Classic Friday: The Fall and Demons

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

God’s Judgment, False Teachers, and the Need for Biblical Discernment

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, and in real time it is Saturday, April 10th. I�m trying to get some of the volume levels here adjusted. We always start off the show by saying, �These are the announcements.

So, no announcements today. Let�s just get right into the text. I�ve been talking quite a bit about God�s judgment these days. Of course, people think that God is, you know, kind of George Burns, �Oh God, big guy in the sky, God�s my co-pilot, God is only love, He�s never going to judge, He hasn�t been judged in a long time, I can get away with it, there�s no real judgment, there�s no real second coming.

I think a lot of people think that way. And of course, we want to make sure we think biblically, and that�s what this show is all about. I try to talk biblically, I try to talk, I don�t know, kind of bluntly.

I think I�m nicer than I used to be. And what I like to do is I like to, what is going on here with my notes? That is odd. I have some notes here for No Compromise Radio, and it seems like in my notes that I don�t have my little scribbles there that I�ve underlined on my iPad.

But that�s okay, we�ll just, we never wing it on No Compromise Radio, do we? Or do we wing it? I think maybe we do. A lot of crazy stuff going on in the world of evangelicalism, there�s always something to talk about.

I guess the one thing that I just noticed before I get more into false teachers is the Dallas Seminary president, Mark Yarborough, started off, I think, their chapel services for the year, for the academic year, or maybe it was just something new, it was an MLK chapel, Martin Luther King chapel, which is always fascinating to me.

Let�s have a chapel for a Christian school for someone who, I�m not saying Martin Luther King Jr. didn�t do anything good, that�s not my point, but did he deny the deity of Jesus? Did he deny the literal second coming?

Was he born again? Do we want to celebrate men who say they�re pastors but deny cardinal truth of the Christian faith? I guess if you want to praise him for what he did for racial issues, well, then that�s your prerogative, but I�m not going to inject him into pulpits and chapels and all that other stuff.

Well, anyway, it was the whole woke thing that Yarborough, personally and institutionally and systemically, racist and racism and everything else, and I�m thinking, why would I want to go to that school?

If they�re still dealing with that, why would I want to go to a school where there are racists from the top down, and these dupes of Christians and leaders just follow the lead of the world in many ways, shapes, and forms, and I think it�s sad.

On the other side, Tommy Nelson, who�s the pastor of Denton Bible Church, he�s got a conference coming up on woke theology, and he calls it the issue of the day in terms of attack on the gospel, and Tommy Nelson is a big Dallas Seminary supporter, sends men there, has graduated from there, and I would love Tommy Nelson, if you listen to No Compromise Radio Ministry, would you please call the president of Dallas Seminary, Mark Yarborough, and tell him to get back to teaching the Bible and leaving the woke stuff to the woke?

That�s my little two cents. The desire for positive, uplifting, kind of K-love theology is understandable, because deep down, I think we all would prefer nice things, kind things, wonderful things, merciful things, things that are, you know, not the opposite.

Maybe there�s a little bit of a fighter in some of us, and we�re pugnacious or we like controversy and we try to sniff it out, and it�s kind of a discernment ministry, discernment blog kind of attitude.

I guess that is existing, too, in evangelicalism. Yet when I look at the New Testament, according to one commentary that I read, 22 out of the 27 books in the New Testament talk about and address the idea of false teachers.

Of course, we don�t really like to think about it, because I�d like to think there�s no false teachers. I mean, that�ll be one of the great things about heaven, is there�ll be no false teachers in heaven.

No people saying, �Well, you know what? Jesus is a great creature, but he is the firstborn. God made him first, and then through Jesus, everything else was made, and that Jesus is not eternally begotten, he�s not the eternal son, he�s not one in essence with God.

I would like it if there is just truth being taught, but on earth, since the most important thing is the Lord Jesus and his words and his work and his purposes, of course Satan is going to attack with false Christs, false prophets, false teachers, false ideologies, false thoughts driven by worldly systems through men called in 1 Timothy 4 hypocritical lie speakers.

Peter’s Encouragement in 2 Peter 1: God Has Pardoned, Sanctified, and Spoken

And what Peter does to try to encourage the saints is what Peter says is basically, �You�re safe. God has pardoned you verses 1 and 2 of chapter 1. �You�re safe. God has given you the power in terms of sanctification, his sanctifying power and promises verses 3 and 4.

So in light of that, don�t do what the false teachers do, and that is live licentious, antinomian lives. You would like to live a life commensurate with your calling, a holy life, an obedient life, a righteous life, not to earn salvation, but because you are saved, and that�s verses 5 through 11.

Peter says, �This is important. I�m on my deathbed, as it were. My exodus is soon and therefore verses 12 through 15. He says, �This is my swan song, and listen. These are important words. Make sure you listen to our words, the words from the prophets in the Old Testament, including the apostolic words, because they are from God, moved by God these men were, unlike these false teachers.

And that�s how the end of the chapter concludes. Then you go to chapter 2, and it�s with the false teachers. And these false teachers, they were back in the day, in Israel�s day, among the people of Israel, and they�re among the people of God, too.

That�s what they do. They infiltrate. They covertly sneak in behind the scenes, and the Lord wants us to know, through Peter, that the Lord has a good track record of judging sin and rescuing the godly.

Because what�s happening? I mean, am I going to get stuck in the middle of all this? Am I going to just get swept away in the judgment of God? I mean, angels sinned. Those in Noah�s day sinned. Those in Sodom and Gomorrah sinned, and there was a judgment.

It was swift, ferocious, and it was a judgment that I don�t want any part of. Am I going to make it out of here alive? And really, if you look at chapter 2, maybe the interpretive key of chapter 2 of 2 Peter is found in verse 9.

�Then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment. So, He knows how to do two things. He knows how to punish, and He knows how to rescue.

And of course, for all of us, as Christians, we should have been punished, but it was the mercy and grace of God and the love of God that He, instead of sparing the Son, which He should have because the Son was not a rebel, not ungodly, not lawless.

He was quite the opposite. But we are spared because the Lord Jesus was not spared, and that�s Romans 8, verse 32. So when we come to this, before we have the pointing fingers, look at all these people.

It�s them and us. Well, we were them, and of course, by the grace of God, now we are us, and therefore we have to be very careful. But the point of 2 Peter is, God�s going to judge these people. You think His judgment is asleep, chapter 2, verse 3, but it�s not asleep.

He�s going to judge, and in the middle of the judgment, He�s going to rescue. So God judges, and He rescues, and He knows how to do it. That�s the fun thing about this chapter, where it says, �Then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly.

You�re like, well, how is He going to do that? And think about all the different godly in all the different places and all the different circumstances with all the different governments and dictators and ruthless barbarians and evil world system and enemies of the state and other things.

It�s like, hey, how am I going to make it out? Lord knows how. I mean, I could just parse it this way. The Lord, sovereign. The Lord knows. He�s the sovereign, omniscient one, and the Lord knows how. He�s got it figured out what to do.

And what Peter does is he�s got some minor premises. If God didn�t spare, if God didn�t spare, if God didn�t spare, then what�s going to happen? Well, there�s going to be judgment, and then there�s also going to be rescue for the godly.

The Fall of Angels, Tartarus, and the Judgment of False Teachers

This first section here in chapter 2, verse 4, has this whole angel deal. And people talk a lot about these angels and how did these angels sin. This is really, I mean, we�re stepping into water here that�s kind of crazy.

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment, then He�s going to go on to another minor premise.

But He didn�t spare those who sinned, cast them into hell. Who are those angels that sinned, and what is their sin? That�s the question that people want answered. And there�s a variety of ways to go about it, but I think what we have to do is we have to be very careful on how we deal with this issue.

There are options. Before much of the history of the world, you have angels, and one-third of them disobeyed and they fell. Are they talking about that? Are they talking about the pre-Adam fall of angels?

There�s another option. What about these sons of God in chapter 6? Did these angels somehow inhabit human bodies, have sexual relations with women, creating some giant hybrid of an unredeemable commingling of angel nature and human nature?

What do we do with that? Even when I said that out loud, could that be possible? That�s amazing to kind of think about that. How does that work? Can angels do that very thing? When you talk about these things, you begin to say, �I need some help, and I need some daily affirmation because it�s very difficult to talk about it.

I declare, it�s not too late to accomplish everything God put in your heart. You have not missed your window of opportunity. God has moments of favor in your future. Woo! Moments of favor.

I couldn�t play any more of that because of copywriting laws. I can only play the first little bit of the daily affirmation. I don�t think Peter�s point is to tell us the exact sin or even really who, being specific, because I think the readers would know right away.

Either one of those views, it�s fine by me. The point is, God judges angels who sinned. That�s the point. What�s God�s track record? Well, when angels sin, and you false teachers, you think you�re pretty big.

You think you�re pretty preeminent. You think you�re pretty top dog, but you�re not angels. By the way, if God judges angels, He�s going to judge the false teachers. That is the point. Before you go off on a 14-part series on the Nephilim and cohabitation of angels with women and hybrid race of Nephilim and other kind of giants and other things, then I want you to just get the main point as the main point.

If you like to study it, that�s wonderful and fine and nice, but the context is something that should drive us, the main point being the main point. Calvin was smart when he said,. �But as Peter mentions here, but briefly, the fall of angels, and he has not named the time and the manner and other circumstances, it behooves us soberly to speak on the subject.

Most men are curious and make no end of inquiries on these things, but since God in Scripture has only sparingly touched on them, and as it were, by the way, He thus reminds us that we ought to be satisfied with this small knowledge.

And indeed, they who curiously inquire do not regard edification, but seek to feed their souls with vain speculations. �What is useful to us Calvin said, �God made known, that is, that the devils were at first created, that they might serve and obey God, and they through their own fault they apostatized, and that through their own fault, because they would not submit to the authority of God, and that thus the wickedness found in them was accidental and not from nature, so that it could not be ascribed to God.

So what Adam, what Calvin is saying is, just want to be kind of careful as we tread into this and get too far afloat trying to speculate what was going on. These angels, it says, they were cast into hell.

And that word is Tartarus, and that word Tartarus was a kind of a hell-like place of punishment where spirits would go in Greek mythology, and here Paul, or Peter rather, quotes it for his good, and for, not for his good, but he uses it for good in this kind of idea of if they're cast into chains of darkness, reserved for judgment, in this place called Tartarus.

Tartarus isn't found elsewhere in the Bible. If you do look at Jude, you see some angelic rebellion there. Essentially what the writer is saying is, the angels sinned, they're going to be judged, they're in a temporary place of judgment now, but they'll be the ultimate judgment.

That's exactly what he's saying. Revelation 20, and they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints in the beloved city. But fire came down from heaven and consumed them, and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

That's the ultimate. Right now they're being tormented and judged, but that's not the ultimate. Matthew 25, Jesus said, then he will say to those on his left, depart from me, you cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

Whether this is the pre-Adam fall angels that fell, or this is the Genesis 6, 1 -4 sons of God who are either powerful men, in one way to interpret it, or in this particular case, cohabitating with humans, creating some kind of cross pollinated species, they're going to be judged.

Josephus said, these men, the offspring of the fallen angels, did what resembled the acts of those whom Grecians call giants. So you can study that. It is fascinating. It is interesting, but the fallen angels, they're going to be judged and they're going to have eternal judgment.

And so he uses this story, does Peter, because the people that he's writing to obviously know this. They know which one of those two views is the right view. And if you think about it this way, I don't care how powerful you are, what kind of rank you have, what kind of quantity or quality you have of angelic being, soldier, warrior, preeminence, rank, number, file, you can't withstand the judgment of God.

He's going to judge. And if God even judges angels, you think he's not going to judge false teachers? He's not going to spare false teachers. And he's not going to spare, if you're an unbeliever listening today, he's not going to spare you.

The only hope you have is if you run to the Lord Jesus, and Romans 8 is clear, using the same kind of language. Can you imagine when you read Romans 8, how encouraging it is, how uplifting it is, what kind of language Paul uses in Romans 8 that just inspires praise.

What should we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him give us graciously all things? And therefore, you think about the judgment of God.

If somehow you're listening today and you're not a believer, you're not going to be spared either. You may think like when you were a kid that you'd never die because if the elevator goes, you jump before it lands, it hits.

If you fall out of a plane, you have all these ways to try to save yourself and circumvent death, you're not going to make it out alive. If angels are going to be judged, you think you're going to get out of it?

No possible way. There's an exhortation here for believers to be encouraged that the judgment will fall on false teachers and that we don't have to worry about that. And the language here of pits or chains, depending on how you translate it, the idea is incarcerated, reserved for gloomy judgment and confined because of their sin against the God of the universe.

God judges. Future judgments to angels is a fact. And so you have to be very careful as you work through this. And then Peter gives another one. And this one's a little bit easier. This is with Noah and the seven people that made it into the ark while everyone else, including children, women, older people drowned in the judgment water of God.

God has a track record of judging false teachers. He judged the angels and he judges all those back in the flood except those eight total people. If he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness with seven and others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly and that interesting here, it says he didn't spare the world, but he preserved Noah and Noah was a herald of righteousness.

What does that mean? Well, there's two ways to look at it. And I think both are true. There was a message of a sermon building the boat, right? One man said, Noah's work then was a kind of sermon. Every tree that fell in the forest was designed to be part of that ark that was constructed.

And every time one of the boys yelled timber, every time that happened, a message was given. Every time an ax stroke was swung, a message was given. Every time a plank was laid on the deck of the ark, a message was given.

Every time a hammer hit the nail, there was a message that was given. I mean, can you imagine people just laughing and scorning and mocking Noah? What is he doing? But I'm sure that had people ask questions and I'm sure he answered the question.

And while Genesis doesn't say he was preaching with his mouth, with his words, here it says in second Peter that he was a herald of righteousness. Heralds mean herald. And he is giving people the warning.

He's using his mouth to preach. He is trying to tell people, you better be careful because there's judgment day coming. He was a preacher of righteousness. And I'm sure he pleaded with them. I'm sure he proclaimed the truth to them.

And false teachers, they bring destruction upon themselves for teaching the wrong thing. And if you think God's judgment is asleep, just think back to the day of the flood. The worldwide, the Greek here in second Peter is where we get our word, cataclysm.

It is a cataclysmic flood. But Peter doesn't just say they're all going to be damned. He also says these aid are being preserved. God protects those. And so the context would be you are going to be protected, preserved as you say no to false teachers, as you resist false teachers.

Will you get caught up in the judgment that they receive? I mean, after all, you positionally, while perfect in practice, you still sin. So what about that? Or if you're tempted to believe some of these things, God is going to preserve you.

God is going to protect you. He can be trusted. And while you're thinking there's so many things that were so crazy in this world, am I going to make it out alive? Of course. You've been given a righteousness.

You've been given faith. You've been given promises. You've been given power, chapter one. You're going to make it. And even though there's lots of false teachers, they're all going to get it. Just like there are lots of people in the flood and they all got it.

And by the way, Noah was not better than any of them. He found grace. That is, God graced him. Noah was just like everybody else. The only difference is God graced Noah, his wife, his three boys, and their three wives.

Pastoral Exhortation, Ministry Updates, and Closing Prayer

Will God judge false teachers? Does God judge sin? Does God have a track record? Well, we know the answer is obvious. My name is Mike Habenroth. This is No Compromise Radio Ministry. If you've got a question or comment or suggestion, you can always write me.

I try to do three or four new shows a week now for Fred Butler and his ilk. You can listen to my brother, Pat Habenroth, on The Pactom. My friend Matthew Johnston also has got a show called The Pactom, but I think there's going to be some lawsuits because there's already an original pactom that my brother has, and so I don't know how that's all going to work out.

And maybe we'll, when I'm on that other pactom. I haven't been on the first pactom nor the second, but I might be on both, and we're going to go to Israel, Lord willing, 2022, February 23rd. Please email me for information, and even if you live in Newark or you live in London, you can meet us over there.

We'd love to have you. Will God judge sin? The answer is yes. So we can be careful. We don't have to run around exacting vengeance on false teachers. That's the Lord. We want to expose them. We want to teach sound doctrine and refute those that contradict, and we want to drive out the wolves and protect the sheep.

That's all part of being a pastor, and that's all part of No Compromise Radio ministry. Thanks for listening.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's Word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.