Facts From the Past — Willie Mullan

To our portion now. We're at 1 Peter, and we're at the 3rd chapter, and we're going through, as you can see, from verse 18 to the end of the chapter. Now, I want to read the portion through with you first.

I want to read it very carefully. Just listen to how carefully I'm reading it. 1 Peter, chapter 3, verse 18. For Christ also hath once suffered for things, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit, capital S, by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison, which sometime were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a-preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.

The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us, not the putting away of the self of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.

The Debated Passage in 1 Peter 3

And you know that this is one of the paragraphs in the scriptures around which debates and arguments have arrayed themselves for years. Why, some of the greatest auditoriums in America have been taken, and this very paragraph that we're looking at now has been debated for days.

Great debates, great arguments, great questions have arrayed themselves around this paragraph this evening. And may I tell you that there are quite a number of different interpretations, quite a number of them.

And there are five out of the number that sort of take the first place. And I want to tell you about them. There are quite a number of people in the world tonight, and have been all down through history since Peter wrote this, I think, who believe that this means that our Lord Jesus, in his own human spirit, in his disembodied spirit, that our Lord Jesus, in his disembodied spirit, went to heaven, went to hell, if you like, and preached to these spirits in prison.

That's what they believe. Certain people believe that. Now, there are certain people who go just a little bit further than that, and they have another interpretation. They believe that the Lord Jesus, in his human spirit, in his disembodied spirit, went in ages and preached the gospel to these people, so that they might have a second chance of salvation.

That is the Russell-like interpretation. Then there is a people who believe that this is the only place in the scriptures where there is a hint of purgatory, where sinners have gone after death and have remained while saints on earth prayed for them and paid for them, and eventually Christ comes and liberates them.

Yes? There's another interpretation, and they believe that these spirits here are not the spirits of humans at all, that these are fallen angels, the angels that did the diabolical work in the days of Noah.

And that when Jesus died, he went in his disembodied spirit into this prison where these fallen angels are kept in prison, and he announced the triumph of the cross. These are all the sorts of major interpretations.

But I don't believe one of them. I take my stand with Old Darby tonight. I think of all the commentaries that I have ever read, or all the scholars that I have listened to, I think that Old Darby was the clearest and the faintest and the faintest of all the commentators that I have ever had.

Because I know that Dr. Ironside and Schaeffer and a great many more all take the same line, but Sir Old Darby was the clearest. Now I'm taking this platform this evening to take my time. I'm not worried about the clock.

I told you to bring your piece with you. Did you bring your piece with you? Because we'll give you a chance to eat I'm going to take my time. I don't think we'll be very far over the time. But I'm going to take the time to take every phrase and expound it in the clearest, faintest possible way that I can.

Not worried about being clever this evening, just worried about being clear. That's all. Now I've divided this paragraph into two, as you can see. I think that there are thoughts from the past here, because there is the fact of Christ's sufferings, and there is the fact of Christ's death, and there is the fact of Christ's resurrection, and there is the fact of Christ's fixing, and there is the fact of God's long suffering, and the fact of the ark and the days of Noah.

And I've divided this paragraph into two, thoughts from the past, and then this great figure of baptism that belongs to the present. Because we were looking at it in Romans there, and it said, like ours are.

And it is a figure, you know. But if it is a figure, it is a figure of a fact. And that we shall very forcibly point out at the end of the chapter. But I want to get the whole paragraph out in its clarity before you, having divided it into facts from the past and the figure of the present.

Christ’s Once-for-All Suffering for Sin

Come to have a look at it, and why are there so many difficulties, and why are there so many divided interpretations. You see, I believe that the whole trouble with this paragraph is phraseology. I think that people are missing completely the phraseology that's used.

It certainly is not theology that's puzzling anybody. I think it's just phraseology, not theology. And I shall point out the source of phraseology that's used. Now, we're ready to start now, and we'll start at the beginning of the paragraph at thirty-three.

I want you for the moment to see Christ's work on the cross. 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 quickened by the Spirit.

And here we find Christ's suffering for sins. And I think we want to be quite clear about whose sins his sufferings are. For Peter's writings of people who are saved, we've been through this, they were born again and redeemed by precious blood and all the rest of it.

They were the elect according to the full knowledge of God the Father, and you know what lies in the chapters behind. Peter is saying, for Christ also once suffered for sins, but just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.

I think we want to get the hold of the us, because it is believers that he's talking to and writing to. And he's trying to get them to see that Christ suffered for their sins. You know, this is the testimony of every believer in this meeting tonight.

That Christ was wounded for our transgressions. That he was bruised for our iniquities. This is Christ's suffering for our sins. That's what that is. But I think you want to get the hold of another word that's in the text.

It says, for Christ also half once wanted to get that, you know. This doesn't happen every Sunday morning in the mosque at all, you know. And I'm not trying to be rude to the Roman Catholic that I am.

I'm just, to be honest, no matter what you think about me. But I want to point out with all the force I have, that Christ suffered once. That's all I want to say, just very forcibly. Oh, this sacrifice doesn't need to be made every Sunday morning, you know.

It would finish at the place called Calvary. You know, if you go back to Hebrews, just for the moment, let's go back. Hebrews chapter 9. Talking about Christ as our High Priest, it says in verse 24, for Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the truth.

The tabernacle, of course, was the figure of the truth, tabernacle. Christ has entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the High Priest entered into the holy place every year with blood of others, for then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world.

But now once, in the end of the age, or the end of the world, has he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, after this the judgment, so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of men.

Then if you go on into chapter 10, you will find this. He's talking about the difference between Israel's High Priest and our High Priest, the Lord Jesus. He's saying, verse 11, and every priest, and that is every priest in Israel, standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.

These were only types. They were offering lambs and bulls and goats and cows, and they were offering daily, and offering oftentimes. And he contrasts the Israelite Aaronic priesthood with our Lord Jesus.

He says in verse 12, but this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down. Of course, the Aaronic priesthood had to stand every day because they never finished the work. But this man, because he finished the work, he sat down.

When this meeting is over, I can sit down. But what's finished? Yes, our Lord Jesus was once offered. If you go back to Peter again, I want you to get the hold of this before we move any further. I want you to think, for Christ also hath once suffered for sins.

And the sins here are the sins of the unbelievers. He was the just, they were unjust, that he might bring us to God. You know, our Lord Jesus not only suffered for our sins. If we were going to Church Corinthians 16, and I said, I don't need to do that, Paul says, the gospel that I preached unto you, how that Christ died for our sins.

You see, this takes in the tremendous work of the cross. You see, not only there are sins laid upon them, all we like sheep have gone astray, we've turned everyone to our own way, the Lord Jehovah laid on him the iniquity of our beliefs.

And you can see him bearing this weight. And because he was bearing sin, then God struck him. Not he suffered for our sins, he was stricken and smitten of God, and afflicted, but wounded for our transgressions.

God bruised him and it pleased the Lord to bruise him, because he was our substitutionary sacrifice at that second. You see, he not only bear our sins, he not only suffered for our sins, but you remember we went into the text, just over the page in Peter, where Peter said, he his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree.

The word bear in the Greek there means that he bore them away. He bore them away in death. And I'll tell you this, Hebrews 1 says, when he had by himself purged our sins, he thought, God, can you get this?

That he bears our sins, that he suffers for our sins, that he carries them away until they cannot be found. And that when he rose again from the dead, he had purged them away. He went back without them, and sat down on the right hand of the majesty of God.

My, there is no gospel like that one. And you fellows that talk about sin, right out there, the way I'm wearing it on the cross means, 40 years later he was buried. Some of my sins, he was a fool. The rest of them are done.

I'll tell you this, if there is one sin on your life, or there's ever going to be a sin on your life, that Christ didn't bear, and suffer for, and put away at Calvary, you're damned. You're damned. He won't come back to do it, you know.

This is the marvellous thing, that he took every single sin belonging to me, and he suffered for it. You don't mean that God will demand payment twice, do you? First at my bleeding, shortly found, and then again at mine?

If Christ suffered for my sins, it's over. Christ not only suffered for my sins, Christ died for my sins. He bared them away. Christ not only suffered and died, Christ died. My, he's blotted them out, sir.

They cannot be found. Oh, I'm just about as safe as God can make me. Now that's what this begins with, this mighty paragraph. It begins with Christ's work on the cross. And then we move on to the Spirit's work in resurrection.

The Spirit’s Work in Christ’s Bodily Resurrection

Now, I want you to follow the reading again, because we must do carefully. For Christ also hath worked suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that they might bring us to God. Being put to death in flesh.

Of course, that is the only part of Christ that could have died. The word flesh stands for body there, you know, and sometimes in the New Testament it's used for body. Paul had afflictions in his flesh.

Yes, you know, this is the part of Christ that died. Let's get the hold of this quite clear just now, that is, Spirit isn't died. Because that's what the Russellites would like to read into this, to get their own particular interpretation.

When Christ died on the cross, let me show the young ones this. This is Luke's Gospel, chapter 23. Luke's Gospel, chapter 23. And the Lord Jesus is on the cross. And it says in verse 45,. And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was made amiss.

And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, and I think if we go to another gospel we will find that cry was, It is finished. When he had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.

You know, he was a perfectly human, and being perfectly human he was made up of body and soul and spirit. And I want to tell you that it was his body that died, he was put to death in the flesh. Oh, but his spirit didn't die.

He commended his spirit into the hands of God. I want you to get the hold of that, because that's what this book says. Now, let's get back to Peter, till you see this. You see, he was put to death in the flesh, but he was quickened by the spirit.

Now, this is where some of these men who are giving these interpretations leave the book, you see. They say that Christ was put to death in the flesh, and that meant that his spirit died. I've already told you that he commended his spirit into the hands of God.

And they say when it says quickened by the spirit, they say it should read quickened, the spirit, small s, that it was the spirit that was being raised again. Now, I wouldn't know how you would raise a spirit.

In fact, I wouldn't know how you would raise a spirit. Any good leader would have some fun clapping a spit on the spirit, I can tell you. And the undertaker would have a bit of bother boxing it too. And I've already proved, I think, that there's no such a thing as the spirit dying.

His body died, and he commended his spirit onto God, into the hands of God. So, we'll just rule that out, and we'll keep the reading we have. Because this quickening is the quickening of his body by the Holy Spirit.

You see, when it comes to the resurrection of Christ, first of all, Christ claims to have the power to resurrect his body. You remember what he said to the people in Jerusalem, destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it.

And the Russellites don't like that. Because he was talking about it, and it actually says in the phrase, he was speaking of the temple of his body, he said, I will raise it. Not something like it, but, I will raise it.

You see, when the resurrection is talked about, sometimes it talks about Christ, which proves he's God, of course. He raised his own body. Because sometimes it talks about God raised him from the dead.

And the Father, by the glory of the Father, the Father came into work in the resurrection, in the bodily resurrection of Christ. So, I think this is quite clear here, that this is the work of the Holy Spirit, that's why our good translator has put a capital S there.

He was put to death in the body, but was quickened, that body was quickened by the Holy Ghost, by the Spirit. Now, that's the Spirit's work in resurrection. Now, I want you to move on to the depths of the message, because it's the Spirit's work in pity.

The Spirit’s Preaching Through Noah

Now, I want you to take the text over again. It says, Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit, capital S, by the Holy Spirit.

By which? I want you to get that. I want you to get it like this. By which also? It's by the Holy Spirit that the preaching is being done. I want you to get that. By which? And the word also will keep you right.

The Spirit that raised the body is the Spirit that's doing the preaching. Let's get that. Because you'll stop me and say, by which also he went and preached? Then you'll say, oh, you've got to come back to it, because it's the Holy Spirit in Christ that's making Christ do the preaching.

Now, I want to answer this sort of thing with five answers, and I think that's good answering. First of all, I want to show you the sort of phraseology that's used right through the Scriptures. Now, let me take you over to Ephesians, and that's quite an easy book, isn't it?

And we're at Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2. Now, let's take it carefully. Verse 12. Paul's writing to these Ephesians and he's reminding them of the time when he came preaching among them. He says that at that time he were without Christ.

They were without Christ when Paul came to Ephesus. Being alien from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenant of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. Ephesians 2 .12.

He says, but now, that was only at that time, but now, in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. I wonder how that took place. Paul says, for he, the Lord Jesus, is our peace.

Who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us, that's between Jews and Gentiles, having abolished in its fleshly enmity even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in himself of flame one new man, so making peace.

And that he might reconcile both us, crowds, Jews and Gentiles, unto God in one body by the cross, having flamed the enmity thereby, and came and preached peace to you. Now, did he really? I'm asking the whole crowd, did Christ go to Ephesus?

And you never once read into that in your life, in your whole history, that he went to Ephesus. You know right well he didn't. Well, it's the same physiology we have all the while, you know. Because we'll have to argue it out now.

If you're going to keep it as tight as you think you are, then you'll have to tell me when Christ went to Ephesus. And you know that he didn't go to Ephesus. No, it happens that he sent Paul to Ephesus.

And it happens that the Holy Ghost used Paul to preach to the Ephesians. And here it says, Christ came and preached unto you. Ah, but it's just phraseology. That's what it is. And to beat an interpretation on phraseology is not teaching at all.

You'll need to take the whole book with you, won't you? Now, let's do this again. We would have marched gospel a moment or two, sixteen, weren't we? Maybe just go right back there and he's sending them out, you know, and telling them to preach the gospel to every creature.

And it says in verse 19, we're at Mark 16, verse 19, Paul then asked that the Lord have spoken unto them. He was received up into heaven and sat on the right hand of God. And they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them.

Do you mean literally? That's the phraseology that says. You know, sometimes in this meeting on Sunday nights when I get up to preach, I just get a tall crowd and say, Christ is here! And I mean it. Oh, but I don't mean that he's here literally.

I mean by the Holy Ghost, Christ is here to meet you. Shall we all use this phraseology? If we were all fooled up on it, I wonder what doctrines we would make out of it. Well, I'm answering, first of all, that the trouble with the passage is phraseology, not theology.

Let me do it once again for you. You know, this book is full of this sort of thing. Have a look at this one. This is 1 Corinthians, and it's chapter 10. First letter to the Corinthians, and it's chapter 10.

And Paul writes into them, verse 1, They were buried in the cloud and buried in the sea. If you want to know what baptism means. They weren't sprinkled, you know. I'd like to know how you'd get sprinkled with a cloud and a sea.

He says they were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. And I'll tell you this, before they were baptized, they were redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. They weren't babies in a cot, you know.

He said, let me get this bit done. He says they were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and did all eat the same spirit you'll meet, and did all drink the same spirit you'll drink. For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them.

If you look in the margin, it says that the word followed. That spiritual rock that went with them. And that rock was Christ. I want to ask you, was he really with them? Did you get that? It's that philosophy of theology that they're barneying over.

And I can start more barneys than they could. Because I just know where the theology lies. He's right through the book. He talks about Christ coming to Ephesus. He talks about Christ going everywhere with them, working with them.

He talks about Christ following this cloud in the wilderness. Do you want to make it literal? Would you like to say it was his hidden body spirit? Well, you'd be a real klutz, wouldn't you? Oh yes, it's easy to talk to an old idiot.

I bet he doesn't know anything. But when you have to face the book, it's quite a different situation. This is a phraseology that's used right through the book. You know, a university student came in to think it was like trying to be funny.

He said, I don't know how men could be taken away in the Old Testament so they didn't know anything about Christ. I said, well, you'd rather... You'd rather never have a New Testament in the house when you were a wee son.

Because if a fella comes in with all his weird about, I can get out on him, you know. And when this old tongue starts to move and talk to them, it can really wobble. And that's what God gave me for. And it is not wrong to do it.

Because Elijah made a fool out of a prophet of Baal. He said, look, Shavuot, you must be sleeping. You'll be wearing it all the day to the Caribbean. Yes, I said to the young fella, did you never read this?

By faith Moses, when he was twenty years, just twenty-one, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Such is not the affliction of the people of God, those who enjoy the pleasure of sin for a season.

For he had respect unto the reproach of Christ. I said, what does he know about the reproach of Christ? He said, how did he get a hold of that? That's another thing you didn't know, isn't it? I said, you know, right from the book of Genesis, right from Eden's garden, God talked about Christ.

God said to the devil, I'll tell you, I'll put enmity between you and the woman and the thief, and I'll tell you this, the thief of the woman is Christ. He is no human proper. He is the seed of the woman, and the thief of the woman will bruise the serpent's head and rake down through the book like a dark man, he talks about Christ.

And when he talks about Christ going with them, or Christ following, or Christ coming to preach, it is physiology that's being used. But the man who is spiritual knows that God took Paul, and by the Holy Ghost, brought the message of the Gospel to Ephesus.

Anybody knows that? Now, let's get back to Peter, because there's a lot of problems here. I want you to get that. You know, I want you to notice this, this physiology, it says he was quickened by the Holy Spirit.

By which altar? He went and preached unto the spirits in prison. Now, this is the sort of physiology that Peter uses. Mind you, I've already told you several times that he didn't go to any kind of school that was worth talking about.

He was an unlearned and ignorant man. But you know, he knew all about inspiration and how it worked. Let's go back over the page here to where he talks about inspiration. And we're at 1 Peter, chapter 1.

You see, he's talking about salvation, the salvation of your souls, in verse 9. Receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Whom having not, you know, of verse 10, of which salvation?

The prophets, that's the Old Testament prophets, have inquired and searched diligently who prophesied, these men even prophesied, of the grace that should come unto you, the grace that would save you.

Searching what? They were always searching. What? Or what manner of time? They wanted to know the time. The Spirit of Christ which was in them. Did you get that? Because that's the sort of phraseology he used.

You see, these Old Testament prophets were being moved by the Spirit, and Peter feels that he can use this language. The Spirit of Christ that was in them. It was the Spirit of Christ that was preaching in them.

And that's the phraseology. Because I think it's right through the book, and I think it's the phraseology that Peter used. But let's get it just a little bit deeper and clearer than that. You know, I want you to get this bit.

It says, being put to death in the flesh, in the body, but quickened by the Holy Spirit, by which also he went, that is, in these men, these preachers that he had, who had the Spirit of Christ within them, and he preached unto the spirits in prison.

Now, let's get this bit about the spirits in prison. Now, let's get this done, first of all, which sometime were disobedient. These spirits are now in prison because they were disobedient. When once the long-suffering of God wakens in the days of Noah.

Now, it's got something to do with the days of Noah, and it's got something to do with the long-suffering of God. These spirits are in prison because they were disobedient to preaching. And they're in prison because the long-suffering of God has run out.

Have you got that? Because the long-suffering of God waited. Now, let me go back to the days of Noah, which is just to get this tidied up a little bit. This is Genesis chapter 6. And you know, we spent two whole nights on the first two verses of this chapter in the Bible class some years ago, when we were doing Genesis.

And it wouldn't give me any bother to take about a half an hour out of it now. Now, let's get it as easy as we can. Verse 1, Genesis 6. And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair.

And I think there's a suggestion in the phrase that the eyes of these men were upon these good-looking women. I think we were looking on them in a sexual fashion. That's all I want to say just now. And it says this, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair, and they took them wives of all which they choose.

Of course, it's only a few pages back, you know, that God has written down the law of marriage. And the one that was taken and embraced by the other were made one, and there was to be no more change. But now these boys are going to take as many women as they want.

There's something going wrong with the race. And it says this, it says, And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with mine, for that he also is flesh. Yet his day shall be in a hundred and twenty years.

And from that moment, a hundred and twenty years forward, the flood came. And God was going to put up with them for a hundred and twenty years. And God was going to strive. And at the end he would stop.

And at the end he would come in and destroy them, and judge them, and condemn them. Are some of the boys trying to say that he's changed his mind and is going back to try to rescue them? That would be teaching.

Did you look to God? God! It was so wicked. That's what he had to do. Somebody asked me once, How can a God of love destroy a world? I said, if you would look at the state that it was in, I'm telling you, a holy God could do nothing else but destroy it.

Somebody said to me up in the street the other day, We are as bad as we were in the days of Noah. No, no, we're not anywhere near it. Let me say that. I know we're a lot of wicked men and things happen.

We're nowhere near it. We'll approve to you that we're not near it. All right, let's do it. It says that the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man. And God did strive. And God was long suffering.

And at last he had to damn this crowd. It says there were giants in the earth in those days. You know, we've got to get this in its proper sense. It doesn't mean giants in the physical sense. It means giants in a sinful sense, in a wicked sense.

Sometimes I think we have one or two giants of wickedness roaming about Ulster. But I don't think that all the people in Ulster are just giants in wickedness. It says there were giants in the earth in those days.

And also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bared children to them, the same became mighty men. It doesn't mean mighty and being courageous. It means mighty sinners.

They were renowned sinners. You say, how do you know all this? Well, it's heavy just now. Verse 5. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth. Now watch this phrase for any fixed market.

And that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Oh, what a statement. Watch it again. Look at the word every. Just underline every. Every. Every thought was only evil continually.

Now you can't imagine what that means. That God looking down and saw all the men on this earth and the women too. Because it's mankind is looking at us. And every single thought, every single thought.

Oh, let's be absolutely honest with God tonight. We've all had wrong thoughts. And we've all had wicked thoughts. Very wonderful. Oh, but we don't only have wicked thoughts. Praise God, we have good ones too.

And we have spiritual ones too. And gracious ones too. And merciful ones. Oh, but the mind that we're looking at is that every single thought can respond to us. There's a world going to hell on the face of the earth.

You're telling me that God is so fed up with them that they have to drop them out and then afterwards come back and try to drag them out of hell. Is that what you're trying to teach? God's setting your mentality.

Do you see what it says here now, just right now? God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord.

His very heart was moved that he had made man on the earth. And it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth both man and beast and the creeping thing and the fowls of the earth for it repented me that I have made them.

And you're trying to tell me that he went back years later to get them out of hell. I don't think you read this book, that's your trouble. I don't think you can get that over with me anyway. That would be below me.

That would make us too low to God. No, friends, the phraseology that's here is the phraseology that's like the Scripture. And it's the phraseology that Peter uses. I'll tell you this. This was the Spirit preaching to these people who are now in prison.

Ah, but he wasn't preaching to them in prison. He was preaching to them in the days of Noah when the ark was a-preparing. And he had two preachers with him. Well, Noah was the preacher. Noah was the preacher of righteousness.

And I'll tell you this. You would never have known that Enoch was the preacher except this book of Judas. No other book of the Bible has said that Judas preached. You never would have known, couldn't say it, only Genesis.