Calvary Road Baptist Church
“THE SIXTH OF CHRIST’S JUDGMENTS, THE JUDGMENT OF THE FALLEN ANGELS”
John 5.22
As I begin the sixth of this series of messages about Christ’s judgments, let us once more rehearse our governing text, John 5.22, where the Lord Jesus Christ said,
“For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son.”
Careful attention to the precise wording of this verse will reveal that the Lord Jesus Christ speaks here of His prospective activity as the judge of all things. That is, He here makes reference to what the Father has decided His Son will do in the future concerning judgment. It is important to note the prospective nature of this verse because judgment involves the wielding of authority.
The wielding of authority is a topic that I have spoken to you about on previous occasions, the Lord Jesus Christ’s authority to act on behalf of God the Father. On the one hand, Christ’s authority to act by Him being the Second Person of the Triune Godhead and the immediate Creator and Sustainer of all things is shown in Scripture.[1] No one disputes that. Additionally, however, we find it glorious that the Lord Jesus Christ’s activity as our Lord and Savior is in a great measure accomplished by the wielding, not of His authority, but of the authority bestowed upon Him by His heavenly Father. I refer, of course, to Matthew 28.18-20:
18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
Thus, while everything “Lucifer, son of the morning,” “the anointed cherub” who was “perfect in his ways” until iniquity was found in him, has done since his tragic defiance of God and his transformation from the first and highest of God’s creatures known as Lucifer, to becoming the Devil, Satan, that old serpent, and the great dragon, has been by wielding illegitimate authority, the Lord Jesus Christ only and always wields legitimate authority granted to Him by God.[2]
The occasion of God bestowing such authority on His risen and glorified Son, “all power” . . . “in heaven and in earth,” is not explicitly stated. However, that such authority was bestowed upon Him was announced in Galilee on the mountain where the Lord Jesus had appointed them, Matthew 28.16. That the Lord Jesus Christ wields all power in heaven and earth in His dealings with men is a matter many Christians have given considerable thought. However, at this time we turn to the wielding of Christ’s delegated authority in a direction receiving far less thought and attention, His judgment of angels, specifically fallen angels. In preparation for that, a bit of review is appropriate.
Beings directly created by God are acknowledged to be the sons of God. Five verses in the Old Testament and six verses in the New Testament make use of this phrase.[3] In the Old Testament books of Genesis and Job “sons of God” are shown in context to be angelic beings that were created by God before His creation of this physical universe, and all that herein is referred to in Genesis 1.1. The same phrase is found in four New Testament books to identify those created new creatures in Christ using the miracle of the new birth. Thus, while human beings born into this world with a sinful nature and separated from God are not “sons of God” because they are not the direct creations of God as Adam and Eve were and as every angel is, one who has turned to Christ in faith believing is that company known as the “sons of God” because of the miracle of the new birth and that person’s direct creation by the Holy Spirit’s regeneration.
These things understood we consider the origin of the angelic host and the fall of one-third of them. Job 38.7 is a wonderful place to begin since it is part of a poetic account when the LORD answered Job’s complaint out of a whirlwind and reviewed with Job His creative activity:
“When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?”
The parallelism used in Hebrew poetry that is found in this verse shows that angelic beings are identified as “morning stars” that sang and as “the sons of God” that shouted for joy. Thus, God reveals to Job that when He created all that Job observed He did so with an appreciative audience looking on, the heavenly host of angels.
Tragically, however, in the brief span of time between Genesis 1.31, when God pronounced everything that He had made as good, and Genesis 3.1, when the serpent approached Eve to deceive and tempt her to sin, something terrible had taken place. God’s first and most glorious angel rebelled against Him, as we are told in Isaiah 14.12-15 and Ezekiel 28.11-19:
12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
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11 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
12 Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.
13 Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.
14 Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.
15 Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.
16 By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.
17 Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee.
18 Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.
19 All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more.
The question, of course, now that we know how Lucifer came to be sinful Satan, is how so many of God’s holy angels came to be the demons and seducing spirits we read about so much in the Old and New Testaments.[4] For that we turn to Revelation 12.1-9:
1 And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:
2 And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.
3 And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
4 And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.
5 And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.
6 And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.
7 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,
8 And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.
9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
Granting that this is a highly symbolic passage, we nevertheless can quite easily discern in it in verse 4 that Satan’s rebellion against God included subverting one-third of the angelic host to join in his rebellion. It is they; I am convinced, who comprise those now foul spirits here on earth that we refer to as demons. They, along with those presently consigned to the bottomless pit, who will be released during the Tribulation to wreak havoc (Revelation 9), will be judged by the Lord Jesus Christ at the time of His judgment of fallen angels.
Consider these five headings:
First, THE TIME OF CHRIST’S JUDGMENT OF THE FALLEN ANGELS
The Judgment Seat of Christ takes place just after the Rapture, near the beginning of the 70th week of Daniel. The judgments of the Old Testament saints, the Tribulation martyrs, the Jewish people who survive the Tribulation, and the Gentiles who survive the Tribulation, will take place after Christ’s second coming and before He establishes His millennial kingdom.
The judgment of the fallen angels, however, may very well take place a thousand years later, after the Millennium and before the Eternal State begins. The judgment of the fallen angels might occur just before the Great White Throne judgment or in conjunction with it. This judgment is referred to by Jude in verse 6 as the judgment of the great day:
“And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.”
This judgment probably occurs near Satan being cast into the lake of fire, the other fallen angels being far less noteworthy than Satan in the Biblical record, Revelation 20.10:
“And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.”
Next, THE PLACE OF CHRIST’S JUDGMENT OF THE FALLEN ANGELS
The place of this judgment is unknown. Since it is a judgment of angelic creatures it will probably be in the angelic realm or the angelic sphere, outside the boundaries of this physical realm in which our five senses are designed to function.
Third, THE PARTICIPANTS IN CHRIST’S JUDGMENT OF THE FALLEN ANGELS
Jude 6 provides valuable information:
“And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation.”
As well, Second Peter 2.4 is quite informative:
“For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment.”
I passed quickly over Revelation 9 a few moments ago, but I would like to revisit that portion of Scripture after first considering Genesis 6.2 and 4. I am of the opinion that there existed a hierarchy of angels in God’s original creation, with such angels as Lucifer, Gabriel, and Michael the archangel being significantly more intelligent, powerful, and glorious than most other angels. When Lucifer rebelled against God and persuaded so many angels to join in his rebellion, they, too, were angels of various rankings and degrees of intelligence, power, and glory. Some were correspondingly stronger, and others were significantly weaker. I am convinced that among those stronger fallen angels were some with incredible abilities, possessing capacities that were used against human beings and are described in Genesis 6. What were their capacities, these described as “sons of God?” To mate with human women to produce a race of hybrids. Genesis 6.2 and 4, in part, read,
2 they took them wives of all which they chose.
4 the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.
When God brought the Flood during Noah’s time, it was in part to destroy that race of half-human and half-angel hybrids. So, what did God do to those extremely powerful fallen angels who could never be slain by drowning? He consigned them to the bottomless pit.
Since the time of Noah’s Flood the most powerful of the fallen angels have remained captive in the bottomless pit, God sparing the human race the terrible ordeal of being subject to the assaults of those most powerful and vicious spiritual predators. After the Rapture, however, they will be loosed once more on the human race. Revelation 9.1-12 reveals their horrible assault on humanity during the Tribulation:
1 And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.
2 And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.
3 And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.
4 And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.
5 And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.
6 And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.
7 And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.
8 And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.
9 And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.
10 And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.
11 And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.
12 One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.
Those fallen angels will be corralled by the Lord Jesus Christ and judged when He returns in power and great glory at the time of His second coming, including not only those demons who presently torment and afflict those who do not flee to Christ in our day, but also those beastly spirits of astonishing power the likes of which no one on earth has seen since Noah’s Flood. I am so glad Christ will take me away in the Rapture, so I will never have to deal with such as they are.
Fourth, THE BASIS OF CHRIST’S JUDGMENT OF THE FALLEN ANGELS
The basis of Christ’s judgment of the fallen angels is not specifically stated, though J. Dwight Pentecost is surely correct in saying that it is “their one sin of following Satan in his rebellion against God.”[5] This is based on Isaiah 14.12-17 and Ezekiel 28.12-19, which we have already read.
The indictment of these fallen angels is that they “sinned” and “kept not their first estate.” As a result they have been confirmed in wickedness. Therefore, it seems that their judgment will be on the basis of their original rebellion against God and their misuse of the time granted by God to them from the time of their initial rebellion until the time of their judgment by Christ.
Finally, THE RESULTS OF CHRIST’S JUDGMENT OF THE FALLEN ANGELS
The Lord Jesus Christ’s judgment of the fallen angels will result in them being consigned to the lake of fire for torment throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity. I read what the Lord Jesus Christ said in Matthew 25.41:
“Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.”
Think about something with me. Revelation 20.10 informs us that “the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone.” Thus, if the most powerful being ever created was captured, judged, and consigned to an eternity in the lake of fire, there can be no doubt that every one of the other fallen angels, despite how formidable they might seem to be, will face the same fate.
Interesting, is it not, that while some people will stay awake at night or be troubled by terrible nightmares, imagining their future assaults by these ferocious beings during the Tribulation, they give no thought whatsoever to having to stand before the Lord Jesus Christ at the Great White Throne judgment, after which they will be tormented day and night for ever and ever?
That will be the topic of our next look at Christ’s judgments.
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[1] John 1.1-3; Colossians 1.16-17; 2.9
[2] Isaiah 14.12-15; Ezekiel 28.15-18; Revelation 12.3-9
[3] Genesis 6.2, 4; Job 1.6; 2.1; 38.7; John 1.12; Romans 8.14, 19; Philippians 2.15; 1 John 3.1, 2
[4] Leviticus 17.7; Deuteronomy 32.17; 2 Chronicles 11.15; Psalm 106.37; Matthew 4.24; 7.22; 8.16, 28, 8.31, 33; 9.34; 10.8; 12.24, 27, 28; Mark 1.32, 34, 39; 3.15, 22; 5.12; 6.13; 9.38; 16.9, 17; Luke 4.41; 8.2, 27, 30, 33, 35, 36, 38; 9.1, 49; 10.17; 11.15, 18, 19, 20; 13.32; 1 Corinthians 10.20-21; 1 Timothy 4.1; James 2.19; Revelation 9.20; 16.14
[5] J. Dwight Pentecost, Things To Come, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1958), page 423.
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Pastor@CalvaryRoadBaptist.Church