Consequences of Christ's suffering - part 1

Let's just turn to the word of God and we're going to read. Actually, I'm going to start with verse 13 and we're going to read down through the rest of the chapter. So, let me put on my reading glasses here. I have my Bible open. I'm waiting for my computer to turn on. Everything is slow this morning. Alright. Alright, verse 13.

And who is he that will harm you if you be followers of that which is good? But, and if you 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 for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. Having a good conscience that whereas they speak evil of you as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good manner of life in Christ. For it is better if the will of God be so, so that we suffer for well-doing than for evil-doing.

Now, in the verses today, 18-20, Matthew 22 next week. 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 made alive in the Spirit. That's easy. Now, verse 19. By him also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison, who at one time were disobedient when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was preparing, in which few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. The light figure, unto which even baptism also now save us, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is on the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him." Neither handout nor handout. Alright, so today's lesson is about the consequences of Christ's suffering, part one, and then next week will be part two, and Jeremy will have that responsibility. Okay, so four. Four always... Turn that off. It's annoying. You just power... Just power that down. Alright, now maybe it will appear up there.

All right, so four here I think best connects verses 13-17 to 18-22. And I think Relentless Christ is our example of suffering. This is a theme we looked at in great detail. Let's go back and look at that just very briefly. I think that's mistakenly three. I think it should be one or two. Let me go back. It's chapter two. My mistake. Correct your handout, it's 221-25. Somebody read that please.

For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps. He committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth. Even when he was reviled, did not revile in return. when he suffered, he did not threaten, but committed himself to him who judges righteously, who himself bore sins in his own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness by whose stripes ye were healed. Okay, thank you very much. That was 24, go to 25. For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your soul. Okay, thank you.

So detailed, given in chapter 2 about Christ's suffering, but keep in mind now the verses that preceded the ones we're looking at today actually related to our suffering, right? For righteousness sake. And that's hard to do in the flesh, right? Christ also suffered once for sins. Notice once. This is such an important and incredible modifier of the suffering. You think of the suffering as leaving the heavenly throne, don't you? He suffered to leave the right hand of God to come to earth as a human, but in a sense The true suffering that relates to the price payment of the cross was impeccable once and one time only.

And so I just quoted Romans 6.10. I gave you a number of other verses to look at here.

For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all. But the life that he lives, he lives to God. So in a sense, when we identify with this, we have been crucified, our old man's been crucified, our sins have been forgiven once. Despite the fact that we fall far short of God's glory in the day to day existence we have, it's only one time death only that paid the price for all time, for all sin, for all men. Once. And so when we fall short, we confess it and move back into fellowship with the Lord. The thing is, Christ is not going to get on the cross again. So it's a once and one time only. Everything was accomplished once.

Do you ponder this incredible truth? I think we need to continue to remind ourselves that the flesh is always the flesh, and the sin nature is always the sin nature, but yet the cross is once and one time only. That's so incredibly important for us to remind ourselves. One of my favorite things is to remind myself of my citizenship. Our citizenship is in heaven, not here.

Think of the many exceptions to this doctrine in the organized church where in fact this basic and important truth really is not recognized in terms of things that people are put through in their church whether they are saved or unsaved in terms of needing to do more. to accomplish what Christ has already done. So it is really an important thing to think about.

Yeah. Bob, also, you know, you probably noticed it, too. And you said that the original has this idea of Hapox, you know, that's a Greek once. what's accomplished is perpetually valid. The Greek really brings that to light, the fact that it's a perpetually valid, one act happening at one moment in time is valid for all time.

And there's only a few true, there's not a few true, but there are a few other instances in scripture where that same word is brought across. Yeah, and again, the examples I gave you here, mostly in Hebrews, also really exemplified that for once, it's used repeatedly in Hebrews, of the Jewish nation in terms of constantly annually going through the high priest and going to the priest ultimately to mediate their senses and atonement. Anyway, once is probably the simplest word here, but probably the most important one in this scripture. Any other thoughts about once here? All right. And notice the basis of this suffering is sins. So I mean, I think. I think this is maybe my own view of this, but it's so accepted for that if it is.

But I think of the Lord's table as the cup we drink is the blood spilled for our sins and the sins of the entire world. But the bread is in fact the sin nature that's been crucified. And I am the bread of life. I mean, next time you do the Lord's Table, think about that a little bit, and that really helps me put the Lord's Table into perspective. The bread we do first, the sin nature is crucified, and the cup, because the sin nature has been crucified in all of us, ultimately then the sins are forgiven. I mean, again, it's maybe just a skewed view, but it helps me through the Lord's Table to make sense of the bread and the cup. So here we're talking about sins. Now, to the unbeliever, their sins are forgiven, right? But is their sin nature crucified? It is, but they have to respond by faith, right? They have to reckon it to be true and believe by faith. So let's turn to Romans 5, 6 through 10. Margaret, if you could turn there and read that for us, please. Our video is still not working here. 5, 6 through 10. solid, virtual doctrine. Six through ten.

For when we were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet free adventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than being now justified by his blood, We shall be saved from wrath through him. For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled by God by the death of his son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. Amen. All right, good. So Peter's epistle follows the sound doctrine of Paul and that puts it really in very, very Peter's epistle. In terms of the order of the books of the New Testament, I think there's no mistake.

And the benefit, that he might bring us to God. So he paid the price for our sins as sinners, but yet also to bring us to God. This is incredible. In 2 Corinthians 5, he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. So he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

How's that calling the theme of being brought, bringing us to God and bringing us to him? So is the order important of what was accomplished here? Yeah, because we're separated from God, right? So we can be brought to God before our sins are forgiven.

And pretty basic stuff. Being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit is the next part of verse 18 here. So being put to death is perfect passive participle. So Christ ultimately, he was passive. He didn't actively go to the cross, the Lord allowed him to go to the cross. He bonded with the Father to agree to be on the cross, but ultimately on the cross itself, he was ultimately put to death, even though he had power over death. Remember, if you're the son of God, why don't you get down from the cross? That's not my Father's will.

Now, this is important. Note the link and or contrast between flesh and spirit here, not the spirit capitalized. First of all, there is no article before flesh or spirit in the original Greek. But here is my kind of synopsis of this. This being alive in the spirit is a very controversial issue. But here is my thought. Spiritual death actually occurred when Christ was alive.

Turn to Matthew 27.46. Remember, many people feel that what Christ asked his heavenly father to take away from him was this separation. About the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, Lama Tadakthani, that is my God, my God, who I have forsaken. The second person that God had is being viewed now as being forsaken by his So anyway, the spiritual death, remember when Christ was on the cross taking our sins on him, ultimately he was no longer spiritually the second person of the Godhead. Right? I mean, taking our sins, he no longer, God why are you forsaking me?

You know, as if we've been bonded since time eternal. And now, what's the deal? My communication with you. He wasn't saying that regretfully. I think this is a relationship that he'd known from time eternal. So he spiritually, in terms of who he was as Christ Jesus, the eternal Christ Jesus, ultimately that was taken away from him on the cross. So he's spiritually dead now because he's accepting all of our sin on him.

Okay, let me go ahead. So he was made alive, quickened by the Spirit And this is where this is a little tricky. Is this the Holy Spirit? We don't have any evidence that this is the Holy Spirit. I think it's his own spirit to his pre-incarnate nature.

So once the sin has been paid for and he's now physically dead. By the way, the death is a physical death here. His own pre-incarnate nature, in fact, was the spirit by which he was restored. And thus I say he returned to earth and then to heavenly places in his glorified body, the nature of which is eternal.

Discussion? I'd like to explain that the spirit by his pre-incarnate nature, what he is saying to us. He's back to the Godhead. He's Jesus Christ eternal, right? Second person of the Godhead. So the death was taken, he took on physical death and was separated from his Heavenly Father to pay the price for our sins. Now dead, he's his pre-incarnate nature.

He's restored to his original nature and this isn't the Holy Spirit. Some people think it's the Holy Spirit that came in and in the King James Version Spirit is capitalized. Which means Schofield or whomever wrote this sensed this is the Holy Spirit. I don't think so. I think the Spirit is was self-regenerated in the tomb. When he died? Yeah. Because now he's restored to his original position. Well, he was buried. The question is when did this occur? He's buried dead, right? Physically dead.

But this restoration, I mean, I guess God didn't say God restored him. It says spirit restored him. But his own spirit now in the regenerated Jesus Christ is capable of restoration. He's no longer separated from God. God, why have you forsaken me? He's no longer forsaken. The price has been paid.

So I think his own intrinsic Godhead nature that restored his life. And now he comes back in a different form. What's so neat about this is the identification. He comes back in a different form as we're going to be in different forms. So we think of him being restored in a different form, walking through doors. and ultimately having no physical properties that we would define those of this earth, that restoration was self-imposed. I mean God allowed it, the Heavenly Father allowed it, but I don't think this is the Holy Spirit that restored his life. It could be. I'm just giving you my view. And by the way, this is an area of great controversy in the public interest.

Well, didn't he have the power to do that? Yes, and after he's done the price has been paid, right? So no deal. Yeah, he said I had the power to lay it down, I had the power to take it up. It was totally within his control to do this. And isn't it neat to think about this, that the sacrificial nature of his death and the price he paid to be separated from his Heavenly Father, taking on the sins of the entire world for time past to time eternal. Now he has the ability to take on life again as he once knew it, in now a new form, no longer the earthly form where people witnessed his presence, but in a heavenly form which is what is promised to each and every one of us as believers. When we get raptured or we die and go to be with the Lord, we have a different body. You don't like that? The one that's failing? Is everybody okay with this?

I'm not going to die for this if this wasn't Holy Spirit, but I think this is his intrinsic capability of regenerating his new existence. I've never heard that while he was on the cross, while he was taking on the sins of the world, that he was actually not the second person of the commandment. Well, he's always fully God, fully man, but he gave up that relationship with his Heavenly Father on the cross, did he not? I understand he was separated from God because of the sin. Well, I don't know that I said he gave up his second person of God.

Yeah, you did say that. Did I? You did. I'm glad I have her. So he was still the second person in the trailer, he was the son. Yeah, well if I said that I didn't mean to say that. He was spiritually separated. Spiritually separated, right. Like I said separate is a fellowship, right? Sure, but he was still the second person. Yeah, I'm glad you corrected that if I did say that, I didn't mean to say that.

I've looked at that verse for a long time. I felt like that when all the sins had been laid upon him, that he himself died. He became sin for us, and he volunteered to die. He was God the Father and Son, but I always had a feeling that when he went, after he had taken all the sins, that then he had voluntarily died himself. Well, that's true. And I think if you look at being put to death and being a perfect passive, it means that he was the recipient of the sin. That was placed on him. But the perfect tense implies the ongoing relationship that we share in that event. So, great. All right. OK, we'll move on. 1920. From this little easy thing, Ron, even more fun, right? All right. So, versus 1920.

By whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison. who formerly were disobedient when once the divine long-suffering waved in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared in which a few, that is eight souls, were saved through water. Who are the spirits? The question that follows, are these humans with the doctrine of a second chance possibility? Is there a purgatory?

I don't think so. Let's go to the next page. From a fairly intense study, I came up with a pretty convincing argument that when the Greek noun spirit stands alone, it never refers to man. Never. It refers to angelic and or demonic beings. These are not people who have been and gone to this temporary holding place. These are spirits. And let's turn to these verses just a second.

Luke 10.20 and Hebrews 1.13.14. So these are other examples of the noun spirit being used to denote angelic and or demonic beings. I think it's good. And also the plural is pretty important there too, right? The plural noun. I mean, that's what you're saying. It's good. It's right. It's close. I didn't put that as a modifier, but the Greek noun here, plural. So anybody, Luke 10, 20? Notwithstanding in this, rejoice not that the spirits are subject unto you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven. Okay, and what's the circumstances around that verse?

The spirits, we're talking about demonic spirits, right? Yeah, because it's talking about Satan ahead of us. Either the 70 were sent out or the 12? It's the 70. They came back and they said, oh, you know, the spirits are subject to us. Man, this is great. Yeah, I don't recall. Is that the text to which the spirits are placed in the pigs? That's a different text. But also, that's another example of a plural noun, spirits.

Someone has unclean spirits, there'll be a word before it, it'll say unclean spirits will be defining spirits, because spirits could be angelic spirits, right? Hebrews 1, 13 and 14, this deals with the heavenly spirit and those who are the angels of good deeds and good purpose. But to which of the angels he has ever said, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet, I mean, not all ministering spirits sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation. Okay, so those two verses I just quoted, the Hebrews passage and the Luke passage, just contrasting demonic spirits from heavenly spirits or angels.

So I think if you begin this with the view that the spirits are not human existence with an opportunity which there is absolutely no spiritual evidence for. Then we are talking about demonic spirits or presumably all demonic here because they wouldn't be in this place. Let's go ahead. Where are the spirits? They are in prison.

2 Peter 2.4 says, For God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment. And then it goes on.

But the point here is that the noun for hell here is torturous, not shield. And it's the only New Testament use and simply denotes a place of custody. This is not hell as we think about it in terms of the unsaved going to hell. So this is again a unique term for presumably this holding place for demonic spirits who in fact fallen short and left the throne of God by their own choice or being Satan led.

You think of angels, this gets into a whole different ballgame. How does an angel make a decision whether he presumably is going to choose to go with Satan. You almost think that there is this human capability that angels have. But we are much higher than the angels. But yet there obviously were a choice made by some angels to leave the throne and hang out with Satan.

So these are people, these spirits are spirits of a demonic nature who are placed in custody. Now the question is, we don't know clearly what the timetable is for this place, this prison, but yet it's probably not good. Right? When did they sin? Well here it gets even more complicated. Well it says at the time of Noah, is that when they sinned? Well, that's kind of what the verse says, but here we're going to go into quite a bit of Old Testament reference.

Consider Satan's response to Genesis 3.15. I'll give my colleagues some credit here because I think this really helps put this into perspective.

So Genesis 3.15 at first we all really know well, at least we should know well. And I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.

Macaulay I think very importantly points out that these are bruisings that are either fatal or non-fatal. So ultimately the bruising of how many major head injuries do you survive from? I don't think it would be too medical here. Let's say bruising is not a subtle term. Bruising Satan's head is going to be the done deal. Fatal. I'm quoting Macaulay here for this reason, but I kind of like it. Bruising someone's heel is not fatal. To carry on, the thought here is that Satan now is aware that his head is going to be bruised. So Genesis 4, and then I skip ahead to 8.

Now Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain and said, I have acquired a man from the Lord. Notice, he, notice the he shall bruise his heel. So Cain is the firstborn of Adam and Eve. And now Cain, and then of course his brother Abel is born too. And verse 8, now Cain talked with Abel, his brother, and it came to pass when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and killed him. OK, so the story is building here.

If in fact Satan is concerned about his head being bruised, and it's going to be a he that's going to do it, his perception is here's the first male born, and now I'm going to take him out of here. So Abel's out of here. And Satan's working through Cain to get rid of Abel, because he's the first born, and it's a he. So this male child kind of scenario is an important thing to follow.

Now it's going to get more complicated. Turn the page. So I think the point here is little did Satan know there would be many generations yet to come before his head would be bruised. And we can look at the entire Old Testament for that genealogy to Christ. And that's how many generations it took ultimately for his head to be bruised. Now you could say Satan is still alive and well, there's no question about that. But in terms of the Lord's view of Satan's role to the church, the body of Christ, ultimately he's been taken care of, and we're going to return to that in a second.

So, if you look at Pharaoh as an example, in terms of Egypt putting the first child to death, remember the blood on the wall, or the door? And then here in Christ's day, hearing that there's a Messiah born, or this one who's threatening his existence, ultimately male children are put to death, everyone before the age of two. So this theme continues with Pharaoh and Herod being the best examples of a male child being born who was ultimately threatening to the earthly existence, or to Satan himself. Everybody okay with this theme at this point? Alright, now we're going to spend a little time in Genesis. So what was going on at the time of Noah? Well, I'm using scripture.

Now it came to pass when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful, and that they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. And the Lord said, My spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh, yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years. And there were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterwards, when the sons of God came into the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. So the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.

But then I put in bold print, but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. So we've got this scenario here. Who are these sons of God? Well, ultimately, the sons of God in scripture is a Greek term that is used only a few times. And let's turn to Job, because the other three examples are in Job.

Job 1.6.2.1 and 37.6. And these sons of God are not glorified.

Let's see Joe, where is Joe? We spent a lot of time in the New Testament. Before Psalms. Right, before Psalms. Thank you. Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. Okay. Alright. And 2-1. Megan, did you skip forward there? Again, there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord. Okay.

37-6. For to the snow, he says, fall on the earth and to enter the downpour and the rain be strong. I don't think that's right. The last place isn't in Jove. I know that. OK. It's not job someplace else. That's not very good. Three, seven, six. Well, that's not a translation. No, no, no, no. Anyway, just to go ahead. And I'm sorry that.

So the position that one takes on this is that these are angels that abandon their assigned position. so he's sons of God. I think it's interesting that they come as a bond. Sons of God and Satan come together to talk to the Lord. So they're kind of like teaming up. And so you think, well who are these folks that accompany Satan? They're not going to be the good guys necessarily, right? Right. So the idea here is the sons of God are again fallen angels under Satan's control. So they've teamed up with the devil.

Now, Judges 6 and 7 I think relates to this passage, and importantly so. And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, the sons of God, but left their own abode, he has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day. So presumably this place of custody and prison is an ultimate prediction of the timing of their destruction.

And he relates this as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, there set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. So now, why are these these fallen angels, presumably sons of God, being related to the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah? Well, remember, the sons of God had children from the daughters of men. So the sexual sin is there, and Sodom and Gomorrah, we think of that as mainly an atmosphere of sexual immorality in addition to a lot of other things.

And ultimately we're looking at probably a hybrid progeny, which I put down at the end here, that results in these may be the mighty men of old. So there's a lot of conjecture here. I must admit there's a lot of controversy about exactly how to interpret this. I happen to believe these are fallen angels, some who are now in prison where Christ is preaching to them.

We'll come back to that in a second. who have been procreated with the daughters of men. So angelic human procreation ultimately giving rise to a whole new hybrid progeny or population. And these are large giants? Giants, these mighty men of the Old Testament. Now keep in mind, look at the last page of the last thing I said and reflect on that. We'll come back to that.

So I think the Sodom and Gomorrah here gets tied in nicely with the sexual immorality and the consequences of it. These are fallen angels. But my point here is that I thought angels didn't procreate. Well, those are heavenly angels, right? Not fallen angels.

Nevertheless, Jude's passage indicates that their sin was similar to that of Sodom and Gomorrah. That's why Jude mentions Sodom and Gomorrah in terms of what the consequences were of these fallen angels being placed in prison and bound until the great day of judgment.

This is one of the tougher sections of scripture to really get a perfect view of, I must admit, and I humbly show what I tried to come away with this today. So let's go on to the next part then. When and what did Christ preach? Now it's important here because if you think he's preaching the gospel for salvation, he's not preaching that to spirits. And their fate is already sealed, it's a done deal, they are in custody. So when, he did it once, and he refers to a time while the art was being prepared, so he is taking us back into that environment that I read in detail back in Genesis chapter 6.

And of course the art took 120 years to prepare, right? So presumably this was a time of which this sequence of events occurred, but I think we can't be certain of that. But I mean fallen angels, the question is did they all occur at once or did they occur sequentially over time? I mean Isaac gives a comment about from the very beginning there were fallen angels versus versus ongoing falling angels.

I don't know that we know any more about that. So what? First, the term for preach is not preaching the gospel. The preach here declares a proclamation or a message being given. And it's not necessarily the gospel. It could be, but in general in scripture it's not the gospel message. That's a different Greek term and I don't recall what the other term was.

Remember, in this prison, Christ is speaking to Satan and his prisoners. I mean, Satan is in control of this domain, although God has allowed him no power to get them free from this domain. And Christ likely proclaimed his very recent and everlasting prison.

And I refer you to Hebrews 2.14. This is one of my favorite verses, forgive me.

Hebrews 2.14, inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared in the same, that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil. So for the believer and the church, it's a done deal. I mean, we still live in an earthly environment, but remember, we've been made righteous because of him taking sin on us who knew no sin. that we might be made righteous in him. So before God, the cross is final.

Satan's head has been bruised. However, the world system continues to operate, and this is a place where he has power that is seemingly at times unlimited. You think of that recent murder in the African-American church, how tragic these kinds of events are. It's just unbelievable that these kinds of things continue to occur. But welcome to the earthly existence.

I heard that the reason Jesus Christ preached to the to the demons in prison was to proclaim his victory. They thought they thought he had just they thought, you know, now he's on the cross. He's dead. He's done with Jesus Christ came alive. I like that very much. I think he's declaring his victory. He's saying, hey, you guys made some decisions way back, but look, I'm alive. And my preaching isn't to save you. My proclamation is I have victory over death, something you will never experience. Neat. I mean, I think that's the broad and fuzzy about this scripture here.

In Colossians 2.14-15, to build on this theme, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us, and he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross, having disarmed principalities and powers, by the way, the world system, and he made a public spectacle of them triumphing over them in it. So again, the proclamation is the victory that was achieved.

Satan's head is bruised. for eternity now. God is satisfied in the cross and all that it accomplished. And then the triumph that Christ had now is over all earthly powers and principalities. Now for the body of Christ we need to keep the earthly powers in our prayers. I mean I pray for the government not infrequently and not that we're going to have a warm and fuzzy existence here but that ultimately that the Lord would work through them to ultimately in some way bring glory to himself. But all that aside, the triumph at the cross is the bruising of his head. Satan still has a lot of power in this world, but ultimately before God, the consequences have been accomplished in terms of what he promised in Genesis.

Alright, and who and why were eight souls saved through water? There is no one in his clan. His wife, his three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth have been their three wives. So there is the N of eight. Is this spiritual or physical salvation? The Greek term here means to escape. So I think they were saved by water. The ark floated in the water. Their lives were saved and we ultimately see some of the consequences that ensued after they reached land again. This is not spiritual salvation. But then we have to deal with the fact that they were saved by grace. What is God's grace here if we are thinking just physical existence? But also don't you think it was about his grace?

If they were the only people, we're all descended from Noah. And so he had a plan for his church. This still was to come. And there had to be a physical body of people left. And Noah was the one who found grace by the Lord, even though I'm sure Noah wasn't perfect. But that's who we're really all descended from, is Noah. When you think of Noah, what do you think of, in terms of his earthly existence? I think of Noah as a man of faith.

God declared him to build the ark. He's about the business of building the ark. It took him 120 years to do it. In a sense, the grace could pertain to the fact that Noah was a man of faith and therefore that grace was extended to him to be a man of faith. Not that he robotically put it in him, but anyway, Noah responded to God. Remember, what is faith? Defined faith? believing what God has revealed. And so Noah responded by faith to what God had told him.

And keep in mind, presumably his wife and his three sons, Shem, Haman, and David and their wives were on board. The Lord preserved them all. But keep in mind, the salvation here is not any kind of eternal security. This is simply their lives. They escaped the flood and everything that the flood was about.

Alright, so the question for us all to follow. Why do you think the Lord wanted this section in his word? No intellectual arrogance here, right? Or make us really study. Omani, I'd like you to study more on this right now and next week and you can tell Jeremy once you've learned this. Any thoughts? Why is this important for us to see this here?

I guess you have to accept the fact that what the Lord has taught me in preparation and what I've shared could be mistaken in many ways. You know, you go before the Lord and say, guide me, give me the best Since it is such a controversial area that means a lot of people have different views about each and every aspect. spirits who were cast into a dungeon and held there until the great day of the Lord. You've got a lot of trouble then in terms of the rest of the Bible. Remember everything we do when we look at the Word of God we put in context as to where it is, what time it was written, and how it relates to the history that preceded it.

Other thoughts? Because He died once for all so that we might be reconciled to God. There's other things people speculate all over the place. But verse 18 is what really... How often do we ponder this once deal? Because the thing about the once being so critically important is that when we fall short we have this comfort that it's been done. Christ isn't going to go up and die for our sins anymore. The shortcomings are. So we confess and get back in fellowship and that's really the important truth of once.

Did Vern mention last week that those, these demons that were kept in the bottomless pit or whatever, were the ones that came out during the tribulation for five months? I didn't look at that, but I'm sure that's possible. What's funny is he talked to me, because he did the demoniac last week. You left early. But he actually just spoke on that last week, and I'm not sure. He said that?

Just a final thought, the whole Word of God is for us. The entire Bible is for us. But it's not all about us. And we don't need to get hung up on things that are unclear from Old Testament times. It doesn't make them unimportant. It just means we're in the age of the Body of Christ.

Father we thank you for our time today Lord and thank you for the blessings we have Lord. We thank you for your word Father. We thank you Lord that we have to depend upon you to understand it and your spirit to guide us. We thank you for just our time this morning Lord and we thank you for our Lord Jesus Christ who died once on our behalf. We ask in his name. Amen.