Let's take our Bibles and turn
back now to 1 Peter 3. 1 Peter 3. Peter, having spoken to the saints
concerning the suffering of the Lord Jesus, said, the latter part, of verse 18. He said, the just for the unjust,
that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh,
but quickened by the Spirit. And now he's going to speak,
starting in verse 19, about the same Spirit that quickened the
Lord Jesus from the dead. Same spirit. The spirit of God
was also the spirit who spoke in the days of Noah. God beheld the wickedness of
men in the earth. And the scripture says it repented
him that he made man and he purposed to destroy man whom he had created
from the face of the earth, both man and beast. But a miracle
of God's grace was declared. It said, Noah found grace in
the eyes of the Lord. And God, not willing that Noah
and his family would perish, told Noah to make an ark That
art that would be the means by which Noah and his family and
the remnant of the animal kingdom, creeping things, all creation
would be preserved and delivered from the wrath of God. Now, in
these verses, verses 19, 1 Peter 3, verses 19 to 22, the Spirit
of God has been pleased to reveal unto God's people the blessed
truth of what was being pictured by Noah being delivered from
the wrath of God while he was in the ark. Now remember, Peter
spoke of the Lord Jesus in verse 18 of having suffered for our
sins and that he was put to death in the flesh and quickened by
the Spirit. Now remember that, that's foundation
of what we're gonna be considering. Now it says, verse 19, by which
also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison. Now here, the Apostle Peter is
directed by the Spirit of God to relate the work of the Lord
Jesus himself by His Holy Spirit, that same Spirit now, that raised
Christ from the dead. The same Spirit also preached
in the days of Noah. When Noah was building the ark,
the Holy Spirit was said to go and preach to that generation
that was then in existence. And the days while the ark was
being built, God instructed Noah You build this ark. And scripture
says, Hebrews 11, 7, by faith, Noah, being warned of God of
things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to
the saving of his house by the which he condemned the world
and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. So the basis,
the foundation of Noah's faith was the word of God. That's the
foundation of Noah's faith. God said it. And being warned
of God, of things that he had never seen, the scripture says
he moved with fear. He moved with reverence. I'm
going to just try, in these next few verses, I'm going to try
to be, I'm going to go a little slowly, and I'm going to just,
let's just take our time, and look and see what God has to
say in these verses. Because these are some verses
that have been really, really misinterpreted. And a foundation
of a false hope has been based on these verses right here. And
I want to know, and you do too, you want to know what is really
being said here. Because whatever's being said
right here is so. Now I know that for a fact. Whatever
God said, I know that's so. So what I want to do and what
I have truly asked the Lord, I've asked the Lord to give me
some instruction, give me some revelation into this truth because
I stand before you responsible for what I'm about to say. So
may the Lord bless it to us. So now the scripture declares
that Noah, he moved with fear. God had been pleased to spare
him. God's going to kill everybody
else? Noah, his family? He's going to kill everybody
else? Now, what's he going to do? He believed God, and he knew
that God was going to do what God said he was going to do. Noah, according to 2 Peter 2.5,
was a preacher of righteousness. And surely he preached. I don't
doubt for one second. He preached. He preached what
God told him. But he also preached in the preparing
of an ark. He was building an ark. It took 120 years. I know there's
debate about it, but a lot of them try to figure it out. Look,
God gave him 120 years. I believe it took 120 years.
And for 120 years he preached. And he built. He preached in
word and deed. He believed God. Now he was a
preacher of righteousness. And while it was the mouth, the
voice that was being heard of Noah, the scripture reveals that
it was the Spirit that preached unto the spirits. The Holy Spirit,
capital S, preached unto the lower cases, the souls in prison. Those who heard Noah preach during
that time, who were in the prison of sin and unbelief during that
time, and because of their refusal to come to Christ, they're in
prison of hell now. And the proof of that, of what
I just said, is found in verse 20. 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." Now here the Spirit of God reveals the
rebellion that was generally held toward the message that
was being preached by Noah. The Lord had given the men, mankind,
their time and place 120 years before he was going to send the
flood. 120 years that was said to be
the long-suffering of God who waited in the days of Noah while
the ark was preparing. God Almighty, the scripture declares,
is long-suffering. to usward, to his people, not
willing that any should perish. Why does this world keep going
on? Why does it go on day to day? Why doesn't the Lord just
come back? Well, obviously, not all of God's
sheep are called out yet. Maybe some of them are not even
born yet. Why didn't God come back in the mid-1800s? Almighty God is long-suffering,
120 years. And in the days of Noah, God
was sending warning, just like He's sending warning right now.
What Noah was preaching, he preached Christ and Him crucified. That's what that ark set forth. That's Christ and Him crucified.
And he preached that. And while he was sending a warning,
the Spirit of God through the preaching of Noah, while that
ark was being prepared, they heard, they heard, they heard
and they saw. He's building an ark, a big ark. And he's telling everybody, this
ark is what God has told me is going to be the deliverance and
the safety of anybody that's in it, because God's gonna send
a flood. I'm saying today, there's only
one way. There's only one way. It's in
the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth, the life.
God's gonna send judgment. It's coming. That's what Noah
said. And that's what we say today.
So here's Noah. 120 years of preaching, building
an ark. God's long-suffering. Wherein
few, that is eight souls, were saved by water through the channel
of Now, it's right here, I'm going
to just, again, I'm going to get real slow for a second. And
I'm going to just take a moment and I want to consider the true
meaning of what the Spirit of God means when He said that eight
souls were saved by water, through water. When Noah and his family
were entered into the ark. God had shut the door. We'll
be looking at that Lord willing next week. God poured out his
flood upon mankind, but on that ark too. There were
some souls in that ark that were worthy of death. They were worthy
of death. Noah and his wife and his sons
and their wives were sinners. That flood was poured out upon
mankind because God saw, including Noah and his family, that the
wickedness of man was great in the earth. Now what did that
flood represent? The wrath of God. God poured
out wrath. Why? Because God is a just God
and he will by no means clear the guilty. No means. All men
were guilty and deserved what was poured out upon them because
of rebellion. But Noah and his family Noah, having found grace in the
eyes of the Lord, was placed within the ark that the wrath
of God would not consume him. He didn't die. He didn't die. That flood had to fall. It had to fall. Because, again,
God is just. And all the justice and wrath
of God was expended. That's what this is showing.
This is what happened then, in that type, in that figure, in
that picture. I'm trying not to get ahead of
myself. What that's showing is this.
This is what's going to happen. It was a picture. This is what's
going to happen. upon everybody that's not in
Christ. This is what's going to happen.
When it happened then, that's what's going to happen then on,
until time is no more. God is going to pour out wrath
upon iniquity, sin. But, while the wrath of God was
due, Noah and his family, that ark. Here again is a picture. Christ bore it. He suffered it
by that water of God's judgment being poured out upon the ark.
That is a picture of the Savior. Noah and all like him found in
the ark were saved. They were saved. How were they
saved? The water. The water, that water
being poured out upon the ark, pictured salvation because of
who it was poured out upon. They were saved by water, the
wrath of God. I could just say, instead of
saying they were saved by water, they were saved by wrath being
poured out on Christ. They were saved by judgment.
Instead of saying they were saved by water, they were saved by
the judgment of God falling on the Savior, falling on the Messiah. They were saved by the water
being poured at God, long-suffering, and when time was no more for
them, the water came. And they were saved by being
in the ark. They were saved by the ark sustaining
the water. Had judgment not been poured
out upon that ark, it was shown God's not just. But by the water being poured
out upon that ark, it shows that the Redeemer and the sword of
God's judgment, that sword was plunged into the very heart,
body, and soul of the Lord Jesus Christ. And He bore it. And all that were in Him lived. Because justice and judgment
is now poured out. The One who laid down His life
for the sheep. So, because the water of the
flood was sent. Sent from God upon the ark. The
type, the substitute, the redeemer. Because God's wrath against sin
emptied in the flood. The salvation of the souls within
the ark experienced safety and life. They were saved by or through
the water being poured out upon the ark instead of them. The
ark and the flood was a figure. It was a picture. It was a type. It was a resemblance of salvation,
of God's elect being in the substitute. It's a picture. Noah, his family,
the animals, in that ark, it was telling us something. Salvation
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, there's another figure. There's another type. That was
a picture. That was a type. Somebody said,
well, what was all going on in the ark? It was saying that Christ
is the only hope for sinners. Found in Him. He's the only hope. That's what the art picture,
it was a picture. But now there's another picture that we're more
familiar with here in this life. It says in verse 21, the like
figure where into 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. Now, just like that ark, that
ark, here's the picture. Christ is the ark. Those in the
ark are safe. The water of God's judgment falls
upon mankind on the ark too, and all found in the ark were
saved through the water, through the water of God's judgment.
When you see that word by, look it up. It means through. It means through. They were saved
through the water being poured out on the ark instead of on
them. They were saved through water,
through the water being God's judgment. Now, in verse 21, it
says we have a light figure. What does that mean? It means
something that answers to the same type that we were just talking
about. Just like that ark is a picture
of salvation in Christ. You see that. Okay, baptism. That's another figure. It's a type. Just like that ark
was, here's another. Another type. What is it? It's
believer's baptism. When the Spirit is revealing
that there is a divine resemblance between Noah being in the ark
and a believer being baptized, they're saying the same thing. They're saying that being found
in Christ is being saved in Christ. They're saying the same thing.
And what does a believer's baptism picture or figure? Okay, here's
what it says. Now look at it. It says, the
like figure, the like type, the like shadow, the like resemblance,
the like figure. Alright? What does believer's
baptism figure? What is it a type of? What is being said? It's a figure. that when Christ died upon the
tree, it means that all God's elect were in Him. Isn't that
what the Ark said? Same thing. It means when the Lord Jesus
Christ, under the judgment and justice of God, like Noah was,
they're secure in the Lamb. Here's what Believer's Baptism
pictures. It's a type, it's a figure. How
do I know that? The Spirit of God said it is.
It says it's a picture, it's a type. When Christ died upon
the tree of Calvary, he hung there suffering the wrath of
God, not for himself, he had no sin, but for the elect that
were in him. He's dying as their redeemer,
their subject. He's made what they are. Great
mystery. But it's a picture. When God's
judgment fell upon Him, being mysteriously, marvelously, according
to His Word. Here's the answer of good hope
right here. Somebody says, you mean you actually
believe that you were actually in Him? Yes, I do. How do you
figure that? I don't figure it. I believe
it. How do I figure that I'm seated
with Him in the heavenlies right now? I don't figure that. I believe
God. The things that are not revealed
are secrets to God, but those things that are revealed, we
believe them. So here, when God's judgment fell on Him, it fell
on God's people too. In the ark, pictured there, at
Calvary. Same picture. When he died, we
died under the judgment of God. Do you think when that water
hit that ark, do you think that Noah was thankful? I'm glad I'm
in this ark. Here's a greater mystery than
that. That when Christ died, Those that were born before,
that had died before, they were in Him and those that were after,
all that were chosen to Him were in Him. Same figure, same time. When He died, we died. When He
was buried, we were buried. When He arose, we arose. We were
delivered, being found in Him from God's judgment, as Noah
was saved from God's judgment in the ark. And now baptism,
it's a picture. It's a type. It's a figure. It's a figure. The immersion
of our bodies into the water is not what saves us. The water pictures that we were
buried with him by baptism unto death. That's what Romans 6.4
says. Baptism is a picture. We confess that we are identified
with him in his death. This is what believer's baptism
is a figure. It's a figure. It's a type. We are identified with him in
his death. When he died, we believe we died. And we confess that he died for
us. And when in believer's baptism,
OK, I'm going to baptize somebody. I'm going to put you down. I'm
going to leave you there. We'll pick you back up. What
is that a figure of? It's a figure that when we were
raised out of the water, we behold that picture and type, that figure
that we identified Him in His resurrection. That's what it
is. Remember, it wasn't the water
that was the salvation. That water was death. That water was death. You say,
I'm saved by water. That water was death if you're
not in the ark. In this picture here, the water
was poured out upon the ark and there was the salvation of Noah.
He was saved by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
who shed His blood. Someone says, I believe we're
saved by water. Well, 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1, 18-19. 1 Peter 1, 18-19. For as you
know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver
and gold. Now let me ask you this before
I read any more. Would you say that water was
corruptible? The answer is yes. This earth is going to burn up.
Everything in it. You were not redeemed with corruptible
things. as silver and gold, from your
vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers.
How are we redeemed? With the precious blood of Christ,
as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. First John. First John 1. First John 1. First John 1, verse 7. If we walk in the light as he
is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and listen
to this, and the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanses us from
all sins. What can wash away our sins? Nothing but the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. When we say that we're saved,
because of the water? Do you realize what we're saying
against the blood of Christ? Do you realize what we're saying?
The heinous act of disrespect that's given the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ? Now, you know, in baptism, we
know Based on these scriptures, it's not water that saves us,
it was Him who was pictured by the water of God's wrath. That
was a type, that was a figure, that was a shadow. And I know that what I'm saying
is so because I've got good authority on what I'm saying right now. In anticipation of what would
be misunderstood, saying that water, that the water, we're
saved by water, we're saved by the actual water itself. In anticipation of that, how
wise, I'm going to read something in just a few minutes, I started
to copy it down, I got it from C.H. McIntosh if you want to
check him out, good writer, good writer. I'm gonna read something
just because I'm done right here. But I know what I'm saying is
so because the Spirit of God qualified what was said in verse
21. The like figure where into even
baptism doth also now save us. And then if you don't read any
further than that, You might misinterpret that. But the Spirit
of God wrote this down. This is not in italics here. This is what God said. He said,
not the putting away of the filth of the flesh. Not the putting
away of the corruption of the old nature. That's what He said,
the flesh. But it's the answer of a good
conscience toward God. Men say, well, I believe that
we're saved because of the water. The Spirit of God says, no, no. It's not the putting away of
the filth of the old man, but you know, here's the answer of
a good conscience. Here's the answer that we're
always ready to give. God Almighty in the person of
his blessed son has put away my guilt by the shedding of his
precious blood. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission of sin. No, no, no, no, no. Somebody
says, I believe we're saved by water. No, no. Not according
to this word. The blood of bulls and goats,
no, no. God's people don't trust the
physical water for salvation. That is nothing but supposed
salvation by the works of the law. They trust Him. of whom baptism is a figure,
it's a type. The one who bore the wrath of
God in our stead, the one, verse 22, who has gone into heaven
and is on the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers
being made subject unto him. That's the one who ever liveth
to make intercession for us, who shall return soon for us. I want to just read something
to you that was stated by a man named C. H. McIntosh. It's on
this very subject, on verse 21. He said, it is impossible to
overestimate the wisdom of God's Holy Spirit as seen in the way
in which he treats the ordinance of baptism in the above He was
talking about verse 21. He said, we know the evil, the
evil use which has been made of baptism. We know the false
place it has gotten in the thoughts of many. We know how that the
efficacy which belongs only to the blood of Christ has been
attributed to the water of baptism. We know how the regenerating
grace of the Holy Ghost has been transferred to water baptism. And with the knowledge of all
this, we cannot but be struck with the way in which the Spirit
of God guards the subject by stating, it is not the mere washing
away of the filth of the flesh by water, but that is the answer
of a good conscience toward God which answer we get, not by baptism. He said, how important soever
it may be as the ordinance of the kingdom, but by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ, who was delivered for our offenses and raised again
for our justification. He said, baptism, I need hardly
say, as an ordinance of divine institution and in its divinely
appointed place, is most important and deeply significant But when
we find men in one way or another putting the figure in place of
the substance, we are bound to expose the work of Satan by the
light of the word of God. I thought that was well said.
I pray that the Lord teach us, cause us to remember, here's
the answer of a good hope. Christ who loved me, lived for
me, died for me, shed his blood for me, washed me from the guilt
of my sins in his own precious blood. And I can add nothing
to that. I dare not add anything to it. But I trust him and I rested
him and I'm thankful for the pictures and the types that he's
given us of that truth. But as Mr. McIntosh said, I don't
want to trust the figure. I don't want to trust the type.
I want to trust him and his shed blood. For God's glory and my
good.