1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:17,680 As he concludes this second of his letters, the apostle Peter says regarding Paul that 2 00:00:17,680 --> 00:00:27,620 in all his letters, speaking in them of things in which are some things hard to understand, 3 00:00:27,620 --> 00:00:32,000 Peter could well have applied those same words to himself because he had some things that 4 00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:37,040 were rather hard to understand in his own writings. 5 00:00:37,040 --> 00:00:44,040 The context of the passage we're going to look at tonight will help us as we examine 6 00:00:44,040 --> 00:00:49,800 the meaning of the spirits who are in prison. 7 00:00:49,800 --> 00:00:57,440 It is Peter who writes about these spirits in the first letter, in the third chapter, 8 00:00:57,440 --> 00:01:02,000 and verse 19. 9 00:01:02,000 --> 00:01:09,480 In order for us to look at the phrase in question, it would be good for us to back up to verse 10 00:01:09,480 --> 00:01:13,720 18 and read more fully what the context is. 11 00:01:13,720 --> 00:01:23,560 First Peter 3, 18, For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, 12 00:01:23,560 --> 00:01:31,480 in order that he might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive 13 00:01:31,480 --> 00:01:42,280 in the Spirit, in which also he went and made proclamation to the Spirit now in prison, 14 00:01:42,280 --> 00:01:48,800 who once were disobedient when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during 15 00:01:48,800 --> 00:01:55,360 the construction of the ark in which a few, that is eight persons, were brought safely 16 00:01:55,360 --> 00:01:58,560 through the water. 17 00:01:58,560 --> 00:02:04,560 The fuller context of the passage we have read deals with the matter of suffering. 18 00:02:04,560 --> 00:02:10,860 Peter's writing to suffering believers, attempting to encourage us by reminding us that Jesus 19 00:02:10,860 --> 00:02:14,280 himself suffered. 20 00:02:14,280 --> 00:02:17,000 His suffering was that he might bring us to God. 21 00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:25,320 He the just one suffered in place of the unjust ones. 22 00:02:25,320 --> 00:02:28,840 He suffered for us that he might introduce us to God. 23 00:02:28,840 --> 00:02:30,360 That's the word there. 24 00:02:30,360 --> 00:02:37,940 It's the verb form of that great word access that we see several times in the New Testament. 25 00:02:37,940 --> 00:02:42,680 He suffered in our place so that he might bring us into the very throne room of the 26 00:02:42,680 --> 00:02:46,760 sovereign of the universe and introduce us to him. 27 00:02:46,760 --> 00:02:50,640 That is the full thought here when it says that he suffered, that he might bring us to 28 00:02:50,640 --> 00:02:51,640 God. 29 00:02:51,640 --> 00:02:59,880 But not only did Jesus suffer, after his suffering he was glorified. 30 00:02:59,880 --> 00:03:03,700 And later in the passage at the end of the chapter we read about him being at the right 31 00:03:03,700 --> 00:03:09,720 hand of God, having gone into heaven after angels and authorities and powers have been 32 00:03:09,720 --> 00:03:12,160 subjected to him. 33 00:03:12,160 --> 00:03:18,360 So the point that Peter is making is that yes we suffer in this world, but there is 34 00:03:18,360 --> 00:03:22,780 glory to follow. 35 00:03:22,780 --> 00:03:27,860 Glory is always preceded by suffering. 36 00:03:27,860 --> 00:03:32,800 So let us be encouraged in our own suffering knowing that God has glory laid up for us 37 00:03:32,800 --> 00:03:35,340 who suffer faithfully for Christ. 38 00:03:35,340 --> 00:03:42,740 If we suffer with him, says Paul in Romans, we shall also be glorified with him. 39 00:03:42,740 --> 00:03:46,320 So that's the context of the phrase we're looking at. 40 00:03:46,320 --> 00:03:52,180 But the question that was asked last Sunday night is, who are the spirits now in prison 41 00:03:52,180 --> 00:03:55,900 in verse 19? 42 00:03:55,900 --> 00:04:01,160 The answer to that question depends somewhat upon how you take the whole context of what 43 00:04:01,160 --> 00:04:03,760 we've read. 44 00:04:03,760 --> 00:04:09,760 There are those who understand the interpretation of this passage as being this, that Jesus 45 00:04:09,760 --> 00:04:20,780 Christ in a pre-incarnate preaching declared through Noah the gospel to the people of that 46 00:04:20,780 --> 00:04:24,200 generation before the flood. 47 00:04:24,200 --> 00:04:30,940 So when it says that he made proclamation, it was actually Noah's mouth and his personality, 48 00:04:30,940 --> 00:04:38,020 but the pre-incarnate Christ was as it were speaking through him to that generation. 49 00:04:38,020 --> 00:04:45,140 Now they rejected that message of salvation and therefore they were condemned and they 50 00:04:45,140 --> 00:04:51,580 are now in prison awaiting final judgment as are all the lost. 51 00:04:51,580 --> 00:04:57,820 That is one interpretation and it's a popular one. 52 00:04:57,820 --> 00:05:04,180 Another interpretation of this is that it is actually Christ who did the announcing 53 00:05:04,180 --> 00:05:13,220 and what he did was to descend into Hades between his death and resurrection. 54 00:05:13,220 --> 00:05:19,820 And there in Hades he preached the gospel, say some, giving those who were there and 55 00:05:19,820 --> 00:05:28,100 who lived in Noah's day another opportunity to be saved. 56 00:05:28,100 --> 00:05:33,420 Now that is not such a popular interpretation and I think that the reason should be obvious 57 00:05:33,420 --> 00:05:42,380 and that the Bible nowhere teaches a second opportunity for anyone to be saved. 58 00:05:42,380 --> 00:05:48,220 There is a third interpretation and this is the one that I hold to. 59 00:05:48,220 --> 00:06:00,140 It is that Christ went to a special prison of spirits to make a proclamation to them. 60 00:06:00,140 --> 00:06:07,740 Perhaps this was just after his resurrection that he went there because it says in verse 61 00:06:07,740 --> 00:06:14,180 18 that he was put to death in the flesh, made alive in the spirit. 62 00:06:14,180 --> 00:06:18,220 Actually I don't think it refers to the Holy Spirit here in this context as though the 63 00:06:18,220 --> 00:06:20,620 Holy Spirit had a part in his resurrection. 64 00:06:20,620 --> 00:06:24,220 Now he did but it doesn't say that here. 65 00:06:24,220 --> 00:06:30,500 Rather I think spirit here is to be a small s and the real idea is that he was put to 66 00:06:30,500 --> 00:06:35,000 death with reference to the flesh, to the physical realm. 67 00:06:35,000 --> 00:06:42,340 He was made alive in the spirit or with reference to the spiritual realm, not denying his physical 68 00:06:42,340 --> 00:06:48,100 resurrection but that his physical resurrection enables him not only to relate to the physical 69 00:06:48,100 --> 00:06:51,380 but to the spiritual realm as well. 70 00:06:51,380 --> 00:06:58,940 And it is in that glorified, resurrected state that he went and made proclamation to the 71 00:06:58,940 --> 00:06:59,980 spirits now in prison. 72 00:06:59,980 --> 00:07:03,740 You will notice in verse 19 it says, in which? 73 00:07:03,740 --> 00:07:09,940 That is in that state, that condition of being glorified and resurrected, he went and made 74 00:07:09,940 --> 00:07:11,900 proclamation. 75 00:07:11,900 --> 00:07:17,620 So I repeat, I believe what it is saying here is that Christ went to a special prison of 76 00:07:17,620 --> 00:07:22,780 spirits and there made a proclamation to them. 77 00:07:22,780 --> 00:07:27,100 Now that brings certain questions to mind. 78 00:07:27,100 --> 00:07:30,480 Where did Christ go? 79 00:07:30,480 --> 00:07:33,860 And to whom did he speak? 80 00:07:33,860 --> 00:07:36,820 And finally, what did he say to them? 81 00:07:36,820 --> 00:07:41,780 Well let's talk about those three questions and then we will be on our way. 82 00:07:41,780 --> 00:07:44,360 Where did Christ go? 83 00:07:44,360 --> 00:07:51,580 It says that he went and that is as definite a journey as when it says in verse 22 that 84 00:07:51,580 --> 00:07:52,900 he's gone into heaven. 85 00:07:52,900 --> 00:07:56,140 It's the same word. 86 00:07:56,140 --> 00:08:00,660 So Jesus Christ literally went somewhere. 87 00:08:00,660 --> 00:08:07,780 Now there are those who say that Jesus Christ, after his death on the cross, went to hell 88 00:08:07,780 --> 00:08:10,980 and was in hell for three days. 89 00:08:10,980 --> 00:08:14,440 After all, isn't that what the Apostle's Creed says? 90 00:08:14,440 --> 00:08:17,380 He descended into hell? 91 00:08:17,380 --> 00:08:19,500 Well it does say that. 92 00:08:19,500 --> 00:08:24,660 And yet the word hell in those days had a more limited meaning than the one in which 93 00:08:24,660 --> 00:08:28,080 we live today. 94 00:08:28,080 --> 00:08:37,140 When we think of hell today, we think of the burning place of torment of the lost. 95 00:08:37,140 --> 00:08:41,200 I don't believe that those who wrote the Apostle's Creed were trying to say to us that after 96 00:08:41,200 --> 00:08:46,260 he died on the cross, Jesus went to the fiery burning hell. 97 00:08:46,260 --> 00:08:50,900 Indeed the Bible does not teach that he did. 98 00:08:50,900 --> 00:08:55,820 You say, but doesn't it say something about, thou will not leave my soul in hell? 99 00:08:55,820 --> 00:08:57,020 Yes. 100 00:08:57,020 --> 00:09:01,500 Would you turn back to Acts chapter 2 for a moment and let's look at one of the New 101 00:09:01,500 --> 00:09:08,460 Testament quotations of that 16th psalm. 102 00:09:08,460 --> 00:09:16,060 In Acts chapter 2, verse 24, it says, And God raised him up again, putting an end to 103 00:09:16,060 --> 00:09:22,380 the agony of death, since it was impossible for him to be held in its power. 104 00:09:22,380 --> 00:09:29,700 For David says of him, I was always beholding the Lord in my presence, for he is at my right 105 00:09:29,700 --> 00:09:32,860 hand, that I may not be shaken. 106 00:09:32,860 --> 00:09:35,820 Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue exalted. 107 00:09:35,820 --> 00:09:45,860 Moreover my flesh also will abide in hope, because thou wilt not abandon my soul to Hades. 108 00:09:45,860 --> 00:09:51,540 As it says in my translation, which is correct, the word is not the fiery hell here, but it's 109 00:09:51,540 --> 00:09:52,540 Hades. 110 00:09:52,540 --> 00:09:56,340 Nor allow thy holy one to undergo decay. 111 00:09:56,340 --> 00:10:03,660 In verse 27, we see two aspects of his burial. 112 00:10:03,660 --> 00:10:07,820 In the first place it mentions, thou wilt not leave my soul in Hades. 113 00:10:07,820 --> 00:10:15,620 That mentions the immaterial part of Christ, his soul, spirit. 114 00:10:15,620 --> 00:10:22,140 It was in Hades, it implies here, during those three days after his crucifixion. 115 00:10:22,140 --> 00:10:28,140 His body was in the grave where it did not, it says here, undergo decay. 116 00:10:28,140 --> 00:10:34,220 So both his soul and his body are mentioned here in verse 27. 117 00:10:34,220 --> 00:10:37,660 He says, thou wilt not leave my soul in Hades. 118 00:10:37,660 --> 00:10:39,860 What is Hades? 119 00:10:39,860 --> 00:10:46,060 The word Hades here in the Greek is the same as the word Sheol in the Old Testament in 120 00:10:46,060 --> 00:10:48,100 Hebrew. 121 00:10:48,100 --> 00:10:56,260 There are two meanings to this word Sheol or Hades. 122 00:10:56,260 --> 00:11:01,320 One meaning is the grave, the place where the body is put, and it is used sometimes 123 00:11:01,320 --> 00:11:04,080 in that way. 124 00:11:04,080 --> 00:11:10,120 The second meaning is the realm of the departed dead. 125 00:11:10,120 --> 00:11:14,000 And it could be the departed lost or the departed saved. 126 00:11:14,000 --> 00:11:20,700 That distinction is not necessarily made with this word Hades or Sheol. 127 00:11:20,700 --> 00:11:29,540 Therefore we believe that Sheol or Hades was actually a place where there were two parts 128 00:11:29,540 --> 00:11:35,380 or two compartments or two areas, if you please. 129 00:11:35,380 --> 00:11:43,140 One for the lost, the unsaved, and one for the saved. 130 00:11:43,140 --> 00:11:49,340 I believe we see this, for example, in the story that Jesus told about the beggar who 131 00:11:49,340 --> 00:11:53,640 died in Luke chapter 16. 132 00:11:53,640 --> 00:11:58,260 After he died, the angels carried him away into what is called Abraham's bosom, which 133 00:11:58,260 --> 00:12:05,440 is an Old Testament way of saying the presence of God or paradise, the place of affection 134 00:12:05,440 --> 00:12:10,580 and closeness to the patriarch Abraham. 135 00:12:10,580 --> 00:12:15,180 Abraham himself was there, as the story tells us. 136 00:12:15,180 --> 00:12:20,700 We would call that, by another name perhaps, being paradise. 137 00:12:20,700 --> 00:12:25,660 That is where the righteous in the Old Testament before the resurrection of Christ went when 138 00:12:25,660 --> 00:12:31,940 they died, to that part of Hades, the realm of the departed. 139 00:12:31,940 --> 00:12:36,900 But there was another part to this place called Hades, the realm of the departed, which was 140 00:12:36,900 --> 00:12:43,860 the fiery hell, the Gehenna, that Jesus talked about, where the worm does not die. 141 00:12:43,860 --> 00:12:51,180 It was to that place that the rich man, in that same story in Luke 16, went when he died. 142 00:12:51,180 --> 00:12:57,580 He lifted up his eyes being in torment, it says there in the Gospel of Luke. 143 00:12:57,580 --> 00:13:03,880 He saw afar off this beggar who had laid at his gate in life. 144 00:13:03,880 --> 00:13:12,020 There was a gulf, a chasm, a separation between the two, and yet there was conversation able 145 00:13:12,020 --> 00:13:16,020 to be held between this rich man and Abraham. 146 00:13:16,020 --> 00:13:21,200 The rich man was able to look over into this other section or this other area that we might 147 00:13:21,200 --> 00:13:27,460 call paradise, or which is called there, Abraham's bosom. 148 00:13:27,460 --> 00:13:37,700 In summary, I would say that the Old Testament, Hades or Sheol, could be one of two places. 149 00:13:37,700 --> 00:13:43,340 There were two compartments in it, one for the righteous, one for the unrighteous. 150 00:13:43,340 --> 00:13:47,540 I believe that when the Lord Jesus Christ died and said, into thy hands I commend my 151 00:13:47,540 --> 00:13:54,500 spirit, and when he left his body, he went to that place in Hades or Sheol where the 152 00:13:54,500 --> 00:13:55,500 righteous were. 153 00:13:55,500 --> 00:14:01,460 That is where he was for those three days before his resurrection. 154 00:14:01,460 --> 00:14:07,980 The idea that he would go to the fiery hell, to the Gehenna, is inconsistent with the nature 155 00:14:07,980 --> 00:14:10,940 of his finished work at the cross. 156 00:14:10,940 --> 00:14:15,220 For when he died on the cross, he said, it is finished. 157 00:14:15,220 --> 00:14:17,820 In other words, the price for sin was paid. 158 00:14:17,820 --> 00:14:22,220 He suffered hell, as it were, upon the cross. 159 00:14:22,220 --> 00:14:27,180 There was no need for him to go to the fiery hell after his death and spend three days 160 00:14:27,180 --> 00:14:29,980 there. 161 00:14:29,980 --> 00:14:33,660 But now having said that, I don't believe that's what Peter is talking about when he 162 00:14:33,660 --> 00:14:36,660 said Christ went somewhere. 163 00:14:36,660 --> 00:14:42,020 As I've said, I believe that Peter is suggesting that Christ went to this prison, whatever 164 00:14:42,020 --> 00:14:45,260 it is, after his resurrection. 165 00:14:45,260 --> 00:14:54,260 For he says, in that state, the state of his resurrection, he went and made this proclamation. 166 00:14:54,260 --> 00:14:58,860 So where is this place that Christ went in 1 Peter 3? 167 00:14:58,860 --> 00:15:03,820 I believe the answer to that is found in the second letter that Peter wrote, 2 Peter chapter 168 00:15:03,820 --> 00:15:12,220 2. 169 00:15:12,220 --> 00:15:24,140 In verse 4, we read, For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into 170 00:15:24,140 --> 00:15:33,060 hell and committed them to pits of darkness reserved for judgment, and did not spare the 171 00:15:33,060 --> 00:15:41,060 ancient world, and so on, and he condemned Solomon Gomorrah in verse 6, and then he rescued 172 00:15:41,060 --> 00:15:42,540 the righteous. 173 00:15:42,540 --> 00:15:46,780 Don't you know that he knows how to rescue the righteous from temptation now and to keep 174 00:15:46,780 --> 00:15:49,440 the unrighteous for judgment? 175 00:15:49,440 --> 00:15:51,340 That is the context. 176 00:15:51,340 --> 00:15:56,860 But I'm focusing particularly on verse 4, where Peter draws this illustration, which 177 00:15:56,860 --> 00:16:04,700 seems to be in the context here chronologically, either in or before the days of Noah, immediately 178 00:16:04,700 --> 00:16:08,220 in his days or just before the flood. 179 00:16:08,220 --> 00:16:13,540 Where he says, If God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell. 180 00:16:13,540 --> 00:16:16,700 That is one word in the original language. 181 00:16:16,700 --> 00:16:18,740 It is a verb. 182 00:16:18,740 --> 00:16:25,960 The verb is tartarao, and it is the place where we get this name, tartarus. 183 00:16:25,960 --> 00:16:30,900 It is the only time that it's found in the New Testament. 184 00:16:30,900 --> 00:16:38,100 What is suggested here is that here is a special place that is completely different from Hades 185 00:16:38,100 --> 00:16:43,780 or Paradise or the fiery hell. 186 00:16:43,780 --> 00:16:52,260 Here is a place called tartarus, which was a name taken from mythology, by the way, but 187 00:16:52,260 --> 00:16:58,380 here given a content that is not mythological. 188 00:16:58,380 --> 00:17:06,700 He says that the angels who sinned were cast into tartarus and committed to pits. 189 00:17:06,700 --> 00:17:11,540 The word here is underground storage bins, the kind of a place where they would have 190 00:17:11,540 --> 00:17:15,820 kept grain, for example, in that day. 191 00:17:15,820 --> 00:17:23,260 So Peter is saying that there were angels who sinned, and God cast them into tartarus, 192 00:17:23,260 --> 00:17:29,740 which he calls pits or storage places in darkness. 193 00:17:29,740 --> 00:17:35,040 So what I'm suggesting to you is that in 1 Peter 3, verse 19, when it says that Jesus 194 00:17:35,040 --> 00:17:44,420 went and made a proclamation, where he went was to this place called tartarus. 195 00:17:44,420 --> 00:17:46,140 To whom did he speak? 196 00:17:46,140 --> 00:17:52,420 Well, in 1 Peter it says that it was spirits who were imprisoned. 197 00:17:52,420 --> 00:17:58,300 I believe that those spirits that he's talking about there are identical with the angels 198 00:17:58,300 --> 00:18:03,580 that are mentioned here in 2 Peter 2, 4, the angels that sinned. 199 00:18:03,580 --> 00:18:09,940 In other words, these angels are not just common ordinary fallen angels who fell out 200 00:18:09,940 --> 00:18:14,020 of heaven with Satan. 201 00:18:14,020 --> 00:18:25,340 There is something that these angels did which was so different and so reprehensible that 202 00:18:25,340 --> 00:18:33,860 God immediately cast them into a prison where they today are kept in bonds awaiting their 203 00:18:33,860 --> 00:18:36,180 final judgment. 204 00:18:36,180 --> 00:18:42,900 The rest of the fallen angels who fell with Satan out of heaven are still loose with him, 205 00:18:42,900 --> 00:18:46,500 and we call them sometimes demons. 206 00:18:46,500 --> 00:18:50,140 But here is a group of fallen angels that's different. 207 00:18:50,140 --> 00:18:52,740 They sinned in a gross way. 208 00:18:52,740 --> 00:18:56,260 Now you say, what in the world did they do? 209 00:18:56,260 --> 00:18:58,820 Well I believe the answer to that is found again in the Old Testament. 210 00:18:58,820 --> 00:19:04,980 I invite you to go back to the book of Genesis, chapter 6. 211 00:19:04,980 --> 00:19:08,340 We have here the day of Noah recorded. 212 00:19:08,340 --> 00:19:11,660 Genesis, chapter 6, beginning in verse 1. 213 00:19:11,660 --> 00:19:19,380 Now it came about when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were 214 00:19:19,380 --> 00:19:27,620 born to them that the sons of God saw the daughters of men were beautiful, and they 215 00:19:27,620 --> 00:19:32,620 took wives for themselves whomever they chose. 216 00:19:32,620 --> 00:19:39,420 Then the Lord said, My spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh. 217 00:19:39,420 --> 00:19:43,180 Nevertheless, his days shall be one hundred and twenty years. 218 00:19:43,180 --> 00:19:48,320 In other words, that's the period of time from the time that God indicated judgment 219 00:19:48,320 --> 00:19:52,300 was coming until the ark was built and the judgment actually came. 220 00:19:52,300 --> 00:19:54,900 One hundred and twenty years. 221 00:19:54,900 --> 00:20:00,300 The same period mentioned in 1 Peter 3. 222 00:20:00,300 --> 00:20:06,020 Then he says, The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the 223 00:20:06,020 --> 00:20:12,100 sons of God came into the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. 224 00:20:12,100 --> 00:20:18,180 Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. 225 00:20:18,180 --> 00:20:27,340 Now these mighty men were men who were mighty, it would seem, in a military sense, in a sense 226 00:20:27,340 --> 00:20:29,620 of warfare. 227 00:20:29,620 --> 00:20:35,940 These men of renown were men who were great in power, extraordinary power. 228 00:20:35,940 --> 00:20:39,220 It perhaps includes the idea of wealth. 229 00:20:39,220 --> 00:20:47,980 Now remember, this is describing that time just before the flood in Noah's day. 230 00:20:47,980 --> 00:20:54,940 It speaks here about the sons of God who cohabited with the daughters of men. 231 00:20:54,940 --> 00:21:02,820 Now there are those who take a line of interpretation here which says that it means that the line 232 00:21:02,820 --> 00:21:13,380 of Seth, the son of Adam and Eve, mingled with the line of Cain, the sons of God, the 233 00:21:13,380 --> 00:21:15,700 daughters of men. 234 00:21:15,700 --> 00:21:24,740 That is what God condemns here, the mingling of the seed of Seth with the seed of Cain. 235 00:21:24,740 --> 00:21:32,380 Now I have difficulty with that interpretation, though it is appealing to the natural mind. 236 00:21:32,380 --> 00:21:36,500 But I have difficulty with that. 237 00:21:36,500 --> 00:21:41,740 In the first place, all of the sons of Seth could not be said to be godly and therefore 238 00:21:41,740 --> 00:21:46,220 be called the sons of God. 239 00:21:46,220 --> 00:21:52,980 Nor I think could it be said that only the men were godly and that all the daughters 240 00:21:52,980 --> 00:21:58,340 of Cain were all wicked. 241 00:21:58,340 --> 00:22:01,020 It seems to me that something more is being said here. 242 00:22:01,020 --> 00:22:04,260 I don't have time to talk about that interpretation. 243 00:22:04,260 --> 00:22:07,260 Let me go on to the one that I think is correct. 244 00:22:07,260 --> 00:22:12,340 I believe that the sons of God here are angels. 245 00:22:12,340 --> 00:22:20,220 I believe that we have here a gross perversion, unlike the world has seen since that day. 246 00:22:20,220 --> 00:22:26,380 So gross that God brought the destruction that he did to the human race in that day 247 00:22:26,380 --> 00:22:29,900 apart from eight people who were spared. 248 00:22:29,900 --> 00:22:34,900 So gross that the angels who were involved in this were cast in a special judgment to 249 00:22:34,900 --> 00:22:38,740 charter us, awaiting their final doom. 250 00:22:38,740 --> 00:22:40,780 You say, what makes you think these were angels? 251 00:22:40,780 --> 00:22:49,200 Well first of all, this Hebrew phrase, sons of God, is one that is never used of human 252 00:22:49,200 --> 00:22:54,420 beings and of believers in the Old Testament. 253 00:22:54,420 --> 00:23:01,780 Now the concept of God's people being his children and he being their father is found 254 00:23:01,780 --> 00:23:08,580 in the Old Testament, but you do not find this Hebrew phrase found in the Old Testament 255 00:23:08,580 --> 00:23:14,300 referring to human beings and believers. 256 00:23:14,300 --> 00:23:20,060 Indeed this same phrase is found only three other times in the Old Testament. 257 00:23:20,060 --> 00:23:22,900 Bene Elohim. 258 00:23:22,900 --> 00:23:28,820 And each of those other three times is in the book of Job. 259 00:23:28,820 --> 00:23:35,780 In each of those times that it appears in Job, it is clear that it's referring to angels. 260 00:23:35,780 --> 00:23:42,580 Job 1-6, 2-1, and 38-7 if you're taking notes. 261 00:23:42,580 --> 00:23:49,540 Furthermore the name sons of God suggests that these beings were the direct creation 262 00:23:49,540 --> 00:23:50,540 of God. 263 00:23:50,540 --> 00:23:59,260 They were not produced by natural generation as were the other descendants of Adam and 264 00:23:59,260 --> 00:24:00,260 Eve. 265 00:24:00,260 --> 00:24:07,500 Over in Luke chapter 3, Adam is called there the son of God in the sense that he was the 266 00:24:07,500 --> 00:24:11,260 direct creation of God. 267 00:24:11,260 --> 00:24:13,460 God fashioned and formed him. 268 00:24:13,460 --> 00:24:16,980 And that's different than all the rest of his descendants. 269 00:24:16,980 --> 00:24:23,300 It seems to me that the same idea is involved here by the sons of God is referring to beings 270 00:24:23,300 --> 00:24:26,300 who were the special creation of God. 271 00:24:26,300 --> 00:24:31,700 And finally I believe this refers to angels because the Septuagint which is the Greek 272 00:24:31,700 --> 00:24:36,100 translation of the Hebrew Old Testament which was done even before the time of Christ several 273 00:24:36,100 --> 00:24:38,660 hundred years before. 274 00:24:38,660 --> 00:24:45,940 That Greek translation of the Old Testament done by those Jewish scholars here translates 275 00:24:45,940 --> 00:24:55,460 this into the Greek as angels of God indicating to us that that was the Jewish understanding 276 00:24:55,460 --> 00:25:01,380 of what that phrase meant in those days several thousand years ago. 277 00:25:01,380 --> 00:25:09,620 So I believe this is what is saying here that in some way these angels cohabited with, took 278 00:25:09,620 --> 00:25:23,500 as wives or as their women, human beings, females and produced them in offspring. 279 00:25:23,500 --> 00:25:28,100 But someone says that doesn't square with what it says in Matthew 22.30. 280 00:25:28,100 --> 00:25:31,340 Doesn't it say there that angels are neither married nor given in marriage? 281 00:25:31,340 --> 00:25:32,900 Yes it does. 282 00:25:32,900 --> 00:25:34,780 It does say that. 283 00:25:34,780 --> 00:25:39,780 But I would have you notice that that's all it says. 284 00:25:39,780 --> 00:25:47,660 It doesn't say they have no capacity to marry. 285 00:25:47,660 --> 00:25:53,820 As far as we know that whenever they appear they always appear in masculine bodies and 286 00:25:53,820 --> 00:25:59,100 real bodies though different than our own, nonetheless real. 287 00:25:59,100 --> 00:26:02,420 They are not phantoms when they appear. 288 00:26:02,420 --> 00:26:08,620 For example they sat down, two of them did, with a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus Christ 289 00:26:08,620 --> 00:26:10,620 and they ate with Abraham. 290 00:26:10,620 --> 00:26:12,700 They literally ate with him. 291 00:26:12,700 --> 00:26:13,700 So they are not ghosts. 292 00:26:13,700 --> 00:26:15,940 You would be able to touch them. 293 00:26:15,940 --> 00:26:22,420 They are physical, real physical bodies when angels appear. 294 00:26:22,420 --> 00:26:28,580 I don't believe it's too much really to assume that they also then would have male reproductive 295 00:26:28,580 --> 00:26:33,180 capabilities. 296 00:26:33,180 --> 00:26:37,620 At least the verse in Matthew cannot be used as a text to show that they are unable to 297 00:26:37,620 --> 00:26:38,620 do that. 298 00:26:38,620 --> 00:26:43,860 It simply says they are not married nor given in marriage in heaven. 299 00:26:43,860 --> 00:26:48,260 This did not take place in heaven either. 300 00:26:48,260 --> 00:26:52,380 You say but why would angels do this? 301 00:26:52,380 --> 00:26:55,860 The answer to that is not difficult to find. 302 00:26:55,860 --> 00:27:03,540 Satan has tried throughout history to do anything that he can to corrupt the seed of the woman, 303 00:27:03,540 --> 00:27:12,700 Genesis 3.15, which was to bring salvation to man and judgment to himself. 304 00:27:12,700 --> 00:27:18,580 This is simply one of his attempts to try to corrupt the human race and to prevent the 305 00:27:18,580 --> 00:27:24,900 birth of that promised Redeemer in Genesis 3.15. 306 00:27:24,900 --> 00:27:30,020 You say but why did he choose this particular time to do it? 307 00:27:30,020 --> 00:27:36,820 Perhaps the answer to that is found in a prophecy in Genesis 5, verse 29. 308 00:27:36,820 --> 00:27:39,980 Noah was the grandson of Methuselah. 309 00:27:39,980 --> 00:27:42,260 His father was Lamech. 310 00:27:42,260 --> 00:27:46,180 The Lamech lived 182 years and became the father of his son. 311 00:27:46,180 --> 00:27:52,660 Now he called his name Noah, saying, This one shall give us rest. 312 00:27:52,660 --> 00:27:55,540 That's what the name Noah means. 313 00:27:55,540 --> 00:28:01,340 Rest or comfort from our work and from the toil of our hands arising from the ground 314 00:28:01,340 --> 00:28:03,540 which the Lord has cursed. 315 00:28:03,540 --> 00:28:11,340 In other words, there was a specific prophecy given with the birth of this child named comfort 316 00:28:11,340 --> 00:28:21,060 or rest or Noah, a specific prophecy dealing with the coming redemption from the curse. 317 00:28:21,060 --> 00:28:26,660 And it may be that it was that prophecy and Satan not being able to know what was going 318 00:28:26,660 --> 00:28:30,500 to happen in the future because he doesn't know anything in the future except what he's 319 00:28:30,500 --> 00:28:32,180 planned and what God has revealed. 320 00:28:32,180 --> 00:28:37,140 At that time there was nothing revealed in writing. 321 00:28:37,140 --> 00:28:44,700 So Satan at that point because of this prophecy tried to intervene and interrupt and corrupt 322 00:28:44,700 --> 00:28:55,180 the seed of man, the seed of the woman rather, to prevent the man child from coming and being 323 00:28:55,180 --> 00:28:56,820 the redeemer. 324 00:28:56,820 --> 00:28:57,820 And what was the result? 325 00:28:57,820 --> 00:29:04,260 Well it seems to have been the eruption of abnormal wickedness upon the earth. 326 00:29:04,260 --> 00:29:12,780 Some have wondered and I wonder if this could be the basis for such legends as Hercules 327 00:29:12,780 --> 00:29:16,460 and Atlantis. 328 00:29:16,460 --> 00:29:24,260 Perhaps this is the source of the Roman and Greek myths regarding the gods reproducing 329 00:29:24,260 --> 00:29:28,940 which was a whole part of their pantheon, their worship. 330 00:29:28,940 --> 00:29:32,860 Perhaps this is the source of that mythology. 331 00:29:32,860 --> 00:29:37,180 It was something that actually took place and was passed down from the sons of Noah 332 00:29:37,180 --> 00:29:43,260 to their sons and so on until it became so corrupted as we see it in the form of Greek 333 00:29:43,260 --> 00:29:46,940 and Roman mythology today. 334 00:29:46,940 --> 00:29:53,900 We say if these actually were angels who cohabited with these women and produced offspring, what 335 00:29:53,900 --> 00:29:56,380 kind of offspring must they have been? 336 00:29:56,380 --> 00:30:00,840 Were they half demon, half human? 337 00:30:00,840 --> 00:30:04,980 That is a very difficult question to answer. 338 00:30:04,980 --> 00:30:07,900 If they were that, then how would they be judged? 339 00:30:07,900 --> 00:30:13,220 As angels or as human beings? 340 00:30:13,220 --> 00:30:15,740 Were they savable? 341 00:30:15,740 --> 00:30:19,460 Angels cannot be saved. 342 00:30:19,460 --> 00:30:21,080 Human beings can. 343 00:30:21,080 --> 00:30:22,340 Those are difficult questions. 344 00:30:22,340 --> 00:30:25,640 I don't know the answer to them. 345 00:30:25,640 --> 00:30:32,860 Some have suggested this possible explanation that instead of these demons, these fallen 346 00:30:32,860 --> 00:30:43,220 angels actually assuming their own body form and cohabiting, that instead they possessed 347 00:30:43,220 --> 00:30:55,780 certain selected men of that day and then possessed certain women and through them produced 348 00:30:55,780 --> 00:31:01,180 a demonized race or generation rather. 349 00:31:01,180 --> 00:31:08,660 In other words, children who were born demon possessed because both their father and mother 350 00:31:08,660 --> 00:31:11,540 were demon possessed. 351 00:31:11,540 --> 00:31:13,560 We don't really know the answer to these things. 352 00:31:13,560 --> 00:31:17,100 These are conjecture and questions that we have. 353 00:31:17,100 --> 00:31:21,580 God has not seen fit to reveal the answers to us. 354 00:31:21,580 --> 00:31:27,340 But nonetheless, I believe that the best understanding of the spirits in prison is that they were 355 00:31:27,340 --> 00:31:30,180 angels. 356 00:31:30,180 --> 00:31:35,980 The angels mentioned here in Genesis chapter 6 and that they are the ones who are the spirits 357 00:31:35,980 --> 00:31:36,980 in prison. 358 00:31:36,980 --> 00:31:41,860 There is one other text in the New Testament I'd like to look at and with this we come 359 00:31:41,860 --> 00:31:42,860 to a close. 360 00:31:42,860 --> 00:31:46,020 It's found in the book of Jude. 361 00:31:46,020 --> 00:31:51,900 I think that this is a confirmation of the interpretation that I've given. 362 00:31:51,900 --> 00:31:58,140 Jude verses 6 and 7. 363 00:31:58,140 --> 00:32:05,260 Then Jude is writing about the certain judgment that will come upon false teachers. 364 00:32:05,260 --> 00:32:10,340 He points back to examples when God has brought judgment before. 365 00:32:10,340 --> 00:32:16,980 He says, angels who did not keep their own domain, that is the place where they were 366 00:32:16,980 --> 00:32:27,420 created, their God-given habitation, their own realm, but abandoned their proper abode, 367 00:32:27,420 --> 00:32:34,420 he has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day. 368 00:32:34,420 --> 00:32:40,820 I believe these are exactly the same angels that Peter was talking about in chapter 2 369 00:32:40,820 --> 00:32:48,180 verse 4 of his second epistle and which he mentions in 1 Peter 3, 19. 370 00:32:48,180 --> 00:32:54,100 Now he goes on to say in verse 7, just as Sodom and Gomorrah, and I would have you notice 371 00:32:54,100 --> 00:32:59,820 that that conjunction into verse 7, just as, is one which says there's something very 372 00:32:59,820 --> 00:33:03,580 similar that I want to talk about to what I've just said. 373 00:33:03,580 --> 00:33:09,200 He says, and likewise, in a same fashion, similar to what I just talked about in these 374 00:33:09,200 --> 00:33:16,500 angels leaving their own abode, he says Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since 375 00:33:16,500 --> 00:33:26,700 they in the same way as these, verse 6, the angels, indulged in gross immorality and when 376 00:33:26,700 --> 00:33:37,940 after strange flesh are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire. 377 00:33:37,940 --> 00:33:43,060 So I believe he is telling us by what he says in verse 7 that these angels who did not keep 378 00:33:43,060 --> 00:33:49,580 their proper abode, their own domain, did not do that in the sense that they committed 379 00:33:49,580 --> 00:33:57,340 some kind of gross immorality and indulged and went after rather strange flesh, which 380 00:33:57,340 --> 00:34:03,860 seems to me to be some jargon describing what happened in Genesis chapter 6. 381 00:34:03,860 --> 00:34:08,780 Now assuming that that's the case, let's go back again to 1 Peter 3 and just ask this 382 00:34:08,780 --> 00:34:16,140 final question in closing, what did Jesus proclaim to them? 383 00:34:16,140 --> 00:34:24,300 It says that in this resurrection realm, the realm of the Spirit, he went and made proclamation 384 00:34:24,300 --> 00:34:27,980 to the spirits now in prison. 385 00:34:27,980 --> 00:34:33,500 Notice how he describes them, who were once disobedient when the patience of God kept 386 00:34:33,500 --> 00:34:39,580 waiting in the days of Noah during that 120 year period. 387 00:34:39,580 --> 00:34:42,180 But it says he went and made proclamation. 388 00:34:42,180 --> 00:34:47,420 He does not use a word here for preach the gospel. 389 00:34:47,420 --> 00:34:52,540 It simply means he announced something, he proclaimed something, and I believe that what 390 00:34:52,540 --> 00:34:56,580 he proclaimed was his finished work of redemption. 391 00:34:56,580 --> 00:35:03,420 I believe that Jesus went to Tartarus after his resurrection, there to proclaim to those 392 00:35:03,420 --> 00:35:10,220 angels imprisoned in that darkness, in that pit, that in fact the prophecy of the seed 393 00:35:10,220 --> 00:35:18,740 of the woman which they had intended to corrupt and interrupt had been completed and fulfilled. 394 00:35:18,740 --> 00:35:27,860 And that now their judgment, which had already been pronounced, was sure and certain. 395 00:35:27,860 --> 00:35:33,940 And today that judgment is still awaiting its fulfillment, but it's coming. 396 00:35:33,940 --> 00:35:36,020 In closing, I would like to say this. 397 00:35:36,020 --> 00:35:41,500 Jesus said that as it was in the days of Noah, what? 398 00:35:41,500 --> 00:35:47,260 So shall it be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man. 399 00:35:47,260 --> 00:35:51,700 I believe that one of the characteristics of the days of Noah was that there was an 400 00:35:51,700 --> 00:36:00,660 outbreak of demonism in that day so that that generation was a demonized generation. 401 00:36:00,660 --> 00:36:08,820 I believe with all of my heart that we are seeing that take place in our world today. 402 00:36:08,820 --> 00:36:12,740 I don't know how to date it, I don't know how to fix it, I don't even know how to explain 403 00:36:12,740 --> 00:36:15,700 it really. 404 00:36:15,700 --> 00:36:24,420 But I agree with those who say that sometime during the 1960s that there was unleashed, 405 00:36:24,420 --> 00:36:33,500 particularly upon our nation, a wave of demons which are bringing about in very quick fashion 406 00:36:33,500 --> 00:36:40,100 the destruction of our society based upon the Bible. 407 00:36:40,100 --> 00:36:44,820 I believe that we are living in the days like the days of Noah, days before the coming of 408 00:36:44,820 --> 00:36:52,900 the Son of Man, and that as that age was a demonized age, so is ours today. 409 00:36:52,900 --> 00:37:01,140 A second observation is that in that day which was so corrupt and wicked, God was patient 410 00:37:01,140 --> 00:37:05,500 with sinners, and God is still patient today. 411 00:37:05,500 --> 00:37:13,140 And that day he waited 120 years patiently while the ark was being constructed, and then 412 00:37:13,140 --> 00:37:15,340 judgment came. 413 00:37:15,340 --> 00:37:20,220 And during that time, though the invitation was given, though the message was preached, 414 00:37:20,220 --> 00:37:25,860 none believed except Noah's immediate family, and they were saved. 415 00:37:25,860 --> 00:37:32,220 Likewise, in our day the gospel is being preached, people are being told how to be saved, the 416 00:37:32,220 --> 00:37:38,340 opportunity is before them, God is patiently waiting, judgment is coming, but only a few, 417 00:37:38,340 --> 00:37:45,540 really, are believing and will escape the coming judgment upon the Christ-rejecting 418 00:37:45,540 --> 00:37:46,540 world. 419 00:37:46,540 --> 00:37:52,820 My friend, if you've been one who has rejected Jesus Christ, may I warn you that there is 420 00:37:52,820 --> 00:37:58,480 a day coming when your time of opportunity will be over. 421 00:37:58,480 --> 00:38:02,380 Now is the day of salvation, today. 422 00:38:02,380 --> 00:38:06,860 Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. 423 00:38:06,860 --> 00:38:13,460 And for those of us who know Jesus Christ, may we be faithful in our age as Noah was 424 00:38:13,460 --> 00:38:15,900 in his. 425 00:38:15,900 --> 00:38:24,280 Noah was a man who walked with God in such an age as that, and may we be found people 426 00:38:24,280 --> 00:38:29,540 who also walk with God. 427 00:38:29,540 --> 00:38:37,300 Heavenly Father, I pray that you will make us faithful as was Noah. 428 00:38:37,300 --> 00:38:42,140 And though we live in a day that is corrupt and when society is degenerating, when there 429 00:38:42,140 --> 00:38:53,260 is a diminishing respect even for the nature of human life, in a day when there is a demonization 430 00:38:53,260 --> 00:38:59,380 of our culture and our society all around us, and drugs and rock music and so on, Father, 431 00:38:59,380 --> 00:39:07,540 in this godless generation, may we walk with you and may we preach the gospel as your patience 432 00:39:07,540 --> 00:39:15,300 waits for those whom you've chosen to be saved. 433 00:39:15,300 --> 00:39:17,820 Can I pray this in Jesus' name? 434 00:39:17,820 --> 00:39:30,700 Amen.