And we're back with
"Books of the Book."
00:00:01.40\00:00:03.01
Dr. Shepherd, so
how does the world react
00:00:03.04\00:00:06.08
when someone
decides to follow Jesus?
00:00:06.11\00:00:10.09
You know, every
Christian can think of this
00:00:10.12\00:00:12.38
in their own personal experience
of becoming a Christian.
00:00:12.41\00:00:16.06
And usually the
reaction is not positive.
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Because the truth
shines in the darkness
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and as Jesus said in John 3,
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"Men love the darkness
rather than the light."
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So they don't come to the light.
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But that's exactly what
Peter says here in verse 4.
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We find their reaction
and so we just read it again
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verse 4, "With respect to this,
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they are surprised
when you do not join them
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in the same flood of
debauchery and they malign you."
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Okay, so the first
reaction of the world
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to Christian faith is surprise.
00:00:53.45\00:00:56.81
That's interesting.
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You know, my verse
uses the word 'strange,'
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so they think it's strange for--
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Then for you to take that route.
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Yes, it's
strange, it's surprise,
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it's something foreign to them.
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It doesn't fit
with their way of life
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and they expect
things to go in a certain way
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and when they don't, you
know, how can you do that?
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Now, you know, what
they are involved in
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is all the things
that were the vice list,
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we call it a vice
list, listed in verse 3.
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"They living in sensuality,
passions, drunkenness,
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orgies, drinking
parties, lawless idolatry."
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This is typical
kind of list of what
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the Pagans were all
about in their festivals
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and in their lifestyle and
you might think today that,
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I mean, while we don't have
people bowing down to idols,
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there's still a
plenty of idols in the land.
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And you think, "Well,
why are these people upset?
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I mean, they're just
going to their parties
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and why should it bother them?
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There are there old
friends who, you know,
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used to go with them,
don't go with them anymore.
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What's the big deal? Why
should that be a problem?"
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Well, there's a
certain what shall we say,
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a conscience speaking to
them or this is out of step
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and they feel that tension that
it doesn't fit together anymore.
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And sometimes we say
they protest too much.
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They protested too much.
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You know, the words
I think of Shakespeare
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or some famous author
that when you're going
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in a different way and then
they say why don't go with us?
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They want to force you
to be like them because
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the voice of conscience
speaks to their hearts too.
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So the light shines on
them and they don't like it.
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So what do they do?
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They're not just surprised,
now they persecute you.
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They speak evil of you, okay?
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Now how will all
of this be resolved?
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Uh, well, that's what
verses 5 and 6 teach us.
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So we need to read
those again because
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they give us the answer about
how everything will be resolved.
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"They will give
an account to him
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who is ready to judge
the living and the dead.
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For this reason,
the gospel was preached
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also to those who are dead
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that they might be judged
according to men in the flesh
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but live according
to God in the spirit."
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Now this is one
of those difficult,
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another one of those difficult
passages to--Comprehend.
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And this is one
of those passages
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that people like to
call "a problem text."
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Now we already said, no,
there are no problem texts.
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Is it describing may be another
second chance to be saved?
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Yeah, well, we'll have to kind
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of arrive there
to get that list.
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Let's put it all
within its context.
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That's the best way.
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Whenever you're
reading a passage of scripture
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and you come
across something that is--
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Just strikes you.
00:04:02.06\00:04:03.78
"Oh, I don't understand this.
This is crazy, how can that be?"
00:04:03.81\00:04:07.13
The first thing to do is
to read the verses around it.
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The context we call it to place
those words in their setting.
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And if you look at
them very carefully
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sometimes you start to see,
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oh, there's
certainly linkages here.
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There's certain
words that are similar here
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and it helps you to
start to understand it.
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This is why we have good
commentaries they help to,
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you know, fill things out.
00:04:29.77\00:04:31.14
We're working to produce
00:04:31.17\00:04:33.81
a new Seventh-day
Adventist Bible commentary.
00:04:33.84\00:04:35.58
It's a very exciting
project that's in process now.
00:04:35.61\00:04:38.28
And hope that it will
become a great reality
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and a great
blessing to God's people.
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So we notice here in verse 4,
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"That they are
surprised and they malign you."
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So then Peter
says in verse 5, "But."
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So this is going to
be a contrast of verse 4.
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So here we had "The
Christians had left off
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doing what was wrong.
00:05:00.98\00:05:02.55
The gentiles were going
to these drinking parties,
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and idolatry and everything.
00:05:05.62\00:05:07.53
They were surprised a
Christian student do that
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and so they come and
they persecute them."
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"But," but means that
there's gonna be some change.
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But they, who's they?
The ones just mentioned.
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The Pagans. Yeah, okay.
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But they will
give account to him
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who is ready to judge
the living and the dead.
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Who's that? God.
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And this is, you know, linked
in with all of the teaching
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of the message of judgment
that the Book of First Peter
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has lots of comments
about judgment actually.
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And we find here that he says,
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they will give
an account to him.
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They have to answer to God
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who is ready to judge
the living and the dead.
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Now we need to
think about this living.
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He says "the
living and the dead."
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Who is he talking about?
He is talking about people.
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Yes, and now our
question is, which people?
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Well, the living and the dead.
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The living and
the dead. Very simple.
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Now how many
people does that include?
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All of the ones
that have ever lived.
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And all of the ones
that are currently living.
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Yeah, so this
is all of humanity.
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So this phrase, "The
living and the dead,"
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there's a really cool word.
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The word is merism.
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Merism means the totality
that it covers all of the groups
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the two, the
living and the dead,
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is a way of talking
about all of humanity.
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This is a very
important point though
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because in verse 6
he goes on, "For..."
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So now this is going
to be support for verse 5.
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"For this is why
the gospel was preached
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even to those who are dead.
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That though judged in the flesh
they may the way people are
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they might live in the
spirit the way God does."
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Okay? So the question is
who are the dead in verse 6?
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Who does this
refer to? Got any ideas.
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Who are the dead
he's talking about?
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The wicked dead?
The wicked dead? Okay.
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Well, if it's the wicked
dead then perhaps they have
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a second chance at salvation
because "For this reason
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this is why the gospel was
preached even to the dead."
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And somebody says,
"Uh, wait a minute.
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I remember back in
Chapter 3, verse 19,
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didn't he go to preach
to the spirits in prison?
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That must be what this
verse is talking about?"
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And the answer is no.
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That is not what this
verse is talking about.
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Somebody says,
"Well, wait a minute.
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You've got to prove that to me.
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You've got to show me that
because I thought that sounded
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like a really good connection
back at verse 19 of Chapter 3.
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And in fact that's where
some people get this idea
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that Christ
goes to those in hell
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and He preaches to them.
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They have a second
chance at salvation.
00:08:07.98\00:08:09.83
Okay, first we have to notice
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that there is a
very intimate tie
00:08:12.43\00:08:13.94
between verse 5 and verse 6.
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When he says 4 in
verse 6, he's using verse 6
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as a support for his
statement in verse 5.
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Okay, that's the first step.
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Second, we
notice that in verse 5,
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he used the word 'dead'
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and in verse 6, he
used the word 'dead.'
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Okay, so if he uses the
word 'dead ' in verse 5,
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and there's like
a logical connection
00:08:41.24\00:08:44.14
between the 2 verses.
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It would be very
strange if he changed
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the meaning of the
word 'dead' in verse 6.
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All right, so
the dead in verse 5
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are people who
are dead, all right?
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So the people in
verse 6 who're dead
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must be people who are dead.
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They're not alive. All right.
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So far so good, all right?
00:09:03.85\00:09:05.99
Third, this seems to suggest
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if you take that
the dead in verse 6
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are the same as
the dead in verse 5
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and yet they're preached
to, it almost makes you think
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that the dead in verse
6 are somehow conscious
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because they were
evangelized, weren't they?
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Okay. But we notice it
says they were evangelized.
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It doesn't say they
are being evangelized,
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they were evangelized.
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And so we wonder, well,
just when did that happen, okay?
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Now at this point
we take a little pause
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from this
statement and we think about
00:09:48.90\00:09:50.72
Peter's whole concept
of judgment, all right?
00:09:50.75\00:09:53.97
And Peter is
teaching about judgment,
00:09:54.00\00:09:58.09
there is no second chance.
00:09:58.12\00:10:00.31
If you read the
verses in Chapter 1 verse 17,
00:10:00.34\00:10:04.06
God judges
everyone without partiality
00:10:04.09\00:10:08.22
according to their deeds
what they've done in this life.
00:10:08.25\00:10:11.24
In Chapter 2, verse 23,
Christ entrusted Himself
00:10:11.27\00:10:14.88
to the one who judges justly.
00:10:14.91\00:10:17.95
And in Chapter 4 verse
5 the gentiles must give
00:10:17.98\00:10:21.18
an account to God in
the judgment, all right?
00:10:21.21\00:10:23.88
In 4:17 which
come after our passage,
00:10:23.91\00:10:27.48
judgment begins
with the household of God
00:10:27.51\00:10:29.41
and proceeds to those who
do not believe the gospel.
00:10:29.44\00:10:32.18
In every one of
these other parts
00:10:32.21\00:10:34.85
of the Book of First
Peter, judgment does not have
00:10:34.88\00:10:38.22
the concept that,
"Oh, that, you know,
00:10:38.25\00:10:40.91
there's gonna be a
second chance for you.
00:10:40.94\00:10:42.62
If you die, you know,
00:10:42.65\00:10:44.02
you don't have to
believe in the gospel now.
00:10:44.05\00:10:46.28
You can wait till then and there
will be another chance for you."
00:10:46.31\00:10:49.49
That whole kind of perspective
00:10:49.52\00:10:51.61
emasculates the
concept of judgment in 1 Peter.
00:10:51.64\00:10:55.92
It goes completely contrary
to the idea of judgment.
00:10:55.95\00:10:58.81
There is no second chance.
00:10:58.84\00:11:00.85
You face
judgment and that is what
00:11:00.88\00:11:03.61
should call you back
to God now, all right?
00:11:03.64\00:11:06.94
So if verse 6 is going
a different way oh, my,
00:11:06.97\00:11:10.80
it's going against the
whole rest of the book.
00:11:10.83\00:11:13.71
It doesn't seem
that that's actually
00:11:13.74\00:11:15.50
the case of what's happening.
00:11:15.53\00:11:17.67
This leads us to the
conclusion that in 4:6,
00:11:17.70\00:11:22.20
Peter is talking about
the people who are now dead,
00:11:22.23\00:11:26.63
who are now dead.
00:11:26.66\00:11:28.24
And when were they evangelized?
00:11:28.27\00:11:30.46
They were evangelized
earlier. When they were living.
00:11:30.49\00:11:33.47
When they were living,
before they died, okay?
00:11:33.50\00:11:37.25
You see but why
does He say that way.
00:11:37.28\00:11:40.90
Because remember, He is arguing
00:11:40.93\00:11:43.18
about the Christians
facing gentile persecution.
00:11:43.21\00:11:47.28
And so he says in
verse 6, "This is why
00:11:47.31\00:11:50.35
the gospel was preached
even to those who are dead."
00:11:50.38\00:11:54.41
You see they became Christians.
And so then what happened.
00:11:54.44\00:11:59.12
"That though judged in
the flesh the way people are,"
00:11:59.15\00:12:02.04
that is they're judged by
their surrounding culture,
00:12:02.07\00:12:04.80
the Pagans who are persecuting
them are putting them down.
00:12:04.83\00:12:08.47
"Though judged in the flesh
by people that they might live
00:12:08.50\00:12:11.47
in the spirit in
accordance with God,"
00:12:11.50\00:12:14.89
or in the way God does.
00:12:14.92\00:12:16.29
So God is affirming them
when He will judge the world.
00:12:16.32\00:12:21.59
So as the wicked now are
up and the righteous are down,
00:12:21.62\00:12:28.58
what's going to
happen in the judgment
00:12:28.61\00:12:30.08
is the tables will be turned
and the righteous will go down
00:12:30.11\00:12:34.04
and the wicked
will be affirmed by God.
00:12:34.07\00:12:37.32
This makes total
sense of the passage then
00:12:37.35\00:12:39.97
of who these dead were.
00:12:40.00\00:12:41.37
These were the dead Christians.
And they are being affirmed.
00:12:41.40\00:12:45.49
God is bringing the
whole world to account.
00:12:45.52\00:12:47.66
And He's going to
affirm His people.
00:12:47.69\00:12:49.40
It reminds us of Daniel 7
00:12:49.43\00:12:51.45
where the beasts are
persecuting God's people.
00:12:51.48\00:12:53.66
What does God
do in the judgment?
00:12:53.69\00:12:55.46
He comes to the
aid of His people.
00:12:55.49\00:12:57.75
He comes and saves them
and gives the kingdom to them
00:12:57.78\00:13:00.94
because they've
been faithful to Him.
00:13:00.97\00:13:02.77
And that's exactly the
case of these people here.
00:13:02.80\00:13:04.70
So there's a no linkage between
Chapter 4:6 and Chapter 3:19.
00:13:04.73\00:13:10.60
Those two are
separate ideas. All right.
00:13:10.63\00:13:13.62
Dr. Shepherd, I
want to thank you again
00:13:13.65\00:13:15.07
for joining us in this
program of "Books of the Book."
00:13:15.10\00:13:18.45
And we also want
to thank our viewers,
00:13:18.48\00:13:20.32
our listening
audience for being with us
00:13:20.35\00:13:22.37
studying these very
important books in the Bible.
00:13:22.40\00:13:25.64
And I also encourage
you ask the Holy Spirit
00:13:25.67\00:13:28.43
as you open the Bible,
as you begin to read it.
00:13:28.46\00:13:32.44
Ask God to allow you
to hear the voice of God.
00:13:32.47\00:13:36.50
Perhaps, there's something that
He wants to talk to you as well.
00:13:36.53\00:13:40.43
Well, God bless
you till next time.
00:13:40.46\00:13:42.52