Speaker: Uh, there have been some massive mistakes made in, in history, in, in fact,
maybe you've heard of the Wicked Bible.
Uh, maybe you haven't heard of the Wicked Bible.
Uh, the Wicked Bible was published in 1631 as an update to the King James version.
The problem is the editor of the Wicked Bible at the time, using
the printing press and all that.
He left out one word, three letter word.
You might think, oh, he left out the word God.
That would make it a wicked Bible.
It would make it a wicked Bible if he left out the word God.
He didn't leave out the word God.
He left out the word not, not NOT.
And you think really that was, and, and this led to the
shutdown of the whole process.
It was scrapped, the wicked Bible was shelved and it's,
it's never to be seen again.
What was the big deal about living, leaving out the word not well,
context is everything, right?
So the verse that the word not was left out of was Exodus, chapter 20, verse 14.
If you're familiar with Exodus chapter 20, we're in the The 10 Commandments.
Okay?
In the 10 Commandments, there's a lot of thou shalt nots, aren't there?
Well, one of those thou shalt nots became a thou shalt, and it happened
to be thou shalt commit adultery.
You can see why we wouldn't want that Bible circulating into the
hands of, of people going, oh, well, God is okay with this.
That's a big mistake to publish.
Thou shalt commit adultery, uh, but sometimes big mistakes are also
connected to grave miscalculations.
For example, de seven, December 7th, 1941, the date that will live in infamy.
The miscalculation that was also a, a huge mistake was when Japan decided to
wake the sleeping giant of the United States by attacking Pearl Harbor.
They thought they would be able to catch the United States unaware and
cripple our naval forces so much so that we wouldn't be able to respond.
Little did they know what they were going to do is, again, cause the sleeping
giant to awake and join the war, which would ultimately lead to the defeat
of the Axis Forces in World War ii.
A grave mistake that was also a horrible miscalculation.
Well, this morning I want us to talk about the greatest mistake, which
was also the greatest miscalculation that the devil ever made.
Now we understand the sovereignty of God and the sovereignty of
God is really ultimately behind the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
At the same time, you could say, well, the, the Romans were behind
the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
At the same time, you could say that the Jews were behind the
crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
Still at the same time, even more, you could say that Satan was behind
the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
In fact, the Bible says that Satan entered into the heart of Judas
when Judas went to betray Jesus into the hands of the Roman authorities.
In the Jewish authorities.
You see Satan at the cross as Jesus hung, there was rejoicing thinking, I've won.
I've done it.
I've conquered the one.
There's no hope anymore because I'm executing the sun.
I'm killing the, the one that everybody was looking to to be the Messiah.
Here's your Messiah.
And as as Jesus breathed his last Satan thought he would want.
But as we're gonna see this morning, that proved to be Satan's greatest mistake and
his greatest miscalculation because in the death of Christ and his subsequent
resurrection and then his exaltation, what we find is the greatest hope the
suffering saint could ever possess.
Knowing that we will one day not be here any longer, but that one
day we will go to be with God.
And in seeing Jesus put on the cross, Satan, open the door and pave the way
for you and I to have a relationship with God and to be brought to God.
And so take your Bibles, if you will, and open up to one Peter, chapter three.
One Peter chapter three,
verses 17 through 18.
Peter says, for it's better to suffer for doing good, if that should be
God's will than for doing evil.
This is where we were last week, and I just want to draw the connection
point, get us a running start.
'cause the author Peter goes on to say, for Christ also suffered once
for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us
to God, that Christ might bring us to the Father, being put to death in the
flesh, but made alive in the spirit.
What I want us to do here is, is to see, and this is why I started with
verse 17, this is really not just verse 17, but everything we've been talking
about in the Suffering Saint Series.
The hope that we have is connected to the gospel and the gospel is what
we're gonna see in our passage verses 18 through 22, the Death of Christ.
The resurrection of Christ and the exaltation of Christ,
the ascension of Christ.
And so when Satan thought he won, what was really happening is God was sovereignty,
sovereignly, working out his plan so that you and I would have hope as we
suffer the opposition of this world and we begin here with a focus on his death
for Christ, also suffered once for sins.
The word once there is the word in the Greek ha hapo or ha hapo.
And it's a, a word that means one time only, period end, there's no additional.
And so this is fitting.
It keeps with Hebrews, for example, in Hebrews 9 28, when the writer
says, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many will
appear a second time or Hebrews 10 12.
But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat
down at the right hand of the Father.
And so Jesus came and Jesus suffered once for sins and he qualifies this,
the righteous for the unrighteous.
The righteous for the unrighteous.
In, in the Greek, the, the contrast is even more strong because that negative
prefect of a in the Greek is, is attached to the word righteousness there.
And so he is drawing out the difference here, the righteous
one for the unrighteous.
That is for us.
This is in keeping with Second Corinthians chapter five, verse 21,
where Paul said, for our sake, he, the father made him the son to be sin
who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
It's known as the great exchange.
That we took his righteousness and he took our sin.
He suffered once for sin.
The, the righteous for the unrighteous.
See, what Peter's saying here is, is that Christ was our substitute.
Christ was the spotless lamb.
Christ was the ram in the thicket.
When Isaac was being offered on the altar, Christ was the one,
the righteous for the unrighteous.
Who takes our our place.
If we're gonna have hope of being with God, which is really our hope
in the midst of suffering, right?
That this world is not all there is, but that we get to go be with God.
If we're gonna have that hope, we have to begin with that hope being
connected to the death of Jesus, which is really an odd thing to say, isn't it?
If, if you listen to the world and, and the people that the world admire
the most, they're the people that have suffered and come through on the
other, other side of it unscathed.
They're the people that, that suffer and they, they don't die.
And, and yet the message of Christianity is hope and the
one that suffered and died.
This is why the, the world doesn't understand.
This is why the Apostle Paul said this in one Corinthians chapter
one, verses 22 through 23, Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom.
But Paul says, but we preach Christ crucified folly to the Jew, to the, to the
Greeks, that they stumble a, a stumbling block to the Jews in in folly foolishness.
To those that seek for wisdom, why would you worship a savior who dies?
Saviors don't die.
They win.
And yet, in Christianity, that's exactly what happened when Jesus died.
See, the, the, the death of Jesus is necessary for what else?
Peter says here, that he suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous,
for this reason that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh.
The, the death of Jesus without the death of Jesus.
If Jesus doesn't die.
In other words, we don't live.
If Jesus doesn't take our place on the cross as our substitute
and suffer once for our sins, the righteous for the unrighteous.
We aren't forgiven and we have no hope.
No one is good enough to be accepted by God on merit.
We have to have our sins paid for.
If Jesus doesn't die, then we should buy into the world's message and just
eat, drink, and be merry for, for none of us have any hope beyond this life.
Our hope begins with the death of Jesus because he suffered and died in
the flesh that he might bring us to God, that he might bring us to God.
This is in keeping with with Second Corinthians chapter five.
Verses 17 through 19 where the Apostle Paul there talks about the
fact that we have been reconciled, that God reconciled us to himself.
The word to reconcile means to bring us to himself, to bring us from a position
of being far off, near to be reconciled, though sin had to be dealt with.
If you've been tracking with our daily Bible reading, we've been reading a
lot in the Old Testament about the Old Testament sacrificial system.
In fact, I think even today we're reading about all of the different
animals that were brought of the dedication of the tabernacle.
You think about all of these animals and the, the consistent sin offerings and the
death of these animals and the blood that was shed over and over and over again,
such that the writer of Hebrew says, man, that, that, that blood was really
in and of itself, the blood of the bowl.
The blood of the goat was powerless because if it was really
powerful, then they would've stopped offering 'em after once.
But rather what those, the blood of those animals was meant to
do was point us to the blood of another one that was going to come.
And that other one that was going to come is this one.
It's the one that was going to suffer for us once for sins, the
righteous for the unrighteous, in order that he might bring us to God
because the death had to be paid.
Paul says in Romans, the wages of sin is death.
Death has to be paid.
So for you and I to be brought near to God, that for you and I to be
brought to God, first it has to start with the fact that Jesus dies for us.
As we're looking for hope as suffering saints in this world, as we're looking
for hope that we will one day go to be with God and leave this place, we
have to start with the death of Jesus because it's in the death of Jesus
that our sin, which is the greatest obstacle that we have to being with
God, is first and foremost dealt with.
Point number one this week is this, take heart.
Your sin is fully forgiven.
Take heart.
Your sin is fully forgiven if you are in Christ.
If you have repented from your sin and put your trust in Jesus,
your sin has been forgiven.
Because Jesus was your substitute.
Honestly, if, if, if Jesus doesn't die for us, the, the suffering that you face in
this world is the least of your worries.
If, if Jesus doesn't die for your sins, the opposition that you
face from a hostile world is the least concern you should have.
The greatest concern that you should have is the concern that you would
be a sinner standing before a holy God, and that would mean your end,
your destruction because none of us.
Our own merit of our own accord, with our own righteousness can
stand in the presence of a holy God.
This is why Isaiah the prophet when he was brought in before the throne of God,
and Isaiah chapter six says, woe is me.
I am undone because he realizes his sinfulness in God's holiness and, and
that's us Christian without Jesus' death.
And so we have to have this confidence of being with God.
And if we're gonna have confidence of being with God, the only way
that we can have that confidence is if our sins have been dealt with.
Because the reality is the Bible teaches us this.
All of us are born with a sin, nature.
All of us are and, and no one is, is born neutral.
And the problem with that is what it's done to our relationship with God is it's
separated us with this infinite chasm between us and God that's insurmountable.
Paul describes this chasm in Romans chapter five.
He says, if one man's trespass, because of one man's death, trespass death reigned.
So death was brought through the sin of Adam, which was trans transferred to us.
Verse 18, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men.
So now.
All of us are under condemnation because of our union with Adam, and
for by as one man's disobedience, verse 19, the many were made sinners.
Paul's saying, all of us are are connected to that fall of mankind.
In Adam, it's known as the federal headship of Adam, that
when Adam sinned, we all sinned.
I know we don't like that.
It doesn't seem fair, but the contrast to that, the counterpart
to that is that when Jesus died, if you're in Christ, you died too.
So I know it doesn't seem fair that you get Adam's guilt, but it's also not fair
that we would get Christ's righteousness, and yet that's God's design.
God's love for us was such that he didn't leave us.
Separated for him, but made us a way to be able to be reconciled
for, for Christ to bring us to him.
And so while we sit here and we say, no one is is born neutral, but all of us are
born with a predisposition towards sin.
The the problem that we face is that is an obstacle that none
of us in our flesh can overcome.
In fact, in Ephesians chapter two, Paul says this, you were
dead in your trespasses and sins.
That spiritually apart from Christ, we are dead.
Now, if you were to go to the, the graveyard that's right across the street
from the church here, and you were to walk into the graveyard and you were to
stand in front of all the, the graves there, and you were to say, I'm giving
you an invitation to come up out of the grave, so if you want to come up out
of the grave, here's your invitation.
Come up out of the grave, what's gonna happen?
Nothing.
Let me ask you a question.
Did, did Paul know what death is when he said you were dead
in your trespasses and sins?
Yeah.
Paul was probably a lot more familiar with death than you and I are because it was
more prevalent and it was more evident during his day than it is in our day.
We've sanitized death.
Death happens, but then we try to clean it up as quickly as we can.
And so when Paul describes you and me as dead in our trespasses and sins,
could he have used a different word?
Sure he could, could he, could he have said we are, are mortally
wounded but not dead yet?
Yes.
Could he have said we are maimed?
Could, could Paul have portrayed us like the, the man in the parable
of the Good Samaritan beaten and bloodied on the side of the road.
But you know what?
We still got some life in us.
Sure he didn't.
Paul said we were dead.
And what can a dead body do physically?
What can a dead body do?
Nothing.
Spiritually, what can a dead person do?
Nothing.
It's a grave picture, no pun intended, of our inability to overcome our
sin apart from the work of God.
Apart from Jesus, apart from the hope that we find here where it says, for Christ
suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us
to God being put to death in the flesh.
See that death was necessary because without it, we're still
alienated and separated from God.
But with it, we have hope that one day we will be with him.
There, there's a process that fascinates me, and it's this, this
process of restoring corroded and rusted cast iron pots and pans.
And I love to watch it because what they'll do is they'll take the, the,
the pan that needs to be restored, that's good for nothing because
it's so rusty and so corroded.
And they'll take it and they'll suspend it, and they'll dip it
into this electrolysis bath.
And then what they'll do is, is they'll hook up a, a one end of
an electrical current to that.
Well, the other end of the electrical current goes on something
called the sacrificial steel.
And the sacrificial steel is a clean piece of steel that is then lowered
down into that same electrolysis bath with the corroded pot, and you take the
other end of the electrode and, and you connect it to that sacrificial steel.
And then you send the current in through the bath.
And what happens in this process is all of the rust and the corrosion in the decay
in, in the corruption leaves the cast iron pan that's being restored and it clings
to the to, to the sacrificial steel.
Such that then you bring the, the cast iron pot out of that electrolysis
bath and it is restored and it's good to be useful again to someone.
You bring the sacrificial steel out of that electrolysis bath and it now
wears the rust and the corrosion.
That was once on the cast irons pan.
That's a sliver of what happens when the righteous dies for the unrighteous.
When Jesus went to the cross for you and for me, he took the
corruption and the corrosion.
And the sin from us.
When Paul says he made him to be sin, not just sin generically, he made
him to be your sin in my sin, and he took that from us and he put it on
Christ and he took the righteousness of Jesus and he put it on us.
And thereby we can have hope that we might be brought to God.
Without this death, without what we're talking about here, which is really
known as substitutionary atonement.
Penal substitutionary atonement.
Without this, we have no hope of ever being brought to God because of our sin.
Our sin had to be dealt with, and the hope that we have as suffering saints, and
what Peter's pointing us to is that our sins have been fully forgiven in Christ.
But Peter continues on because we're not here this morning worship
being a dead savior, are we?
No, we sang it.
Christ the Lord has risen today, right?
Peter goes on, he says this in verse 18, in the second part, he was put
to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, and then he went and
proclaimed to the spirits in prison.
Alright, let's have some fun now with, with this part.
This is where we get to do a little bit of what is he talking about here?
He's made alive in the spirit.
Okay, let's start there.
Some have have said that he's made alive by the spirit, and, and that's
a possible interpretation of this, but I, I think rather this is talking about
in the sphere of the spiritual realm.
So just as in the sphere of the flesh, the flesh, he was put to
death in the sphere of the spirit.
He's been resurrected, he's been made alive.
So even today, as Christ exists presently, he is resurrected in his
glorified state, in the heavenly places.
He's in the spiritual realm at the right hand of the father.
And so Jesus has been resurrected.
He's made alive in the spirit.
I'm not denying that he still has his glorified body, but he's been
raised to life in the spirit and exists in the spiritual realm.
Now we have to deal with this next part in which, in that spiritual realm, he went
and proclaimed to the spirits in prison.
Now we have to find out, okay, where did he go?
Who are the spirits?
What does it mean that they're in prison?
What did he proclaim and when did this happen?
And there are umpteen thousand different views on those answers.
But I think there's a general tenet here that's at work that we're
really gonna emphasize no matter what position you take on this.
Lemme just give you the, the two primary answers to this.
Some will, with regards to the spirits, there's an argument
that these are human spirits.
That that is, that the are, these are the spirits of those
that have died in our, our.
No longer living, and that view would say that the Christ
went and proclaimed to them.
The word for proclaim is the word in the Greek Caruso, which
can mean to proclaim the gospel.
So some believe that this is Christ going and preaching the gospel to
the spirits of those that departed, possibly the Old Testament saints,
and giving them that chance to believe in Jesus in the, the full gospel.
My, my problem with that is I don't see that taught anywhere else in in scripture.
That there's a, a second chance or that there's an intermediate
state where they're not yet saved.
Instead, what I see in the Old Testament is God saying, I'm the
God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
I'm the God of the living, not the dead.
So I believe the Old Testament Saints, when they died, they
went to be with the Lord.
I don't think they were waiting for this intermediate state to hear the
gospel, to then go and be saved.
The second view would say, no, these aren't the spirits of the
departed Old Testament saints, but these are actually evil spirits.
These are the, the demons.
And Christ is proclaiming or announcing something to them.
Now, Christ is not preaching the gospel to the demons for obvious reasons.
What is he proclaiming to the demons?
Well, I, I think part of it is understanding who are the demons that
we're talking about, and this is where it's helpful to look on in verse 20.
Peter says because they, these spirits did not formally obey or formally did not obey
when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the arc was being prepared,
in which a few that is eight persons were brought safely through the water.
So these spirits did not obey when God's patience waited In the days of Noah.
We have to go back to Genesis six to really wrap our minds around what's
taking place here in Genesis six.
In the beginning, it says this in verse one, when man began to multiply on the
face of the land, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God, which
is a, a, a phrase or a term that can mean angelic beings, angelic spirits.
When the sons of God saw that the daughters of man, so human.
Human women were attractive.
They took as their wives any they chose.
Then the Lord said, my spirit shall not abide in man forever for he's
flesh and the day shall be 120 years.
The Nene were on the earth in those days, and also afterward when the sons of God
came into the daughters of man and bore children to them, these were the mighty
men who were of old in the men of re noun.
Right after this, we get into the indictment on humanity being so bad
that God says, I'm done with it.
Noah, I'm starting over with you.
Okay, so these demonic spirits that are present here during the days of
Noah, I, I believe, are those that went into the Daughters of Man.
These are those that were responsible for a lot of the corruption that's
taking place during the days of Noah.
The Bible refers to Satan as the God of this world, as the
prince of the power of the air.
And so as we see this time back in human history, and I believe that the
reason why Peter is singling out Noah is because this was one of the pinnacles
of depravity in all of human history, such that God wiped out all of creation
and started over again with Noah.
So God's going back to these demonic spirits and singling
them out as representative of the whole of the demonic realm.
Saying When Christ was raised from the dead.
Remember, Satan thought he won when Jesus breathed his last.
But when Jesus was resurrected from the grave, one of the things that he did
is he went to these spirits in prison.
And he declared to them, I won.
You lost.
See these spirits according to second Peter and Jude both refer back to these
spirits from Genesis six as those that are kept in chains of gloomy darkness.
These spirits were so heinously, evil and wicked that God bound
them and prohibited them from any activity until the day of judgment
that's coming in the future for them.
And so these spirits are representative of the wicked, of the wicked of the
demonic realm, perhaps because their, their activity in the corruption of
mankind, or perhaps even as it says, while the arc was being prepared, right?
In which, what was Noah doing besides building a boat?
He was preaching the gospel.
How do you know that?
Because second Peter calls Noah a herd of righteousness.
So it's possible that even as Noah's preparing the, the arc, one of the reasons
why more people didn't repent for their sins is because these were the demonic
spirits, blinding the eyes and keeping them from seeing the light of the hope
and Noah saying, repent and be delivered.
And so God punished them specifically.
In fact, it's this group of demons that we probably know more about
than any other group in the Bible.
And they're kept in these chains.
They're kept in prison.
And when Jesus Christ rose from the dead, the, the, the beginning of
the end for the demonic realm, he went to them and he announced I win.
And you lose.
Do you see how this might be an encouragement to the suffering saints
of Peter's day as they're facing the attacks of the world coming at them
as they're facing persecution, as as people are coming at them for their
stance for being a follower of Jesus?
They're up against spiritual warfare, right?
What does Paul say?
Our battle's not against flesh and blood.
So even as Nero takes the throne and takes Christians and dips them in tar and
lights them on fire in his gardens, our battle is not against Nero, the person
our battle is against the principles, the, the, the, the rulers, the authorities, the
demon, the demonic realm, the spiritual forces outwork in this present darkness.
So Peter's writing to these believers, these elect exiles of the dispersion.
And he's writing to us.
Whatever you're facing this morning, as, as we walk in this earth, still facing
spiritual warfare ourselves, he's saying take heart because the battle's been won.
Our second point this morning is this, take heart.
Your enemy has been defeated.
Take heart.
Your enemy has been defeated.
The spirit's in this passage are in prison, right?
But that doesn't mean all demonic spirits are in prison.
Uh, again, I just referenced it.
That's why Paul says in Ephesians chapter six, verse 12, we do not wrestle
against flesh and blood, but against the rulers and against the authorities,
and against the cosmic powers.
Over this present darkness and against the spiritual forces of
evil in the heavenly places, you are going to face spiritual warfare.
That's why Paul instructs us to take up the armor of God daily, that we might
withstand, that we might stand firm, that we might extinguish the flaming
darts of the enemy, the evil one.
And so we have a, an enemy that that is still resisting.
The war's over Jesus declared it's over.
We won, but the battles are still raging.
It, it, it's like this D-Day was arguably the decisive blow in the
Allied victory in World War ii.
After D-Day, there was still going to be resistance from the access forces.
Everybody didn't immediately surrender, but as we look back on it now, we see
that D-Day was the blow that really began to set in motion the beginning
of the end for the access forces.
And yet there was a time between D-Day and VE Day wasn't there,
where the battles still raged.
You and I Christian are living between D-Day, which was the cross
and the resurrection and VH Day.
Victory Heaven Day when we one day go to be with the Lord forever and ever.
The enemy's been defeated, the war's over, but the battles are still fighting,
and you and I are still having to engage in those battles, just like the
Allied Forces still had to engage in battles to continue to move the ball
forward towards the end of World War ii.
That's you and I today as well.
This again goes back to the reason we should continue to
expect suffering in this world.
Satan's defeated.
I, I had a conversation with my son recently and, and he said, dad, if, if
Satan's defeated, why is he still trying?
Well, you have to remember, Satan's not omniscient is he?
And, and so Satan is, is not necessarily aware fully that, that
his end is and his fate is sealed and, and his end is, is sure.
And so I think he's still fighting because in, in his deranged state,
he thinks that he still has a shot.
We as Christians know he doesn't, but let's even say that he does
know that his end is shore.
He's a foe that hates our savior so much that he's not
gonna go down without a fight.
It's over.
But he's gonna take out as many people as he possibly can on the way down.
And so we need to be ready for that.
And this is probably one of the more anemic aspects of our theology in churches
like ours, is that I, uh, that theology, that awareness that we have a very real
enemy that that prowls around like a roaring line as we're gonna get to in
one Peter, seeking someone to devour.
And Satan may not be targeting you because he's not omnipresent either.
He can only be one place at one time, but he's got allegiance of
demons that are at his disposal, and they might be targeting you.
And so as Christians, we should be aware.
In fact, Martin Luther said this, whenever one desires to have a, to
have God's word, that is the scripture.
He said, not only will Anis and Caiaphas happen to be there to throw tantrums,
but also a Judas among the apostles.
And then he said this, and Satan, among the children of God.
In other words, what Luther is saying is if, if you want the word, if you want to
grow as a Christian, you should expect that, that the enemy's not gonna want
that, that Satan's not gonna like that.
And so don't be surprised if you find yourself up against
opposition from this world.
Don't be surprised if you suffer.
Don't be surprised if you feel yourself encountering spiritual warfare.
What should you do in response?
Spiritual warfare.
That the, the battleground is so often a battleground for truth.
And so the first thing I would suggest to you is flee to the truth of God's word.
When you're battling and you're facing the spiritual oppression, maybe
it's, it's depression, maybe it's anxiety, maybe it's doubt, whatever
that is, and you just feel it.
Or maybe you're just in the presence of, of something that you feel,
this is an evil presence in my life.
Here.
You need to flee to the truth of God's word.
The sword of the spirit is more powerful than any weapon the enemy has against you.
Second thing is, I would encourage you, and this is gonna sound weird,
but sing the truths of the gospel.
God has made us all musical people.
Whether you can sing a note or not, I, I would venture a guess is to say,
everybody in this room knows what it is to have a song stuck in your head.
Sometimes it can be a grace of God when the song stuck in your head is rehearsing
the truths of God's word, the truths of who he is, the truths of the gospel.
So when you feel yourself discouraged, sing the truths of the gospel.
Third, discipline, the mind discipline, what you're thinking about.
This is part of the, the Battle of Philippians, chapter four and
Philippians chapter four, verse eight.
Paul says, we need to think on these things.
And then he lists a lot of things that we should be thinking on.
He says, dwell on these things, and so discipline your mind
to think about those things.
And then finally, remind yourself of the devil's ultimate end.
Remind yourself of the devil's ultimate end.
You know, the outcome.
It's like watching the series, the, uh, band of Brothers.
It, it, it's intense and I can't say I would recommend it for all the audiences
in the room, but you, you, you watch that series and, and especially the,
for example, the Battle of the Bulge, the scene, when they're dug out into
the, their, their holes that they've got in the den forest there, and
they're, they're facing the opposition.
You just see it and, and you get so wrapped up in the scene, you're like,
what's gonna happen until you zoom out for a second and you remember, wait a
minute, I, I actually, I know the end.
So though the battle is fiercely raging, there's a confidence that you have
knowing the outcome to the battle.
And so you can remind yourself, good wins, evil loses.
And when we're up against it, when we're facing the opposition of the
world, we need to remind ourself the enemy has been defeated.
The war's over the battles may still rage.
We've still got pockets of resistance here, but the war is over.
It's not just that Jesus died and he rose.
It's also that Jesus has ascended, and that's where we go next.
Look at verses 21 through 22.
Peter says, baptism which corresponds to this now saves you not as a removal
of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience through
the resurrection of Jesus Christ who has gone into heaven and is at the right
hand of God with angels and authorities and powers having been subjected to him.
Okay, I've got 10 minutes to deal with baptism.
Now saves you and the rest of the verse.
Here's the thing, baptism now saves you.
Some people are gonna point to that and say you have to
be water baptized to be saved.
Okay?
Read on though.
Baptism now saves you, what does he say?
What's the qualifier?
Not as a removal of dirt from the body.
So Peter is saying there, and he is qualifying, he's anticipating
the fact that somebody might say, oh man, baptism saves me.
I have to be water baptized to actually be fully saved.
And yet Peter's saying, no, no, no.
It's not the removal of dirt from the body.
It's not the water act that I'm talking about here.
He's connecting baptism to Noah.
Noah was placed into the ark along with his family, and the ark was the
vessel that delivered them to safety.
The baptism that Peter's talking about, the word baptizo means to be placed.
And so the baptism in view here is that you and I, when we come to faith in Jesus
Christ, have been placed into Christ, and now Christ is the one who will deliver us
into the security of the presence of God.
Jesus is our arc, in other words.
And so when you are saved, you are placed into Christ and you are
going to be delivered to the safety.
Just as Noah and his family were delivered from the safety of the floodwaters
of God, the wrath of God will not touch you because you are in Christ.
And so Peter's saying, we have been baptized into Christ.
And he says, not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an
appeal to God for a good conscience.
Where does a good conscience come from?
It doesn't come from an act of being dipped in water and brought back up.
We can get unbelievers wet all day.
Doesn't matter if they don't.
What if they don't repent from their sins and trust Jesus?
Otherwise, y'all we're going sprinkling church and I'm gonna
give you all squirt guns and we're just gonna go save everybody.
Just squirt 'em three times.
Father, son, holy spirit.
Boom.
You're saved whether you wanna be or not.
No.
The the, the appeal to God for a good conscience is what's necessary.
Where does our good conscience come from?
Trust in Jesus Christ and our Lord and Savior.
So the baptism here, all that to say, this is not saying
water, baptism saves us spirit.
Baptism saves us when are we baptized by the spirit at the moment of conversion,
when you are placed into Christ by the spirit of God, and you are gonna be
delivered into the presence of God.
But I don't think that Peter's point here was for us to argue the merits of baptism.
I think Peter's emphasis for his audience who were suffering at this time was to
remind us of where Jesus is right now.
Because he goes on and he says this, who has gone into heaven and is at the right
hand of God with angels and authorities and powers having been subjected to him.
And this is so good because he's, he's gone into heaven and he's
at the right hand of the Father.
The right hand of God is the place of highest exaltation possible.
It was the place of honor.
And so now the son who died and rose again, has ascended and is
at the right hand of the father.
And the question that should be begged is, what's he doing there?
What's he doing there?
And the good news is we don't have to look very far to find
the answer to that question.
Paul answers it for us in Romans 8 34.
Romans 8 34, who is to condemn?
Christ Jesus is the one who died and more than that, who was raised,
who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
He's praying for us right now.
He's pleading his righteousness before the Father on your behalf right now.
In fact, the writer of Hebrews says this.
He says in verse 25 of Hebrews chapter seven.
Consequently, Jesus is able to save to the uttermost, those who
draw near to God through him.
Since he always lives to make intercession for them, he always
lives to make intercession for them.
So what has Jesus done?
Well, he's risen, and if you are in Christ.
You have been placed into Christ, you're gonna be delivered to be with him someday.
But in the meantime, where is he?
He's at the right hand of the Father, far above all rulers and
authorities, and, and, and demonic beings and spiritual beings.
There's no power in all creation that can trump the power of Christ.
He's at the right hand of the Father and he's praying for you again.
What an encouragement that would be to the suffering saint to
know I've got my savior, who's interceding for me right now.
No matter what comes my way, no matter what the opposition is,
I know I'm secure in Christ.
Our final point this morning is this, take heart.
Your savior is for you forever.
Ah, this is so huge, the, the confidence that this gives you
as a Christian, because sometimes when we suffer, we can often doubt
our security in Christ, can't we?
I, I, my wife and I, my family and I, we, we watched Alex Honnold climb
that building in, in, in Taipei.
Because we're cluttons for punishment.
Right?
And, and I remember watching this and there were multiple times that
watching it, my hands started sweating, my palms started hurting, and I was
just, he took the hardest way up too.
And he's climbing out and off the building and so many times while watching it, I had
to, to, to take my eyes off the TV screen and put them on the couch and, and remind
myself, I'm not clinging to a building.
I'm, I'm on my couch.
My couch is not going anywhere.
I'm, I'm here.
I'm secure.
I'm safe.
But I had to do that multiple times because I would get sucked back
into watching and I'd watch his going, man, the only thing between
him and death is his grip strength.
And, and I'm sitting there going, I, I, man, I, I would fall and I'm feeling
the danger and I'm, I'm scared of heights while I'm sitting on the ground.
And so I had to remind myself, I'm on the couch, I'm at home, I'm here.
I'm safe, I'm secure as you suffer Christian.
There are gonna be times the enemy wants you to feel like you're holding onto
God and he's gonna try to make you feel like your grip strength is failing.
But the reality is he's holding onto you.
Jesus is interceding for you.
Jesus is praying for you.
Jesus is before the father saying He's mine.
She's mine.
I died for her.
I died for him,
and he's never gonna fail.
Which is why the writer of Hebrew says he always lives to
make it intercession for us.
He's able to save us to the uttermost.
Your hope in making it to heaven, in other words, is not in your grip
strength on God, but on His, on you.
And he's got you because Jesus is at the right hand of the
Father doing what he's doing.
I hope that encourages you this morning.
I'm encouraged by this message because it's, it's all about the
gospel, his death, his resurrection, his ascension, and how all three
of those components give us hope as we face suffering in this world.
The enemy thought he won in the garden.
When Eve took the fruit and gave some to Adam, the enemy thought he won.
When God cursed the world afterwards and all of a sudden now we've got
natural disasters and cancer and death.
The enemy thought he won.
When David fell into sin with Bathsheba, the enemy thought he won.
When the kingdom was divided after King Solomon, the enemy thought he won.
When the Northern Kingdom fell to the Assyrians, the enemy thought he won.
When the Southern Kingdom eventually fell to the Babylonians and the the
people of God were taken into exile for 70 years, and the temple was destroyed.
Enemy thought he won.
During 400 years of silence,
the enemy thought he won.
When Herod decreed that all the children two years and younger,
all the male children two years and younger should be killed.
The enemy thought he won.
When the religious leaders of the Jews opposed Jesus at every
turn, the enemy thought he won.
When Judas availed himself to be used.
For evil and agreed to betray Jesus into the hands of the
Pharisees and the Sadducees.
For 30 pieces of silver, the enemy thought he won in the garden.
When Jesus was handed over to the Roman authorities and the Jewish
leaders, the enemy thought he won.
When Jesus was in the courtyard and and being tried by by
Caiaphas, the enemy thought he won.
When Jesus was standing before Pilate and Pilate said, do you want this man
or Barabis the enemy thought he won.
When the crowd said, give us Barabis and crucify him.
The enemy thought he won.
When Pilate turned him over to be mocked and flogged and crucified,
the enemy thought he won.
When he took his cross to glg, Gotha, the enemy thought he won.
When he was laid down on the cross beam, the enemy thought he won.
When the nails were being driven into the wrists and into the feet
of Christ, the enemy thought he won.
When the, the cross was raised up and and dropped into place, that enemy thought
he won, as he heard the gasping words of Jesus struggling to breathe on the cross.
And the enemy for sure thought he won when he heard Jesus say it is
finished and breathed this last.
All of that turned out to be the greatest mistake the enemy ever made because it's
in his death, it's in his resurrection, and it's in his ascension that we have
hope that no matter what happens in this world to us as suffering saints.
That we're gonna be brought to God.
He lost.
Jesus won.
And I hope that's a great encouragement to you this morning.
No matter what you face, whether you're suffering right now or
you've got suffering in front of you, you're securing Christ.
He's got you.
He's never gonna let go.
Let's pray.
Lord God, we are so thankful for that reality.
It's such a, a, a great truth.
That is grace.
Unmerited.
Favor, mercy.
That doesn't give us what we deserve.
But we are so thankful for Christ.
We're so thankful for the cross.
We're so thankful that the message of hope is not, try harder, be better, do
something different this next time around.
And or even that, that the message of hope is not based on how we feel
when we wake up in the morning, but it's anchored to the truth of your
word and what you have done for us.
The accomplished work of Jesus.
When he said it is finished, he wasn't declaring Satan.
One, he was declaring it is finished.
Your wrath has been satisfied, the the atonement has been made, and now as a
result, you have given us the opportunity to come to you, to be reconciled to you.
If we will repent from our sins and believe in Jesus as our Lord and the
Savior God, what a glorious reality.
The gospel is the death of Christ, his resurrection in his ascension.
It gives us great hope to be able to face whatever comes our way this week.
And I pray that you enable us to, to live confident in that hope.
Come what?
May we pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.