1 Peter 3. Title of the subject
here is the sufferings of Christ and His people. Not that they
are equal by no means. Our Lord, He has the preeminence. And His sufferings for us were
merit, meritorious by His suffering. We are saved. Our sufferings are not merit. Our sufferings are out of love
to Him and because of His mercy to us. It was Simon Peter and
one of the other apostles that were beaten. They were whipped
for preaching the gospel. And it says they both went home
or went back to the church rejoicing that they were counted worthy
to suffer shame. His name. They were happy. They were hurting. They had stripes
on their back, but they were laughing and singing and glad. Especially Simon Peter, since
he had denied his Lord as he did, and was so ashamed of himself. And then the Lord gave him an
opportunity to speak for him, and he did it. And he was whipped
for it, and he was glad. Glad that he didn't betray him
like Judas. Look at verses 10 through 12
again. He that will love life, seek
good days. Let him refrain his tongue from
evil, 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. His ears
are open unto their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against
them that do evil, the righteous. Now you know well, you know this
well, To be counted of God righteous is to be found in Christ. You know that. He's our righteousness. Christ is our righteousness. All of God's people know that.
And, by the Spirit of God, not any work which we have done.
But He makes us righteous. He makes us like Christ. There's
a new creature in every one of His people. They are righteous
like Christ. Our hope of eternal glory is
Christ. Christ is our hope. And it says
that Christ in you is the hope of glory, a new creature in Christ. All right? And verse 13 says,
Who is He that will harm you if you be followers of that which
is good? There is none good but God, that
which is holy, just, and right. That's our God. That's His Son. We follow Him. We're followers
of the Lamb. But we also walk in His footstep,
in paths of righteousness, for His name's sake. Not our doing,
but He hath put us in His way. He hath put His way in us. Righteous, God's people are righteous,
they're holy, they're just, they're unblameable, unreprovable, they're
like Jesus Christ. Though none of them can see it
in themselves. They don't see it. They mourn
over their lack of it. Yet they see it in other people.
They see it in their brethren. But the scriptures calls them
people that God has redeemed that are zealous of good works. zealous of good work. Look at
chapter 2, verse 12. He says, having your conversation
honest among the Gentiles, that whereas they speak against you
as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they behold,
glorify God in the day of visitation. God's people, none of them acknowledge
any work that they do at all. They just don't see it. Here's
what the Lord said in His sermon on the mount. He said of His
people, Matthew 5. He said, you're the
light of the world. That is, Christ in us is that
reflected light. And he says, Let your light so
shine for men that they may see your good works and glorify your
Father which is in heaven. That's what he said, didn't he?
That's what Jesus Christ said. And so that's created unto good
works for God's glory. God's glory. We don't trust in
those. We don't look to those. As a
matter of fact, we have a hard time finding it in ourselves.
But they're there. Like the people that our Lord
commended for doing what they did for Him or whomever. He said, you've done it for the
least of these. You've done it for a million. They all said, His people said,
when? I don't ever recall doing anything
but sin. That's what God's people think.
But no, the Lord said, no, you have. You have. And so we don't look at these
things. We don't look to them. We don't
really look for them. But they're there. All right?
And as the world becomes more and more perverted, they call evil good and good
evil. As it becomes more and more,
further and further away from the truth, from God's Word, to
where men have just totally thrown out God's Word completely. Any law, any whatever. God's
people are strange people in this world. Look at chapter 4,
this next week it says, verse 4, they think it's strange. that
you run not with them to the same excess of right speaking
evil of you. Do-gooders. Did you read Dad's
article? You bunch of do-gooders. What's
wrong with that? I want to do good. I've done
enough evil. Do-gooders. And that's what the
world, a bunch of... Oh, they're straight. Boy, I
want to be straight, don't you? I want to walk the straight,
narrow path and lead a thundered life, don't you? I want the Lord
to straighten me out. I sure do. And he says, you're
going to suffer for it. Look at verse 13. Who is he that
will harm you if you be followers of that which is good, rather
than what we're doing right now is a good thing. It doesn't get
any better than that. This is good. Good. Good place to be, a good thing
to do. Our reasonable service, but it's our delight, our joy.
God's worthy of being worshipped. Christ is worthy to be worshipped. I'm so glad that I want to be
here. There was a time I didn't want
to be here. Now I do. And why am I here? Because He chose me to be here,
to worship Him. But, verse 14, if you suffer
for righteousness sake, be happy. Be glad. Don't be afraid of their
terror. Neither be troubled. We were spoken evilly of for
meeting together at a time when they didn't want anybody meeting.
It's been a real blessing ever since then. Aren't you glad?
We're just doing what God tells us to do. For not forsaking to
assemble ourselves together for any reason. That's a good thing. Good thing. Boy, didn't we need
it. Don't we need it? But now, it says suffering for
righteousness sake. This is principally talking about
suffering for the truth's sake, for Christ's sake, for contending
for the truth of Christ's righteousness and no one else's. That's what
this is talking about more than anything else. Okay? If you suffer for Christ's sake,
look at chapter 4, verse 14. It says, let me just, let's see,
verse 14. If you be reproached for the
name of Christ, oh, be happy. For the glory of Christ, happy
spirit of God rests upon you. Our Lord said that in His Sermon
on the Map. Blessed are you when men shall persecute you and revile
you and say all manner of evil against you, falsely, for my
name's sake, for my glory's sake, for my truth's sake, for my gospel's
sake. If they call the gospel you preach
the doctrine of devils, be happy, because that's what they said
about him. That's what they said about John. He had the devil.
Oh no, he had the spirit from his mother's womb. What did John
talk about? Christ. That's all he could talk
about. In fact, before he was born,
he leapt in the womb when he heard of Christ. That's how you
know Christ is in us. That's how you know Christ is
among us. We don't want to do anything else, talk about anyone
else. We sure don't want to talk about our works, but His. That's how you know. God's true
people are those who just claim to be. That's how you know where
the Spirit of God is. Be happy. Be happy. Suffer for righteousness sake.
His sake, Christ is our righteousness. Surely, Isaiah 45 says, surely
shall one say in the Lord have I righteousness. Here I am. I'm
one. Anybody else? Go ahead, say it. Me too. He's made unto us wisdom,
righteousness, Mine are filthy rags. David said in Psalm 71
over and over and over and over again, he said, I'll make mention
of thy righteousness and thine only. David was a righteous man.
David did the right thing. And he suffered for it. Yes,
he did. But he said, I'm not. I'm just a sinner, say it that
way. Christ is my righteousness. David's
the one that wrote Psalm 24. Who shall ascend unto the holy
hill of the Lord? He that hath clean hands and pure heart, never
lifted up his soul unto vanity, or sworn deceitfully. Who's going
to be there? And in Psalm 24 it says, look,
here comes the King of glory, walking right through the gate.
Look behind him, hanging on to his On the hymn, a train of people
dressed in His righteousness alone, faultless to stand before
the throne. Yes, it's His righteousness and
His only. And you tell me I'm that? And
you tell me that every work you've ever done doesn't account for
nothing. Nothing! I told my neighbor that, and
she got so mad at me. And to this day, she wants me
dead. You can't believe what all she's...
Stood in our yard and cursed my wife. Cursed her in front
of the neighbors. Why? Because I told her that
nothing you've ever done accounts for anything but only Christ. Well, happy. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid, he said. Don't
be troubled. So persecuted are the prophets
before you. Verse 15, I like this. Sanctify
the Lord God in your heart. Be ready always to give an answer
to every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you with
meekness and fear. Can you give a reason of the
hopes within you? Can you give a one-word reason? Christ. That says it all, doesn't
it? Christ. That's all you need to
know. He's all you need to know. You
know? Christ. He's all. All my hope. Sanctify the Lord God. I like
that. In Isaiah 8, it says this. He says, Isaiah through Isaiah. He said, don't join this confederacy. A bunch of rebels against God.
Don't fear their fear. Don't be afraid. Sanctify the
Lord of hosts Himself. Let Him be your fear and be your
dread. And He shall be, if He is, He'll
be a sanctuary and a stone of stumbling, a rock of a fence.
But for you, solid rock on which you stand. And you'll not be
moved. You just stand firm right there
on Christ's holy rock. Contend for the truth. Don't
join with the Confederacy. There's a worldwide conspiracy
in the Confederacy against God, against His anointed. Let's break
their bands asunder. He that sits in the heaven laughs. So we serve the Lord, we rejoice
with trembling. So, he says, everyone that asks
you a reason, do it with meekness, not pride. Meekness, humility,
considering thine own self, remembering who you, where the Lord found
you, what you are, and fear, fear of the Lord. Verse 16, having
a good conscience, whereas they speak evil of you as evildoers,
they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation
in Christ. Our conversation is in heaven.
Our conversation is of Christ. I like 2 Corinthians 2, 17, I
think. 2 Corinthians 2, 17. Paul said,
we're not as many that corrupt the Word of God. Live faithfully
with it. Preach it. But as of sincerity, in truth, as of sincerity, as
of truth, in the sight of God, we speak, we preach, cry it. Paul said, Woe is unto me if
I preach not to God. So our conversation, our preaching,
everything we do really is In and of Christ. Verse 17. It's
better if the will of God be so that you suffer for well-doing
than for evil-doing. It's better. That's for sure. I've suffered enough in my life
because of my sin and my shame. And probably will suffer some
more because of it. And others will suffer because
of mine and vice versa. But just for once, I'd like to
suffer for His name's sake. And whatever we go through, whatever
trial and tribulations and troubles, if we'll take it patiently, if
we'll endure it patiently, if we'll give God all the glory
in it, that's why He sends these things,
so that we'll bear witness of Him. It's the Lord. All that
God sent Job's way. He sent the Sabians, I might
get them mixed up, the Sabians to take all his cattle, the Chaldeans
to whatever, take away all that. And then the wind came and blew
the house down and killed all his children, God killed all
his children, took everything from him. And then the Lord had
Job smitten. The Lord smoked Job physically,
himself, with boils, painful. He couldn't sit or lie down from
the bottom of his feet to the top of his head. The Lord did
all that. And Job never said once, I hate
those Sabaeans, or those Chaldeans did this, or the wind did that. He said the Lord did it. And he said in all this, Job
sinned not with his lips. And we sin with our lips whenever
we complain, whenever we murmur, whenever we don't give God the
glory. Like I said, we need to start
saying the Lord sent rain instead of it rained. The world takes
rain for granted, don't they? Let it not be so of us. Let's
say the Lord mercifully and graciously sent rain in this dry and thirsty
land. Praise His holy name. Well, it's flooding. Well, it
ought to. It ought to just wash us all
away, but God is rich in mercy. Our vocabulary, our conversation
ought to be in heaven of God, His glory, that sanctify Him
before everybody, not sin with our lips. Now, look at this. This is the
heart of it. Talking about suffering. He's
already said in chapter 2 that Christ did no sin. When He was
reviled, He reviled not again. He suffered. Verse 24, chapter
2, He bare our sins in His own mouth. He took our sins in His
body on the tree, made a curse for us. The handwriting of ordinances
are against that. The crimes that we committed,
He took the punishment for them. You know what the two hardest
things for a human being to do, and maybe they're impossible, is to bear someone else's blame
and give somebody else the credit for something we've done. Not take the credit. Give them
all the credit for something you did and take all the blame
for something wrong they did. That's impossible for us to do.
That's exactly what Christ did, both cheerfully for the joy set
before. I'll take the blame. I'll do
it. I'm guilty. I'm the one. Hold me accountable. Let them
go free. Give them what I earned. Give
them my reward. Give it to them gladly. I'll
do that. What glory. Verse 18 in our text, Christ
suffered for sins, the just for the unjust. Oh, brethren. Christ suffered the just for
the unjust. He died for Barabbas. Barabbas. That man never did
a good thing in his life. He did only evil against everybody. The thief on the cross. Christ
the just died for that unjust fellow. Everybody in town wanted
that thief dead. Christ said, no, he's going to
live. No, this is what I came for. Him? You're going to die for
Him? Yes. Isn't that amazing? Oh, scarcely for a righteous
man would one die for a good man, but God commended His love
toward us while we were yet sinners. Christ died for the ungodly. That's amazing. That's amazing.
Just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. Think
about it. He said of that thief, today
you're going to be with me in paradise. Today. That means Christ
did not go to hell after he died. He went to paradise. Right? Today. The thief came walking through. But Christ came in and said,
here he is. Father, here he is. And the whole place erupted,
Brother Kim. Look, there he is. Who? Who did he bring to God? Who
did Christ bring to God? A thief! But wait, look at him. He doesn't
look anything like he used to. Look at him. He's dressed in
white. He's beautiful. Well, his Lord has these scars
on his head, on his hands, on his feet, on his side. Someone said to me one time,
if I'm a sheep, I'm a black sheep. Sister, all of us are. That's the only kind of sheep
He saves, black ones, to make them white. To the praise of
the glory of His grace, exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness
toward us. I'm going to show us. Look who
He brought to God. You don't want Him, do you? Surely
you're not going to die for him or her, are you? That one? You
don't want that one, do you? That one's going to bring me
great glory. Everybody knows that fella cannot
save himself. He's a hopeless cause. Now watch what I do for him.
Watch what I do to him. I'm just shouting grounded. Go
ahead. Put the death in the flesh, quicken
by the Spirit. Now look at these verses, and
so many people are so confused by these, and I don't know why.
God's people ought not to be confused. The language is a little
different. But verse 19, by which? By what? The Spirit. the Holy
Spirit, Christ went and preached unto the spirits in prison, which
sometime or one time, long time ago, were disobedient, when once
the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the
ark was preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved
by water. And so many think that Christ went, after He died, He
went into hell and preached to people in hell. Why would He
do that? There's no hope for them. The
Gospel's a message of hope in it. And he that believeth shall
be saved. Why would He go preach? They
already heard Him preach. Right? They already heard. And
there's no more sacrifice for sin for those people. That's
not what that's saying. He's talking about the Spirit
of Christ who was in the Old Testament. And all the prophets,
all the preachers in the Old Testament preached by the Spirit
of Christ. What did they preach? Christ.
And he's talking about Noah. And Peter said it in 2 Peter
2, verse 5, Noah was a preacher of righteousness. Noah was the
preacher in whom the Spirit of God preached through to those
people back then who were disobedient, who rejected the truth, who rejected
what Noah was preaching, righteousness. And so God put them in hell.
He said those that are now in prison, when Noah was preaching,
he preached to them. He preached to them, all right,
by the Spirit of Christ. He preached to them. Verse 20, the longsuffering of
God waited in the days of Noah. And Peter is the one that's going
to say, Brethren, the longsuffering of God is salvation. Noah preached 100 years. While he was preparing that ark,
he preached 100 years, not 120. I've always been wrong about
that. It's 100 years. 100 years. One thing, didn't it? Same message
every day, day in and day out. Judgment's coming. Judgment's
coming. God is holy. God is just. God
is righteous. God will punish sin. Warning
people of sin. Repent. Judgment's coming, but
there's mercy with God. There's salvation with God. Get
in the ark. Get in the ark. Get in the ark. Before the ark was finished,
get in the ark. What's that mean? Christ, the
Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. You know good and
well if Noah was a preacher of righteousness, he's preaching
Christ. He's preaching the Messiah's coming. God is holy. God will
by no means clear the guilty. But God is merciful. But God
is gracious. But God is ready to pardon. And
there's only one way, and that's God's Messiah. That's the woman's
seed. That's the smitten rock. That
didn't happen yet. But Noah preached, didn't he? Come to Christ. Get in the ark.
Get in the ark. That ark is such a picture. Now I have about five minutes
to talk about Noah's ark. I was playing on spin 20. The ark of Noah is mentioned
so much in the Scriptures. Peter mentions it in the first
letter and the second letter. It's such a picture. In chapter
3 of 2 Peter, he mentions it in chapter 2, the world overflowed,
perished by water, but there were eight people saved by water. Well, it's water. It's the Word
of God. It's all the promises of God.
God's people walked through this Red Sea on dry ground, solid
rock, and the water was a wall unto them on both sides. It cannot come down upon them. All the promises of God in Christ
are yea. Over here, this wall is yea,
and over here, John, it's amen. We were on vacation, eight of
us, nine years ago. Was it nine years ago? No? Oh,
nine. You do the math. Anyway, there
were eight of us, okay? Mac and Martin. Ron, Tammy, Mindy and I, how
many is that? Is that eight? Okay. Anyway, we were all there. This was before Mixler. So I thought, we've got to have
a service, a worship service, Sunday morning. And I thought,
what better passage to preach than about these eight soul saves. You remember that? And we looked
at it. And we rejoiced, didn't we, Margaret? But one of us was
passed plain over. He's on that other side. And
you know what he'd tell you? It's okay. It's solid rock, brethren,
sisters. Keep looking. Keep walking, by
faith. Stay together now. We've got
a good hope, a sure hope. All his promises are true. Keep looking. Keep walking. Time is short. If you're on Christ the solid
rock, if you're in Christ the ark, that's why Paul said, oh,
that I might win Christ and be found in Him. Not have Him out of me, but covered
by Him. That ark, oh, I need an hour. That ark was made of gopher wood,
wasn't it? Christ was made flesh and dwelt
among us. That ark had rooms in it. How many? Room and upper. All there in there. Rooms. Our Lord said, I go to prepare
a place for you. You reckon a skunk came walking
up the door and said, you reckon I could come in there? Oh yeah. Come on in, you and your wife.
Right? Come one, come all. There's room.
There's room. But no vacancies. There won't
be any vacancies. Room for all. Black, white, red,
no Jew, Gentile, rich, poor, male, female, in Christ they're
all one. Come one, come all. Come on in. Rooms. Three stories
high. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. These
three are one. The Word, the Flesh, the Blood. I had one window, one window. You look out that window and
you see things like they really are. Right? You look out that
window in that ark and what you'd see is a perishing world, overflowed. and make you thankful you're
inside. Right. One door. One way in. One way in. And every animal
knew they were in there because Noah, whose name means rests,
Christ, I read, Noah brought them all in. He went out and
chose every single animal that was going into that ark. He chose
them, and he brought them, come thou, into the ark. And they
were all in there, and they all heard that door, shut them in. They were shut up to faith. Shut
up to faith. What does that mean? Well, you're
going to shut your mouth and anything about yourself. Shut
your mouth. And if they ask you, why are
you there? You're going to say, Christ. If I'm in here, it's because
Christ brought me. If I don't go out, it's because
He kept me. And he talks about the like figure
baptism. The sabbath is not putting away
the filth of the flesh, but it's the answer of a good conscience
toward God. You see, every single person,
those eight souls, they went in unto Noah in the ark. Seven souls went in to Noah in
the ark, and the Lord God shut them in. They all came and went
in, and the water covered. When it was raining, it was a
deluge. And that ark was covered, the
wrath of God. That water represents the wrath
of God. And the same word of God that
promises salvation says, I'm going to smite Egypt. And he
did, and he will. That water is going to make damnation
to those that don't trust Christ. But that ark, you see, for the
people inside that ark took all the wrath of God, all the rain
of God, all the wrath of God that rained down upon, should
have been on Noah and Shem and Ham and Japheth, fell on that
ark there. And that ark was covered by the
wrath of God. And they were inside that ark,
immersed, covered, but they were dry. They were dry. Not one drop fell on them. It all fell on the ground. That's
what baptism's a picture of. And every one of them were in
that ark, and it's a picture of baptism. And every single
person that believes Christ, they're told to confess Him. And they do. Anybody that won't,
anybody that doesn't and won't, is not going to be saved. They
must be ashamed of Christ. Well, and I will be with him
that day. So that's, it doesn't put away
flesh, but it's a good conscience. A conscience convicted of sin. A conscience, by the law, convicted. Mouth stuffed. Slain. A conscience that's purged from
dead works. clearly showing us it's not by
works of righteousness which I've done, it was according to
His mercy He saved me. There's nothing I've done, it's
all that Christ did, everything He did and all that He bore for
me, that's my salvation. And that's what baptism is saying,
it's a good conscience, it's a good conscience that Christ
is found. If I, when he died, I died. When he was buried, I was buried. Hopefully my sins were put away.
And when he rises, when he arose, I arose. And when he's coming
back, I want to hope he'll bring me with him, take me with him.
That's what baptism says. And it says in verse 22, and
I close, Christ is gone into heaven. He's on the right hand
of God. Angels and authorities and powers being made subject
unto Him. And that's what He does for His
people right there on this earth. They're made subject to Him. They bow at His feet. They worship
Him who loved them, washed them from their sins in His own precious
blood. May God be with you. Okay.