All right, we are in 1 Peter chapter three.
And we're going to pick up down near the end of the chapter and move forward from about verse 15, but let's begin with a word of prayer.
Gracious Father in heaven, we bow before your throne, grateful for the blessings that you give to us each and every day, grateful for the opportunities that we have to serve you,
the opportunities that we have to come before your throne seeking your grace.
your mercy and your forgiveness.
Lord, we are mindful of those who are struggling with illness, chronic illness, and with short-term and long-term diseases.
We pray that you will give each and every one of them strength to overcome the difficulties that they face on a daily basis.
We pray that you be with those who
have lost loved ones in recent days.
pray that you give them strength and comfort.
Lord, we pray that you watch over those who may be traveling and on the roads.
We especially pray for those who are teaching and doing mission work throughout the world.
We pray that they will have open doors of opportunity, and we pray also for open doors of opportunity for the gospel to be spread here in Collierville as well.
Help us to be equipped
Help us to be ready and help us to strive diligently to look and to seek the lost, knowing that that is the mission that your Son came here to fulfill.
All these things we ask and we pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Verse 15 of chapter 3, Peter writes, sanctify, that is set apart, the Lord God in your hearts.
And always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.
Having a good conscience.
that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed.
Peter makes the point that if your life, if your actions, and if your conscience remains in alignment with God,
that when individuals accuse you of doing wrong, having observed you only doing what is right, only doing what is good, the people they will have to argue to that you're doing
wrong will deny it.
How many times did it end up being the case where the Jews would come and they would bring the accusations against Paul, whether it be before Agrippa, whether it be before others,
and as they brought the accusations, there's no proof.
There's no evidence to back up the claim.
Furthermore, when the actual
events were provided by Paul in his own testimony concerning himself.
He established the fact that he had not only acted in a way that was good toward the nation, but had actually been serving the nation in bringing alms and gifts from the
Gentiles to the Jews.
It's pretty hard for a nation to argue that you ought to be imprisoned or killed when you're bringing gifts from another nation to the nation that wants to kill you.
And yet that's exactly what happened to Paul.
And one of the individuals, and I don't remember if it was a gripa, I think it was a gripa, but one of them said if it had not been the case that you had already appealed to
Caesar, I would release you right now.
Why?
Because the accusers had no basis upon which to have a foundation for their accusations.
Peter is pointing out that if you have the correct life, if you have set God as first in your life, if you behave towards others in a good conscience towards God,
While they may defame you, while they may lie about you, they're not going to have any substantive accusation to make against you.
Now then he says, verse 17, for it is better if it is the will of God to suffer for doing good than doing evil.
It's kind of a obvious statement when you step back and look at it, and yet it's one that we need to appreciate that Peter says it is a better thing.
It is
better in view of the will of God that you suffer for doing good than for doing evil.
Now, some may look at that and go, well, if I'm suffering either way, why is one better than the other?
So why is one better than the other?
All right, the eternal consequences, right?
If you suffer for doing evil, you're getting what you deserve.
And that action continues on into eternity.
And the recompense, the justice of God, if enacted upon you, you not having repented of the evil that you were doing, means that you're what?
Lost.
Now what happens if you suffer for doing good?
God says you have a reward waiting for you in heaven.
God makes it clear that He is observing and noting all the suffering that one goes through who is a child of His that does not deserve that.
And that He's keeping track.
And He has a reward and a blessing waiting for those who suffer for His namesake.
Because here's the thing.
When you suffer because you did wrong, whose fault is it?
Yours.
When you suffer for doing right in the eyes of God, who are you suffering for?
God.
And God realizes that.
So He says, for Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, by whom
also He went and preached to the spirits in prison.
who formerly being disobedient, when once the divine long-suffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared in which a few, that is eight souls, were saved
through water." There is also an anti-type which now saves us, baptism.
Not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to him." So, as you enter into this section, Peter says,
first, Christ is your example in suffering.
Further, Christ suffered for you.
When you look at what you're doing, you're suffering for God, God suffered for you first.
but also, he says, that Christ suffered for you the just for the unjust.
When we do good and we suffer for it, does that somewhat negate or not take into consideration the fact that we've not always done good?
mean, raise your hand if you've always done good.
No!
None of us are going to get to raise our hand.
Yet Christ could have.
So here, Peter says, you're doing good.
You suffer for it.
You have a reward waiting for you with God, but consider that Christ, who never once did evil.
suffered for the unjust that they might be redeemed.
He says, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive by the Spirit.
Was it the power of the flesh, the power of mankind that brought Christ back to life?
No.
It was the power of God.
If the power of God could bring Christ back to life, could the power of God kept Christ from dying?
Sure!
That tells us something, by the way, about God's will.
It tells us something about the fact that God does not always choose to do what he has the power to do.
We should never assume and we should never operate as though God, because God did not do something, he was unable.
to do something.
But that, again, shouldn't surprise us.
We do this every day.
We see this happen on a regular basis.
You've got a little toddler learning to walk, learning to pick things up, learning to operate.
And the little toddler walks up to something that in the toddler's mind thinks he ought to be able to pick up.
Only problem is the object is weighs more than he does.
Then he lifts.
Doesn't work.
Listen again.
Doesn't work.
Falls over.
There's mom standing right there.
Why didn't mom pick it up for him?
Just because you can, just because it would be easy for you, doesn't mean you should.
when a child begins going to school.
and they're learning math.
And they bring home that take-home test.
It's got all that basic addition on it.
Would it be easier for you to fill it out than for the child to fill it out?
You got your fingers and your toes available, yeah?
All right.
Two plus two is four.
Four plus four is well, I don't know, four plus, anyway.
Anyway, so it would have been easier for you to do it, for them to have to try and remember those math facts that they learned.
Just because you could do it doesn't mean you should do it.
God could have stopped Christ from dying.
Yet what is it that Jesus prayed?
Let this cup pass from me.
But not my will, but yours be done.
Peter as he's showing us this.
says.
It's better if it is the will of God to suffer for doing good than doing evil.
For Christ also suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.
When Jesus said, if it's possible, let this cup pass for me.
That was a recognition of there wasn't any other way to do this.
There is no other sacrifice that was sufficient.
Turn over to 1 John chapter 2.
In 1 John chapter 2, my little children, verse 1, these things I write to you so that you may not sin and if anyone sins we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, and how
is Jesus described here?
The righteous.
He's the just one.
He's the perfect one.
He is the one who is righteous in and of himself.
And yet we read, and he himself is the propitiation, the sufficient substitute sacrifice is what that means.
If you have a sacrifice that is a lamb without spot of the first year, is that a propitiation for sin?
Is it a sufficient substitute sacrifice?
No.
The Hebrew writer tells us in Hebrews chapter 8, the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin.
So, it's not sufficient.
It might be substitution, but it's not sufficient.
And so, John says he himself is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.
Now by this we know that we know him if we keep his commandments.
He who says I know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him.
But whoever keeps his word, truly the love of God is perfected in him.
By this we know that we are in him.
John points out that not only
is the love of God exemplified in Christ's The love of God is perfected in our obedience as a result of His sacrifice.
So Peter says, if you look at this, he says, Christ suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive
by the Spirit, by whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison.
Now, if you want a single verse that has more disagreement on it in 1 Peter than every other verse,
except maybe the one about baptism.
If you're taking the religious world, if you just want to take members of the church, you can have more disagreement on this one than any other verse in 1st Peter.
It's this one.
Who is the he in the verse, by whom also he?
Who's that?
Jesus, okay, contextually, Christ suffered and he went, okay, so the antecedent is Christ.
He went and preached to the spirits in prison.
What spirits in what prison?
I'm sorry, I'm back in 1 Peter.
1 Peter chapter 3 verse 19, by whom also he, Christ, went and preached to the spirits in prison.
What spirits in what prison?
Huh?
No?
Let's look a little further.
Who formerly were disobedient when once the divine long-suffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is eight souls, were saved
through water.
All right, so let's put a few things together.
In whatever view he has, Peter is talking about a context
of Genesis 6, okay?
Go back to Genesis chapter 5 and we're gonna look at the end of Genesis 5, the beginning of Genesis 6.
Genesis chapter 5 beginning in verse 19.
After he begot Enoch, Jared lived 800 years and had sons and daughters.
So all the days of Jared were 962 years and he died.
Enoch lived 65 years and begot Methuselah.
After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and had sons and daughters.
So all the days of Enoch were 365 years.
and Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.
Methuselah lived 187 years and begot Lamech.
After he begot Lamech, Methuselah lived 782 years and had sons and daughters.
So all the days of Methuselah were 969 years and he died.
Lamech lived 182 years and had a son,
He called his name Noah, saying, This one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord has cursed.
After he begot Noah, Lamech lived 595 years and had sons and daughters.
So all the days of Lamech were 777 years and he died.
And Noah was 500 years old and Noah begot Shem, Ham and Japheth.
Now it came to pass when men began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were beautiful.
They took wives for themselves of all whom they chose.
And the Lord said, My spirit shall not strive with a man forever, for indeed he is flesh.
Yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years." There were giants on the earth in those days and also afterward
When the sons of God came into the daughters of men and they bore children to them, those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth and was grieved in his heart."
So the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and bees creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.
But Noah found grace in the eyes of Lord." Okay?
As you look through this text, first, you see a prison anywhere?
Do you see perhaps a metaphorical prison anywhere or shall I say spiritual prison?
Life?
All right, the souls, so if we just, because again, we're just thinking through this because this is not one of those easy passages to come to and just, that's what you're
talking about.
So one idea, the prison of life, you know, here are these people who lived these really long ages and yet were they surrounded by great, good, wholesome things?
No, they turned into individuals who lived really long lives of sin and wickedness, continually.
All right?
You also have possibility number two, the population of the earth, all of which died except eight, right?
They died in the flood, okay?
So you could have in a metaphysical sense,
the grave seen as a prison, right?
Those who died are in the grave, can they come out of the grave?
Can they be, no, okay?
So there's another idea.
Third one, every thought of their heart was only evil continually.
How hard is it to overcome your own mind?
How hard is it to overcome a culture entirely given over to sin at a mental level?
where every generation teaches the next generation to be incredibly wicked from the very thoughts of their heart.
The only way I can help people grasp this...
is to take an event like the Nazi mindset in World War II, where they taught their people and influenced their people to consider an entire ethnic group to be so without value.
that they would do anything to them without any conscience, without any thought about it whatsoever.
Line them up and shoot a whole bunch of machine guns into them and bury them naked and steal all their stuff.
When you have a culture that has embraced evil at its death,
You have not yet even begun to glimpse the evil of Noah's day.
Because it wasn't just a culture, was it?
Who was involved in this evil in Noah's day?
every single individual on the planet except Noah and his wife.
Now, is that environment a spiritual prison?
Try to grow up and free yourself from that prison.
Try to grow up and be a good person.
What are the odds?
Heh zero.
yet watch this.
So let's go back.
By the way, we generally notate that there were eight that were saved in the flood, which is accurate.
But at the time that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, his three sons had not even been born.
His sons were not even yet alive when Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, which gives you the likelihood of Noah and his wife as the only two faithful people to God on
the entire planet when Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
Yep, yes it would.
That would be called evangelism.
All right, so go back to the text, 1 Peter chapter 3.
So we've got some ideas.
Number one, those who died in the flood.
All right, some scenario where Peter has in mind those who died in the flood.
We have another scenario where we have those who...
those who were living such long lives and life was viewed as a prison.
We have another scenario where the sin of the world had so ensnared everyone that they were imprisoned to sin.
Okay?
Those were three different ideas.
I'm not saying those are the only three, but those are three different ideas.
So, he went and preached to the spirits in prison.
who formerly were disobedient when once the divine long-suffering waited in the days of Noah.
So whatever we have here, we have a discussion about those who were alive during the time where God was long-suffering in the days of Noah.
How long?
Do we believe Noah took to build the ark?
a hundred to a hundred twenty years.
likely 100.
That's best guess.
About 100 years for no one to build the art.
The context and the wording tells us that there was something going on for a hundred years.
Now, we will elsewhere be told that Noah was a preacher of righteousness.
So while Noah is building the ark, Noah is also telling the people.
He's telling them about what's coming.
He's telling them about the judgment of God.
I would imagine so.
The text doesn't tell us so, but were there any of them on the ark?
There's no scenario where...
we look at humanity, especially humanity totally inundated and given over to evil, where none of them actually submitted to God as of the time that the flood arrived and think,
well, certainly they believed Noah or they gave him any serious consideration, yet Noah taught them.
All right, so let's go back and let's go one more time.
Being put to death in the flesh,
but made alive by the Spirit, by whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison." Now, the term spirits here, does the term spirits always have to mean someone who's
already dead?
No.
We have many occasions where someone's spirit is spoken of.
And yet this is a living person, right?
Because they have a spirit within them.
So there are texts, there are times where spirits are spoken of referring to people alive.
So if the prison is not the grave, then could the people under consideration be people who are alive and in some either spiritual or physical sense be in prison?
Sure.
Also, another thought, if all the world was evil, and all those who are in control of the world were evil, if there happened to be any righteous people, where do you think the evil
people would have put them?
That's the pretty good standard answer.
If you did have any righteous people, the wicked people would imprison them because every ruler would have been evil.
Every person in power would have been evil.
What do people who are evil, who are in power, tend to do with people who are righteous?
Prison them or kill them.
So you have also the possibility that God ministered to
those who could have been righteous but did not live until the flood.
What I'm throwing out here is, I'm not telling you I know what the passage means.
I'm telling you here are all scenarios that we could look at and understand some idea of what it is Peter's talking about.
What we do know is these individuals, whoever they were, were formerly
disobedient.
you catch that?
They were formerly disobedient while the divine long-suffering waited in the days of Noah.
Huh!
Whoever these are, these are individuals who were disobedient.
By use of the term formerly, that means they're what?
No longer disobedient and were alive when the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah.
All right, so hold on to this.
If the prison is the spiritual sinful culture of the world in Noah's day, and if Noah, a righteous preacher of God and righteousness, actually had converted individuals during
that hundred years,
then why weren't they on the ark?
Hmm?
Might not have been room for them.
I mean, if you've got room for dinosaurs, you've probably got room for people, but...
Hold on, wait a minute, Eric asked me a question just a minute ago.
Wouldn't it be interesting to know where the sons' lives came from?
Where do you think you find three righteous women?
How about from families that were formerly disobedient?
but listen to a preacher of righteousness.
Say, okay, I'll give you that one.
So why aren't the parents on the ark?
Hey, they didn't live that long.
You ever know anybody to die in 100 years?
Yeah, mean even old people.
So is there not the possibility given the text that the people who were not righteous when you read in Genesis 6 that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, by the way it doesn't
say Noah and his wife, it says Noah.
that there were people who from that point through the next hundred years heard Noah, received the message of Noah, were obedient to the message of Noah, and repented of their
disobedience to God, the result of which was a righteous wife for Noah and righteous wives for the children of Noah, but that those individuals other than
then those four didn't live until the flood and died before it.
I think that's an answer.
It's the least of possibility.
It fits with all of the words.
All right?
Now notice, he went and preached to the spirits in prison who were formerly disobedient when the divine long-suffering waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being
prepared.
All So now we know exactly the time frame of the long-suffering.
It is while the ark was being what?
prepared.
Whatever scenario we're dealing with didn't happen, and this is what I want us to appreciate.
Whatever scenario we're dealing with did not happen in the first century when Jesus died on the cross.
Whatever scenario we're dealing with is an example from the Old Testament of the work of Christ
during the days the Ark was being prepared.
in a time when the righteous person on the earth was suffering, most likely being defamed, being mal-accused as a result of his righteousness and not his wrongfulness.
So whatever scenario we're dealing with, we're dealing with a scenario where Christ is acting on behalf of Noah and those who would hear and obey Noah in a time when Noah was
righteous and no one else was, while the ark was being prepared.
So we know that much because that's what the text plainly says.
Notice he says, in which a few
That is, eight souls were saved through what?
water.
I've always been under the assumption that salvation happened through the boat.
So.
Here's why I think the prison is sin.
Here's why I think the prison is this culture of sin.
The boat saved Noah from death.
but what saved Noah from that wicked world?
Correct.
The water.
God's action in destroying the world saved Noah from the iniquity of the world.
So we often come to this passage and say, all right, so what we're talking about is that Noah was saved alive from the flood.
We think of the flood as the thing he needed to be saved from.
That was not the thing he needed to be saved from.
Noah was not saved from the flood in this context.
Noah was saved from the world willing to kill everything righteous.
and he was saved through the flood.
It was the flood, it was the water that saved him and those other souls.
Because it was the flood, it was the water that destroyed that wicked world.
Okay?
Now if we were to just parse the text and just not anything into it, that's where we're at.
that Peter's saying, you want to be saved from the wickedness of the world?
You want to be saved like Noah was from those who would accuse you of evil when all you've done is righteousness?
Who would defame you when all you've done is to their good?
What was Noah trying to do by preaching righteousness?
Kill him?
SAVE THEM!
Did they listen?
No.
Do you think they just ignored him?
Probably not.
If somebody tells you that you're living in a wicked way and that you need to repent before God and yet every thought of your heart is only evil continually, do you think that
you might have had an evil thought about killing said person and even tried?
Good chance.
If you didn't, one of the other entire population of the planet might have.
You think Memphis is bad?
Now Peter says, there's also an anti-type which now saves us.
Is the anti-type, in other words, if you have a type and an anti-type, a shadow and the real thing, is the type from the Old Testament the boat or the water?
It's the water, not the boat.
He says there's an anti-type which now saves us.
Baptism, not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Peter's telling you Christ was involved in Noah's day.
and through His resurrection He died for you, He was a sacrifice for you, He was buried for you, He was brought back to life so that you may have life through His resurrection.
You're made alive and you have escaped the wickedness of the world.
But what did you have to have in order to be obedient to the command of baptism?
According to the text, it is the answer of a what?
good conscience toward God.
See the contrast?
A good conscience can be pricked, can hear the word of God, can realize the wrong that is done, and change.
That's what Saul Tarsus did, He had a good conscience toward God until that day, even though he had been doing wrong.
So his conscience allowed him to repent.
What about an evil conscience?
Evil conscience doesn't accuse you when you've done wrong.
An evil conscience doesn't allow you to repent.
An evil conscience is hardened.
It's kind of like Pharaoh in Egypt.
All the things that should have proven that he should have changed only convinced him to be more evil.
Sound like a prison to you?
So maybe the prison was the evil conscience of the world.
And there were some who though formerly disobedient escaped from that evil conscience by the preaching of Noah.
And there were eight who escaped that evil world through the flood.
All right?
There's some thoughts to think about.
Thank you for your attention.