of God's Word, the first epistle of Peter chapter 3. 1 Peter 3, this morning, or this afternoon rather, we'll be reading verses 8 and chapter 3 up until verse 6 of chapter 4. And I'm always fascinated with the way the Lord works when He orchestrates us to work together as one body of Christ. As I came to this passage to prepare a message for baptism, I found that you really could not do justice to this passage in context without talking about evangelism and baptism, precisely what the Lord has been training our church for during this season. If you listen carefully, you'll hear the three key words for this passage. An answer, in verse 15, which comes from true believers. An appeal, or as our translation has it, an answer of a good conscience, which comes from all disciples in verse 21. And then in chapter 4 and verse 5, an account, which comes from non-believers. 1 Peter 3, beginning at verse 8. Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion one of another. Love as brethren, be pitiful. Be courteous, not rendering evil for evil or railing for railing, but contrarywise blessing, knowing that you are thereunto called, that you should inherit a blessing. For he that will love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile. Let him eschew evil and do good, let him seek peace and ensue it. For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and His ears are open unto their prayers. But the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. And who is He that will harm you, if you be followers of that which is good? But, and if you suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are you. And be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled. but 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. Having a good conscience, that whereas they speak evil of you as evildoers, they may be ashamed, that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. For it is better, if the will of God be so, that you suffer for well-doing than for evil-doing. 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 longsuffering 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. For as much then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind, for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revelings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries, wherein they think it strange that you run not with them to the same excess of riots, speaking evil of you, who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead. For this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the Spirit. Amen. And thus far, the reading of God's Word, and may He write its eternal truth upon all of our hearts. 1 Peter chapter 3. Looking at verse 15 through chapter 4, verse 6. As we look at this passage this afternoon, we will consider first, an answer, second, an appeal, and third, an account. And as you saw during the reading of this passage, the answer is something that comes from a good conscience from true believers. You see that in verse 15. In verse 21, the appeal is something that comes from all disciples. Peter here focuses on the appeal, or as our translation has it here, an answer, that comes from saved disciples who have the inward reality of baptism. But that word there for answer or appeal is a covenant making term. And on the one hand, you may have disciples who only have the water, which does not save, in their covenant appeal. While others fulfill their baptism by their faith in Christ, giving an answer or an appeal from a good conscience. So baptism, we are dealing with an appeal from all disciples. And then finally, in chapter 4, we will see that every soul on the last day will give an account. And Peter here is focusing on non-believers who appear to be out of bounds from God's covenant, and yet they are not beyond the reach of the arm of the Lord Himself. Every soul will indeed still give an account. I was delighted to see recently that in one of our children's Sunday school classes, they were dealing with these very concepts. So, kids, believe it or not, you actually have a head start here on this passage, above and beyond even some of the grown-ups. Because they were learning about the difference between the world, which lives out of bounds, the larger circle of the church, or the visible church as we call it, and then that inner circle. Of what we call the invisible church. Those who have been silently and invisibly born again. Not by their mothers and fathers, but by the Spirit of God. So as we go through this passage, you can think of true believers who are, as it were, in that holiest of holies. In the inner circle of faith in Christ. All disciples who are baptized. who may or may not be saved in that larger circle, and then finally non-believers to whom we need to share this gospel if we really understand the gravity of what it means that one day they will give an account to God, just as all of us will for our sins. So if we understand the gravity of how important it is to share the gospel with people that are one day going to be judged before the throne of God, the question for us is, what is holding us back from sharing the gospel? If we understand the weight of the judgment when every soul stands naked, if they're not clothed by Christ, before the throne of God, what is holding us back from sharing the gospel? Well, we were just talking about it earlier this morning. The main obstacle is fear. You can feel that in those moments. There might be other things that we might put our finger on. We may blame a lack of preparation. We may blame a lack of knowledge. But what is that stumbling block that stops us in the moment from sharing a simple gospel of Christ crucified for sinners? You might call it nervousness. You might call it anxiety. With our social discomforts in an American context, you might worry about this word, awkwardness. But sometimes we have trouble sorting out our emotions. The root emotion there is fear. And Peter is dealing with that here in this passage. Because Peter understands, just like we have experienced, what it's like to be paralyzed by fear in an opportunity to share the gospel with someone. You think about Peter's failure at the end of the gospel. He's standing there and there's someone giving him a slow ball down the middle, asking him, hey, weren't you one of Jesus' disciples? This is an opportunity for Peter to open his mouth. And what do we expect God's Apostle to say? Yes, and He's the Savior of Israel. He's the Messiah. He's the Eternal King in whom you can place your trust. To have all your sins forgiven. Is that what God's Apostle said? Peter had his evangelism suffocated by fear. And Peter's lack of evangelism is very much like the evangelism that we experience today when we struggle to share the gospel. See, we live in an age when the expansion of the gospel is not threatened by the sword of a Philistine, or a marauding army that's ready to slaughter us. But a little servant girl, standing there, were terrified, suffocated by a social fear. Should social fear suffocate our evangelism? Peter gives us the obvious answer, absolutely not. Well then, what is going to enable us to share this Gospel with everyone that needs to hear it? Peter gives us the key, and the key is right here at the beginning of our passage in verse 15. The key to breaking through that stumbling block of fear to share the Gospel is making sure that first and foremost we have sanctified the Lord God in our hearts, So that we are always ready to give an answer to everyone that asks for the reason of the hope that is within us. You notice here in verse 14, he says, do not be, what? Afraid of their terror, neither be troubled. Peter is actually quoting from Isaiah chapter 8, and he's quoting from a passage that shows us how we are to sanctify the Lord Jesus Christ in our hearts for evangelism. In your own time, if you were to go back to Isaiah chapter 8, what you would see Isaiah saying is, first of all, exactly what Peter says here, do not be afraid of their terror. But not just not being afraid in the fear of man, what does Isaiah say? Fear the Lord instead of man. Ultimately, what is it that's driving us to share this Gospel? Are we driven by a fear of man, or are we driven by the fear of the Lord? And as you heard earlier this morning, the closest translation that we might give to properly understand this word for fear, godly fear, is not a slavish fear. It's not a scared fear, like a child that's in trouble waiting for their parents to come home. It's more of the sense of fear is to revere. The reverence toward the Lord, that reverence and that great faith. The Old Testament expression for faith, the fear of the Lord, that we're listening to the Lord rather than man. Let's have ourselves doing the Lord's will rather than worrying what man is going to do about it. what people are going to say, what people are going to think about it. And you can see this not only in the difference between Peter's failure, scared to share the gospel with a servant girl, but Peter's fearlessness in the book of Acts when he's standing there before the leaders of the city and the scribes and the elders who are ready to beat him physically for sharing the gospel. Something that few, I wager, if any of us have experienced, when they say, we forbid you from speaking in the name of Jesus Christ. And Peter in that passage, filled with the Spirit of God, speaking from a good conscience, actually shows us the difference between fearing man and fearing God. Do you remember what he said at the beginning of the book of Acts? He said, whether it's right for us to obey God or obey man, you decide. But as for us, we cannot help but to speak the things that we have seen and heard." They were in the presence of the Lord. They heard from the Lord. They were moving out to do the Lord's will. They were moving out in fearlessness because they feared God and they had no fear of man at all. And not only that, this boldness, Peter actually helps us to balance our evangelism by making sure that our evangelism doesn't become something that is an out of control boldness. Maybe some of you know a little bit of what I'm speaking about. What some have referred to as the cage stage of the new believer's life. When you're detonating the shrapnel left and right against everyone that's around you, like a voice screaming in the wilderness, but not knowing that there is a time and a place to witness with such ferocity. But generally speaking, if you're standing in front of that little servant girl, It's not the time to be a voice roaring in the wilderness. Peter not only gives us the key of sanctifying the Lord in our hearts, but he shows us how we can evangelize. In verse 15, he says, giving an answer, which is the term for a formal apology, or an answer, a defense of the faith, a reason for the hope that is within us. How does he say that? Meekness and with fear. Once again, that fear, first of all, would be fear of the judgment of God and reverence toward the Lord. But notice the key word there of meekness. And as we have also heard here recently, that meekness is not Weakness. It's a humble boldness that's been shaped and smoothed by God the Father as a potter over us, removing the sharp corners, removing the spurs from our evangelism, so that when we go to share the gospel, our prayer would be the only thing that provides a stumbling block for someone to come and believe in Christ, is the offense of the cross itself. So that we would actually be without offense. No one would be offended by our character as we give an answer with boldness, yet with humility. with meekness, but not with weakness. There's a beautiful expression for how to live this out in your life, comes from a great apologist, great defender of the Christian faith in the 20th century, and he said, when we share the gospel, and when we defend the faith, we must be mild in manner, but strong in matter. Mild in manner, but strong in matter. What did he mean by that? The subject matter of the Gospel is weighty and powerful enough. How forcible are right words. If we understand that this is the voice of God speaking into our world, then how much extra aggression do we need to add when we're sharing the Gospel? We can simply share that gospel, sow the seed, and wait for God to water it and bless the increase. As we share the gospel with gentleness and with humility, just as Peter here calls us to. And at the end of the day, if we realize what God has given to us in the Kingdom, it's victory in Christ. Because as we're going to expand the Kingdom through evangelism, if you're a true believer, evangelism is always a victory for every true believer. We have one or two results every time we're sharing the Gospel. We either are bringing souls to meet Christ for redemption, and we see them won over to Christ, and we see the Kingdom being built up, or... On the other hand, as Peter says in verse 14, even if it looks like a failure, even if it looks like rejection, if it turns out that you are suffering, Peter says, even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, then you are blessed. Happy are you, beloved, if you have suffered for the sake of the gospel. So we're faced then with a very personal and a very important question. And this is for every soul here in the room this afternoon. How have you suffered for the Gospel? This is a crucial question for self-examination. How have you personally suffered for the Gospel? Christ tells His disciples, those that lose brother, or sister, or mother, or father, or homes, or farms, or fields, for the sake of the Gospel, will receive a hundred times more, and in the age to come, eternal life. But what comes with it? Persecution. What comes with it is suffering for righteousness sake. And if we're honest, as we reflect back on the opportunities that we have had to share the Gospel, Each and every one of us could have suffered much more in many situations for righteousness sake and glorified God more if we had this boldness and this fear of the Lord and we prepared our hearts to suffer for the sake of the Gospel. If you know who you are, and you know who your Savior is, if you know that Christ is a suffering servant, and you're united to Him, so that you live your life in union with a suffering servant, then the only life that you and I can expect to live is the life of a suffering servant. So, if we're not suffering, are we really serving? Again, in America, perhaps not with a physical beating, although it happens. But that social ostracism, that social oppression and persecution. Are we willing to go through that suffering for righteousness sake? God is preparing His people through these passages for that very mission. Because He reminds us, In verse 17, it's better, if God wills it, that you suffer when you're doing well. And we abstain from sin because the last thing we would ever want is to suffer for evil, suffer for foolishness. And he reminds us that Christ has set the pattern for us in verse 18. For Christ also has suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh. Do you see that to the world, Christ's mission looked like defeat. To the world, to the unbelieving world, His mission looked like failure. It looked like death. But He's made alive. That word there, quickened, means He's resurrected. He's brought to life by the Spirit. Spiritually, it was victory because He's brought to life and revealed Himself by His resurrection life to His disciples on the other side of the cross. And when Peter tells us this here, he suddenly transitions, if you notice this in verse 18, to the Spirit of God resurrecting Christ, to the work of Christ witnessing in Noah's day in verse 19. What happened? Well, if you sense the abruptness of that transition in the passage, then blessed are you. You have read this passage carefully and you've thought through it carefully. If you think this is the smoothest transition from one verse to another you've ever seen in the Bible, perhaps you don't see that He moves from modern day evangelism to the ancient world and Noah's family and the flood, speaking of the work of the Spirit of God then and there. Thousands and thousands, so many generations ago. What is going on here? Why does He suddenly bring to mind the flood to teach us about evangelism? Well, He calls to mind the flood and the evangelism of Noah to teach us and remind us that what we experience now is the way that it has always been. The second epistle of Peter tells us that Noah was a preacher of righteousness. The first chapter of this epistle tells us that the Spirit of Christ was active in all the prophets of the Old Testament, Noah being one of them, who was a prophet for the word of the Lord. And in His day, He experienced rejection on a much more radical scale, on a much more massive scale than any one of us will ever experience. Because in Noah's day, the Gospel was resisted by every single person in the world who was outside of that ark. What God is showing us is that the Spirit of Christ was active then in the same way in Noah's day. And it's a great lesson for us to think about the radical example of Noah's evangelism, or rather the Spirit of Christ preaching through Noah, who was a preacher of righteousness. Now if you think about Noah's life, Noah was building the Ark on a superficial reading of Genesis, you might think for 120 years. If you read very carefully and you do the scriptural math, it was probably something more on the order of half a century to perhaps 80 years that he was building the Ark. If you calculate the ages and look at how long that Ark was building. But think about what he was doing. Every time you see someone in your community, you're catching up, you're finding out what's going on in your life. What are you working on? What do you think it was like when Noah went into the town to get supplies? Noah, what are you getting all this extra lumber for? They're standing behind the counter, chuckling to themselves. Because in the parlance of our time, if I could be very direct for a moment, Noah looked like a fundamentalist and a fool to the entire world. He's standing there saying, well, I'm getting more supplies because the ark isn't ready yet, because the entire world as you know it and see it now is going to be destroyed by the wrath of God, and there's only one way out, but if you come with me, you can come to the other side safely. The Lord is showing us mercy, but not through whatever way you decide you'd like to serve the Lord. He's opening one door to one ark of salvation, and if you come with me, I can show you the way. How well was that received by the world? Noah's day was one of the most faithful churches in the entire Bible, suffering persecution and ostracism from the world for decades and decades and decades. But at the end of the day, what did Noah have to show for it? An eight-person church. Noah's family was an eight-person church, ready to pass through the wrath of God. Do you see how immensely practical it is for us to think back to the example of Noah? Because what did the Lord tell us? He says, for the coming of the Son of Man will be just as it was in the days of Noah. People will be marrying and giving in marriage. But they did not understand until the flood came suddenly and took them all away. We live in the same kind of reality where we are sharing with the world now. Everything that you see now is not going to be here in the same way when the Lord returns. This time not with a trial by water, but with a trial by fire. The heavens and the earth that currently exist will be purged by fire, and just as they had to enter into the ark, we must enter into faith in Christ and into God's covenant people to be saved fleeing from the wrath of God. In other words, to put it this way, in Noah's day, as he looked around and he was convicted, his position was to look at the entire world and say, even if not a single other soul on the planet believes this message, well, as for me and my house, you know, they chose to serve the Lord. It was one household against the world. Now if you think carefully about baptism and evangelism, you see the brilliant harmony there of looking at one household against the world. God's covenant was with Noah's household. Listen carefully to God's word from Genesis 6, 18. The Lord said to Noah, But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall enter the ark, you and your sons and your wife and your sons' wives with you. God's mercy was not just to Noah as an individual, but it was to the household under his headship, and to those that would actually be with him. And what we see now in 1 Peter chapter 3, is he is saying the same figure, or literally, that was a type, we now have the fulfillment of the flood, or what you would call an anti-type of fulfillment, not in the floodwaters, but in the waters of baptism. In verse 21, you see the language there, the like figure, as pastor put it this morning, it is a picture. or a figure of the floodwaters that we saw before, baptism now saves us just like the flood was averted for these eight souls by the ark as they passed through it. Now, if you read the epistle of 1 Peter very carefully, you will notice something very fascinating. Not many people know about what I'm about to tell you. This section of 1 Peter is what some scholars refer to as a household code. This is a household code. It's teaching the family how they're supposed to live in the world. And what do you see Peter doing, or who do you see him addressing as he makes these applications? Well, in chapter 2 verse 18, who is he speaking to? Servants, in chapter 2 verse 18. In chapter 3 verse 1, who is He speaking to next? Wives in every household. Who is He speaking to in chapter 3 verse 7? Husbands in every household. And as He moves from servants together with wives, together with husbands, when you put all those together, what do you have? You have A household in the Roman Empire. He's speaking here in the New Testament context to the household as that first unit of family as a fulfillment of the floodwaters passage through in the ark that Noah had in the ancient world. In other words, you could say, it's safe to call this a household baptism when they pass through in the ark. This is who Peter is addressing in chapter 3, verse 8, when he says, finally, all of you be of one mind. It's the capstone to his statement. Speaking to servants, which would also have children in view that were treated just like servants in the household until they came to maturity, wives and husbands. He finally says, all of you, this is who he's speaking to, all of you, everyone in the household. Because in the ancient world, the head of household would bring their entire household. And so they would all hear the gospel together. Application would be made to everyone. And so when he speaks here, the you is plural in the original languages. The like figure saves us is plural in verse 21. Because baptism is something that is actually designed by God for the corporate entity of the household. Now there are many arguments for infant baptism throughout all the scriptures, but this is an important piece of the puzzle. We must always keep in mind, however, that water does not save anyone. You have to simply ask the question, in Noah's household little church, was every member of Noah's household church saved? Absolutely not. In fact, one of the children in Noah's household was prophetically cursed. And we know that other believers from Noah's household ended up building that seed of righteousness throughout time that grew into the church that we now see covering this planet in every continent throughout the world. So there's a difference there between those that are saved in the covenant and those that are unsaved in the covenant. Now one extremely crucial footnote that we must address right here. If you believe that difference in Noah's household church was along ethnic lines or was a racial divide in their church, it might first of all escape you that these were three sons of the same father, really not all that different at all. But second of all, perish the thought. Perish the thought. Because God shows us here that the difference was, as it always is, between faith and between unbelief. So don't be snared by the arguments that you hear in our nation, in our sector of the world, by racism, or maybe perhaps you hear a whitewashed label known as kinism, that there's a difference between different ethnic groups, when in fact, the children of Ham had the greatest national repentance in biblical history. in Nineveh, in the Book of Jonah, greater than any Israelite or Japhethite, Semitic, or Japheth's descendants have ever experienced. In fact, if that's where your heart has drawn you, Take very careful heed that you stand lest you fall yourself. Because Christ has taught us that the first will be last and the last will be first. So if you find yourself thinking that you're first, take careful heed that you don't find yourself last. Peter is giving us very, very clear language showing us how we can avoid the curse of baptism. Because the breaking of water always symbolized a curse, judgment. As we heard in our baptismal liturgy today, the passage through the Red Sea was judgment. Paul calls that a baptism in 1 Corinthians. The flood was judgment upon the whole world. Peter's calling that baptism right here. And he's showing us how we can fulfill our baptism for a blessing. So that we can pass through safely, and not just be an unbelieving member of that outer circle of God's covenant. So to be clear, to fulfill our baptism, God requires of us, in verse 21, what he calls an appeal, or the answer of a good conscience toward God, which is Peter's synonym here, for a conscience that has been cleansed of all its guilt, all its sin, all its shame, through the death and resurrection of Christ. In other words, If we don't have someone to pass through the waters of judgment for us, then those waters will be poured out upon our own head. Baptism symbolizes a curse, which is either poured out on us or upon our substitute, Jesus Christ. Now if that language sounds odd to us, you're about to hear in the Psalter that we sing the waters of baptism described from Psalm 69. Listen carefully to the words of this Psalm before we sing it because we have lost sight in many areas of the church today of the picture of judgment. in the waters of baptism. Here is the baptism of Christ from Psalm 69. Deliver me from the mire, and do not let me sink. May I be delivered from my foes and from the deep waters. May the flood of water not overflow me, nor the deep swallow me up. nor the pit shut its mouth upon me." There on the cross was the baptism of Christ in the place of every true believer who doesn't just make a covenant appeal with water, but by water and by the Spirit of God through their faith in the resurrection of Christ. A few of the Lord's disciples in Mark chapter 10 came up to Him and asked Him, Lord, do for us whatever we ask of You. He said, What is your request? The disciples, having no idea what they were asking, said to him, Grant that we may sit, one on your right hand and one on your left hand, in your glory. But Jesus said to them, You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?" he asked his disciples, referring to his death in his baptism, not baptized with water, but by the wrath of God. And his disciples, having no idea what they were saying, said to him, We are able, We're able to drink that cup, Lord. We're able to pass through that baptism, whatever it is. We don't understand it, but all we know is we want to sit close to You in glory." And the Lord, seizing that opportunity for teaching, as He always did during His ministry, said to them, The cup that I drink, you shall drink. And you shall be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized." Because He was teaching His disciples that though they were not able to pass through that baptism, they would pass through that baptism. in Him, with Christ as their substitute. And so, for you and I today, if we are true believers whom God has granted safe passage out of the waters of our cursed death for sin, out of the waters of the wrath of God, through the resurrection from Christ, from death, then Peter now calls us, in chapter 4, to live accordingly. to this new life, as we emerge from the waters of baptism. Not only to teach our children, but for us as adult disciples to live this out for ourselves, so that we show the difference between the believing seed that came out of the ark of God, as it was in Noah's day, and the unbelieving seed that emerges from the waters of baptism, in whom the world and the church see no difference. And they see no change. God is calling His church to be prepared to suffer for righteousness. And here in chapter 4, verse 1, He again takes that example of Christ suffering for us. He is the head. We are the body. He says, Therefore, as Christ has suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind. For he that has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so that he should no longer live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men. but to the will of God." So we realize, if we've emerged from the waters of baptism, we're still members of this world here. We are not seated in glory yet. So why are we still here? Well, as a church, we're in the world to witness, but we're not of the world for sin. God has called His people to be in the world to witness, but we are not of the world so that we should sin. The question for you and I is, does the world see the difference in you? Does the world see the difference in you and I? Because this is not just a difference that the individual believer sees. This is not just a difference that family or church friends see. This is actually a difference that the world sees in the believer. In verse 4. A little practical nugget for those of you that are really committed to evangelism from this passage. What this tells us is that people were interacting with the world. They were interacting with the world enough that the world could see the difference between the world and the church. They were not hidden away in a monastery somewhere. They were interacting with the world so that they could evangelize with the people around us. And the result is, the world thought that they were bizarre. The world thought it strange. Look at verse 4, that they did not run to the same excess of riot that they were engaging in. What are those sins? What are those riotous sins that are described? We see them there in verse 3. Lasciviousness. Lusts, excess of wine, revelings, banqueties, abominable idolatries. It sounds not a bit different than a college campus in 2019. It's the world. And they're running to fulfill their lusts and to fulfill their own will. And this is spoken to you not by someone that has any high horse to look down upon the world from, but someone from the same bottom of the same barrel that you and I are all from, because we all have participated in these lusts, because we are all from the same sinful lump of clay in this human race descended from Adam. And if you have not experienced these things, then God witnesses to us that you and I have actually fantasized about them in our own hearts, that we would commit them if we could, or if we could without anyone finding out about them. What God tells us is, the time has passed. The time has passed. This is especially practical for adult believers here. If you're an adult believer here today, you understand the difference. Kids, there's a tremendous blessing for you because you're not an adult yet. This is something we've been thinking about recently. Kids, you have responsibilities to obey your parents, to grow closer to the Lord, to worship Him, to serve within the family, even to share the gospel with children around you and remind them of Christ. But you have a great privilege because you're not out in the world on your own yet. You haven't experienced some of the hardest trials and temptations, especially temptations, that the world will constantly throw at you that your mothers and fathers have had to wade through and are still having to wade through to this very hour. And if you're an adult believer here today, God is telling us the time has passed. The time has passed. Whatever we have done, whatever energy we've spent to fulfill our lusts and fulfill our old will here, the will of the world outside the church, he says, the time has passed. We must live in such a radically different way that we are sanctified from the world. We are literally set apart from the world so noticeably that we look to the world like Noah and his family did. We look like people who are living for a new world. on the other side of the return of Jesus Christ. So God is calling us to separate in that sense of holiness and actually be part of that New Testament arc. Let us make sure that we're actually in that ark when the Lord returns, not just by baptism with water. But how do we fully fulfill the final ark now in the New Testament? It's by baptism and by faith in Jesus Christ. So finally, as we think about this new life that we have, we need to think about those who don't have this new life, which is the end of our passage here. The end of our passage shows us that even those who are out of bounds, they're not currently in the ark, in the church, they're not baptized, they're not professing faith, God tells us they will still give an account to Him that is ready to judge the quick, that is the living, literally, the living and the dead, in verse 5. What does He mean, the living and the dead? Well, everyone will die one day and everyone lives at some point. He's not talking about physical life and physical death. He's talking about spiritual life and spiritual death. If you go throughout the book of Revelation, those who are alive are spiritually alive, living toward God. And those who are dead are spiritually dead, even though they may appear to live physically. So God is going to judge the saved and the unsaved on the last day. And here's our last incredible motivation for evangelism. In verse 6, For for this reason the gospel was preached also to those who are dead. The Gospel is preached also to those who are dead. This is something that the Presbyterian and Reformed Church must never, ever forget, lest we fall under the judgment of God like Israel did in the Old Covenant. The Gospel is for us and it is for our children, but it is also for those who are far off. Way, way, way far off. In fact, generally speaking, the further someone appears to be from the Lord, the more radically they will evangelize and serve the Lord, putting many of the rest of us in the church to shame when they are saved, because the last become first. So what is one of the greatest privileges that you might have as a member of the New Covenant today? To share the gospel with those that are out of bounds. To fulfill the mission that God has given to the church. To go into all the world and make disciples. Teaching them. Baptizing them. Sharing this gospel to bring those that are out of bounds into bounds. Because the gospel is designed to be preached to those that are spiritually dead. It's fascinating here, in verse 6, Peter actually links the language of Christ's death from chapter 3, when he says he's put to death in the flesh, but quickened in the spirit, with here that the gospel is preached to those that are dead. Look at it at the end of verse 6, that they might be judged as men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit. He repeats that language. The death of Christ for those that are out of bounds, with no connection to the church. If that seems strange to you, if it seems strange to us, it's because we've lost sight of the purpose of the Gospel. Not just to be shared with those of us that are in bounds for discipleship, but to go and share it with those who are out of bounds and make new disciples so that the dead might live. This is the final reason why we share the Gospel, because we realize that other humans, fellow sinners, just like we are, need the gospel just as badly as we do. Or rather, we need the gospel just as badly as they do. So we're sharing this gospel with patience and with meekness, inviting everyone we can until the day God finally shuts the door to the new covenant ark at the return of Christ. But for the moment, the door is still open. Peter is telling us Christ died physically to save those that are dead spiritually. Christ came to life by the Spirit to give fellow sinners eternal life by the Spirit. And if we understand that, if we understand our salvation there, and we understand our calling to share with everyone outside, as we conclude, we see a beautiful cycle from this passage as a whole. A beautiful cycle. As God calls true believers who are in the inner circle to go and preach the gospel to those that are out of bounds. Those that are out of bounds come into the kingdom in that outer circle. And we hope that they might be entering the inner circle of faith in Christ, born again. And those that have entered that inner circle of faith in Christ as true believers will, in turn, go out to preach the gospel to others still, inviting them to enter the New Covenant arc through baptism and faith in Jesus Christ. And church, you can rejoice to know that the New Covenant arc has much more room in it than the old covenant ark did in Noah's day. Amen.