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Paul Mahan

The Desire of Angels

1 Peter 1:12
Paul Mahan August, 4 2021 Audio
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1 Peter

The sermon titled "The Desire of Angels" by Paul Mahan focuses on the profound theological theme of how angels yearn to understand the redemptive work of Christ. Mahan argues that the fascination of the angels is rooted in their observation of the sufferings and glory of Jesus, as expressed in 1 Peter 1:12. He emphasizes that the prophets and the apostles, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, have articulated the narrative of salvation that even angels desire to comprehend. Specific references to Scriptures such as John 14 and Ephesians 3 underline the role of the Holy Spirit in revealing divine truths, not just to believers, but seemingly eliciting curiosity even from angels. The sermon concludes by asserting the significant doctrinal point that the centrality of Christ is the sole focus of both human redemption and the longing of heavenly beings, underscoring the importance of preaching Christ alone in the life of the church.

Key Quotes

“The whole Bible is about these things. Not a history book. You know that. It's His story.”

“The natural man receiveth not these things. That's how depraved man is. He doesn't look at things that are wise and glorious and marvelous."

“This is what the Holy Spirit does. He doesn't make you talk like a fool. He makes you talk about Jesus Christ."

“There is nothing else. Anybody coming to heaven looking for something else, Not going to be there.”

Sermon Transcript

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There are so many depictions
of Jesus, so many portrayals, so many pictures, all false. They're all false. There's no
description of Christ in Scripture, says Revelation 1, but it's largely
symbolic, because he's a man. But it says we shall see him
as he is. We're going to see him, and we'll
know him as we've been known. All right, 1 Peter 1. Go back
to 1 Peter 1. We began this last Wednesday. and didn't get to the second
part. We looked at what the prophets
inquired and searched diligently into, what all the prophets were
taken up with. Their great desire and their
search and their studies and their diligent research was all
about the sufferings of Christ and his glory, the glory that
should follow. And it was revealed to them that
what they were prophesying of in writing was not for them,
but for a distant time when Christ would come. Now look at verse
12. And unto whom it was revealed,
it was not unto them themselves, but unto us they did minister
the thing, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached
the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven,
which things The angels desire to look into. The things that
the angels desire to look into. Things concerning salvation.
Things of Christ. Things of God. Which things scriptures
are written concerning. The whole Bible is about these
things. Not a history book. You know
that. It's His story. Which things the prophets prophesied,
inquired, sought after, searched for, searched diligently. and
studied and gave themselves to, and so should we. Oh, the foolish
and trivial things that men, that man, searches for. Black holes in space. Isn't that
deep? No, the hole in your head is
what's deep. Oh, the wisdom of man, God says,
is foolishness. Man searches everything but the
things of God. Everything but the truth. Everything
but things that matter. Right? Earthly thing. Listen to Paul in 1 Corinthians
chapter 2. He said, Brethren, when I came
to Corinth, which was the center of learning and politics in the
modern world, everybody thought they knew something, could do
something, like America today. He said, I came not with excellence
of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you. I came, he said, doing
one thing, declaring the testimony of God. I've got one thing to
tell you. God's got one thing to say to me. He said, I determine
not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And we're about to look at, that's
what the angels desire to look at today. We're going to see
what all the angels beheld and the marvel of that statement
is this is what they desire to look into. And Paul went on to
say, in 1 Corinthians 2, he says, I have not seen, hear, have not
heard the things, neither have entered into the heart of man
the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God
hath revealed unto us, unto his people, a little bit, we know
in part, he hath revealed unto us by his Spirit, We saw that
the Holy Spirit is the one who takes the things of Christ. And
because the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things
of God. No man knows the things of a man, save the spirit of
man which is in him. You don't know what I'm thinking
unless I tell you. And we don't know what God thinks, thoughts
of God, the will, the purpose, the mind of God, unless the Spirit
of God It tells us, and it goes on to say, we receive not the
spirit of this world, but the spirit which is of God, that
we might know the things freely given to us of God, which things
we speak of, which the Holy Ghost teaches. And it goes on to say,
the natural man receiveth not these things. That's how depraved
man is. He doesn't look at things that
are wise and glorious and marvelous. He looks at things that are foolish
and trivial, temporal. I'll say it. I'll say it. But
we, by His grace, look at spiritual things, which things the Holy
Ghost... Look at verse 11 in our text.
It says, The Spirit of Christ was in the prophets, doesn't
it? Does it say that? Lots of people. That's what it says, doesn't
it? Verse 11. The prophets searched water what manner of time the
Spirit of Christ that was in them did signify. Testifying what? What did the
Spirit of Christ say through the prophets? The sufferings
of Jesus Christ and His glory. That's it. That was the message
of the prophet. That's what the Holy Spirit does. God the Father bears witness
of the Son. testifies of him. God, the Holy
Spirit, bears witness of the Son. And this needs to be said,
because there's so much talk about the Holy Spirit today.
And I'm telling you, it's the sin against the Holy Spirit that's
going on today. They talk so much about the Holy
Spirit. It's all a bunch of, you know, all this tongue jibber-jabber
and all this stuff that you see in demon-possessed people. You
remember the story of the Gadarene demoniac? When the Lord came
to him, he was acting like one of these Pentecostals today.
Yes, he was. Alright, when Christ saved him,
He sat down. They found Him seated, clothed,
and in His right mind. What mind is that? The mind of
Christ. He's sitting listening to Jesus
Christ. This is what the Holy Spirit does. He doesn't make
you talk like a fool. He makes you talk about Jesus
Christ. Look with me at John 14. This
needs to be said. This needs to be understood.
And any Spirit-filled preacher or people or church Christ-filled
people. They talk about Christ. That's
what the Spirit does. Listen to the words of our Lord
Himself. John 14. John 14, verse 16. And He's talking to His disciples.
He's not talking to the world. This is a private sermon to His
disciples. And He says in verse 16, I will
pray the Father and He'll give you another comforter. Meaning
he was their comforter. That he's leaving and he's going
to send someone to abide with them. The comforter, the Holy
Spirit. He will abide with you forever. He's the Spirit of what?
Truth. The world cannot receive him.
He seeth him not, neither knoweth him. But you know him. He dwelleth
with you and shall be in you. Who's that? Christ in you. He's called the Spirit of Christ,
the Spirit of Truth. Did not Christ say in this same
chapter, I am the truth? So whatever the Holy Spirit says,
it's about Christ. It's pointing people to Christ.
All right, look down in verse 26. The Comforter, which is the
Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach
you all things. What things? All things. What
things? Christ is all. What's that mean? Well, come
on now. Boy, that's good of me. And in all, in Him dwelleth all
the fullness of the God in the body. It pleases the Father that
in Him should all fullness dwell, fullness of what? Name something. Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
redemption, joy, peace, love, mercy, grace. It's in Him. It's
all in Him. Found in Him. Of His fullness
have we received. And He'll bring, verse 26, He'll
bring all things to your remembrance, what? Jewish history? No, whatsoever things I have
said unto you. The disciples, the apostles could
not take in everything our Lord said to them. He said, I have
many things to say unto you. You're not able to bear them
now, but you will. And I, don't you know, and we've done it ourselves,
that going along and all of a sudden you think, I remember when he
said that. And those disciples, they start
preaching, I remember what he said. And they're writing, he
told us these things. And it all kept coming back to
him. The Holy Spirit's the one that dwelt with them. Chapter
16. Now, you need to know this. You need to know where these
Scriptures are to talk to people about the Holy Spirit. He doesn't
speak of Himself, nor do God's people speak of Him. They're
not taken up with the Holy Spirit. They're thankful, they worship
Him, but it's the Spirit of Christ. Look at it now. John 16, verse
7. He says, I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that
I go away. If I go not away, the Comforter
will not come unto you. But if I depart, I will send
him unto you. And when he is come, he will approve, convince,
convict, save, convert the world. Not every person in the world.
but of people out of the world. Of sin, righteousness, and judgment. What is all that? Sin, because
they believe not on me. This is the sin that God holds
every human being accountable for and will send people to hell
for. Not, as my dad used to say, for stealing a watermelon. That
won't send you to hell. Smoking a cigarette won't send
you to hell. Drinking a beer won't send you to hell. Not bowing
to God's Son at will. Of righteousness. Because I go
to my Father and you see me in a moment of righteousness. We
don't have one. We can't produce one. We try
to and it's a filthy rag like those fig leaves that Adam and
Eve covered themselves with. No. And there's many that go
about to establish their righteousness, the way they dress and what they
do and what they don't do. And God says, if righteousness
comes that way, Christ died in vain. There's only one way a
human being is made righteous is through the righteousness
of Jesus Christ. How many people understand that?
That's what the Holy Spirit makes His people understand. All of
them, there's not one of them that don't understand that. There's
not one that doesn't know that Jesus Christ is our righteousness. Every single saint is dressed
in a robe in glory, and they didn't make the robe, Jesus Christ
did. Right? That's what the Holy Spirit...
These are the things that the Holy Spirit teaches us to do. There's none of God's people
who don't understand these things in principle. None. Even our
little children know these things. They don't necessarily love them
in their heart yet, but they know them in their head. And
we hope it'll go from here to here. And he goes on to say of
judgment, because the price of this world is judgment. All right?
There's a judgment to pay. And everybody's going to believe
that. And we're either going to be judged in Christ or standing
right beside Him. Because God is going to judge
every man in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained,
Jesus Christ. You're going to be in Him, covered,
or you're going to stand beside Him to try to measure up to Him.
And we come for you. We understand he's thinking.
Is this doctrine? This is the truth. The whole
truth. Christ. This is what the Holy
Spirit... Now let's go back to my text. But he spoke twice of the Holy
Spirit. That's important. The prophets
spake under inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The apostles spake. What were they doing? Preaching.
That's what God uses. That is the means, isn't it? And I'm glad you're here tonight. You would not have heard these
things if you weren't here tonight. And if the Spirit is present,
He takes these things and shows them to His people. He hides
them from the wise and prudent and reveals them unto His people.
You know, at 1 Peter, And so he said, the prophets, through
the Holy Spirit, and it's all about Christ. Oh, how blessed
we are if we at least know these things and believe these things,
love these things. All right. Now, in our text it
says, which things the angels desire to look into. The angels. Which thing? What thing? What
thing? The things of Christ. The suffering,
the glory of Christ. Go to Exodus 25. This is a picture, a symbolic picture of
what Peter just said. I think Peter is alluding to
this. What a beautiful thing this is,
the mercy seat and the cherubs over the mercy seat. Look at
this, Exodus 25, God gave the directions, instructions for
the making of the tabernacle. And every part of it refers to
Jesus Christ. Right? Yes, it does. You know
that. All right. The mercy seat. Oh, my. See, I'm laughing already. It's wonderful, isn't it? If
you know these things, happy are you. Verse 17, Thou shalt
make a mercy seat. Exodus 25, 17. A mercy seed of
pure gold. Oh, I can't comment. I want to. Two cubits and a half
shall it be, the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth
thereof. Verse 18. Thou shalt make two cherubims
of gold. These are figures, kind of like
statutes. All right, of gold. Beaten work,
shalt thou make them, in the two ends, on either side of the
mercy seat. Make one cherub on one end, the
other on the other end, even of the mercy seat, concerning
the matter of the mercy seat. These cherubs are going to be,
what they are about is the mercy seat. They don't. The cherubim
of the two ends. And the cherubim, verse 20, shall
stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy seat
with their wing, and their faces shall look one to another toward
the mercy seats. Now here it is, this picture
of these two cherubs that were, one on this side like a table,
that ark wasn't much bigger than it. And there'd be one on this
side with their wings, and one on this side like that, and they're
looking at one another, and they're looking down, which things that
angels desire to look into. It's like God made them to show
that this is what Even the angels are taken up with. What's in
this ark? What is this? What is this? And look at this. And He'll put the mercy seat,
verse 21, above upon the ark. See, it was the crown on that
ark. And in the ark put the testimony
that I shall give thee, and there will I meet with thee and commune
with thee from above the mercy seat between the two cherubim
where are upon the ark of the testimony of all things. It's all right there. And you
know, from Exodus to Revelation, same things from Genesis to Revelation. But Exodus is where the ark and
the rest of the book is talking about. The rest of the Old Testament
is just all of these things. And then Hebrews is a summary
of all of that. All right. 1 Peter, go back there. So he
said, which things angels desire to look into. What about us? What about us? And I know it's so. I've said
this so many times. I know it's so with you, with
most of you, because you keep coming here. We do one thing
here. We preach one thing here. We're
taken up with one thing. We're not taken up with political
causes, with social causes. None of these things. We don't
let people come in here and talk about the Gideons and talk about
this and that. You say, but that's a good...
I don't want time for that. Go somewhere else and do that.
We're going to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ here. Why? Because
there's some lost people. There's some saved people in
here. What else is there? And if you
know this, you don't want to hear anything else. Do you? David said, One thing have I
desired of the Lord. This is what God's people say,
like the angels. One thing have I desired of the
Lord, and that will I seek after. What, David? That I may dwell
in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold
His beauty. His beauty. Inquire into His
temple. Inquire. David, do you want to
inquire what? That's what the prophets inquired of. The sufferings
of Christ. All the Psalms. Oh, the psalm. David wrote Psalm 22 and all
his messianic psalms, 769 and on. And don't you know what he's
writing this? It's glorious, he's thinking.
Oh, my. The Spirit, he couldn't write
faster than that. The Spirit was... David never said, my God,
my God, why is that forsaken me? David never had his beard
poked out. David never gave his back to
the smiter. David never did that. He was
speaking of Jesus Christ under inspiration of the Spirit. Oh, how blessed we are to know
Him. And when we see these things, we keep opening up, we keep seeing
His beauty, His work, His person, His glory. Our faith is a person. Our faith is not in doctrine,
not in the creed, it's not in the catechism, it's not in the
profession of faith. It's a person, a living person. It's a relationship with Him. We sang that song, When by His
grace I shall look on His face, that will be glory. Nobody's
going to be in heaven who doesn't know and hasn't seen something
of the glory of Jesus Christ. Nobody's going to be in heaven
who doesn't enjoy worshiping Jesus Christ. They're not going
to be there. Because that's all heaven's about.
Well, how do you know you'll be with Him in glory? How do
you know you're going to be with Him in glory? Remember, Christ
said, Father, I will that they be with Me, where I am, to do
what? That they may behold My glory. Didn't He say that? Have you?
Have you already? Then you'll be with Him. Do you
understand? People come, they sit, and they
listen, and whether it's me or whoever it might be, there's
been some glorious messages preached. Messages of Christ, haven't there?
Some wonderful messages. Many messages of Christ. And
they sit, and they listen, and they leave. They didn't behold
His glory. They're looking for something
else. There is nothing else. Anybody coming to heaven looking
for something else, Not going to be there. Right? Which things the angels decided
to look into. All right. Let me tell you just
a little bit about angels. We don't know much. And I hope
we don't go away from here. Don't come up and ask me any
more questions about angels. I don't want to go away from
here talking about angels. At Pentecost, they didn't go
away talking about the tongues. They didn't go away talking about,
they were talking about Jesus Christ at Him crucified. Alright,
angels. Here's some things that we do
know from the Scriptures about angels. We dare not worship them.
And it's proof that somebody doesn't know God, doesn't know
Christ, who worships angels, who's taken up with angels, who
has little figures in their yard of angels. It's proof they don't
know God. That's a driven image. It's the worshipping of angels,
which Colossians 2 tells us not to do. He said they worship angels,
not holding the head. One time, you know the story,
Revelation 19, was it? That John, the angel, was showing
John all these things, and John fell at his feet. He was such
a glorious creature, and John fell at his feet, and the angel
said, Don't do that. I'm one of your brethren, he
said. Worship God. Don't worship angels. What is an angel? It's a messenger. That's all it means, messenger.
They're not deified creatures. They're not little gods. They're glorified, well, they're
messengers. And every, I mean, you may not
know this, but there's seraphs and cherubim. What are they?
Well, the name means imaginary figure. Every mention of the seraphs
and the cherubs is talking about, around the ark and the temple,
they were little figurines engraved on the tapestry. They weren't
real creatures. Do you hear me? There are not going to be little
goblins floating all over the place in heaven. No, no, no.
Look it up yourself. It means an imaginary figure.
That's what the seraph meant, cherub meant, an imaginary figure.
God told us not to make them, but he told Moses to make them.
God can do what he will. But they were symbolic. They
were types and pictures and shadows and symbols, okay? Angels. Every appearance of an
angel was a man. Do you hear me? They didn't have wings. You won't
find anywhere in this Bible where angels had wings. They didn't. The cherubs and seraphs did,
but they were imaginary figures. Angels didn't have wings. They
were men. They were men sent by God. Messengers. Those people
would have worshipped them. They would have fallen down and
worshipped these creatures. I don't know. They were men.
They were men. Did you know that? They were
men. And they came at specific times
sent by God at wonderful and glorious times, like Abraham,
the calling of Abraham, the telling of Abraham, the covenant. Remember
the angels came to Abraham? And there were three of them.
One of them was Christ. One of them was a man, all right.
It was the God-man. They didn't have wings. They came to Lot. Remember? Lot was standing at the gate,
sitting at the gate. Two angels came. We looked at
that. And one of them was the Lord. He laid hold on him, merciful. Jacob. There's a man wrestling
with Jacob. There's an angel. It's a man. Same thing. He just says, We're
going to be like the angel. Doesn't it say that? We shall
be as the angels. Glorified creature. We're going
to be men. And I'm going to have wings. When the angel came
to Manoah, remember the story of Manoah and his wife? Samson
was going to be born. And the angel did what no, the
angel of the Lord did what no man can do. He got in that sacrifice. He got in that very fire and
ascended up to heaven. That was Jesus Christ. The angel
came to Gideon, remember? And he touched the altar and
sacrificed. And Gideon said, I've seen God. He was a man,
sitting under an oak tree. And you know what God says about
the preachers, the pastors, and all the churches in Revelation?
What does He call them? Angels. Our Lord was an angel,
the angel, the messenger of the covenant, wasn't he? He was much
like us, a man. So, it's enough of angels, okay? They were messengers. They were
sent to bring a message about what? Christ. One thing. Every time. Everybody was in
the covenant, from Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. I don't know. What about Michael, the archangel?
What about Gabriel? Huh? What about them? Huh? What about them? They're men. They're men. That's what they really were.
Sent with a message. All right? What things have the
angels beheld and what things do they desire to look into?
Let's think about this for a minute. All right? All right, they beheld,
the angels, beheld the fall of Lucifer. There was a host of
angels with Lucifer, the son of the morning, told in Isaiah
14. Our Lord said, spoke of it, said,
I beheld Satan fall like lightning. That was it. They were angels.
And you know 1 Timothy 5.21 talks about the elect angels. God elected some of those angels. It talks about the elect angels. Why didn't they fall? Because
God elected them. In other words, He allowed them to fall in His
purpose, okay? And they're reserved in chains
of darkness. To be cast into the lake of fire
with the other elect angels? No, no, no. These are the ones
who they're looking into, behold Him, in the glory of Christ. All right? They beheld the fall
of Lucifer. What did that put in them? Fear. Just like us, isn't it? Fear. God is holy. Holy, holy, holy. Oh, they see it now, just casting
those others down to hell. And they knew then, right then,
a little bit about mercy. It's only His mercy that we didn't
do that. Didn't they? He's great. They beheld the creation of the
world. All of that happened, Lucifer and all, happened before
the world was created. Well, then apparently the angels
beheld the creation of the world. Imagine that. Can you imagine
watching God? Watching Christ? And they'd help Him go down and
take some clay. What's He making? What's He doing? I didn't know what He was doing.
God doesn't give an account of His matters. They're watching.
He's making His figure. It's beautiful. It looks like
Him. And then they, ah, breathe Him
in. This creature and man. And you
say, what about the angel? I don't know. I'm speaking things
they weren't before. But they saw this. Man. God's most glorious creation
up to that point. The most glorious was the second
Adam. Which they be. But they saw this
man. All right, this man was in paradise.
This man was a friend of God. This man was with God. This man
loved God, seemed to. God was in paradise. All of a
sudden, they saw. They saw this. Lucifer comes
looking at him. And starts talking to that woman.
What do you think they're thinking? Why doesn't God do something? Let's go down there. No. And they saw that woman willfully,
and the man willfully disobeyed God and rebelled against God.
Willfully. Like no less than Lucifer. Lucifer
said, I will. And Adam and Eve said, we will.
We will not have this man around. We will be as God. That's what
they said. Just like Lucifer, they said these little creatures
said, we will be as God. What do you think the angels
thought was going to happen? What do you think
they thought? Well, God's going to He's going
to destroy them like he did the other day. He's going to put
them in chains. But all of a sudden they saw Immanuel. They saw Christ,
the voice of God, come walking in the courtyard. Come walking
in the garden. He's walking. He's walking. But
he's going to smite them. No, he didn't smite them. He's
speaking to them. He's talking to them tenderly, kindly. Convictingly, yes. Chastening,
yes. But he's convicting them. And
he's talking to them. And they hear every word of this.
You hear the woman's seed. What's that? They didn't know. What's that? In case I don't get to it, Ephesians
3. Go over to Ephesians 3. Okay? I'm not making this up.
Look at Ephesians 3. Which things the angels desire
to look into. Look at this. This is amazing.
Ephesians 3. Paul said, Verse 8, Ephesians
3.8, he said, unto me, he said, I'm given, the grace of God is
given unto me by the effectual workings of his power. Unto me,
whom less than the least of all saints, is this grace given.
What's that? That I should preach. That's how men are saved, by
the grace of God, through preaching among the Gentiles that what?
The unsearchable riches of Christ. Read on. To make all see what
is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the
world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ,
to the intent, to the purpose, that now unto principalities
and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church
of God. The man of old wisdom fell. They
didn't know. They didn't know. They didn't
know. What is this? And they heard
God, and they heard Christ say these things about the woman
seed. And what they're hearing is mercy. What they're hearing
is a message of grace, of substitution, the woman of the sea. Then all
of a sudden, blood had never been seen. Blood had never been shed. None. They saw the Lord Jesus Christ
take a lamb, an innocent, beautiful, glorious creature of God, without
spot, without blemish. And right before the eyes of
Adam and Eve, right before the eyes of all the angels, the Lord
Jesus Christ took a knife, that living, beautiful creature, and
slit its throat. And this red, crimson river flowed,
this fountain of blood flowed. And they saw that animal kick
and lie. and die. They'd never seen death
before. Nobody had. What is this? What is this? Do you know what
this is? And they saw Him take the skin
off of that lamb and take those two shivering, scared, guilty
sinners and wrap them up in it. They'd never felt so secure. What's that? Can you come up
and tell me? We all know what that is. Which
things angels deserve. They saw that. I saw it. Then go several thousand years
later. I saw the Son of God leave His
throne. Where is He going? He's going
to earth. What's He doing? I saw Him change. Enter the womb of a woman. He said, thanks to the wonderful
Lord. And then months later, God said, Gabriel, angels, I want a multitude of
you, heavenly hosts, go to earth. Tell them. Tell them all. Salvation has come. The Son of God Son of man, the
God-man, God is manifest in the flesh. Unto you is born this
day a Savior who is Christ the Lord. Yes, let's go! Send me, send me. All of you
got it. They're all coming to get us,
right? Ain't that wonderful to think
about? What is this? Why would He go down to that
place? They saw sin. Sin just multiplied. They saw
sin abounded, superabounded. They saw sin. But what are they
learning on it? Where sin abounded. Grace did
much more, man. Our God is merciful, isn't He?
Look! Look! He didn't spare those angels
that kept not their first estate. He showed no mercy to them. And
these people are no better, no different. They now understand
a little bit, but God is merciful, infinitely merciful, infinitely
gracious. This is the most wonderful thing.
Why would He spare it? He's just merciful, that's why.
Because He's God and not man. Then, 33 years later, They saw a mob come in the garden
where our Lord was and grab him. That's their Lord. That's the
one they attended to. They ministered to him when he
spoke. They saw Satan standing and tempting
and taunting him. Kelly, don't you know, why is
he doing that? Why is he allowing Satan to Don't
you know they thought, Lord, snap him out. No. He's us. He's a man. He's our substitute.
He had to be tempted at all points. He allowed that serpent to taunt
him, to tempt him. Don't you know the angels? Why?
Right then in the garden, all this mob came and grabbed hold
of him. And they took him into that hall.
And they started Beating Him unmercifully. What do you think
the angels thought? Remember, our Lord said to Peter,
Peter wanted to defend Him. He said, Peter, I could call
ten thousand leaves of angels, ten leaves of angels, and they
may have been waiting in the wings. Just say the word. Just
say the word. Nope. This is His glory. This is His greatest glory. I just don't understand it. The
angels, why would He allow this to happen? And then, they hung
Him on a cross. He willingly put His arms, hand
out there. And He never, He didn't wince. He didn't cry out. What a man. He says, for the joy set before
him. Angels are just, this is amazing. They're just amazing. This is
amazing. That he's enduring this, and
we're not sure why. And somehow, in all of this,
Satan's head was crushed, fire was crushed, serpents bruised
his heel, and somehow it was all coming together. And then
he died. Their Lord, the Lord of life,
expired. He died. They saw him. He didn't drop his head, he bowed
his head. You understand? He laid down
his life. Nothing killed him, he just bowed
his head. Like taking a curtain call. And
maybe the angels gave him a standing ovation. But he died. Where was he? Where'd he go?
Nobody knows. I kind of think, I kind of believe
our Lord gave him three days of sleep. Just rest. There's a scripture that speaks
to that. After three days I awoke and my sleep was sweet. But he
spent 33 years, the equivalent of an eternity. Working, working, working tirelessly,
enduring everything. God gave him rest. He gave his beloved sleep. But the angels thought, he's
dead. He's dead. Three days later. Three days
later. Okay, Gabriel. Michael! Go bring him out. Bring him out! Roll away the stone! And they
saw their Savior come in. They stayed here 40 days. And
that's what Daniel wrote of in Daniel 9. And they were sent to bring our
Lord back to glory. Is this not the most amazing
story that's ever been told? Went back to glory. And they
sat down. He sat down at the right hand
of the majesty on high. And the angels, what were they
doing? Beholding His glory. Sufferings. Now we know a little
bit. And so do we. Okay, stand with
me.
Paul Mahan
About Paul Mahan
Paul Mahan has been pastor of Central Baptist Church in Rocky Mount, Virginia since 1989; preaching the Gospel of God's Sovereign Grace.
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