God's Word to 1 Peter 3. 1 Peter 3. This is God's Word in 1 Peter 3. Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands, that if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives. While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear, Whose adorning, let it not be the outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel, but let it be the hidden man of the heart, and that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands. even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement. Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel, and being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers be not hindered. Finally, be ye of all one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous, not rendering evil for evil or railing for railing, but contrary wise blessing, knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing. For he that will love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile. Let him eschew evil and do good. Let him seek peace and ensue it. For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers. But the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good? But, and if ye 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 of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. Having a good conversation that whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. For it is better if the will of God be so that ye suffer for well-doing than for evil doing. For 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. 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 now also save us. not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward 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." So far we read God's holy and inspired Word. Let's turn now to Lord's Day 15 of the Heidelberg Catechism. A Lord's Day that treats the article of the Apostles' Creed that Jesus suffered. Three questions and answers in Lord's Day 15, 37-39. We'll read all three right now. What dost thou understand by the words, He suffered? That He all the time that He lived on earth, but especially at the end of His life, sustained in body and soul the wrath of God against the sins of all mankind. That so by His passion, As the only propitiatory sacrifice, He might redeem our body and soul from everlasting damnation, and obtain for us the favor of God, righteousness, and eternal life. Why did He suffer under Pontius Pilate as judge? that He being innocent and yet condemned by a temporal judge might thereby free us from the severe judgment of God to which we were exposed. Is there anything more in His being crucified than if He had died some other death? Yes, there is. For thereby I am assured that He took on Him the curse which lay upon me. For the death of the cross was a curse of God. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, the significance of God's Word to us this morning is that it makes very clear what the essence of the life of Jesus Christ was. If someone were to ask you what was the life of Jesus all about, This Lord's Day explains what the answer to that question is in one word. Suffered. The life of Jesus Christ is a life of suffering. In the sermon this morning on Lord's Day 15, we explain that suffering of Jesus Christ. We answer these types of questions. What did Jesus suffer? Why did Jesus suffer? How did Jesus suffer? For whom did Jesus suffer? And to what end did Jesus suffer? All of those questions and others are explained in Lord's Day 15, the Lord's Day of the Catechism that treats the confession in the Apostles' Creed, He suffered under Pontius Pilate. As we consider this content in Lord's Day 15, You must do so as those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ with two more words in the forefront of our minds throughout the sermon. And those two words are these, For Me. As we consider Lord's Day 15, believing and trusting in Jesus Christ, that's what we need to know. And that's what we need to walk out of the sanctuary being assured of, so that when we get to the end of the sermon, the end of the suffering of Jesus, we are, through the preaching of God's Word, confirmed that this is for us. The life that we have with God through Jesus Christ. We read this morning 1 Peter 3. And in verse 18 of 1 Peter 3, we read concerning the suffering of Jesus, that He was the just who suffered for the unjust. That's the two words that I said a moment ago. For me. For us. He was the just one. We are the unjust. Those who are guilty on account of our sin. But for us, Jesus suffered the wrath of God. I call your attention this morning to the Lord's Day 15 under the theme, The Suffering of Jesus Christ. Let's consider in the first place, what? In the second place, for whom? In the third place, to what end? In a sermon a couple of weeks ago on Lord's Day 14, I only stated the fact, but did not explain what it meant that we are in this section of the Heidelberg Catechism treating the steps of the state of humiliation that Jesus was in when He came to this earth. That's what we refer to as describing the following five steps. His birth, His lifelong suffering, His crucifixion, His burial, and His descent into hell. Those five steps will be treated in the Heidelberg Catechism. And we're on the second of those this morning. Those five steps are described as the state of humiliation that Jesus was in. I just stated that fact a couple of weeks ago, but now I want to explain that. And I want to explain that because understanding what it means by the state of humiliation explains how and why it was the case that Jesus suffered. And that His suffering, as we'll come to see, was a lifelong suffering. The idea of a state is one's legal standing. You can be in either a state of guilt or a state of innocence or righteousness. Now here's the important step to follow. If one is in a state of guilt as he stands before the law and before the judge, he has on him the sentence of guilty. What necessarily goes along with that state of guilt, what is the inevitable fruit of that state of guilt, is a certain circumstance. It's the punishment and the misery of that punishment that goes along with being guilty. In the court system of the land, if one is guilty of murder, There is a certain punishment that is endured. A circumstance that he must go through. That's the misery of whatever it is. Whatever the judge gives him as a result of that. Over against that is a state of innocence. And the freedom and the joy that goes along with that. Now we bring it back to Christ. The state of humiliation was the time in Jesus' life when He stood before God and God's law as guilty. Now here's the important step to follow. As guilty before God and His law, what He then must necessarily endure is the punishment that is the consequence of being in the state of guilt. He was guilty before God, not with the sins that he committed. He was the just one, 1 Peter 3 says. He stood before Pilate and was declared guilty. as the innocent one. It wasn't with his own sin that he stood before God as guilty. And this is the wonder of the Gospel. That your sin and your guilt, God took and imputed or reckoned to the record of Jesus Christ. So that when Christ came to this earth, He came with on His record Your guilt and Your sin. My guilt and My sin. So that He stood before God as guilty. Guilty before God's law. Guilty and therefore worthy of the punishment that goes along with being guilty with sin before God. The wages of sin are death. The wrath of God, as the righteous and holy God who He is, must be poured out upon those who stand before Him as guilty. And so, in that state of humiliation when he was guilty before God, what characterized the whole of his life? It was the just consequence of that guilt, which we have described in Lord's Day 15 as suffering. It has everything to do with being guilty as he stood before God. Not with the guilt of his own sin. He had none. But with the imputed guilt of all the sin of his people. I'd like to now in the remaining portion of the first point of this sermon explain in three points that I want to highlight this morning the suffering of Jesus Christ. The first is that it was a lifelong suffering that culminated in the three hours of darkness on the cross of Calvary. Heidelberg Catechism makes a special point of that at the beginning of the answer to question 37. That He, all the time He lived on earth, but especially at the end of His life, sustained in body and soul the wrath of God. Jesus suffered all of His life long exactly because of the point that I just made. The moment He came into this earth, He came with our guilt and sin upon Him. He stood before God as guilty. and therefore was the just object of the wrath of God. That was true from the very beginning, even though it was the case that the full dregs of God's wrath were not poured out upon Christ until He got to those three hours of darkness on the cross of Calvary. But with that guilt from the very beginning, what characterized His life was a life of suffering. And that explains all of the circumstances of his life. For example, surrounding his birth. All of the poverty in which he was born was to indicate this was a man of sorrows. This is a man of suffering. This is the man whose end would be the climax of it on the cross of Calvary. In addition to that, part of the suffering of Jesus Christ was always the anticipation of the agony that He knew He would endure at the very end of His life. And Jesus would make that clear in His earthly ministry. He always knew that the end that He was going to was hell itself as He hung on that cross. He said, for example, in Matthew 16, verse 21 to His disciples during His earthly ministry, From this time forth began Jesus to show unto His disciples how that He must go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised again the third day. And what indicates this the most is the night before Jesus died. There He was in the Garden of Gethsemane, sweating drops of blood, Because of the agony that he knew was coming less than 24 hours later. When the full wrath of God would be poured out upon him. Living in the shadow. All His life long of the cross was suffering for the Lord Jesus Christ. And then the essence of it at the very end, during those three hours of darkness. In the second place, the suffering of Jesus Christ was a suffering that He endured in His human nature, body and soul. The Catechism also says this, but especially at the end of his life he sustained in body and soul the wrath of God." Here now we see the connection between what we considered from the catechism a couple of weeks ago in the incarnation. The incarnation was the eternal Son of God uniting to Himself a real, complete human nature. Now, Lord's Day 15, so that in that human nature, body and soul, Jesus might suffer. It was a suffering in His body. The extreme suffering of being nailed to the cross. It was a suffering more so in His soul. as he endured being forsaken by God, and being the object of the wrath of God, and the anger of God as it's manifested against sin, against His holiness as God. He suffered in His human nature. He did not suffer in His divine nature. It was man that sinned. And therefore, it was upon man, represented in Jesus Christ, that God poured out His wrath. But understand that the divine nature was absolutely critical. The divine nature of Jesus was absolutely critical because it was that divine nature, though He did not suffer in His divine nature, it's impossible for the divine nature to suffer, Though He did not suffer in that divine nature, it was that divine nature, so to speak, that upheld and gave eternal worth to what He endured in that human nature. It was on account of the divine nature that Jesus was not utterly consumed, but rather was able to endure the fullness God's infinite wrath in those three hours of darkness on the cross. This is why article 19 of the Belgic Confession is aptly titled. I'm not going to read the content, just the title. The union and distinction of the two natures in the person of Christ. His distinction. He suffered in His human nature. But we have to understand the union because it was the Divine that upheld the human. All the suffering that He endured. So the first point was that it was a lifelong suffering. The second point was that it was a suffering in His human nature. Body and soul. The third point That the nature of the suffering of Jesus is that it was a propitiatory sacrifice. That's what the Catechism says in the fourth line of the answer to question 37. So that by his passion, passion just means suffering, as the only propitiatory sacrifice. To propitiate is to appease or to placate by means of covering. The nature of Jesus' suffering was that it did something. And what it did was remove the wrath of God. Jesus, when He suffered, did not just suffer to give you a good example. Jesus, when He suffered, did not just suffer in order to show that when you're committed to a cause, you're willing to do anything for that cause, even lay down your life. It's not the nature of Jesus' suffering. Jesus' suffering accomplished something. It did something. It was powerful. It was powerful because it was a propitiatory sacrifice. Upon Him, the fullness of the wrath of God was poured out. So that in being poured out, it was removed. upon those who were the rightful objects of that wrath of God. The catechism uses the word sustained to describe enduring the wrath of God against sin. He didn't just bear it. The reprobate in hell are going to bear it. They don't sustain it. Jesus sustained it. Jesus sustained it to the point where the wrath of God, because it was a propitiatory sacrifice, is altogether removed because it was sustained in full. The nature of Jesus' suffering was that it was a powerful, propitiatory, wrath-removing sacrifice and death. The second point of the sermon concerns the question of for whom Jesus suffered. And here we take up the language of the Catechism. when it says in the third line that he suffered the wrath of God against the sins of all mankind. That's the explicit statement in the Catechism. He suffered the sins of all mankind. Before I explain that, we need to be careful not to do two things. On the one hand, we need to be careful that we don't just offhand dismiss what the Catechism says. And say, for example, that the Catechism doesn't quite have it right here. That would be absolutely wrong to do that. This is our confession. This is what we are bound to believe, as we believe it to be a faithful teaching of the Word of God. When we read that language, the sins of all mankind, we don't make the mistake of just saying we dismiss it because they didn't quite have it right there. Emphatically, no. Nor do we make the mistake of saying that this is the language of the writers of the Catechism, but it's nowhere to be found in the Scriptures. That would be a mistake too. Because the fact is that the language of the catechism is biblical. And it reflects the language of Scripture. For example, John 3.16, For God so loved the world. 1 Timothy 2.4 who will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth." So with respect to the love of God, John 3. With respect to the will of God to save, 1 Peter 2. With respect, Lord's Day 15, to the suffering of Jesus, you have world All men. All mankind. The language is biblical. We need to simply explain it properly in light of all of the teaching of the Confessions and in light of all of the teaching of God's Word. And the proper explanation of what the Catechism says here is that Jesus Christ suffered for His elect body Chosen in eternity. Made up of all kinds of men. From every nation, tribe, and tongue. Male and female. Rich and poor. A helpful way I think to always remember how to explain Lord's Day 15 is simply to flip it around. As we read it, it says, the sins of all mankind. To explain it, we say, against the sins of all kinds of men. And that's consistent with the teaching of the Word of God, even with respect to those passages that I brought up. John 3.16, God loves the world. the cosmos, with the elect at the center of the object of God's love. And then immediately after that, those whom God loves and saves are those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And then you go to a passage like Acts 13.48 that says all those who are ordained to eternal life believe. To be ordained to eternal life is the decree of election. The elect body believes. The elect body is the object of the love of God. 1 Peter 2 verse 4 wills that all men are to be saved. In the context, we read that we are exhorted to pray for all men, all kinds of men. And then he zeroes in on kings and rulers, and then broadens it in verse 4. And in light of the context, it's clear that when he says, that He wills that all men be saved. It is all kinds of men. And in light of the Word of God, those whom God wills to save, and those whom, therefore, Jesus suffered, are the elect, and the elect alone. More specifically, with respect to that suffering of Jesus, The Word of God is clear. John 10. The passage that describes Christ as the Good Shepherd. In that passage, He says that He lays down His life for His sheep. To lay down His life is to suffer. John 17, the high priestly prayer. Jesus prays. As He anticipates the cross, He prays. Not for all men. He prays. for those whom the Father had given Him." That's the language of election. He prays for the elect body that He will now lay down His life for and suffer for on the cross. 1 Peter 3, what we read, the just for the unjust. He suffered for the unjust to bring them to God. Well, who are those unjust brought to God? The us. For that, you flip to verse 1 of chapter 1. To the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through the sanctification of the Spirit. We do not teach a universal suffering of Jesus Christ. We teach a particular suffering. The elect body made up of men and women from every nation, tribe, and tongue. And very briefly, there's a couple of very important applications that flow from that. Number one, it leads us to see the body The glorious, Catholic body for whom Jesus suffered and therefore saved. But then it also leads us to see that that body is made up of individuals. It's a definite, particular suffering. So that four individuals Jesus suffered and laid down His life. His love in that suffering is not for just a general body, but it is for definite, particular individuals. And therefore, it emphasizes that it's powerful for you, an individual, He suffered a propitiatory sacrifice to appease the wrath of God. And therefore, it's removed for that individual powerful to accomplish a certain end. That does lead us to ask the question of how do you know that this suffering is for you? Is for me? The answer to that question comes down to one word. The one word in the introduction to describe his life was suffer. The two words that I said for us to focus on was, for me. The one word that allows you to know that that is true for you, very simply, is this. Believe. You believe? You trust in this Lord Jesus Christ, then you know that He suffered for you. The word is not do. The word is believe. One who believes reads, for example, 1 Peter 3.18 and reads the word unjust and says, that's me. I'm unjust. on account of my sin in Adam and account of my sin as I stand before the law of God and know that I fall short of the glory of God. The one who believes knows that all of this suffering that we're describing in the sermon this morning, that Jesus endured, is what I deserve. I deserve it. All my life long. I deserve it in my body and in my soul. And I deserve it in such a way that I can't do what Christ did, and that is appease the wrath of God, but bear it into all eternity. So great is my sin and guilt, standing before the righteous and holy God. The one who believes, knows that, and therefore, looks to Christ and says, I trust in His suffering for me as my only hope in standing before God. You believe? Then this end is for you. The end is, to put it negatively with the language of the catechism, that we are redeemed in our body and soul from everlasting damnation. All of that suffering, everlasting damnation, it's not for us because we're redeemed body and soul. Question 38, we are freed from the severe judgment of God that we were exposed to on account of our sin. Question 39, the curse which was upon me is no longer upon me." And that leads to the positive, and the positive is that through Christ, we have obtained the favor of God, righteousness, and eternal life. Beloved, you believe in Jesus Christ. The declaration from God to you this morning He's righteous. Innocent. The beginning of the sermon was an explanation of a state. And how one's state necessarily has a certain result or fruit. Christ was in the state of humiliation. He was guilty. That meant for Him, only this, suffering the just wrath of God for sin. But He sustained it. Perfect atonement on the cross. Perfect obedience to the law of God. He merited righteousness. You believe in Jesus Christ. In all of that perfect righteousness, God imputes to your record so that everyone who believes in Jesus stands before God as righteous. And just as, like Christ, in the state of guilt there was only one end because God is a just God, punishment and wrath, so also, in the state of righteousness. Because God is a righteous, just God. There's only one end. There can be only one end. There can only ever be one end. And that's this. The object of the favor of God. The blessing of God. And the heir to eternal life. You believe in Jesus Christ. You're righteous. That's God's declaration to you this morning. And being righteous. Nothing but this is true for you and me who believe in Jesus. God's favor. Righteousness. Eternal life. We are, as 1 Peter 3 verse 18 says, is brought to God. Fellowship now and forever with the living God of heaven and earth through faith in Jesus Christ. Amen. Our Father which art in heaven, what an amazing Gospel that we who are guilty sinners are declared righteous on the basis of the suffering perfect suffering of Jesus Christ. May Thy Word this morning have led us to see Christ, and may Thy Spirit work in our hearts so that we are strengthened in our faith and know, despite what the devil may tempt us with, that we are righteous, The objects of Thy love and favor and heirs forever to eternal life. In Jesus' name do we pray. Amen. Let's sing together now number 185. 185 from Psalm 69. Let's sing the first four stanzas. Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father and the communion of the Holy Spirit abide with you all. Amen.