~~~~~~~ No 16 in the series - The Epistles of Peter. ~~~~~~~ **Considering 1 Peter 3:18-22** For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, ...... once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah,..... The like figure whereunto even baptism ..... *1/ Christ - His suffering and death and resurrection - 1 Peter 3:18 2/ Noah - The gospel preached to those before Christ died and who did not profit from it - 1 Peter 3:19-20 3/ Baptism - The answer of a good conscience - 1 Peter 3:21* **Sermon summary:** The sermon centers on the redemptive work of Christ, emphasizing His substitutionary death as the just suffering for the unjust to bring his people back to God, a sacrifice that was once for all and fully satisfied divine justice. Drawing from Genesis and 1 Peter, it highlights Noah as a prophetic figure whose faith and obedience in building the ark—despite ridicule—foreshadowed the gospel message of salvation through faith, with only eight souls saved by water as a type of baptism. The sermon then connects this to believer's baptism, not as a ritual cleansing of the flesh, but as a public, obedient response of a good conscience toward God, rooted in the resurrection of Christ and the believer's identification with His death and new life. Through the lens of Noah's faith, Christ's atonement, and the sacrament of baptism, the preacher calls the congregation to live in faithful obedience, recognizing that true salvation is a gift of grace, not of works, and that the ultimate hope is eternal fellowship with God, secured by Christ's victory over sin and death.
