The title of the message is,
Christ, Our Example in Suffering and Much More. Much more. He's much more than just an example.
But He is our example in suffering. But before I get to the message,
let me say a few things about verse 19-21, 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." Those verses sound very difficult.
They're not easy verses. And I have done a lot of reading
on these verses. Different men, good men, And
none of the good men said this, but some have believed that Christ
went into hell. Some of the different ones that
I've read believe that Christ went into hell and preached to
those who perished in the flood to give them another opportunity. I thought, that is so far-fetched. One old Puritan said, there's
just too much popishness in that. I thought, you did right. There's
too much popishness in that. That's not so. But all the solid
preachers that I read believe that what Peter is saying, and
I believe this is what he's saying, is that the same divine nature
that is in Christ, that was in Christ and is in Christ, God,
that eternal Spirit, which raised Him from the dead, is the same
Spirit that preached through Noah, preached through Noah to
his generation. Noah is called a preacher of
righteousness in the Scriptures. He's called a preacher of righteousness.
And it's the same righteousness that we preach. Christ's righteousness. It's the righteousness of our
Lord. And He preached to His generation
in the same Spirit, same message now, same message that we preach
today. Same Savior, same Christ. We know Him as Jesus Christ. but it's the same one, preached
the same one. Noah preached by the same spirit we preach by
today. And then it's a matter of baptism. Some believe that baptism has
a saving effect, a cleansing effect, when a person is baptized. That's not so. That's not so. Baptism does not cleanse us. Water baptism does not cleanse
us. It's not our Savior. Jesus Christ
is our Savior. Baptism is a confession. It is a confession of my identification
with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. That's what
that is. And the ark was a picture of that. The ark was a picture
of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. For 40 days and
40 nights, it was deluged in water. It was water coming down,
like pouring out of a bucket. It was just covered in water.
Water beneath, water above, it just deluged in water. And he's saying here that that
ark, that Noah, and the rest of his family and those animals
were in, it's a picture of baptism. But baptism is identification
with the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is the way we confess
Christ. We do not come up to the front of a church and make
a profession at an altar. I've seen that back in my early
years. I've watched that happen time
and time again. Jesus Christ is our altar. He's our altar. And we come to Him. I believe
it was, I don't know if it was Ralph Barner who said, you come
to Christ, but don't you move a hair or muscle. But you come
to Christ. And the way we confess Christ
is baptism. That's how we're identified with
Him. That's how we do that. Now, back in verses 14 through
17, Peter speaks of patience in suffering. He speaks of the believer suffering
for righteousness' sake and for well-doing. And he tells us that
those who take it patiently, that it's well-pleasing to God. There's no way a believer One
who truly believes the gospel, which is a believer, who truly
believes the gospel. No one else does. Cannot go through this life without
suffering, to some degree now, for righteousness sake, or for
well-doing. For doing what's right. Doing
the right thing. He said you can't do it. Remember this, the servant is
not above his master. He's not above his master. Did
our master suffer? So shall we. Did our head suffer? So shall we. So shall we. Now, we will not suffer the wrath
of God. We will not suffer punishment for sin, chastening, chastening,
God will chasten his children. He chastens every son whom he
received, but not punishment. Christ suffered the punishment
of sin. If the head suffers, so will
the body. I want you to look at just a
few Scriptures. I want you to see this in Hebrews 11. I said Noah preached the same message
that we preach, preached by the same Spirit. This jumped out
at me today when I was reading. Hebrews 11. Look in verse 24. By faith Moses, when he was come
to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter,
choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to
enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. And notice how verse
26 is written, and this is not a mistake, the way it's written. Esteeming the reproach of Christ. Same Christ we worship. This
is thousands of years ago. Thousands of years ago. Moses
esteeming the reproach, here he says, the reproach of Christ.
Greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. for he had respect
unto the recompense of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not
fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured, as seen him who
is invisible." But verse 26 just jumped out at me today. I know
I've read that so many times. But he esteemed the reproach
of Christ thousands of years ago to be greater riches than
that of Egypt. It's the same message we have
today. Same Savior. Same gospel. Same gospel. Not any difference. Look over in 2 Timothy chapter
2. I've got several written down,
but I'm only going to turn to a couple of them here. 2 Timothy chapter 2. Look in 2 Timothy
2.12. Let me go to verse 11. It is
a faithful saying, for if we be dead with Him, that is with
Christ, we shall also live with Him. If we suffer, we shall also
reign with Him. If we deny Him, He will also
deny us. But we will suffer. You cannot be a believer and
not suffer to some extent for the gospel. And we should not
be disappointed when it happens. We should actually rejoice that
we are counted worthy to suffer for Christ's sake. Now, Peter gives Christ as our
example now in patience under suffering. Look back in chapter
2. Let me start with that first.
In verse 21. For even hereunto were you called,
you were called to this, because Christ also suffered for us,
leaving us an example." That's the reason I titled this, Christ
Our Example. Leaving us an example that you
should follow His steps. The way He conducted Himself
under suffering. He said He's left us an example
of how we are to conduct ourselves and carry on ourselves under
suffering when it comes our way. who did no sin, neither was guile
found in his mouth, who when he was reviled, he reviled not
again. When he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to
him that judgeth righteously." That's how we're to handle it.
Commit ourselves to God. Commit the whole matter to God. Our Lord did. Our Lord did. "...who his own self bare our
sins in his own body on the tree." that we being dead to sin should
live unto righteousness by whose stripes ye were healed." Christ is our example. When Christ
was taken to the judgment hall and they called people in and
they lied on Him, they made accusations against Him that was not true
in any way, shape, or form. And it says that He opened not
His mouth, I find that would be one of the
hardest thing for me to do is not open my mouth. That's the
hardest thing to do. When I'm being accused of something,
it's the hardest thing to do is not just come back hard. It's
just natural. It's natural. But he opened not
his mouth. He patiently endured the insults
and the lies that were told on him. He took suffering as being
from the will of his father. But our Lord is more than an
example. He's more than just our example. He's our Redeemer. He's our Savior from sin. His
suffering was an exhibition of redeeming power and love. Now
here's what I want to look at. I want us to look at who suffered.
What did He suffer? For whom did He suffer? Why did
He suffer for them? And where is He now? Let's just
go through this. I try not to spend too much time
on each of those points. Who suffered? Here's the first
thing that struck my mind when I was studying this. The whole
of salvation, the whole of my salvation, the whole of your
salvation hangs on who suffered. It hangs right here on who suffered. There's been a lot of people
who have suffered over the years. I can go back to Hebrews 11. They were sawn asunder. They
lived in caves. And I can go back to many of
the martyrs that I read to you the other day, two or three weeks
ago. But none of them who have suffered
was God. None of them was God. This is
God. It's astounding to me. As I grow
older and as I grow older in Christ, this is so astounding
to me that Almighty God, in the beginning God, He's the one who
came into this world, took upon Him flesh, and suffered His own
law, suffered His own justice, suffered the insults of His own
creation. It's amazing. It's amazing. God. It says here, Christ. Christ suffered. This is the appointed Savior
of sinners. This is the one God chose. The second person of the Trinity
to come into this world who is God. There's only one God. There's three distinct persons
in the Godhead now. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
There's only one God. And this is Him. He's the Christ. He's the one approved and chosen
by the Father. By the Father. And then He's
a real man. A real man suffered. A real man. And this is important for the
same nature that sin must be the same nature that gives satisfaction
to God's law that was broken. The animals couldn't do it. The
blood of bulls and goats couldn't do it. They didn't sin. They
didn't break the law. Adam broke the law. So the same nature that
broke it has to be the same nature that gives satisfaction. Has
to be the same one. And Jesus Christ came into this
world. God in human flesh and became,
and this is way over our head, God Almighty, God who is pure
spirit, God who is not made up of parts, God who is light, God
who is life, became flesh and walked among us. When I read the Gospels, and
this is one of the reasons I wanted to go through the book of Matthew.
I want us to observe Jesus Christ, who is God, walking among us. How He deals with sinners. God walking among us. Dwelt among
us. Tabernacled among us. God. He was not an imitation
of a man. Jesus Christ was a real man in
every way. Every way except for sin. He's called the Son of God and
He's called the Son of Man. And as a man, He suffered the
things we suffer. He was not exempt from anything.
Anything. The Scripture says He was tempted
in all points as we are, yet without sin. That's why we have
a high priest that can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.
Do you have any infirmities? Has your heart broken over anything?
There are things going on with you I don't know about. There's things going on with
you, I guarantee you, your heart's broken at night, I don't know
about. But He does. And He's touched, it says, He's
touched with the feeling of our infirmity. You know, when He
was at the grave of Lazarus, And Mary and Martha was there
and they wept. And what does it say? It says
Jesus wept. He felt their pain. I'm confident. He felt their pain. He was touched with their pain. He was tempted in all points
as we are. yet without sin. He hungered. Remember the temptation in the
wilderness? Satan came to him and he said,
turn these stones into bread. He hadn't eaten for 40 days and
nights. He felt the pain of that. Now
don't think, well, he's God so he could do that. He was a real
man and he felt what it was at the end of 40 days and night
that he had not eaten. And Satan came at him in that
point. That's why he came at him. He felt that was his weakest
point at that time. That any man would fill his belly
if he's hungry enough. What was it that Esau did? He
sold his birthright for a bowl of soup. He said, what's his
birthright going to do me any good for? I'm about to die. And Satan came at our Lord and
he said, turn these stones into bread. He didn't do it, did he? There
was no way. Listen, I know you know this. Our Lord relieved suffering.
He relieved sickness. He fed 5,000 plus the women and
children that were there twice. There's community service, because
most of them didn't believe at all. Never did. I've been thinking about that
one. He did that, but he never one
time, not one time did Jesus Christ ever relieve his own suffering. You know why? Because I can't. I can't turn those stones into
bread and feed myself when I'm hungry. I can't do it. When he was thirsty, he sat at
that well and asked that woman to give him a drink. He relieved others. They said
at the cross, you have saved others, and we'll paraphrase,
you have saved others, save yourselves. He couldn't. In saving us, He
couldn't do that. He couldn't do that. He wept, He groaned in spirit. Now what did He suffer for? It
says here that Christ hath once, and only once, this ain't gonna
happen again, once suffered for sins. Jesus Christ is the only
man who knew no sin, who suffered for sins. Christ never had a
sinful thought. He never uttered a sinful word. He never ever had a sinful action. And yet He suffered for every
sinful thought, word, and action of His people. He never had one Himself, but
I tell you, we do. Just since we come in this room,
there's enough sin to send us to hell. If we understand who
God is, we'd understand there's enough sin that's gone on since
we got here to put every one of us in hell. Now in His sufferings, we see
also that sin brings suffering. No one's exempt from it, not
even the Son of God. Not even the Son of God. When
Jesus Christ came into this world and when He identified Himself
with men and women like you and me, He had to suffer for it. When He became our surety, Solomon told his son, he said,
don't you be surety for another because you'll smart for it.
He said, you'll smart for it, you'll hurt. Our Lord became
our surety and He smarted for it, suffered for it. He suffered injustice at the
hands of men, and He suffered justice at the hands
of God. He suffered the unchecked wrath
of men. He suffered the unchecked wrath
of Satan. But above all this, Jesus Christ
suffered the unchecked wrath of God. that would have fallen
on our head had He not done it. Listen to Isaiah 53, 3-6. I'm
going to read it to you. He is despised and rejected of
men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it
were, our faces from Him. He was despised and we esteemed
him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows." That's what he did. Yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God, afflicted. But he was wounded. He was tormented. Tormented for our transgressions. bruised for our iniquities. The
chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes
we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray,
and we have turned everyone to his own way. You and I both know that if we
were there, we would have turned away from Him. We would have
been like Peter. We would have denied him. We
would have done the same thing if he would have let me. I'm just glad he only let Peter
do it as an example. And not all of us have to go
through that. We have turned everyone to his
own way and the Lord Jehovah has laid on him the iniquity
of us all. It all fell on Him. Christ suffered the awful experience
of being made sin. We were born in sin and shaped
in iniquity. That's all we've known. That's
all we've known. Sin is all we have known, but
Christ was made to be sin. It says, He who knew no sin,
the perfect, holy Son of God, a sinless man who knew no sin,
was made to be sin. Incomprehensible. I can't imagine what that was
like for Him to be made what I am. I can't imagine it. Now what do the sufferings of
Christ say? I tell you, it says this, the sufferings of Christ
for sin says, God will punish sin. Calvary says, God will kill
everyone who has sinned. God is going to kill everyone
who has sinned. Now He has either put me to death
in Christ, or He's going to put me to death in hell, the second
death, when this is over. One way or another, death has
got to happen. One way or another, the soul
that sinneth shall surely die. And God is a God who keeps His
promise. Now why did He suffer for them,
for His people? Brethren, right here it ought
to put us on the edge of our seat, that He might bring us
to God. God who is light, God who is
the light no man can approach. God said to Moses, no man can
see My face and live. We cannot go into God's presence
as we are. We can't go there by ourselves.
God is a consuming fire, and He still is. He still is. He cannot look upon sin with
indifference. He's got to punish sin, and that's
all I am is sin. That's all I am is sin. That
being so, how am I to come to God? How is a sinner like me
to come to God? How is he to be approached? Well,
the Scriptures teach us that for us to approach God,
there must be a high priest, there must be a sacrifice, there
must be blood for atonement, and there must be a mediator,
a day's man between me and God. And Jesus Christ is that man. Jesus Christ, think of this,
Jesus Christ is God. God standing between me and God. What a thought. Here's a thought that we ought
to go to sleep with tonight. Bringing us to God. The first
Adam took us away from God. The second Adam is bringing us
to God. Our sins have separated us from
God, but Jesus Christ put them away and now He's bringing us
to God. This speaks of reconciliation.
Christ has reconciled us to God. In Christ we have peace. Peace
with God. The lost sheep has been found,
and the lost sheep is being brought home. He's being brought home. That's what's happening. God's
bringing us home. This day has passed. The Lord
willing, tomorrow comes, that day passes, and that final day
comes when our time has been marked, like a hireling. And He's going to bring us and
present us to God Almighty. Now in closing, where is He now?
Look in verse 22. "...who has gone into heaven."
Our Lord has risen from the dead. He's not dead. But He has gone
into heaven and is on the right hand of God. Angels and authorities
and powers being right now as I speak. Angels and authorities and powers
being made subject unto Him. Doing His bidding. He's seated at God's right hand. Ruling the universe. Ruling the universe. That makes
me able to sleep at night. I'm telling you, that makes me
able to sleep. I don't trust anything to keep
me safe but God. I don't trust anything or anyone.
I know God uses means, but God... David said this, Thou only makest
me to dwell in safety. Well, David, you've got the whole
army. You've got access to the whole army. You can surround
your whole castle with the army. No. No. God, Thou only, He said, makes
me to dwell in safety. And I can go to sleep with that.
He's the sovereign ruler even now. God has turned everything
over to Jesus Christ. This ought to make us want to
set our hearts on things above and not on the things of this
earth. not on the things of this earth. I've realized I'm not
that important to this earth. You know, I used to run a company
one time. Years ago, I ran it for somebody else. It was successful. And I decided to leave. The guy
took over, made it even more successful. He made it better
than I did. And I thought, well, they're
going to miss me. Yeah, like 15 minutes. I was talking to her last night,
and she said, aren't the dogs eating? I said, the dogs wouldn't
hardly eat. She's not here. She's ruined them. Spoiled those dogs. Stands out there and pets them
and gets them to roll over and pets their belly, you know. She'll
stay out there until they eat all their food. I don't. I said,
they'll eat sooner or later. She goes, no. She didn't like
that. She didn't like that remark.
Anyway, she called me today and was talking, and they've been
eating pretty good the last few days. She said, they've gotten
over me. I said, honey, that's life. I
said, about 15 minutes after we're gone, I got over you. The dogs are
eating just fine. But that's the way it is, isn't
it? It's like throwing a rock in a pond. Does it leave a hole?
Just a ripple. And there's no hole left. Listen. In suffering, let us
take it patiently, looking unto our Lord. Good will come out
of it. Whatever you're going through,
whatever God's allowing you to go through, I promise you, good
will come out of it. There's never a night... Scott
Richardson said this, and I can't quote it all, but I put it in
a bulletin not long ago. There's never a night that's
not followed by a day. that's not followed by a day.
There's never rain that's not followed by sunshine. There's
never a time that God does not put us through
something that a blessing is going to come out of it. Spiritual
blessing. It may not just be physical blessing,
but a blessing will come out of it. If it makes me look to
Jesus Christ more, if it makes me set my heart on Him more,
It makes me to see that nothingness of this life, that's the greatest
blessing that can come out of it. In hope, let us look unto our
Lord who's gone above. In death, let us look unto our
Lord with great anticipation of going home to be with God
our Father. Patience is suffering. Christ
is our example, but He's more than that. He's our Redeemer.
He's our Savior. Great Grace.