All right, as the young folks are going downstairs for junior church, 1 Peter 3. And while you're turning there, just want to mention that Gary is back. Good to have him back from Florida. And he has a young man named Aaron with him who's going to be spending some time with Gary. So you want to make Aaron Phil. I'm not trying to embarrass him, but he's right here. Just so you wonder. We are in chapter 3. We're going to read beginning in verse 18 in just a moment. Let me just say up front, the beauty of preaching through books is that you touch upon every topic in the Bible over time. There's also another benefit of teaching through books, and that is there are certain passages that are more difficult for us to interpret. And from the standpoint of preaching, why would we ever choose to go to a passage that's going to be a little more difficult for us to work through, and even then we might get to the end and say, okay, moving on. Well, today's passage contains a portion of verses that are a little more difficult for us. And I'm hoping, I'll say more about that in a moment, but just kind of setting it up for you as I read, you can be asking yourself, what would be tricky about this passage? What is in these verses that might make us scratch our heads a little bit? I think when I begin reading, if you aren't already aware, you'll be able to connect the dots and say, oh, I've always wondered about that. So we're going to deal with it because that's the next portion of the passage. But I hope that I can set it in the proper biblical light so we can understand why it's here and what its function by the Holy Spirit's direction should be for us, what the application is, even if we may not fully comprehend all of what's here until we get to heaven. One day we'll be able to look at this and say, what was difficult about that? But we do wrestle a little bit now. Here is the title of my message today. The impact of a lived out trust. I know that's just kind of make you wait, what did he say? the impact of a lived out trust. Now, to be more succinct, suffering provides opportunity for witness. That's really encapsulated. That is the message for the day. Suffering provides opportunity for witness. So, I'll draw your attention here to verse 18. And we will begin reading and read through the end of the chapter, verse 22. For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust. It's not starting off well here, is it? Randall mentioned Praying for his voice, I could have said, he too. All right, let's get one more cough drop in my mouth. All right, and then we'll start over. For Christ also, hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison, which sometime were disobedient when once the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah while the ark was a preparing wherein few, that is eight souls, were saved by water. The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is gone into heaven and is on the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him. Let's pray together. Our Father, we are very grateful for the opportunity we have to gather with the fellow redeemed sons and daughters of God. Lord, there's no place I would rather be than with your people on the Lord's Day morning, where we can come together, where we can lift up our voices together in praise, where we can commune together in the word of God and seek to honor you both in looking for the understanding of the passage, but the application of the passage to our lives today. Father, thank you for the men and women who were here. I pray your blessing upon them, and I pray your blessing upon our study of your word today. And Lord, this is a passage that is problematic, a passage that there is not full agreement upon in some areas, And yet the overall purpose of the passage I think is very clear. Lord, grant us the ability to see that this morning and then help us to make that application. Lord, I trust that by your grace, my voice will remain strong and that it will not become a distraction. So Lord, may you bless our time in your word. May it prove profitable for us individually, as families, as a church family. May Christ be lifted up and exalted in our midst today, we pray in Christ's name and for His sake. Amen. So as we come to this passage, what we find happening here very simply is this. Peter is giving us an illustration. That's really what we find here. This is an illustration. Peter is illustrating what he has just taught. He has been teaching us, we've been talking about, how you and I are called to be a witness to a hostile world. And having talked about that, really beginning all the way back in verse 8, we began thinking about that overall theme, Then you get to verse 18 and Peter says, well let me give you an illustration of what I'm talking about. Let me see if this will help you to understand it so you can get the point. So he is here reminding us that we are called to bear witness in a hostile world, but he wants us to gain the additional insight that though we may suffer in this life, and thus in our suffering provide a testimony for Christ, there will come a day when our faith will be vindicated. There will come a day when the promises of God to us as believers will come to full fruition. That day is coming. So, here's the example. The main example is the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter is reminding us that He suffered. that his unjust suffering resulted in witness, but that he was vindicated through his resurrection and through his ascension to the right hand of God. Another illustration here is Noah. So he mentions Noah. Noah is a man who bore witness to a hostile world. I think we all get that, right? because he, his wife, his sons, and his daughters-in-law were the only ones left standing following the flood because of the protection on the ark. So Peter's readers, this is the challenge, you have the example of the Lord Jesus Christ who suffered the just for the unjust. You have the example of Noah who suffered his witness to a hostile world. So too, we should be willing to bear witness through baptism We'll say more about that toward the end of the message, but this is really the heart of what Peter is saying here, that his readers, the men and women of his day to whom baptism was a much greater, obedient, act than perhaps for us today because there was a cost often associated with it, so he is challenging them that they should bear witness through baptism even if it meant persecution, knowing again that in the end their faith would be vindicated. is we also, like Jesus, have an opportunity through suffering to be a witness. That's the overall point, but as you go through the passage, the details become increasingly complex. Commentators acknowledge that these are some of the most difficult verses in the New Testament to interpret. It's been said that this is perhaps speaking of verse 19 said, each of the words has been differently understood. That it's just one of those passages that you read it and you come back and say, wait, what did that say? And you read it again and you say, well, I'm not sure I get it. What is he saying? The overall viewpoint, and this is what I'm striving in our message today to help us understand. When you take a bird's eye view, So when we back up from the passage and we take the bird's eye view, the overall point really is clear and not one that we would debate. The overall point is since Christ forewitnessed through His suffering So too, God's people can bear witness through suffering as we trust God. So he's still talking about the same overall theme. You see that when you see the word for here in verse 18. That word is connecting it. It's not saying, hey, starting a new paragraph. And by the way, verse 18 starts a new paragraph. But it's not a new paragraph that's just starting a whole new thing. He is saying, because of what we just talked about, let me add something else. And so that's what's happening here. He is adding this point. Christ bore witness through suffering. So, too, you and I, as the children of God, in suffering, we have an opportunity to bear witness to Him, and we do so as we trust Him. That even in the midst of suffering, we trust that the promises of God will be fulfilled. So, having set that as the background, Let's look at this. There are two main points. The first main point is Christ bore witness through suffering. We've said that, and so that will be the first main point. He bore witness through suffering. He was vindicated through His resurrection and through His ascension to heaven. Now, there are a few thoughts when we think about how He suffered, how He bore witness through suffering. First of all, He suffered unjustly on our behalf. This is the part of the passage that is unambiguous, is clear, it should be a blessing and encouragement to our hearts. This is verse 18. He suffered unjustly on our behalf." Again, you'll note the verse starts with the word for, so he is connecting what he has been talking about to what he is about to say. He is explaining what preceded, namely that we may suffer for doing what is right as a means of bearing witness. Back in chapter 2, verses 21 through 25, he pointed us to Christ as our chief example. You'll notice the third word here in verse 18 is the word also. So again, he is connecting ideas here. He is reminding us that Christ is our chief example. We should look to Him when we are asking the question, how should I navigate this world? How should I live in a hostile world? What should be my life in light of the hostility that sometimes and historically Christians have faced? Now we've commented that you and I We bemoan how persecuted we feel as Christians, but the reality is we do a disservice to Christians who have lived down through the centuries who would give anything if they could live in the same circumstances in which you and I live. We bemoan how we suffer, but as we talked three weeks ago, we haven't even begun to suffer for the Lord Jesus Christ. Not really. But, that being the case, that shouldn't diminish the reality that sometimes we do feel and there are examples of real persecution. I read yesterday, and this is just to kind of highlight how you and I can perhaps miss the point in some of what these passages are saying. I read yesterday in Kenya, East Africa, a pastor led three Muslims to the Lord. Isn't that wonderful? Three Muslims came to know Christ because of the witness of a pastor, who then, he and his family were murdered because they led three Muslims to the Lord. You and I don't know what it's like to live in that kind of circumstance, do we? But that is the circumstance into which Peter is writing. It is the fear of those kinds of things that not every Christian was suffering in that day. But there were enough of them suffering martyrdom that it was a constant threat, right? This is before we get to Trajan in around 112 A.D. who, as the emperor proclaimed when it came to Christians, they had a choice to recant their faith in this Jesus of Nazareth or to die. It wasn't that every Christian in every year of the Roman Empire was killed, but it meant that there was a threat that it could happen at any time. That's the context. So into that context, Peter is saying, how do you live in this kind of world? You need to look at Christ. But then he takes us beyond Christ's example to the uniqueness of His substitutionary death. He is an example of being a witness in a hostile world. We wouldn't argue that. But then there is a sense in which we cannot emulate the Lord Jesus Christ. And we cannot emulate Him in the uniqueness of His substitutionary death for us. That is the function of verse 18. The overall effect is to urge us to imitate Christ, but to show us there is a point where the imitation stops. We must bow before Christ, who alone is exalted above all. So Peter is linking His suffering readers with the Savior who suffered on their behalf. Christ's suffering involved the just for the unjust, that is, the righteous for the unrighteous. Right away, we see that Christ is our example in suffering, but He's more than our example. Christ is just. He is righteous. He is the only one who is just. He is the only one who is righteous. The reality is we do sometimes, if we don't give voice to it, we feel a sense of, well, this just isn't fair. I don't deserve, you know, you can fill in the blank, right? Don't raise your hands. You ever feel that way? You ever feel like, you know, something happened and it's just not fair? Well, we are actually making a mistake in judging by the wrong standard. Because oftentimes we look around us and we see other people, right? And we look and say, well, you know, this isn't fair because I'm a good person. You know, I don't do drugs like that person. You know, maybe I'm not an alcoholic like that person. You know, I've never murdered anybody. I mean, you could fill in the blank, right? I'm a good person. I'm not like that guy or that girl. But again, it's the wrong standard. We will not be judged before God by whether we were better than someone else, because the reality is, we all ultimately are the same before a holy God. Because the real standard is the absolute holiness of God Himself. If we would compare ourselves with His absolute righteousness, then we would see what we are. Every one of us, apart from our relationship to God in Christ, is a sinner. Every one of us who is a redeemed child of God is a sinner saved by grace. We are not better than, we are not superior to anybody. And so we cannot be guilty of that false thinking that says, this is not fair because I'm better than that guy. I am a sinner saved by grace. Thank God for His mercy and grace that I enjoy in my life. Whatever difficulties I may have in my life, I cannot be guilty of thinking I don't deserve it. I live in a sin-cursed world, and I am just as subject to the effects of that curse as anyone else who lives in this world. That's why when there are hurricanes, Christians and churches are just as affected as those who are not Christians and who go to other kinds of places. because we all are subject to whatever the curse brings into this world, but we're looking for a better world, aren't we? We're looking for a city whose builder and maker is God. Of course, we could park here for a while, and that would be a much better conversation, perhaps, in many ways, to think about what God has in store for us, as best as we can imagine it to be. But at the end of the day, We can only look forward to what God has prepared for us because of the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us, just for the unjust. So rather than compare ourselves with other people, we need to acknowledge who we are. that we have fallen short of the mark, that we are unrighteous and only Jesus Christ is righteous. And God in His perfect justice cannot shrug off our sin, but He took our sin and He put it on Jesus Christ, the righteous, and He bore our sin, He bore the penalty that you and I deserved on the cross, that He might, and I want you to notice this phrase here in verse 18, that He might bring us to God. Now, there's such beauty in many of these phrases that we might miss if we don't really spend time thinking our way through it. This particular word that is translated here, bring us to God, in Greek literature, so other than the New Testament, used in the literature of the Greek world of the day, the word translated bring us to is a word that was used in a particular context. It was used in the context of someone being admitted into the presence of the great king. So there's a certain technical aspect of this word. You're being given entrance into the presence of the great king. Think of it this way. You could not just simply walk in and say, oh hey king, how you doing? That's not the way the ancient world worked. You had to be given permission to come into the presence of the king and you had to be announced as you came into the presence of the King. And that's exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for us. He has the authority to bring us into the presence of God. And He is the one who is announcing us into God's presence. Father, here is Dana, one of my redeemed. That should put a smile on our faces, folks, because that's what this verse is saying. We are being brought into the presence of the great King. We have been brought into the presence of God Himself. But I want you to notice again, He has once suffered four sins, verse 18 says. Not only are we reconciled to God and allowed into His presence, But it's a once for all deal. Once for all. His death was sufficient to pay for all the sins that you and I have ever committed or will ever commit. Isn't that true? He died for my sin. All of my sin. There is no necessity for Jesus to be continually hung on the cross and crucified again and again and again. There are those in this world who are today and have for centuries celebrated a service called the Mass, where literally, by their teaching, Jesus is crucified again. But that is not what the Bible says. His death was sufficient. The book of Hebrews makes this point repeatedly and with great emphasis. Contrasted with the repeated sacrifices of animals in the Old Covenant, we have the once-for-all sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Hebrews 10, the first 18 verses. It would be a wonderful place for you to spend some time meditating through those verses. The point is this. If you have put your trust in Christ, then your sins are on Him. You have been reconciled to God once for all. Let me put it this way. God wants every believer to come to a place of full assurance. You can, as a believer, have full assurance. Why? Because you understand it's not who you are. It's not what you have done or will do. It's not because of a spark of divinity or a little bit of good. It is because my salvation, your salvation, is absolutely and totally founded upon the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's who He is, and it's what He accomplished, and it's the fact that He is my High Priest who ever lives to make intercession for me. I am a child of God because I believe the promise of God that whosoever calleth upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. No works. There's nothing that I can do to earn it. There's nothing I can do to keep it. Jesus took my sin, all that I have committed and any that I may yet commit. Now that's not a license to go live however I want to live, but it is a reminder that we are not saved even a little bit. through our own works. In fact, one preacher, when he was working through this passage, he made reference to the words of a song that you and I know well, and I've kind of had it bouncing around in my head the last few days thinking about it. Because it's a song born out of tragedy. It's a song born out of suffering. It is a song written by a man who lost his business in the Chicago fire, and then who lost his children, his son, and then later his daughters, through a shipwreck. And he wrote these words. following all of His loss. My sin, O the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin, not in part, but the whole, is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul." Do you recognize that song? It is well written by a gentleman named Horatio Spafford. And that is true for you and me. My sin, not in part but the whole, was nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more. We have reason to praise the Lord, don't we? We have reason to thank God. Thank God that He saved a sinner like me. Can you say that? Can you say thank God for saving a sinner like you? And thank God that He keeps us and that we have security in our salvation and assurance that one day, though we may suffer in this world for Him, one day He will call us home. And one day we will be with Him. Some of us will get there sooner than others. But by the grace of God, we're all going to be in His presence. Our sin, not in part, but the whole. Now, honestly, we could just stop there and say, isn't this a great passage? This is wonderful. But it's only part of what Peter is saying. And remember, the context of it is Jesus suffered unjustly on our behalf. And then the second point beginning in verse 19, He bore witness through His suffering. So remember, bird's eye view. We are called to be a witness for God to an unjust, hostile world. And in that witness, some of us may be called to suffer. Illustration. Remember, Jesus suffered unjustly for us. and He bore witness through His suffering." So, bird's eye view, what is the point that Peter is making? What is the point the Holy Spirit is driving home to the early church that is still true for us today? We are witnessing in a hostile world, and we may suffer in that world, but Jesus is an example of one who suffered, and He gave witness through His suffering. That brings us to the verse 19, by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison. Now if we had more time, we might begin asking, okay, what does that mean? And we could just sort of bounce it around the room. What does it mean that Jesus went and preached to the spirits in prison? Do you have a good grasp of what that means? Or is this one of those verses you just sort of read and say, oh, okay, and then you sort of move on, right? It's in the passage, but understand, bird's eye view, what is the point that Peter is driving home? That we may be called through our suffering to be a witness. suffered unjustly, but in doing so, he bore witness through his suffering." But we have this obscure statement that in doing so, he preached to the spirits in prison. Now, I'm going to borrow three questions that someone else asked to try to diagnose this passage. So I didn't come up with these three questions, but I think they're good, valid questions that can help us think through it. I'm going to say this up front. I don't want to spend a lot of time beating on this, and I also want to be clear that when I say, this is what I think is happening, I'm not dogmatic. Because this is a passage that when trying to describe what it means, verses 19 and 20, it's difficult for us really to grasp. So I'm not saying, this is what it means and you must agree to it because I said so. I'm saying, this is how we try to diagnose it. These are some questions we can use. And I'm going to give you some conclusions I've come to, but I might change my mind tomorrow. But it's not changing anything fundamental about what the Bible says. And it doesn't change the point of the passage. One other thing I want to share with you here. And this is important. When we read obscure passages, you have to always remember that we interpret the obscure by the clear. Now you understand what I mean by that. I mean this is just a very basic way we approach the interpretation of Scripture. There are certain truths that are absolutely clearly taught in the Bible. No obscure passage will contradict any of those clear teachings. So when we come to something that is not clear, we have to interpret it in light of what God has clearly stated. I hope that makes sense. It's very basic, a very fundamental rule that we use when it comes to interpretation. So whatever this passage is teaching, it is not contradicting things that we are clearly taught in the Word of God. Now having said that, There are conclusions we can come to that may not be contradicting something else taught in the Word of God, but it also may not be taught anywhere else in the Word of God, and therein lies the problem. We never create doctrine based on an obscure passage. Let me say that again. We never create a doctrine based solely upon an obscure passage. So we can read this and we can say, hmm, this is interesting, and we may discuss how we think it works, but let's take the bird's eye view. Peter isn't giving this passage to give us some deep teaching about something that Jesus did either following His death, before His resurrection, or in His ascension, or both. He is talking about Jesus suffered unjustly for us and in His suffering He bore witness and you and I as God's children are bearing witness to a hostile world and we may be called to suffer as we bear witness for Him. That our suffering gives us an opportunity to bear witness. Okay? I keep beating that because If you leave this morning and you remember nothing else, I want you to remember that point because that's really the bird's eye view. That is the point. Now, let's get to the three questions. Here are the three questions. To whom did Jesus bear this witness? He bore witness. To whom? What did He proclaim? When it says that He preached under the spirits, it doesn't tell us what He preached. And then thirdly, when did He bear this witness? All right, there are three main groups of interpretations. Again, I'm not trying to set up a debate here, but I'm just being fair with you to explain there are three main views, and then there are sub-views under those. So I'm going to throw these out. I'm not trying to confuse you, but just so you're introduced to the idea. Number one. Verse 18, this is the first interpretation. Christ went down to Hades, the realm of the dead, during the interval between His death and His resurrection, and He preached to Noah's contemporaries, to the men and women who died in the flood. That's one school of thought. That is further subdivided to that He gave a second offer of salvation to those who perished in the flood? I see some people going, what? Good for you. That's my point about you don't have anything contradicting what God's Word clearly teaches. Those who take that view are taking a leap to something that contradicts the clear teaching of Scripture, right? Another subdivision. He announced judgment to those who died in the flood. Okay, well that's possible. But again, we don't know. And thirdly, that he announced salvation to those already saved, which would carry the idea that everybody that lived before the flood is in that place, and Jesus came and said, okay, most of you, you're lost, but you and you and you and you and you knew me, now you can come with me. Again, could that have happened? But is that going beyond what the scripture says? But there are those who hold that. Number two. The second interpretation is that this is a reference to the pre-incarnate Christ. Now remember we've talked about pre-incarnate Christ, right? What is pre-incarnate? At Christmas we talk about the incarnation. That is God in the flesh. So pre-incarnate would be Christ in an appearance on the earth in bodily form, but not flesh. when he came into this world and was born as Jesus. So that thought is a pre-incarnate Christ is through Noah preaching to Noah's contemporaries. So it happened all the way back before the flood, Jesus speaking through Noah to the people of his day. Okay, that sounds like it could be, right? But again, is there anything in this passage that says that's what's happening? Number three, Christ proclaimed His victory on the cross to the fallen angels. This group is subdivided into those who say it happened at His resurrection or it took place at His ascension. Now, that's the overview. Have I confused you? Are you saying, that's all in that little verse? Well, I'm not saying it's all in that little verse, but the controversy, the debate back and forth comes from the words in verse 19. So, let's try to answer these questions. To whom did He bear witness? Well, you'll notice it says in verse 20, the spirits in prison which sometime were disobedient when once the longsuffering of God away in the days of Noah. This idea, the spirits who were once disobedient in the days of Noah. Now this is where I'm going to introduce you to what I think. This is my opinion. You can agree with me or not agree with me. We're not going to have an argument about it. at least from my view. I'll say, you know, you're probably right. If you disagree with me, that's fine. I think the word spirits in the New Testament generally, practically always refers to non-human spiritual beings and less qualified. So not people, but spirits, like fallen angels perhaps. These spirits are in prison. I take that to refer to demons who influence the terrible wickedness before the flood. And in judgment, they have been put in that place. 2 Peter 2, Jude 6. So I don't understand Peter here to be referring to Christ preaching through Noah to his contemporaries. Some say these demons...well, I'll skip that. There's a lot more we could get into about these demons, but we would be here for another two hours and still not come to any real conclusions. But we can say this. These demons influenced people then, just as they do now, but I think perhaps they had a greater influence because... They're in prison now, most of them. When God judged the world through the flood, He also judged these demonic forces over Satan through the cross. Number two, what did He proclaim? It says that He preached. Again, an interesting word. This is not the word that Peter uses when he talks about a proclamation of the gospel. Like in chapter 1, chapter 4, a number of different verses, it's a different word. The idea that Christ would give an offer of salvation to souls who have already died is unbiblical. Hebrews 9.27, it is appointed unto man once to die and after this to judgment. There are no second chances. That's why the Bible says today is the day of salvation. There is no second chance. You die without Christ, you're without Christ for eternity. That's what the Bible teaches, so any interpretation of this that says otherwise is not following the Bible. I understand that Christ proclaimed His victory over sin, death, and Satan to the fallen angels who had been confined to that place. Number three, when did this happen? Well, that depends on how you interpret the phrase, "...put to death in the flesh, made alive in the Spirit." If these are parallel, then the meaning is, "...he was killed, in his resurrected sphere he went and made proclamation." Connecting the verb, "...went," in verse 19 or verse 22, and I'm going quickly now, it's concluded that his ascension to the risen Christ made this proclamation. If you take, "...in the Spirit to be by the Holy Spirit," there are no capital letters in the Greek, then Peter would be referring to the Holy Spirit as the agent. The passive voice may lend something to that view. Ephesians 4, verses 8 and 9 talks about Christ descending into the lower parts of the earth, leading captivity. Captive it is ascension. All of what that may mean, we would see the ascension would be perhaps part of this. So, I lean toward the view that between His death and His resurrection, He went to this place, He proclaimed His victory to those who were there, and then His ascension further displayed that proclamation. You may or may not agree with me, but that's how I try to work through this passage. Hopefully I haven't confused you, but we can't skip it, right? It's in the Bible. I couldn't say, let's just forget about these two verses here and move on to the next. So, it's not really clear, but again, we back up to the bird's eye view. What is the purpose for Peter including this? He suffered unjustly for our sins. He witnessed. He provided a witness through that suffering. You and I are to be a witness to a hostile world, and sometimes in God's providence, as we suffer, we are given an opportunity for an even greater witness. That's the bird's eye view. That is the big picture. So don't get lost in these details that we may not be fully able to comprehend, When we get to heaven, we can gather one day on one of the corners of the streets of gold, and we can say, do you remember when we used to talk about this and scratch our heads? Now we understand it. That'll be a glorious day. Should we make an appointment? How about three million years from now? Something like that. We won't really measure time like that there. Third point. He was vindicated through His resurrection and ascension. Of course, you see that when you go on through the passage. Who has gone into heaven is on the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers being subject to Him. The bottom line here is He has been raised, He has been exalted, all spiritual power made subject to Him. Hebrews 2, we may not yet see all things subject to Him, but that day is going to happen. 2 Peter. There are scoffers who are going to say, where's the promise of His coming? Since the fathers fell asleep, all men continue as they were. And the scripture says, God is patient. Just like in the days of Noah, 120 years. Every time Noah cut a piece of wood or put another nail into that ark, there was a proclamation that God was sending judgment. And it came. But God was patient. They had 120 years to heed the warning. That generation didn't. The day is coming when Christ will be exalted and every knee will bow and every tongue confess. Until that day comes, there is opportunity for your friends, for my friends, for your family, for my family, for our co-workers, for our neighbors. We need to be witnesses to them during this time while there is opportunity. Because the day will come when that opportunity will be lost. That brings me to my final point. I said we'd come back to baptism. And here we are. We can bear witness through suffering and trust God. So again, Peter here implies that we bear witness through suffering in two ways, through baptism and then through the lives that we live. And I'm going to go through this fairly quickly because I don't think I need to spend a lot of extra time on it, but it is important. Number one, we bear witness through baptism. What was happening? The reason that Peter wrote this in this way, I think, is I think it's fair to say there were likely Christians who confessed Christ and baptized and they suffered because of their baptism. Remember, baptism was a little different back then than today, isn't it? I mean, behind me we have a baptism. I mean, a week from today, those flowers will be removed and we'll be in the water there. It's in-house. It's right here. We're all together. Presumably, it'll be warmer. But you know, back in this day, where would they conduct a baptism service? At the lake or the river. or they might have to dam up the creek to get enough water so they could have enough water so that they could have a baptism service. The point is it was outdoors. It was in the open. People would see and say, what are you guys doing? What's going on over here? Invariably, there would be some kind of message included in the baptism service. These folks are here today because they have trusted Jesus Christ to be their Savior, and we would imagine that, right? They perhaps are called to give their testimony that they have called upon the name of Christ to save them. This is all out in the open. People see it. In a hostile world, how might they react to that? And so, in essence, what Peter is saying here, this testimony through suffering, in the immediate context is, you should not be afraid to make this public confession for Christ, even if it means you suffer in the process. He gives us the picture of Noah, and it's just a picture of how Noah was saved through the waters of the flood. God brought him through those waters. As he passed through the flood waters into salvation, so a believer passes through baptism. Don't leap to the wrong conclusion. He isn't saying that baptism saves. That's the whole point. You had a group of believers who had been baptized and suffered. You also have a group of believers who've never been baptized. Are they still saved? Is it necessary for them to be baptized in order to go to heaven? No, they would never have to be baptized. We are not saved through works. So they don't have to be baptized. But what is baptism? Typically we say that baptism is the first act of what on the part of a new believer? First act of obedience, right? He is obeying the Lord by following the Lord in believer's baptism, and it is a testimony. It is a witness. especially in that day, publicly confessing their faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior. Publicly identifying that they are turning their backs on their pagan life, and now they are turning to the God of heaven. They're saved. But Peter is saying, don't be afraid to be a witness. Don't be afraid to be baptized, even if it brings suffering. You need to take the step and you need to do it. And so he says, it's the answer of a good conscience toward God. Again, just trying to hit the salient point here, it is by faith that we are saved, by grace alone, by faith alone in Christ alone, that salvation is an act of obedience, and in that day it could bring suffering, and he is saying, don't be afraid to do that, follow the Lord in baptism. And then secondly, we bear witness through our lives. This is implied by the reference of Noah, and I'm almost finished, so just bear with me. It took him 120 years to build the ark. His neighbors watched, no doubt ridiculed this old man who spent so much time building this. I mean, think about the size of it. These are all renderings that we have to take with a grain of salt, but I looked at a secular rendering, a secular scientist's opinion of what the world looked like back when Pangaea, the supercontinent, was here. And what was interesting was they didn't really have any oceans. They just had big lakes spread all around. Who knows? Even by their reckoning, who would know? But who knows what the world was really like before the flood? Because it's all different now, isn't it? The point is, I think it's safe to say that what Noah was building was something totally out of the experience of anybody living in that day. What are you doing? And why are you doing it? And for 120 years, Noah preached righteousness to that generation. His life, faithfully, 120 years, gathering the wood, gathering the pitch, gathering the animals, gathering all the food that would be necessary. Everything he did for 120 years, his life, the consistency of his life, was preaching a message. What would we take away from that? That you and I may not be building an ark, but every day as we walk consistently and faithfully with Him by our lives, we are providing a testimony. We may be called to suffer as we walk with Him. But if that is true, it is an opportunity to provide a testimony. You see, it hearkens back. Remember, this is immediately following verse 15 that says, as we talked last week, sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. So living our lives, even in suffering, that people will look and say, what is it that you have? How can you face life as you do? How is it that you can face those who hate you, and you offer them water, and you offer them food, and you treat them with kindness? How can you do this? Because I'm a sinner saved by grace. we can share the gospel of Christ. And they're clearly interested because they've heard the words that we say, and they've seen the life that we live, and in some way God uses our witness to draw others to Himself. God has allowed us this opportunity. We bear witness for Him. One day we will be vindicated. One day we will be called into His presence. That day is coming. It's a day that you and I can enjoy. So let me close by saying this. Have you trusted Christ to be your sin-bearer? I hope everyone here this morning, I hope those who are perhaps listening online, I hope you could say, yes, I've trusted Christ as my sin-bearer. Have you testified to your faith in Him through baptism? If you haven't, next week would be a perfect opportunity, right? Come and talk to me. Number three, am I standing alone for Christ? in my sphere of influence, in that circle that God has me to be a part of. Am I standing for Him, even if it means standing alone? Are you a witness for Him? That is the force of the passage. However you want to talk about who did He preach to, when did He preach to them, what did He say to them, when we get to heaven, we'll find all that out. But the point of the passage is, He suffered. He is our example. He gave a witness in His suffering. God privileges us to be a witness for Him. Sometimes that witness is provided through suffering. It's an opportunity. that we might honor him. May God help us to take this passage to heart and to make application. And may God help us to be the witnesses for him that we ought to be, regardless of the circumstances of our lives in the moment. Let's close in prayer. Our Father, we're so grateful for the opportunity we have to study your word and even to study obscure passages that we may not be able to fully comprehend. And Lord, We know that what Peter is recording is absolute fact. We know that our Lord Jesus did this. We may not know clearly who He spoke to or what He said, and we may wonder the exact timetable, but at the end of the day, we know that it happened. Whatever else in the details may be missing. But Father, help us not to get so caught up in debating that that we miss the contextual point. He was providing a witness through his suffering. We are called to provide a witness, and we can do so even in times of suffering. So God, help us to be faithful. Help us to walk with you. Help us to live lives that bring honor to you. Lord, may you bless our testimony to the men and women in our lives, in our circle. And God, we pray that by your grace, you might use us to plant seed, to water seed. And Father, would you grant us the opportunity to be a part of the harvest? Would you grant us the blessed opportunity to be one who actually gets to reap the harvest? Lord, may you give us precious souls for your glory. We'll thank you as we pray this in Jesus name and for his sake.