Christian Life and Its Sufferings (6)

0:00We praise the Lord for thy great plan, that we might well in place may be." Welcome to Life Study of the Bible, a presentation of Living Stream Ministry. Witnessly, a servant of the Lord for over seven decades, culminated his ministry with a 21-year book-by-book exposition of the entire Bible, which he called Life Study. This Life Study is the basis for our program today and includes short portions of the spoken messages given by Witnessly. Now, let's join today's program. The Apostle Peter encouraged his fellow believers in Christ to suffer for righteousness by the will of God as Christ did. Stay with us today for the next half hour as we have some wonderful pictures of how we can sanctify Christ in our heart,

1:00through suffering, and also what happened when Christ's spirit was made alive in his death. This is Matt Miller and Ron Kangus' join me. Ron, I'm glad you could be here for this particular program today. I'm also thankful for the opportunity to fellowship from this portion in the very heart of 1 Peter chapter 3. And the focal point may be quite surprising. There are some matters hard to understand, such as Christ's preaching to the spirits in prison and being alive and in the spirit while he was on the cross. But the central matter is Christ in his death, resurrection and ascension. Always Christ in his person and work is the center. And in light of the Lord and his redemptive work

2:00and with this as the focus, then we can consider various details in this chapter. And you're prepared, I know, to kind of guide us through from subject to subject. So by the Lord's mercy and grace, I'm ready to flow with you, Matt. So let's see what you have next for us to consider. Ron, I think that's a good introduction, and I think probably with that much introduction, we can even go to witness a little earlier than normal. This is really a packed program, Ron. So with all the ground we have to cover, let's get right to it. 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 14 and 15 A says, But even if you suffer because of righteousness, you are blessed. And do not be afraid with fear from them nor be troubled, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. We often say that a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, witness Lee is going to give us one of those pictures as he recounts a young Christian woman suffering in China more than a hundred years ago. Here's witness Lee.

3:04We should sanctify Christ as Lord. This is a word not so common. The word sanctify in Greek means to set apart, to separate one thing from the common things. This means to make this one thing very particular, very magnificent, and so forth. So in our suffering of the persecutions, we should make Christ particular, we should make Christ so magnificent. I mentioned to you one short story that was during the boxer time, 1900 in China. It happened in old capital Peking, a young learner of business. They are not open up the door. The parade was going on by the boxers.

4:10And he heard the shoutings, the tightening shoutings. He just looked to a little crank of the door. He saw the boxers marting, parading on the street, shouting, tritening with a young girl who was a Christian, carried to the place where C would be martyred. The southeast situation and so many boxers around her shouting, crying, tritening her and C was altogether not afraid. Rather, her face was really glowing, and she was praising, she was rejoicing, so that impressed these unbelieving young businessmen. After she saw that, he said, I must spend some time to find out what is Christianity. How come such a young girl got caught and brought to the

5:14martyred, tritening, shouting, and so forth. She was all together, not traded. And her face was glowing, and she was rejoicing. Okay, and he believed, and he became a preacher. I met him, you met hometown, and we had a good conversation. I found out this story. I tell you, that kind of glowing, that can bonus, you see, rejoicing, praising, that is a show that the Lord was within her heart. And that spontaneously what sanctified Christ as the Lord, at least that influenced our count one person. This is the meaning, when you are under persecution, you must sanctify the Lord. Ron, I really like this picture of what it means

6:14to sanctify Christ as Lord in our hearts. What Satan meant for evil with this young woman, God really turned out to his glory through her sanctifying him in her heart. And when key is seen in 1 Peter 3, 14, it says, do not be afraid with fear from them, nor be troubled, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. If this precious young sister had been full of fear and troubled, crying, there would have been no testimony, no indication that Christ was living in her heart, and that he was separate distinct from all other so-called gods. So to sanctify him in a context of persecution is to be one with him, to live him, to express him.

7:16This is an inward matter in our heart. Instead of being fearful and troubled, we would be exercised in our spirit and in our heart, to testify that we have Christ living in us, and Christ living in us is unique. There's no one like him in the whole universe and that we express him and magnify him. A wonderful real life illustration of Peter's word, but don't be afraid, don't be troubled, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. What is the Lord? Who is the Lord? Not the persecution, not the opposers, not even death itself? Jesus Christ is Lord, not only objectively on the throne in the heavens.

8:19He is Lord and sanctified as Lord in our hearts. What a testimony, what an expression of the indwelling Christ. And what a glory to this indwelling Christ. I'm sure she had no idea there was a shopkeeper looking behind a crack in the window there to see what was going on, but it forever influenced his whole life just by the fact that at that moment she didn't fear, but she sanctified Christ as the Lord in her heart. And he saw the Lord express, although he did not understand it at the time, eventually he heard the gospel he believed and became one endeavoring to serve the Lord. Thank the Lord for such a testimony and such an illustration from real life of a martyred overcoming saint, a young sister who sanctified Christ as Lord in her heart. Ron, this is a really touching point and it's hard to go on because I feel like there's so

9:22much there. You could almost do the whole radio program on this, but let's go on to verse 16, yet with meekness and fear having a good conscience so that in the matter in which you are spoken against, those who revile your good manner of life in Christ may be put to shame. Here's witness Lee. Verse 16 says, having a good conscience that wherein you are spoken against as evodors, those who revile your good manner of life. If we live a good man of life, if we do sanctify the Lord in our daily life, we must take care of our conscience. We must be okayed by our own conscience. Don't say, well, I'm justified by the community. I'm justified by all the brothers. I'm justified in that entire church that is not adequate because no one knows you so well, so thoroughly as your own conscience. And this conscience judgment is accurate.

10:30No one's judgment is so thorough, so keen, so accurate as your enlightened conscience of your regenerated spirit. It's judgment is always thorough and accurate. We must take care of this. Apparently you have never been wrong with your wife. You're not a man, but in the eyes of your conscience, it is another story. Your conscience tells you in many aspects, even in many instances, you have not been honest. Apparently you are an honest faithful brother, but your conscience knows that in some of the things you have been not so honest and faithful, so we must take care of our conscience. Ron, I'm going to let you comment in the minute here on taking care of our conscience. Before you do, I just wanted to say a big amen to witness Lee's word that there's

11:35nothing so thorough or keen or accurate as the enlightened conscience of our regenerated spirit. The reason for that is our conscience is part of our God created human spirit. Before our spirit was regenerated, our spirit was in a dead end or we may say comatose condition. And as a result, the function of the conscience was drastically weakened, but after our spirit was regenerated, our spirit with a conscience is in a wonderfully marvelously different condition. Proverbs 20, 27 says, the spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord. When we were regenerated, the spirit as the oil came into our lamp, now our lamp is shining,

12:36including the bright shining of the conscience. So it's not the conscience itself as a God created part of our spirit that has the accurate judgment. It's the conscience in the regenerated spirit, a spirit in dwelt by the spirit of God Himself. And the divine spirit, the Holy Spirit, has been mingled with our regenerated spirit. And now our spirit is functioning as a lamp. And so the conscience, especially as we deal with it and obey it and pay attention to it, will become very keen in rendering its judgment inwardly. If we have failed, if we have sinned, the conscience will condemn us. If we are one with the Lord, if we are obeying Him and

13:39living Him, the conscience will approve us. And the important connection here with the previous portion about sanctifying Christ in our hearts is that the conscience, which is part of the spirit, is also part of the heart, which is a composition of the soul with the mind, will and emotion, plus the conscience portion of the spirit. So to sanctify the Lord in our hearts, requires that we have a good conscience, a conscience without offense. So others are accusing us falsely, they're lying, they're condemning, but our conscience rises up to testify. That isn't the case. You are one with the Lord, you are living the Lord, you are expressing the Lord. This gives us the basis inwardly to sanctify the Lord in our hearts. The progression of thought here is very significant, and the understanding of

14:46these verses in the light of the proper genuine, normal spiritual experience of life is necessary and crucial. I appreciate the grace with our brother Lee to be able to just usher us into the proper understanding of these verses in the way of life. I also appreciate that, and again, we've touched a point that could probably deserve its own radio program, this matter of having a good conscience, and as part of our regenerated spirit, yet we've got another part of the program to go on to, and it's in verse 19, and let me read the verses starting in verse 18 through 20, for Christ also has suffered, once for sins, the righteous on behalf of the unrighteous, that he might bring you to God, on the one hand being put to death in the flesh, but on the other made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison,

15:48who had formerly disobeyed when the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah. Let's go to witness Lee and allow the Lord to shine his light on these verses from 1 Peter chapter 3. Verse 19, also having gone to the spirits in prison, he proclaimed to those, not those men, in Greek, there's no men, to those that means to those spirits, in prison, who are the spirits? The debate has never been stopped. Throughout centuries, great teachers of different schools have had varying interpretations concerning the spirit in prison. These in prison spirits are the angels who fell through these opinions, at last time the so-called sins of God, the angels, coming down to the earth, using men's body

16:52to commit fornication with men's daughters, and then the produced giants. So that polluted the human race, because the human race was polluted by Satan's angels committing fornication with men, making men's blood, all together polluted. So God could not tolerate that, God terminated and tearies. You have to study carefully in the study, Mr. Pembern, all these, Mr. Gavide, Dempenden, all these Bible scholars, they, after much study, agree with this. We are not the only one to choose this. This is the proper interpretation of these kind of verses in the Bible. So, Hallelujah. Christ died on the cross for all redemption, but in that debt, something happened. Well, he was killed in his body, yet he was 11. He was empowered in his

18:00spirit, even before resurrection. So, in that 11 and empowered the spirit, before his resurrection, he went to proclaim to the rebellious angels, God's victory over the leader. Here Peter gives us a clear word to unveil to us something of Christ's death. Christ's death not only accomplished redemption for us, but also accomplished the proclamation of God's victory in Christ's incarnation and crucifixion over Satan. Christ's death, through came this victory to Satan's followers. This is really quite a story, and we really can't cover it in the short time we have, but with the little time we have, I'd ask you to do the best you can. And I think it's best not to

19:02discuss the alternate interpretations. Let us just emphasize the central point as we have come to understand it. When the Lord Jesus was dying a redemptive death on the cross, he was put to death in the flesh, but he was made alive in the spirit of his divinity. That part of him, the spirit as the spirit of his divinity, was in livened while he was dying in the flesh. Then in the spirit as the spirit of his divinity, after he died, he went deep into Hades to a certain section where a particular group of evil rebellious angels were imprisoned. And these are the spirits mentioned by Peter here. They're not the spirits of human beings.

20:04They're the spirits since angels are spirits of certain angels who followed Satan in rebellion. And these were the angels that joined the daughters of men to produce giants and were judged and condemned by God at the time of Noah. The Lord Jesus went to their place of imprisonment and proclaimed not the gospel, but proclaimed his victory over their leader. This is indicated by the Greek word used. The Greek word is Kruso, meaning to make a proclamation. If the intent of the writer had been to talk about gospel preaching, the Greek word Yuan Galizzo would have been used. So the Lord was not preaching the gospel to the spirits of dead

21:05people, giving them another chance to believe. He was actually not preaching the gospel at all. But he was proclaiming his victory over the leader of these evil angels, these spirits in prison. We don't know exactly what he said, but we believe at least in principle, he declared that on the cross he destroyed the devil who had the might of death, he destroyed, he judged, he condemned their leader and he was proclaiming his victory over them. And then we know from other scriptures, such as Revelation 118, that the Lord in his resurrection walked out of Hades with the keys, the authority over death and Hades. As I am kind of reviewing this in my spirit with my being renewed mind, I this have a fresh assurance that this is the correct interpretation

22:11of this exceedingly difficult passage. Praise the Lord for his redemptive death for his victory on the cross, for his proclamation to the spirits in prison, for his glorious life, dispensing resurrection, and his marvelous glorious ascension. Surely everything has been done. The righteous died on behalf of the unrighteous, destroying the enemy of God so that we who were unrighteous and sinners may be forgiven, justified, cleansed, reconciled to God, and brought to God, and brought into God. What a wonderful picture we have here, as we mentioned in the beginning, we can echo now at the end. The center of this passage is really not our heart, it's not our conscience,

23:12it's not the spirits in prison, the center of this passage is none other than Jesus Christ himself in his person and his redemptive work. Praise him, may we always sanctify him in our hearts, exercising ourselves to have a good conscience, a conscience void of offense toward God and toward man. Praise the Lord for the ministry that under the Lord's grace and with the light from the scriptures can open to us the word of God. And I don't want to trespass into your announcer territory, but I would just like to remind our listeners, all that we have shared is based upon a careful, thorough, solid study of the scriptures and an honest and fair and unbiased examination

24:15of the teachings of the servants of God throughout the ages. We have compared them, we have made a decision in the Lord's presence, we command this opening and this interpretation of this portion of the word of God to our seeking brothers and sisters in Christ everywhere. And we've made them available for free on the internet. If you have an internet connection at lsm.org, you can get to all the links from there. That's our main website, www.lsm.org, or you can call us at 1-888-543-3788, that's 1-888-life-study, or you can send us an email to radio at lsm.org. Ron, I appreciate you coming in today. I feel like the Lord's presence was really with us today. Amen. Thanks for listening. You've been listening to Life Study of the Bible with Witnessly, brought to you by Living

25:35Stream Ministry. Did you know that you can now enjoy the writings of Witnessly and Watchman Knee on your PC or Mac, tablet, e-reader, or smartphone? Just go to lsm.org slash e-publications to find out more. Again, that's lsm.org slash e-publications. And thanks for listening today.