The Second Letter of Peter- 7

Subtitle: The Problem of False Prophets 4

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.”

False Prophets 4 audio

The Second Letter of Peter

Subtitle: Growing in Godliness- 1

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!

Growing in Godliness audio

The Character of God- Part 7

Subtitle:  God is Faithful Truth

Exodus 34:6-7.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on January 19, 2025.

Today, we will look at the fifth description of God’s character.  God is faithful truth!

With this sermon, we will bring this series that looks at the character of God to a close.

God is faithful truth in the Old Testament

The Hebrew word used here is emeth (em’ eth).  Modern Hebrew says emet.  It means truth, but by extension, it means the dependability and trustworthy nature of that which is truth.  Thus, it is sometimes translated as faithfulness.  At its root, the concept is one of stability or firmness.  You might picture the old hymn, My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less.  It speaks of Christ as the “Solid Rock” and states that all other ground is “sinking sand.”  That is a very biblical picture and is at the heart of this word today.  Are you building your life on Christ the solid rock, or are you building on anything else, which is sinking sand?

Truth is a foundational concept.  To believe that something is true when it isn’t true is to discover many unexpected ways in which your underlying beliefs do not uphold your actions and steps.  I might believe that I am a 7 foot 2 inch all-star basketball player.  However, that will not change the reality of what would happen if I tried to play against NBA players.  The reality of what I actually am will be crushed by the reality of what those NBA players can do.

Our thinking is powerful, but it doesn’t change the truth; it doesn’t change reality.  It can, however, change how I respond to reality.  My thinking can powerfully change me, if I properly respond to truth.

On the other hand, to believe that something is false when it is actually true isn’t much better.  I pretty much doom myself to trying a bunch of ways that don’t work.  Of course, many a scientific discovery happened because someone tested false assumptions about what is the truth.

Foundational truths do not conform to our desires.  It is what it is, and a wise human will quickly see through the lies that they are basing their life upon.

Of course, we are not always able to properly discern truth through a scientific discovery, whether in science or God’s work in our life.  We can praise God that He hasn’t left us alone to only discover truth by our senses.  God has revealed many truths to humanity through the years, things that we would have never discovered without His revelation.

The word Amen also comes from this same root and essentially means, “that is true” or “that is trustworthy; you can stand on it.”  A double amen intensifies the meaning.  The Gospel of John has 25 occurrences of the double amen.  The King James Version translated this as “verily, verily.”  For a Hebrew person to use this double Amen, a perfectly trustworthy thing will follow.

In the Bible, people who have emeth have stable character and can be trusted by others.  They keep their word.  This doesn’t mean they are never late for an appointment.  It is not a statement about perfect performance of what they say, i.e., they are never stuck in traffic.  Rather, it is a statement about their character.  They mean what they say and do everything they can to back it up.  If you have ever crossed a creek by stepping from rock to rock, you have probably found that some rocks look stable, but they are not.  You can confidently step on them and then they wobble, often sending you into the water.  A person of emeth doesn’t wobble when you trust them or lean on them. 

This brings us to some of the occurrences of this word in the Old Testament.

Moses would sit and judge the disputes of the people when they were in the wilderness.  In Exodus 18:21-22, Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, recognizes that it is too much for him.  The multitude of problems will where him out.  He then counsels Moses to select “men of emeth (truth/faithfulness)” who will be able to decide the smaller problems and only send the hard issues to Moses.

A man of emeth is not just someone who tells the truth.  Rather, they are men who live life by truth.  It is part of their character.  They do not see their position of authority as a way for gain.  Instead, they know the truth that lies behind their position.  The position is not for enriching them, but for the help of the people.  God talks a lot about authority, but notice this one thing throughout Scriptures.  Leaders are always supposed to be for the purpose of serving the people, not serving themselves.  Positions of authority do not exist because some people are just better than other and deserve to rule over the people.  They don’t deserve a better life with the people buying off their favor.  God cares about the people.  He only cares about those in authority in as much as they help or hurt the people.

The truth is that two people committed to honoring God may not always agree, but they should be able to come to an agreement without someone else judging their case.  The problem isn’t about wisdom, but about our sinful unwillingness to honor God in our disputes.

Abram demonstrated the verb form of this word in Genesis 15.  When emeth is in a verb form it takes on the idea of believing or putting your trust in something or someone.  This is what lies behind the famous verse in Genesis 15:6.  “[Abram] believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.” (NASB).  This believing is not talking about a mere intellectual belief in God’s existence.  It is talking about all the actions that Abram did because he believed that God was trustworthy.  Thus, Abram left Ur of the Chaldeans and traveled to Canaan.  There, he lived in tents, awaiting God’s promise. He was more than a trustworthy man, but also a man who saw God as trustworthy.  In the Bible, God is the greatest One at being faithful truth, trustworthy.

Believe it or not, we even have a verse in which it says that Israel believed God.  In Exodus 14:31, Pharaoh’s army had just been drowned in the Red Sea.  This caused Israel to believe in God.  Yet, as they travelled with God through the wilderness and to the Promise Land, their faith in God was tested.  Each test begs the question, “Do you trust God now?”  It is not that God is purposefully causing all of these things, though He can surely test how trusting we are.  But, as things happen in life, He is watching to see what we will do.  Will we believe in Him, or put our trust in something else?

We know that Israel failed very often.  Yet, God helped them (even helps us) because He is faithful truth.  It is His character.  This means that God is not simply a truth-teller, or One who wants truth from others.  He is the foundation of all truth itself.  He is the only being in the universe that is absolutely dependable.

Jacob coming back to Canaan, with his 2 wives, 12 kids and many herds of animals, stopped at the border and confessed to God that he was unworthy of all the faithful truth that God had shown to him (Genesis 32:10).  When Jacob had left for northeastern Syria, God had spoken promises to him.  Over the last 20 years, God had proven to be trustworthy and had shown Jacob faithful truth, not because Jacob deserved it, but because God keeps His word.

This brings us to Moses and his rock metaphor for God.  Deuteronomy 32:31-32 points out that the fallen spiritual beings that the nations worshiped as gods were not trustworthy.  Their rock is not like the Rock of Israel.  Their gods wobbled whenever they put their trust in them, but Yahweh was an absolute stable rock.  This is another way of speaking about God’s emeth, faithful truth.

We should recognize that there is a parallel between Israel running from the giants and David fighting Goliath.  In Numbers 14, Israel balked at fighting the giants.  They decided to kill Moses, pick a new leader and go back to Egypt.  However, God steps in and that doesn’t happen.  Still, they are told that they will stay in the wilderness for 40 years as a punishment for their unbelief towards God. 

Thus, later when David comes to check on the battle his brothers and Israel were fighting against the Philistines, he finds a giant challenging Israel and everyone trembling in their tents.  They were not believing God again.  They were essentially on a spiritual trajectory back to Egypt, back to the wilderness.  Yet, God steps in.  This time He raises up a “man of emeth” who will face the giant and give Israel victory over the Philistines.  Solomon recognizes this in 1 Kings 3:6.  “You have shown great lovingkindness to Your servant David my father, according as he walked before You in truth and righteousness and uprightness of heart toward You…”

You may see the pattern now that a trustworthy person is someone who is trusting the truth of God in their life, their decisions and actions.  David lived out the truth of God even when it looked like it could get him killed.  Of course, David would later fall woefully short of this during the event in which he commits adultery with Uriah’s wife and then has him killed in an attempt to cover it up.  David fell short, but the pattern of salvation coming through a man of perfect emeth is made clear in the Old Testament.

People are not born with trustworthy genes.  Trustworthiness comes from a life of putting your trust in God.  It comes from the experience of life in which we discover that God is the only One who can uphold our trust perfectly.

Thus, God promised David that one from his offspring would be that perfect Psalm 1 picture of a man who fully trusts God and thus becomes a tree of life to all who will eat of his fruit.  This offspring would be the Anointed One of Psalm 2 who would inherit dominion over all of the earth, bringing salvation to those who bow to him in allegiance.  This Messiah would not fall short.  This was revealed to David and he spoke of it (sang of it) in his psalms.  This would be a forever kingdom because the king is a man of perfect emeth.  He is stable, unfailing and trustworthy, and so, his kingdom is a kingdom of emeth.  He would stand up to the giant, spiritual forces that were dominating humanity and fully trust God.

This is why the Bible speaks of the kingdoms of this world falling before the Messiah.  They definitely will not be able to stand against his return as Revelation 19 declares.  However, over the last 2,000 years, nations have risen and fallen at his command.  The united States of America is falling apart even now before Jesus has come back.  We could even cease to exist as we currently do, whether split apart or taken over by a foreign power.  Regardless, the problem is always our lack of trusting God.  America is not trusting God, and it is destroying our country.  Yet, He gives times of opportunity for repentance.  Perhaps, the US still has time to repent and be restored before Him.

In 2 Samuel 7:16, we are told of a prophecy from God through the prophet Nathan to David.  David’s throne would be “established” forever.  This is the verb form of emeth, but it is in a passive form.  It is the idea that something will be made trustworthy, faithful truth.  His kingdom will be like a rock because The Rock of Israel, the Stone of Israel (Genesis 49:24), will arise.  A kingdom can be no stronger than the one upon whom it is built.  The Messianic Kingdom will last forever because it is built upon The Rock.  All other kingdoms are built on sinking sand.  Only Messiah’s kingdom can go through the fire of God’s wrath (a day when He judges all the nations on earth) and survive.  All other kingdoms will not survive.  At least, not in their current forms.

This brings us to the catastrophe of the exile.  There was a civil war in Israel in the days of Solomon’s son.  The nation was divided into ten tribes in the north called Israel and 2 tribes around Jerusalem called Judah, or Judea later.  The northern tribes were wicked and eventually God used the Assyrians to conquer them and cast them out of the land.  This happened circa 722 BC.  This left Judah feeling vindicated, but they were not any more righteous.  They were exiled by the Babylonians around 136 years later (586 BC).  The northern tribes never really returned from exile.  Whereas, as many as desired of Judah, came back from Babylon 70 years later.  In this environment, there was a question on the minds of Israel.  Is it over?  Is it possible that God will not keep His word because we have failed so badly?  Did we misunderstand the promises and they were always conditional on our obedience?

Psalm 89 is a treatise of this crisis.  It starts out praising the promises of God to David.  Verse one sings of God’s emeth (faithful truth) and praises Him.  Yet, at verse 38, we have this.  “But You have cast off and rejected, You have been full of wrath against Your anointed.” Seven more verses detail the reality of being cast off by God. 

Verse 46 begins a series of questions.  “How long, O LORD? Will You hide Yourself forever? Will Your wrath burn like fire?”  Verse 49, “Where are Your former lovingkindnesses, O Lord, which You swore to David in Your faithfulness?  God had sworn an oath to David in His emeth, faithful truth.  Yes, Israel has sinned greatly, and the house of David has sinned just as greatly.  Yet, God is faithful even when we are faithless.

Jesus is the faithful truth of God

The questions above were answered throughout the Old Testament prophetic books.  God would cast Israel out of the land, but He would still be faithful to send the Messiah and save humanity.  Still, from 400 BC to the time of Jesus, there were 400 years of silence from God.  They had heard enough.  They had enough truth to weather the years and wait for Messiah, if they could but trust God.

This is why Matthew 1:1 is so powerful.  Whenever we find the Gospels together in antiquity, it is always Matthew first.  Matthew opens his Gospel, and the New Testament, with a bold declaration that Messiah had come in the person of Jesus.  God had finally kept His promise and sent the One who would save Israel and the nations.  The name Jesus in Hebrew basically means “Yahweh is salvation” or “the salvation of Yahweh.”  Notice that Matthew emphasizes that he is from the line of David and Abraham.  The names of the fathers in between are important and Matthew goes on to give the full genealogy.  However, don’t miss the main point.  In Jesus, God was fulfilling His promises to David, and His promises to Abraham.  He could have even added Adam.  Messiah had come and God’s faithful truth, His emeth, was on full display in the face of the failures of Israel and the failures of the Gentile world.

The presence and work of Jesus was a confirmation of the promises and faithfulness of God.  We see this in Romans 15:8-9.  “For I say that Christ has become a servant to the circumcision on behalf of the truth of God to confirm the promises given to the fathers, 9 and for the Gentiles to glorify God for His mercy; as it is written, ‘Therefore I will give praise to You among the Gentiles, and I will sing to Your name.’”

The Incarnation of The Word of God into the man Jesus is God keeping His word, but Jesus is also the very truth of God itself.  Nothing that has been made was made without him.  He is the effective cause of creation.  He is the absolute bedrock truth of all reality.  In Jesus, the Truth of the world stepped down into it, but men loved darkness rather than the light.  To put your faith in Jesus is of a greater nature than putting your faith in man’s scientific understanding.  Yes, you can follow the science (our current understanding), or you can follow the One who is the mind behind how all things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose.  Science rightly understood can only point back to its Creator.

A believer in Jesus doesn’t just become more trustworthy.  They even become like the Rock that they are building upon.  They are more stable, enduring, than all the “wise” people of this world who refuse to stand upon Jesus, who refuse to believe and trust God.  They are both on quicksand themselves and a quicksand to those who trust in them.

We are not Israel going against giants in the Promised Land literally.  However, we metaphorically face the same thing.  The big obstacles in front of us challenge us and are akin to the giants of old.  Will we trust Jesus and take hold of our personal inheritance and the inheritance of our people?  Or, will we tremble at the powers flexing in front of us?  Will we shrink back from trusting God’s word, standing with Jesus and his ways?

Jesus went through death and then God raised him up.  He is forever a testimony to those who would dare to follow him that God will uphold them as well.  He is also a testimony to those who shrink back that there is no other way to salvation.  As a Christian, if I really believe God, then I have no excuse to quit in the face of scary, big people, fallen spirits, or circumstances.  Most of us will not face the threat of death like Jesus and his apostles.  But, we can face even that with complete trust in God.  We can choose to honor Jesus by walking into it.  We can look into the face of tormentors and tell them to go ahead and do what they want, but I am going to stand with Jesus because that is your only hope of salvation.

Those who think they are so powerful, who are pounding on those nails or wielding those weapons of annihilation, who are so following the science of their own wisdom, they are going to be flat on their face before Jesus in the future.

It doesn’t matter if I live long enough to see that or not.  That is not my hope.  My hope is Jesus!

The giant ideologies and giant people, of fame, power and fortune that we face, try to intimidate us.  “How dare you stand against the great and powerful Oz!”  But, I’d rather stand with Jesus, the slain lamb, than with all the smoke and mirrors of this world.  I’d rather stand with Jesus than any empire that this world tries to establish without Jesus!

Faithful Truth audio

The Character of God- Part 5

Subtitle:  God is Slow to Anger

Exodus 34:6-7.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on January 5, 2025.

Today, we move to the third aspect of God’s character.  He is slow to anger.  That thought is worth a hallelujah, perhaps a couple of hallelujah’s.  In fact, it is worth a whole Hallelujah Chorus, however many hallelujahs that would entail!

It is ironic that the “God of the Old Testament” is usually spoke of as being to angry and mean.  Yet, this is part of a great irony concerning complaints about the God.  On one hand, people complain that God was too angry and too judgmental.  On the other hand, they will complain by saying this.  “If God is good, then why is there so much evil in the world?”  Though these people have generally given up believing in a God, they use this two-pronged attack to justify their rejection.

However, these complaints are quite contradictory.  We want God to get rid of evil, and yet, in the cases where He has stepped in to judge evil, we don’t like it.  What they really mean is that God should use their definition of evil.  He should get rid of all “those kind of people.”  However, there are millions who think this way.  If God chose to operate by yours, all the others would still be complaining because they have a different definition of who is evil.  We want God to remove evil, but we don’t want Him to remove us.

Let’s look at this virtue of God’s patience, slowness to anger.  I mentioned back in the first sermon in this series that verse 6 centers on this character trait of God.  It is then put in tension with the central part of verse 7, looking like this.  God is slow to anger; yet, He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.  It goes from joy, “yay!”, to sobriety, “oh!”  God forgives iniquity (i.e., guilty people) and yet He won’t let the guilty go unpunished.  He is not provoking us to question His character, but to question how those go together.

Ultimately, God is all of these characteristics: Compassionate, Gracious, Patient, Lovingkindness, and faithful truth.  Yet, you can’t game God.  Those who give lip service to Him, and yet, reject His perfect character, imaging the serpent, will be punished in the end along with those who outwardly rejected Him.  Thus, God is slow to anger, but He will eventually get there, if I don’t turn away from sin and towards Him.

These characteristics can be thought of as different facets of the goodness, or love of God.  However, in the end, they are simply facets of the unitary, underlying being of God.  It gives rise to these concepts that are all flavored somewhat differently.

God is slow to anger in the Old Testament

Slowness to anger probably doesn’t need to be defined, but the Hebrews had an interesting way of talking about anger.  In Exodus 34:6, God literally says that He is “long of nose.”  This is a metaphor that comes from anger language within Hebrew.  An angry person is often described as “their nose burned hot.”  It is descriptive of how a person’s face will turn red and become hot when they are angry.  I like to picture a tea kettle that heats up until the steam shooting forth causes the whistle to blow.  The anger builds up until it reaches the end of a person’s nose.  Of course, it is a metaphor and is generally translated without the metaphor, i.e., they became angry.  Let’s look at some examples in the Old Testament.

There is a scene in Genesis 39:19 where Joseph is being accused before his master, Potiphar.  Joseph had been sold into slavery by his brothers and ended up in Egypt.  There he was purchased by Potiphar and proved to be very good at managing things.  Joseph was soon put in charge of all of Potiphar’s holdings.  It was doing so well that Potiphar didn’t even ask how it was going.  He had full faith in Joseph’s ability to increase his wealth.  This drew the eye of Potiphar’s wife.  She tried to draw Joseph into a sexual relationship, but he ran out of the room.  Her response was to cry out and accuse him of trying to force himself upon her.  When she tells Potiphar, we are told “his anger burned.”  Literally it says that his “nose burned hot.” Potiphar had a very visible, angry response.

This helps us to understand how a patient person might be called long of nose.  It would take longer for their heated anger to reach the end of their nose.  We might say a long nose is similar to a long fuse.  The connection is not about actual long noses, but about being more patient and slow to explode in heated anger.

Let’s look at Proverbs 19:11 to further illustrate.  It reads, “A person’s discretion makes him slow to anger.” (NASB)  It literally reads, “The discretion of a man lengthens his nose.”  So, a person is not limited to what there personality is in the present.  We cannot plead innocence because we were “born with a very short nose.”  We can’t be absolved of fault because of a genetic predisposition.  Through gaining wisdom, we can lengthen our nose, lengthen our fuse, become more patient and less volatile.

Though a man can gain patience through the insight gained from a careful sifting of the facts, God does not gain patience or insight.  He is absolute discretion, or wisdom.  Thus, His patience is absolute.  God already knows absolutely everything about the universe.  He has the “longest nose” in the universe.  It takes quite a long time and a lot of evil to cause His anger to reach its fullness.

This leads us back to the context of God’s deliverance of Israel from Pharaoh.  God had been quite patient with Pharaoh.  He even gave him 10 different warnings, chastisements, to encourage him to back down.  Yet, when Pharaoh saw the Israelites leaving Egypt, he pursued after them.  Yet, God stood between Israel and his army as a pillar of fire.  Meanwhile, Pharaoh watched as the Red Sea was transformed into a roadway for Israel to escape. Pharaoh should have gotten the message.  Yet, when the pillar of fire moved out of the way, Pharaoh commanded his armies to follow the path through the sea after the Israelites.  God’s anger finally reached its peak.  The Egyptians are drowned as the sea walls collapse upon the path, erasing any trace that it existed.  This brings us to Exodus 15.  Israel is on the shores of the sea and have witnessed a miraculous delivery, but also a judgment.  A song quickly arises, and all Israel break forth in a worshipful singing about God’s great deliverance.  Look at verses 7 and 8.

Verse 7 says, “You send out Your burning anger, and it consumes them like chaff.”  The burning anger here does not employ the nose metaphor.  It uses a word that means anger, but is only used of God.  However, in the next line of verse 8, it says, “At the blast of Your nostrils the waters were piled up…”  This is an example of poetry.  The burning anger of verse 7 (more literal) parallels the blast of God’s nostrils (metaphorical).  This pictures the anger of God reaching the end of His nose and blasting forth with such power to make a pathway through the sea.  Of course, they did not believe God had a nose and was in the spirit realm using the power of His nostrils to make a path for them.  Rather, Pharaoh had tested God’s patience one too many times.  God has given him every opportunity and motivation to back down and live.

Notice that God’s anger is not whimsical and capricious, like an abusive alcoholic.  It is a response to the evil that we do to one another.  It is based upon His compassion and love.  Israel was in Egypt because of the sin of Joseph’s brothers.  Yet, Joseph was used of God to save Egypt from a horrible famine.  This made him, and by extension his family, heroes in Egypt.  They had most favored people status with Pharaoh.  Of course, over time, this began to wane.  Eventually, the story of Joseph became a story of long ago.  At some point, a Pharaoh looked at the large group of Israelites on his borders and feared that they would join his enemies eventually.  He wickedly subdued them and made slaves of them.  This was a betrayal of the brotherhood that they had experienced previously.  Eventually, a later Pharaoh arose who still feared their large numbers even in slavery.  So, he had all the male babies of the Hebrews drowned in the Nile.

God saw all this evil, and began to lay the groundwork for the rebuke that He would bring to Egypt.  Yet, all along the way, He leaves room for the Egyptians to repent and avoid destruction.

Notice that the anger of God and His judgments are not a fearful thing for those who are suffering under evil.  They are the ones He intends to deliver.  It is a righteous response of compassion and love to the evil that is played out before God.  Yet, God in His wisdom, balances out the reality of a particular evil with the reality of humanity’s slavery to sin.  If He judged all sin and evil in this world, none of us would survive.  We should notice that Pharaoh’s army is actually destroyed by his own hubris.  God didn’t want to destroy him, but He would, if Pharaoh did not back down.

Yet, Israel itself would go on to do evil things among themselves and to others.  In the Old Testament, God uses Israel to demonstrate how and why His patience would put up with humanity over such a long time.  He loves us and doesn’t want us to perish.  He gives us cautionary disciplines over and over again.  We may shape up for a season, and yet turn back to wickedness.  Yet, God’s disciplines will lead up to a final judgment in which a person, or a nation, careens into a destruction event because of their own wickedness.

Jesus is the patience of God

This brings us to Jesus as the Patience of God.  It is interesting that we do see Jesus angry in some passages.  Yet, there is always a righteous reason for it, and the expression of his anger is done in a godly manner.

For example, in Matthew 12:10, the authorities complained about Jesus healing on the sabbath.  Jesus became angry and rebuked the way that they put rules above other people and yet had ways of working around it for themselves.  They were using the rules as a means of keeping themselves above the people, not for helping them.  They couldn’t care less for the people, but God cares deeply for the people.  Still, Jesus doesn’t slay them all.  He simply rebukes them, calling them to repentance.

Of course, a similar thing happens to the disciples in Mark 1014.  They were trying to keep people from bringing their kids to Jesus.  Jesus becomes indignant and rebukes them.  He then challenges them that they won’t make it into the Kingdom of God if they don’t receive it like one of these kids.

Jesus was generally angry at the self-righteous snobbery of the religious leaders, while they were guilty of sin.  Yet, there was one time when the anger of Jesus led to a physical altercation.  He overturned the tables of the money lenders and sellers of sheep, whipping them out of the temple grounds.  Why?  They had turned the Court of Gentiles into a smelly place of commerce, but God wanted it to be a place where Gentiles could approach and pray.  When we use the things of god in a way that is contrary to His purposes, it tries His patience.

In spite of these situations, we see that Jesus is quite patient.  His responses are tempered and always he rebukes them back to the righteousness of God.  The most obvious case for his patience is before his accusers on the day of his crucifixion.  They lied and abused their authority in a sham trial to convict him.  Later on the cross, we see absolute slowness to anger of both Jesus (Father forgive them.  They know not what they do.) and God the Father (the heavens and earth did not melt in fervent heat).  Yet, in the crucifixion of Jesus, God’s patience with the nation of Israel was coming to an end (at least for this part of His work through Israel).  He then gave them forty years of hearing the teaching of His prophets, the Apostles of Jesus, calling them to repentance and times of refreshing from the LORD. You see, God rebukes us so that we may be convicted of our sin and turn back to Him for forgiveness and healing.

This brings us to the wrath of God in Romans 1:18-19.  Paul states that God’s wrath is revealed from heaven upon those who reject and suppress the truth.  This chapter shows how the Gentiles had become so bad.  God had called them to repentance and had revealed His judgment from time to time in things like the Flood, the Tower of Babel and the confusion of the languages, even Sodom and Gomorrah.  Yet, they willfully forget these things (2 Peter 3:5).  Still, God in His anger doesn’t simply stomp them out.  Rather, Paul describes it in verses 24, 26 and 28. In each verse, he refers to God handing them over to the lusts of their heart, to degrading passions, and to a depraved mind.  As we continue to sin, God hands us over to the destroying effects of those sins.  Like Nimrod trying to connect with the fallen spiritual powers that had led the pre-flood world into gross sin, we can persist in things that are not good.  Thus, God gave the Tower-of-Babel generation over to those fallen spirits.  They would reap the harvest of what they were pursuing all along.

Yet, God still cared for the Gentiles.  Just as He still cares for the nation of Israel today.  Sin has bad consequences.  They are bad for the one doing the sin, and they are bad for the people around them.  Those consequences have a snowballing effect.  They build up and gain momentum over time.  At each turn of the rolling monstrosity, God is trying to get our attention, calling us to repentance.  Yet, we eventually reach a final judgment event, if we persist in sin. 

For an individual, that final judgment event begins with our death.  For a nation, it is comes when the government is destroyed and the people subdued by others.  Nations are allowed to rise, and nations are put down in judgment. In fact, there is not one nation that exists today in the same form from 2,000 years ago.  God’s wheels of judgment have brought many nations to an end, and allowed many others to arise.  However, there is an ultimate judgment for all the nations of the earth at the end of this age.

Israel was supposed to be God’s servant to the nations, but they had failed.  God sent Jesus, not to push Israel down and leave them in the dust, but to take their place in judgment so that they could be saved.  In fact, he was doing this for the Gentiles as well, even for you and me. 

God loves humanity too much to let us continue to do evil to one another.  That love will eventually be expressed in justice, but He gives us time to change.

Jesus could have thrown up his hands and said, “Enough, I’m done!  Get me out of here!”  Yet, he patiently endured death on a cross, a horrible way to die.  He stepped up with compassion and took our punishment upon himself, so that we can be forgiven.

This brings us back to the tension in Exodus 34:6-7.  Yes, Jesus died for our sins so that we can be forgiven.  But, he did not die so that we can now sin with impunity.  You cannot game God.  No one can say that they can now sin since they are forgiven.  However, no one can say, I’m forgiven because I have never sinned.  This is the wonderful God that we belong to, and the impossible mystery of why people choose sin over Him.

God’s goodness has been poured out upon humanity is so many particular ways, not because He owes it to us, but because that is who He is.  Let’s present that to a lost and fallen world, even if it chooses to crucify us. 

God is Slow to Anger audio