I will give you rest take my yoke upon you hear me and be blessed I am meek and
come and trust my mind come my yoke is easy and my burdens line stumbling on
the mountain dark with sin and shame stumbling toward the pit of hell's
consuming flame by the powers of sin deluded and oppressed here the tender
Shepherd come to me and rest come unto me I will give you rest take my yoke
upon you hear me and be blessed I am meek and lonely come and trust my mind
come and my burdens light on the fourth have you by temptation conquered Ben has
a sense of weakness brought distress within Christ will sanctify you if
you'll claim his best in the Holy Spirit he will give you rest come unto me
I will give you rest take my yoke upon you hear me and be blessed I am meek and
lonely come and trust my mind come my yoke is easy and my burdens
good singing let's open up in a word of prayer Heavenly Father thank you so much
for this day and for our church thank you for sending your son to die for us
and to give us salvation pray that you'd please bless his service that you help
us just to worship you from our heart we love you so much amen all right for a
second song we'll go to 223 springs of living water 223 springs of living water
song two to three springs of living water
I thirsted in the barren land of sin and shame and nothing satisfying there I
found but to the Blessed Cross of Christ one day I came where springs of living
water did abound drinking at the springs of living water happy now am I
my soul they satisfy drinking at the springs of living water Oh wonderful and
bountiful supply how sweet the living water from the hills of God it makes me
glad and happy all the way now glory grace and blessing mark the path I've
trod I'm shouting hallelujah every day drinking at the springs of living water
happy now am I my soul they satisfy drinking at the springs of living water
Oh wonderful and bountiful supply Oh sinner won't you come today to Calvary a
fountain there is flowing deep and wide the Savior now invites you to the water
free where thirsting spirits can be satisfied drinking at the springs of
living water happy now am I my soul they satisfy drinking at the springs of
living water Oh wonderful and bountiful supply good morning thank you so much
for coming to steadfast Baptist Church if you don't already have a bulletin
we'd love to give you a bulletin our ushers have them just lift your hand
nice and high and one of ushers can come by slip a bulletin in your hand on
the front we have our Bible Mary passage John 1 verse 39 and we've been
memorizing the entire book or the entire chapter John chapter 1 as a church
family if you can quote the entire full chapter to a non family member you will
receive a special prize and it's definitely a big chapter a lot of verses
but of course that then rewards you with a big prize and the big prize is
that you have John chapter 1 memorized okay I know that you're thinking about
something else but we also still like to add on the church will give you a
special gift as well so but the gift is the Bible memorization also children
that are able to quote this at the midweek service just the singular verse
as well also receive I an ice cream treat or some kind of candy and what's
great about that is I mean children could literally get a prize like 50
weeks you know in a row and then get a big prize so it's a great challenge to
give them help them memorizing things and it helps you also understand how to
memorize big chapters of the Bible is that it's just one verse at a time you
just kind of go one and after a while you end up realizing wow it is possible
to memorize large sections of scripture all in one who's working on this one I'm
just curious yeah we got hands all over the building so a lot of people and it's
really impressive it's like when you get to like five and six year olds doing it
you're like wow obviously we can do it too right and it's really impressive and
it's great to see a lot of people working on that on the inside we are
service times they're so winning times we have church wide soul winning that
meets here at the building at 2 p.m. so if you'd like to join us we'd love to
have you of course all our soul winning time silent partners are more than
welcome to participate our regional times meet in different areas so
definitely you can meet up with all the respective leaders there we also have
our church stats continue to send in your information to your soul winning
captains if you're unsure of who your captain is you can ask me for the Dylan
or whatever ushers and they can help you figure out what tribe you're in because
we'd like to divide the entire church into tribes that way you have people
that are in communication with you praying for you helping assist with soul
winning and making sure that everything that you need you have somebody that can
really assist you well on the right we have the list of our expecting ladies as
well as also our prayer list if you have any prayer requests that need to be added
just email them or you can fill out a communication card slip it into our
offering plate on the back we have the best announcement congratulations to the
name family on the birth of Layla grace name yep Layla was born August 8 at 3
32 a.m. she was 7 pounds 5 ounces and measured 21 and a half inches long so
congratulations to the family I've heard everybody's doing really well and it's
great to see prayer requests turn into beautiful pictures like this so also we
have our men's conference is happening this week and I'm really excited about
it pastor Aaron Thompson is going to be coming even bringing a couple people
from his church we have people coming from Oklahoma City from pure words and
so I think we're gonna have a really good event it's it's one of the
highlights for a lot of people that go they really enjoy the men's conference
so definitely even if you can't go you could just pray that we'd have a good
time and it's it's a nice refresher to just kind of get away if you are
planning on riding with us or commuting with us we're gonna be meeting here and
leaving at 9 a.m. so if you want to show up on Thursday morning you can go with
us at 9 a.m. otherwise you can go out there however you want so and it's an
open schedule you don't have to be there right when everybody else shows up so if
you were working a half-day Thursday or something or whatever your schedule
allows for that's definitely totally acceptable but if you'd like to ride
with church transportation that opportunity is available there is lots
of activities and just you can do whatever you want I do it send out
brother Dylan helped us send out an email about a consent waiver that you do
have to supply us just so when you get hurt you can't get mad at us okay just
FYI also I'll try to send another email shortly this week so that way is just
reminder of things you might think about bringing or maybe you could just forward
it to your wife and be like will you please help me you know pack for me
alright so I don't do very good at packing but my wife is excellent so
that's just maybe that's just me at the end of the month we have our Sunday
Sundays for soul winners so after the Sunday time we're gonna have Sundays and
of course you're always welcome to join us for soul winning but that's an extra
treat for those that participate on the last Sunday of the month also we have a
soul winning marathon in Shreveport Louisiana September 24th and so that's
gonna be a lot of fun again when we get a little bit closer we'll have the exact
details as far as just where we're meeting what time and everything like
that we just like for you to at least put it on your calendar if you'd like to
participate Shreveport's only about three hours away we went last year and
it was a great success a lot of people were telling me that was one of the most
receptive places they've gone so winning in the United States and so I highly
anticipate that it's gonna be similar and that it's gonna be a lot of fun
going out there and it's you know it's it's always fun going so winning but
it's definitely fun to go an area where people are very interested and very
humble and the area is a pretty humble place a lot of people are interested in
hearing the gospel so just keep that in your radar I do have a couple other
announcements I want to make
you
256 look to the Lamb of God 256 look to the Lamb of God
256 look to the Lamb of God
26 look to the Lamb of God 26 look to the Lamb of God
27 for he alone is able to save thee 28 look to the Lamb of God
29 when Satan tempts and doubts and fears assail
30 look to the Lamb of God 31 you in his strength shall overall prevail
32 look to the Lamb of God
33 look to the Lamb of God
34 look to the Lamb of God
35 for he alone is able to save thee
36 look to the Lamb of God
37 are you weary?
38 does the way seem long?
39 look to the Lamb of God
40 his love will cheer and fill your heart with song
41 look to the Lamb of God
42 look to the Lamb of God
43 look to the Lamb of God
44 for he alone is able to save thee
45 look to the Lamb of God
46 fear not when shadows on your pathway fall
47 look to the Lamb of God
48 enjoy your sorrow, Christ is all in all
49 look to the Lamb of God
50 look to the Lamb of God
51 look to the Lamb of God
52 for he alone is able to save thee
53 look to the Lamb of God
Good singing this morning.
As the offering plates are passed around, turn into your Bibles if you would.
First Peter chapter three.
First Peter chapter number three.
First Peter chapter three.
And as is our custom, we'll read the whole chapter before the sermon.
First Peter chapter three. The Bible reads, starting in verse number one,
you can follow along silently there, starting in verse one.
First Peter three it says, likewise ye wives, be in
subjection to your own husbands, that if any obey not the word,
they also may without the word be won by the conversation
of the wives, while they behold your chaste conversation
coupled with fear, whose adorning let it not be that
outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or
of putting on of apparel, but let it be the hidden man of the heart,
and that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet
spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.
For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted
in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection under their
own husbands, even as Sarah obeyed Abraham,
calling him Lord, whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well,
and are not afraid with any amazement. Likewise, ye husbands,
dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife,
as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life,
that your prayers be not hindered. Finally, be ye all
of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as
brethren, be pitiful, be courteous, not rendering evil
for evil, or railing for railing, but contrawise blessing,
knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing.
For he that will love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue
from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile.
Let him eschew evil, and do good, let him seek peace, and ensue it.
For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open
unto their prayers, but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.
And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?
But, and if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye,
and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled,
but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always
to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you
with meekness and fear. Having a good conscience, that,
or as they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed
that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.
For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well-doing
than for evil-doing. For 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,
by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison,
which some time were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God
waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a-preparing,
wherein few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water.
The like figure were unto even baptism doth also now save us,
but the answer of a good conscience toward God,
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who was gone into heaven,
and is on the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers
being made subject unto him. Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer.
Father God, we just thank you so much
for the morning service, Lord, for our church, and I just pray that you would protect us
and lead us and guide us, and I also pray, Lord, that you fill Pastor Shelley
with your spirit, and just give him clarity of mind to preach the sermon boldly that you've laid on his heart,
and help us to pay attention, minimize distractions in the room, Lord,
and enable us to apply the message to our lives. We love you, and in Jesus' name I pray, Amen.
Amen. So I want to look back at verse 1 again,
but I kind of want to just give you the big picture of chapter number 3,
so that we can kind of understand a section of chapter 3
that's a little bit difficult to be understood, but it says in verse 1,
I want you to realize, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands,
that if any obey not the word, they also may without the word
be won by the conversation of the wives. Now, 1 Peter chapter number 3, verse 1,
is talking about the importance of a wife
submitting to her husband when he does not deserve it,
when he's not doing right, when he's not right with God.
I mean, notice what it very clearly says, if any obey not the word.
So it's basically insinuating that even if your husband's a scumbag,
even if he's not right with God, even if he's backslidden,
even if he doesn't deserve it, a wife is still supposed to submit herself
under her husband, because that's simply what God has ordained.
That's what God has decreed, is that you still submit to your authority
no matter how good your authority is. Otherwise,
no one would ever submit to authority if it was subjective, like, well, if they're doing good,
nobody would always argue and say, well, they don't really deserve it today, right?
Or they're not good enough today. Whereas the Bible doesn't put that caveat,
the Bible just simply says obey. Now, that's important when understanding
what's happening in 1 Peter chapter number 3, that the Bible is going to
constantly bring up scenarios in which you do good
even though the situation isn't ideal,
or you do good even though you may be poorly
treated for your good, right? Is it really fair
that a wife would submit to her husband and be in subjection
to her husband and make him all the meals and be sweet to him and loving
to him and meeting and satisfying all of his needs
and he simply does nothing in return? No, that's not fair.
I'm not saying that that's fair. I'm not saying that that's ideal or that's good.
But you know what? It's good on the wife. It's a
praise to the wife. I mean, praise God for the wives out there
that do good under their husband when their husband doesn't deserve it.
And really, that's the essence of this entire chapter. Now, it has several
verses to bring this up, but look what it says in verse 7.
Likewise, now what does likewise mean? In the same manner
or similarly, ye husbands dwell
with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife
as under the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together the grace of life,
that your prayers be not hindered. It could be frustrating as well
for a husband who is going to be naturally
stronger, naturally more able to resist evil,
naturally not as mentally weak, to
endure hardship, whereas a wife is a lot more
sensitive, a wife is a lot more emotional, and so
according to the Bible though, as a husband, you're not supposed to be frustrated
with her or to look down upon her or treat her
poorly due to her insecurities,
weaknesses, problems, or whatever. So
kind of in a similar boat, is it really fair that a man
can handle things and a man's strong and a man doesn't have these problems,
but he basically has to condescend to his wife and basically
lower himself or deal with problems or
have to come down to her level in certain areas. Is that really fair? No.
You know what? Praise God for men that are sensitive to
and can lead on gently, that are temperate and
meek and are willing to realize that their wife has great value
even though they may be different than them, they may be more sensitive
or emotional or struggle with things or not as strong.
Notice what the Bible says, and maybe some of the men in this room need to like circle
or highlight this verse, it says, giving honor unto the wife.
Notice that it's saying that you're supposed to actually treat your wife like she's a prized
possession, that there's something praiseworthy about her, even though
she's weaker, because you know what? Being weaker doesn't make you worse or less,
it makes you different. Okay? Some things are stronger, some things are
weaker, and it's arguable which one's better because it
depends on the situation. Dealing with children, being weaker is better
because children can't necessarily handle how rough Dad is,
okay? And so you have to realize that there's always a balance
to every single thing. You know, there's certain roller coasters out there that some
people won't ride because they say it's too rough, right? It's too
coarse in its actions. And I would say that myself, like I love
roller coasters and I'll ride the scariest looking roller coaster, but I remember
back home in the Amarillo area, there's this small little theme park,
and it's called Wonderland, all right? And Wonderland has this tiny little ride,
it's not the big one, the big roller coasters are fine, but it's this little tiny one
that you get in this little car, and it's called the Cyclone or something like that,
and it's just constantly turning. But you're in this thing, and then all of a sudden it's just like,
jerk! And you're just like, whoa! And then it's just like, jerk! And you just run
into this metal thing that's rusting and sharp, and it's like, I don't really
want tetanus, or like, I don't really love just getting jerked around
for no reason. And so the ride's just a little too rough, okay?
That doesn't make, that doesn't mean it's a better ride
than the one that's not as rough, right? More enjoyable to ride
the ride that's just fun, and you don't feel like you're jerked around and getting rust,
you know, shoved into your arm or something like that. I mean, that sounds better.
So just because a man might be stronger, more fit, or
be more capable in certain areas, doesn't make him better than
his wife. A wife and a husband have different roles,
they're made differently, and they both have honor, they both
have their place in this world, and even if your wife is a crappy
wife, even if your wife is not where she should be,
even if your wife isn't as mentally strong, even if your wife isn't as spiritually
strong, even if your wife isn't making the best food ever
or something like that, or she's not cleaning the house the most amazing way ever,
or she's not the smartest person you've ever talked to in your entire life, you know what, you're still
supposed to love her, and you're still supposed to give her honor, and you're still supposed to give her respect,
and you're still supposed to treat her right. Why? Because the Bible teaches that you do
right regardless of your situation. It doesn't matter
how good of a spouse you have, you can still be the greatest spouse on
the planet. Did you realize that? Did you know the only person stopping
you from being a great spouse is yourself? And you know what, the Bible says,
till death do us part, for better or for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health.
You know what, some spouses, they have no control over it, but they're very
sick, or they have some kind of issue with their body
or something like that, that just makes them a bad spouse in the sense that they can't
necessarily perform all the duties that they regularly would perform.
But you know what, then the other spouse just has to step up and just be a great spouse, and make up
the hedge, and just be there, and be sensitive towards them, and love them, and be kind
unto them, and because sometimes it'll flip flop. One time
one spouse will be like the problem and the burden, and then later
it'll flip flop, and the other spouse will be the burden and the problem. And you know what,
that's what makes a good marriage, is when you're just always trying to be the best spouse you can possibly be.
And you're just always doing right, you're just always
being loving, you're always being kind. You know, if both parties had this mentality,
you would have the greatest marriage. I mean, if you said, I'm going to treat you the best
you could possibly be treated today, regardless of how you treat me,
you would have the greatest marriage. But notice,
here's the thing, that's probably never going to happen. You're probably never going to both be so
equally yoked that you're just both on fire for your marriage, and at all times,
but you know what you can do, you can just decide to do it yourself. And you will still
have a very good marriage if you put 100% effort into your relationship,
if you're doing everything that you possibly can, and you're treating them the best that they could possibly
be treated, I guarantee your marriage is going to be so much better than it is right now.
But you know what, our lives are simply not just to have a great marriage, because the Bible
teaches that in the end times, you won't even remember you're married, it'll be like you weren't
married, it's meaningless in the sense of the scope of eternity,
marriage is just simply a relationship that God blesses us with in this life
to enjoy life. And it's the most important relationship you'll have,
and it's a very important institution in this world, and we need to treat it with respect,
but at the end of the day, the most important thing is that you're going to stand
before God one day, and you're going to have to give an account of what kind of spouse
you were to God. And you say, well,
but I, you know, God kind of understands I had a crappy situation.
Oh yeah, well how about when he told Hosea to marry a whore?
And then the whore cheated on him multiple times, and then he had to literally pay
his wife not to be a whore against him.
I mean, that's a pretty rough marriage type situation. But you know what?
Hosea doesn't want to stand before God and say, well,
I treated her like crap. You know what? It'd be better to just say, I treated
my spouse the best I possibly could while I was on this earth,
I still did them good, and so that God can look at you and say, well done, thou good
and faithful servant. And if you truly had a bad spouse, guess what?
You have to stand before Christ, too, and you can get a little bit of your, okay,
yeah, your turn. You know, it's like, I did a good job,
let's see what they did, right? Okay? But you do right.
Always do right. Look at verse 8.
The Bible says, finally,
be all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love his brethren, be pitiful,
be courteous, not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing, but contrary,
knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing.
For he that will love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from
evil, and his lips that they speak no guile, let him eschew
evil and do good, let him seek peace and ensue it.
For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers,
but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. So notice, again, the Bible
is bringing up a context, a situation where people are doing you wrong
and you do good unto them. They rail on you, you bless them.
They say evil of you, you seek peace with them.
You do good unto them. And then the Bible tells us, in verse number 12,
that the eyes of the Lord are over those that are doing right, and his ears are open
to their prayers, but he's against those that are doing evil.
So it's like, oh, I want God to answer my prayers. Well, then do right.
Hey, when someone does you wrong, you do right anyways, and then just keep praying to God
and God will hear that prayer. But you know what? When you're rendering
evil for evil, when you're rendering railing for railing, God's not going to hear your prayers.
God doesn't care about your problem anymore, because you've decided
to go outside of his boundaries and handle it yourself, and so then God
will say, then fine, have fun dealing with this situation yourself.
Whereas if you just do right and then complain to God, if you do right and make your positions
known unto God, then he can actually fight for you. And I'll tell you what,
I could never, ever get my enemies back
as well as God can.
Like, obviously at times I'm thinking like, man, it'd be nice to give an uppercut
or a curb check or, you know, a manner of things. But my punch
isn't as strong as God's.
I can do damage, but not like God can do damage.
I can hurt, but not like God can hurt. I can destroy,
not like God can destroy. And we have to be patient and
trust the Lord and say, you know what, I'm going to do good. And of course, in most
situations where people are doing us evil, we're not even supposed to hope
bad things happen to these people. We're supposed to hope that somehow they get it right and God blesses them
despite their problem, despite their evil. This is the mind of Christ.
Christ being on the cross wasn't sitting here thinking like, I really hope all these people get
what they deserve. Christ was hoping that they would repent and that God would give
them grace, that God would forgive them, that God would bless them despite their evil,
despite their wrong actions. And that's how he looks at you and me
despite a lifelong of sin, a lifelong of rebellion,
a lifelong of spinning in the face of God, that God would extend grace to us
and that we could live a blessed life after
we get right with God. So why would I want different for other people?
You know, why would I not want to do right and help people and do good? And when people lie
about you and do evil, you know what? Our goal should be to love them despite that
and do good unto them despite that and to refrain our tongue from evil
and not speaking guile, doing good, seeking peace
and praying to God. Look at verse 13, and who is he that will harm you?
If you be followers of that which is good. Now, you have to understand that sentence within
this context. It's not saying that harm won't happen to you, okay?
What is the harm that he's talking about? People are not
going to harm you for doing good in the sense that
if someone is mad at me and then I bless
them, if I do good on them, they're not going to harm me because I did good
unto them. They're not going to be mad at me for blessing them. They're not going to be mad at me for
seeking peace with them, okay? In the sense that no one
gets mad at people like, man, this guy just came over here and mowed my lawn, so I'm
really mad at him. Or this guy came over here and gave me 100 bucks, I'm really mad at him.
And this guy told the boss that I was doing a good job and it helped me get a promotion.
I'm really mad at him. You know, people don't get mad at you for blessing them.
People don't get mad at you for doing good unto them. You know, you're heaping
coals of fire on their head when you do good unto them and they don't deserve it, okay?
So it's just basically saying, like, if you're doing right to your spouse,
if you're doing right to the relationships you have in your life, if you're
blessing those, even the people that are speaking evil of you, it's going to be hard
for them to continue to be mad at you for the good that you're doing.
But if you're doing evil, it's really easy for people to be mad at you, right?
If you punch someone, if you yell at someone, if you rail on someone, if you lie to someone,
if you're doing evil to them, of course it's real easy for people to be mad at you for that
and to want to harm you for that and do evil unto you for that.
But even if, even if you're perfect, as evidenced by Jesus
Christ, even if you do no wrong and you only
bless and help people, people will still try to hurt you, okay?
And this is where they try to hurt you because they're envious of you.
Or they're mad about your relationship with God. Or they're mad about your influence.
Or they're mad about how much people love you. I mean, think about it. With Jesus Christ, why is it
they wanted to kill him and they wanted to destroy him? It wasn't because he healed people.
It wasn't because he gave people food. It wasn't because he preached the truth.
It was because they were envious that everyone liked him because of it.
They were envious that the whole nation liked him. They were envious of his
position. They were envious of his power. They were envious of his inheritance.
They were envious of his position with God. And because of that, and they
envied him, they had to destroy him. Okay?
So, the same goes with the world that we live in today, that when you're doing good
and doing right, they're not truly mad at that. Even though they may say it,
they're really just mad at your relationship with God.
Just like Cain and Abel, Abel was killed by Cain
because he was righteous and he had a good relationship
with the Lord. The Lord had not respected him to Cain's offering.
That angered Cain and caused Cain to want to kill Abel.
Now, it says here in verse number 14,
But, and if ye suffer
for righteousness' sake, happy are ye, and be not afraid of their terror,
neither be troubled. So he's just saying, like, you've got to understand verse number 13.
Who's going to harm you if you do good? This is a rhetorical device of
saying, what logic does it make, what sense does it make to bite the hand
that feeds you? What logic does it make if someone's
blessing you and doing good unto you to hurt that person? It makes no sense, okay?
But then he makes it clear in verse 14, but sometimes it happens, right?
Sometimes people are just so absent of truth and knowledge
and righteousness that they literally hurt people that are doing good unto them.
Your spouse is doing good unto you and you hurt them. Your family is doing good unto you and you hurt them.
Your church is doing good unto you and you hurt them. Your pastor does good unto you and you hurt them.
Your boss does good unto you and you hurt them, right? Your employee does good unto you, I mean,
people hurt innocent people all the time. And it doesn't make
any sense. But if it happens to you that you're suffering
for righteousness' sake, notice what the Bible commands you, happy are ye,
Happy are you and be not afraid of the terror neither be troubled
but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asked you a reason of
The hope that is in you with meekness and fear having a good conscience that whereas they speak evil of you as evil of evil
Doers they may be ashamed that falsely accused your good conversation in Christ
So the Bible is saying here in this passage is it saying when someone does you wrong?
When someone's returning evil for blessing unto you that you're gonna be happy about it
What's gonna happen is they're gonna be really confused. They're gonna be like why in the world are you happy?
That I'm persecuting you. Why are you so happy that I'm doing evil unto you?
And they're kind of confused about it. And then you have to explain to them like it says in verse 15 that you have hope
Now what is hope hope is something that's not been realized it hasn't happened yet it hasn't unfolded yet, okay
What is the hope the hope is that it's gonna somehow come out for good
That God's gonna bless you or take care of your award you anyways
And so you're believing that by faith you have hope that it's gonna turn out good
So it's like even though something really bad's happened to me. I could still be happy about it
And you're like, why are you so happy about this and it's like because I just know it's not gonna work out
I just know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them that are the called according to his purpose
You say well, how does that make sense?
I don't I didn't say it made sense, but I'm so happy about it because I have hope
Okay, and they're gonna be they're gonna be like well explain this hope to me and then you start showing in the Bible
You start showing them faith. You start showing them. Hey, here's the children of Israel trapped up against the sea
They walk through the Red Sea. Here's Daniel throwing a lion's den. He walked out
He didn't have those lines didn't touch him
He was he was petting them. It was a petting zoo
Right
Maybe he's praying the whole time. I don't know. I probably would be right. I
Mean, it doesn't matter though because there's so many places in the Bible where you see people put in a bad situation
Yet they can have joy. They can have hope they can have assurance
I mean think about the boldness of Shadrach Meshach and Abednego
When they're told they're gonna be throwing the fiery furnace and they simply say we're not careful to answer thee
They didn't say like
They're just like hey, hey, you know, we don't have to we don't have to talk about this no conference
We didn't take a vote. We're not giving you multiple options here. We're not gonna do it
nuts to you
Throw us in the fire
He's like we're gonna throw you in the fire do it. It's like oh what?
Wait, we'll give you a second chance and it's like still not gonna do it
You want to give me a third?
It's like it's not gonna happen why because they have boldness and it's like well that doesn't make sense
it does make sense if you have hope in God and
Notice that Shadrach Meshach and Abednego they had hope in God. They would deliver them
Notice that Moses and the children visit they have hope in God when they get in difficult situations that he will deliver them
You know, it's that hope that keeps you
Mentally in the right place even though you're going through adversity
Now I want to explain something here because the happiness can sometimes be perceived in the wrong light I
Don't believe that God is asking us to be sadistic about
Persecution. Okay, and what that means specifically is that in the initial onset or the initial moment of
Persecution evil or harm you will feel feelings of pain
Suffering
depression
Sadness evil all of those are legitimate emotions that you can't help just like laughter
If something's funny, you really can't help it. You just laugh right laughter is just an involuntary response
So is all these other emotions anger sadness, you know depression all these type of emotions. They're normal. They're natural
They're gonna happen
Okay, there's nothing wrong with that but what's supposed to happen is after you've gone through the experience
You reflect on it and you change your disposition and you don't allow that to turn into bitterness
But rather you allow that to turn into joy. So I'll give you an example of this. Okay?
Peter and John are called before the council and commanded not to preach in the name of Jesus Christ
They say that they're not gonna obey man. They're gonna obey God so they end up getting scourged
By the council they end up getting beaten
The Bible is not saying that when they literally crack the whip on their back that they're just like yippee
Whoa
That was a fun one, you know, no, I guarantee
That they said ow, they screamed they cried
They weep they gnashed their teeth. They writhed in pain. They writhed in pain. I guarantee it happened
But this is what happened after all of that experience and they finally walked away they then leaped for joy
Counting themselves worthy to suffer for Christ
So they were happy but I'm not saying when getting beaten they were happy. Okay, that's bizarre folks
And so I don't want you to have this weird opinion that like when something bad happens to you
Or something bad happens to the church or some evil happens in our lives that your initial
Emotion your initial reaction is just like whoa
You know, it's okay that you're frustrated. It's okay that you're angry. It's okay that you're mad
It's okay that you feel the pain you feel the woe of that particular situation
But what you're not supposed to do is hang on to that emotion
We're not supposed to do is cleave to that we were supposed to do is turn that into joy by realizing
Hey, I'm being persecuted for rights and a sake here
Hey, I should be counted worthy I feel honored that I'm kind of worthy in God's sight to suffer for this reason
You know, if you're being persecuted for preaching the Bible, you should just praise God for that
You know, we had we had a couple soul winners when not that long ago
Literally just preaching the gospel to some person and the guy walks up and just punches him in the face
Now I'll tell you what it didn't feel good
They didn't like it. I
Wouldn't like it, but you know what you should then take that as a great honor and be happy like wow
God counted me worthy to suffer for preaching the gospel for doing that which is right and
So we have to realize, you know, there's gonna be suffering in this world, you know, I'd rather suffer
I'd rather be punched in the face for going soul winning then mouthing off to the wrong person
I'd rather be punched in the face while going so winning then being punched in the face for stealing money from someone
Then from lying to someone then doing evil then getting in a stupid fight or being prideful and going down to the bar
I mean people go down to the bar and just get in fights for being prideful
They don't even know why they're fighting each other. They just start punching each other
You know
I'd rather get punched for having done right and good
Than for just being an idiot
Then being a moron or being a fool or being punished for my sins and the Bible is teaching in this chapter
You can only choose one
Either you will suffer in this life for being an idiot moron and a sinner or
You will be punished for being righteous and I know which one I would prefer. I
Would prefer that people get mad at me because I was too godly
I was too righteous because I believe too much of the Bible. Oh
How dare you preach that part of the Bible well praise God if I have to suffer for it
You know what? I'm ready to suffer for any verse in the Bible
You know what because I believe in every verse of the Bible
I'm not one of these Bible of the month Club people that keep changing it to fit the culture
I'm not gonna just keep changing my Bible to say hey, what's the lowest common denominator or what's the lowest level morality?
We can have or how can we reinterpret this chapter or reinterpret this verse?
I mean, in fact you even have pastors out there
They don't even know how to interpret Leviticus 2013, but they're still ready not to believe what the Bible says
They don't even have an alternative scripture they're just like well it says that but I still don't know what it means
It's like it still means what it says, buddy
He's like Oh pastor Shelley, why don't you preach other parts of the Bible I am
Why don't you get persecuted for John 3 16, well, you know what I have
But you don't care about that the world doesn't care about that as much look I literally preach the gospel to a little girl
She wasn't little she was like 16 almost or 14 or something. She was taller than me. Okay folks. I
Preached her on the street corner at her request. I said look you want me to preach this to you're not her and she was welcome
I preached her the gospel
She was like Mormon or something
Which was weird because her parents are like atheist and she just goes to a Mormon Church because her friend was Mormon
So I thought like maybe there's a chance this girl could get saved and and rescued out of the clutches of the pit of hell
Called Mormonism and I preached the gospel and made a lot of sense to her
But she wasn't really ready to change her mind
And I just said look if you don't believe this or your family doesn't believe this they'll go to hell if they don't change their
mind
So then I have a dad show up and it's like why are you screaming at my daughter?
She's gonna go to hell and it's like well first of all, I you know
Hello. My name is pastor Shelley, you know, I don't even know who your daughter is then it
I didn't even realize that he was talking about me at first. I thought was some other soul winner
I'm like, oh man, what am I so want to do? And then I'm like, oh, this is me
And I'm like I said is your daughter so-and-so and he's like don't even use her name and I was like is your name
Will Smith
And then he's like he's like trying to fight me he's getting in my face wants to punch me
He's talking now
He's gonna beat me up or whatever like this and I'm just I'm just sitting here thinking like I
Literally thinking like he's about to punch me and I'm like
I don't know what to say because I I was not being confrontational. I try never to be confrontational and
And it was just like this was only for preaching to the gospel folks
It wasn't Leviticus 2013. It wasn't Romans 1 you can get persecuted for any verse in the Bible
And you know what? I choose all of them. I
Don't care if I had to get my head chopped off for a Bible verse. I don't care which one
But I'll say this Leviticus 2013 is not a bad option
Like that's a pretty cool one to go down for I'm just saying I'd rather go down on that verse than a lot of other
Ones are these sissy little weak passes out there that wouldn't even go down for John 3 16 probably
I'll go down for Leviticus
Right because there's no point in backing away from the Word of God. What are you ashamed of Jesus now?
What are you ashamed of the Bible?
You know, that's what the Bible is teaching in this chapter is that we're supposed to do good and not care
What evil befalls us because of that and notice it said in verse 16
Whereas they speak evil of you as of evildoers
They may be ashamed that falsely accused your good conversation in Christ be assured that when you're righteous
They're not gonna say that you're righteous. They're gonna falsely accuse you
They're gonna say you're wicked, you know, they didn't say Jesus was righteous. They said he was a blasphemer
They said he was a malefactor. They said he was a perverter
They said all manner of evil and falsely accused Christ over and over and over again. They said he was rebellious to
The Roman system whereas he even paid taxes and I don't even think he made a paycheck. I
Mean, we don't see any evidence of Jesus making any income at any point in time yet. He's paying tribute yet
He's paying money. Maybe you just had to pay tribute just for being alive. I don't know how their legal system worked
It almost sounds like the Jews were giving the Romans advice on the legal system
How to do taxes
That's anti-semitic no, it's anti false religion is what it is
Now
I've spent too much time on this to get through everything I wanted but I do want to kind of
Explain the purpose of this setup. We've got the context of this chapter so well in our minds
That then we would get a little bit further in this chapter
We shouldn't just throw all that context away and just pretend like it's not there. What's the context suffering for well-doing?
Okay, look what it says in verse 17 for it is better if the will of God be so that you suffer for well-doing
Than for evil doing that's what the passage is constant bringing up and I could show you in this chat in this book
That is the consistent theme through with first Peter first Peter is
mostly
mostly about
Suffering for well-doing and that's even the title of the sermon this morning suffer for well-doing
You know if you're a wife that has a bad husband
suffer for well-doing if you're a husband has a bad wife suffer for well-doing if you have a bad boss suffer for well-doing if you
Have a you have a bad employee suffer for well-doing you have a bad neighbor suffer for well-doing you have bad
It doesn't matter a bad family member bad friend
Bad whatever bad country bad government bad state bad
Representatives bad, whatever you just suffer for well-doing
You just keep doing right look at verse 18 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
So, you know, you know did this
Jesus
you know suffered for well-doing the Lord Jesus Christ coming down here and
Suffering all manner of evil and you know why he suffered all the evil because you and I deserve it
Someone deserves all this this evil that happened him and it wasn't him. It was us
It was the Jews that deserved it and he took the shield
He was the shield human shield to just take all the evil and all the bad that happened and you know, I I
Find it interesting
How our society
Doesn't appreciate human shields
But here's the thing
You really can't appreciate the shield because that's the whole point of the shield is they're taking evil that you deserve and you didn't realize it
Okay
now
What do you think the consequence is of not putting reprobates to death?
Having to deal with the most obnoxious
Implacable people
Constantly harassing you and trying to attack you and doing evil into you. That is the consequence now who deserves that America
Who deserves that Joe Biden who deserves that Kamala Harris who deserves that the Supreme Court that overruled
Lawrence versus Texas who deserves that
Liberals who deserves that Hollywood who deserves that all of the Americans that gave all their money to
Hollywood in support of this who deserves that people who watched will and grace who deserves that people who watch friends who deserves that
people who love John Lennon, I
Mean who deserves that the 60s crowd
The free love crowd who brought in communism and brought in all this evil
But let me tell you something all the people that deserve this are not really getting it
But someone's gonna have to get it
And sometimes it's just us
Sometimes we have to be this human shield that gets all this evil and
But think about it this way by us getting all that other people don't have to
You know by Jesus getting all the attacks and Jesus getting all the hate and Jesus getting all the evil
That's the consequence of the Jews poor actions. You know what Jesus didn't deserve that
But you know
He's suffering the just for the unjust and then ultimately the the the picture of this is his own life being sacrificed on the cross
Going through all the evil going through all the shame going through all the humiliation that we deserve
I mean, how am you humiliating to be drug up on a cross mocked and spit upon?
naked
Beaten and bruised. I mean, there's nothing worse and Jesus had to do that when he did nothing wrong his entire life
Not only that he did all the good every good that's ever happened to any person. Jesus was responsible for
The the body that they have the athletics that they have the food that they've enjoyed
The earth and the sky that they so loved the animals that they worship and adore
Jesus is responsible for all that goodness and all the the pleasure that they've had in their entire life and then he receives all the
evil that they deserve
the just for the unjust and
Ultimately the culmination of that was being put to Beth in the flesh
But notice verse 18 says but quickened by the Spirit
We also know that Jesus while suffering it was a one-time event in that he came to earth once in human flesh
Suffered one time in his ministry died on the cross, but then was resurrected
So at the point of his resurrection the suffering is ceased
Right at the point of his quickening quickening means to be made alive
That's all that quick means we think of it being fast like I think I'm just running fast or something quickly
But quick also can mean to be made alive. So when was Christ made alive in the tomb the third day, right?
That's when all suffering ceased for Jesus Christ. When did it start? I would argue it started day one of his life and
The Bible makes it clear that there was a lot of sufferings that he had to go through
Don't take this verse to over literally where it says he have once suffered it's not like only the right nail in his hand hurt
No, the left nail hurt. No the one in his feet hurt. No the crown of thorns hurt. No being whipped hurt
No, the drinking the vinegar hurt. No walking up the
Mountain every single step every single breath hurt. It wasn't a one thing. It was a it was a life of suffering
He's a man acquainted with grief
Notice what it says, let's skip a few verses cut
We're coming right back to this verse, but just look on the other page or in the next chapter
the Bible says and
I have this written verse 12. Let's look at verse
No, that's not the verse I'm thinking of
Verse 13. Sorry, but rejoice and as much as your partakers have noticed this of Christ sufferings notice that is plural
Why because Christ suffered in more than one way
Lots of sufferings. Okay, some people would like to teach that there's only one suffering and it's just the cross look
Okay, so I'm gonna whip you 39 times save one mock you and spit upon you and shove a crown of thorns on your head
And drag you up a mountain carrying a cross and say that none of that was suffering
No, no all that was suffering too, okay folks, you know, it was suffering
In lots of things that he had to do, you know
The Bible says Jesus wept and that was way before any of the cross stuff happened
That was just for his friend Lazarus having died
Jesus had the full human experience and he went through all the same sufferings that you and I go through
He was touched with the feeling of our infirmities
But you know, he was without sin
He was in all points tempted as we are yet without sin. Okay
now
Look at the next verse it says by which also he went and preached under the spirits in prison
Now now here's the thing you have to understand about
first Peter chapter number three and
Verses 18 19 and 20 it is one sentence
Okay, 18 19 and 20 is one sentence
Secondly this portion of scripture
I believe is a very hard section of scripture to be understood because it doesn't make sense by itself and
There's there's plenty of places in the Bible that don't make sense by themselves
You basically have to use the rest of the Bible to interpret it and
The way I liken this is like putting a puzzle together now who's put a puzzle together
Yeah, who's put a puzzle over a thousand pieces?
Okay. Now when you do puzzles with hundreds of pieces or thousands of pieces
It's a very difficult task, especially since most puzzles they try to pick pictures that are all the same colors
You know flowers with all the same colors and you're just like, oh well me my wife we did one not that long ago
I remember and
If you're good at puzzle making you typically start with an edge
Like that's kind of the border is what you're supposed to do, right?
Now once you have the border you could look at a piece
There's no way to know how to pick one of those pieces up and then just set it right in the middle of that
Empty borderless shape and know that's exactly where it goes. I mean, that's impossible folks
No one can do it. And in fact when me and my wife were doing this puzzle, there was so many times
Where we would have like a lot of it done and there would be like basically just one shape and
We would look at every piece and be like it's not here
We lost that piece like you just we just say you just couldn't see it
Okay, but then when we finally got to the end and you're just like, okay, there's like two pieces in two spots
It's like wow, that does fit there and it was like you just couldn't see it
Until everything was all around it and perfectly formed and then you put it in there like I guess it fits
We didn't lose a single piece and that puzzle we had every single piece and I kid you not there was plenty of times
We had to press a button like we're missing pieces
Like we don't have that piece like you couldn't see it, right?
that is how the Bible works sometimes where you have a puzzle piece and you're just sitting here thinking like I
I don't I don't get it. I don't see it
You have to get the entire shape around it to then put the piece in you're like, okay now it makes sense
Here's another important thing is you never make a doctrine out of one puzzle piece
If you have a doctrine that you can only have one place in the Bible that teaches it. You're probably wrong
Okay, apart from just simple statements or simple commandments from the Old Testament. You're probably wrong when you have a complicated
Doctrine that is not self explained in the verse
So look at the example the Bible says that you shouldn't print marks on your body
I don't need other verses to interpret that verse for me because it was clear as a clear statement
That I'm not gonna print marks on my body, right?
But people will look at verse 19 and this is what they'll say the reverse 19
Okay
by which also you went and preached in the spirits in prison Jesus after dying went down into hell and
Preached to all the unsaved people to try and get them saved
and
I'm like, okay, let's read that verse again
By which also went preached on the spirit. I'm like thinking like what that doesn't say that
Okay, that was a that was like a foreign idea. Just being shoved into this verse
Which is what the fancy theological terms called ice of Jesus
Okay ice of Jesus is when you bring things into the text
Exegesis is when you bring things out of the text. Okay. Now you don't have to remember that it doesn't matter
What you what you want to remember is that I'm not gonna just run with the verse. I'm gonna let the verses
Fit into the puzzle piece. What was the context of chapter 3 again?
Wasn't it suffering for righteousness sake what does that have to do with Jesus going to hell and preaching the gospel unsaved people?
Has nothing to do with it. Okay, so that doesn't really make a lot of sense
What what could this mean? Well, keep your finger go to Isaiah 42 for a minute. Go to Isaiah chapter 42
Let's just think about what this could mean and compare spiritual to spiritual now
Thing you have to understand is that words can have multiple meanings prison can mean a lot of different things
It's based term prison. Just someone that's locked up, you know in a they're they're they're bound in
Essence prison could have a lot of different capacities most of the time in the word prisons using your Bible
It's talking about what we would think of as a literal prison bars jail shackle people locked up, right?
But the Bible sometimes could use prison
To be a metaphor or another picture of being locked up. Okay, look at Isaiah 42 and look at verse 6
By the Lord have called thee in righteousness and will hold thine hand and will keep thee and
Give thee for a covenant of the people for a light of the Gentiles to open the blind eyes
To bring out the prisoners from the prison and then that sit in darkness out of the prison house
Let me ask a question
Can you understand the Bible if you're not saved
No
The Bible teaches that the Holy Ghost has to enlighten you
Okay, or you have to have a saved person explaining it to you and then you have to understand the spiritual eyes
evidenced by
the Ethiopian eunuch
Asking or being asked by Philip understandest what thou readest and he said how can I accept some man should guide me?
And then he has an inkling like is this, you know passages in Isaiah about Jesus or is about himself?
You know Isaiah meaning is he who's he talking about? He can't figure it out
You know that the Holy Spirit has to tell you. Oh, that's about Jesus. Okay now this passage
Let me give you this the secret this is about Jesus
now I
Honestly don't even believe you personally need the Holy Spirit to even come to that conclusion and this particular verse
But there are other verses where you would now this is why I say you don't have to in this one
Because in Luke chapter number four it has this quoted and Jesus says it and then he says that he fulfilled the scripture
Okay, and we're gonna look at that one second, but notice that it says that he's gonna bring out prisoners from the prison
Can you find me a Bible story where Jesus Christ brought someone out of a physical prison?
In his life
When did Jesus visit prisons and bring people out physically now
We have pictures of him bringing people out of prison in the book of Acts when he's not in heaven
You know, we have Peter and John escaping prison and other things like that
We don't have Jesus taking people out of a physical prison while he's on his earthly ministry
Okay, go up with Isaiah 61 for a moment. Got Isaiah 61. So it's like, okay. Well, then what's happening?
Well, we'll look at the Bible and we'll explain what the Bible saying by studying it
Isaiah 61 look at verse 1 the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings
under the meek he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted to proclaim liberty to the captives and
The opening of the prison to them that are bound to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord
All right. Now go to Luke chapter number four go to Luke chapter number four
Let's see what Jesus says when he actually reads this, you know, well, we just read
Jesus Christ read
Why because we have the same Bible and God preserved his word for every generation
It's the most important thing on the planet is the Word of God the Word of God is more important than I am
So if I have been preserved how much more the Word of God
Okay, Luke chapter number four look at verse 18 the Spirit of the Lord is upon me
because the other anointed me to preach the gospel of the poor he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted to preach deliverance to the
captives and
Covering of sight to the blind to set it liberty them that are bruised
To preach the acceptable year of the Lord sound familiar, doesn't it?
Same thing now in the New Testament Old Testament. Sometimes we use synonyms to convey the exact same point
But it's the same scripture that we're talking about here. Notice what he had said in verse 18 to preach
Deliverance to the captives notice how instead of taking people out of prison
He says he's gonna preach and it's gonna be deliverance to the captives
He's given a little bit of a different understanding here a little bit deeper understanding what he's talking about
Now you say okay, so he's bringing people out of physical prison
well, let's wait look at verse 20 and he closed the book and gave it again to the minister and sat down and
The eyes of all them that were in this synagogue were fastened on him and it began to say unto them
This day is this for scripture filled in your ears?
So, let me ask this question is Jesus bringing people out of a physical prison that day
No, no, no, you know what he's doing. He's preaching the Word of God's unsaved people
Giving them an opportunity to be saved and by preaching the gospel unto them
He's helping live deliver them from the captivity of the devil from the captivity of the god of this world
Okay
Now go if you would to 2nd Timothy chapter number 2 2nd Timothy chapter number 2
So, what did Jesus do Jesus went and preached to the spirits in prison
Let me tell you what that means Jesus came to this earth and preached the gospel to the unsaved
That's what that's saying
He wasn't dead when he was doing it though
Okay
Now look at 2nd Timothy chapter number 2 and look at verse 25 in
meekness
instructing those that oppose themselves if God paired venture
Will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth and that they may recover themselves
Out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by him at his will
notice again a prison
Type concept being explained
Go to Ephesians chapter 2 go to Ephesians chapter number 2, so I'm just showing you how the Bible is real consistent here
I'm I'm not going to teach you a doctrine that's found in 1st Peter chapter number 3 by itself
Let me teach you an entire doctrine that has nothing to do with that passage and then explains you that's where that puzzle piece fits
Right. Let's put all the puzzle pieces around it and then say like oh, yeah, this puzzle piece also fits with all the other ones
Whereas okay show me Jesus preaching to unsaved people in hell
Apart from 1st Peter chapter number 3 first and then maybe you can put that puzzle piece in there, but you don't have that do you?
That's why they can't do it visions chapter number 2
Look at verse 1 and you have the quickened who were dead and trespasses and sins
Wherein in time past you walked according the course of this world according the prince of the power of the air the spirit that now
worketh in the children of disobedience
So the Bible also describes people that are the spirits in prison as being disobedient children
okay, that's a synonym and
It also says among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh
Fulfilling desires of the flesh on the mind and were by nature the children of wrath even as others
So we were a captive of the devil. We were locked in a prison
Metaphorically speaking of our flesh and we were liberated by the gospel of Jesus Christ and you shall know the truth and the truth
Shall make you what?
Free here's my question free from what?
Free
From the prison of sin free from the prison of the flesh free from the prison of the will of the devil
So we go back to first Peter chapter number three
What is the primary way that Jesus Christ suffered for well-doing he suffered by dying on the cross?
But here is a second way. Here's another way. Here's also
How Jesus Christ suffered by preaching to the spirits in prison?
So that was I mean
well
Think about this how much fun is it to go and preach to people that don't want to hear the gospel?
How much fun is it to preach the gospel people and they slam the door in your face?
How much fun is it to preach the gospel people and they punch you in the face?
How much fun is it to preach to a generation? That's so wicked and evil and hates the Bible
How much fun is it to try and show up at church and you have a whole group of people? They're already mad at you
That's not very much fun, you know the same with Jesus Christ
I mean Jesus Christ ministry wasn't the funnest in the sense that there was plenty times
He preached and especially in Luke chapter number four as soon as he done preached that they drug him out to the edge of a
Cliff to try and throw him out throw him off the cliff
It's frustrating to tell people the truth and they just go
Men are women
Get your vaccine
Where's the Ukraine flag
Biden's competent
It's just like you're an idiot
It's so vexing. It's so frustrating and the Bible fairy tales
Hey, the word homosexuality is never found in the Bible until the 1900s. It's never found in this book ever. You know, what is
reprobates
men with men
sodomites
Okay, folks, it's like it's so fresh. Oh King James was gay based on no evidence
Based on a hater trolling him, but you know what? I know every single time I walk in here
You know, it's screamed at me sodomite Shelley sodomite. Oh
You know that helps me realize King James probably wasn't a fag
It's probably a lie from a god-hating reprobate
It's
Not that hard to figure out folks
I mean am I gonna just believe every accusation because then I'd have to believe that Jesus is a
Blasphemer from all the people accusing on being a blasphemer and then I have to believe there was a pervert
most people can't say he perverted the nation and I have to believe that he's
Wicked and evil and he's doing magic by the power of the elves above but you know what? None of those things were true
You know, it's frustrating to preach the truth to people that resist the truth because you know what it's only hurting them
It's frustrating to see someone that you look at and you know
And I know if you've ever gotten so winning there are people that you're looking out of the eyes and you want them to be
saved
You look at them and you feel a tear in your heart you feel just pain
knowing this person is gonna split hell wide open and I'm just I
Hate it that they're gonna do that
Or a family member a friend you look at them and it's just so vexing
It's so awful and you know what Jesus coming here being the literal Word of God
being the creator of all of his creation and looking at them and
preaching unto them and doing miracles before them and then rejecting him and
Contradicting themselves. It's got to be one of those vexing frustrating things to ever go through
Suffering
So, how did he suffer he's died on the cross how did he suffer by preaching the spirits in prison?
Okay
Notice what it says in the next verse which sometime we're disobedient now
Again
Verses 18 to 19 to 20
I do not believe you can just pick up these verses and just like I know exactly what all this meaning
Because it's just it's just like it's really a lot of things being said without anything
Explaining in between the lines and I I know of this of myself
I sometimes preach this way and I'm not saying it's right when I do it. The Bible is always right
Okay, but but for me like sometimes I'll like have like three connected thoughts and instead of explaining how they all really make sense
I just kind of like say them all and then I'm thinking like if people don't weren't following my train of thought
they're not even understand what I just said and
I think that sometimes the Bible can be similar in the sense that it has a certain train of thought and if you don't have
That train of thought it's good. You just you have no idea what's going on
I'm not saying it doesn't make sense. I'm saying it doesn't just make sense immediately just on the surface
You have to kind of figure it out. Okay
but
When he finished verse 19 notice he had spirits in prison. I believe in verse 20
It's when it says which it's talking about the spirits in prison. Okay, folks now remember Ephesians chapter number two that
They were the children of disobedience, right?
Spirits in prison if we just understand what is that?
That's just unsaved people and really it represents everyone because we were all quote unquote a spirit in prison at one point in our lives
Okay, which were what some time?
We're disobedient, right?
Not everybody was this obedient for forever because some people got saved some of the spirits in prison were capped were led
Out of that prison. Okay, but a vast majority or not
So if we're talking about just spirits in prison
Which were sometime
Disobedient when once the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah while the ark was repairing we're in few that is eight
Souls were saved by water now
This is what I this is what I personally believe versus 18 through 22 is a tangent
The point of 18 is to explain that he suffered for well-doing
20 was a second way he did it and then he just goes on this tangent
Where he's just explaining a lot of the concepts he brought up
He brought up the spirits in prison which are sometime disobedient. Why would he bring up Noah?
Like this is just it just feels it just feels a little unnatural or just feels like what just happened
I don't understand when it says when once the long suffering of God way in the days of Noah
But think about this just think about the concepts
What and what way is Noah similar to Jesus Christ?
isn't Noah preaching to a very resistant crowd for a long period of time and
And here's another similarity. What is that anticipation of Noah's climax? It's him getting on an ark and everybody else dying
What is the climax of Jesus Christ preaching to the spirits in prison and them ultimately rejecting him?
8070 the entire destruction and desolation of the Jewish people
Okay, so it's like similar in the sense that they both are preaching this warning message trying to rescue these people
They don't want the rescue and then impending destruction of the false them similar to Jeremiah
Jeremiah preaching to a hostile resistant crowd and then destruction Noah preaching to a hostile resistant crowd
destruction Jesus preaching to a hostile resistant crowd destruction and let me tell you something in times us preaching to a hostile resistant crowd
destruction
Okay, and you say well, why is it take so long? That's the long suffering of God while the ark is preparing and
Why is it that we're waiting for the ark the ark is what saves us?
Noah was saved by the ark if if God had brought judgment before Noah was done building the ark. He would have died
if
God had brought judgment on the Jews before Jesus Christ died on the cross
They would have all died we all died and gone to hell because we wouldn't have the gospel
So we had to wait for the ark of the gospel to be completed before God could you know?
Bring that destruction and in fact even wait a little longer to get all the Jews out of Jerusalem first
Before then he dropped the hammer, right?
I mean all the Jews have basically been ran out of town by the time the hammer drops in 80 70
Just like lot gets out hammer drop
Noah gets on the ark hammer drop Jesus and the Apostles get out hammer drop right once all the Christians get raptured
It is a hammer drop my friend. Okay, so you have to kind of understand the pattern that God goes through
So he's bringing up the spirits in prison picture. He's bringing up how they're disobedient
He's bringing up how it's similar to the long-suffering that God explained in Noah
And again, the Noah passage is not something that Jesus did
It's a picture and you say why do you say the picture look at us? We're on the like figure figure means it's a picture
Okay, so he's not he's not don't get overly literal here people say that Jesus went to hell to preach the spirits in prison
He's like those were the spirits that got
killed in the flood
right and it's like
No, that's just not I mean it doesn't it doesn't fit plus what does that benefit
Like I try to explain this and I said if I went to like one of these reprobate pride parades over here crowds the aids
community and I preached to them by myself and
No one recorded it. What profit would that be?
You know Jesus preached to reprobate crowds, but only in the audience of other people that could benefit from that conversation
When he was alone with Herod, he didn't say anything
Because there's no point
Okay, what's what's the point in going into hell and screaming at a bunch of people that aren't gonna get saved and don't care and already?
Rejected you. I mean, this is weird. It has no benefit
You know, there is a benefit to Jesus coming down here and preaching to us to try and get us saved
Right pull people out of the prison that makes a lot of sense
It makes a lot of sense for Noah to try and warn people and trying to get him on the ark
So they could have been saved
it makes a lot of sense for Jeremiah to try and warn the children of Israel and children of Judah to
Get right with God before the impending destruction of Nebuchadnezzar
It makes sense for us to try and get people saved now before the impending wrath of God is poured out
Okay, so that makes sense what they're suggesting a lot of people suggest in this passage makes no sense
But even if let's just say and I don't believe this for even one say it's not true
Let's just say this passage is bring up Jesus going to hell
Well, what was the context of this passage suffering for well-doing what's so funny to me is if you even thought this passage was making
Mention that Jesus went to hell you would have to believe he was suffering because that's the whole context of the entire passage
It's so weird to take an entire
Chapter of the Bible dedicated to the suffering of Christ and suffering for well-doing suggest that Jesus didn't suffer
It's like what no, of course Jesus went to hell and he suffered now, of course
When did that suffering cease at the resurrection acts chapter number two says having loosed from the pains of death
Okay, he was loosed at the resurrection and of course he suffered once in verse 18
Right hath one suffer for sins adjuster than just they might bring us the debt to God being put to death in the flesh
but
Quickened by the Spirit and let me tell you something
You know, what also hurts is death because death is a state of being hell is its location
Jesus Christ, I don't know if you realize this he was risen from the dead in order to be dead
he had to be in hell and
Nowhere nowhere else. Are you finding anything in the Bible that suggests hell is a fun place?
There's an escape hatch
There's a special bubble. There's no eye of the storm in hell. Like well if you're in this one spot, it's just like oh
Found it, you know, no the center of hell is the hottest
Right, there is no escape. There is no secret compartment. There is no paradise in hell. Okay that some people have lied about
Okay, this passage is just a clear passage about the suffering now
It says in verse number 21 the like figure wherein to even baptism to also now save us
Not the putting away of the filth of the flesh
But the answer of a good conscience toward God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ
Who has gone into heaven is on the right hand of God angels and authorities and powers being made subject on him. So
Just like
Noah was saved by the ark
Just like we're saved by the gospel
Baptism is a picture of salvation now
The Church of Christ gets this wrong because they think that you're actually saved by being physically baptized
That is false doctrine because the Bible says we're saved by our faith not of works. Let's any man should boast
But salvation can mean multiple things. It doesn't have to just be a spiritual salvation of going to heaven
It could be a different salvation and the salvation mentioned here is a salvation from continuing in the flesh
continuing in the same sins
Continuing down a dark road and what baptism is picturing is that good conscience in the sense that you've been a spirit in prison
Your whole life you've been doing wickedly against God
But now you say I want to get baptized and I want to walk in newness of life
That's what it says in Romans chapter number six. That's why baptism is so important
That's why we're Baptist is because we said you know what we're gonna watch the filth of
This world spiritually off of us and we're gonna walk in newness of life. We're gonna be separate say the Lord
We're gonna come out from among them. We're not gonna be like the world even though we're in the world
We're not gonna act like the world even though the world treats us like garbage. We're gonna do good
We're gonna suffer for well-doing. We're gonna be righteous. We're gonna follow God's commandments. We're gonna be different
We're gonna be a bright and shining light in a dark world. That's what we're gonna do. That's what baptism pictures
That's what it saves you from and notice that even says in this message not the putting away of the filth of the flesh
but the answer of a good conscience toward God and also baptism is a picture of
The sense that you didn't get the judgment you deserve think about this. No, I didn't get the judgment
He deserved Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. He got in the ark while everybody else died. He got saved
Jesus Christ while being killed and died on the cross he was
Resurrected picturing his salvation from that and he was never gonna have to suffer ever again. He only once suffered
He's a one-time sacrifice for all
He never has to do it ever again
And now he's been saved and when we get saved we're saved one time
Then when we get baptized at the picture of how we can be saved from the filth of sin
It's not just a bath folks people take baths every well some people take baths every day
Some people have been dunked even in the name of the Father Son Holy Ghost
But they didn't believe in Jesus Christ and it wasn't a baptism because baptism is not just a ritual
It's not an exercise in futility rather
It's a symbolistic picture of the fact that you are trusting Jesus Christ death from resurrection is your salvation and that you want to
Walk differently than you did before
It's why baptism is such a beautiful picture
and
If you look at verse let's let's read a few more verses here
No, I'll finish verse 1 it says for as much then as Christ has suffered for us in the flesh
Arm yourselves likewise at the same mind now notice how that tied back exactly to verse 18
Didn't it say in verse 18?
They have once suffered for the sins the just of the unjust that he might bring us to God being put to death in the
Flesh so brings up the flesh verse 1 of chapter 4 for as much as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh
So Christ went through the same human experiences that we went through now
Some people would say well, why does this passage not bring up?
Jesus suffering in hell
Okay, if that's what you believe. Well, number one the Bible doesn't have to bring up every doctrine in every place
Okay
Number two, there's plenty of places in the Bible. I can show you where Jesus went to hell and suffered
So I don't need this passage, but number three you and I will never go to hell
So we can't learn from Jesus example of going to hell of how we
Are supposed to react when we go to hell because we're not going to hell ever
I'm never going to hell for one second and there's not really there's not really a plan of like
Here's how you handle it when you're there. You're just gonna scream bloody murder until forever
There's no like getting prepared for it. There's no anticipation
There's no better way to enjoy hell like ten tips while in hell
It's like doesn't exist
But you know what?
We do have to suffer in the flesh and Jesus suffer in the flesh
So it's really bringing that up because that's a parallel experience that we have to go through
So there's no real need for him to emphasize a whole bunch of stuff that we don't have to go through
We don't know what it's like. Okay, we don't need to know what it's like
But we need to realize that he suffered in the flesh and we also for he had a suffered in the flesh that sees from
Notice that when you're suffering in the flesh for righteousness sake you're not sinning because if you're sinning you're suffering for wrong doing
When you're doing right and suffering
That's the right response right verse 2 that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men
but to the will of God
For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles when we walk in
lasciviousness lusts excess of wine revelings banquings and abominable idolatries
Where and they think it's strange that you run not with them to the same exes of rights being evil of you
Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead for for this cause was the gospel
Preached also to them that are dead that they might be judged according to men in the flesh
But live according to God in the spirit now
Slow down. Let's pay attention to our puzzle
Chapter 3 was why suffering for wrongdoing
Husband suffering for wrongdoing all of us suffering for wrongdoing
Jesus suffering for wrongdoing. Let's put those few passages on hold
Chapter 4 verse 1 Jesus suffering for wrongdoing us suffering for wrongdoing
Then notice it even brings up. This is the whole reason why the gospel was preached to those that are what dead
Okay, so we have suffering on all sides
We have a mention here of the gospel being preached to people that are dead
spiritually because we have the quick and the dead picturing those that are saved and those that are unsaved and
Then how does that not fit perfectly?
With verse 19 when it says he preached in the spirits in prison when you compare it with a verse a few verses later saying
This is the whole reason why I brought that up
Okay
That they might be judged according to men in the flesh but live according to God in the spirit now
Why is he saying that because God is gonna judge?
unsaved people and
save people
To the example of those that were saved and lived godly
He has a standard
Okay, you living godly you living righteous in an unrighteous world is a standard by which God is gonna judge other people
He's gonna you're not gonna have these excuses of like well, it was just too sinful and too wicked for me
He's gonna be like job
Well, it's too sinful and too wicked for me Noah well, it's too sinful and too wicked for me John the Baptist
Well, it's too sinful and too wicked for me, you know steadfast Baptist Church
These other churches aren't gonna be able to just stand there and just say like, oh, but you don't understand the culture God
steadfast Baptist Church
And they're like, oh I thought you were ashamed of them. Nope
No, I'm ashamed of you
No, because you were ashamed of me and my words
I'm ashamed of you. And you know what God has to have a standard to judge people by he's gonna judge everything
Righteously and you know what if all of us were just wicked to all of us are just in the flesh
Then how can he really be mad at the unsaved for living the same as the saved?
No, he's mad at the unsaved because they're not living like the saved
Because the saved are righteous because the saved are doing that which is godly the saved live differently then hey Abel is different than King
You know why King killed Abel because he was righteous
That's what the Bible says
Not just because he was the same no because he was better than him because he did that which was right
That's why he was mad at him
and you know what this passage is a really important passage a really important message for us to think about because our church if
We are gonna strive to be a godly church if we're gonna be a holy church if we're gonna believe all of the verses of
The Bible there is something attached to that we will have to suffer for well-doing
Ironclad guarantee and
A wicked and adulterous generation we will suffer for righteousness sake if we're righteous
The only way to escape the suffering is for us to not be righteous
You know what our church could just change its name get an NIV
Bring up all the girls in miniskirts and we could sing our God is an awesome God
and I'll just preach about
John 3 16 without really explaining it and we'll be barely persecuted
We still probably would I mean hey Preston would Baptist Church still has protesters
first Baptist Church of Dallas with Robert Jeffress still gets protesters
for saying stuff like you know homosexual eyes of sin I
Mean how watered-down do you want to get I mean the the more watered-down?
Yeah, you can limit your persecution by watering yourself down right the more you get watered down
It's like skim milk. Okay. It's water lying about being milk. Okay
It's like you can water it down all the way where there's no calories anymore
You know what? I like the calories that come with milk because it tastes good
Milk is good. I'm hungry. Okay, and you know what? I want this church to be vitamin D milk
Red top I sound like Tony Hudson
but
You know what? It's right. Okay
The Bible is described as milk
And you know what? I'm not gonna water it down
With the NIV not gonna water it down with lame preaching. I'm not gonna back up and decide not to drink it
I'll just work out a little bit more to burn off those calories. You know what I mean? And
Our church needs to suffer be willing to suffer a little bit. Hey be willing to suffer a little bit. I
Mean you haven't resisted on the blood yet
As the Bible says no one's asking you to get a crown of thorns shoved on your brow and walk up a hill and get
crucified yet
probably never
So we should
Follow God's commandments be steadfast not let the world deter us and live our lives doing right regardless of what happens to us
If you never come back to my church, so be it but do right no matter what?
When someone does something bad to you today do right when someone does something bad to you this morning tomorrow morning this week
Do right when your wife or your husband?
Didn't listen to the sermon and is a jerk to you as soon as we're done with this service you do, right?
There's no excuse it's closing prayer
Thank You Heavenly Father for the Word of God. Thank you for this example that you set for us through your son the Lord Jesus Christ
I
Pray to be constantly reminded of how he suffered for us
How he was a human shield for us how he died on the cross for us how he went to hell and suffered for us
But he was resurrected
How Noah is an example of those that suffered, but it was eventually saved how Jeremiah suffered
But was eventually rescued and delivered how the Apostles suffered, but were delivered out of the mouth of a lion I?
Hope that we wouldn't have the wrong mentality when it comes to Christianity, but rather we would be willing to be sheep led to the slaughter
We'd be willing to lay down our lives. We'd be willing to suffer for righteousness sake knowing that at the end of the day
There is a righteous judgment coming in Jesus name we pray Amen
Song 145 it is well with my soul
145 it is well with my soul
When peace like a river
Attendeth my way
When sorrows like sea billows roll
Whatever
my lot
Thou hast taught
me to say
It is well
With my soul ladies on the first
It is well
With my soul
It is well
with my soul
Though
Satan should buy
No trial should come
Let this
blessed
Assurance control that Christ has regarded
My
Estate and
hath shed
his own blood
For my soul
It is well
With my soul
It is well with my soul
My sin
Oh the bliss of this glorious thought
My sin
not in part
but the whole
Is nailed to the cross and I bear it
No more
praise the Lord
Praise the Lord
Oh my soul
It is well
With my soul it is well it is well
With my soul nice and loud on the last year
And
Lord
haste the day
when my faith
shall be
side
the clouds be rolled back as a
scroll
the trump shall resound and the Lord
shall
Resend even so it is well
my soul
It is well
With my soul it is well it is well
My soul
Great singing god bless you are dismissed