Spirit to say the things they said.  However, it could also simply be the Spirit of God carrying them as a young child needs to be carried by an adult.  In themselves, they would have given up or fallen short, but the Holy Spirit carried them and enabled them to give the message that God the Father wanted Israel (and us) to have.

The death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus become the exclamation point on why His words can be trusted, and why the words of Peter as an eyewitness can be trusted.

We should recognize that not all false prophets are religious.  We have many voices today shilling truth to those who will listen.  They prophesy a coming dawn that is antichrist, not connected to Jesus (or at least the True Jesus).  They seek to lead the world into a new age by tossing the Jesus and God of the Bible aside and recreating them in a different form.

If we continue to listen to God’s word and follow the Christ of the New Testament, then we will do well and be abundantly supplied the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  What a day that will be!

2 Peter 1:10-15.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, July 19, 2026.

Today’s passage transitions from Peter’s list of virtues that we need to be adding to our lives in verses 5-7.  Peter had then warned in verse 9, “he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.”  This leads to our passage today which begins with the word “therefore.”

Today’s message is the logical imperative to those who understand this warning.

Let’s look at our passage.

Peter gives a final exhortation

Make certain your calling and choosing by Jesus. (v. 10-11)

Whether we view our calling and choosing as something the Father does or something Jesus does (as it says in this passage), it is all the same.  What the Father wills the Son and the Spirit go forth to do.  Jesus is the executor of the Father’s will.

What is meant by calling versus choosing, i.e. election?  Calling refers to all the ways that God’s choice, or election, is made known to people.  The various theological positions deal with this differently, so here is my explanation of what I see in Scripture.

The first truth is that God has made the choice to save humanity from its fallen state and back to its proper state in relationship with Him.  Yet, He also chose the particular, righteous way that this saving (or redemption) will be done.  The sending of the Eternal Son to take on human nature and provide salvation for “whosoever believes in him [Jesus]” is God’s particular way.  God will save anyone of humanity who puts their faith fully in Jesus.

Because of His nature, God also knows the individuals who will choose to do so.  This bothers some.  They believe that the foreknowledge of God regarding what a person will choose removes the true freedom of that person to choose Him.  Of course, nothing about foreknowing a situation logically makes the situation happen.  We easily see this among humans.  If you see someone throw a ball onto the table, you quickly make the calculation that it is rolling too fast to stay on the table.  You know that it is going to roll onto the floor and choose whether you will do something about that.  Your knowledge (though after the fact of the throw) does nothing to affect the throw or its velocity.  It simply is something that exists within your mind.

Of course, with God, He has prior knowledge, and His knowledge is complete, i.e., He knows for sure without error.  This still does not affect the choice of people.  Let’s picture salvation as a plate of food.  God places the plate laden with food before us.   He knows whether we will eat it or not, but we are still completely free to eat it or not.

Someone may argue that the person is not completely free to choose because they are in bondage to sin.  How can a person in bondage be free to choose?  Just as the person can eat food because God has put it in front of them, so a person can choose to take hold of salvation because the Spirit of God is calling them and will help them to overcome every hurdle, if they will believe.

So, God’s election or choice of saving humanity through Jesus is brought to people through an external and an internal witness.  Christians are the external witnesses that share the words of life and live out the words of life before those who do not yet believe.  At the same time, the Holy Spirit is working on the inside of a person to recognize that there is something in those words and in those people.  Though these are all influences, they do not remove a person’s freedom to choose.

Jesus represents this choice and calling that occurs in our lives.  What does Peter mean by making our calling and election sure or certain?  The calling and election are always certain from God’s side of the equation.  He will not change His mind about saving humans through faith in Jesus.  The plate of food in front of you may be certainly there, but it is not certain that you will fully eat it.  Peter is focusing on our side of the equation.  We are not saving ourselves, but we are “certainly” taking hold of what God makes available to us.  This is the imperative.  A similar phrase used of this idea is the many imperatives to “walk worthy” of the calling of Christ (Eph.4:1; Col. 1:10; 1 Thess. 2:12).

Peter then states that those who “practice these things” will never stumble.  Practice is essentially living out these godly virtues by faith.  The help of the Holy Spirit will ensure that this will happen in increasing measure.  It could also be translated as simply “those who are doing these things.”  The point is not about doing them without fail, but a continual applying of ourselves to these things by faith and by the help of the Holy Spirit.

Different versions can affect how we understand the word “stumble.”  Peter is not saying that those who do these things will never make a mistake.  Stumbling and falling are used in Scripture to refer to a spiritual problem.  Regardless of what words you use, the idea is two-fold.  We can stumble in doing these things, but we do not fall away from Christ.  You could also describe it as falling from the path but not falling away so as to never recover.

Peter is stating that those who live a life of pursuing these virtues by faith will never fall away from Christ completely. 

In Romans 11:11, Paul uses similar terminology about the nation of Israel.  As a people, they stumbled in the first century. Paul wants Gentile Christians to know that this stumbling was not so that they would fall forever (without recovery).  Rather, their stumbling was so that the Gospel would go to the Gentiles and provoke them to jealously over the relationship they have with God.  This would cause them to desire to turn back to the Lord.  If the stumbling of the nation of Israel meant grace to the Gentiles, then what would recovery of the nation of Israel mean but life back from the dead!

The point is that God is always working to make us like Jesus.  Even when we stumble, He is not seeking to cut us off, but rather, He seeks to bring us to repentance.  A person who is seeking to grow in godliness is continually repentant for the ways in which they fall short.  This keeps them moving forward in the growth of godliness.

Peter then connects this to missing out on the everlasting kingdom of Jesus.

Verse 11 says, “in this way…”  It may be good to think of our growth in godliness as a path whose endpoint is being completely like Jesus in these things.  This path will proceed to the end of our mortal life and will finish at the resurrection of the righteous.

Essentially, Peter is telling us that those who do not abandon this path will never fall away from Christ.  This leads to the implication that those who do abandon this path will find themselves shut out of the Kingdom of Jesus.  Their faith was not actually in Jesus because in the end they refused to follow the godly path that he has made for us.

Such people can have various ideas in their heads.  Some are playing games.  They don’t think it is real while imagining some benefit by joining the Christian community.  Others may have a twisted theology.  They imagine that Jesus paid the price for all their sins, so they don’t have to worry about how they are living.  Often there will be a reference to grace versus works.  However, Jesus did not die on the cross so that we could keep on sinning in this life.  Even if you imagine a life with no sin “in heaven,” to believe you are not supposed to become like Jesus in this life is a refusal to listen to the Word of God and the Holy Spirit that inspired it.  The Spirit is working at all times to help you be more like Jesus.  We refuse to listen at our own peril.

By the way, the Bible is not against works.  We are warned against dead works and encouraged towards the works of faith.  Dead works are when we think that our life is acceptable to God on its own merits.  However, this is not what Zacchaeus was doing when he gave money back to all of those people.  He was so happy to be saved that the Spirit that he volunteered doing more than the law required.  These are the works of faith.  Following Jesus is a work of faith.

When Peter speaks of being “abundantly supplied” an entrance into the Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, it is speaking of a specific entrance that is in the future.  They had all entered the kingdom in the sense that it was within them by the Spirit of Christ.  He is our Lord and we obey his commands.  However, Peter is looking ahead into that grand entrance that will occur at our death.

Our spirit will either go into the grave awaiting judgment because we refused to believe in Jesus, or our spirit will enter into God’s throne room where Jesus is.  This life is part of our entrance.  However, we must endure by faith to the end.  Thus, our entrance is not complete until we stand before Christ.  Of course, we will then experience a resurrection at some point and join Christ as he takes control of the kingdoms of this earth.  Jesus will reign on this planet in person for 1,000 years.

Notice that we are not trying to get to heaven so much as we are being joined with Jesus never to be separated again.  In John 14:3, when Jesus told his disciples he was leaving them, he also promised that he would come back for them so that “where I am, there you may be also.”  The point is relationship and presence, not place.  Thus, at death, my spirit is with Jesus in heaven.  In the Millennial Kingdom, my spirit, now in a glorified body, will be with Jesus on this earth.  In the Final State (Revelation 20-22), we will enter the new heavens and the new earth with Jesus regardless of what we will be doing and where it will be done.

Let’s not forget that Christ is king over this earth right now.  However, Christ is not enforcing his kingship.  It is our duty to teach, to disciple, the nations in following him.  When he takes up political control at his Second Coming, then his kingdom will be fully upon the earth.  It is here now in us but not yet fully.

He does not want us to forget these things. (v. 12-15)

In view of The Entrance that Peter has just mentioned, his exhortation turns to deal with the forgetfulness of humans.  The stakes before us are too high to jeopardize by forgetting the things Peter has spoken.  To forget is to fall away and lose out on this great kingdom and all that God has for us ahead.

Peter says that does not want to be negligent to remind them always.  Kids can become annoyed with the reminders that adults give them.  However, kids and adults have proven throughout history that forgetfulness comes easy to us.  What is important today can easily be not important tomorrow.  Peter is writing this letter so that it can stick around and remind them when he is gone.  If they forget, it will not be because Peter was negligent.

How about you and me?  If our loved ones are to forget these things, let it not be because we were negligent in these matters.  May we remind them as we live and leave behind reminders for when we are gone.

Peter says in verse 12 that they know these things and are established in them.  They are presently doing well!  Peter is not saying that they are not doing enough.  Rather, he understands how perseverance works.  Perseverance is hard.  People need encouraged in these things.  Oh Lord, remind us from what You have saved us and to what You are bringing us.

Peter likely knows that he will be martyred for Christ.  Perhaps some of these Christians he addresses will also face such a trial.  Why would I risk an immortal life in order to keep a temporary life?  May God strengthen us all to remain established in the faith and growing in godliness.

In verses 13-14, Peter refers to his “tent.”  There is a certain urgency to his letter because he knows that he will shortly (soon) put off his mortal body.  This is what the tent symbolizes here.

God dwelled among Israel in a temporary tent until they entered the promised land.  God eventually dwelled among them in a permanent structure.  This symbolism is on purpose.  Our mortal life is pictured by that tent made from animal skins, always on the move in the wilderness of this life.  However, there is a day that is coming when we will be given a fixed or permanent body in the resurrection.  God will still dwell within us, but now He will be within us, and we will be what He has been making us to be.  The path of becoming godly like Jesus will have come to an end!

Peter knows he is going to die and will be unable to remind them again.  This is why he is writing a letter.

He emphasizes that this has been revealed to him by Jesus.  He could be talking about the discussion in John 21.  Jesus told Peter after his own resurrection that “when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish.”  That event was over thirty years ago.  I believe that Peter has had a recent revelation from Christ that his time was near.  He is most likely arrested and held in Rome.  Jesus has prepared him for the judgment of a wicked man that will come upon him.

In this letter, Peter ensures that his diligence at the moment will provide a harvest of reminders later.  They will be able to remember his teachings, but this letter will ensure that the fog of time will not hinder this remembrance.

Today, the apostles are all gone, but their writings remain.  We call it the New Testament.  Those impacted by their ministry have created a wave of faith across the world and down through history.  All of this is headed somewhere.  Jesus is going to return with the saints in glorified form.  If you want to be in that group, if you want your loved ones to be in that group too, then we need to apply the same diligence that Peter applied.  It starts by keeping ourselves immersed in the word of God and following the leading of the Holy Spirit in living out the righteousness of Christ.  We are believers today because of the diligence and faithfulness of people before us.  This work has been helped by the Holy Spirit down through the years and is still operating here today.  May God help us to work with the Holy Spirit in order to promote the purpose of Jesus across this earth to save people from their sins and provide their entrance into His eternal Kingdom!

2 Peter 1:1-9.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, July 12, 2026.

As we begin to look at Peter’s second letter, we should note up front that Peter clearly treats this letter as if it will be his last.  He states that he will shortly put off his body, as the Lord has shown him. 

Let’s look at the letter.

Introduction (v. 1-2)

The letter starts off with a statement of who is writing or sending it.  This is the Apostle Peter.  This is just as he introduced himself in his first letter.  However, Peter adds the name Simon.

In some ways, this is his name, and it is normal for him to use it.  However, in the first letter, he did not do this.  There he introduced himself only as Peter.  It was Jesus who gave him the name Peter.  Thus, Peter emphasizes his new life following Jesus his master.  Yet, Simon would also emphasize that he is that same Simon who has been being transformed by the teaching of Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit.  God was redeeming Simon through Jesus, making him into the rock that Jesus had called him to be.

Peter also adds that he is a slave of Jesus Christ.  This may seem contradictory in light of the Apostle Paul’s emphasis that the Jews time serving under the law was a slavery.  In Jesus, they are now set free from the law of sin and death.  Yet, Peter is not calling himself a slave because Jesus has made him one.  No, Jesus has set Peter free.  Yet, Peter so loves the Lord Jesus that he considers himself a slave of Christ.  He volunteers to live only for the purposes of Jesus and not his own.

Peter does not address this letter to a specific group.  However, in 2 Peter 3:1, he will mention that this is his second letter.  Thus, it seems reasonable to think that this letter was sent to the same people as the previous letter (central Asia Minor).  Yet, it is possible that it had a wider circulation.  He simply says in verse 1 that he is writing “to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours.”  He is essentially addressing it to believers.

Faith involves what we do but also is a description of the truth about Jesus that we are called to believe.  We are walking out the faith that others before us have passed down to us, but we are also walking in the faith to which the Holy Spirit has drawn us, even stirred up within us.

This faith has been made possible by “the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.”  It is his righteousness that lays the foundation for our faith.

It is important to note that in English this phrase could be read as either calling Jesus God, i.e., he is both God and Savior, or it can be read as speaking of two persons, the Father and Jesus.  The Greek grammar behind this phrase is fairly clear that God and Savior are both describing the same person, Jesus.  This is one of those clear places in Scripture where the divinity of Jesus is explicitly declared.  We see a similar statement in Titus 2:13. You may find some Greek Scholars who dispute this, but it is generally seen to be a conclusive statement of the divinity of Jesus.

Peter ends his introduction with a salutation of “grace and peace be multiplied to you…”  Grace is the good gifts of God in a variety of forms.  Peace is both an external peace (no longer enemies with God) and an internal peace (an assurance of right standing with God resonating in our hearts).  Peter prays for it to be multiplied to them (as it is needed), but particularly in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.  The knowledge of God has been given to mankind through Jesus.  When we understand all that Jesus has made available to us, it becomes a source of never-ending grace and peace to the believer.

Peter gives a final exhortation (v. 3-21)

What we have been given (3-4)

Chapter 1 lays out a final exhortation of the Apostle.  He starts out by describing a couple of things that believers in Jesus have been given (or granted).  These have been granted by “his divine power.”   Jesus exercised divine power throughout his ministry, death, and resurrection.  On top of this, his divine power has secured many important blessings for believers.  Peter sums this up by saying that we have been given everything we need for life and godliness.  When you feel like you can’t do what God has given to you to do, remember that Christ has supplied everything you need to live a life that displays the godliness of our lord Jesus.  Yes, our flesh fights us and even wins some battles.  However, in the end, we are more than conquerors through Jesus Christ our Lord.  We must learn to thank God for His supply in every situation.  We must learn to walk in faith knowing that He is going before us to make the way.

We must be clear that it is the purpose of Jesus that we should live a godly life in his name.  Yet, at the same time, it is he who also supplies everything we need to do that.  He has supplied the message of truth, the presence and empowering of the Holy Spirit, the family of believers along with many who are spiritually mature and can help us, and finally, he has supplied us with the Scriptures that have been confirmed and proven trustworthy.

The second thing that has been given to us is “his precious and magnificent promise by which we partake of the divine nature.”  This is a mouthful and says a lot.

The promises of Jesus are that he will not abandon nor forsake us in this life.  He will also send the Spirit to aid us.  He will bring us to himself so that where he is we may be there too.  He has secured an inheritance within the kingdom of God for us.  We will be his jewels on the day of his second coming.  These are only some of the great promises of Christ for those who follow him in faith.

What does he mean by “partakers of the divine nature?”  It does not mean that we are becoming gods ourselves.  Rather, God is supplying to us things that are His by nature.  He is eternal by nature, but He has made it possible for us to partake (have a portion) in his eternal life.  We also partake in the eternal fellowship among the Godhead.  This is about a relational bond and life that we can share with God.

The flip side of this partaking is that we are those who “have escaped the corruption that is in this world through lust.”  By nature, we are those who are being corrupted by the lusts of the flesh.  By partaking in the divine nature, we are enabled to escape the death that is brought about through the lusts of men.

In your faith, diligently add these things to your life (v. 5-9)

Faith is the foundation of our walk with Christ.  However, we need to add some things to our faith.  In fact, we need to be diligent in this matter.  The following list is similar to Paul’s fruit of the Spirit.  It is clear that they are not intended to be exhaustive.  Rather, Peter is telling us not to settle for faith alone.  We must go on to let the Holy Spirit help us to bear the fruit of His presence.  These character traits are to be in our lives.  They will ensure that we are not stuck doing one thing to the exclusion of all other virtues.

To our faith in Christ, we need to add virtue (moral excellence).  How we live matters.  To our virtue we need to add knowledge.  Peter is not talking about the knowledge of humanity.  We need to add the knowledge of God that has been made available in Jesus.

Let me just insert here that this may sound strange.  How can I supply virtue to myself?  Though Peter does not make this explicit, the previous mention of the fruit of the Spirit is part of the answer.  God is supplying His Spirit in order to transform us into the image of Jesus.  However, this requires me to “supply” the faith and courage to walk these things out.  I must be intentional.  The question is never about God’s supply.  He is faithful.  However, the question is whether I will take up what He is supplying and adding it to my life.

To knowledge, we must add self-control.  Notice that knowledge in and of itself can puff us up with pride.  Thus, all of these virtues working together keep us from falling short of the image of Christ.

To self-control, we are to add perseverance.  Many people can do good things for a short time.  We are called to stick in there and endure to the end.

To perseverance, we are to add godliness.  Sometimes people who have endured many hardships can become arrogant and hard towards others.  We can cease to be like Jesus in our care for the lost.  We need both.

To our godliness, we are to add brotherly love.  This emphasizes the relational love that develops between family and friends as we do life together.

Finally, we are to add love (agape).  This is a love without condition.  It is love for the sake of Christ.  I love you, not because we have done life together and I have a bond with you, but because Christ compels me to do so.  This seems to serve as the capstone of Christ-like character we are to emulate.

Peter then makes a conditional statement.  “If these are yours and are increasing…”  It is up to you to listen to Jesus and to his apostle.  You can add these things because God is faithful to help you, supplying all you need to do it.  Instead of calling for a certain level, Peter emphasizes that they are increasing.  It may be hard to know if you are increasing in love over the short term.  However, over time, we can see how God transforms our life as we trust Him and obey.

If we have these and they are increasing, then we will not be useless and unfruitful.  Without Christ, our lives are essentially that: useless to God and unfruitful for the things that matter.  As God pours into your life, He is also working to make you spiritually fruitful to others in your life.  He will be able to use you to impact people who are spiritually lost, or brothers and sisters who need a helping hand.

Jesus even told his disciples that God will sometimes prune perfectly good things out of our life in order to make us more fruitful.

As we read verse nine, we can see that certain people were kicking against Peter’s command to grow in godliness.  Thus, Peter challenges those who refuse to follow this instruction.  They are blind and short-sighted.  They are blind to all that Jesus is trying to do in their life, and they are short-sighted to the day when they will give an account to the Lord they claim to have trusted.

They have forgotten their purification from former sins.  This is what Jesus is doing.  He has first legally purified us from our sins.  Yet, he then enlists us in a lifelong task of cleaning sin out of our lives.  We are not saved because we do this.  Rather, we do this because he has saved us.

For the life of me, I do not understand how some people have twisted grace into the idea that they don’t want to “work.”  Somehow you are encroaching on their freedom if you challenge their sin.  Jesus did not die to give us freedom to sin as we please.  He died to set us free from sin.  If we are not blind to the deleterious effects of sin in our life, then we will rejoice to have his help in this.

Praise be unto Jesus who delivers us from these bodies of death!

Two Hundred Fifty years ago yesterday, the Continental Congress debated and adopted the formal declaration of Independence that was worked out by the Committee of Five: John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston.

It was actually on July 2^nd of that year that the same congress adopted a resolution absolving themselves from any allegiance and political tie to Great Britain.

Later after a decade of struggling to work together as a Republic, the Constitution was hammered out and ratified with this preamble:

"We The People of the United States of America in order to

• form a more perfect Union,
• establish Justice,
• insure domestic Tranquility,
• provide for the common defence,
• promote the general Welfare, and
• secure the blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity,

do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

Many things can be said about this statement.  First, it purposefully lists “We the People” in large letters as the agent creating the document.  No government was giving the people anything.  It was the people who were creating and empowering the federal government.

I want to focus on the last purpose listed for the creation of this constitution, “and secure the blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.”  The importance of Liberty, Freedom, was a common theme among the leaders of those days. 

Many sermons and speeches referenced Proverbs 14:34 in those days.  “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people.”

The question now hangs over our Republic as it did all those years ago, will we prosper as a people into the future, and what exactly is meant by prosperity?

When Patrick Henry passed away in 1799, there was an original copy of the 1765 Stamp Act among his personal effects.  This Act had been passed by the Virginia legislature, of which Henry was a member at the time.  A handwritten message was placed on the back of that document by Patrick, knowing others would go through his stuff at his death.  Here is the message.

“Whether this [the American Revolution] will prove a blessing or a curse will depend upon the use our people make of the blessings which a gracious God hath bestowed on us.  If they are wise, they will be great and happy.  If they are of a contrary character, they will be miserable.  Righteousness alone can exalt them as a nation [Proverbs 14:34].  Reader!—whoever thou art, remember this!—and in thy sphere practice virtue thyself and encourage it in others. P. Henry.”

The scope of this proverb is national, but Patrick brings it down to the personal level.  If it is true that righteousness exalts a nation, then I must do my part within my sphere of influence.  I must “practice virtue” myself.  Of course, much righteousness is not done because we are too busy pointing out the unrighteousness of others.  May God help us to grasp this once again across this Republic!

Let’s go deeper into this proverb.

Righteousness exalts a nation

Though this is a simple statement, it begs many questions regarding what is meant by the person making it. 

Just what is righteousness?  This is one of the prime questions of our day.  How we define righteousness, right and wrong, is up for grabs today.  Many refuse to accept that there can be an absolute right or wrong.  They are all about a subjective approach to this definition.

However, this creates a problem.  Everyone will complain if you punch them in the face and take their stuff.  Will it be any easier for them to accept it if I say, that it is “right” for me?  Of course not.  This is not a view you can actually live by, at least not for long.  It works fine, until it doesn’t.  Such people will have no problem pretending that you have absolutely wronged them!  Clearly, they won’t use that terminology!

This reminds me of the book of Judges in the Bible, each one doing what is right in their own eyes.  They too started out as a people with “No king, but King Yahweh!”  Yet, they couldn’t survive everyone being their own king.  God had to save them over and over again.

America started out with the mantra, “No king, but King Jesus!”  We too are finding it hard to stick to that path.  We would rather follow our own definition of righteousness.

The Bible tells us in Proverbs 14:12 that, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.”  You could replace “seems” with “feels” and have the same sense.  This was illustrated by Adam and Eve in the Garden.  The serpent tempted them to define right and wrong for themselves.  Come on!  Don’t you want to be like God?  Thus, humanity embarked on a road of death almost from its beginning.

If you are using your “feelings” to determine what is right, you will quickly find out that no one else cares.  Why should my life be determined by your feelings?  If there is no absolute right and wrong, then we can’t even begin to have a discussion.  There is no foundation to start on but everyone’s feelings.

Those who are intellectually honest will see quickly that this is a weak position.  Thus, people will quickly retreat to a more sophisticated position.  The definition of righteousness becomes whatever the majority of people within a society agree upon for the time being.  Of course, there rarely is a vote on the subject.  And then in cases where a vote happens, it is rarely a true majority.  There are those who are for a position and those who are against.  Yet, there are many in the middle who become the target of the “highest bidder,” seeking to get their vote.  Of course, some of them do not vote.

In the end such a definition of righteousness creates a social quagmire, quicksand, upon which we can never depend upon what will be right tomorrow.  Everyone will be constantly “evolving” on the issues in order to look like they are with the times.  In the end, we are led to become a prostitute-people selling ourselves for the next beautiful trinket, selling ourselves for “bread and circus.”

In truth, this position is about what the majority can be manipulated to go along with.  Yet, God’s Word shows us a better way.  Psalm 145:17 says, “The LORD is righteous in all His ways and kind in all His deeds.”  The best definition of what is righteous is that which conforms to the character of God.

This is often described as “the way of the LORD,” as opposed to “the way that seems right to a man.”  The Old Testament revealed the character and actions of God.  However, because men often manipulate words to their own ends, Jesus came as the exact representation of God the Father’s righteousness and nature.  He was the perfect image.  What did we find by the way Jesus lived and died?  God is far more loving than some want to pretend, and sin is far worse than we ever imagined.

The twisted nature of sin hijacks you from truth (if you were ever interested in it in the first place).  In the name of God, we will put God to death.  In the name of truth, we will put truth to death.  Without the righteousness of God, you will always end up in destruction because you are rejecting the Creator of all things and His wisdom, instruction, on how it was made to work.

So, what is the righteousness of a nation, or the lack thereof?  It is found in the public policies and their level of conformity to God’s revealed will.  It is essentially all the things we as a people are living by.

What is meant in this proverb by being exalted?  It is a general statement, so it is not so much about being the top nation in the world.  It simply means to rise, to rise up out of degradation, poverty, and slavery (first spiritually and then naturally).  No other nation has to be pulled down in order for a nation to rise.  A man rising up and being industrious all day does nothing to diminish the people around him.  They too could do the same thing.

We are a people halting at the intersection of the future.  I do not believe a majority of the people agree with the ungodly things that are being pushed in our land.  However, some think it is somehow godly not to promote the principles of Christ in our land.  Too often the standing down of people who claim to follow the righteousness of Christ contributes to the lack of righteousness in this Republic.  How long can a man do this and remain righteous?  This is a tension that we need to seek the Holy Spirit concerning.

The problem in our society is not the kid who is confused about their gender.  The problem is a collusion of so-called experts to tell them that their solution is surgery.  Again, I doubt a majority of Americans think that this is good and the best option.  So why does the majority stand down and let it happen?

Sin is a disgrace to any people

The second half of Proverbs 14:34 describes the reverse of the first half.  No people are so great as to make themselves immune to this truth.  Let me be direct.  The United States of America is not immune to this verse.  Before we get into that, let’s talk about what we mean by sin.

The English word “sin” refers to missing a target.  However, we should be clear on what the target should be.  A better definition would be any thought, speech, or action that goes against the revealed character of God.  This involves both internal and external things.

Of course, external sins cause more damage to a society, but then, all sins begin internally.  It is only a matter of time before it shows its ugly head in one form or another.  Thus, a person should never settle for simply nipping sin when it buds, i.e., breaks forth into our external life.  We must commit ourselves to rooting it out of our hearts and mind through a diligent relationship with Christ.  Such a relationship will involve the Written Word of God, prayer, listening for the leading of the Holy Spirit, and living out the righteousness of Christ.

Our society is in the midst of exalting and enshrining in its public policies full-throated rejections of God’s revealed will.  Things like no-fault divorce, no penalty for adultery, the attack of Christian families, the abortion issue, and many others, are encouraging the average persons in sin.  I don’t say that pointing the finger.  Yes, we all fall short of the glory of God and have plenty of fingers pointing at us.  However, I am talking about the public policies, what we are holding up as acceptable or good.  Many of these things are rejections of the revealed will of God.

All people need compassion and grace, but it is not an act of compassion to help people cast off the righteousness of God.  It is not an act of compassion to remove as many consequences as possible of a person’s sin.  Our society seems to have a sick form of sin where we try to make ourselves feel better by redefining sin.  In truth, this is a national suicide according to Proverbs 14:34.

The word “disgrace” here could be translated “shame.”  It is functioning as a contrast to the earlier exaltation caused by righteousness.

Shame can refer to feelings that we have regarding the bad things that we have done.  A person may or may not feel ashamed of the sin they are doing.

Shame can also refer to your position before society for what you have done.  It is the overt standing of society towards our sinful actions.  A person may or may not care about what society thinks.  In fact, society and people can be wrong.

Finally, shame can also be the consequences or damage done to us and others when we sin.  All sin causes injury to self and others to some degree.  Thus, the disgrace is a sinking down into the consequences of our sin.  It is the resultant bondage in which we find ourselves stuck.

How long can a people, a Republic, cause injury to themselves morally, spiritually, emotionally, and physically without falling?  What would that fall look like?  It would look like a dissolving of the things that once held us up.  It would look like righteousness becoming rarer and rarer while sin becomes more and more common. 

I said this earlier and I want to say it again.  No people are immune to the destructive effects of sin.  We must be a light to our people.  We must speak the truth in love.  We need to stand with Jesus in this hour for our people.

If you find yourself or others having an attitude that says, “Nothing can be done,” then hear the word of the Lord.  Our work is not based on the likelihood of success.  It is based upon the sacrifice and command of Christ.  It is based upon the leading of the Holy Spirit.  In our flesh, we may not care about politics and our Republic.  But, as a believer in Jesus, we must be concerned and involved in the public policies of our society, however that may be.

May God strengthen us in this day as we cross 250 years as a Republic!

Today, we come to the end of our look at how the Holy Spirit empowers believers with spiritual gifts. 

Paul has been correcting the Corinthians over their over-fascination with speaking in tongues in their worship assemblies.  They had carried pagan understandings of spirituality into Christianity which caused them to be at odds with the work of the Holy Spirit.

Let’s look at the rest of chapter 14.

Application for the sake of unbelievers (v. 20-25)

Up to this point, Paul has been explaining how to apply his teaching for the sake of other believers.  He challenged them that tongues were good because through them a person edifies themselves (builds themselves up to be more like Jesus).  However, in the assembly of believers, the desire should be for gifts that are understandable.  If a person speaks in tongues, and it is not interpreted, then no one else will be edified.  This is good in your private devotions, but not within an assembly. 

A person may ask why it wouldn’t be fine for everyone to gather and edify themselves.  However, edifying yourself through the Holy Spirit is best on your own.  In Christian gatherings, it is the will of the Holy Spirit to work through us to minister to others and to work through others to minister to us.  This is God’s way, but we can also see how it keeps us from becoming myopic and insular.

Now, Paul deals with the situation from the standpoint that unbelievers may also be in the meeting.  What is the effect on unbelievers of everyone speaking in tongues without interpretation?

Paul first brings up the issue of spiritual immaturity.  He mentioned this back in chapter 13.  “When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.”  Verse 20 challenges them to stop being children spiritually and start being spiritually mature in this matter.  He continues the maturity language, “in evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature.”

This is similar to Paul’s statement in Romans 16:19, “Be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil.”  Their wisdom was driving them to practices that were not good and were even evil.  Their actions were evil because they were at odds with the Holy Spirit’s good purpose, and it was causing harm to the gospel and people.

This is a thread throughout this first letter to the Corinthians.  Their wisdom led them to lift up one leader above others.  It led some of them to try and have “spiritual marriages” by refraining from sexual intercourse with one another.  This may sound spiritual, but Paul saw that the devil would use it to destroy them.  The Holy Spirit was not given to cause us to cease from having sex.  That will be our condition following the resurrection, but not now.  Their wisdom led them to these problems with the spiritual gifts as well.  All of this is childish thinking in regard to the legitimate spiritual gifts.

Paul then traces this issue of unknown languages back into the Scriptures (Old Testament).  He quotes from Isaiah 28:11-12.  Several things will become clear if we go back to that chapter and read it.

First of all, right before this section, God rebukes Israel for not listening to His instructions through the prophets (in a language they understand even).  Can God teach the children when the adults won’t listen (verse 9)?  Because they were not listening to His words through the prophets in their own language, He would now speak to them in a language they don’t understand by foreigners (especially Assyria and Babylon).

God is not presenting the foreign tongues as a solution to their lack of listening to His prophets.  As they hear the foreign tongues, they might “that they may go and stumble backward, be broken, snared and taken captive (verse 13).”

The foreign tongues are connected to being cast out of the land due to sin.  It is connected to being far from God and His place of dwelling.  Yet, this connection goes back further than Isaiah.

Strange tongues originated at the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11.  Nimrod had led the people into a rebellion against God’s command to fill the earth and be fruitful.  They build a tower at Babel in order to connect to the fallen Elohim from before the flood.  God’s judgment upon the tower project was to confuse the language of the people.  This became the origin of nations.  They could not understand one another.  We are told that God then handed them over to the powers of the heavens and determined the boundaries of their dwelling places (Deut 4:19; Deut 32:8-9; Romans 1:23-24). Genesis 10 pictured around seventy different nations.  Again, the strange tongues surrounding you, i.e., not understanding the language of those speaking around you, is a sign of God’s judgment upon the nations.  They are being cast out as the humans who will dwell in His presence with a special relationship.  Instead, God then turns to call Abraham in order to make a new nation (Israel) who can serve Him.

The ministry of Jesus set off a cascade of events.  God was calling Israel to embrace Messiah and become a light to the nations.  However, as a nation, they refused.  Yet, a remnant believed.  Thus, we have an event where some who are unbelieving are under the judgment of God, but others who are believing are not under the judgment of God.  All of this is within Israel.  Outside of Israel, the nations who have been under the judgment of God for millennia are entering a new era of grace.  God’s intention is now to speak to them in a language they understand in order to call them to faith in Messiah Jesus.  Of course, they too have a choice to make in which some will not believe and a remnant will believe.

All of this is the backdrop to what Paul is trying to cause the Corinthians to understand.

All of this is important for Paul because he is building a case, or argument, for why we would want unbelievers to understand what the Spirit is saying.

He states in verse 22 that tongues are a sign to unbelievers (not to believers).  He does not mean they would be a sign that they could read and understand.  He means it in the sense we have described in Isaiah and Genesis.  God speaking in a language you do not understand has always been a sign of judgment.  You are not God’s target audience.  This has changed since Jesus.  God is now targeting all humanity with His message concerning Messiah Jesus.

Before you jump to the conclusion that tongues should never happen, let Paul’s argument sink in.  God’s purpose is for unbelievers to hear the Gospel.  If they come into a church service and only hear foreign tongues, then they will continue in unbelief because they haven’t heard the good news.  At least, they haven’t truly received an opportunity to believe.

All of this is in the context of a gathering of people.  Paul earlier made it clear that he spoke in tongues more than any of the Corinthians (vs. 18).  Yet, in a gathering, he would rather speak 5 words in an intelligible language than 10,000 words in a language people don’t understand.  Thus, it is clearly implied that he mainly spoke in tongues during private devotional times.  Paul’s argument against uninterpreted messages in tongues in Church gatherings cannot be used to disqualify uninterpreted tongues in private prayers.  There is no hint of a problem in the private devotional life of the Corinthians.

If you are perplexed as to what good praying in tongues would have for a believer, i.e., how does it edify me (vs. 4), I have spoken to this before now.  So, I will give a few points.  First, speaking in tongues is instigated by the Holy Spirit within us.  To recognize that and yield yourself to trust the Holy Spirit builds our faith in Him.  It isn’t important for you to understand all that the Spirit is praying through you because the fact that you are working with the Holy Spirit to speak to God in ways He can understand strengthens our confidence in His work in us.  Second, if I am used to speaking things that I don’t understand in languages I don’t understand, then it will be easier for me to speak the things I do understand in a language others will understand.  This strengthens our obedience to the Holy Spirit in real time.  In fact, when the Holy Spirit compels us to speak certain things in particular situations, we don’t always understand the wisdom and purpose behind them, even though we perfectly understand the words.  Trust in God is something we need to become better at doing.

If you are wondering about the speaking in languages at Pentecost, we can say that the messages were interpreted by the people outside of the group who understood what was being said.  However, Pentecost is a unique event (no other event like it).  The way that tongues happened on that day should not be turned into a pattern anymore than we should expect tongues of fire on our head or the sound of a mighty wind in our meetings.

In short, God is reversing the judgment of Babel through the work of Jesus Christ and His Church.  We need to seek for unbelievers to hear the message of the Spirit in a language they understand.

On the other hand, Paul tells us that prophecy is a sign to believers that God is still working with us and through us (vs. 22).  It is meant to spur us on in becoming like Jesus. 

Verse 23 introduces a hypothetical situation of a gathered church all speaking in tongues only.  There are two categories of people mentioned: “ungifted or unbelievers.”  There is no question what “unbelievers” means.  It is referring to those who have not put their faith in Jesus.  They may be open or hostile.  Regardless, they are not a part of the church yet.  The “ungifted” as the NASB translates is not as straightforward.  There are a variety of translations which all involve trying to interpret what Paul means.  The word essentially has the meaning of an unlearned or untaught person.  But, in what way is this meant?  “Ungifted” is interpreting it to mean those who don’t have a spiritual gift in order to interpret the tongue.   However, they may only be unlearned about what spiritual gifts are.  It is also possible that they are a category between believer and unbeliever.  They are not opposed to believing.  They are simply uninformed regarding the gospel.  Regardless of how we translate this term, we are still dealing with the same dynamics.  People who are not believers and not learned in the things of the Gospel will hear everyone speaking in tongues only.  They will then conclude that everyone is crazy.  The Corinthians will essentially put them in a “judged of God” position in which they don’t understand what is happening and continue down a path of being lost.

The problem with all of this is that God is no longer excluding the nations, unbelievers, the uninformed.  He is calling all men everywhere to hear the truth, repent of sin, and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.  Their actions were actually contradicting God’s purpose.

Speaking in tongues alone will not save the lost.  It will only push them away further.  However, Paul states that prophecy (speaking in a language they understand) can convict them and lead them to repentance.  Of course, they can reject it and remain unbelievers.  However, they will no longer be uninformed regarding the message of Christ to them.

Ordering spiritual gifts in the assembly of believers (v. 26-33)

Starting in verse 26, Paul lays down some rules that will bring proper, godly order to their worship gatherings.  The first point is that the assembly of believers is for the purpose of ministering to one another with the spiritual gifts that the Holy Spirit distributes.  Paul then states that all things in the service should be done for edification.  We could insert after edification, “for everyone.”

This is a point that many churches should take to heart.  Church is not about everyone gathering to get something from a couple of leaders.  Rather, Paul pictures everyone gathering with something to share with all the rest.  This doesn’t mean that everyone has vocal gifts.  However, every gift will be exercised in order to edify the rest of the group.  The average Christian in the West does not come to church with some way to minister to everyone else.

In fact, we must be careful that the way we do church doesn’t squelch God’s work and opportunities to do so through His people.  We can have an attitude that the leadership has the Holy Spirit, so nothing is needed from the lowly “receiving class.”  A tightly controlled service can quench the Spirit.  However, the Corinthians had the opposite problem.  Their lack of control was quenching the work that the Spirit was endeavoring to do.  We must find a balance between strong leadership that protects us from abuse and a leadership that is so lax that anything goes, i.e., the only thing that matters is that we look spiritual.

Paul gives us a good example of a leader who is calling the church back to cooperation with the Holy Spirit.

We should note that Paul’s conclusion is not that there should be no messages in tongues in the assembly, but that there should be a limit, two or three at the most.  Each of these messages in tongues should be done one at a time, and they should be interpreted.  He is not getting rid of tongues in the assembly.  His concern is not that an unbeliever would hear a message in tongues, only that it should be interpreted.

In all of this, let’s keep in mind that Paul is correcting a particular error in Corinth.  He did not teach them these things from the beginning because He believed they would exercise the spiritual gifts properly.  Is Paul saying that all churches in all generations should follow these same rules?  No, he is not.  However, all churches need to process the truths that Paul lays out.  We all need to work for the overall vision that Paul has for the use of spiritual gifts in our assemblies.  It is possible for a church to have more than three messages, if they are not making the error that the Corinthians did.

We should also notice that Paul does not refer to times within the worship service where people are praying, worshipping, in a private way.  It is often the case that people pray and even speak in tongues but to themselves.  They are not lifting their voices above the group so as to call attention to what they are saying. Yes, their neighbor could stop praying and listen in on their prayer.  Is it possible that praying in tongues, with your spirit, in such a way does not breach the issues Paul raises?  I think so.

Paul makes it clear that if you believe you have a message in tongues for the group, but you also know that there is no one there with the gift of interpretation, then you should not give the message.  You should keep it to yourself.  You should keep silent in the assembly (silent in relation to giving the message in tongues).  Instead, you should speak to himself and God.  I do not believe Paul is setting up an environment where we are all keeping an eye (an ear) on one another so that no one speaks in tongues in church at all.  Rather, we are ensuring that everything that is publicly addressed to the whole body conforms to Paul’s rule of intelligibility.  When tongues are interpreted, they fit this bill.

He then gives similar rules to prophecy, two or three at the most.  They should be done one at a time, and others should judge the prophecies whether they are from God or not.  He even challenges the prophets to work together.  If one prophet has been speaking for a while and God moves upon another prophet, the first prophet should stop and allow the second to speak.  In other words, jumping up first does not give you the public floor for the rest of the day.  Work together.

It is easy with such rules to protest.  “When the Spirit moves upon me, I have to move.  I must speak what the Spirit is stirring in me!”  Yet, Paul reminds them in verse 32 that the spirits of the prophets are “subject to the prophets.”  His point is that the Spirit does not take control of our body.  Rather, all spiritual gifts are a cooperation between the Spirit of God and the spirit of a person.  God moves upon us, but then we wisely and righteously minister that to others (unless He is only speaking to you).  Paul is not denying the source of their urge to prophesy and speak in tongues.  Rather, he challenges them to work with the overall purpose of the Holy Spirit when feeling the urge to use the vocal, spiritual gifts in the assembly.

The Holy Spirit can be strong and powerful, but you are still in control of yourself and expected to remember all that the Spirit has revealed in Scripture.  God doesn’t want to control you.  He wants you to speak out in faith as He works by His Spirit within you.  Yet, He wants you to respond wisely and in the knowledge of His ways.

You are not squelching the Holy Spirit to refrain from giving a message in tongues when no interpreters are present.  You simply understand that there is a proper timing.  You are waiting on the Lord for the proper timing and place.

The Corinthian problem is not our problem.  We are often afraid of things getting out of control.  We are tempted to make our services “safe” from the work of the Holy Spirit, even though we would never say that.  In truth, we are more likely to offend the Holy Spirit in order to avoid offending people.

Paul ends this instruction in verse 33 with a statement that God is not the author of confusion, but of peace.  Chaotic environments are not His doing.  They are the work of our enemy, and people who wittingly or unwittingly do his bidding.  People following their flesh can think that they are quite spiritual, whether they are in the error of a Corinthian style or they are in error by shutting down all spiritual gifts.

The Holy Spirit is here working to use us within the church.  We need to listen to Him in order to bring peace to such chaotic environments.  This starts first in each one’s own heart.  When peace rules in my heart, I can then minister the peace of God into my family, and then my church, and then my Republic or nation.

The spiritual gifts are a work of the Holy Spirit for today.  However, we must exercise them in keeping with His overall purpose of people being drawn to put their faith in Jesus.  May we be filled with the Holy Spirit and His mighty power in all that we do.