Christ Preached to the Spirits in Prison

I have heard sermonettes on this topic about when Christ preached to the saints in prison. It was, I've heard it mentioned briefly in sermons and done the same myself. I remember giving a couple of sermonettes on this, but it was always a very quick, difficult scripture explanation. I like to go into it just a bit deeper than at least I have before, just because there is a major historical event that is brought out here, and we haven't treated it as such, I don't believe, but it's very important to understand, because it has to do with how God administers things, how He takes care of things. He has everything planned from the beginning, and they fold together perfectly, and He will tell those who need to know at the time they need to know it at the right time. He just has everything planned, and that is one of the greatest things, one of the many wonderful great things that we worship God for. So this is 1 Peter 3 verses 18 through 20, the selection or the passage that I am going to discuss today. And as I say, it's a major historical thing, but history is so big that there are a lot of them. It's not the biggest. It really does give you good insight when you look at the implications. So a key item here is the time factor, but let's get just what it says first. Verse 18, for Christ also, and the context here is also timely for today. It is better, verse 17, 1 Peter 3, if the will of God be so that you suffer for well-being than for evil-doing. So he's talking about being persecuted and how you react. Very important passage just before that. Godly living before the world for righteousness' sake is the title of the previous six verses. But in my study Bible here, verse 18 then, for Christ also. Now this is being used as an illustration, but it makes a point that hasn't been brought up. For Christ also has once suffered for sins. The just for the unjust, he was just, he didn't deserve any suffering, yet he suffered the worst.

That, or so that, he might bring us to God. So it's worth it. In general, you can say it's worth it to be persecuted and to be hurt and to suffer for Christ's sake. Because the end result in our suffering as well as Christ, as it's put, having fellowship with Jesus Christ through also suffering for the same things, for truth. It's worth it because it has a powerful outcome.

Certainly we see that with Christ, but the point is it's true with each of us as well. That he might bring us to God and our suffering will help to bring others. Being put to death in the flesh, but made alive by the Spirit. And that's the whole, that's kind of the whole story. You do have to suffer. We need to suffer for our own learning and for the benefit of others. But God makes alive in the sense He gives us His Spirit, and we come alive to those realities and really living with understanding. And that's done by the power of the Spirit. And of course, it is talking about the obvious, the resurrection. The end result of Christ's suffering, human suffering, is that He is alive at God's throne. And the end result of our suffering for righteousness' sake is the very same thing. Now verse 19 has the questions in it here.

By whom also He went and preached unto the Spirit, and He says, by the Spirit. By whom, and actually that's not correct, that word whom, but anyway, by the King James Version. And I have a study Bible and some of the words are supposedly clarified, but by which, the Spirit by which also He went and preached unto the Spirit in prison. Okay, we learned we never didn't know this.

There had to be some sort of talk. It wasn't just warfare. There was a lot of communication. Satan was the carob right at the throne of God, right at the altar of the throne of God.

There was much communication. He was apparently the leader of the three, Gabriel and Michael, being the archangels that are also mentioned, and Lucifer, whose name is Lightbringer.

That's the name of Christ, the one who brings light to the world. And as Satan, as many men, you know, God gives them names and they have to deal with God. Some of God's characteristics and traits, his duties and his love and goodness. So he was named Lightbringer, and he apparently seems to have been the head of the three, although didn't say that.

But so I just present that as what's, let's say, he normally thought, but there are three archangels and he was there. So there was much communication for how many millions of years? I don't know if they had years back then. We don't know when time started. There was a time before time was, which is an Irish bull, you know. You can't say that. There was a time before time. No, time is time, so it can't be before, you know. Before even has to do with time. So we don't think without time. If we are thinking without time, we're not thinking.

Yeah, so it's a big blur. But I imagine you get the point.

Much communication. The Father and the High Priest, not yet the King of the world and the Savior, but to be, Jesus Christ to be, loved Lucifer and Michael and Gabriel and all the angels, but especially those. They were close. And they loved Him, Jesus Christ, and the Father.

There was much communication. And so at some point it broke off. It became ragged and on edge and adversarial. And we don't know all about that, but we know it happened. And they became enemies and Satan rebelled. And after a long period of time, as far as I can think, after a long period of time of undercutting God, contradicted Him, and trying to get others to follow Him against God.

Well, this is insanity. God has everything. There's all the power there is.

The Kingdom, which includes everything He owns, and the glory is His, which He shares as much as we'll accept. And He will just share forever. So the love broke down, and there was a separation. Satan brought an active army. Was that the first ever to happen in the universe? Well, as far as I know it was, but why do I know exactly what you know? And that is, we don't know that. But He made war on God and lost. Christ said, I saw Satan fall from heaven. We know quite a bit about that. We know what caused it. And the Satan's, we've spent a lot of time about Isaiah 14, Ezekiel 28, and many other scriptures talking about how Satan's mind was corrupted. He did it Himself. Unbelievable! Have the ability to escape sin, and you choose evil thoughts and choose those things that would take you, split yourself and others away from God. But He did that, and we know about it. We're told about those things.

So we don't know exactly how this great crash in communication happened, but it did. And so as far as we know, aside from him barging in, we have one example where Satan barges into a meeting in heaven. So God could have the fence out so far that He couldn't. He's restricted to earth, but God allows Him to break the rules. He'll barge into heaven, and we don't know much about that either. We have that one example with King Ahab. It was at the time of King Ahab.

So we have little bits and pieces throughout the Bible we can piece together and learn actually quite a bit about angels in general, and specifically the fallen angels. So we don't know about the communication. It was very sparse, I'm sure, and probably very stern on God's part, responding to further attacks.

But He was the king of the world. He had been put over the earth, and He became the God of this world. He shouldn't have been, but He took that on. And He is. And so we have the example of God working with Him, allowing Him to keep His assignment and His authority in this whole structure they have in ruling the world in an evil way, wrongly. But God has left Him in place.

And it's all within the plan. You know, Satan, every once in a while must realize that he has just fallen into the whole demon world, fallen into helping God's planet must drive him crazier.

For instance, they finally killed Christ. Satan hated Him, and they all hated Him. And they had a very short-lived time to enjoy it or celebrate. Because there he was, now was a human, and now back at God's throne, but glorified to an even higher level than before, and directly ruling over them. So all this background, you know, we don't necessarily think about that a lot, but their emotions have gone crazy, literally, and they have developed this evil mindset that's not going to change. God will accept repentance if you truly change, and they have set their character. Okay, so that's kind of some of the background, anyway.

We don't know about the communication, but after that, it seems that there was very little, little to almost nothing, and the next time God held, and it was in the person of Jesus Christ, we learn here from Peter, a historical meeting. It was like the first world council of the Church of God registered in Acts 15, called All the Elders in. At least all who could make it.

Or at least all the leaders, anyway. And this was a world council, all right, but it was in the old regime that Satan was over. And they must have, at that time, you know, God told them some things. We want to go over some of the things we know that he said. They must have, at this, why would, if Christ is going to go and witness and tell them something, after a long absence of millions of years, or whatever it was, no communication, and them running all over the place, in a rebellious attitude, and hating him, shooting arrows, as the Psalm says, or just lies, lying about him, and corrupting mankind. They must have, it must have been quite a scene. I can't wait to really hear the whole story.

But Christ called them to account. And this is like a holy day. It was holy in the sense it was special. It wasn't sacred at all. But he said, like the holy day God says, this is a commanded occasion. It is a convocation, which means a calling together. If God's calling it, you don't say, oh, well, maybe not this time. But people do. You know, that's all through history, just because he said so, just because God says so, that doesn't make much difference. But if God calls it, you just go. Except that God has us under grace, and he is kind, and he gives humans a long time to learn. But in this meeting, there wasn't time for that. It was you be here. And they had no choice, and they had to go by God's power, however that works. And he preached to the spirits in prison.

Okay, so Christ either made a special trip or called them to account and had them be at a certain place. I can't see them meeting in one of the anti-rooms of the temple, you know. So I don't absolutely don't know, but I doubt if he called them to the temple to defile that. So maybe it made a trip to earth. But he said, be there or be square. Remember that? Usually talking about concerts where you had a choice. This is be there, but you can't be did, so you just are going to be there. And they were. And he preached to them. So a couple of things about this. Why would God choose the time of the flood? It had been a long time between the time of the rebellion and destruction of the earth and the creation. And then it had been 1656 years since the creation week until the flood. They must have thought they had won because they brought the earth back to the place where they started, where God started in the recreation. Except for those pesky eight people that God saves through the flood. But here was the earth. It was covered with water. There's still sunshine. Not like before the recreation where it was just dark and it, you know, ice ball to some extent, totally dark. And whatever atmosphere, it must have just been darkened so much, stomped out, and killed all life. Okay, so they had brought the world back where it could just taste winning to almost that point. They must have thought they had won.

Like later, they would think, we won! We actually killed our leader that we hate. Three days later, there he is, a billion times more glorious, except there are no limits. So they thought they had won. I'm just quite sure of that. The earth was a mess. Like I say, there were only pesky, eight pesky humans left, and they would take care of them as soon as they could.

Do you think this is speculation, by the way? In general, it is, you have to say, God was there, but that's what happened. And you know their attitudes, so you know what they were thinking because they always think the same. So in that sense, it's not really just a wild speculation. That's what they're doing, and we can imagine some of the details. So Christ came down and He had a meeting, and it says He preached. I asked the question, why would He choose this time of the feast, not the feast, but the flood? And I think the circumstances were the perfect time. They hadn't been taken to account. They had been told they couldn't leave earth, and they couldn't. He would allow some rebellions and breakouts, we find. But they hadn't been taken to account, or given any idea that was before man was created. Even the angels don't know all that's going to happen with man. What they read in the Bible, you know, and so the Bible wasn't written yet. The demons in the angel world, we don't know to what level, but they didn't know anything near to what God was going to do, because we know that, because it says even the righteous angels still at this point wonder, and we sure do, what's going to happen after the last great day and the symbolism is fulfilled, and Christ turns over the kingdom to God. All the earth has peace like it is in heaven, you know. Everyone is worshipping God like they do in heaven, like the Lord's Prayer. What's going to happen? We just know very little about that, and the angels earnestly like desire to look into this too. So back when he had this meeting, which was historic, very uncomfortable to say the very least, they were in the dark, actually in more than one way, and in the physical world too.

So it was the perfect time for God to come. They thought they were making progress. They had never been told the finality of it, and apparently still don't know the complete finality of it, but I suspect that's why he chose the flood. I know those reasons are true. The perfect backdrop for giving them their judgment, and then there was also a couple other reasons. They needed to know because they were going to be restricted to a greater level.

So that was one part of the story, what was stated. Do we need some help there? Okay, let's go on with this then. Let's look here at verse 19. The spirits in prison were preached to, and the question, the thing here, one of the biggest questions in a lot of scriptures is the time factor.

Let's go to verse 20. One time were disobedient when, once the long-suffering God waited in the days of Noah, so this is when he preached in the days of Noah, while the ark was preparing, in which few, that is eight souls, were saved by water. So leading up to the flood when they thought they were really, the demons thought they were really successful, and then during the flood, presumably.

That's when Christ went and preached. Okay, what is this business of spirits in prison? Because people say, well, see, there's your hellfire, it's been going all this time, and so on. And that's not necessarily, that's not true. They were in a prison, but it was a prison of the mind because they were free. Well, they were imprisoned physically to the earth's area, but they are imprisoned by darkness. That is spiritual darkness, the inability to overcome sin, which they don't even want to do, and getting the sin out of your mind.

And the downward pull, that is the key to just clear thinking and happiness and just everything we want. And man's incapable of doing that without God, and the demons are too, and they don't even want it. That's the prison that's being talked about. By whom, and that's another subject to go into hellfire and all that, and when it will come, and so on. But it says, by whom he went and preached unto the spirits in prison, and it had to do with their disobedience.

They were disobedient, and it tells when. Okay, now, what do they say? We have very, we don't have a lot of knowledge on this either, but we have some hints in the Bible. So, this is where Satan and the demons were notified and preached to. It says, Christ preached. The word is, I just meant I have the word right here, k-ru-so in Greek, or e-k-ru-se. One means to herald or preach, and the other means heralded or in past tense. So, does it matter they mean to make announcements?

In this case, it has this meaning as well, and we see that was the case here, to a captive audience. Or it's like serving notice, or serving papers on somebody about court, or actually an arraignment to where everything is laid out, what's being charged, and so on, in court.

This is different than the usual Greek word for preach, which is to evangelize, and he certainly wasn't trying to send them the good news of the glorious gospel and how it caused them to repent. So, he was serving notice, and it had to do with a great correction and nailing them on this. Addressing the demons, and then we find that he also made further requirements for their conduct and restricted them more in this next world that he was developing with the family of Noah after the floodwaters receded.

So, you know, it says the demons, Peter says, the demons believe and they fear. They don't have any doubt about God's existence. They have dealt with him and dread when they have to talk with him again. It'll be worse than this time during the flood. Remember, they almost surely didn't know. Humans didn't know. Abraham didn't know all the details, and not until Moses was the day of Atonement the holidays brought out. And that's where the second goat that wasn't sacrificed, that was taken by a righteous man out to the middle of the desert and left there.

The wilderness symbolizes Satan's fate, the blackness of darkness forever, which we'll read in just a little bit.

That must have been horrifying to learn at least hints of that, because, you know, to see what Moses was told to do on the tabernacle. But that wasn't completely explained in Leviticus 16. Had to go to the New Testament, but they had some hints of it. And all this time it says nothing, all they have for those who have turned away, all they have is just a continual, nagging, dread, and torment that something bad is happening. They don't know everything. Well, neither do we. But they, because they can read the Bible, do know at least some of the basics. Now, that there's a time when Satan will be dethroned, and he undoubtedly told them that because they know they're going to be punished. We'll get to the Scriptures here in just a minute.

And we know that he changed things for them, made a special trip to communicate with them just what was what.

They know that it's prophesied to happen at the end of this system when he will be removed from, Satan will be removed from his kingship, and they won't have any official authority, which they have now, as Satan would like to organize it. You know, it's all evil, but they do have the authority, and he hasn't been removed yet. And what's more, they know, what Revelation 20 says, that he'll be incarcerated, and they'll all be bound, not just to earth, but to a small area on earth called the Lake of Fire, and cast into the Lake of Fire for the duration of the whole millennium, then loosed for a certain short season, and then, finally, after that, the fallen spirits will be cast out never to return to light. There's only one source of light, and that is God. They'll be cast out to the far reaches, and we take it that they could probably see a little bit of pinprick or something, but they'll know it's there. But how, think of what a horrible thing it is. Cast away from any contact with life and light, and they just have their withering lights, and we know that their mental health is degrading by the day, just all this time.

That's a pretty horrible thing for them to think about, and they don't dare think about, so they must just fill their minds with hate to seize themselves. You can't go against God, who has all power. So that's the state of them. I'll read a couple of scriptures here to give a little bit more understanding. Peter said a lot there. We wouldn't know about this historic meeting and all that about Satan's fate and the demon's fate if he hadn't put these two verses in there. So that was inspired for sure. But he still didn't tell us a lot about it, and what he told them. So we can imply at least three things from other hints in the Bible. He gave them a major update. That's for sure. It's called a witness or that he preached.

Oh, let's see. I did miss one thing I wanted to mention here. The spirits in prison. The prison that's referred to, I mentioned, is this middle prison, but it's the word tardiru.

It is hell in other places. That's where he will be sent. First, restricted to a small place on earth. He'll break out. God will allow that for a short season, Revelation 20, and then be re-incarcerated and then cast out to outer darkness. And so the place is really a state of mind, tardiru, a place of restraint where there is torture. In college, we went through and read the article on hell and some related articles in the Catholic Encyclopedia, and it describes those who are in hell, and it describes the mental torture and the agony that they constantly can't get at. It's like having a bag, like you'd have to carry around your waist. This is the Catholic Encyclopedia describing this terrible fire, and it just burns you constantly. Dante took that, and he made the idea of hell fire and, you know, hot mud pots, people upside down in them, and all kinds of tortures he could think of. He got it from the demons, who earlier had inspired writings for the, just, you know, their false beliefs through the Middle Ages and also, and then what's described is this terrible, horrible, torturous pain you can't get rid of ever. And then it goes on to detail, and I can't even remember it all and don't want to, but it was clearly not physical pain. It was that plus. It was the mental pain, because you knew it was going to be there forever. So they kind of described themselves, the early writers who put that in there, and that was quoted in the Encyclopedia, and then Dante took on the, you know, made a comedy out of it. And we know that has become very famous. People think of Dante's comedy idea of hellfire, and think that's what's in the Bible. At any rate, that is called Tartarou. In the Greek, it's also translated as hell, and that's what's referred to. Now, let's go to a couple of scriptures here. So this major update. He must have told them some of the rest of his plans. He did at least for the fact that they are going to be punished. How much detail? We have no idea, but probably not that much. God wasn't obligated. He told his people, because he called us out to, and the ones he would call later, called them out and us following, so that man would know. And the angels apparently have to look into what God has told his people on certain things, and don't know further than that. That part is speculation, since we don't know what they know.

They would have to know certain things in advance that we wouldn't know.

But we don't have any record of God communicating with these angels, except for an occasional break-in by Satan himself. He's fallen angels. Since the rebellion, however many millions of years until it came down to the time of this meeting during the flood, would scare them to death and terrorize them. So, at that time, they knew a lot more than they did. We don't know how much. He certainly showed them the error of their ways, and cause and effect and everything. He let it go to the point of almost destroying the earth, which he's going to do a second time, first by water, then by fire, and the cause and effect of their evil thinking. And they couldn't get away from it. Of course, they've degraded themselves to where they desire to hurt people and just kill. We have some terrorist groups. They just want to kill, to take human life. It's actually a form of insanity. It's recognized by psychiatrists and others as a form of insanity. It's kind of the last resort of the lusts. The worst lust, which the world is filled with all kinds of, is bloodlust. The desire to just take life. And that comes straight from the mind of Satan. That's what man has through the work of Satan and his demons. So they were apparently still very unenlightened of what God's plan was, but they were preached to, heralded to, and condemned about their works.

And so God tells people what they need to know and demons at the right time. And here he did this so that they would know the truth of what's happening. Interesting. Mark 4.22 talks about the fact that eventually everything will be known and all the hidden things will be known to all.

This is going to be interesting about the demons. Okay, so that's two things. He told them some of the rest of the plans, the glorious gospel. He told them the error of their way, and then he told them their fate, that they would be punished. We don't know to what detail, but considering what you read in these ancient writings, some of which are quoted, that we have, they knew that they were going to be self-tortured forever. In a sense, what they got was what they wanted. They wanted to go to heaven and bump God off his throne and take over. And so they're going to get to exactly what they wanted. Trouble is, God will be on earth. The center of light will move to earth, and this is going to be changed to a spiritual creation. So it's true, but that change makes everything different. But the center, God will have his center of light. All the light, all the good gifts come from him, and that will have been moved, and his people will become that city, and Satan will be kind of in heaven. What used to be heaven, just away from God. So in that sense, they get their way. But he was told that he will be replaced and then judged or managed or ruled by humans, which what a hateful thought. They hate and despise, look down on humans, after they have become human beings. And like I said, they probably had to wait until Leviticus 16 came along to learn about the two goats and get an idea about what was being talked about, namely them. Okay, we don't, as I say, I keep saying we don't know a lot about that, but these are some of the things we know too. I mentioned the angels desire to look into things. That's 1 Peter 1 verse 12. Angels don't know. And the righteous angels are even desirous of learning more. Like Daniel wanted more, would you let me know? And he said, nope, not until the end. It's sealed until then. Well, the angels don't know either, apparently, or at least an awful lot.

But we know the holy angels haven't been included in the whole plan. And so the fallen angel is the same thing. It's interesting that Christ gave him this major witness at the point where the earth was being prepared for. It was already just malfunctioning, just dysfunctional earth, and then would be out of commission for a year covered by water. So he laid down the law to them, he sentenced them, and indicted them for their crimes, and condemned them. That's what the meeting was all about. We have some glorious things in Daniel in Revelation 4 and 5. Daniel, the chapter doesn't come to us, not 6. At any rate, Daniel either has a record of the same meeting—I've mentioned this before—or that's just how these celebrations are held at the throne of God. At any rate, this was much different from that than he was condemned in this one. So he gave them—that's kind of the first category—he gave them a serious warning, and that was basically to back off. He put new limitations on how far they could go in interacting with man. We see the necessity for that. The demon world was allowed much more direct influence on man before the flood. That's why it came in 1656 years to the flood. The world had come to the place where it was better off dead to be resurrected later and better off destroyed than to continue. So it was because of the corruption of the angelic host, the fallen ones. So we have some of the ideas of the factors. I've mentioned that in a recent sermon, at least this year, about just requiring these newly imposed restrictions. We can see some of the changes God made that affected man and would naturally then affect the demons, too. The order of the natural world, for instance, we mentioned climate totally changed, weather, the animal kingdom, man's longevity being reduced by about 90 percent from 700 plus to around 70 and then plus.

And God's requirement that man set up governments to regulate society says, I will require you to do that in Genesis 6. Well, he would have to restrict the demons because they had been regulating or messing up society. It could be called a society. And it turned in just to the known world and the inhabited world, turned in just to a gangland. You had to get into a gang. It had been turned into a prison. In a prison, they say you have to get into a gang and conform and obey seriously what the head of the gang says and the structure they have or else you're just thrown out into the yard and everybody else will take advantage of you and you'll be dead.

That's from the mind of Satan, another sermon. But the question is, is the idea of prisons? Is that a godly idea? Is that a solution from God or from the God of this world? So you can guess the answer and all you have to do is look at them and look at the world and what Satan had done and pretty soon, you know, it really fits clearly. As I say, another sermon of the day.

I better get busy on all these sermons that I'm putting off because I'm getting old.

Anyway, but he required man to set up governments. He put them in there to punish evil doers, to rule and equalize society and keep things going because it needed to fit God's timetable.

And so, quite a few scriptures showing that. God has his own time. So the aspect of their structure and their rulership of the world is mentioned a few times in the New Testament by Christ and other writers, but no details. All these things, they're just no details.

But we got the general idea. We know that by the very end, the demons will be allowed to destroy the environment and almost destroy mankind before the Second Coming of Christ. Revelation chapter 6 through 9. You know, the seals and the trumpets. We can notice Revelation 9.

Real quickly, chapter 9 and verse 14. So he said to the six angels who had the trumpet, Loose the four angels who are bound in the great river Euphrates. So this controlling government that they have is ruled and the timing is set by God when he wants to do something. These are restricted. And mainly the ruling is done by the management of God by restriction, apparently. And the four angels were loosed who were prepared for an hour, verse 15, and a day and a month and a year. There's a timing that God has in mind. And these false angels or fallen angels had to be on time. They will be because God's doing it.

And they are ready to slay, to kill one-third of the population of the earth. There are other mass killings. Talk about mass killings. The idea of killing multiple people. This is an idea from Satan's mind. It's the opposite of God's mind. So a third of men. So the demons are going to have finally great power because the world mankind has to learn, too. And so God is allowing them to do that. What they do is they get man to kill himself. That's what God allows us to teach ourselves. You know, the old joke about a senator who's known for his great wisdom, and the young reporter says, well, senator, where does wisdom come from? And he says, and I hope I remember this joke. He says, well, it comes from experience, young man. He says, well, where does experience come from? And now I forgot the punch. You know the joke? Where does wisdom come from? It comes from, where does experience come from? I'll tell you when I think of it. I thought I knew that one so well I'd never. But the point is it comes from hard knocks. It's a funny joke, trust me. One of the poorest jokes I've told you is, trust me, that's not a good punch line. But I'll tell you, but you have hard knocks and you're learned. And that's the point of the joke, which was moving right along then.

So God will have us to learn from ourselves our own mistakes and the demons are in there.

Secondly, so God had to put limitations on Satan and his demons in controlling the world. Serious limitations they hate and they try to overcome them.

Secondly, demons' days are numbered. Previously, they had been given very little knowledge and here we go. He gives them a time and we know this from Revelation 12 verse 12. We're almost there. Turn the page and verse 12. Revelation 12 verse 12. It says, "'Therefore rejoice, you heavens, and ye that dwell in them.'" This is about the church. It's an inset chapter about the church. "'Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea, for the devil has come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has but a short time.'" And the next four verses are very encouraging, but they know their time is running out and there's an interesting comment by a demon talking to Christ in Matthew 8.29.

And Christ was coming around. He was healing a lot of people and this demon yelled out and said, "'What do you have to do, you son of God? What are you doing?' There was an accusation. "'You come back to punish us before the time?' What time? Well, God had set a time. And we know when the meeting happened, so we know the idea that when He set that time, most of them haven't had any communication with God since, we presume.

But the demon was accusing Him of cutting short their time of freedom before they were punished.

So we know what they think and how they think and a lot about them. So He gave them their sentence and their condemnation. And as I say, He gave them their own desires, which is to be separate from God, and they sure will be. The flood would actually give a foretaste of this disfellowshipping imprisonment of Tartarou, this place of restraint and darkness, because the earth went dark. There's still sunshine, apparently, because the fish apparently lived. I don't know. I think He saves His land animals. They would have lived. But the earth went dark as far as their activity. They had nothing to do besides sit around and get angrier and go crazier. First, 2 Peter 2, verse 4, then. 2 Peter 2 and verse 4, it describes this place of restraint. For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, so that's where it mentions hell, and the word is Tartarou. It's not gehenna, which means a fire, and so on. This is something that's mental, a place of mental darkness, and delivered them into, and here it is, chains of darkness. The sun was still going, still shone down on the earth, which was water. But it was the chains of being cut off from God. Just if you have to be alive without God, it's just torture.

To be reserved unto judgment. So they've read this Bible. They were probably told that at the flood.

But they have this torture described, as I say, with this bag of fire you have to carry around, which constantly burns you fearsomely, and it gives you agony, and you know it's going to be there forever. You can't escape it. So they're reserved into judgment, and they know it.

Then he spared not the old world, but saved Noah, and the eight persons, preacher of righteousness, bringing a flood on the world. And then he talks about Sodom and Gomorrah. He's making another point. Just mentions that in passing. So this chains of darkness refers to what the demons know, the demons their leader. They were stopped short in their hateful victory exaltation at the flood, just like they were later when Christ was resurrected. And he put a damper on their evil victory dance, if that's what they were doing, giving them terror, fear, and of course left them to plotting revenge and fighting off the anxiety and the insanity of knowing they're going to be in darkness forever. Bad thing. And we doubled down their fight against the truth and against God. So Revelation 12, I mentioned this already, he persecutes the church. Let's go back over there to chapter 12 and finish up. Because any time in the Bible where you have a bad thing predicted, there's always the joy. Because God turns lemons into lemonade. God turns evil that must be for us to learn all mankind. He turns it into joy. So we have this here in chapter 12. And let's go with verse 13. And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he... This is the second time now. This is at the end time. He persecuted the woman, that's the church, who brought forth the male child. We know there will be deaths in the persecution. We know that there will be a main body that is protected, the place of safety and so on. Again, another subject. But I promise you should be aware of. And to the woman who were given two wings of a great eagle, that's figurative, every time God has saved his people in the Bible, I won't say every time, but most of the time it was a new way that he hadn't done before. So we figure this will be different. And to the woman who were given two wings of great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness and to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times, a year and years, and a half a year. It says time, time, and half times from the face of the servant. We line this up in prophecy with certain things that are happening, having to do with the second coming of Christ and the protection of the church and a place of safety. Some have said, well, it could be a lot of places of safety. It doesn't have to be one. And to that, we have to say, well, sure, you can't limit God.

But he does say there is a place of safety. And if he decides to make more places than one, that's up to him. And he hasn't told us. So that question is dead, as far as I'm concerned.

We shouldn't go searching for the place of safety and making plans. If you need to be saved and have safety for your life, you don't have the ability or the capability of extracting yourself or even helping it alone. If Satan is after you, and so that's what it says. He would be after the church. And the servant cast out of his mouth water like a flood. We don't understand is that what kind of a flood and people have talked about Petra and the plane there and the we don't know. So it's very interesting. And you can check out the scriptures and a couple in Isaiah.

And we don't know. So we're going to leave it as that. But the earth helped the woman and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the flood, which the dragon cast out in his mouth. Is this talking about there's a physical place that God where God is protecting us.

And we don't even know that. Was it a real flood that is a we don't know that. So let's not worry about it. But the dragon was angry with the woman, the church, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, who keeps the commandments of God and have the testimony of Christ. And so that's a prophecy of the church. But the denouement of that is they are saved like Christ who had to go through death. We know some will. We know others will be saved from death. We don't know who. And so we must not think about that. We might become obsessed with trying to get to physical safety or something like many have. Let's get our minds on God because safety. Do you think God would save you like he would save Christ? That was through death. And he's sitting on the right hand of God, which will be able to be there too. So let's not worry about that. We'll be saved to what degree God wants us to physically. It indicates that most will be still saved as church.

Maybe most will have died by then. But then there's this huge number that comes out of the tribulation. And so we don't know. We just have God's promise of this absolute safety that we have. He went to the war with the remnant of the seed. And these are the people who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ, which actually is a description of the definition of the Ten Commandments. So we have God. And like Samuel told his servant at one point, he said, the people, those who are with us are much more powerful than those who are with our enemies.

We are supposed to have faith when we're under attack. I didn't know this Bangladesh letter was going to come out when I decided on this, but it fits just perfectly. God promises us protection, and guidance into the kingdom. Trials in this earth, protecting us many, many times.

But for everybody, he won't protect or heal one time because it's given a man wants to die. And so we're in the perfect place in the hands of God.

But the reason I gave this is just so we know about this historic background. God is going to defeat the devil. He'll be incarcerated. I didn't read that, but referred to it in Revelation 20 verse 4. And then right after that, it talks about the church.

Whether they are just raised and changed as alive, or whether the most of them, of course, will be dead. And they'll come up first and say, we won't, if we're alive, beat them.

But we don't know when we'll live or die. And so all that doesn't matter. What we need to do is take this as just one chapter in God's overall plan, which shows consistency with everything else. He just has everything in order. And he promises to protect us. And we have some idea about the development, in this case, of the demon world and their part of it. And they always, every time, when it comes into their evil plans, they hurt, but they fall right into the hands of God's plan, and he turns it to glory. Fabulous! Well, I hope that was an interesting lesson.