We are at church, Peter, and we're at
the third chapter, and we're going through, as
you can see, from verse 18 to the
end of the chapter.
Now, I want to read the portion through
with you first, I want to read it
very carefully, just to listen to how carefully
I'm reading it.
First, Peter, chapter 3, verse 18.
For Christ also hath once suffered for things,
the just for the unjust.
That he might bring us to God, being
put to death in the flesh, but quickened
by the Spirit, capital S, by which also
he went and preached unto the spirits in
prison, which sometime were disobedient, when once the
long-suffering of God waited in the days
of Noah, while the ark was a-preparing,
wherein shew, that is, eight souls were saved
by water.
The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also
now save us, not the putting away of
the sins of the flesh, but the answer
of a good conscience toward God, by the
resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is gone into
heaven and is on the right hand of
God, angels and authorities and powers being made
subject unto him.
And you know that this is one of
the polygraphs in the scriptures, around which debates
and arguments have arrayed themselves for years.
Why, some of the greatest auditoriums in America
have been shaken, and this very polygraph that
we're looking at now has been debated for
days.
Great debates, great arguments, great questions have arrayed
themselves around this paragraph this evening.
And may I tell you that there are
quite a number of different interpretations given to
you, quite a number of them.
And there are five out of the number
that sort of take the first place.
And I want to tell you about them.
There are quite a number of people in
the world tonight, and have been all down
through history since Peter wrote this, I think,
who believe that this means that our Lord
Jesus, in his own human spirit, in his
disembodied spirit, that our Lord Jesus, in his
disembodied spirit, went to Hades, went to hell,
if you like, and preached to these spirits
in prison.
That's what they believe.
Certain people believe that.
Now, there are certain people who are just
a little bit further than that, and they
have another interpretation.
They believe that the Lord Jesus, in his
human spirit, in his disembodied spirit, went to
Hades and preached the gospel to these people,
so that they might have a second chance
of salvation.
That is the Russellite interpretation.
Then there is a people who believe that
this is the only place in the scriptures
where there is a hint of purgatory, where
sinners have gone after death and have remained
while saints on earth prayed for them and
paid for them, and eventually Christ comes and
liberates them.
Yes?
There's another interpretation, and they believe that these
spirits here are not the spirits of humans
at all, that these are fallen angels, the
angels that did the diabolical work in the
days of Noah.
And that when Jesus died, he went in
his disembodied spirit into this prison where these
fallen angels are kept in prison, and he
announced the triumph of the cross.
These are all a sort of measure of
interpretation.
But I don't believe one of them.
I take my stand with old Darby tonight,
and I think of all the commentaries that
I have ever read, or all the scholars
that I have listened to, I think that
old Darby was the clearest, and the faintest,
and the faintest of all the commentators that
I've ever had.
Because I know that Dr. Ironside and Schaeffer
and the great many more all take the
same line, but certainly Darby was the clearest.
Now I'm taking this platform this evening to
take my time, I'm not worried about the
clock, I told you to bring your piece
with you, did you bring your piece?
Because we'll give you plenty to eat at
about midnight.
I'm going to take my time, I don't
think we'll be very far over the time,
but I'm going to take the time to
take every phrase and expound it in the
clearest, faintest possible way that I can.
I'm not worried about being clever this evening,
just worried about being clear, that's all.
Now I've divided this paragraph into two, as
you can see.
I think that there are thoughts from the
past here, because there is the fact of
Christ's sufferings, and there is the fact of
Christ's death, and there is the fact of
Christ's resurrection, and there is the fact of
Christ's preaching, and there is the fact of
God's long-suffering, and the fact of the
ark and the days of Noah.
And I've divided this paragraph into two, thoughts
from the past, and then this great figure
of baptism that belongs to the present, because
we were looking at it in Romans there,
and it said, like ours are.
And it is a figure, you know, but
it is a figure, it is a figure
of a fact.
And that we shall very forcibly point out
at the end of the chapter.
But I want to get the whole paragraph
out in its clarity before you, having divided
it into facts from the past and the
figure of the present, come to have a
look at it, and why are there so
many difficulties, and why are there so many
divided interpretations?
You see, I believe that the whole trouble
with this paragraph is phraseology.
I think that people are missing completely the
phraseology that you say, certainly is not theology
that's puzzling anybody.
I think it does phraseology, not theology.
And I shall point out the thought of
phraseology that you see.
Now, we're ready to start now, and we'll
start at the beginning of the paragraph, at
verse eighteen.
I want you for the moment to see
Christ's work on the cross.
For Christ also hath once suffered for sins,
the just for the unjust, that he might
bring us to God, being put to death
in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.
And here we find Christ suffering for sins.
And I think we want to be quite
clear about who sins he's suffering for.
For speaker is writing to people who have
said, we've been through this, they were born
again, and redeemed by precious blood, and all
the rest of it.
They were the elect according to the full
knowledge of God the Father.
And you know what lies in the chapters
behind.
Peter is saying, for Christ also once suffered
for sins, the just for the unjust, that
he might bring us.
I think we want to get the hold
of the us, because it is believers that
he's talking to and writing to.
And he's trying to get them to see
that Christ suffered for their sins.
You know, this is the testimony of every
believer in this meeting tonight, that Christ was
wounded for our transgressions, that he was bruised
for our iniquities.
This is Christ suffering for our sins.
That's what that is.
But I think you want to get the
hold of another word in the text.
It says, for Christ also has once.
Once, forget that, you know.
This doesn't happen every Sunday morning in the
mosque at all, you know.
And I'm not trying to be good for
the Roman Catholics as I is.
I just, to be honest, no matter what
you think about me, but I want to
point out with all the force I have,
that Christ suffered once.
That's all I want to say, just very
forcibly.
Oh, this sacrifice doesn't need to be made
every Sunday morning.
It would finish at the place called Calvary.
You know, if you go back to Hebrews
just for the moment, let's go back.
Hebrews chapter 9, talking about Christ as our
High Priest, it says in verse 24, For
Christ is not entered into the holy places
made with hands, which are the figures of
the truth.
But Aberneckle, of course, was a figure of
the truth, Aberneckle.
Christ has entered into heaven itself, now to
appear in the presence of God for us.
Nor yet that he should offer himself often,
as the High Priest entered into the holy
place every year with blood of others, for
then must he often have suffered since the
foundation of the world.
But now once in the end of the
age, or the end of the world, has
he appeared to put away sin by the
sacrifice of himself.
And as it is appointed unto men once
to die, after this the judging, so Christ
was once offered to bear the sins of
men.
Then if you go on into chapter 10,
you will find this.
He's talking about the difference between Israel's High
Priest and our High Priest, the Lord Jesus.
He's saying, verse 11, And every priest, that
is every priest in Israel, standeth daily ministering
and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can
never take away sins.
These were only types, they were offering lambs
and goats and cows, and they were offering
daily, and offering oftentimes.
And he contrasts the Israelite Aaronic priesthood with
our Lord Jesus.
He says in verse 12, But this man,
after he had offered one sacrifice for sins
forever, sat down.
Of course, the Aaronic priesthood had to stand
every day because they never finished the work.
But this man, because he finished the work,
he sat down.
When this meeting's over, I can sit down.
But what's finished?
Yes, our Lord Jesus was once offered.
Let's go back to Peter again.
I want you to get the hold of
this before we move any further.
I want you to think, for Christ also
hath once suffered for sins.
And the sins here are the sins of
believers.
He was the just, they were unjust.
That he might bring us to God.
You know, our Lord Jesus not only suffered
for our sins.
If we were going to church for Lent
this evening, and I think I don't need
to do that, Paul says in the gospel
that I preached on to you, how that
Christ died for our sins.
You see, this takes in the tremendous work
of the cross.
You see, not only were our sins laid
upon them, all we like sheep have gone
astray.
We've turned everyone to our own way.
The Lord Jehovah laid on him the iniquity
of us believers.
And you can see him bearing this weight.
And because he was bearing sin, then God
struck him, that he suffered for our sins.
He was stricken and smitten of God, and
afflicted, but wounded for our transgressions.
God bruised him, and it pleased the Lord
to bruise him, because he was our substitutionary
sacrifice at that second.
You see, he not only bear our sins,
he not only suffered for our sins, but
you remember we went into the text just
over the page in Peter, where Peter said,
he his own self bear our sins in
his own body on the tree.
And the word bear in the Greek there
means that he bore them away.
He had by himself purged our sins.
He thought, God, can you get this, that
he bears our sins, that he suffers for
our sins, that he carries them away until
they cannot be found, and that when he
rose again from the dead, he had purged
them away.
He went back without them, and sat down
on the right hand of the majesty of
heaven.
My, there is no gospel like that one.
And you fellows that talk about sin, the
way I'm wearing it on the cross means,
what do you think he was bearing?
Some of my sins?
He was a fool.
The rest of them are dumb.
I'll tell you this, if there is one
sin on your life, or there's ever going
to be a sin on your life, that
Christ didn't bear and suffer for, and put
away and salvation, you're damned.
You're damned.
He won't come back to do it, you
know.
This is the marvelous thing, that he took
every single sin belonging to me, and he
suffered for it.
You don't mean that God will demand payment
twice, do you?
First at my bleeding, shortly after, and then
again at mine?
If Christ suffered for my sins, it's over.
Christ not only suffered for my sins, Christ
died for my sins.
He bears them away.
Christ not only suffered and died, Christ died.
Now I say to you, lots of them
are suffering.
They cannot be found.
Oh, I'm just about as safe as God
can make me.
Now that's what this begins with, this mighty
paragraph.
It begins with Christ's work on the cross,
and then we move on to the Spirit's
work in resurrection.
Now, I want you to follow the reading
again, because we must go carefully.
For Christ also hath worked up and put
in the just for the unjust, that they
might bring us to God, being put to
death in the flesh.
Of course, that is the only part that
Christ could have died.
The word flesh stands for body there, you
know, and sometimes in the New Testament it's
used for body.
Paul had afflictions in his flesh.
Yes, you know, this is the part of
Christ that died.
Let's get the hold of this quite clear
just now, because that's what the localites would
like to read into this, to get their
own particular interpretation.
When Christ died on the cross, let me
show the young ones this.
This is Luke's Gospel, chapter 23.
Luke's Gospel, chapter 23.
And the Lord Jesus is on the cross,
and it says in verse 45, and the
sun was darkened, and the veil of the
temple was made in the midst.
And when Jesus had cried with a loud
voice, and I think if we go to
another Gospel, we'll find that cry was, it
is finished.
When he cried with a loud voice, he
said, Father, into thy hands I commend my
spirit.
You know, he was a perfectly human, and
being perfectly human, he was made up of
body, and soul, and spirit.
And I want to tell you that it
was his body that died.
He was put to death in the flesh.
But his spirit didn't die.
He commended his spirit into the hands of
God.
I want you to get the hold of
that, because that's what this book says.
Now, let's get back to Peter, do you
see this?
You see, he was put to death in
the flesh, but he was quickened by the
Spirit.
Now, this is where some of these men
who are giving these interpretations leave the book,
you see.
They say that Christ was put to death
in the flesh, and that meant that his
spirit died.
I've already told you that he commended the
Spirit into the hands of God.
And they say when it says quickened by
the Spirit, they say it should read quickened,
the Spirit, small s.
That it was the Spirit that was being
raised again.
Now, I wouldn't know how you would raise
a spirit.
In fact, I wouldn't know how you would
raise a spirit.
Any gifted would have some fun clapping a
spit on a spirit, I can tell you.
And the undertaker would have a bit of
bother boxing it too.
And I've already proved, I think, that there's
no such a thing as the Spirit dying.
His body died, and he commended the Spirit
of God into the hands of God.
So we'll just rule that out, and we'll
keep the reading we have.
Because this quickening is the quickening of his
body by the Holy Spirit.
You see, when it comes to the resurrection
of Christ, first of all, Christ claims to
have the power to resurrect his body.
You remember what he said to the people
at Jerusalem, destroy this temple, and in three
days I will raise it.
And the Russellites don't like that, because he
was talking about it.
And it actually says in the phrase, he
was speaking of the temple of his body,
that I will raise it.
Not something like it, fixed.
I will raise it.
You see, when the resurrection is talked about,
sometimes it talks about Christ, which proves he's
God, of course.
He raised his own body.
Because sometimes it talks about God raised him
from the dead.
And the Father, by the glory of the
Father, the Father came in to work in
the resurrection.
And sometimes it talks about the Spirit quickening
the body.
Because it's the God at work in the
resurrection, in the bodily resurrection of Christ.
So, I think this is quite clear here,
that this is the work of the Holy
Spirit.
That's why our good translators put a capital
S there.
He was put to death in the body,
but was quickened, that body was quickened by
the Holy Ghost, by the Spirit.
Now, that's the Spirit's work in resurrection.
Now, I want you to move on to
the depths of the message, because it's the
Spirit's work in quickening.
Now, I want you to take the text
over again.
It says, Christ also hath once suffered for
sins, but just for the unjust, that he
might bring us to God, being put to
death in the flesh, but quickened by the
Spirit, capital S, by the Holy Spirit.
By which?
I want you to get that.
I want you to get it like this.
By which also?
It's by the Holy Spirit that the preaching
is being done.
I want you to get that.
By which?
And the word also will keep you right.
The Spirit that raised the body is the
Spirit that's doing the preaching.
Let's get that.
Could you stop me and say, by which
also he went and preached?
Then you say, oh, you've got to come
back to it, because it's the Holy Spirit
in Christ that's making Christ do the preaching.
Now, I want to answer this sort of
thing with five answers, and I think that's
good answering.
First of all, I want to show you
the sort of phraseology that's used right through
the Scriptures.
Now, let me take you over to Ephesians,
and that's quite an easy book, isn't it?
And we're at Ephesians chapter 2.
Ephesians chapter 2.
Now, let's take it carefully.
Verse 12.
Paul's writing to these Ephesians, and he's reminding
them of the time when he came preaching
among them.
He says that at that time he were
without Christ.
They were without Christ when Paul came to
Ephesus.
Being alien from the commonwealth of Israel, and
strangers from the covenant of promise, having no
hope, and without God in the world.
It's Ephesians 2.12. He says, but now,
that was only at that time, but now
in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far
off are made nigh by the blood of
Christ.
I wonder how that took place.
Paul says, for he, the Lord Jesus, is
our peace, who hath made both one, and
hath broken down the middle wall of partition
between us, that's between Jews and Gentiles, having
abolished in its flesh the enmity, even the
law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to
make in himself of twain one new man,
so making peace, and that he might reconcile
both us, crowds, Jews and Gentiles, unto God
in one body by the cross, having flamed
the enmity thereby, and shame, and preached peace
for you.
Now did he really?
I'm asking the whole crowd, did Christ go
to Ephesus?
And you never once read into that in
your life, in your whole history, that he
went to Ephesus.
You know right well he didn't.
Oh, it's the same physiology we have all
the while, you know.
Because we'll have to argue about it now.
If you're going to keep it as tight
as you think you are, then you'll have
to tell me when Christ went to Ephesus.
And you know that he didn't go to
Ephesus.
No, it happens that he sent Paul to
Ephesus.
And it happens that the Holy Ghost used
Paul to preach to the Ephesians.
And here it says Christ came and preached
unto you.
Ah, but it's just phraseology.
That's what it is.
And to base an interpretation on phraseology is
not teaching at all.
You'll need to take the whole book with
you, won't you?
Now let's do this again.
We were at Mark's gospel a moment or
two, 16 weren't we?
Shall we just go right back there and
he's sending them out, you know, and telling
them to preach the gospel to every creature.
And it says in verse 19, we're at
Mark 16 verse 19, So then after the
Lord had spoken unto them, he was received
up into heaven and sat on the right
hand of God.
And they went forth and preached everywhere, the
Lord working with them.
Do you mean literally?
Because that's the phraseology that's there.
You know sometimes in this meeting on Sunday
nights when I get up to preach, I
can sit at all platforms and say, Christ
is here.
And I mean it.
No, but I don't mean it literally.
I mean by the Holy Ghost, Christ is
here to meet you.
Shall we all use this phraseology?
If we were all pulled up on it,
I wonder what doctrines we would make out
of it.
Well, I'm answering you, first of all, that
the problem with the passage is phraseology, not
theology.
Let me do it once again for you.
You know, this book is full of this
sort of thing.
Have a look at this one.
This is 1 Corinthians, and it's chapter 10.
First letter to the Corinthians, and it's chapter
10, and Paul writing to them said, verse
1, Moreover brethren, I would not that ye
should be ignorant how that all our fathers
were unto the cloud, and all passed through
the sea, and were all baptized unto Moses
in the cloud and in the sea.
They were buried in the cloud and buried
in the sea.
If you want to know what baptism means,
they weren't sprinkled, you know.
I'd like to know how you'd get sprinkled
with a cloud and a sea.
He says they were all baptized unto Moses
in the cloud and in the sea.
And I'll tell you this, before they were
baptized, they were redeemed by the blood of
the Lamb.
They weren't babies in a cot, you know.
He said let me get this bit done.
He says they were all baptized unto Moses
in the cloud and in the sea, and
did all eat the same spiritual meat, and
did all drink the same spiritual drink, for
they drank of that spiritual rock that followed
them.
If you look in the margin it says
that the word follows, that spiritual rock that
went with them, and that rock was Christ.
I want to ask you, was he really
with them?
Did you get that?
It's that philosophy, theology that they're barneying over,
and I can start more barneys than I
could, but I just know where the theology
lies.
He's right through the book.
He talks about Christ coming to Ephesus.
He talks about Christ going everywhere with them,
working with them.
He talks about Christ following this cloud in
the wilderness.
Do you want to make it literal?
Would you like to say it would exist?
Well, you'd be a real clock, wouldn't you?
Oh yes, it's easy to talk to an
old idiot.
I don't know anything, but when you have
to face the book, it's quite a different
situation.
This is a phraseology that's used right through
the book.
You know, the university should be coming to
think that we're not trying to be funny.
He says I don't know how men could
be away in the Old Testament until they
didn't know anything about Christ.
I said, well, you'd rather never have a
New Testament in the house when you were
a wee fellow.
Because if a fellow comes in and throws
his weight in a boat, I can get
out on him, you know.
And when this old tongue starts to move
and talk to them, it can really wobble,
and that's what God gave me for.
And it is not wrong to do it,
because Elijah made a fool out of a
prophet of Baal.
He says, look, it's so far.
You must be sleeping.
You'll be wearing it all the day to
the caribbean.
Yes, I said to the young fellow, did
you never read this?
By faith Moses, when he was twenty years,
just twenty-one, he refused to be called
the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to
suffer a freak for a season, trying hard
with respect unto the reproach of Christ.
I said, well, what does he know about
the reproach of Christ?
He says, how did he get the hold
of that?
I said, that's the thing, you didn't know,
didn't you?
That is, you know, right from the book
of Genesis, right from Eden's garden, God talked
about Christ.
God said to the devil, for Christ's sake,
I'll tell you, I'll put enmity between you
and the woman and the thief, and I'll
tell you this, the person that beat up
the woman is Christ.
He is no human prophet.
He's the seed of the woman, and the
seed of the woman will bruise the serpent's
head and lead down through the book of
the dark man.
And when it's talked about Christ going with
them, or Christ following, or Christ coming to
preach, it is phraseology that's being used.
But the man who is spiritual knows that
God took Paul, and by the Holy Ghost,
brought the message of the gospel to Ephesus.
Anybody knows that?
Now, let's get back to Peter, because there's
a lot of problems here.
I want you to get that.
You know, I want you to notice this,
this phraseology.
It says he was quickened by the Holy
Spirit, by which also he went and preached
unto the spirits in prison.
Now, this is the sort of phraseology that
Peter uses.
Mind you, I've already told you several times
that he didn't go to any kind of
school that was worth talking about.
He was an unlearned and ignorant man.
But you know, he knew all about inspiration
and how it works.
Let's go back over the page here to
where he talks about inspiration.
And we're at 1 Peter, chapter 1.
You see, he's talking about salvation, the salvation
of your souls, in verse 9.
Receiving the end of your faith, the salvation
of your souls.
Whom having not, of verse 10, of which
salvation?
The prophets, that's the Old Testament prophets, have
inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied, these men
even prophesied, of the grace that should come
unto you, the grace that would save you.
Searching what?
They were always searching.
What?
Or what manner of time?
They wanted to know the time.
The spirit of Christ which was in them.
Did you get that?
Because that's the sort of phraseology he used.
You see, these Old Testament prophets were being
moved by the spirit.
And Peter feels that he can use this
the spirit of Christ that was in them.
It was the spirit of Christ that was
speaking in him.
And that's the phraseology.
Because I think it's right through the book,
and I think it's the phraseology that Peter
used.
But let's get it just a little bit
deeper and clearer than that.
You know, I want you to get this
bit.
It says, being put to death in the
flesh, in the body, but acquitted by the
Holy Spirit, by which also he went, that
is, in these men, these preachers that he
had, who had the spirit of Christ within
them, and he preached unto the spirits in
prison.
Now, let's get this bit about the spirits
in prison.
Now, let's get this done first of all,
which sometime were disobedient.
These spirits are now in prison because they
were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of
God waited in the days of Noah.
Now, it's got something to do with the
days of Noah, and it's got something to
do with the long-suffering of God.
These spirits are in prison because they were
disobedient to preaching, and they're in prison because
the long-suffering of God has run out.
Have you got that?
Because the long-suffering of God waited.
Now, let me go back through the days
of Noah, will you, just to get this
tidied out a little bit.
This is Genesis chapter 6.
And you know, we spent two whole nights
on the two verses of this chapter in
the Bible class some years ago, when we
were doing Genesis.
And it wouldn't give me any bother to
take about a half an hour out of
it now.
Now, let's get it as easy as we
can.
Verse 1, Genesis 6.
And it came to pass, when men began
to multiply on the face of the earth,
and daughters were born unto them, that the
sons of God saw the daughters of men
that they were fair.
And I think there's a suggestion in the
phrase that the eyes of these men were
upon these good-looking women.
I think we were looking on them in
a sexual fashion, that's all I want to
say just now.
And it says this, that the sons of
God saw the daughters of men that they
were fair, and they took them wives of
all which they choose.
Of course, it's only a few pages back,
you know, that God had read down the
law of marriage.
And the one that was taken and embraced
by the other were made one, and to
which there was no more claim.
But now these boys are going to take
as many women as they want.
There's something going wrong with the race.
And it says this, it says, And the
Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive
with mine, for that he also is flesh.
Yet his day shall be in a hundred
and twenty years.
And from that moment, a hundred and twenty
years forward, the flood came.
And God was going to put up with
them for a hundred and twenty years.
And God was going to strive with them.
And at the end he would stop.
And at the end he would come in
and destroy them, and judge them, and damn
them.
Are some of the boys trying to say
that he's changed his mind and has gone
back to try to rescue them?
That would be teaching.
But you must be daft.
God had to destroy an entire world.
It was so wicked.
That's what he had to do.
Somebody asked me once, How can a God
of love destroy a world?
I said, If you would look at the
state that it was in, I'm telling you,
a holy God could do nothing else but
destroy it.
Somebody said to me up the street the
other day, We are as bad as we
were in the days of Noah.
No, no, we're not anywhere near it.
Let me tell you that.
I know we're a lot of wicked men
and things happen.
We're nowhere near it.
Well, I'll prove to you that we're not
near it.
All right, let's do it.
It says that the Lord said, My spirit
shall not always strive with mine.
And God did strive and God was long
suffering.
And at last he had to damn this
crowd.
It says there were giants in the earth
in those days.
You know, we've got to get this in
its proper sense.
It doesn't mean giants in the physical sense.
It means giants in a sinful sense, in
a wicked sense.
Sometimes I think we have one or two
giants of wickedness running about Ulster.
But I don't think that all the people
in Ulster are just giants in wickedness.
It says there were giants in the earth
in those days.
And also after that, when the sons of
God came in unto the daughters of men
that they bear children to them, the same
became mighty men.
That doesn't mean mighty and being courageous.
It means mighty sinners.
They were renowned sinners.
You say, how do you know all this?
Well, I'll tell you just now.
Verse five.
And God saw that the wickedness of man
was great in the earth.
Now watch this phrase, for any fixed market.
That every, and that every imagination of the
thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Oh, what a statement.
Watch it again.
Look at the word every.
Just underline every.
Every thought was only evil continually.
Now you can't imagine what that means.
That God looking down and saw all the
men on this earth and the women too.
And every single thought, every single thought.
Oh, let's be absolutely honest with God tonight.
We've all had wrong thoughts.
And we've all had wicked thoughts.
Very wonderful thoughts.
Ah, but we don't only have wicked thoughts.
Praise God, we have good ones too.
And we have spiritual ones too.
And gracious ones too.
And merciful ones.
Ah, but the mind that we're looking at
is that every thought is only evil continually.
Let the world come to hell on the
face of the earth.
You're telling me that God was so fed
up with them that he had to drop
them out and then afterwards come back and
try to drag them out of hell.
God's setting your mentality.
Do you see what it says here now,
just right now?
God saw that the wickedness of man was
great in the earth and that every imagination
of the thoughts of his heart was only
evil continually.
And it repented the Lord.
His very heart was moved that he had
made man on the earth.
And it grieved him at his heart.
And the Lord said, I will destroy man
whom I have created from the face of
the earth.
Both man and beast and the creeping thing
and the fowls of the earth.
For it repented me that I have made
them.
And you're trying to tell me that he
went back years later to get them out
of hell.
I don't think you read this book, that's
your trouble.
I don't think you can get that over
with me anyway.
That would be baloney.
That would make us poorer than God.
In all, friends, the phraseology that's here is
the phraseology that's like the scripture.
And it's the phraseology that Peter uses.
I'll tell you this.
This was the spirit preaching to these people
who are now in prison.
Ah, but he wasn't preaching to them in
prison.
He was preaching to them in the days
of Noah when the ark was a preparing.
And he had two preachers with him.
Well, Noah was a preacher.
Noah was a preacher of righteousness.
And I'll tell you this.
You would never have known that Enoch was
a preacher except that book of Jude.
The small little book at the back of
our Bible has said that Jude preached.
You never would have known that he didn't
say it over in Genesis.
But God had two men down there.
And by the Holy Ghost, the same Holy
Ghost that raised Christ, the Spirit of Christ
is called.
He told these men, and he preached to
these people who were so wicked for 120
years, and they're now in prison.
It's a matter.
But he didn't go to preach to them
in prison.
I think it's just a little bit further
than that.
You know, the long suffering of God is
a tremendous term, isn't it?
And it says the long suffering of God
waited in the days of Noah.
You know, if he had watched the when
and the which, I don't think he would
have had any bother.
Because here's what it does say.
It says, Christ being put to death in
the body, in the flesh, but quickened from
the dead by the Holy Ghost, by the
same Holy Ghost also.
Christ, who is termed in this wonderful word,
the Holy Ghost was termed as the Spirit
of Christ.
Yes, this is who is preaching.
And he's preaching unto the Spirit who are
now in prison.
Let me put that in just to get
it corrected for you.
Which are now in prison.
Which sometimes were disobedient.
When, that's the word I want to get
to, when the long suffering of God waited,
that's when the preaching was done.
These spirits are now in prison, but the
Holy Ghost preached when.
The long suffering of God, that's why the
when is in.
My dear friend, if we were only talking
about them being in prison, we would have
no need to bring in the when.
I've been talking about the preaching.
When was it done?
It was done when.
When the long suffering of God waited in
the days of Nod.
You know, someone came to argue with me
about this once and I let them run
on for a while.
And then all of a sudden I said
this to them.
I said, you're trying to teach me that
the Lord Jesus, in a disembodied spirit, went
to hear these and preached unto these spirits.
These spirits were these Christians as well as
the ones in the days of Nod.
And you're trying to tell me that the
Christ who went to hell where there are
countless of millions of lost souls picked a
little cloud off.
There were many millions who went to a
lost hell between Noah's day and Christ's cross.
The message from them?
There were many millions who went to a
lost hell before the days of Noah.
Why are you trying to pick out a
little cloud to preach to?
Friend, it wouldn't even be righteous.
God wouldn't be righteous.
Look, I tell you this, I answer this
question first of all because this here is
the phraseology that's used in scripture.
It says Christ came to this earth.
No, he didn't.
And you know right well he didn't.
He came by fall through the only door.
It says that Christ went with them through
the wilderness.
No, he didn't.
That was typology there.
It was the rock that was the type
of Christ.
I answer this that this is the phraseology
that's used and somebody's building a doctrine on
this phraseology.
I answer secondly that this is the phraseology
of Peter.
Peter uses this.
He calls the spirit the spirit of Christ
which was in them, in the Prophets.
I answer this again that God in his
long suffering, oh what a God he was,
waited.
And our young brother here preaching the other
Sunday night when I wasn't here, took that
last day of just seven days.
Oh God was so slow to come and
done, but eventually destroyed.
Yes, you know they were disobedient.
Disobedient to what?
Disobedient to the message of Noah and to
the message of Enoch.
When God was long suffering, these spirits are
now in prison.
I don't think there's anything to get excited
about at all if they would take it
easy.
You know, I want you to get this.
He just drifts from this great argument into
baptism.
It says being put to death in the
body but quickened by the Holy Ghost by
the Holy Ghost who is the spirit of
Christ, went and preached unto the spirit that
are now in prison is one of the
old translations.
Which sometime were disobedient when?
When once the long suffering of God waited
in the days of Noah, that's when the
preaching was done.
Why?
While the ark was preparing, wherein few, that
is eight souls were saved by water.
Now that's a term we want to get
corrected this evening.
Eight souls were saved by water, the light
figure whereon to even baptism God also now
save us.
You said tonight Mr. Monk that baptism doesn't
save you and I say it again.
Now I want you to get this properly
into your mind.
You see the phrase the light figure.
Now baptism is a figure of what?
And you don't think that a figure saves
you, do you?
No, but the fact of the figure saves
you.
It's the corresponding fact of the figure that
saves you.
And baptism is a figure of Christ's death,
burial, resurrection and pilfermantity of any one of
you.
And the ark was a figure of that.
You know the ark went into the storm
and I'll tell you this, the heavens opened
and it was immersed.
It was submerged first before it started to
float at all.
It came down on the roof and all
around it and it is completely covered.
Ah, but I'll tell you this, although it
went into the waters of death in that
sense, I'll tell you that it slowly rose
and when the storm was over she was
out completely.
And it's a figure of Christ going into
death and being buried in the flood tide
of God's wrath and rising triumphant and all
inside Christ of faith.
And that's why we're prepared to come and
take off our clothes and go into water
and be buried and rise again because we're
declaring that the fact of the figure saves
us.
Oh, a figure doesn't save you.
It's the fact of the figure that saves
you.
The fact that Christ died, the fact that
Christ was buried, the fact that Christ rose
again.
It's the glorious fact of the figure.
The fact that corresponds to the figure saves
us.
You know, friends, I want you to get
this, what Peter said.
He said, the right figure whereunto even baptism
doth also now save us.
Then a little parenthetical portion here.
Not the putting away of the filth of
the flesh.
You know, he had no mystic conception of
water.
Let me tell you that now.
He didn't believe in holy water.
Let me say that very carefully.
He had no mystic conception of water.
He says, mind you, I'm not talking about
washing your body with water.
It's a figure of mind.
He says, it's not the washing of the
body I'm talking about.
Listen to it quickly now.
It's the answer of a good conscience.
You know what God says in this?
It's the reply to God from a good
conscience in the believer down here.
Wouldn't I have all the bother of the
day trying to get an infant's conscience to
answer God?
Will you want to talk to me about
sprinkling?
I shall want to talk to you about
the conscience of the baby.
And you know how it belongs.
It's only a believer who can answer God.
Not a baby.
A baby has no conscience at all about
being sprinkled.
It must affect me one day.
And God only knows what to do with
me.
For I was never any better after.
There's more sprinkled spinners about the world than
there is of anything else.
Friend, you're not talking like that at all.
And Peter didn't talk like that.
You know, he says it's the answer of
a good conscience by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ.
You see, he's already talked about Christ suffering.
That's Christ dying.
He's already talked about Christ being quickened.
That's the resurrection.
Now he goes on, who is gone into
heaven, hear no doubts about it, and is
on the right hand of God.
You know, all people knew this.
Angels and authorities and powers being made subject
unto him.
He's over all tonight, you know.
And it's through the death and burial and
resurrection and exaltation and glorification of Christ that
salvation comes for those that believe.
I don't think there are any problems with
the text at all.
I just took my time to tease word
out for you.
I'll remember that next week we're going to
face this great statement of Peter here in
verse 7, but the end of all things
is at hand.
God bless you.
136 please.
136.
Enthroned is Jesus now on his heavenly feet.
The kingly crown is on his brow.
The saints are at his feet.
136 please.