Bringing Us to God (Part B)

I'm not going to badmouth God and say, you did not make me a John Knox, therefore the things that you've done through me don't count. I will not say that. I will say thank you Lord for what you've given me.

I will stand my watch and be satisfied with his portion. The baptism which saves us is immersion into Christ, not water. The blood of Christ saves, not water. This baptism took place on Calvary. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the Book of First Peter.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. And now here's Pastor Rick as he continues his message called Bringing Us to God in First Peter Chapter 3. They would take their sacrificial animal and they would lay their hands on that beast before that beast was slaughtered on their behalf. Their sin was being transferred to that animal. Christ has fulfilled that type. His holiness, his righteousness, his goodness and acceptance is transferred to us so that when God looks at us, the sin is gone.

It's washed away in the blood of Christ. He has made us acceptable in the heavens through his sacrifice. At the cross, he would die that we would live. He took on our sin, he transferred it to himself and his righteousness to us. That is salvation, he says, but made alive by the Spirit. Again, they could kill the incarnate body by his permission, but they could not kill him. As I mentioned, he dismissed his soul when he was good and ready, sovereign to the end, but this made alive by the Spirit of God.

Well, this is very important to understanding what's now coming. Verse 19, by whom he went and preached to the spirits in prison who formerly were disobedient when once the divine long sufferings waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared in which a few, that is eight souls, were saved through water. Well, Peter, you know the thing is when you write, when you write spiritual things, it's usually because you've thought them out and often you've already preached them. So you've formed your theology and your presentation. It would not be out of character with Christian pastoral behavior to say that Peter likely was preaching on these things when he wrote the letter, when he dictated the letter, and Silas is writing it down. And so that means that Peter understands what he's saying. His audience may be totally there with him because they may have heard sermons like this from Peter or others who preached it at the time, but by the time 2,000 years have rolled by, we're a little confused when we come to such verses as this. Who is this in prison and what spirit is preaching?

What is going on here? It's really not that complicated of a passage of scripture. Now, I'm not a sci-fi Christian.

I do not try to read into verses things that are sensational but really don't make any sense. For example, those of you familiar with Genesis 6, the giants and the women, not the New York giants. There are those that believe that there were intimate relationships between the giants and the women. How big were these giants?

I mean, were there no female giants? I mean, you've got a lot of problems now. They were spiritual beings, so now you've got these, what, hybrid spiritual beings having physical relationships with human beings and then having physical offsprings. You now challenge the virgin birth because later on you're going to be able to say, how do we know that the virgin birth was of God?

You just create problems that aren't there. They were the Gebors, the Nephilim. They were the giants of society, not physical giants. But there are many Christians that in good Bible teaches otherwise good in other passages, they got it, they know the gospel and they're sharp cookies, but on some passages the best of them get a little weird.

This is also one of them and I'll bring some of that out in a moment. So where he says, by whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison. Because Peter is talking about the crucifixion and death of Christ who was raised by the spirit, that's what he says. There are many of the commentators that keep this passage, verse 19, connected to the crucifixion of Christ, supposing that when he died he went to the underworld and there he preached, which is really kind of pointless.

He delivered the saints, for sure. Hell was not fully populated then. More people, people at this very moment, hell is being populated. They would have missed the sermon, pointless. But anyway, that's just another part of this. We can be too quick to accept the sensational when the simple is most proper. And I think all of us have met God-loving, God-fearing Christians who believe anything very quickly that is weird and eerie.

I would counsel against that because usually it is at the cost of reason. That does not help the preaching of the gospel or the strengthening of the individual. Peter's reference to Noah is the key to understanding what is going on here. He's not talking about Christ after the crucifixion, going and preaching into the underworld. He's talking about Christ being raised by the spirit.

That same spirit was in Noah. And Noah preached to those who were then alive in his day for 120 years. He preached. He was a preacher of righteousness, Peter will tell us. And those who rejected that message are in prison spiritually. They are dead, they are gone, and they are not in heaven. And that's the point that Peter has made.

So that's the short answer. The spirit of Christ was in Noah preaching to the antediluvians, those before the flood. Now, here's one otherwise good commentator. Here's what he says about this verse. Between Christ's death and resurrection, his living spirit went to the demon spirits bound in the abyss and proclaimed that in spite of his death he had triumphed over them. I don't agree with that.

I'm not alone. It would be nice if I was like the only one that discovered the true meaning and I could say, all those guys are wrong but not me, I'm special. But that's not the case. John Wesley, Wesley that great, great man of God from England. His ministry failed here in the United States.

He suffered a lot before he got it together. But anyway, he writes about this. By which spirit he preached through the ministry of Noah, the spirits in prison, the unholy men before the flood who were then reserved by justice, the justice of God as in a prison till he executed the sentence upon them all and are now also reserved to the judgment of the great day.

And so that's, I agree with that. Wesley, here's another. I won't name the ones that are still living or have been not living long, having died recently. Peter is describing what happened in the days of Noah. It was the spirit of Christ who preached through Noah to the unbelieving generation before the flood. They were not disembodied spirits at the time, but living men and women who rejected the warnings of Noah and were destroyed by the flood. So now they are spirits in the prison of Hades. Now it's not a teaching to divide. If you insist, no, no, I want the, you know, I want the eerie one, then okay have at it. But again, it's not something to divide on.

I think if you take that route, you're going to be confused by a lot of other things, though, and so I would caution against it. In verse 19, and we'll develop it a little bit more as we go forward, where he says in verse 19, by whom also he went. Peter speaks of the spirit of the Holy Spirit in Christ who spoke through Noah, as I mentioned. Christ was very active before the manger. Christ was alive and functioning before he was born in Beth. You know when you say, oh, happy birthday Jesus.

He doesn't have a birthday. He's eternal. He's self-existent. He's always been. He always will be. He is the Alpha and the Omega.

Now I know it's a sentimental thing, and I'm not telling you you're sinning by saying it, and if you want to keep doing it, that's fine. But he has always been, and he has always been active, and so has the Holy Spirit, and so has the Father. These three are one, and they are not.

They're indivisible. First Peter chapter 1, of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you. Well, who showed them these things to prophesy? Of course, he goes on, Peter does, searching what or what manner of time? The Spirit of Christ who was in them.

That's what he says. Was indicating when he testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. Christ was in the prophets, in the sense that he revealed to them things about his ministry on earth as we started off reading from Isaiah 53 verse 3. Christ gave them that, just as Christ gave to Noah his message, just as Christ gives to us our message, and that's the point. You Christians are being persecuted, but Christ is still ministering to you. The Holy Spirit is not withdrawn from you. You are still expected to conduct Christian business in the midst of these things. This is the point, this entire section about preaching in the face of ridicule and persecution. Romans chapter 8, but you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now, if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he's not his. So you see the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of Christ, you can't separate them.

You'll go mad trying to. They're joined together. And so, verse 19, and preach to the spirits in prison. Now the Greek term for spirits there can mean human spirits, angelic beings, it's a broad meaning to it, but the context, context is everything.

Without context, you don't know what you have. What is the setting that these words are being spoken? What words surround them? Now here in 2 Peter, which we'll get to in 8 or 9 years, Peter, 2 Peter chapter 2, and did not, speaking of God, spare the ancient world, but save Noah, one of eight people. And here it comes, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood, the world of the ungodly. Peter, as does Jude, don't pull any punches with those who are into sin. They do not hold back the grace and mercy for sinners who struggle, but they do not hold back the judgment to come for those sinners who reject the message. And since they rejected Noah's message, they rejected salvation and were imprisoned, that is, in hell, and so it is the way it goes to this day. In verse 20, he says, who formerly were disobedient, again, the people in Noah's day, not fallen angels.

The fallen angels were disobedient before the ark, long before the ark of Noah. God does not always speak dramatically. Elijah, the prophet, discovered that God speaks in a still small voice. Now some, some struggle to stay awake, like maybe now, when this person is just, you know, speaking. They need theatrics or something to, you know, get them emotionally involved, but the problem is that that doesn't register as well as getting the point across. Theatrics distract from the message.

The dramatic can be overworked and like little children, you know, those of you with little children, when they start, do it again. Oh, okay, one more time. Do it again. Hold me up, flip me over, and whatever it is.

And adults can be the same way. I've come to church to be entertained, do it again. Top it next week. Oh, I heard that song.

Oh, I know this one. We have to rise above that carnality. In verse 20, when he says, when once the divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, you see, Peter is focused on what was happening in Noah's day. Great is God's patience. 120 years it took to build that ark. We have reason to believe that Noah's preaching saved people before the flood. There were people that he preached to that could have died before those days, and we say, well, what is the basis of that? Well, there was other men that were righteous, such as Enoch long before Noah. Methuselah was named when his name means when he dies, it will come, the flood.

And then that is exactly what happened. But God is very patient and very merciful. And so 120 years, every time a hammer hit or struck or a noise echoed from the building of that ark, a sermon was preached. The ark became a pulpit. It became a word to everybody in earshot and eyesight that there is a judgment coming. You believe it or not.

Except for eight of them, they did not believe it. And it was too late when the judgment came, when the rains began. It is the same way in this life. There are those that think they're going to make their way through death after this life without Jesus Christ by rejecting him.

It's not going to happen. And there is the precedence for it. He says, while the ark was being prepared, again, it was a pulpit in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. Saved through water as in surviving the flood, not saved because the water had some power to take away their heaven. We are saved by the blood of the lamb and not the water on the earth. Water baptism saves no one. If it did, then we ought to go out with a fire hose and wet everybody, get them all into heaven.

But it doesn't work that way. The souls are saved because they believe the message and follow its instructions. I would add, it's not enough to acknowledge the message. Someone could say, yeah, I believe that and do nothing more.

Not good enough. One must act upon what they believe. Now again, weakness is accepted. I have known quite a few Christians who struggled with heroin and perished because of that evil drug, narcotic. And I believe they were right with Christ, but they couldn't, they just couldn't beat it in the flesh. Now some of you might not like that. I hope that you're not that hard-hearted.

I hope you see beyond the physical and into the spiritual. They knew who the Savior was. I mean, if that's not so, if you say, well, they never went over that sin. They couldn't have gone to heaven.

And what about you when you drive? Your soul is damned. Not the other guy. You.

So here, verse 21, there is also an anti-type. Let me pause here. This is a tough section to teach from. Well, at least for me, because you want it, it's not easy reading and it's important information. You want to get it right. So I hope, I hope this is going well. If it is going well, you don't have to tell me.

If it's going bad, please don't tell me. There is also an anti-type which now saves. 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. Do you see Peter preaching these things, not just writing them? A man like Peter was more comfortable speaking than he was writing. Paul was probably, you know, both.

He could write, he could do it all. But Peter strikes me as a man who was a man of, give me that microphone, kind of a guy. And here he says, there's also an anti-type which now saves. But then he has to come to life, baptism.

This is some animation that goes with this. He's not, this monotone, not the removal of the flesh, the filth of the flesh, but a good conscience. That's just not Peter. He says, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, I saw him. I knew him. He died. And then he was alive again. He spoke to me.

He looked me in the eyes afterward. Not just once. And this comes out in his writing, it comes out in his speaking. There's no way Silas could transfer this excitement into print. The Holy Spirit does that for us. Read out loud. If you've never read your Bible out loud, not all of it. I mean, you get to, you know, the names that we come across in Nehemiah, for example.

You don't want to try and struggle that out loud. But just the Lord is my, the Psalm, the 23rd Psalm. Or the Sermon on the Mount. Or the first three chapters of Revelation. Or Ephesians, chapter 4.

Read it out loud. One Spirit, one body, one Father. It comes to life. And we have no right to say, well, you know, it's kind of boring.

No, you're the boring one. The Scripture is alive. It is living and it is powerful. And we know it true to be true. And so here he says there is also an anti-type. That means a prophetic parallel fulfilled.

What does that mean? A type is an illustration long before the event in most cases. And it is not the event. But when the event takes place, the similarities are inescapable.

The message that comes out of that parallel is inescapable. And so when you, when we read about, for instance, as I mentioned earlier, the sin offering and the sinner puts his hand on the animal to be sacrificed, that is a snapshot, an illustration of what happens when Christ takes our sin upon him. He is our sacrifice. He is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. And so you put your hand, it was very personal, you put your hand on that animal and your sins were symbolically transferred to that animal. When Christ died on the cross, every believer that comes to him, your sins are transferred factually to him and washed away in his blood.

He is overcome. So a type is a God-given illustration in advance so that you would know that God speaks to people. This evening we'll be talking about the Ten Suggestions, the Ten Commandments in Exodus chapter 20. Again, repeated in Deuteronomy, but we'll be in Exodus 20.

Listen to this. And God spoke all these words. God speaks to his people. And he continues, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage. You see, it's very personal. We don't have a distant religion, a distant God.

It's very much hands-on. And so when he says, there is an anti-type, that's Peter getting a little theological, but he's right on with this. The pattern is consistent.

The pattern is understandable and it is inescapable. While the type may be imperfect, the fulfillment is sure. And so those sacrificial animals, we see the sacrifice of Christ on the cross and we connect the dots and we say we get it. He says, which now saves. There's an anti-type. There's the fulfillment of this prophecy that saves.

That's what he is saying. Baptism. What does that word mean? We think baptism always means getting wet.

It does not. Baptism means to be immersed in something. It happens to be water when we do it symbolically, you know, the outward sign of the inward event. It is a sermon. It is a sermon to encourage the saved and to preach to the lost. And so where he says, which now saves, baptism. That baptism that he is referring to is the rebirth in Christ, not water. 1 Corinthians 12. For by one spirit, we were all baptized into one body. You see, it certainly isn't talking about water baptism because you can't do that through water baptism. He continues, Paul does in 1 Corinthians, where the Jews are Greeks or the slaves are free and have all been made to drink into one spirit. You see the imagery that he's putting out there, trying to get us to understand the spiritual events that engulf us.

When Jesus said, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, how do you do that without being immersed? I was reading something about Samuel Rutherford, a great Christian man from long ago, and just saying to myself, you know, when I started out studying and, you know, becoming a pastor, I felt I could do these things that these other men did. Wesley did it. I'll do it. I can nail a letter on a wall.

Luther did it. I can do it. I have since found out that I cannot be a Rutherford.

I cannot be these men. God will have to settle for whatever it is I can bring up. And he's good with this. And I'm becoming okay with it too. Because I don't have a choice.

But I've also seen much fruit because of it. And I'm not going to badmouth God and say, you did not make me a John Knox, therefore the things that you've done through me don't count. I will not say that. I will say thank you, Lord, for what you've given me.

I will stand my watch and be satisfied with his portion. The baptism which saves us is immersion into Christ, not water. The blood of Christ saves, not water. This baptism took place on Calvary where he immersed himself in the mission of God on our behalf in death for the sinner. Luke's gospel, chapter 12, verse 50, Jesus says, but I have a baptism to be baptized with. Now, he had already been water baptized with John to fulfill prophecy.

He's certainly not talking about water baptism. He says, I have a baptism to be baptized with and how distressed I am till it is accomplished. He knew the cross. He knew the prophecies.

He knew what lay ahead of him. And yet the night that he was betrayed as they left the city of Jerusalem to cross the Kidron Valley, he was singing hymns to God. We're so glad you tuned in today to study the book of 1 Peter on Cross Reference Radio. Cross Reference Radio is the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel in Mechanicsville, Virginia, and we're blessed to bring you God's word with each broadcast. If you'd like more information about this program or want to listen to additional teachings from Pastor Rick, please visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com. We also encourage you to subscribe to our podcast so you'll never have to miss a program. Just search for Cross Reference Radio in iTunes, Google Play Music, or your favorite podcast app. We hope you'll tune in again next time to join us as we continue our study through the Scriptures right here on Cross Reference Radio.