1 Peter, Part 6

Okay, we are in the book of 1 Peter. We got up the last Bible study through verse 7. 1 Peter 3.7. So we're going to see if we can go beyond that today.

The last Bible study I went back and reviewed a little bit of the background and history of the book. And I don't think that I have to do that each time. I might mention that one thing I notice in just going over and preparing for this, because I prepared for chapters 3, 4, and 5 here today, was the fact that 1 Peter has a tremendous emphasis on trials and suffering, especially the term suffering. And as we go through this, you will see that if you're going through a severe trial, severe test, or you've been suffering, that this is a good book to go back and read, because he helps to put everything in perspective.

So from that viewpoint, I think you'll find this book very helpful. So let's begin in verse 8. You'll notice the section through here. It says, Finally, all of you, be of one mind, having compassion for one another, love as brothers, be tender-hearted, be courteous, and it says, not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing. Now, the first seven verses of this chapter, as we know, focused on marriage, and the example of Jesus Christ, and how that example could be applied in marriage.

Now, the following verses could be extended that direction, but they are principles that I think that He's applying to the whole congregation. Notice, be of one mind, it says. Actually, the word means to be like-minded. They have unity of thought, unity of feeling. Doesn't imply that we would feel exactly like on every little tiny insignificant thing that pops up. But that we would be like-minded in basic doctrine and practice. What we practice, our doctrine, our belief, our teaching, that we would be like-minded.

And as He says here, having compassion, actually, this is a Greek word from which we get the word sympathy. It's made up of two Greek words, one that means to feel, and the other one that means with. So it means to feel with, or a better way of expressing that would be fellow feeling. That you feel the same as the other person does. You might remember the verse back in Romans 12-15, where it says to rejoice with those who rejoice, and to weep with those who weep.

Well, again, that's sympathy, that's sympathy, that you feel for those. If they're weeping, you weep. If they rejoice, you rejoice. Now, it also mentions that we are to be tender-hearted. In the Roman world, in Greek world, being tender-hearted was considered a flaw. It was a weakness. If you were a Roman or Greek, and especially if you were a man, you're masculine. To be tender-hearted would be considered a flaw.

But in God's mind, being tender-hearted is not. Because the very word itself implies that you have a heart that is tender, that can be touched, that can be reached. That you're not, the opposite might be, being hard-hearted.

And today, we see so many people who tend to be hard-hearted in their approach. And then it says also that we should be courteous. And actually, that word means to be humble, have a modest opinion of oneself. Now, we are not to return evil for evil. In the world, you return evil for evil. You hit me, I hit you. You hit me a little harder, I hit you a little harder. And you get back at the person. The word reviling means to insult. So it's saying don't, if you're insulted, you don't come back and try to top his insult and put the other person down.

But on the contrary, you bless. Now that runs just the opposite of human nature. Somebody's doing you dirt. Your neighbor is doing you bad, insults you, calls you every name. And for you to turn around and bless him, go pray for him. And ask God to pour out a blessing on him. Most of us would go say, Father, so-and-so has been mistreating me. Get him. You know, I'm not going to do anything, but I expect you to pour hot oil on him. Or whatever it is that you'd like to see happen to him. No, you pray for your enemies. Mr. Armstrong, when he was alive, used to say that he prayed for his enemies first.

And then he prayed for others. Well, you and I need to pray for those who abuse us. Now, beginning in verse 10, we have a quote from the Old Testament from Psalm 34. It says, For he who would love life, see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking guile, let him turn away from evil, do good, let him seek peace, pursue it.

I think we have a song that has those words in it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayers, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. Okay, those who would love life. If you're alive, you might as well love life instead of hating life. So if you're going to love life, and you want to see good days instead of all the days being bad. Some days you go to bed, and you say, this was a bad day.

This wasn't a good day. But if you want good days, what does it tell you to do? Watch your tongue. Watch what you say. Watch how you say it. The word in the Greek implies restraining. You put a restraint. Because the easiest thing to do is to blurt the first thing out that comes to your mind. And every time I do that, I get into trouble. Because the first thing, especially if you get angry or you're upset, is not the right thing to do.

So we are to refrain from evil and from speaking deceit. So deceit would be to mislead, to misguide, misdirect. You know, we shouldn't do that. Turn away from evil and do good. See, it's not good enough to just stop doing evil. When God called you into the church and you were baptized, you were told to repent. So you had to stop doing evil. But you know what God requires of you?

Start doing good. You know, the others imply. When you stop doing evil, you might have stopped keeping Sunday, you stop keeping pagan holidays, stop wrong business practices, stop the whole lot of things. Okay, so you stop the evil, but then what are you going to put in place? Well, you start keeping the Sabbath. You start supporting the work of God in tithing. You start treating, if you're in a business, you start treating your employees and those that you serve in a right way.

So you go from evil to good. And then it says, reason for this is because God's eyes, God's ears, and God's face is looking at you, observing what's going on. Notice the eyes of the Lord are open to the righteous. His ears are open to their prayers. Now, it's emphasizing a certain class of people. They're called righteous. They are people who are doing what's right. That God hears. He sees.

But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. Now, in the Hebrew, God's face is an expression that implies personal attention. That God is giving you personal attention. Now, when His face is turned toward someone, that implies He's going to bless you. When His face is against someone, He's not going to hear. He's not going to bless you. So we want God's face towards us, not against us. Now, going on in verse 13, And who is He who will harm you if you become followers of what is good? So, it says, who's going to harm you? Are Christians ever harmed?

And the answer is yes. Do Christians ever die? Well, I can cite several in the Bible who were martyred, who were killed, who were beaten. Take Paul. How many times was he thrown in prison? How many times shipwrecked? How many times stoned? How many times had to run for his life? So, I don't think it's saying that if you are a Christian all at once, there is a bubble around you, and you become God's bubble people, and nothing can bother you.

Bacteria can't get at you. Viruses can't touch you. If you're in a car and it's an erect, it can't hurt you. That's not what this is saying. The sense must be they can't do any ultimate harm to you. See, in the long run, even though they may take your life, even though they may insult you, may do all kinds of things in this life, in the long run, it's impossible for anyone to harm God's elect.

Because God promises to resurrect us, He promises to give us eternal life, a new body, positions in the kingdom, and all these people who may have been causing you trouble, guess what? One day they will be resurrected. And one day you may have an opportunity to bring them to salvation.

Now, notice I didn't say to beat them over the head or hurt them, but to help them achieve the kingdom of God. So, says, who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good? Actually, the word followers, it's interesting, means a zealot. Not just following somebody, but you are zealously following them. Arguably following them. Verse 14, But even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, or you suffer because you are doing what is right, you are blessed, and do not be afraid of their threats nor be troubled.

So, you and I are to count our blessings, even though we are suffering for righteousness sake. Now, you want to make sure you suffer for righteousness sake, not for unrighteousness sake, not for evil, but for what is righteous. God says you will be blessed.

All of us suffer simply because we are human. All human beings suffer from time to time. What we want to make sure is that we are never suffering for doing what's wrong. If you suffer for righteousness, or if you suffer, you are married, your mate is not in the church.

You obey God, and they cause you all kinds of problems. You may be suffering as a result of that. You still obey God. You may lose your job because you refuse to work on the Sabbath. You may get ridiculed because you tithe, or you go to the feast. You take a week off. You're told if you take a week off and go to the feast, you've lost your job. And yet, you still obey God. By going to the feast, by doing what God says, you will be blessed.

And God promises to bless us in this life, and certainly in the world to come. Verse 15, But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready to give a defense. Or I think King James version says, Answer to everyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and with fear. Okay, first of all, it says, Sanctify you God in your heart.

That means that you set God apart. He has a unique place in your life, in your mind, in your thoughts.

And you and I are to be ready to give a defense. The word does mean answer. Actually, in the Greek, the word here could refer to a formal inquiry by civil authorities. But it's basically just talking about somebody comes, and they're sincerely asking you, Why do you keep Saturday instead of Sunday?

Everybody keeps Sunday. Why are you keeping Saturday? Can you and I give a reasonable and intelligent answer?

We may give a reasonable answer, maybe not an intelligent answer, but we should be able to give an answer for what we believe. That means that what we believe, we have thought it out. We've considered it. And we're not just keeping the Sabbath. Okay, God commands it, yes. But why does God command it?

We should be able to say, Well, God commands it. It's part of His law.

It's mentioned in both the Old Testament and the New Testament.

The Lord's Day is the Sabbath. And you could give any number of reasons as to why you might keep it. So, a Christian has to go through the mental and spiritual toil of thinking out his faith.

Why am I doing what I'm doing? Why do I do all of these things? So, it has to be in our heart.

Notice it says, For the hope that is in you. What is our hope? Well, it's the hope of the kingdom of God, the resurrection. And we need to have the defense of that.

Now, it says with meekness and fear. How many times have you known religious people who become very argumentative, very arrogant or adamant when it comes to discussing the Bible? They will argue with you. They will try to back you in the corner. They will jump all over you.

Yet, the Bible says you and I are to do it in meekness and in fear. We're not to be belligerent, but we are to have fear of God. And in meekness, we try to explain to others. In verse 16, having a good conscience that when they defame you. So, we've got to realize that people will defame you when you do what's right.

They defame you as evildoers. They'll call you evildoers that you're not doing what's right.

Those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed.

And notice verse 17, for it is better if it is the will of God to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.

So, we're going to suffer. Do it for good, not for evil.

So, there will be people who will speak maliciously of you, make fun of you, ridicule you, put you down, insult you, threaten you, all kinds of things. And maybe years ago, especially when you were first coming into the church, most of you have moved beyond that with your families. But how many of us, when we first came into the church, had trouble from our families, had trouble from relatives or parents?

What did Christ say? That a man's enemies would be those of his own household.

That he would set a man against his parents, a daughter against her mother.

And the Bible indicates that we would have that type of problem.

So, it's possible to do what is good and still suffer for it from others.

Doing good is no guarantee that you will never suffer.

If our conscience is clear, then we know we're doing what's right, then we realize that we can have a good conscience before God.

Now, in verse 18, it says, the word for here means, because Christ also suffered.

So, you see, if we suffer, then don't worry, Christ suffered also. Christ also suffered once for sins.

He's not going to come back and suffer again and again and again for sins. He did it once, the just for the unjust.

He never sinned.

Yet, look at the ridicule they made of him.

That he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive by the Spirit.

So, when it says, he suffered once for sin, it means once and for all. That's it. He's done it for all mankind.

That he might bring us to God. That he might heal the breach between us and God.

There is a huge chasm that separates human beings from God.

You know what it is?

It's called the sin pit. All of our sins are like a mountain.

And Christ comes along.

He shed his blood. He was sacrificed. God says, okay, if you accept him, accept his sacrifice, repent, you're sorry.

Then I'll apply his sins.

All it wants is just like that mountain disappears.

It could have been a valley full of blood, but now it's white as snow. God forgives us of all of our sins. Our sins have separated us from God.

The word here, it says, brings us to God.

It is a technical term.

Anciently, in the court of the king, there was a gentleman who was an official, who was called the introducer.

He gave access to the king.

He didn't have access to the king unless he said so.

So you come and you talk to him first. Not just anybody could come to the king.

So you'd come, you'd make your petition, he'd listen, he said, no, king doesn't want to hear that. Get out of here.

So what we find through Christ, through his sacrifice, what he suffered, then we can come to the king. We can come to the father.

And we will have access to him.

So through Jesus Christ, then, we can come to the very throne of God, the throne of mercy.

Then verse 19 here, verse 19 says, by whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison.

Now verse 19 is a scripture that gets all confused in people's minds.

Notice it says, well verse 19 and 20, let me read it here, says by whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison who formerly were disobedient, when once the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is eight souls, were saved through the water.

Now if you were listening to Mr. Duckett's sermonette, you will know that when Jesus Christ died, he was dead.

There was no thought. When Christ died, he didn't fled off somewhere else and pretend he was dead.

He was dead. And the Bible refers to the fact that when you die, the spirit returns to God who gave it, the spirit in man, and then in the resurrection, God puts that spirit, spirit body, or when it comes to the physical resurrection, second resurrection, you'll take that spirit, put it back into a human body, and people will live again. And they will have their mind, they will have their memory and character, and so on. So Christ, when he was in the grave for three days, three nights, was dead for three days and three nights. I mentioned to you the doctrine of doceticism, and it's a doctrine that was being proclaimed and taught back at that time that Christ was not really human because they couldn't see that he would die. They thought he only appeared in the flesh, or that before Christ was actually crucified, that he left the body, the body died, but he returned to God. Well, that's not what the Scripture indicates here. Let's read this very carefully and see what it says.

Notice what it says here that you might bring us to God in verse 18, being put to death in the flesh. Christ was God in the flesh, so he died in the flesh. He was a human being, God in the flesh, but he was made alive by the Spirit, or in the Spirit. It could be simply translated in Spirit.

He became Spirit by which, it says by whom, but it means actually in the Greek by which also he went and preached to the spirits in prison. The words by his Spirit at some time, now let's don't assume when, but let's just read what verse 19 tells us. It says that Christ went and preached to spirits in prison. So there are spirits who are in prison.

Which spirits are those? Well, those are demons. Satan and his demons, but especially the demons. They today are in prison as far as this earth. Their restraint is basically what it's referring to.

Apparently, constrained to the earth, and they're limited. Now, he went and preached to them.

Now, a lot of people will say, well, this shows that the demons could be saved, because he went and tried to convert them. That's not what it says. He went and preached to the spirits in prison. Doesn't say what he said to them, but the implication is he warned them. He admonished them. He indicted them. He told them that even though God was going to destroy the earth with water, and all human beings were going to die except the eight in the ark, that God's plan was still going to be carried out. Even though they might think that they had triumphed, and all of these millions of people dying in the flood, no, God was still going to carry his plan out.

And that he was going to protect them. So, he went to preach to spirits.

That is never a term that is applied to human beings. So, it obviously is referring to angelic beings. Now, notice verse 20. Who formerly were disobedient.

Okay, now we get a little clue. Who are these spirits? Well, they, that he went to preach to, they were formerly disobedient. When were they disobedient? When did they disobey? Well, they disobeyed way back here sometime in time, or before time.

You know, they disobeyed, they followed Lucifer in rebellion against God.

And this was before God recreated the heavens and the earth in Genesis chapter 1. So, they were disobedient. When once, I want you to notice that we have a parenthetical expression here.

Let's go back to verse 19 again. It says, by whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison.

Parentheses. Who formerly were disobedient. In parentheses. When? Okay, he went and preached to spirits in prison. When? Once the divine long suffering waited in the days of Noah.

When did he go preach? During the days of Noah. That's why he said, he told them, look, you may think that, you know, because we're going to destroy all these human beings, that you have got the upper hand, and you're going to try up, or, you know, our plan has been thwarted. Forget it. You know, it's going to be carried out, and we're just going to carry on through Noah and his family.

So, you have a parenthetical statement, who formerly were disobedient.

So, he went and preached when once the divine long suffering waited in the days of Noah. While the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls were saved through water. So, you find that this is very clear.

The preaching took place during the days of Noah.

The fallen angels had disobeyed somewhere in the past. It doesn't tell you when, it just says, they formerly were disobedient. So, you know, it tells you who they are.

So, he was not offering salvation to them, because they had already turned their back on God.

When you turn your back on God and totally reject Him in His way, you've had it.

And, you know, the angels are not going to be, I'm talking about the demons, to be offered salvation.

Now, let's notice here in verse 21, it says, this is also an anotype.

So, we've got a type, anotype here, which now saves us.

What is the anotype? Well, baptism.

But, notice another parenthetical statement.

Not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God.

So, if you read this, this is also an anotype which now saves us. Baptism through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

So, the flood waters cleanse the earth of sinful man.

You know, God destroyed sinful man and what he had done. You and I, now, are cleansed of our sins when we're baptized.

But, as it says here, it's much more than just the removal of the filthy flesh. In other words, having the filth removed.

Baptism is not just removing physical dirt, but it cleans the mind and the heart. What happens when we're baptized? When we're baptized, it's for the remission of sins. Our sins are forgiven. We rise up and now, for the first time in our life, we stand before God, cleanse, pure, no sin to our charge. Then a minister lays hands on us and we receive God's Holy Spirit. So, it gives us a clean conscience before God.

Because when you're baptized and your past sins are forgiven, you rise up, you know for the first time in your life you're not guilty before God. That guilt or those sins have been taken. And so, you have a clean conscience, as it goes on to say here, but the answer of a good conscience toward God. Now, it means here the pledge to God of a good conscience.

The word here that is used is actually, the word for answer means pledged.

It is a word that was used in every business contract that was drawn up at that time.

The question was always asked in a business contract, do you accept the terms of this contract?

And the answer before the witnesses were yes or no. You know, if you said yes, you accepted it.

Now, when you are baptized, you come before God and God asks the question, do you accept my son as your personal Savior?

Do you accept my way of life?

Do you put me first?

Do you accept the terms of my service of obedience?

And you and I, when we are baptized, we must say yes.

You're part of the ceremony we go through. We ask, have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, your Lord, Master, and soon-coming King?

You know, have you repented of your sins, which are the transgression of God's holy and righteous law?

You know, and as a result of that, we go on.

So what you find here is you and I, then, can have our conscience cleansed.

Prior to forgiveness through baptism, our conscience always condemns us for doing wrong, for being sinful. Through forgiveness, it is now possible to have a good conscience towards God. And when we sin, we can go to God, we can repent, and guess what? We can have that sin removed, and we can have a clear conscience before God again.

Now, verse 22, talking about Christ who has gone into heaven, is that the right hand of God and angels and authorities and powers, having been made subject to Him. So you find Jesus Christ has ascended to heaven, and all power has been given to Him, and the angels, authorities, and all power are subjected to Him.

So you and I, then, are to conduct ourselves, knowing that Jesus Christ is in charge of all things, and that He is responsible, and that He's ahead of the Church, and that you and I must submit to Him and obey Him.

Okay, that brings us to the end of chapter 3.

Now, let's go on over to chapter 4.

I had originally hoped we'd finish this book. I'm not sure we will have to see here.

Now, notice again the theme of suffering being carried over into chapter 4.

Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, so all of these verses in the flesh, in the flesh, we've read a couple of times in the last two chapters, show that Christ came, was born of a woman, and He was in the flesh. Arm yourself also with the same mind, for He who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin.

Now, that's a mouthful. Has ceased from sin.

Now, it's interesting the word arm yourself is a translation of a Greek word that applies to a Roman soldier who would put on his armor and gather up his weapon and go off to battle.

Now, not only does it say to arm yourself, but it has as the root to heavily arm. It's talking about a heavily armed foot soldier who carried a pike and a large shield. So, it's talking about someone being heavily armed as opposed to somebody being lightly armed. Just having a little male put on them. They're heavily armed.

So, you and I are told to heavily arm ourselves so that we might have the same mind.

That we would have the same way of thinking and thought, determination, that Christ did.

For he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin.

Now, when the Christian arms himself or herself with the mind of Christ, as we find in Philippians 2.5, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

And we go through trials in the flesh, especially where we suffer. The enslaving power of sin has been broken. It doesn't mean that we don't sin.

But in the past, we have been dominated by sin, have we not? Before we were converted, sin ruled over us. It dominated us. It controlled us.

Now, we have gotten release from sin. The word cease can be translated, gotten release.

So you and I have gotten released from sin. In other words, from it stranglehold.

It's like somebody who is wrestling, and the person you're wrestling against is a 500-pound sumo wrestler. And he's sitting on you. He's got you. And you can barely breathe. You can hardly move. Here you are, 130-pound weakling, 500-pound sumo wrestler sitting on you. And he's got you in his grip. He's not going to let you go.

And you do what this verse says, and all at once, God gives you the strength, and the sumo wrestler, you push aside. Well, where did I get that power? Well, you've been released from his grip. And the same thing is true, that sin is no longer, as other verses in the Bible says, to dominate us, to control us, to rule us. We are to overcome it. So therefore, we have ceased, or gotten released, from sin.

Then verse 2, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lust of men, but for the will of God. Now, in the past, we've all been motivated by the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life. And this clearly shows that that power can be broken, and we can begin to live an entirely different life. As a Christian, we are to be a different person, a different individual. We're not to be the same way that we used to, or the way of this world.

So how have we been in the past? Well, verse 3, For we have spent enough of our past lifetime, this is talking about pre-conversion days, our past lifetime, in doing the will of the Gentiles.

So in the past, we just followed the way of the Gentiles, the way of society, the way of culture, the way of the world, just the way the Gentiles lived when we walked in. And I want you to notice here, it talks here, I think there are six of these things that are mentioned, that there are six forms of sensuality mentioned here. Three of them are personal, and three of them are social in their nature. So in the past, we followed the way of life of the people, the world around us, who didn't know God, of the Gentiles, the unconverted.

And notice here, it mentions lewdness, lust, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. Ludeness means debauchery, lasciviousness, actions that excite, discuss, and shock public decency. There is not a whole lot today that shocks public decency, but that's what this is talking about, you know, that even the public is shocked over what they see. Lust is any inordinate desire, especially one which is harmful. Drunkenness refers to excess of wine. It means exactly what it's talking about. Somebody who gets drunk loses control of themselves. Revelries are orgies, getting involved in orgies. Drinking parties are drinking bouts, where you get together, a big group of people, everybody's drinking. The first thing you forget, well, you know, I've had six martinis, five glasses of wine, two beers, three, you know, an impaired tree. And you've drunk all of these things. You forget what you're doing. And the first thing you know, you're drunk. Then abominable idolatries are detestable idolatry.

So you'll find here, he enumerates and clarifies a little bit what the will of the Gentiles is, the ways of this world. Then in verse 4, when you and I are called, in other words, this is the way we were pre-conversion, maybe not all of these things, but some of them.

Now we're converted, verse 4, in regard to these, they think it's strange. In other words, looking at how we used to live, what we used to do, now they think it's strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you. So they wonder, what's gotten into Alan? What happened to Ray? What happened to Sally or whoever it might be? They used to be a good person to go out and drink with. Now they won't even go out with you. And so they think it's strange. The word strange here doesn't mean odd, but means contrary to the basic nature of a person. You know, this is just what we do. Why aren't you doing it with us? And so they think that you're strange. And you do not run or rush to join them. In the past, if they would say, well, hey, let's go down to the bar, have a few drinks, yeah, you'd be the first one out the door. And you know, you'd be there, you'd buy the first round.

Now you're not doing it. And as it says, flood of dissipation, abandonment, you know, just being abandoned in your actions. So, you know, they, here you are, God calls you, you start obeying Him. This is the way you were in the past. Now you're not, and they think you're strange. And how many times do you find that people think that those who do what's right are odd, strange, and different, and those who are going along with the world are hunky dory.

And they don't realize that it's just the opposite, you know, total opposite. Verse 5, "...they will give an account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead." Now the word they in the English translation could refer to those who are accusing you, or to the Christian. But the Greek seems to imply that it's referring to those who accuse, that they are going to have to give an account to God when God is ready to judge the living and the dead. Not everybody's being judged today. Not for salvation. The church is being judged for salvation. If God called you, opened your mind, given you His Spirit, now is our day of salvation. This is it. This is our opportunity. For most people, they've never had their minds open. They don't understand. They do not have the opportunity yet. So therefore, their day of judgment for salvation is in the future. The great white throne judgment is going to come, and then those who have rejected God in the third resurrection. So they're going to have to give account to the judge who is Jesus Christ. Christ is the one who will judge them. Now, verse 6, I will say right up front, is a very difficult verse to understand.

Let me show you. For this reason, the gospel was preached also to those who are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the Spirit.

Now, if you look this up in commentaries, there are all kinds of explanations of what this verse means. Let me just give you a few of them.

One of the explanations is that Christ, while He was three days and three nights, went and preached salvation to all the dead, offering salvation to those who lived before Christ came. That's false. That's not the right idea. Another idea is that Christ, while in His three days, went and preached salvation to the just of the Old Testament time. And that's a false idea. Again, hearken back to Mr. Duckett's sermonette.

The theme is the preaching of the gospel by the apostles and others on this earth to the spiritually dead. That's unlikely. That's an unlikely. That's another scenario.

The one that has some validity, and I'm not saying this is the only explanation, is that the dead are Christians who had the gospel preached to them and who then died. As it says here, for this reason, the gospel was preached also to those, you might say, who are now dead.

But it was preached to them, obviously, before they died.

In the judgment of God, the opinions of men will be reversed, and they will live in the new heaven, new earth. And it says that they might be judged according to men in the flesh. In other words, men in the flesh may have condemned us. They may think we're wacky. But we will live according to God in the spirit. It is God who ultimately is going to hand out the rewards. It is God who's going to give eternal life and judge. So, you know, that seems to give a plausible explanation. So, as I said, this is a very difficult verse. There are all kinds of explanations, but it seems to be that those who had died, had the gospel preached to them, they were, as we were just reading before this, accused, thought of as strange, odd by those they used to run around with. And, you know, they are spoken evil of, but in the resurrection, God will give them a spirit body, and they will be blessed and rewarded. Now, verse 7 is an interesting verse. It says, The end of all things is at hand. Therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers.

Well, the word at hand here means drawing near. Now, some people struggle with these words because, guess what? Almost 2,000 years have passed.

And you say, well, the end of all things is at hand. Well, there are a couple of explanations. Maybe Peter didn't fully understand the time sequence, and we know that Paul, in some of his writings, wrote things where he thought that Christ was going to come back in his day. And later on, I think he realized, uh-oh, it's not going to be in my day.

But there are ethical implications, though, of understanding that we do live in the end time.

Guess what? I truly believe that we, of all generations, do live in the end time, you know, the last days. It can't be too far off in the future.

Now, with that knowledge, there's a certain responsibility. And guess what?

Therefore, what are we supposed to do? Be serious and watchful in prayer. Being serious means be of a sound mind.

Have a sound mind. Be steady and sober.

The great characteristic of sanity is seeing things in the proper proportion.

Seeing things as they really are. And being able to observe and see what is going on. To take things seriously is to be aware of the real importance and to be ever mindful of their consequences in time and eternity.

You and I need to be aware of where we are.

Watch and pray always is another way of saying this, Luke 21.36.

And if we do this, then we're going to be watchful in our prayers.

It's going to drive us to our knees. We're going to realize that we're getting closer to the end.

So we should be sound minded and watchful as the end approaches.

This should lead us to prayer and being close to God.

Then above all things, that's what we should do, but above all this, have fervent love. So above all these things, we are to have fervent love for one another, for love will cover a multitude of sins. Love covers sins.

So above all, in other words, here we find the important order of things.

And again, what is it? As 1 Corinthians 13 brings out, love.

You know, you can have all kinds of gifts, skills, but it is love that is the most important.

The word fervent means constant, intense, earnest. You and I are to have earnest, fervent love.

The word here for love is agape again. So it says, above all things, have fervent love. Well, this indicates that agape love is not just an emotion, but a decision of the will to act, to do, to serve, to give. Realizing we can't do it properly, we need God's help, and so we pray and cry out to God for His strength and help, and it leads to action. Now, we read here that love will cover a multitude of sins.

What this is talking about is our love, if we truly have godly love, that it will overlook a lot of sins, a lot of faults, a lot of mistakes that people make, and that we're just not always going to hold it against them.

This is quoted from Proverbs 10-12. You go back and read Proverbs 10-12, it doesn't read this way.

This is actually taken, let me see here, I think, it was taken from the Greek text, not the Hebrew text, that Peter referred to as far as this was concerned, the Septuagint, as opposed to what we would call the Hebrew text.

It implies that you and I don't go around broadcasting everybody's sins. I mean, that's the main application. You know that somebody has a sin.

So let's say I see, we'll call him Joe, I don't know if we have a Joe in here.

I've seen somebody, and I've seen him smoking.

I go over here and tell somebody else, guess what? I saw so-and-so smoking. Then I go tell somebody else, so-and-so smoking. Then I say, well, you know, so-and-so smoking, what do you think we should do about it? Then we start spreading it, and the first thing is, now don't tell anybody. So you say, don't tell anybody, but let me tell you. Now, of course, he's not going to tell anybody, but his closest friend, who's not going to tell anybody, but his closest friend, first thing you know, everybody knows. Well, you find that love refuses to broadcast other people's sins around, but love covers it.

Now, in verse 9, verse 9 here, it says, be hospitable to one another without grumbling. So, as we approach the end of the world, we need to be hospitable. Now, if you're grumbling or complaining, you're not really being hospitable, are you? You know, you invite somebody over to your house, and you know, I didn't really want to invite them over to my house. You know, you see how much they eat. I mean, they eat more food tonight, and I eat more wheat, and you grumble, and you complain, and why'd they have to bring all their children? I wasn't expecting all 10 of their children, you know, and then you began to grumble and complain about the whole situation. That's not being hospitable. A true Christian has true hospitality, wants to serve and give to others.

This isn't talking about just everybody who wanders through the neighborhood, either. It's talking here about Christians having hospitality for other Christians.

And as each one has received a gift, minister it to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

Now, all of us have received spiritual gifts from God. So, as we receive gifts, then we are to use those gifts. The word minister means service.

So, we are to use that gift to serve one another. Gifts are not used to aggrandize the individual or the person. God gives us gifts to serve other people. And so, whatever the spiritual gift God gives you, it should be used in service. As it says, there are good stewards. A steward is one who is given authority over the master's household. He has control of everything that belongs to the master, but he realizes it's not his. It's his master. So, you and I should be able to look at ourselves to realize that we are recipients of the gifts of God. Where do they come from? Where they come from? God. They come from his spirit. And we're responsible for using that gift in the way that God would want us to use it. Then, verse 11, carrying on in the same theme, if anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracle of God. The oracle of God would mean to speak the very words of God. Oracle would be utterances of God. So, if anyone speaks, if you have the responsibility of getting up and speaking, then you should try to make sure that your preaching and your speaking is the same thing that God would say. Not your own opinions, not your own ideas, not your own philosophy, not your own prejudices, but truly the message that comes from God. So, that places an awesome responsibility on anyone who becomes a teacher. What does the Bible say? Don't many of you become teachers? Because you know we'll receive the greater judgment. If anyone ministers, or if anyone renders any service in the congregation, let him do it as with ability, or excuse me, do it as with the ability which God supplies. Ability or strength. God will supply the ability, the gifts, the strength, and you and I then are to use it according to how God supplies that strength that in all things God may be glorified. Why are we doing it? To glorify God, not to draw glory to ourselves, not to toot our horn. If we go around and say, rooty, toot, toot, and then we do something, or we serve, or we help, then that draws glory to us. It's always the glory, the honor, the praise goes back to God. Any ability, any skill, any gift, comes from God. So we understand that. Now let's move on to verse 12. It says, Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial, which is to try you as though some strange thing happened to you. So you and I are not to be surprised when trials come along.

Think it's something alien. Where did this come from?

The word try means to test you. So you and I will be tested.

That some strange thing has happened to you. You and I will go through trials and tests. That's a promise. And these things come just because we're human. Verse 13, But rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. Now you and I are not machinistic in nature. We just love suffering. No, that's not what it's talking about. Well, you and I suffer for doing what is right, and then we more fully understand what Christ went through. Christ suffered immensely. And so you and I then understand, and we come to understand the purpose of trials. This book actually helps us to understand more clearly the purpose of trials.

And I think that we're going to have to stop right there. So let's make a note here of verse 14.

Today is the 26th. If I don't mark it down in my notes, I will forget it. And so we will quit right there, and we'll pick this up the next time. I might just mention to you there there is one thing that we are that I need to do or would like to do, and that is after we get through with the book of 1 Peter. I had thought about just continuing on through the General Epistles, but what I'd like to do is to cover the fundamental doctrines of the Church.

I think these are absolutely necessary. Many of these I have a PowerPoint presentation to go along with them so that we can actually have that so that we can all take a look at it as we go through, and then go through the major doctrines. One of the things that I've sort of been chagrined about over a period of time is seeing that even though we've been in the Church for a long time, many of the fundamental beliefs we're not able to explain. We need to be able to explain what we believe.

Once we get through 1 Peter, we will then begin to tackle the fundamental beliefs.

That'll give us perhaps one more Bible study where we finish up 1 Peter, and then we'll continue on in a little different direction. You know, if time goes on, we've got years to cover the general epistles, fundamental beliefs. We will never run out of things to cover as far as Bible study is concerned. Thank you for your attention.