The Second Letter Of Peter- 9

Subtitle: Scoffers In The Last Days

2 Peter 3:1-7.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, September 20, 2026. A link to the audio can be found at the bottom of this article.

We have reached the last chapter of this letter.  In some ways, the message in this chapter can be connected to the false prophets and false teachers warned against in chapter two.  However, there is a clear transition here in chapter 3:1-2. Although the case can be made that false teachers and false prophets are clearly scoffers of the truth of God’s Word, Peter is separately warning of scoffers that will exist particularly in the Last Days.  He is stating that such people will particularly be a problem in the Last Days, and we must not let them influence our faith.

Let’s look at our passage.

A call to remember (v. 1-2)

The first two verses establish a clear break from chapter two.  Verse one establishes that this is Peter’s second letter (to the people of Asia Minor, or modern-day Turkey).  Of course, 1 Peter is the first letter.  In both letters, he desires to stir up our sincere minds by reminding us to remember some things that they (and hopefully we) had been taught.

Let’s talk first about the idea of a “sincere mind” here.  The emphasis in the Greek is a pure, clean, undefiled mind.  This is not a statement about perfect control and never having a thought that you have to take captive.  It is a statement about our faith in Christ and embrace of His Gospel.  The Word of God (both Old and New Testaments) has a purifying effect upon our hearts and minds.  There is an immediate cleansing that happens as our faith switches from self, false gods, and false philosophies to the commands of Christ.  However, there is a daily and life-long cleansing work as we listen to the Holy Spirit and follow Him.  Our minds are pure because of the presence of the Spirit of Christ by faith.  Much of the Christian life consists in the battle to keep our hearts and minds free from the influence of the world and to keep them tethered to the Spirit and the Word of God.

Verse two highlights two things that Peter wants us to continually remember: the words of the prophets (Old Testament) and the commandments of our Lord and Savior, Jesus, given to them by the apostles of Jesus.

There are some issues in the text that are not important to theology.  However, Peter is most likely emphasizing that they had received these things by “your apostles.”  Peter is recognizing that the apostolic work of Paul and Barnabas who had founded many of these churches.

Peter warns against scoffers in the Last Days (v. 3-7)

The phrase “first of all” in verse three can be used to introduce a list that includes secondary and tertiary issues.  However, we do not find in the rest of the letter such phrases as “second of all,” or “secondarily,” etc.  Peter is simply emphasizing that the following is an area that is of primary importance.    Believers must not forget the warning he is going to give about scoffers.

Several versions use the word “mockers” as opposed to “scoffers.”  There is no true difference between them.  The idea is that they treat certain Christian teachings with derision and ridicule.  They both scoff at the teachings and mock them.  This is a very different person than someone who expresses arguments of disagreement but are willing to seriously engage the arguments of God’s Word.

There is a Hebrew idiom employed here.  In English, it comes across as redundant to say that scoffers will come with their scoffing (or mockers).  However, in Hebrew, this is a way of intensifying the expression.  This scoffing will be more than individuals here and there who are keeping it to themselves.  Rather, it takes on the nature of an assault of many scoffers flooding the public discussion with their derision and ridicule of the Scriptures.

Peter also emphasizes that he is speaking about “the last days.”  This is a phrase that connects to the same phrase in the Old Testament along with a whole group of similar phrases.  “The Last Days,” “the Latter Days,” “End Times,” and even the “Day of the Lord” generally point to the same things but also have some particular emphases that can distinguish them.  They are not necessarily synonymous.  You need to pay attention to the point the author is making, whether it is general or specific, etc.

In fact, prophecies that are forward looking have an effect that is sometimes called the Mountain Peak Effect.  When you look at a mountain range, it may appear that many of the peaks are about the same height, but experience teaches us that there may be large distances between them.  A peak may actually be taller than all the others, but it is farther away.  Prophecies in the Old Testament sometimes will speak of things that clearly point to the first coming of Christ and then also include things that are clearly from His second coming.  We know this because the first coming of Christ gave us more information from Jesus himself through his apostles.

We are technically in the last days of God’s work of bringing in the Kingdom of His Messiah.  It involves the offer of peace to any person in any nation with God the Father through Jesus His Son.  At some point, this age of God’s peace offer (an Age of Grace) will come to an end.  His Son will then come forth to take up control of the nations.

Yet, we can also recognize that this period is coming up on 2,000 years in duration.  Thus, there are the end times, latter days, where we approach the final years before Christ’s second coming.  If we are not in these now, we are rapidly approaching them.

It is of no surprise that we see all kinds of scoffing and mocking towards Christians who believe God’s Word, as Peter told us- really as the Holy Spirit told us through the Apostle Peter.

Peter says in verse three that they do this “following after their own lusts.”  There is a repetition in the use of the pronouns “their” and “own.”  Again, this is not redundancy but intensification.  Their strong desires are leading them, pulling them along.  In fact, there is a willfulness involved in this as well as a bondage to it.  This cycle of choosing something that then becomes a shackle and stronghold in your heart and mind is as old as humanity itself.  There is nothing wrong with having questions about God’s Word and the things it teaches.  However, be careful that you are not willfully following the lust of your flesh.

In verse four, we are given a particular scoffing that will be prevalent.  It is not the only one that will exist in the last days, but it is the one the Holy Spirit emphasizes.  “Where is the promise of His coming?”

Remember that this is not the question of a heart that is seeking truth.  This question is being asked by someone who holds such an idea in derision and ridicules it.  They reject it and deny it.

Such a scoff definitely comes from some militant atheists who believe that religion is holding humanity back from greater evolution.  However, it can come from a person from a false religion as well.  Finally, I would warn that it also can come from within the Christian community itself.

There are those who interpret the second coming of Christ as an allegory of a person accepting the way of Jesus.  They do not believe in a day of judgment in which the nations of the earth will be judged for what they did with the Gospel of Jesus and the truth that God has anointed him as the King of kings and the Lord of lords.  Such people often boil the message of Jesus to this.  Love everybody.  However, it is always in a non-judgmental way that embraces all kinds of things that Scripture calls sin.  It is as if Jesus died so that nothing can be called sin anymore.  True love helps promiscuous heterosexuals as well as homosexuals to face their sin and turn to Christ.  Christ taught us to love God by listening to His Word.  If you love such people as I have listed, then you will warn them of the destruction that comes from following your flesh over the boundaries designed by the Creator.

Such “Christians” see those who believe in a literal return of Christ as the problem that is holding us back from Utopia.  This is the foundation approach of people like James Talarico in Texas and the strange things he says as a “Christian.”

Verse four continues with support for their questioning the return of Jesus (why they think it so ridiculous).  Their evidence is that everything continues as it always has since creation.

This appeal to the uniform character of what we see today is prevalent in the science of today.  We extrapolate long periods of time because we require a natural solution.  Yet even that does not naturally require long periods of time.  Huge canyons can be carved out in a day by large catastrophes.  Erosion that would normally take a million years can happen in a matter of hours in catastrophic conditions.

This leads to a greater problem.  We don’t see God “creating” new things today, so we refuse to let that be the explanation for why anything exists at all.  We tell ourselves that we must use what we see today to explain what happened yesterday. 

In all of this, there is a hidden motivation. If we weren’t trying to get rid of any connection to God and Jesus, then perhaps we could carefully let what we see today help us understand what happened in the past.  The question of nature is wrapped up in a moral issue.  Is Jesus who God says he is?  If so, then what does that mean for me and my life now?

The early leaders of the scientific method were generally Christians.  They believed that the same God who gave us reasoning powers also made the world around us in rational ways, ways that we could discover.  Without that common bond, there is no rational basis for believing that we can figure everything out on our own.

The use of “the fathers” in this argument from uniformity- i.e., that the rates of natural processes today can help us explain the past- is a reference to the patriarchs of the Old Testament.  This would be the list of men from Adam down to Jacob.  These men lived with an expectation that God would send a “Seed of the Woman,” an “Anointed One,” who would fix all the issues of sin and our domination by Satan.  The use of this phrase is likely an indication by Peter that these scoffers would be led by people from within Christianity.  It is possible that it is simply using Christian language for something that a person from outside of Christianity would say in different language, but I would lean towards the first interpretation.

Verse five has a grammatical issue.  There is one word that can be paired with either verb, which gives a subtle change to the meaning.  Peter is either saying that these scoffers willfully ignore the fact (of the flood), or he is saying that, as they assert the fact of uniformity, it is hidden from them how God’s Word has always been the foundation to all that happens.

I don’t think this is a critical difference because Scripture speaks of both scenarios being a problem for those who reject God’s Word.  The first interpretation simply emphasizes that these scoffers are willfully ignoring critical evidence for whatever reason.  God has shown them, but they refuse to see it or recognize it.

The second interpretation emphasizes how willfulness (to follow our flesh) not only holds a bondage within it, but also a debilitation.  “It is hidden from them,” is the flip side of the spiritual blindness that happens to those who willfully push aside God’s Word.  Sin hardens hearts and minds to truth.  Truth becomes something that is harder and harder for them to see.  Without God’s grace of revelation and salvation, we would all be stuck in that condition.

Peter reminds us that the world hasn’t gone on the same without interruption (vs 5 and 6).  The heavens and the earth came into being, existed, by the Word of God.  “Let there be light!  And there was light.”  This is an interruption of what was (or wasn’t) before it.  God speaks and it interrupts the current uniformity.  Again, at The Flood, God’s Word of judgment interrupted the ancient world.  If not for Noah and the ark, humanity and the animals would have ceased to exist on this planet.  Yet, Noah and the others stepped onto a world radically different from the one on the other side of the Flood, a Great Interruption of the Uniformity.

This brings us to the point.  God’s Word also speaks of another Great Interruption that is coming upon the heavens and the earth.  They are currently being reserved for a fire that will destroy all ungodly men (even melting down the universe- see 2 Peter 3:10).

Peter is speaking in general terms. 

In Revelation 20, we are given more specific information about how this fiery judgment will connect with the second coming of Jesus.  I believe it is clear that Christ’s second coming will institute a kingdom of peace for 1,000 years.  During this time, God fulfills all His promises to national Israel, to the nations, and to the righteous.  Yet, at the end of that millennium, a final rebellion will be instigated by Satan.  It is then that we are told of a fire that comes down out of heaven.  The scene swiftly moves.  The rebellion is devoured by fire.  The devil is cast into the Lake of Fire.  The Great White Throne appears causing the heavens and the earth to flee away.  If we couple this last statement with 1 Peter 3:10, it appears that they melt down to a plasma and are moved away.  Then all who have ever lived that have not been resurrected yet (mostly the wicked) are resurrected, judged and sent into the Lake of Fire (if their name is not in the Book of Life).  The very next statement is that there are new heavens and a new earth.  It seems logical to see that the old has melted down to a plasma and then remade.  You might think of it as a purification, renewal, even a rebooting of the Creation.  This Great Interruption lays ahead of humanity and the spiritual hosts of heaven (wicked and righteous), all of Creation.

In the last days, scoffers will attempt to dissuade believers that these things are coming.  If we are dissuaded of that, then the impulse to live righteously is greatly undermined.  The hope for humanity becomes something of our own making, led by our own lust, and led by a devil who hates humanity.

Let us hold fast to the faith and hope that we have been given by the apostles of Jesus!

Scoffers 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

The Gifts of the Holy Spirit- 4

1 Corinthians 14:20-33. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, June 28, 2026.

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

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

Let’s look at the rest of chapter 14.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gifts of the Spirit 4 audio

The First Letter Of Peter- 21

Subtitle: How Suffering Ties To Our Future Hope- Part 3

1 Peter 5:6-11.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, April 26, 2026.

We ended our sermon last week at 1 Peter 5:5. Peter quoted Proverbs 3:34, “God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble.”  He is not just passively opposed to the proud.  Just as He actively gives grace to the humble, so He actively opposes the proud.

Today, we are going to continue with this exhortation to stay humble in the humble circumstances of suffering.  As we do so, we will find that there is more than just suffering.  There is also the grace of Jesus.

Let’s look at our passage.

An Exhortation to all Christians (6-11)

The statement, even the revelation, of Proverbs 3:34 challenges us to trust God.  Do you really believe this?  If you do, then you will always choose the humble path because you do not want God to oppose you.

True humility is staying lowly in your attitude towards others, but at the same time, understanding that God has a purpose for you.  You can do what God has given you to do without becoming proud.  In fact, the humblest thing we can do is to say “yes” to God’s purpose even when we feel that we are not up to it.

In verse 6, Peter commands believers to humble themselves under the mighty hand of God so that He may exalt us at the proper time.

Depending on your attitude, the mighty hand of God can be viewed in two ways.  If you stay humble, then God’s hand will be mighty in assistance.  He gives grace that aids us mightily in the ways that He knows we need.  However, if you are not humble, then His mighty hand will come against you in discipline and judgment.

We should not lose sight of the reality that the Hand of the Lord is an Old Testament metaphor that points to the Messiah, Jesus.  Thus, we need to humble ourselves under the Mighty Jesus who was sent to lead us to God.  Humble yourself by trusting the way of Jesus, and his way leads through suffering.

Notice that exaltation is at the bottom of this.  The proud and arrogant of this world fight and claw in order to exalt themselves.  We can even exalt others as a way of “hitching our wagon” to theirs.  However, God only exalts “at the proper time.”  Have you ever thought that you might not be ready for exaltation?  Shouldn’t we trust God’s timing in this?  Shouldn’t we have faith in Him?

It is good for us to learn discipline in this time in which we deal with our own sin and the sin of others.  Much of the suffering of life is a result of sin.

Even though Peter is talking about the ultimate exaltation of the Kingdom of God led by His Messiah, King Jesus, it is also true on a smaller scale within this life.  Most times of suffering have a season or period.  When we are dealing with trials, we can know that God will bring us through it.  He does not intend to let us be tested forever.

In order to do this, Peter tells us to cast our worries upon Jesus because He cares for us.  Our true problem is not the theoretical question of whether or not God is for us.  It is all those worries and anxieties that that we have going on in our heart and mind.  I might not get what I want.  Someone else might get what I want instead.  It is this multitude of worries that divide our heart against an allegiance to God, if we are not careful.

We are told to cast our worries upon Him.  This is a picture of what happens in our heart as we talk with God in prayer.  We don’t cast our worries at Him as an accusation.  Rather, we cast them upon Him.  We put the heaviness of the worry upon Him and let Him figure it out for us. 

We can do this because He cares for us.  That is, we are His concern.  God knows what we need and will provide it at the proper time.  Will I live refusing, rejecting, and ignoring His care for me?  Or will I lean into His care and rest in it?

Psalm 55:22 reads, “Cast your burden upon the LORD, and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.”  Pride leads to wickedness which leads to being shaken by God’s judgments.  However, humility leads to righteousness which does not lead to being shaken by judgment.

It is important that we do this because of what Peter says next. We have an enemy, the devil, who is on the prowl, seeking someone to devour.  First of all, there is a contrast here.  The devil devours everyone that he can.  However, God is only opposed to the proud.  Second of all, it is pride that makes us vulnerable to the devil.

This picture of the devil like a prowling lion connects to Job 1 and 2. Satan appears before God and is asked what he has been doing.  Notice that he doesn’t say why he is traveling to and fro throughout the earth.  This gives us a fuller picture.  He wants to devour those who are not able to stand against him.  He wants to devour your soul, your life, your ability to image God.  He wants to devour God’s purpose for you and make you a captive to his self-serving purposes.

When we walk in humility before our fellow man and before God, we will find all the resources of God’s grace available to us in that time of need.

Peter then tells us to be sober in spirit.  Yes, God is for us, but the devil is really against us.  We need to be able to deal with this reality.  We need to be on the alert for his tactics and schemes.  We also need to be on the alert for how our foolishness can set us up for him.  Our envy, fears, and hunger for recognition, can open access points in our life for his devouring work.

Thus, in this sober and alert state, we are to resist him.  Resist here is the sense of taking our stand against the devil and his schemes.  We are to oppose what he is trying to do in our lives and in the lives of our family and friends.  We do this by firmly putting our faith in Christ, not letting ourselves be pulled into trusting the ways of pride and the ways of the world.

Peter reminds us about the reality that other Christians are going through these same things around the world.  In fact, some of them may be going through worse suffering than we are.  Yet, Peter does not simply say they are going through them.  It is often translated as “being accomplished” by them.  They are going through them victoriously in Christ.  Their faith is not being overwhelmed and extinguished.  They are more than conqueror through Jesus Christ who strengthen them.  Thus, so can we be strengthened to face our enemy.  This is nothing unique to me or you.  All who want to follow Christ will face these things.

Even though we have suffering in this life, remember that God gives grace to the humble.  He doesn’t just do this after we die.  He gives us grace in the midst of our trials.  He has purpose in us that He will accomplish as we trust Him.  This is important.  God is helping us in this life against our enemy.  We don’t have to be afraid and shrink back.  We can humbly step up and stand our ground in Jesus.

Verse 10 says that we have been called to His eternal glory in Christ.  Dwelling within the glory of God is our destiny.  Yet, it is “in Christ.”  Christ is the ground, or foundation, that gives us standing before God.  We are called to His eternal glory, but the way to this glory is through times of suffering on this earth.

Peter mentions that this time of glory is “after you have suffered for a little while…” We can contemplate this “little while” in a couple of ways.  Life is generally not suffering all the time.  It may come in seasons, now intense, and now not.  It is very common to see that God brings us through times of difficult testing and into times of rest.  Those difficult times always feel like they will never end, but this too shall pass.  Knowing this can help us to keep faith in times of testing.

Yet, our lives are also “for a little while.”  We are grass and our time fleeting.  Even if my life is lived suffering under the boot of a tyrant until the day I die, this cannot change God’s calling upon my life.  When the suffering is over. Then I will see how God has used it to do some things within me that are eternal.  This is true throughout our life, and it will be true at the end of our life.

Peter states that God will “perfect you.”  This is the idea of making you complete, lacking nothing.  We can think of being completely equipped with all that we need, but we should also think of His ability to heal our wounds and make us whole, complete.

This doesn’t mean we do nothing.  We are called to be perfect as He is perfect, but none of us can do this on our own.  In this life, He is perfecting us through imperfect things.  Yet, in the end, we will be like Him because of His grace.

Trials and sufferings are one of the ways that God builds His character and righteousness into us.

Not only will He make us complete, but He will firmly equip us.  The firm part of this phrase has the idea of being set in a way that is not easily moved.  We might picture how construction uses braces to keep a structure from falling over.  God is making us to be a people that the devil cannot defeat and devour.  He is making us into people who cannot be pulled onto foolish paths.

He will also strengthen you.  There is strength that comes from bracing (external), but there is also strength that is more internal.  The Spirit of God uses trials and suffering to strengthen our faith in Him.  This is a spiritual strengthening.

Lastly, Peter says that He will establish you.  This is the idea of having a firm foundation.  Of course, Jesus is our firm foundation.  However, God is working to firmly set us upon His foundation, unable to be toppled.

Think of it.  Each trial you go through will also see God doing these things within you until that day you stand before Him completed.

This leads to Peter’s celebratory declaration.  To Him be the glory and dominion forever and ever, amen.  Some versions don’t have the word glory.  Regardless, this is the language used of the Messiah’s Kingdom.  The Son of Man will be given dominion over all the nations of the earth.  Why should we remain humble at all times?  We should do so because the day is coming when Jesus will come in glory and take up his dominion.  The power, rule, and dominion are all his, even if he invites us into it and allows us to exercise it with him. 

This ties back to the earlier statement, “Let him who boasts boast in the lord!”

Peter does that here by declaring that all of this belongs to Jesus forever, Amen!

Suffering Future Hope 3 audio