The First Letter of Peter- 3

Subtitle: The Joy of Our Salvation- part 2

1 Peter 1:8-12.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, November 30, 2025.

We continue in this letter as Peter has described the great salvation and inheritance that we have through Jesus.  Not only should it cause us to rejoice, but it should also stir up a love for Jesus that is wrapped up in our faith in him.

Let’s look at our passage.

Praise to God for His salvation (v. 8-9)

Peter had just described that they were rejoicing in this salvation in the midst of trials and tests.  They were able to do that because they had faith in God.  Verse 8 commends them for the way their faith led to a love of Christ. 

This is done by placing two statements in a parallel construction.  The first statement is this.  You love him even though you haven’t seen him.  The second is similar.  You believe in him though you do not see him now.  This brings up the issue of our faith and its relationship to what has happened in the past and what is happening in the present.

The majority of those embracing Jesus Christ in the first century did not see his ministry, death, and post resurrection appearances.  Yet, they had come to love the Lord Jesus regardless.

Of course, Peter had seen Jesus in all of these aspects.  He had further seen Jesus glorified on the Mount of Transfiguration and ascending into heaven later.  Peter’s love for Jesus was deep and involved a past relationship with Jesus.  However, these people (like everyone who believes today) did not have that. 

How can you love someone that you have never seen?  It starts with receiving the knowledge that Jesus had done something for you that is both great and unthinkable in its quantity and quality.  To hear that someone laid down their life for you so that you can live is a shocking understanding.  Of course, it will be based upon the faith you have in the trustworthiness of those telling you about him.  Men like Peter, Paul, James, John, and the others more than proved their trustworthiness.  In the face of threats, imprisonments, and even death, they held fast to the testimony of the teachings and resurrection of Jesus.  On top of this, the Holy Spirit did great signs and wonders through them which brings up another side of faith.  The work of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of people helps them to both understand and embrace Jesus in faith.  Of course, this is not a coercion, but an influence that we can embrace or reject.

This is what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 16.  Peter had declared that he believed Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God.  Peter didn’t know the fullness of what those words meant, but he did believe.  Jesus commended him but notice what he says.  “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.”  Jesus did not teach his disciples that he was the Messiah.  Rather, he did the works of Messiah and let the Spirit of God teach them.  Yes, they had seen Jesus, but in the end, they were putting their faith in what the Spirit of God was revealing to them.  To see Jesus or not to have seen Jesus is not what is crucial.  What is crucial is that we respond in faith to the evidence that is put before us by God.

Jesus knew that the majority of Christians throughout history would be in the position of believing in something they didn’t see.  The atheist believes that this is preposterous.  Yet, we believe in all kinds of things that we have never seen for ourselves.  It is how we are designed as human beings who don’t and can’t know everything.  Those who believe, without having the benefit of what Peter had seen, would be and are blessed even more.  This is why Peter is commending them.  Their faith in what Jesus had done led them to love him.

Yet, they cannot see what Jesus is presently doing for them.  Scripture tells us that he is seated at the right hand of the Father awaiting the command to take up the kingdoms of the earth.  Yet, he also intercedes on our behalf and sends forth the Holy Spirit for our enabling.  Technically, no one can see this naturally.  Stephen was given a vision of this, but he was being put to death.  Peter did see Jesus ascend into heaven and disappear out of his sight.  So again, believers through the ages have put their faith in a past and present work of Jesus, though they have not seen and do not see it for themselves.  They both believe in Jesus and love him.

I will say that, though we cannot see Jesus interceding and pouring out the Holy Spirit, we can see the effects of this through many powerful demonstrations of the grace of God, both in our life and in the testimony of countless believers through the centuries.

How can you say, no, to such a love?  How can we not reciprocate the love that God has lavished upon us through Jesus with our own hearts full of love for him?  We love Christ not just for what he has given us and will give us.  We love him because his heart is such that he not only gives us things, but he has ultimately given us himself.  His heart of salvation, that refuses to leave us in bondage to sin, was more than willing to pay an enormous price for us.  His greatest gift to us is a relationship of love that we can have with Him!

Verse 8 then describes that they greatly rejoiced with a joy inexpressible and full of glory.  How can one rejoice in the midst of trials?  Faith helps us to see what is on the other side of the trials.

How can it be said that our rejoicing is inexpressible and full of glory?  The glory is that which God attaches to our salvation by His grace.  It is the same glory of Christ who endured the ugliness of this world for our sakes and for the sake of the Father.  When he is revealed to the Lord in all of his glory, we will be at his side in glory as well.  We have nothing but glory ahead of us.  Though this world may heap shame and dishonor upon us, it is to our glory to carry that mocking, ridicule, and even persecution, as he did.  We walk the way of the cross by putting our feet into the footsteps of our loving Lord.  Even if we have the absolute worst experience and have been dealt the absolute worst hand in this life, none of that should matter to us.  What matters to us is what we do with it.  We must pick up our cross, our difficult lot in life, and carry it to the end for Jesus!

The joy of bonding with Jesus in his sufferings followed by glory is described as inexpressible not because we cannot attempt to describe it.  It is simply because our words fall short of the full reality and our vocabulary falls short of the description worthy of his love.  However, it is also because we do not know all the wonderful and good things that God has for us.  “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”  (1 Corinthians 2:9). 

Of course, the goodness of God is not just something that is off in the future.  His work in our lives throughout this wilderness is filled with His love, grace, help, and more.  How great our rejoicing will be when we understand all that God has done, is doing, and even yet will do in demonstrating His love for us!

Verse 9 then speaks of the salvation of our souls that we receive as an outcome of our faith.  This is pictured as something that is happening now.  It is not that God is miserly giving us a small portion of salvation over time.  Rather, it is what we spoke about several sermons ago.  Salvation can be seen as something we receive instantaneously at our initial faith in Christ.  It is like a status: we are a person who has entered into God’s salvation.  It can also be seen in the sense that God gives us title to it.  It belongs to us and no one can take it away.

Yet, salvation can also be seen as something that God is doing in us throughout our life.  He is saving us from our past life of sin and our present temptations to sin.  We should think of salvation in this sense as a kind of healing.  The spiritual hurts and wounds of the past take time to be healed.  God uses this life, its trials and tests, to help us heal spiritually.  In that sense, we are daily obtaining the salvation of Christ in our life as we put our faith in him, his word, and the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Of course, salvation does have a completed sense that is in our future.  At death, my soul will be completely healed and saved from sin, and at the resurrection, by body will be completely healed and saved from sin.  I will see Jesus and know him because I will be like him!  All of this because we are trusting Jesus.

May God strengthen our faith.  May we also guard our hearts and be careful that our faith in Christ is not shipwrecked during these trying times.

Praise to God for His salvation (v. 10-12)

Peter takes some time to remind them of the grace of God that we are receiving in these days of Messiah.  In other words, let’s talk about this salvation that you have obtained!

This salvation that we are experiencing is the same salvation that the prophets of the Old Testament sought to understand.  They knew that God promised salvation to those who trusted in Him.  This was in the face of the failure of humanity as a whole from Adam to Abraham and the failure of Israel as a special nation to God.  They were curious in every generation about this salvation.  Thus, they searched the Scriptures that they had at the time, looking for any clues that would give understanding about the salvation of God.  They also inquired of God in prayer about this Messiah. 

Peter describes two questions that they were seeking to have explained.  The first had to do with what person, or manner of person, would be Messiah.  What would he be like?  How will we know him?  What exactly will he do?  And the question would go on and on.  The second question had to do with the timing.  The word for time that Peter uses is not so much about chronology as it is about seasons.  Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall, do follow a clock-like chronology, but they also have a purpose that is for something greater than a particular amount of time.  There is a quality to those periods of time.  Similarly, God has seasons in His dealings with humanity.  Yes, He would save humanity, but it would be done in seasons, seasons that had particular purpose known to God.

These prophets sought to understand the greater arc of God’s purposes through time.  This would help them to understand why Messiah’s coming was so delayed, but also to recognize when his coming was close.

Over time, God revealed a little here and a little there.  Progressively over the generations, from Genesis 3 to Malachi 4, God revealed to them some answers to these questions.  Notice that Peter describes it as the “Spirit of Christ within them.”  The summation of all this revelation is that Messiah would first suffer and then his glories would follow.  Messiah would not just come to be great and make others suffer.  Rather, he comes to reject the things that we think are glorious.  He then ingloriously dies on our behalf, showing us the way.  God’s glory is not like our glory, and if we want to be glorified, we will be quick to jettison the desire for “our glory.”  Our glory is focused on self and does not care for others except for the ways that they can accentuate our glory.  God’s glory is about saving others out of shame and humility and bringing them back into the glory that He made for them.

Now is not the time for us to seek glory.  Now is the time for us to join our lord in his path of suffering, not for suffering’s sake, but for the saving of others who are trapped in sin.  We too have an allotment of suffering before our day of glory.

And yet, this life is not all suffering.  We enjoy God’s goodness in so many ways, but particularly in the fellowship we have with Him and fellow believers.  Even after being beaten and put in the stocks, Paul and Silas lifted their voices in songs of praise to God. How could they do this?  They could do this because they saw the smile of their Lord Jesus and the inheritance that he held securely for them.  They could do this because they knew they were not at the mercy of the magistrates of Philippi, nor a jailer and his guards.  They were at the mercy and steadfast love of God Himself!

So, Peter tells us that the prophets recognized that God was showing them things that they would not see in their time.  Instead, they wrote them down for the generation that would witness and follow the days of Messiah.  They lived faithfully not knowing fully the details of Messiah.  They lived by faith in the Coming Messiah though they did not see him or know fully what he would be and do.  This, of course, is similar in every age, even ours. 

Peter connects these believers to that long chain of the glories of Messiah Jesus which are only continuing today.  He connects them to the glories of the revelation of Jesus that will occur at his second coming.  These are the things that were announced to them by people like Peter who came preaching the Gospel of Jesus.  This was all through the work of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven.

Peter even adds that these are things that even angels are curious to know.  Notice that he puts that curiosity in the present tense.  Angels are not omniscient, though they surely know much more than we do.  Of course, the devil would have a vested interest in figuring out exactly what God is going to do and when, but I believe Peter is talking about the faithful angels, just as he had been talking about the faithful prophets.  These angels don’t understand everything about God’s purposes, but they do their work on God’s behalf ministering to humans who are being saved.  All of the faithful, in heaven and on earth, seek to find these things out.

This brings us to a great section regarding how we are to respond to such great salvation.  Yes, we respond in faith, but Peter is going to get into specifics.

Let me just close by challenging you.  Don’t let the enemy get into your head when you can’t figure out what God is doing.  The devil wants to undermine, to destroy, to steal your faith.  However, God is building your faith and making it a strong bulwark that the enemy cannot breakdown. 

Why does God require so much faith?  Perhaps, it is because He wants us to have the joy of discovery.  We have had much revealed to us about what the future holds, but we have not been given an exhaustive understanding.  It is enough for us to know that God is with us, helping us, and bringing us to a good thing that is better than what we can do for ourselves.  If God be for us, who can be against us?  Or, even better, what does it matter who is standing against us?  We can have the same joy that David had on that day that he grabbed the stones by faith and went out against Goliath.  What are you doing today, Lord!  Let’s go find out!

Joy of our Salvation audio 2

The Letter to the Colossian Church- 07

Subtitle: The Dangers around Them-2

Colossians 2:9-15.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, August 24, 2025.

We continue looking at the danger that the Colossian Christians faced of teachers who would try to take them captive through wise sounding ideas.  Of course today, such teachers are readily available on the internet.  It is the same danger, but we face far more of it.

Paul had challenged them in verses 6 and 7 to walk in Christ.  When we are positively focused on Jesus, it is our best defense against false teachers.

In verse 8, Paul identified the roots of the attacks from these teachers on the Gospel of Christ.  These teachers were using philosophy and empty deceit that was often mixed with religion and personal visions.

Let’s pick it up at verse 9.

The benefits of being in Christ

When a person understands what they actually have in Christ, they are not susceptible to these philosophies and vain deceptions that false teachers use.  They are looking for people who are hungry for something more.  This is why Paul has emphasized over and over that we have everything we need in Christ.

Verse 9 ties back to chapter 1 verse 19.  There, in the hymn to the Son of God’s love, Paul made the statement that “it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fulness to dwell in him.  In chapter 2 verse 9, this statement is made again, but some more exact language is added.

The first word added is the word “deity.”  Although “the fulness” was strongly connected with the concept of God and deity, Paul adds the word deity so that there is no  question.  The fullness of deity dwells in Jesus.  The believer needs to understand that there is nothing about what makes the Father to be God that isn’t fully present in Jesus.  We can use ideas like omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence as a starting place.  There does not exist a “greater fullness” of deity than exists in Jesus.

Paul also adds the adverb “bodily.”  Part of the attacks against Christians had to do with the inability to accept that full deity could exist in human form.  It was common for these teachers to diminish the man Jesus and treat the “spirit of Christ” as something separate.  Yet, they still sought to attach themselves to Christianity because it would make it easier for them to draw Christians after them.

Jesus has full deity, and yet, he is fully man, body and all.  This bodily emphasis shuts down the penchant for Greek thinkers to view the body as evil or incompatible with full deity.  This is the one you are following.  He is fully God.

Secondly, You are complete in him who is the head over all rule and authority (v. 10).  The word for complete here is the idea of being fully supplied.  Jesus has full deity, and in him, you are fully supplied for whatever you may face.  Essentially, there is nothing you need that hasn’t already been supplied for you.

Notice that Paul emphasizes that Christ is “the head” over all rule and authority.  This would be over human authorities for sure, but Paul is more focused on spiritual rulers and authorities.  These false teachers loved to project spiritual hierarchies that one could discover and benefit from them.  However, Paul shuts that down.  There is no higher authority than Jesus.  No other spiritual entity can give benefits to you that are greater than those Christ gives, and without his approval.  These fallen spiritual beings that were being worshipped by the Gentile world have no power and authority over Jesus.  It is the other way around.

So, why is it that Christians sometimes feel like there must be something more than what we have?  This can be for various reasons. 

One reason is that you may not be completely trusting Christ.  If we are only half-hearted in our “walk” with Christ, sometimes trying his way, sometimes listening to the world, then the Holy Spirit will stir up in you a holy discomfort so that you will press into Christ more.  You need to take Christ seriously.

Another reason could be that you are paying too much attention to the messaging of the world around you.  The world is great at telling you that you need to act now, or you will not get what you want.  It stirs up an unholy dissatisfaction with life and the supply of Christ because he is not supplying the whims of your flesh.

Also, you may simply be a weak human who is learning how to trust in the power of Christ, rather than the feelings of your flesh.  We walk by faith not by sight, nor by feelings.  Those moments of “feeling”  like there should be more is a test to double down and trust the Lord.  Lean into the supply of the Christ: the Word of God, the Holy Spirit’s help, and mature believers in Christ who can help you.

In verse 11, Paul shows them some of the things they have in Christ that are connected to what the false teachers were often promoting.  One of those teachings had to do with Gentiles being circumcised.  Paul tells them that they were circumcised without hands, in Christ.  This is a clear reference to a spiritual circumcision of the heart, which is done by the Holy Spirit.  We’ve seen this before in the Old Testament.  Even as Moses is declaring God’s love of physically circumcising Hebrew boys on the 8^th day, we find passages that emphasize a circumcision of the heart (Deuteronomy 10:16).  The Lord spoke to Israel through Jeremiah about this as well (Jeremiah 4:3-4).  Here is Deuteronomy 30:6.  “Moreover, the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.”

The physical circumcision of a child was representative of a greater circumcision of the heart.  It would remove the barrier of the desires of our flesh from between  us and the LORD.  It would allow for a relationship of love.

Christians, even Gentiles, have had their hearts circumcised by the Holy Spirit, the greater circumcision.  They do not need to go back and do the physical.

Yet, there is a second layer to this teaching.  Though Christians have been spiritually circumcised in heart, everything that Jesus did in the body as the perfect man is applied to them.  Our faith in Christ allows his perfect work to apply to us.  Thus, Jesus was physically circumcised on the 8^th day.  That act doesn’t save us, but it does apply to us.  His circumcision is our circumcision by faith.

We see this same mechanism in verse 12 concerning water baptism.  Water baptism symbolizes the death and resurrection of Jesus.  Jesus died to this world and its false life, and was raised up to live the true life that God the Father had for him.  When we are water baptized, we are identifying with Jesus.  Just as he died to this world (literally), we die to this world (spiritually),  Of course, we will physically die and be physically resurrected one day too.  However, we do not have to wait until then to have the benefits of his death and resurrection apply to us. 

We are identifying with what Jesus did and what will one day be done for us, but we are also participating in his death and resurrection spiritually.  We continue to physically live, but we do so with the same attitude and heart that Jesus had.  We do not live for this world or our flesh and its desires.  Instead, we live for the will and plan of God the Father through the Son of His love.  Jesus is the victor over the worst that the devil can throw at us.  This victory also belongs to those who are in Christ today.  The same power that raised Christ from the dead works in us to break free from the hold that wicked spiritual beings have had on us through our sin.

We have been raised up already by the Spirit through our faith in Christ and the working of God.  We are alive to God and His purposes while remaining dead to the world and its purposes.  This is not a mere mental trick.  This sinful world and the sinful spirit-rulers crucified the Lord of Glory.  Do you think Jesus is interested in anything they have to offer now?  He wasn’t interested when he was in mortal flesh, and he is even less interested now that he is in immortal flesh.

The sin of this world, my own included, will only lead to death and judgment before God.  This brings us to verse 13.

All of these benefits of Christ come to us while we are yet sinners.  Paul reminds them that they were dead in their transgressions and in the uncircumcision of their flesh.  It was precisely in such a condition that Christ made us alive together with Him.  You are alive spiritually, which allows you to hear and to be led by God.  All of this is possible because Jesus has forgiven us all of our sins and transgressions.  Of course, Christ didn’t just willy nilly zap you.  It was your faith in him that becomes the channel of God’s grace to you through the forgiveness of Jesus.
This leads to a Holy-Spirit-influenced digression by Paul.

How can Jesus simply forgive us our sins?  The short answer is that he has died in our place as a substitute.  He paid our penalty for us.  Yet, it is deeper than that.

Paul pictures Jesus at the cross with a sign above his head that was supposed to list the charge against him.  However, Pilate put on the sign, “King of the Jews.”

Of course, the charges against Jesus were bogus, and he was not worthy of being put to death.  Yet, if you and I were put on a cross, there would be all kinds of true charges that could be placed on our cross.  This is what Paul is talking about when he mentions the hand writing document of decrees that are against us.  Some versions couch this in debt terminology.  That is okay, if we think of it as a moral debt.  Yet, in light of the experience of Jesus on the cross, it is probably better to see this as a document of the charges for which we have been found guilty.

As Christ is nailed to the cross, so too the accusations against him and us are nailed there too.  In Christ, our accusations and charges are nailed along with his.  The fact that Jesus would purposefully do this is a powerful act of love.  Our charges are stuck there on his cross forever, unable for any spiritual being to take them down and try to pin them against us again.  Jesus has cleared the way for us to approach the Father and come into His presence.  If God does this for us, then what spiritual being could stand against Him and us?

Satan is the origin of the concept of lawfare.  It has been his only weapon against humanity.  He has always used the law as a weapon against God and his human imagers.  Why didn’t God stop him from tricking Adam and Eve?  A deeper question would be this.  Why didn’t Adam and Eve (and you and I for that matter) remain faithful to the God who had only done us good?

In verse 15, most translations say that Jesus “disarmed the rulers and authorities.”  Of course, he was not disarming Herod and Caesar.  It is talking about Satan and his cohorts.  Yet, the word for disarmed is about more than simply taking a weapon from Satan.  These continual charges and accusations of Satan against humans have been taken by Jesus and publicly nailed to a cross.  The accusers are not only disarmed, but also disbarred.  They have nothing with which to approach heaven and accuse us, and they have lost access to make such accusations.  The power of this lawfare has been ended in Christ.

Satan has always played the cool lawyer.  He can always point to the action of others and present his own in their best light.  However, his actions with Jesus publicly demonstrate his true heart.  If given the chance, he would kill God.  His accusations have nothing to do with true righteousness.  He does not really desire social justice.  This is only a convenient placard that he uses to retain the color of law.  At the cross, Jesus made a public spectacle of just how wicked the devil is, and just how loving and gracious the Father is.  He triumphs not only over the devil’s plan, but over the devil’s argument.  He is our champion, and the devil is powerless to do anything about it.

This means that we have a choice.  Whose on the LORD’s side?  He can cover every single sin of ever single person that has ever lived on earth.  Yet, God is giving us a choice to walk away from the powers of this world, and to turn towards Jesus, who is the Messiah of God.  The character of both has been put on display once and for all.  The devil is a self-righteous, lawfare operating, spiritual being whose future is to be walled off from God’s good creation by the Lake of Fire for eternity.  Yet, Jesus is the one who took  your punishment upon himself so that you could be set free from your sins and live in God’s good creation forever.  If you haven’t yet, make the choice today to turn from your sins and turn towards the One who saves sinner!

Dangers 2 audio

A Tribute to the God Who Set Us Free

Exodus 1-14.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, July 6, 2025.

The title that I have chosen is a bit vague. 

As Americans, this is the Fourth of July weekend in which we celebrate our freedom from Great Britain, which God gave to us.  At the foundation of this freedom, we must always recognize the grace and help of God in this.

As Christians, we rejoice that Jesus has set us free from sin.

It is easy to say that we “want to be free!”  However, freedom always brings with it responsibility and duty.  We see this in the story of the Exodus.  The people of Israel had been pressed into slavery in Egypt, and yet one day, God showed up and set them free, leading them out of Egypt.  He did this through great acts of power.

Though this is real history, it is recorded in the Bible for a greater reason.  This story is key to understanding God’s purpose for humanity, and the redemption that we have in Jesus.  So, if you are asking yourself what God is doing today, you only need to look to this story to see that He is setting us free.

Leading up to and during the time of the War of Independence, Exodus 1-14 was quoted and preached quite often.  It is ironic that a people could draw such hope from this passage and, yet, balk at giving that same hope to others.  I’m talking about the slavery issue.

The newly formed States were divided over this issue of slavery.  The northern States were strongly opposed to it while the southern States were strongly in favor of it.  Of course, the States that were in the middle had some that were for and some against. 

After, the war, they were in a pinch.  From a moral standpoint, those strongly opposed to slavery felt they should refuse to allow the slave States into the union they were forming.  George Mason of Virginia said at this time, “As much as I value a union of all the States, I would not admit the southern States into the union unless they agreed to discontinuance of this disgraceful trade [i.e., slavery].”

He was an important voice and was respected by many.  Yet, pragmatism won the day.  Others believed that the British would eventually return, and if the States were not strongly allied, they might not be so lucky.

Of course, luck had nothing to do with it.  No, it was God who gave them (gave us) independence, freedom.

Many do not realize that the Article 1 Section 9 Clause 1 was a compromise between both opinions.  It essentially said that Congress could not pass a law regarding the slavery issue (and immigration of any sort) until 1808.  This essentially set a clock of twenty years.  In 1807, Congress passed a law that made trafficking of slaves into the union illegal as of January 1, 1808.  This wouldn’t stop the slavery that was already here, but it would squelch further importation of slaves.

Black communities celebrated this date for years.  The first black Anglican pastor in America, named Absolom Jones, preached from Exodus chapter three, calling his people to recognize that day as a day of thanksgiving for God’s grace.   In fact, verse 8 details how God tells Moses that He has “come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians.”  Pastor Jones then went on to declare that God had come down into Congress in their day in order to give them grace.

After the War between the States, the 13^th Amendment would make all slavery illegal in America.  At that point, the stopping of the importing of slaves into America became yesterday’s news.  Now, something even greater had been given to the people of America, both blacks and whites.

This idea of God coming down and setting people free is baked into us as a people; it is part of our cultural DNA.  Freedom is a big deal.  However, when you have never been physically in bondage, it is hard to understand the true benefits of your freedom.  You take much for granted and neglect to see the many ways you are bowing to slavery of different kinds.

The colonists testified that they had been reduced to bondage by their own people, King George and the British Parliament.  They had been enslaved under a system that was making money for the crown and the great trading companies of the day.  Yet, that is a lesser bondage than that of those who were actual slaves.

Even though troops and battles were involved, the victory was given by God for His purpose of teaching us the truth about freedom.  The challenge is this.  It is easy to be for “my freedom” in a particular way, but lose sight (be blind to) the need for freedom that others have.

Whether we are wanting free from a corrupt political system, literal slavery, or an oppressive economic system, we must understand that, though God is also concerned about these things, He is concerned about so much more than we tend to see.  The slavery of sin in all of our hearts is at the root of all the others kinds of slavery.

Today, we give this tribute to the God who sets us free!  He is the One who is fighting for complete freedom, not just the myopic freedom upon which we tend to fixate.

Humanity was made to glorify God through a fruitfulness that images Him (Exodus 1:7)

The people of Israel are described in this verse as being fruitful, increasing greatly, multiplying, becoming exceedingly mighty, and filling the land.  This terminology is descriptive of their experience.  However, it is using words that come directly from Genesis 1:28.  God tells Adam and Eve to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it.  This can be seen as a command or mandate. Yet, at a deeper level, it represents God’s desire and purpose for humanity.  We were created to express the glory of God by a life of fruitfulness on the earth.

We see this same desire and purpose reiterated to Noah following the flood in Genesis 9:1.  Though He had poured out great judgment upon humanity, His desire and purpose were not changed.  In fact, the judgment can be seen as a way of protecting that purpose from the great evil and corruption that had spread throughout all people.

This same theme is spoken to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  They are the chosen line through whom God’s promises to help humanity would be fulfilled.  Israel’s fruitfulness is a sign that God is faithfully keeping His promise to them, and to humanity.

This is a strong theme of Genesis and the Bible as a whole. Of course, this is not meant to be only a material and natural fruitfulness, i.e., population growth, crops, wealth, etc.  This is a fruitfulness that is a product of a spiritual relationship with God.  We are first spiritually fruitful in our hearts, families and communities, and this spreads out into these material and natural things.  We are intended to be a source of life in all of its connotations.

Here is a question we can ask ourselves.  Am I like a weed or thorn bush to others, or am I like a fruitful tree?  Am I imaging the destroying influence of the devil, or am I imaging the life-giving activity of God?

From the very beginning, the devil has attempted to stamp our this purpose within humanity.  However, God continues to help us against him.  The source of his despising of humanity is not completely explained, but it is real nonetheless.

This story of Israel’s fruitfulness is then connected to a Pharaoh who, much like the devil, despises and fears this.

This is a threat to tyrants (Exodus 1:8-14)

Israel had been only a blessing to Egypt.  Yet, the fruitfulness and freedom of those who are called by God is generally taken as a threat by the devil and those who are cooperating with or trapped within his systems.  Thus, powerful people who have sold out to immorality have actually given their services to the devil, whether they know it or not. 

We see Pharaoh in these passages pressing the free Israelites into slavery.  In that bondage, he uses them like cattle to labor for his great glory, and the glory of Egypt.  This is a signature of tyrants.  They harness the labor of the people for their own glory, whether that is Egypt, Babylon, Rome, London, or Washington D.C.  There is a long history and a well crafted art of subjugating a free people.   Some ways involve brute force.  However, there are far more insidious ways that essentially seduce a people into shackling themselves.  Once they realize that they are in slavery, it will be too late to back out of the trap.

This is what the colonists of the 18^th century came to understand.  George III and the British Parliament took advantage of their great distance from their brothers in Britain and supplanted their English freedoms.  All of this was done for plunder and great gain for the crown and elite of Britain.  The colonists were not pressed into abject, literal slavery.  However, they were in slavery to a system that was using them for its own gain at the expense of their freedoms.

The Great Awakening of the American Colonies was a time of spiritual renewal in the 1730s to the 1740s.  This movement stirred up a recognition of God’s purpose in governments and how this was being abused.  The preaching that began in this period and continued up to the War of Independence was not about rebellion and war.  It was about the purpose of God for His people and for human governments.  It was a recognition that even kings are accountable to God and the people they are supposed to serve.

Whenever a people are under bondage, it can feel hopeless and futile.  In fact, a subjugated people will often self-monitor themselves out of fear of being found out.  They can rat out their brother and collaborate with the tyranny in order to protect themselves.

Yet, there is one more aspect to this story that we need to remember.  Why was Israel in Egypt in the first place?  Why did they leave Canaan, the land promised to them?  We could say that it was all about a famine that required them to go to Egypt for food.  However, that famine was long gone.  If we go back further, we know that Egypt had food only because Joseph their brother was there and was used of God to save it.  Why was Joseph there?  At the root of this story, we find the sin of the patriarchs of Israel.

God is concerned about our slavery, but He is more concerned about our sins that keep pulling us into bondage.  God is in the business of helping us to face our sins, not because He delights in rubbing our noses into it, but because it is a place where our flesh is most able to hear His rebukes and turn to Him for help.

Let’s read further.

God hears the cry of those in bondage and responds (Exodus 2:23-25; 3:7-8; 3:19-20)

In chapter 2, we find that God is responding to the cries of Israel under their bondage.  We can feel forgotten during times of bondage.  However, God has not forgotten us.  Notice the verbs that God uses in that first passage: God heard, remembered, saw, took notice.  Throughout these passages, He also says, “I am aware…I have come down to deliver them…I will stretch out My Hand…with all my miracles.”  They may have felt forsaken, but God had not forsaken them.  He had a perfect time of deliverance planned all along.

We can say that God began to help them when Moses came out of the wilderness, but it is clear that God was already moving on Israel’s behalf at his birth.  We often think that God is not doing anything because we don’t see anything that looks like God in our life.  However, the things that God does are often unrecognized until after the fact, and that is if we trust Him enough to cooperate with His salvation.

What we have here is a template of God’s heart and plan for us, for humanity.  This world is full of slavery systems that have been harnessed by the devil to subjugate us.  However, in Christ, we have a calling that he cannot destroy, and we serve a God that he cannot resist.

God showed up and mightily saved Israel from Egypt, but the next forty years revealed that Egypt wasn’t their true problem.  They were having trouble trusting God, and it continued to lead them into discipline and even judgment.  Thus, the redemption from Egypt became a picture of what God would need to do for His people when Messiah came.  The prophetic books are full of allusions back to Exodus while pointing forward to the Messiah who was coming.  In the first century, Israel was not just in bondage to Rome.  They were also in bondage to their own religious leaders as a people and their own sins as individuals.  Jesus went to war against their greater enemy (sin within us) and called his followers to extend an offer of grace to the Romans, et. al.

The colonists of the 18^th century found themselves under a similar tyranny.  Yet, they weren’t as good at seeing the tyranny that they were doing.  Don’t get me wrong.  Many abolitionists spoke out against the evils of slavery during this period, but their voices were not the ones that won the day, expediency did.

I believe that the War between the States was God’s judgment against the North and the South for not giving to the African slaves what God desired for them.  God won’t force us to do His will, but He will hold us accountable to ignoring it and pushing it off to a later date.  Yet, He is also faithful to open up doors of repentance even in the midst of our bondage.  He may let us circle for forty years in the desert, but He will always bring us back around to the greatest act of faith, repenting of our willfulness and trusting Him.  It is these hard years of bondage that soften our hearts to hear the message of repentance.

I want to end by looking at two New Testament verses.

“It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.”  Galatians 5:1 (NASB).   This first verse is particularly talking about the freedom Christians have in regard to the symbolic aspects of the Law.  It can be called a religious freedom, but it is deeper than that.  It really is a spiritual freedom given to us by God through Jesus.

“[T]he creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.”  Romans 8:21 (NASB).This verse is talking about a freedom that is cosmic, universal.  It is not just spiritual, but a freedom for all of the creation that has come under the effects of the curse of Genesis 3.  Though God placed the creation under a curse, it was always His purpose to bring it to a day of removing the Curse.  All of human history between Genesis 3 and Revelation 19 has been us circling in the wilderness.  Yet, God was being faithful to teach us all along so that we can be ready, like Joshua and Caleb, to enter into the Promise that He has secured for us through Jesus the Messiah.

We must unravel the layers of bondage and face our own sin

We can imagine a spectrum that goes from spiritual bondage on the left to physical bondage on the right.  Our tendency is to point to the things on the right and complain that God is not doing anything about them.  However, it is the bondage on the left of this spectrum that God is most concerned about because it is at the heart of why we end up on the right side of the spectrum.  The moral, social, economic, political, and global problems of our world are not because of a particular system, nor is it because of a certain race of people.  It is always about the heart of people who are trapped by their sins and unwillingness to surrender to God.  Thus, we become tools of the true enemy (the devil and his cohorts) instead of becoming fruitful imagers of God.

God could destroy the Romans, (insert most feared nation here), but would it “fix” everything for Israel or for us?  Israel had the same problems as the Romans who had the same problems as the Americans and any other nation.  We need God’s help, and He has given it in Jesus.

Christians cannot be satisfied just to work for spiritual freedom in their life and the lives of others.  We must advocate against and proclaim the truth about the systems of bondage that we have created in our world.  However, we cannot fix systems while ignoring the greater problem beneath.  Thus, in the name of humanity, we will crush individuals.  Is this righteous?

This is a signature of those who hate freedom.  They use the guise of helping a particular group as a moral cloak while binding everyone (the group included) under a system that entraps them through their own sins.

Jesus has shown us the strategy.  First, become a person who is free from sin by dying to yourself and living for him.  Then, work to bring that freedom to others.  As we do that, God works and supplies help for us to demolish systems of bondage in our own heart, family, town, State, Republic, even world.  It is ours to trust Him and be faithful to the moments when He comes down to deliver.

Yes, in facing our own sin, we can feel discouraged because we will never be perfect enough.  However, God’s plan has taken this into account.  Through death and resurrection, God will perfect us into beings who are not sinful by nature.  Even now, we can live as spiritually fruitful trees in this world.  We can image the life-giving source of God Himself to our world.

So, what did fruitfulness and multiplying look like for Jesus?  “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it produces much grain.”  John 12:24.  Dying to what I can do in the flesh will help me to come alive to what the Spirit of God wants to do through me.  We serve a God who sets people free!  When we whine to God about fixing the government or the world, He responds by saying, “Let’s talk about you first.”  Don’t be threatened by this.  God loves you and wants to use you to help the world around you!

Tribute to God audio

The Battle of the Mind- 4

Matthew 24; Acts 20:28-31; 2 Thessalonians 2:3-12.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, June 29, 2025.

All humans have to deal with a mental battle, but Christians have an understanding and help that others do not.  This is made available to us through Jesus and was God’s intention all along.  Humans were never designed to live life disconnected from their creator.

One of the biggest parts of this battle is the mental battle of deception.  Like Pinocchio being deceived into going to Pleasure Island, the battle is between what is presented as truth versus what actually is the truth.  Thus, the wooden puppet is promised freedom, but Pleasure Island is taking him to a life of slavery in a salt mine, or something similar.

Yet, lies by their very nature dress themselves up as truth.  This is the rub.

We are going to look at several passages in which we are warned as followers of Jesus against deception.  In so doing, we are immunizing our minds against the allure of the lies de jour.

Let’s first hear our Lord Jesus warn us in Matthew 24.

Be watchful against deception (v. 3-5)

Jesus and His disciples had been in Jerusalem.  The rural Galileans were impressed with the temple buildings.  They were in awe and remarked about it to Jesus.  Of course, they were shocked by the response of Jesus.  “I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”  Essentially, the place was going to be demolished.

Later, at the Mount of Olives, they pressed the issue further.  When will this happen?  They also asked what would be the sign of the end of the age and the return of Jesus.  It seems apparent that they do not understand that these three areas are not necessary simultaneous.  Of course, this is not my point today.

Notice that the first thing Jesus does is to warn them against deception (vs. 4).  This word calls for us to look, to watch out, to be vigilant.  “Many will come in my name saying, ‘I am the Christ.’”  We see that part of the power of the deception will be centered on the fact that Jesus has gone away and has promised to come back.

Christians have an expectation for Jesus to come back.  In this case, we have the New Testament (and the Old Testament) to help us know what Jesus should be like.  We are hungry for him to come back, but we can know what he is like.  This is better than being hungry for something, someone, without having a concrete idea of what they will be like.  This second situation sets people up for deception.

In the first century, the religious leaders did not recognize Jesus for who he was.  God gave Israel just under 40 years to make up their mind about Jesus, and then, He sent the Romans to destroy the temple (70 AD).  Later, in 135 AD, a man named Simon bar Kochba was promoted as the messiah by a respected rabbi.  Yet, Simon proved not to be Messiah.  The Romans came and destroyed their uprising as well as Jerusalem again.  This does connect to what Jesus was saying.  Here was a false christ, false messiah, of the ilk that Jesus warned about.  However, Jews who do not believe in Jesus are not the only ones who have had false Christs.  Among Christians, there have been many through the years who proclaimed themselves as being Jesus, the Christ, or even finishing what Jesus didn’t finish.  Regardless, Jesus warns that there would be great deception around this area of the coming of Messiah.

(V. 11-14)  In verse 11, Jesus warns again of deception, but this time, he warns that false prophets will come and deceive many.  The false prophets won’t claim to be messiah, but they will claim to speak on behalf of God.  It is more common for people to claim to be a prophet than it is to be the Christ.  Yet, there is one thing that is the same about them all.  They don’t come claiming to be false.  They all claim to be the real thing.

So, how can we know if someone is false or true?  This would be a scary thing for new believers.  Can you imagine someone who was saved while watching an evangelistic TV program.  Such a person isn’t connected to a body of mature believers in Jesus.  Yet, Jesus has warned them in this passage against deception.  They still need to connect with a body of believers and start learning the truth.  This is a dangerous situation.  When we learn to feed upon the Word of Christ, the false will stick out all the more.

Verse 13 tells us that those who endure to the end will be saved.  The word for endure here has the idea of staying underneath of something heavy, sticking in there when it is difficult.  A lie always comes in opposition to the truth.  It doesn’t call itself a lie, but it is opposed to the truth.  So, if you have been following Jesus, you will have some measure of understanding of the truth.  Yet, the lie comes along like the serpent in the Garden of Eden.  “Did God really say…Did Jesus really say….?”  It twists and contradicts what our Lord has said.  This builds a tension between what I thought was right and what is now being offered as that which is right.  That heaviness is tough to remain under.  Many people fall to temptation because they grow weary of holding up under such pressure.

It tells us in verse 11 that many will be deceived.  These then become part and parcel in pressuring those who are not deceived to follow them.  We are not told that this will be easy to face, but we are told to endure the difficulty until the end.  It may feel easier to cast off restraint, but it leads to heavy destruction.

This is the message of Pinocchio in regards to Pleasure Island.  It looks like freedom at first when we cast off restraint, but in the end, we will never be more enslaved than when we go that route.  May God help us to have stick-to-it-iveness in this matter of the truth.

(V. 23-27)  These verses are essentially telling us that the coming of Jesus will be obvious.  No one will have to tell you that he has come back.  Of course, this is different than his first coming.

Now, not all false christs do great signs and wonders.  Many simply employ the art of manipulating others.  Yet, verse 24 tells us that some will do powerful signs and wonders in order to deceive.

This is similar to the opposition of the Egyptian priests against Moses.  They replicated some of the miracles that God was doing through Moses.  Their “miracles” were not as great (the serpent of Moses ate the serpents of the priests), they were not able to reverse or fix the plagues God brought through Moses, and they eventually could not continue doing what Moses was doing.  Their dark arts could only go so far.

In Matthew 24, Jesus warns that people will try and talk you into going with them to a place in the desert, or a room in a building.  “We found the Christ!  Come follow us and see!”  This may sound good, but Jesus is warning us that deception will be great, especially in the last days.  Jesus will not come back and hang out in the desert waiting for people to come to him.  He will not come into town and rent a convention center so people can come and see him.

To help us understand, Jesus uses a metaphor of lightning.  When lightning strikes across the sky, no one has to tell you that it just happened, not to mention the resultant thunder.  It is obvious.  Similarly, the coming of Jesus will be just that kind of event.  These deceivers try to make the coming of Christ something less than it is going to be.  Scripture says that Jesus will come riding the clouds of heaven in great majesty.  We may not know what that will exactly look like, but the charlatans will not be able to duplicate it.

So, this is what Jesus had to say about our need to be careful.  Now, let’s look at what the Apostle Paul had to say about it.

(Acts 20:28-31)  Paul is speaking to the elders of the church of Ephesus.  He knows that he will not have another chance to speak to them so he gives his final encouragements and warnings to them.  Though Paul does not use the terms deceive or deception, he does describe it: “men will rise up speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves.”  Perverse things are things that have been twisted.  Like a twisted driveline, to twist the truth is to make it a lie and neutralize any good benefits it could have given.  Paul warns against men who pervert the truth and try to draw disciples away from the Truth and from Jesus who is the Truth.

Paul, therefore, warns them to watch!  This is a similar word to the one used by Jesus, but it adds the idea of bringing something close for an inspection.  We need to watch ourselves by slowing down, taking time to pray, and asking the Holy Spirit to give us wisdom.  We need to be led by the Holy Spirit.

Paul also tells these elders to watch over the flock (believers) in their church.  These shepherds are not to rule over the flock, but to help them not fall into deception.

The ego of man draws many people off course.  Whether a person began following the truth, or they were always a wolf, it is tragic when they get off course.  Of course, you don’t have to be a shepherd to watch out for one another as brothers and sisters.

I want to look at one more passage to finish up this warning about deception in our days.

The truth immunizes us to the lie (2 Thessalonians 2:1-4)

Something was going on in the church at Thessalonica in Greece.  People were being told that they had missed the Second Coming of Jesus.  Paul even mentions the idea that someone may present a letter as if it was from him (a fake letter).  These other people have disturbed the church, and Paul is reminding them of the truth.

The Day of Christ (vs. 2) is talking about the Day of the Lord that we find in the Old Testament.  It is a time when God judges all of the nations through Jesus, the Christ.  It is not just a 24-hour period.  Rather, it is a brief period and quick, but more than one day.

This day of judgment will be bad for the wicked, but it will be good for those who are caught up in wickedness.  It is similar to a test time in school.  Everyone will take the test, but not everyone will pass.

Paul reminds the Thessalonians that a great falling away must happen first.  This is an apostasy, falling away, from the Truth of Jesus and the faith once and for all handed down to the saints by his apostles.

When I think about the condition of the Church today, I don’t think the problem is in the disagreements over tangential things, and that we have made separate denominations.  I think the real problem is that, more and more, we have churches, pastors, who are promoting something that is clearly contradictory to the commands of Christ and his apostles.  They twist and pervert the Scriptures to their own ends.

This is the warning.  A great falling away from the truth is not just coming, but is happening even as I write this.

Listen, if you are looking for a Bible teacher who promotes what you want to do, then you will find them online.  Someone somewhere is teaching every apostasy that you can imagine.  Guard your heart.

Apostasy has always been with us from the first century to today.  However, it is growing worse.  We must avoid being caught up in the spirit of this age because a “Great” falling away is beginning to happen.

The truth is intended to immunize us to the lies.  I thought about using the word antidote, which is okay.  However, an antidote is given after someone is bitten.  Whereas, immunizations are given before a virus is caught.  Don’t wait for the serpent to bite you with lies.  Pull out your Bible and look for the Truth that will protect you from the toxins of deception.  Read it, pray about it, and live it out!  This is how we steel ourselves against deception.

Yet, Paul reveals that an arch-enemy will be revealed at some point who is against all that is worshiped as God.  This ultimate enemy of Christ is called “The Man of Sin,” and “The Son of Perdition.”  The man of sin is self explanatory, but perdition is destruction.  This means that his nature is that of a destroyer and his destiny is destruction.  To follow him is to follow the path of destruction.  He is not called the Antichrist in this passage, but it does say that he will oppose (anti) and exalt himself against all that is worshiped as God.  In fact, he sits in the temple of God declaring himself to be God.  Could we fall for something like this in the modern age?  Let’s read on.

(V. 5-12)  In verse 8, we are given another title for this man, “The Lawless One.”  This doesn’t mean that he loves to drive 120 on the freeway when the speed limit is 70.  We can set up laws that are against God’s revealed will.  Thus, we would be a lawless society all while pretending to be law-abiding.  However, we only follow the laws of our own making.  This man will be a law unto himself, but extremely lawless towards God.

This passage is important for a greater reason than learning about the Antichrist.  Notice the relationship between truth and lies in it.  The coming forth, revealing, of this man is being restrained.  The mystery of lawlessness has always been working. Yet, the schemes of the devil have a certain level of mystery to them.  People often help his purposes, whether knowingly or unknowingly.  Yet, God has been restraining it.  This man would have come forward centuries ago, but God has not let it happen.  Think of that?  We cannot know how much evil God has kept from happening on our planet.

The power of this evil man will wow people (v. 9-10).  They will quickly move away from all the other religious “solutions” out there, including true Christianity.  They will embrace this deceiver.  But, what is he pushing?  He is definitely not promoting Jesus.  He is promoting himself..

Thus, verse 9 tells us that he will do powerful signs and lying wonders.  These demonstrations of power will lead people to follow him.  They will be deceived.

Why will they fall for it?  Verse 10 tells us that it is because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.  Notice, the powerful miracles will help, but they are not the actual reason people fall for deception.  It doesn’t even say they will be deceived because they didn’t have the truth.  It says they did not receive the love of the truth.  In the Gospel of Jesus Christ, God is giving a love of the truth to us, not just the truth.  Even right now, God is trying to give each one of us a love of the truth, if we will have it.  Those who love the truth (not just know it) will see this guy and know instantly that he is not even close to Jesus.  He is a lie, and a liar.

It is important that we don’t just read our Bible to gain information.  We need to ask God to change our heart so that we come to love it.  In fact, as I have said above, Jesus is the truth.  The Bible itself is just a facsimile of Him who is Truth, Jesus.  It reveals him to us.  May God help us to fall in love with the character and work of Jesus.  May God help us to fall in love with the way that he tells us the truth, “You are a sinner in need of salvation,” and yet also has loved us so much that he paid the price for our redemption.

Those who do not receive a love of the truth by the grace of God’s Holy Spirit will be hungry for a savior, but they have been refusing what God  has been trying to give them.  It is dangerous to be hungry for anything but what is good for you to eat.  The world will be hungry for anything, but Jesus.

Don’t set yourself up for deception.  Ask God to help you to internalize the truth of the Bible and to be able to break down the harder things that God reveals in it.

In the end, the man of sin will reveal who actually loves Jesus.  Just as Christ was a litmus test for his generation, so the Antichrist will also.  God will send a great delusion in order to expose the hearts of many.  It won’t just be lost people following him that day.  Many who claimed to be Christians will do so as well.  May God help us to warn the lost, but may we also protect ourselves by loving the truth.

Deception audio