1 Pe 3 Spirits in Prison - Exhortation

1 Peter 3
18 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:
19 By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;
20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.

Why was Jesus preaching to the sometime disobedient? Did they end up in a fiery hell? I spent a lot of time trying to figure this passage out. Gill, Matthew Henry and Jamison, Fawcett, Brown did not provide satisfying explanations. What exactly is the current condition of these poor lost souls?

I have finally concluded that Peter, in telling of this incident, was exhorting his flock. Just as Jesus commands the various churches to repent in Revelantions. And the exhortation continues on through out the centuries.

Charles Sperry Chafer identifies 183 fundamental doctrines, and exhortation is not one of them. Maybe exhortation should be considered a fundamental doctrine. Another example of exhortation:

Revelations 2
15 So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicola'itans, which thing I hate.
16 Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.