Baptism Pictures Salvation From Judgment

Transcript

GR1942
02/21/2016
Baptism Pictures Salvation from Judgment
I Peter 3:18-22
Gil Rugh\

I think maybe some of the material we covered last time was too simple and overwhelmed some of us. I had the sense when I was going through this, you know sometimes when you are up teaching and preaching some of you teach, you know how it is. Things are going through your mind and one of the things that was going through my mind last week is I had a sense I may be talking to myself. I think some of the things were a little confusing, probably overloaded what we would cover so I am just going to overview the passage that we looked at last week and move into the passage that finishes up the chapter.

I am just going to focus on what is my understanding of the true interpretation of the passage. On another time we are going to take some time and maybe walk through some of the issues in a more organized and perhaps a little slower fashion because they are important areas but what Peter says I think is clear and we want to have an understanding of it.

Keep in mind he is writing to encourage Jewish believers scattered outside their homeland and they are enduring persecution and suffering so that underlies much of what he is saying. He is encouraging them during their time of suffering. He is encouraging them how to handle the suffering. He’s encouraging them not to be discouraged by the difficulties. Chapter 3, verse 13: “Who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good? But if you do suffer for the sake of righteousness, that is a blessing. Don’t fear their intimidation. Don’t be troubled. Be ready to give a reasonable, reasoned response, a clear response to anybody who would ask you regarding your faith in Jesus Christ.” That is the instruction of the Word. We are ready to make a defense and not that we can answer all arguments but that we can give a logical, reasonable presentation of the Gospel. Why do you have your faith in Jesus Christ; my faith in Jesus Christ because I am a sinner and on you work through the Gospel. The penalty for sin is death and God provided His Son to be the Savior to take my place, die on the cross. You keep a good conscience, the slander will come, false accusations may come but you maintain good and godly conduct so there is nothing to the charges.

And sometimes it is God’s will that you suffer for doing the right thing. That was verse 17: “It is better if God should so will it.” Noted, a strong portion of our comfort is our God is sovereign and if the suffering comes that is part of His will for us then we are ready to accept it and we do right even when we are being mistreated. And the example is Christ. “He died for sins once for all. The just for the unjust that He might bring us to God. Having been put to death in the flesh but made alive in the Spirit.” And again as we have seen in our study of Paul’s writings to the Corinthians the example set by Christ as a pattern for us as believers. We want to manifest His character so that when we are going through suffering we want to manifest the character of Christ whether the suffering is unjust doesn’t change our response. Peter has mentioned that back in chapter 2, verse 24. He mentions it again in chapter 3, verse 18 and that move, He was “put to death in the flesh, made alive in the Spirit“ carries Him back to an Old Testament example and that is what we were focusing on.

“In the Spirit He also went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison.” And we noted and we just focused on what I think is the correction interpretation of this. You have the word ‘now’ inserted here. You see it is in italics and as you are aware the words in italics have been inserted into English translation to smooth it out. “He went and made proclamation to the spirits in prison.” And the reason we have the word ‘now’ here is “they were once disobedient when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah.”

So he takes us back to the days of Noah and we looked at those passages. It was the Spirit of God, the same Spirit acted in the resurrection of Christ and brought Him to life that was working in the prophets of the Old Testament and Noah was one of those prophets who spoke and heralded the message of God’s truth during the days leading up to the flood. Now those are in prison because they were disobedient in the days of Noah when Noah heralded the truth to them they were disobedient. They didn’t believe it.

Turn over to II Peter, just a couple of pages, chapter 2 and examples of God’s judgment on the unbelieving world. He says in verse 5: “God did not spare the ancient world but preserved Noah a preacher of righteousness.” So that tells you what Noah was doing during this time. He was a preacher of righteousness and it was the Spirit of God speaking through him that the message was rejected. They were disobedient to it so the result would be judgment.

You know we don’t have a lot of information on the content of often what was preached in the very early days. Come back to the book of Genesis and come to chapter 5. Noah is in chapter 6 but in chapter 5 you have another man through whom the Spirit was preaching in those early days of our Bibles, early history. Verse 22 of chapter 5: “And Enoch walked with God.” He was a believer. He was a righteous man. Verse 24: “Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him.” He did not experience physical death. It doesn’t say anything about his preaching there but like Noah if you come over to the New Testament and come to Peter and keep going back just before the book of Revelation who have the book of Jude, that little one chapter book and in Jude verse 14 we are told that Enoch was also peaching and warned his generation about ungodly men who denied the truth, the promoted lies. So in Jude verse 14: It was also about these men (and he is talking about false teachers) who have infiltrated the church as Jude wrote and he says this has been the pattern down through history as Satan attempts to corrupt God’s people. “It was about these men that Enoch in the seventh generation from Adam prophesied saying, ‘behold the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones to execute judgment upon all, to convict all the ungodly of their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners has spoken against him.”

So very early with sin entering the human race through the sin of Adam we have the preaching of the serious condition of man and the need for God’s salvation but men began early denying that, rejecting that, promoting ungodliness, denying the truth.

So you come to the days of Noah and it builds to a climax and here is Noah preaching and God instructs him to build the ark and during those days he’s preaching, he’s a herald of righteousness proclaiming the need for God’s righteousness, obviously because he is proclaiming it to a sinful generation, proclaiming their guilt and their need to believe.

But they were disobedient. Back to I Peter chapter 3. “They once were disobedient when the patience of God kept waiting during the time that Noah was constructing the ark.” Now as Peter writes what happened to those who were disobedient in those days? Well verse 19 says, “they are now in prison.” So I don’t think it is saying that Christ went and preached to them sometime maybe after His death and before His resurrection, for example during His three days in the tomb. He didn’t go in His Spirit and preach in the prisons where unbelievers were held. It says “These were spirits who were disobedient in the days of Noah” and I take it he is talking about human spirits, human beings, these spirits because what does the Scripture say? James 2:26: “The body without the spirit is dead.” When a person’s spirit, their immaterial part leaves their body, we saw this in II Corinthians 5 the body is like a tent that is folded up, no longer being used but the person hasn’t ceased to exist. For believers to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Again we saw that in II Corinthians 5. For the unbeliever it is to immediately be transported to a place of torment and suffering called here, “being in prison.”

Come to Luke 16. This is the well-known account of the rich man and Lazarus and there was a rich man and he had everything and there was a poor man, he had nothing. Verse 22: “The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom.” I take it that would be where Abraham is and the Jews naturally believed Abraham would be in the presence of God which I also would agree with. He is the example used in Romans 4 of salvation by faith. “Abraham believed God,” Genesis 15:6 and “God credited it to him as righteousness.” And so upon death he is carried into the presence of God, obviously. So this believing Jew is carried into Abraham’s bosom where Abraham is but the rich man also died, the end of verse 22. “And in Hades he lifted up his eyes being in torment.”

When the unbeliever dies he does not immediately go to hell. He goes to Hades. I have used the example, don’t press examples too far but it is like a person who is in jail awaiting final sentencing to prison. The difference in the kind of suffering is duration. Thinking of jail is for a shorter stay. Prison is for longer stay. Hades is where the unbeliever is held until his final sentencing that will take place at the Great White Throne at the end of Revelation chapter 20.

So you have the rich man now in Hades. “He lifted up his eyes being in torment and he saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom and he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me. Send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue for I am in agony in this flame.’” Hell will be fire and brimstone forever. Hades is the same kind of suffering but it is the suffering in the holding place until they are finally sentenced to eternal torment in hell; terrible suffering. Just if they could put the tip of their finger in water and touch my tongue it would be such a relief. I am in agony in this flame.

Verse 26 says there is no crossing over. I think that is the key point in this account. Death settles your destiny so there is no crossing over. The great chasm is fixed so those who wish to come over from here to you will not be able. None cross over from there to us. There is no going back and forth. At death you are consigned to the place that will be your eternal destiny.

I say Hades is not the final because everyone in Hades is going to be cast into hell as we see in Revelation 20. We will turn there in a moment. Then he says, “Send someone back to tell my five brothers so they don’t come to this place of torment.” And Abraham says, “They have Moses and the prophets. They have the Word of God.” The rich man says, “They don’t believe that.” And then you have that statement, verse 31: “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.” And the resurrection of Christ is a demonstration of that. We have seen down through the two millenniums since Christ died and was raised from the dead people weren’t convinced. From shortly following His resurrection down to today people remain unbelieving.

So the point, they are in prison. The spirits in prison from the days of Noah are there because what? They were disobedient. They refused to hear and believe the Word. It wasn’t absent. Enoch before Noah had preached. There may have been others in that line as well. Noah is a preacher of righteousness. People had opportunity to hear. They chose to be disobedient to the Word.

Come over to Revelation 20, familiar to most of you. Verse 11 and following is the final judgment. So that is what those in prison or in Hades are awaiting. You are in Revelation. Hold onto chapter 20. Come back to chapter 14 and you see the final destiny here of hell which we are going to read about. This is what it will be like. Verse 10 of chapter 14: “They will drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is mixed in the full strength in the cup of His anger will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and the presence of the Lamb. The smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. They have no rest day and night.” Referring particularly to those who refused to believe the Word during the seven year tribulation and particularly then during those last three and one-half years.

Come over to chapter 20, verse 11. This is that final sentencing to hell. There is a Great White Throne, verse 12: “I saw the dead and the great and the small standing before the throne and the books were opened and another book is opened which is the Book of Life.” And people are judged from what is written in the books according to their deeds but nobody is saved by works so this judgment is to determine where in hell they will be placed and there are degrees of suffering even there but it is a place of torment wherever you are here.

And wherever you died your body is brought back. So everybody is going to get a resurrection body but these aren’t called glorified bodies. Our glorified bodies are for us to enjoy the glory of God’s presence forever. These are bodies that will be suited to endure the flames of hell forever.

And you see verse 14: “Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.” Death and Hades; those who have been in Hades have been called now resurrected and brought before the Great White Throne and everybody at the Great White Throne is going to hell. The Book of Life is here to show their names are not written there.

So unbelievers die. They immediately, the moment death occurs, they close their eyes, breath their last breath. They are immediately alert, alive spiritually, in their spirit in the sufferings of Hades, in a fire as described in Luke 16 and there is no future. The only relief will be when they are called out of that to stand before Christ and receive their final sentencing to an eternal hell and the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever into the ages of the ages.

So they are in prison now. People have these silly ideas that they concoct in their disobedience. They don’t want to believe it. I don’t believe God would do that. Well, you are disobedient. He is the God who cannot lie. You can talk to people all day long.

I did a funeral a few years ago and I talked about glories that await the believers since it was a believers’ funeral, the beauties of the New Jerusalem. Then I said the sad thing is not everybody is going there and I talked about hell. Some people afterwards, I was told, remarked how inappropriate it was at that funeral to talk about hell. Of course it is always appropriate to talk about heaven but people need to know not everybody is going there. So that is the spirits who are in prison.

Come back to I Peter chapter 3. They were in prison as Peter wrote because they were disobedient in the days of Noah. They died in the flood. He uses that as an example. Any period of time could be used of people but he has a purpose here because he is going to use the flood of Noah and compare that to water baptism. The only people that were saved during the time that Noah built the ark were eight people, Noah and his wife and his three sons and their wives. Wouldn’t call it an effective ministry but it was because God was using it; a few, eight persons. We ought to be aware. The gate is broad and the way is wide that leads to destruction. The gate is narrow and the road is narrow that leads to life. There are many going through the broad gate traveling the broad road. There are few that enter the narrow gate and travel the narrow road.

Isn’t it interesting how many people can quote Bible verse and quote something that Jesus said and say out of the beatitudes, “Blessed are the poor” and have no understanding who the poor are that He is talking about but nobody wants to talk about Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me.” It’s that which Noah had to preach. Judgment is coming. The only escape from judgments is in the God who can be the Savior.

So eight persons were brought safely through the water and I think that is a good translation. Some just say we are saved through water. It is the word to save but in the context he is talking about they were saved through the water. They are waters of judgment that wiped out the world. Think about that. Noah gets on the ark with his family and two of each kind of creature and gets off the ark and all the people and all those air breathing animals, they are gone. The only life like that left was what was on the ark. It is amazing. That is the judgment that wipes away all the unbelievers. That’s the picture here but Noah was brought safely through the water. God brought him through the waters of judgment.

“Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you.” Well that is an interesting way to put it; an interesting analogy and picture that Peter uses. Baptism now saves you. There is a correspondence of that with Noah being saved through the water, their salvation. They were spared the judgment of God. Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you. There will be a picture that corresponds to the picture of Noah coming through the water. Now the waters were waters of judgment. Noah wasn’t saved by being in the water. He was brought safely through the water. While baptism now saves you, not the removal of dirt from the flesh, not going down under the water and coming back out but an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So back to the point that he made in verse 18: “Christ died for sins, once for all; the just for the unjust that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, made alive in the spirit.” And now that work of Christ and His subsequent resurrection is what brings salvation from judgment to us.

So what is pictured in baptism? We die with Christ. We are buried with Christ and we are raised with Christ. So the waters picture in that sense the judgment that we are brought through safely because we are identified with Christ in His death, His burial and His resurrection. So we have new life in Him.

For the unbeliever he will die but he is paying the penalty for his sins so he is buried. He doesn’t have the hope. He comes under the judgment that we are spared. The penalty for sin is death. That is pictured being buried. That is part of the Gospel remember, I Corinthians 15: “Christ died for our sins according to the Scripture. He was buried.” That’s a picture of the judgment of death on sin. That is what we are depicting. I have been identified with Christ in His death, His burial but I have come safely through because of His resurrection. It is through the resurrection of Christ I am raised. Now the people make this and say, “Well, baptism saves you. See there it is.” Well, you can prove just about anything if you just take pieces of Scripture out, right? People pull out, God is love. Some that they build all their theology since God is love He could never send anyone to hell and since He is a God of love He must love everybody to save and therefore everybody is loved by God so everybody will be part of God’s family. So we are all part of God’s family. Well wait a minute. You have only taken a piece and you don’t have the true understanding of that. You don’t understand that this is the great demonstration of God’s love for us “That while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” and why did He die for us, because we are under judgment.

So the connection here is just like Moses was brought safely through the waters of judgment, spared the judgment that comes on the unbeliever. So we have come through safely the judgment that we deserved but are not part of because of the provision for us in Christ. You know Noah was a saved man before the flood so to say he was saved through the water. He was saved before the water.

Come back to Genesis chapter 6 and we are told in verse 8: “Now Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. And these are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man. Noah walked with God.” That is the same thing that was said about Enoch, remember, back in chapter 5, verse 22 and verse 24. Walking with God meant you had a relationship with Him. You were in fellowship with Him just like we talk as believers. We are privileged to walk with God every day.

Noah was a righteous man. This is before the flood. He’s the preacher of righteousness. That’s the picture that we have. So Noah is saved and the picture of the ark is he comes safely through the judgment because of the righteousness he had as a result of his faith in God. It doesn’t mean he understood everything. He had the fullness of the revelation we have but there is an amazing amount of revelation that had been given because Enoch even before Noah preached about the coming of the Lord with thousands to execute judgment on the ungodly. So he had revealed himself and it was being proclaimed by righteous individuals even though the full record of what they were proclaiming was not recorded for us. We don’t have a book of the writings of Enoch but the Spirit was working in and through him. We don’t have a record of the content of what Noah was preaching but we have the summary of it when we come to the New Testament. He was a righteous man preaching righteousness. He understood the need for righteousness. That goes back to the beginning when Cain and Abel offered sacrifices. Obviously God had revealed to them His will. Because of sin there must be a sacrifice and we see that pictured in Him making clothing for Adam and Eve after their sin of animal skins. So that picture.

The need for righteousness goes soon as sin enters the human race there is the need for cleansing, forgiveness and the provision of God’s righteousness. He’s done that in mercy. The angels sinned and He has never intervened on their behalf to provide salvation. Their sin fixed their destiny forever.

So in verse 21, “corresponding to that baptism now saves you,” not the removal of dirt from the flesh, not that external physical action but an appeal to God for a good conscience. He has cleansed our conscience. We saw this when we studies Hebrews; cleansed within. This happens through the resurrection of Christ.

Come back to Romans chapter 6. The chapter begins: “What shall we say then, are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase, may it never be. How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father so we too might walk in newness of life. If we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death certainly we shall be in the likeness of His resurrection.” That’s the picture. “Knowing this our old man was crucified with Him in order that our body of sin might be done away with so that we would no longer be slaves to sin.” That work, identified with Him and it was the work of the Spirit in our hearts. “By one Spirit we have all been baptized into one body,” I Corinthians 12:13.

Physical baptism is just a manifestation of what takes place within. In that sense it’s similar to what circumcision was for the Jews in the Old Testament and the error is made with physical baptism the same as the Jews made with physical circumcision. They began to think as long as you were physically circumcised that’s what was necessary for salvation but all the way back in the book of Deuteronomy God says you have to have a circumcised heart. Circumcision was just a physical sign and manifestation. That’s what it was supposed to be about people that belonged to Him who had had their hearts, the sin of their hearts removed.

So here, baptism pictures that. When we go down we are buried with Him but we come back out of that picturing our resurrection to new life and now we are alive in this physical body but we are alive as a new man. We were raised with Him. There is no language like that for the unbeliever. His spirit leaves his body and goes to an eternal hell. You need spiritual life so that you don’t have to bear the full penalty of sin.

Come over to the book of Colossians and you will see that comparison I just made with circumcision. There is always the move to put the emphasis on the physical. I was watching the funeral that was held in Washington for one of the Supreme Court justices who had died, a Roman Catholic funeral. You have to be in awe of the magnificence of that cathedral, the beauty of it, the splendor of it. Everything is the form, the priest and their proper outfits and their various different outfits reflecting their position and numbers of them and going through the ritual reading and some of what they read from Scripture, you know, the Scripture is true but their understanding of it is false and they are going through all of this and their offering to sacrifice of the mass which is the un-bloody re-sacrificing of the body of Christ. You have all this external form and the pomp and then you walk out and you move the incense around and then you take the holy water and you sprinkle it and it is all external form and the form supposedly becomes a reality because if you partake of this, if you experience physical baptism and you partake of the physical body of Christ in these elements this wafer and this wine you are saved. It always moves toward things, external things, and physical things.

I was listening to a priest who was interviewed and he said, “You know if you were baptized you are saved.” Now you need to develop that salvation through going through all these other forms, the physical sacraments and the Protestants are no different.

Look in Colossians chapter 2 in warning, verse 8: “Let no one take you captive through philosophy, empty deceptions according to the traditions of men, according to the elementary principles of the world according to Christ for in Him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form and you have been made complete in Him.” “He has head over all rule and authority. In Him you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.” It took place in the heart. What the numerous Old Testament passages, Deuteronomy 10:16, chapter 30 verse, Jeremiah chapter 4, verse 4; you have to have a heart where sin in removed in the heart. Israel came to the position they thought being a circumcised Jew that was your path in. Now you do the other things just as part of maintaining that salvation but you note where he goes with the next picture, verse 12: “Having been buried with Him in baptism in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God who raised Him from the dead. You were dead in your transgressions, the uncircumcision of the flesh. He made you alive.” In chapter 2, again you have these supposedly converted Jewish teachers that we call Judaizes saying you need the law; you need the physical circumcision, physical baptism. All these things are just physical pictures but if the spiritual reality has not occurred it is just a physical action.

You know in a way it is pitiful to see so many people stand there and think they are sharing in this mass and boy, I am safe, and here I am. You know they are taken in. There is a mood, a sense of awe but that is not what is genuine. So what we are talking about with Peter. This is accomplished.

Come back to I Peter chapter 3. This is through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. We have come to God and appealed to Him and we get a good conscience and that is what we noted in Hebrews. We are cleansed from an evil conscience. He’s cleansed us within. Now we do water baptism but we baptize people who haven’t really been identified spiritually with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection. All they did was get wet. It did nothing any more than the Jews who didn’t believe who got circumcised. It did nothing for them spiritually. All these things do is cause people to put their faith and confidence in a false hope. So it is through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and He is at the right hand of God. He’s the one who is at the right hand of God. Now this comes from Psalm 110, verse 1 which is quoted a number of times through the New Testament. We won’t look through these references but you know, “Sit at My right hand until I make your enemies the footstool for your feet.” He is the One who is our High Priest. He is seated in heaven. We don’t have physical sacrifices in that sense going on to deal with sin. We have things that can be called sacrifice, we present our bodies as a living sacrifice but all we do is to be done to please and honor Him because these bodies belong to Him but we aren’t doing sacrifices for the remission of sins or so on. “He’s at the right hand of God.” The victory has been accomplished. It’s done. This refers to His ascension. He not only was raised from the dead. He was seated at the right hand of the Father, the position of authority, the position of power. It’s the demonstration. He is the victor. He has accomplished the victory. He has defeated sin and Satan. It’s His power. “At the right hand of God having gone into heaven after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him.”

Back to Ephesians chapter 1, verse 22 and you have one of these long sentences of Paul and he is praying for them that they might know, verse 18: “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.” We talked about earlier in II Corinthians chapter 13 that power working in believers. That is the same power that brought about the resurrection of Christ. “These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenlies far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named not only in this age but in the age to come. He put all things in subjection under His feet. Gave Him as head over all things to the church which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” All angelic authorities, angelic beings, He rules over all and He has brought about our redemption.

When you come over to Colossians chapter 2, verse 13: “When you were dead” and in this context we just read verses 11 and 12 of the spiritual circumcision, the spiritual baptism that takes place. Verse 13: “You were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions. Having cancelled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree.” And the picture just like from Pilate’s perspective He is being crucified from the Roman perspective because He declared Himself to be King of the Jews and He didn’t have Roman authority to do that but from the spiritual perspective the picture put it is our sins nailed to that cross. That is why He is dying. So He is bearing our sins in His body, paying our penalty because of our sin, He is our substitute. “When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.” And the indication of this seems clearly to be remember in John’s Gospel, chapter 12? Turn to John chapter 12. It will stick in your mind more if you see it. John chapter 12 and verse 31: “Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth,” and that is the picture as you are aware of the crucifixion where they laid that cross down. They didn’t nail you while the cross was up. That would be very difficult holding the person up and trying to nail them. They laid the cross down on the ground. They laid the person on the cross, nailed him to it then they lifted the cross up and put it in the ground. So lifting the person up like that was a metaphoric picture of crucifixion. “If I am lifted up from the earth will draw all men to Myself.” He was saying this to indicate the kind of death He would die. It was an indication; it’s going to be a crucifixion because you know it’s like us. We would say somebody is going to be gassed. Well we know they are going to the gas chamber. They are going to be electrocuted for their crime. Well we know that means they are going to the electric chair. He is going to be lifted up. That meant that He was going to be crucified. What happens? “Now judgment is on this world. Now the ruler of this world will be cast out.”

So when Colossians 2 said He made a display of these conquered angelic beings I take it in the spirit world there was that demonstration that He had broken the power of the devil. He asserted himself when Adam submitted himself in effect to the devil just like Satan tried to get Christ to in His temptation. “Bow down before me and I will give you all the kingdoms of the world because they have been given to me, to my authority.” Now Christ stands before them and leads them before all angels I take it that they have been defeated. They have lost, they have been conquered. Obviously God could have destroyed them immediately but God in His provision of Christ is now the victorious One, has made possible the redemption of fallen humanity and the devil can’t undo that. So the victory has been won. That is why we live as those who have the victory and the end is sure. So the picture here of the victory we have in Christ and that is to be an encouragement in every situation.

Come to one more passage, Romans chapter 8. To encourage us, no matter what we go through, no matter the kind of opposition you face, no matter what kind of suffering you entail, no matter the greatness of the persecution we win. Just when Christ was being crucified on the cross He wasn’t being defeated. He was bringing victory for those He would redeem and He was bringing judgment to those who would not believe. In Romans chapter 8 then we have this laid out down in verse 31: “What shall we say then to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” Now note this. “Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the One who justifies. Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who intercedes for us.” So you see a similarity in connection and language with what Peter has written about. About Noah and his family brought through the waters of judgment safely, saved from judgment just like baptism pictures our salvation from judgment because the grave can’t hold us. We have been raised with Christ to new life so it connects it to the resurrection of Christ, connects it to the victory of Christ who is sovereign over all. So Satan can’t assert re-authority over me as the child of God because God has justified me. I am righteous in Him and when God credits you with His righteousness you are brought safely through any judgment as Noah was. Noah was righteous. He has brought the ark through the waters of judgment. In Christ we are brought through the judgment. Death can’t hold us anymore than it held Christ. And even its hold on our physical bodies is temporary because the resurrection of Christ assures the final completion of our salvation with a resurrected, glorified body.

So verse 38 even though we go through all kinds of persecution, same kind of context that Peter is writing about. “What shall separate us from the love of Christ, tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword? Just as it is written, ‘For your sake we are being put to death all day long. We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loves us.’”

You see we have been brought victoriously through judgment. These things that we suffer perhaps here and now are temporary as Jesus said, “Don’t fear those who can kill the body but afterwards can’t kill the soul but you better fear him who has the power to not only kill the body but to kill the soul by casting it into an eternal hell.”

God is to be feared. We live in a world where there is no fear of God but that is not new. That was true in the days of Enoch. That was true in the days of Noah, the preacher of righteousness. We think our world is bad. He ends up with only eight people and a boat load of animals; only eight people. He is a preacher of righteousness and the spirit of God is working through him and they were all disobedient.

Look around here in our auditorium this evening, what we have. But don’t be discouraged. Noah didn’t need to be discouraged. He was going to come safely through judgment. We don’t need to be discouraged. We have been preserved from judgment so “I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,” same kind of things brought into the context. We don’t have to fear the devil. There is a proper respect and recognition of his power but I don’t fear he will re-assert a control over me. He can’t make me sin. He can’t. Now sadly, he sometimes is successful in luring us to sin. “I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” That is the same thing that Peter says in a little more concise way that He is seated at the right hand of the Father and all angelic powers of men have been subjected to Him. Well since I am in Him, He loves me, I am righteous in Him. Everything is good. So that is the picture at the end of Peter. It is to encourage. It’s not to confuse. Preachers confuse but Peter is clear. Be encouraged through your suffering, through your trials. Look back at Noah. Don’t get discouraged. You are being faithful. You are giving out the Gospel. Seems nothing is happening. God is always at work and the preaching of righteous through Noah was not a failure because it confronted an unbelieving, disobedient world with the truth of God’s righteousness and the seriousness of sin, the warning of judgment. If that is what God chooses to do with our proclamation, fine; if it stirs opposition that it is the Lord’s hands; if it is His will that we suffer for doing what is right but we understand we are in a good position. We are like Noah. The waters of judgment won’t touch us. We come safely through. We have been resurrected spiritually to newness of life and that will ultimately see its completion with our bodily resurrection to glorified life and it is assured because Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father. He has gone into heaven after angels and authorities and powers have been subjected to Him.

So the power of sin has been broken; the authority of Satan over me. No longer is it said of us as God’s children, you are of your father, the devil. It is said of very religious people but it can’t be said of us because God is our Father and the devil has no right to me, has no authority over me and I do not serve him. That is our encouragement. We face trials, tribulation, knowing who we are and what God has done for us.

Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord for Your grace, the wonder of our salvation. So great a salvation that the victory of our Savior was declared and demonstrated through the angelic realm that You, the awesome God not only could but You did provide salvation for sinful humanity. The power of the devil has been broken. His authority, he is defeated and Lord by Your grace through faith in Christ we are set free. We are assured the judgment will not touch us. We will come safety through because we have received new life in Christ. Thank You for the picture of Your power bringing Noah through a judgment that swept away the entire world. Even though we live in a world of unbelief and disobedience we are not discouraged. We believe you have put us here as Your servants to serve You with faithfulness even as Noah did to proclaim righteousness to a world that is condemned by its sin. May we be faithful we pray in Christ’s name, amen.