In his sermon titled "Victory through Suffering," Jason Dohm explores the theme of suffering as a purposeful and integral part of God's plan, drawing from 1 Peter 3. He discusses how Christians often try to avoid suffering but emphasizes that it can be a tool used by God for His glory and our good. Dohm highlights that Christ's suffering was once for all sins, acting as a substitutionary atonement, bringing believers to God and demonstrating the power of the Spirit through resurrection. He explains the significance of baptism as a symbol of judgment and new life, emphasizing that it is an act of obedience that holds meaning when genuine faith exists. The sermon encourages believers to embrace suffering as a means to grow and flourish in faith, using Christ's ultimate victory and exaltation as a model for triumph through trials.

While you're turning to 1 Peter 3, let me remind you of what we just sang. I'm going to read this to you as you turn there. I was blinded by my sin, had no ears to hear your voice, did not know your love within, had no taste for heaven's joys. Then your Spirit gave me life, opened up your word to me. Through the gospel of your Son gave me endless hope and peace." How perfect and timely with the text that we're going to take in today.

So let's take this in together. 1 Peter 3, verse 18. Let your eyes fall on these words. For Christ also suffered once for sins. The just for the unjust.

That He might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, by whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison who formerly were disobedient, when once the divine long-suffering waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. There is also an antitype, which now saves us, baptism, not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to him. Oh, what holy and powerful words. Oh Father, I pray that you would descend upon our brother Jason.

We know that his preparation this week and meeting with you leads us to this time that you've brought us together. God, I pray now that this word that is sharper than any two-edged sword would pierce to every heart in this room. Oh God, that you would take souls and awaken them today. That you would give eyes to see and ears to hear. Bless the preaching of your word, Lord.

In Jesus' name. Amen. Lord in Jesus name. Amen. The title of our sermon this morning is Victory Through Suffering.

And We started on this theme last week and talked about the natural tendency, even of Christians, to decry suffering, to want to spend all of our time and energy staying out of it. And once we're in it, to spend our time and energy getting out of it. But the truth of the matter is, suffering is very prominent in the plan of God. And so Christians better get that fixed in their mind because God is intending to use it. Last week in these verses that lead up to today's text, Peter was putting godly conduct, a life of obedience, forward as a no-lose proposition.

In other words, no matter how the world reacts to your life of worship, your godly conduct, your obedience, You're not going to lose. You're only going to gain. And Peter says that most people won't harm you if you lead a godly life. They might hate you, but most people won't harm you if you lead a godly life. But even if you do suffer for the sake of righteousness, even if there's that rare person who will go beyond hating you to harming you for your godly conduct even then you are blessed because God has so many ways to use suffering for His own glory and for our good.

So no matter which happens, it ends up being good. So we shouldn't recoil from suffering, but we should see it for what it is. An instrument, A mighty tool in the hand of a sovereign God to bring about his glory and our good. So in that context, Peter gives us a do not and a do. Actually gives us two dos.

Again, this is the summary from last week. The do not is do not be afraid. Because a sovereign God uses suffering, Christians should never be afraid to obey. In other words, we have our calculus. If I obey, then this is going to happen.

And when that calculus leads us into fear, If I obey God, if I live a godly life, it's going to lead me to this bad place, then we've calculated wrongly. So Christians never have to be afraid of leading a godly life, of worshipping God through life, no matter what. Secondly, he gives us two things to do. First, to sanctify the Lord in your heart. To set apart God as the object of ultimate affection.

It's really the playing out of the great commandment to love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. Sanctify him, set him apart as that object of great affection in your heart. And secondly, to always be ready to give a defense for the hope that's in you. And what Peter was saying is that if you lead a godly life, either you're going to be drugged before the court to explain, or someone is going to notice your patient suffering and they're going to ask you, what is it that sustains you? How come you don't hit back?

How come you don't strike back when you're reviled? So in either case, whether you're drug before the court for an explanation or someone notices how you suffer, you need to be ready at any moment to make a defense for the hope that is within you. So you need to be willing and ready any time of the day or night to give a defense for the hope that God has awakened in your heart. So that was last week and that lands us in our text for today. Before we go to the text, let's pray.

Oh God, we're such a needy people. And so we thank you for your word that comes and fills this great need that we have for wisdom and for words of life. God, we want to be a people who are coming, poor in spirit, who have seen the great vision of the God who has spoken all things into existence from nothing, and who also know, are so aware of our own sinfulness and our weaknesses. God help us to be a people crying out to you today for help as we approach your word. May we be a people doing it out of humility, understanding our great need before you.

These things we ask in Jesus' name, amen. So I want to begin by backing up a verse. We need verse 17 for the proper understanding of our text today. So I want to read verse 17 and 18 and talk about those two to begin. First Peter chapter 3, verse 17.

For it is better if it is the will of God to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive by the Spirit. Peter begins by teaching that Christ has accomplished our redemption through suffering. So again the context of this letter that Peter is writing is he's writing to a persecuted people and he's buoying them up, he is strengthening them to be able to endure but not just endure but to flourish in persecution. Can you imagine having that to be so strengthened in the inner man through the sustaining power of God that you are not just riding it out, but that you are flourishing, you are growing, you are triumphing in the middle of persecution.

So Peter to do this, riding to a persecuted people, to strengthen them in persecution, brings Christ to the witness stand as a sufferer. To say, if Christ, then you. If Christ triumphed mightily, greatly through his sufferings, then you should be encouraged in the middle of your sufferings. Because you know this is how God works out His will. You can look at Christ.

So Peter takes us to the greatest victory of all time. You cannot find a greater victory than the sufferings of Christ and what they yield and where they lead. So Peter takes us to this spot in history, the greatest victory of all time, To show us what God can accomplish through suffering. And to show us that these sufferings of Christ ended somewhere else that had nothing to do with suffering, that had everything to do with glory. And so in verse 22, in the last verse of the scope of our text this week, we're going to see Jesus highly exalted, seated at the right hand of the Father, given all power and authority.

These are where the sufferings of Christ go to Christ being lifted up, highly exalted, and given all dominion. Peter is saying, observe the cross. Sufferers, suffering Christians observe the cross and see what God does in and through suffering and be encouraged, be strengthened, be ready to not just ride it out when you are suffering, but to flourish and grow and triumph because this is what we see through Jesus' work of suffering on the cross. In verse 18, Peter teaches us four things about the suffering of Christ. Four things in verse 18.

And you have in this verse the most condensed, powerful articulation of the gospel that I can imagine. In other words, I meant to count up the words in this verse, I forgot to do it. But however many words this is. If the assignment was, take this number of words and do the best you can at preaching the gospel. Whatever you would come up with in that assignment would not be nearly as good as verse 18.

You just wouldn't come close. I would get clobbered by Peter in verse 18. If you just limit yourself to this number of words, this is the most condensed, powerful gospel that you can imagine. So Peter is teaching us four things about the sufferings of Christ that really form the basics of the gospel. Thing number one, wants for sins.

Wants for sins. The suffering of Jesus Christ was wants for sins. Jesus when he is on the cross, his last words are, it is finished. This one sacrificial act was sufficient to complete the work that all the sins of all who would trust in him for all time, the wrath of God towards those sins would be satisfied in this one act. Jesus says, it is finished, the work is complete, Once for sins.

Please turn to Hebrews 7. Since we're in 1 Peter, that's an easy assignment because Hebrews 7 is very close by. Hebrews chapter 7. There are about four to six places in Hebrews that you could go to make the point that I'm getting ready to make. This one was concise so I picked this one.

Jesus dying once for sins is all over Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 7, I'm going to begin in verse 25 and read through 28. Hebrews chapter 7 beginning in verse 25. Therefore he, the he is Jesus Christ here, therefore he is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. For such a high priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens.

Who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for his own sins and then for the people's. For this he did once for all when he offered up himself. For the law appoints as high priests men who have weaknesses, but the word of the oath which came after the law appoints the Son who has been perfected forever. In Hebrews chapter 7, the author of Hebrews gives us the old system, and then it gives us Jesus. In the old system, it was sacrifice after sacrifice after Sacrifice after sacrifice after sacrifice after sacrifice after sacrifice after sacrifice day after day, week after week, year after year, decade after decade, century after century.

Sacrifice upon sacrifice. And the problem was that the blood of bulls and goats could never fully satisfy the wrath of God against sin. It wasn't enough. It was only ever intended to be a picture, to point forward to this one moment in time when Jesus would suffer once for sin. So that was the old system.

Every day shedding blood but never enough. No one could ever say in the old system, it is finished. It was never finished. But Jesus comes and he suffers once for sins and he can say, it is finished. Because he can come as both the high priest and a high priest who doesn't need to offer anything for his own sins because he doesn't have any of his own sins and also the offering.

So the things from the old system, Jesus is so many of these things all at once. He is the high priest who offers, but he is also the sacrifice that is offered. And so the writer of Hebrews says something remarkable, that he is able to save to the uttermost, to the last drop, to the last sin. And he can say, it is finished, to the uttermost, all the way to the end. Only Jesus can do that.

Think of your sins. Think of how many there are and have been. And think of how vile they are. But you're not the only one in the room. I've trusted in that work also.

So we have to, it's not just your sins, you have to add my sins, and your sins, and your sins, and your sins. And my sins were a big pile of sins to be atoned for. But then It's the sins of us. And then we're not even the only true church in Youngsville. We're not even the only true church probably within a mile or two of here.

And then we're in a county, and we're in a state, and we're in a country, and we're in a world, and we're in a generation, one of many generations. Now think of that amount of sins to be atoned for. Now what does it mean for the value of this sacrifice that Jesus, Jesus' suffering could be once for all those sins, through all those people, through all those generations. What does it mean about Christ that his work is sufficient? If you needed help worshipping the living God today, Think about the value of this sacrifice that is sufficient, that one time he could lay down his life and it would be enough for all of those.

When for century after century after century The carcasses just piled up and it was never enough. But with Christ, once it was enough. That one sacrifice could satisfy the justice of God and could wipe away the wrath of God against all those sins. So number one, wants for sins. Number two, the just for the unjust.

The suffering of Jesus Christ was the just for the unjust. It was substitutionary atonement. Atonement is taking a wrong and writing it. And our sins are the wrong and Jesus's work is what writes it and you're writing a wrong so that two parties can be brought together. That is the idea of atonement.

Writing a wrong so that Two parties can be brought together. That is the idea of atonement. Writing a wrong so that two parties can be brought together. The wrong has separated the parties. And so the wrong has to be corrected, made good, so that the two parties can be brought together again.

And Jesus does that by standing in our place, by taking the wrong, by taking the sin and the defilement upon himself, standing in our place as a substitute, substitutionary atonement. The innocent dying for the guilty. And this is what the ceremonial law, the sacrificial system, was always picturing. That's why the sacrifice always had to be without defect. The sacrifice had to be perfect, couldn't have a blemish because it was going to be a picture of Jesus Christ.

And if Jesus Christ had his own sense then he couldn't stand in our place. He could never be a substitute for us. But God can accept him as our substitute and pour out the wrath that we deserve upon Christ because he was sinless, because he was blameless, because he was a sacrifice without blemish. Listen to Romans 5 verses 8 and 9. This is Paul in Romans chapter 5 verses 8 and 9.

But God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him, through Christ. I want to camp on two phrases that Paul uses here in Romans 5 verse 9. Justified by his blood. Now remember we are talking about the just for the unjust.

Paul says that we are justified, made just, pardoned, declared not guilty by his blood. In other words, sin requires the shedding of blood. The wages of sin is death. So God knows that we've sinned. He sees it all and knows that we've sinned.

And so he requires our blood for our sins. But Jesus comes and says, no, I'll shed my blood for his sins. I'll shed my blood for her sins justified by his blood. The penalty required, the death penalty that is required for our sin is transferred from the just to the unjust. From, I think I said that backwards, from the guilty, It's transferred from the guilty to the innocent, transferred from the unjust to the just.

The other phrase that Paul uses here is saved from wrath through him. God is right to be angry at our rebellion and our sins. And he is. We've declawed God and made him not so very upset that we have lived in rebellion. We've tamed him.

But that's not God. That's not the real God of the Bible. That's not the God who spoke the worlds into existence from nothing. The God of the Bible has a burning wrath against sin. And it will abide on you unless you can find a substitute that He will accept to stand in your place.

This is what Christ is. Christ is the one who will be accepted by the Father in your place so that His wrath, His burning wrath against your rebellion won't abide on you even though you deserve it. Justified by his blood, saved from wrath through him. Do you get tired of hearing this? Do you yawn?

Do you yawn when these things are preached now? Have they become so familiar because we try to work the gospel into every part of our service? Verse 18 gives us the opportunity to step back and to marvel at the Gospel again. It's the just for the unjust, and you're the unjust one who deserves the wrath of God. And to do this, to work in this way is so unlike us.

Even those of us who have been redeemed, who were redeemed a long time ago, who accepted the grace of God many years or decades ago find so little of this in our own hearts, but it's so like God and we should look at this that the just would die for the unjust and marvel at the grace of God. So number one, once for sins. Number two, the just for the unjust. Number three, that he might bring us to God. The suffering of Jesus Christ was that he, Jesus Christ, might bring us to God.

In Exodus 33 verse 18, Moses says this to God, please show me your glory. So Here's a request from the most humble man in his generation, Moses, the friend of God. God, please show me your glory. In verse 20, God says, You cannot see my face for no man can see me and live. Moses, you can't see my glory.

And then you know what happens next. God says that he's going to make his goodness pass before him and he's going to declare his name and he hides Moses in the rock so that he won't be consumed even by the back part of His goodness passing before Him. So He shields Him in the cleft of the rock. It is no small matter that Jesus can bring you before His Father. We have such freedom and liberty in this gospel dispensation, in this time where Jesus has come and done His work and the Spirit has been sent.

We have such freedom and liberty that we forget that someone who, if someone were to come before this Holy Father without the mediation of Jesus Christ, he would be consumed. He couldn't even live. That Moses, the friend of God, had to be hidden in a cleft of rock so it wouldn't be consumed by just seeing the back part of the goodness of God. It is a blessing to have the freedom and liberty that we enjoy now, but it's not a blessing to forget what God is like because we have that freedom. It's right to go back to Exodus 33 and think of a holy God whose glory is so great that you would be consumed if it weren't for the mediation of Jesus Christ, if Jesus Christ weren't willing to come and stand between you and this righteous God.

The suffering of Jesus was that he might bring you to God. And not only that we wouldn't be consumed, but that we could come with confidence and boldness that we're actually invited into the presence of this King to come, not trembling, but as a son with confidence and boldness, praise the Lord that the suffering of Jesus was that he might bring us to God. Number four, Peter teaches us that Christ was put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit. They killed his body, but it just made way for a mighty working of the Holy Spirit to raise him from the dead. So the suffering of Jesus Christ was followed by a mighty work of the Spirit.

The suffering of Jesus Christ made way for this mighty work of the Spirit, Jesus Christ would be raised from the dead. Listen to Paul in Romans 8 verse 11. In Romans 8 verse 11, Paul says this, but if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. There is great hope for the believer in the resurrection because we see this mighty Holy Spirit at work raising Jesus from the dead. And Paul says that is the spirit that indwells those who have faith in Christ.

And if we see Christ resurrected and glorified, we can know that the Spirit that dwells in us will raise us also. Our confidence in our own resurrection is rooted and founded and only has a place of standing in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That we can look and see this mighty work of the Holy Spirit raising the dead body of Jesus from the dead gives us confidence that this same spirit that dwells in believers will raise us also. Alright, let's look at 19 through 21. Back to our text, back to 1 Peter 3, verse 19.

By whom, this is the spirit, the last word of verse 18. By whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly were disobedient, when once the divine long-suffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is eight souls, were saved through water. There is also an antitype which now saves us. Baptism. Not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In verses 19 through 21, we have the type and the anti-type, the picture And the reality, the real thing that the picture was supposed to point to. The shadow and the substance. So Peter wants us to Consider the type, which is Noah, the preaching in the days of Noah to that generation, so that he can speak of the anti-type. So he's putting the picture before us so that we'll have a right understanding of the reality, the real thing that the picture was meant to point towards. This is a hard text.

There are several possible interpretations. And a careful handling is essential because if you don't handle these verses carefully, you end up in strange places. And many people have looked at these verses and ended up in strange places. Peter is teaching this. Somebody preached something to somebody else sometime.

And that's the challenge, to define these things, to define the somebody who was preaching, to define the something that was preached, what was it that was preached, to define the somebody else, to define who the preaching was to, and to define the sometime, to determine when these events happened. There are three main streams of interpretation. There's some variation within the streams, but here are the three main streams of interpretation of what these verses mean. Number one, that Christ is the somebody. Christ did the preaching.

And that the gospel was the thing preached. And that the spirits of unregenerate dead men were those receiving the preaching. And that this happened after the death of Christ. Most people who are in this stream of interpretation think it was between the death and the resurrection of Jesus. But it's not exclusively so.

But after the death of Jesus. And they believe that there's actually an offer of pardon from the crucified Jesus to unregenerate souls of dead men? No. No. Of these three, I can live with two, I can't live with this one.

I can't live with you living with this one. You'll not find a hint of help anywhere else in scripture For an offer of pardon being made to men who have already died, you can't find it anywhere else in the scripture. That just serves to give false hope to people. That Even if they persistently reject Christ and reject Christ and reject Christ and reject Christ and insist on having their own way all through their life, that maybe, just maybe, there will be one more chance of pardon after death. No, no, a thousand times no.

The Bible never teaches that. Anywhere the Bible does not teach that here. Second stream of interpretation. That it is Christ who preached, and that the content of the preach was a proclamation of victory over sin and death and the enemies of God and that this proclamation was made either to the spirits of unregenerate dead men or to the fallen angels or to both. And the use of the word spirit, the Greek behind that word, is sometimes used of a man's spirit.

And it's sometimes used as an angelic being. So it could be either an angelic being or the spirit of a man. So the Greek word itself is open to either one of those. Both usages are frequently found in the New Testament. And that the mention of Noah and the disobedience in the time of Noah was serves as a representative generation of a sinfulness, unusual sinfulness, and that this happened after his death.

Again, usually between the death and resurrection of Christ. To that I could say maybe. You can find support for some elements of that elsewhere in the scripture. So I think this is a possible interpretation. I don't subscribe to this interpretation, but I can live with it, and I can find support for it, and I don't find anywhere else in Scripture that would contradict and make that impossible that this happened.

So to number two, I say maybe. To number one, I say absolutely not, and you either. Don't you dare believe that. To number two, I say maybe. Here's the third one that I believe is true.

That Christ, by the Spirit, was preaching through Noah. Christ, by the Spirit, was preaching through Noah. And that he was preaching righteousness among a rising tide of sin. In other words, sin and rebellion were on the increase in his generation. Was overwhelming the earth in his generation.

And Noah was standing as a representative of Christ to preach. Christ was preaching by the Spirit through Noah. And that those who were preached to were those in the generation of Noah who lived during the time of the flood and the building of the ark and that the preaching was done before the flood. Now you don't get that at first blush in this text. So it's not the most obvious interpretation, and I'm happy to concede that.

But I want to submit that there are two interpretive keys, and that the first is in chapter 1, verse 10 and 12. Both of these interpretive keys come from Peter. So I'm not going far afield to find these interpretive keys. If we go back to 1 Peter chapter 1, we find this in verses 10 through 12. So read along with me.

1 Peter chapter 1 verse 10. Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied the grace that would come to you. Searching what or what manner of time, the spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. To them it was revealed that not to themselves but to us they were ministering the things which have now been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things which angels desire to look into." what Peter is teaching in this stretch of scripture is that the prophets were getting their message somewhere, which you know that. But Peter is very explicit in what he says.

He says, it's the Spirit of Christ. It's the Spirit of Christ speaking to these prophets, the things that they are to declare. I believe here in chapter 3 in our text for today, Peter is saying the same thing. The Spirit of Christ was speaking through this man who lived in his generation to stand on behalf of God and preach a message of righteousness among a people who were running headlong into rebellion. Now Peter says that of the prophets.

So he says that it's the Spirit of Christ who was in them and that he testified. So he makes the preaching of the prophets synonymous with Christ testifying through them. And He says that those who had preached to the people who are reading his letter in the time of Peter, his audience that he sent this letter to, that those who had preached the gospel to them, that that was by the Holy Spirit. So that the preaching of Noah was the preaching of Christ by the Spirit. And the preaching of the Gospel in Peter's day, the Gospel that came to his readers was the preaching of Christ through the Spirit using men that God raises up in every generation so that he is not left without a witness.

Now think of what that means. That means that Christ was preaching before the incarnation through the prophets. You cannot wiggle out of that. You might not like my interpretation, but because of chapter one verses 10 through 12 there's no way you're wiggling out of that. Christ was preaching through the prophets.

He said so. The Spirit of Christ was preaching through these prophets. So Christ was preaching through the Spirit before His incarnation. So if you've ever thought, if only my relative could have heard the preaching that Jesus did when he was on the earth, they would be saved, that's not the right way to think about it. Many heard the preaching of Jesus Christ when he was incarnate and rejected it.

And Peter is saying the preaching of Christ existed before Christ was in the flesh on the earth. And the preaching of Christ exists after the incarnation. Because the Holy Spirit has been sent so that Christ can keep preaching the gospel. So when the gospel is preached, don't assume That you're rejecting just the words of a man if you're rejecting the gospel. What Peter is teaching is that it is Christ by the Spirit preaching the gospel before Jesus ever came, when Jesus was here after Jesus ascended into heaven.

The second interpretive key is 2 Peter 2 verse 5 where Noah is called a preacher of righteousness. 2 Peter 2 verse 5, Noah is called a preacher of righteousness. Noah was not just a boat builder. He was a preacher and a boat builder. And so picture this for a year.

Noah is preaching and building, preaching and building, preaching righteousness among a generation that's going headlong into rebellion and in the meanwhile this massive structure is being raised up in the background. Is there any question in your mind that people were coming in droves, in groups, to see this massive ship that is being built. Nothing else in the world like it. No water to be seen. Here it comes.

Groups of people are coming. Word of this thing is spreading. And so there is the proclamation of righteousness by Noah, the preacher of righteousness. And there is something physical that's rising up out of the landscape that speaks to the judgment of God against sin. So why the confusing phrase, spirits in prison?

The NASB renders it this way, spirits now in prison. And now is in italics, meaning the translators added it because they thought it was important for meaning, but it's not in the Greek. So the New King James, what we're reading, says spirits in prison. NASB felt like it was important to insert that word and say spirits now in prison. Here's what Matthew Poole says.

Matthew Poole is one of the most trusted commentators that I read, I mean trusted by me, as I find him to be so sound so often. Matthew Poole writes, the Greek present tense is here to be supplied. And the word thus read, preached to the spirits which are in prison now at this time. And so the time of their being in prison is opposed to the time of their being disobedient. They were disobedient then, they are in prison now.

And this fits very nicely with what we see in verse 20 when Peter says, who formerly were disobedient. In other words, Noah was a preacher of righteousness in his generation. He was preaching. They were disobedient to that preaching, and now their spirits are in prison. Their disobedience has landed them, their spirits, in prison.

This word disobedience we've been seeing frequently in 1 Peter. The first time we saw it was in chapter 1, verse 7, when it's contrasted with those who believe. There's those who believe and those who are disobedient, the same Greek word. A pythaeo is the Greek word. And this word wraps together both disbelief and disobedience.

It's together. So one Greek word, one English word doesn't really capture all of it. Because in the Greek word, disobedience and disbelief are present. That's why you find some translations rendering disbelief and some disobedience. That's because they're both in there in the Greek word.

And the translators were stuck trying to pick one word when it means two things together. It's a stubborn refusal to believe. This fits with what Peter says in the divine long-suffering. How do you like that for divine long-suffering? 120 years of ark-building, of preaching righteousness.

120 years. Some translators take divine long-suffering and render it patience of God. God was being patient. There was all sorts of violence covering the earth during those days and God was patient. God sent a preacher of righteousness and God picked these means.

God could have just destroyed the earth any way he wanted to destroy the earth. He gave 120 year running head start, an ark being built, people hearing about the ark, people going to see the ark. And Noah said, it's because destruction is coming on the earth because of sin. Noah knew that. You find that out in Genesis 6.

Noah knew why he was building the ark. Judgment was coming. Noah was preaching that and people were coming. Listen to what Hebrews 11 says. Hebrews 11 is the great faith chapter, the faith hall of fame.

The hall of faith, Hebrews 11 verse 7. By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. Hebrews 11 says that Noah received the righteousness that is according to faith. In other words, he believed God. He's just like Abraham.

He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. Hebrews 11 says Noah is exactly the same. He became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. God told Noah, I'm going to destroy the earth, build an ark, and Noah believed God to the extent that he obeyed and obeyed and obeyed for 120 years with no water. And God credited to him his belief for righteousness.

Noah wasn't a perfect man, a sinless man. He was a sinner who found grace in the eyes of the Lord. That's exactly what Genesis chapter 6 verse 8 says. And Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Not a sinless man who deserved to be saved from the judgment that was coming on everyone else.

A man saved by grace. A man whose faith was credited to him as righteousness. He was saved the same way anyone else ever is saved, through faith. Okay. Let's talk about the type and the anti-type.

This is really the argument that Peter has been setting up. The type is Noah in his day. The type is a few people, just eight out of the millions. We don't know how many were on the earth but only eight were saved so a few believe what God has said everyone else was disobedient and disbelieving believed God And their faith propelled them into action and they obeyed. But the rest would not believe, though God was patient, though God sent a preacher, though God had an ark, a massive ship rising out of the landscape.

And the waters of judgment came. The waters of the type are waters of death. That's important. Did you get that? The waters of the type, the picture.

Noah and his generation the waters are waters of death you can think happy thoughts about the waters of baptism if you want. But it represents the judgment of God against sin. You must get this. They were the waters of death. They brought death to everyone on the whole earth except for eight people.

And Noah plus seven are saved in the ark. Now let's look at the anti-type. Peter says that baptism is the anti-type. Baptism is the real thing that Noah and what happened with Noah was a picture of, was pointing to. In the anti-type, People believe God and they become heirs of the righteousness which is by faith.

This is exactly what is said of Noah in Hebrews 11, 7. So You have to keep the type together, the whole type. What really happened with Noah? He believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. That happened 120 years before the rain started falling.

With the type, before you get to the water, you have a man finding grace in the eyes of the Lord. That's Genesis 6 verse 8. You have a man who believes God and it's credited to him as righteousness. The waters of the anti-type, the waters of baptism, are the same. They represent the judgment of God against sin.

It's death. It's death with Christ and raised with new life. It's being joined with Christ in his death. It is still the waters of judgment, just like the type. It is participation in the death of Christ and then participation in the resurrection of Christ being raised again to new life.

This is Romans 6. Noah, the type, was saved through that water and raised to new life. You can see the type and the anti-type, the picture and the real thing that was pictured. Now what about those who take these verses and teach baptismal regeneration? In other words, it is baptism that actually causes salvation.

A person is necessarily saved when they go through the waters of baptism. Well first I would say it doesn't fit the type. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. He believed God And it was credited to him as righteousness and all this preceded the waters of the flood No, it wasn't saved by the waters He was saved from the waters The waters are the judgment of God against sin. I think secondly it doesn't consider what John the Baptist says in Matthew 3 verse 11.

Listen to Matthew 3 verse 11. John the Baptist says, I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance. But he who is coming after me, Christ, is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire." So the baptism of Jesus Christ is a baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire. Consider Acts 10.

In Acts 10, the gospel comes to the Gentiles. Peter is supernaturally sent to the household of Cornelius. And he preaches the gospel, and it's embraced. And without baptism they began to show the same signs that they're filled with the Holy Spirit that the apostles had shown in Acts chapter 2. They began to speak in other tongues.

And here's what Peter says in Acts 10, verse 47. Acts 10, verse 47. Peter says, can anyone forbid water that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have? In other words, Peter knows he can't hold these Gentiles back from baptism because they've already shown that the Holy Spirit has come upon them. They've already shown that the reality is there so there's no reason to withhold the symbol.

Paul in two places uses this phrase baptized into Christ. He uses it in Galatians 3.27 And he uses it in Romans 6, verse 3. Baptized into Christ. Joined to Christ. So I would like to submit and argue that there's baptism.

There is a person joined to Christ who goes out of obedience to make the public declaration that baptism is, and then there's getting wet and they're not the same thing. You can call one the other as much as you want to, but it does not make it so. I think this completely agrees with what we see in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, we have a covenant and we have a sign of the covenant which is circumcision. But circumcision, it's so clear in the Old Testament, circumcision itself never saved anyone.

The act, the physical act of circumcision wasn't what saves. It never was. The Old Testament people of God always understood it wasn't that act that saved. And so over and over again in the Old Testament you see this, circumcise your hearts. Circumcise your hearts.

Circumcise your hearts. Circumcise your hearts. In other words, it's intended to be a symbol of what needs to happen in the heart. When the prophets were preaching, circumcise your hearts, he was preaching to physically circumcised people who needed a change of heart. One last point on this, Turn to Titus 3.

Titus 3. Titus 3 I'll begin reading in verse 3. Titus 3 verse 3. For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. What a condition.

Verse 4, But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. That is the baptism that saves, the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. Baptismal regeneration is a very harmful doctrine because it turns something that God has told us to do into magic. And the teaching of the New Testament and the Old Testament isn't about magic. It's about the true work of God in the heart.

But there's a reaction against this that takes us too far. In other words, we don't want baptism to be magic. So we go all the way on the other side of the truth to say it doesn't really matter. But that's not what the Bible teaches either. The Bible, the New Testament doesn't know about unbaptized Christians.

It doesn't have a place for them. The New Testament doesn't teach that baptism doesn't matter. The New Testament teaches that baptism is a vital source of obedience, is something to be obeyed. Baptism is not inherently effectual. In other words, there's nothing about the water that will make a person be saved.

It's meaningless if genuine faith doesn't exist in the heart first. But that doesn't mean it's meaningless if there is genuine faith in the heart first. Do you get the distinction? Baptism is just a bath if genuine faith doesn't exist in the heart first. You're not saved by that water.

But if there is genuine faith in the heart, It isn't meaningless at all. It is a means of grace. Why? Because God blesses obedience. Is that hard to find in the Bible?

Can we substantiate that from the Bible that God is pleased and is pleased to bless obedience. God gives grace to the obedience. That's taught everywhere in the Bible. And this is another place where it matters. God has commanded his children to be baptized.

So we should expect that God will give grace with the obedience. And it's the same with the Lord's Supper. The ceremonial law taken away, we're down to two ordinances, baptism and the Lord's Supper. Do you think of them as, are they meaningless? Do you just think their only symbolic, It's empty symbolism that there's no real benefit from.

It's just a remembrance of something. It's not just that. God has commanded us to do these two things, to baptize, and to participate in the Lord's Supper. And His grace is there. It's a means of grace.

You should expect to be strengthened and fortified in the inner man when you obey God in this way. So it's not everything, but it's certainly not nothing. Finally, Peter says that this is through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is the mighty working of the Spirit of God to raise Jesus from the dead that accomplishes all this. Now verse 22, the last verse.

The last verse of 1 Peter chapter 3. Who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to him? This is the ultimate victory of Jesus Christ. This is where his sufferings took him. God used his sufferings to achieve the greatest victory of all time and then Jesus was glorified.

And he is seated at the right hand of the Father. And all angels and powers and dominions have been made subject to him. And all of his enemies are being made his footstool. His footstool. That's what's happening now.

His enemies are being made his footstool. Peter has intended this as encouragement in suffering for good. Godly conduct might bring suffering into your life. Ungodly conduct certainly will and then you're being beaten for your faults. I have no help for you there.

Guess take your beating I guess is what I should say. You've earned it. But godly conduct might bring suffering into your life as well, but Peter gives us this great reason to be encouraged and to flourish, not just to ride it out, but to flourish in the middle of our sufferings, to look at the cross, to look at what the will of God accomplished through Jesus' work on the cross, to know this is how God works in the world. It's counterintuitive. It's against what we might have hoped for.

That he would achieve victory through our prosperity and happiness. Well, you might have times of prosperity and happiness in your life, it's very possible. God is very gracious. But he might also bring suffering into your life to do something greater, to bring about something greater than just you and your comforts. May it be so.

May we be encouraged. Because we are His body, and the head of the body is at the right hand of the Father. These are our great reasons to be encouraged, even in suffering. The head of the body is seated at the right hand of God in heaven. And to know what God does through suffering.

Think of the cross. Think of what God has accomplished Once for all, the just for the unjust. Let's pray. God, we keep coming to text and being able to affirm what your word says, that your thoughts are higher than our thoughts, your ways are higher than our ways. The things that you have constructed as ways to work in the earth are not like what we would have designed.

But you are wise. You are all wise. God, I pray that you would make us a people who embrace the wisdom of your design, who don't recoil from suffering, but who can look at the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ and see you winning your greatest victories through sufferings. Make us ready not just to ride out suffering, God, but to flourish and grow when you bring these things to us for your own glory and for our good. May it be so in Jesus' name.

Amen.