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- 6

Subtitle: The Problem of False Prophets 3

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.

False Prophets 3 audio

The Second Letter of Peter- 5

Subtitle: The Problem of False Prophets 2

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!

False Prophets 2 audio

Responding to the Holy Spirit-Part 2

John 3:28-30; Matthew 9:14-15; John 14:1-3; 2 Corinthians 11:2-4; Revelation 19:4-9

This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on October 31, 2021.

Last week, we looked at the work of the Holy Spirit on unbelievers.  Some are unmoved, some become hostile, but some believe.

Today, we are going to look at those who respond to the Holy Spirit by putting their faith in Jesus as their teacher, savior, and lord.  By the way, notice that each of those three aspects are important.  Putting our faith in Jesus is trusting him both to cover our sins with his righteousness and to lead us into true righteous acts.  It is putting my judgment completely in his hands.

I pray that you are a part of this group.  Let’s look closer.

Believers are pictured as the engaged bride of Jesus

A metaphor of a bride of God is found in the Old Testament in Isaiah 54 and in Jeremiah 3.  This imagery continues into the New Testament.  For our culture, the term “bride” is not generally used until the wedding.  Thus, the New Testament pictures the believing Church as a fiancé, or engaged woman, of Christ.

Of course, for Israel, engagement and marriage were quite different than it is in America.  In fact, our typical engagement to marriage has changed a lot in the last 100 years.  Couples are more likely to live together, be sexually active, and even have children before marriage, if that even happens.  This idea would have been taboo in Israel.

So, let’s look at several passages throughout the New Testament that begin to shed light on God’s purpose for the Church, and why things are happening the way they are.

John 3:28-30.  John the Baptist spoke about this metaphor when his disciples complained that too many people were going to follow Jesus.

John pictures himself as the “friend of the groom.”  Of course, John is both a friend of the groom and part of the bride.  You could say that he is one of the first to believe, and on top of that, he is given a task to prepare the bride for the groom.

John knew that his ministry was meant to bring people to Jesus, and not to himself.  His ministry was never about him, and always about Jesus.  Thus, John was happy to see people leaving in order to go to Jesus.  It is too easy for churches to see people as belonging to them.  They actually belong to Jesus, and we must never forget this.

Matthew 9:14-15.  Jesus was fully aware of this metaphor and used it himself.  The disciples of John had come to Jesus asking why his disciples didn’t fast like everyone else.  By this time, Israel had developed many different feast days, some commanded in the Law, and others added to remember sad dates, such as the temple’s destruction by the Babylonians.  The disciples of Jesus didn’t appear to fast on all of these days.

Jesus pictures his time with his disciples as a betrothal period.  When a groom wanted to propose a marriage, his father would help negotiate things with the bride’s father.  If the proposal is accepted, then the groom goes home to prepare a place for his bride-to-be at his father’s home.  It would be odd to fast during something as celebratory as a betrothal.  This short period of time (3 ½ years) would end soon enough, and the disciples would fast then, as an engaged bride waiting for her groom to return.  Here’s another passage in which Jesus uses this image.

John 14:1-3.  Jesus doesn’t technically use any wedding terms, but in light of the earlier passages, no Israelite would have missed the analogous picture here.  Jesus would go into heaven and make a place for his disciples.  He would then come back to get them for the wedding, never to be separated again.

2 Corinthians 11:2-3.  This is not an exhaustive list of passages, but it makes it clear that this is a big part of the Gospel.   Paul too is part of the Church, the fiancé of Christ, but he has a secondary duty.  He had been sent with the mission of sharing the Gospel with the Gentiles.  Similar to John the Baptist, he sees himself as a spiritual father betrothing his daughter to Christ.  A father guarded his daughter’s chastity against young corrupt men so that she would be acceptable to a future husband.

The spiritual seduction of Eve is represented as a picture of spiritual unfaithfulness, adultery against the intimate relationship they had with God.  We should expect that the same devil will employ similar and more complex tactics of seduction against the bride of Christ.

Revelation 19:5-9.  Lastly, the Apostle John is shown this picture in the Revelation of Jesus.  It pictures a day when this waiting period will be over.  The groom will come and call his bride to the wedding feast.  Notice that this is depicted before the 2^nd Coming. 

Faithful believers are pictured as ready, and clothed in a clean, bright, white, fine linen clothing.  They are ready when the call is given to come to the marriage supper of the Lamb.  This is one of the reasons that I believe the rapture occurs before the end of the Great Tribulation, and perhaps even before it starts.  Believers who are ready will be caught up into heaven in order to receive their rewards and celebrate the new “marriage” to Christ.  Then, they will return with him to cast out the usurpers and join him in his inheritance as Lord of the earth.

An engaged bride prepares herself for the wedding

Being ready employs terminology from the metaphor, but points to spiritual preparations that we must make.  Let’s talk about that for a bit.

The first aspect of being ready is seen in Paul’s 2 Corinthians 11 passage.  We must keep ourselves spiritually faithful to Christ, a chaste virgin bride.  Being chaste involves restraining yourself from pursuing sin and the lusts of the flesh.  Living for the flesh is acid to a marriage and dooms it.

It also involves not yielding to the lustful advances from other men who would represent the devil’s attempts to draw us away from being faithful to Christ.  We fail in this by embracing false teachers, false prophets, and false Christs.  Paul says that we can be deceived by their craftiness, and corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.  There is far too much sophisticated, human reasoning in the Church today.  The real question is this.  Does Jesus truly have my heart?  Or, have I been drawn away by those who present a Jesus, other than the true Jesus, and a gospel other than the true gospel?

In the book of Revelation passage, we are told that the righteous acts of the saints are pictured as the white dress that she wears.  Now, it is true that our righteousness falls woefully short of Christ’s.  We cannot save ourselves.  However, once we have believed upon Jesus and his righteousness, we respond to the leading of his Spirit through the word of God and prayer.  All of the things that we do for Christ become acceptably righteous before God because they are done in faith to Christ.

The forgiveness of our sins should not lead to us spiritually sitting on our butts, nor living for our flesh.  This would be a bride who has not prepared her dress for the wedding; she isn’t ready.

Lastly, part of being ready is being watchful.  Jesus said in Matthew 25:13, “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.”  This was at the conclusion of the parable of the 5 wise and ready virgins.  Of course, there were 5 foolish virgins, but we will speak of that next week.

Too many Christians have become convinced that they will never see the coming of Christ.  Their lives have ceased to be responding to the Holy Spirit and doing the righteousness of Christ.  They will either be caught off guard and miss out on the wedding feast, or they will be caught off guard when they die and stand before Christ.  If he says those dreaded words, “Depart from me; I never knew you,” then that person will miss out and be shut out.  Friend, pay attention to the Holy Spirit today. He is even now warning us to be ready, to get ready!