Good evening. Let's open this
evening service with hymn number 37 from your Spiral Gospel Hymns
hymnbook. Let's all stand together. Number 37. Approach, my soul, the throne
of grace in every time of need. There's mercy for the needy one
who Jesus' name shall plead. Though I'm a weak and sinful
wretch, I will approach the throne. I'll lean upon Christ's mighty
arm and plead His blood alone. The blood, the precious blood
of Christ has opened up the way by which I can draw near to God
and to my Father pray. Though Satan tempts my heart
to sin, I'll call upon my God. And if I fall, he'll lift me
up and cleanse me in the blood. The way is open, God will hear
my groans and cries of grief. Nothing can keep me from His
throne but my own unbelief. O Lord, my unbelief, rebuke,
and turn my heart by grace. Compel me to approach your throne,
and there spread out my case. Please be seated. Let's turn in our Bibles together
to Psalm 35. Psalm 35. We just sang to the Lord a prayer to turn us from our own belief,
unbelief. And God's Word here in Psalm
35, David, is praying a similar prayer. So, we join our hearts with God's
Word and asking Him to deliver us from all the things that are
contrary to us. Our unbelief being the primary
thing. The wickedness of spiritual powers
and of this world and our flesh. Those are the enemies of the
child of God. Everything in this world is contrary
to what we believe. And so David is praying and he's
saying, Lord, plead my cause with them that strive with me.
I fight against them that fight against me. Lord, restrain, restrain my unbelief. Restrain my sin. Restrain, keep
me from the evil one. Deliver me from evil. Take hold
of shield and buckler and stand up for mine help. You know what
the shield is when the Lord gives us the armors of faith. He talks about the shield of
faith, which quenches the fiery darts of the devil. And so, David's
saying, Lord, increase my faith. Draw out also the spear, the
spear and the sword, the sword of the spirit, which is the word
of God. We're praying right now, Lord, draw out your spear and
your sword and stop the way against them that persecute me and say
unto my soul, I am thy salvation. Oh, that's what we hope and pray
for tonight, isn't it? That the Lord would say to our
soul, I am your salvation. Let them be confounded and put
to shame that seek after my soul. Let them be turned back and brought
to confusion that devise my hurt. Let them be as chaff before the
wind. Let the angel of the Lord chase
them. Let their way be dark and slippery.
Let the angel of the Lord persecute them. In the Old Testament, the
Lord Jesus Christ often refers to, often presents Himself, reveals
Himself as the angel of the Lord. So we're calling on Him to come. and chase away our enemies and
speak peace to our hearts and reveal Himself to us. Let's pray
together. Our Heavenly Father, thank You
for Your Word. Thank You for giving us words
that we are able to bring before Your throne of grace. Lord, you've put these words
in print and you've impressed them upon our minds and written
them in our hearts and you've put them on our lips and Lord,
we thank you for the certainty of them. We thank you
for your grace and your mercy. Lord, we come before you as a
needy people. many things that persecute us,
many things that would turn us away from Thee. Lord, we pray
that You would chase them away now. We pray that You would enable
us to raise the sword of the Spirit and Lord, that you would
cause it to be sharper and effectual and divide us under the thoughts
and the intents of our hearts. Lord, raise the shield of faith
that those fiery darts of the devil might be quenched. Lord,
that we would be saved. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. number 176 in your hardback teminal. Let's all stand together. 176.
? Break thou the bread of life,
dear Lord, to me ? ? As thou didst break the loaves beside
the sea ? ? Throughout the sacred page I seek thee, Lord ? My spirit
pats for thee, O living Word. Bless thou the truth, dear Lord,
to me to be, as thou didst bless the bread by Galilee. Then shall all bondage cease,
all fetters fall, ? And I shall find my peace, my all in all
? ? Through the heart, the bread of life, O Lord to me ? Thy holy
word, the truth that saveth me. Give me to eat and live with
thee above. Teach me to love thy truth, for
thou art love. ? O send thy spirit, Lord, now
unto me ? ? That he may touch my eyes and make me see ? ? Show
me the truth concealed within thy word ? And in thy book revealed,
I see the Lord. Please be seated. And in thy book revealed, revealed,
I see the Lord. Let's open our Bibles together
to 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1. When our Lord was praying His
high priestly prayer in John 17 at verse 3, He says, And this
is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." To know God. Paul said, doubtless I count
all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord. If we're to know Him, He'll have
to reveal Himself to us. And if He reveals Himself to
us, it'll be through His Word. Colossians chapter two, verse
three says, of Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge. All the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge are hid in Christ. We just sang two wonderful hymns
expressing our need to know Christ. And our text tonight is just
about that. The Old Testament prophets did
not know him in the fullness that he has now revealed himself
to his people. The angels in heaven cannot know
him. in the way in which he reveals
himself to his people. And that's what Peter is rejoicing
in here. Let's begin in verse nine. Receiving
the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. Receiving
the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. When we depart this world and
we're ushered by those angels into his presence, and we see
him in the fullness of his glory, that will be the receipt of the
end of our faith, the full salvation of our souls. Of which salvation? Of which salvation? This salvation
now. that we're talking about. Being
made like Him. Having this mortal body made
immortal and this corruptible body made incorruptible. Seeing Him in the fullness of
His glory. That's the salvation. Of which
salvation? The prophets. having inquired
and searched diligently who prophesied of the grace that should come
unto you. Searching what and what manner
of time the spirit of Christ which was in them did signify
when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and
the glory that should follow unto whom it was revealed and
not unto themselves. So now, that the Lord has revealed
his sufferings in their fullness and the glory that should follow,
we've been blessed with a revelation of God that the Old Testament
prophets didn't have. They looked in faith to the things
that were revealed. But what our Lord's telling us
now is that the fullness of this revelation is now made and that
we are able to know things about God and know Him in a way that
Isaiah didn't know Him and Jeremiah didn't know Him and Moses didn't
know Him. The full revelation, the things
they searched for and looked diligently into and were not
able to fully understand yet. Why? Because it wasn't unto themselves,
but unto us. Look at the rest of verse 12.
But unto us they did minister the things 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 angels can't see and experience
what the Lord has revealed in Christ to His church. That's exactly what the Lord
is telling us in Hebrews chapter 1. I quote this passage often. I'm going to ask you to turn
to it. Hebrews chapter 1. God, who at sundry times and
in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the
prophets, See, the prophets were looking diligently into these
things, but they weren't fully revealed until the Lord Jesus
Christ was made flesh and dwelt among us. Hath in these last
days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of
all things, by whom also he made the world. who being the brightness
of his glory and the express image of his person, and uphold
all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself
purged our sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty
on high, being made so much better than the angels, he hath by inheritance
obtained a more excellent name than they." So now Peter's telling
us the same thing. These glorious revelations of
our God are made full and perfect and complete in the sufferings
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Old Testament prophets sought
diligently to know these things. Let me show you just one example
of that. If you'll turn with me to the
book of Daniel, chapter 12, Daniel chapter 12. Let's see. The Lord is revealing to Daniel
what and what manner of time these things would be. So in
the book of Daniel, there is a prophecy about the coming of
Christ. And Daniel is doing exactly what
Peter said the Old Testament prophets would do, or did. He sought diligently to understand
these things. He wanted to know, when is the
Messiah coming? Who's he going to be? And how
exactly is he going to accomplish this work? And in Daniel chapter
12, in verse eight, and I heard,
I heard what God said. And it was spoken in, prophetic language, it wasn't
a literal revelation, it was figurative. And so Daniel says,
and I heard, but I understood not. Then said I, oh my Lord,
what shall be the end of these things? And he said, go thy way,
Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of
the end. So this is what Peter's talking about. And this was true
of every one of the Old Testament prophets. They believe the revelation
that was made to them, which is what faith is. And as God
gives faith to believe what's been revealed, He reveals more. We walk in the light that we
have and He increases the light. But these Old Testament prophets
had no way of understanding what has been revealed now that God
in His Son has come and fulfilled what these Old Testament prophets
said would be. God, who at sundry times and
in diverse manners, spake unto our fathers by the prophets,
hath in these last days, these last days, spoken unto us by
His Son, who is the brightness of His glory and the express
image of His person. So, what is Peter telling us? We're to know God. This is life
eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God. We'll
know Him in the revelation of the person and work of His Son,
His sufferings, and the glory that shall follow. This was true of all the prophets. Acts chapter 10, verse 43 says,
to Him, to the Lord Jesus Christ, gave all the prophets witness. You know, I'm sure that I have
placed the wrong emphasis on that verse where the Lord rebukes
the Pharisees when he says to them, you search the scriptures
because you think in them you have eternal life, but these
are they which testify of me. And, you know, that verse doesn't
start out with you. Although they were diligent Students
of the Bible, they miss Christ. But in fact, what the Lord is
saying is, search the scriptures. Search the scriptures. For you think in them you have
eternal life, but these are they which testify me. He's calling
on them to look to the scriptures. It's like when Paul went to Berea
and the Jews in Thessalonica ran him out of town. And the
scripture says, and the Berean Jews were more noble than those
of Thessalonica, for they received the word with gladness and searched
the scriptures daily to see if these things were true. So as
Paul preached Christ from the scriptures, and I remind you,
when the apostles and when our Lord was preaching the gospel,
were preaching the gospel, the Old Testament scriptures is all
they had. It's all they had. So, to him, to the Lord Jesus
Christ gave all the prophets witness. Revelation 19.10, the
testimony of Jesus Christ is the spirit of prophecy. So the book of Revelation begins
by saying the revelation of Jesus Christ, the unveiling of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And we looked at that recently.
That word revelation is the word from which we get our word apocalypse
and people talk about something that's apocalyptic and what are
they referring to we've changed the meaning of the word we've
we've changed the word apocalypse to something that means some
sort of disastrous end as if that's what the book of revelation
is about revealing the end times and the disaster that will come
No, the word apocalypse means to unveil or uncover or reveal. And Revelation chapter 1 verse
1 says the apocalypse or the unveiling or the revealing of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the book of Revelation
is apocalyptic in that it reveals the person and work of Christ.
And that could be said about all of Scripture. About all of
Scripture. When the Lord spoke to those disciples in Emmaus
there in Luke chapter 24. He said to them, did these things
not have to be fulfilled? These things referring to the
Christ, the Lord Jesus himself said, I did not come to destroy
the law and the prophets. Oh no, I came to fulfill them,
to fulfill all that the prophets said. about me. Think not that I've come to destroy
the law and the prophets. I've not come to destroy them,
but to fulfill them. And don't you love the revelation
of Christ that's made in the Mount of Transfiguration when
the veil of his humanity is taken away for just a short time. The beauty and radiance of his
deity shined forth like the midday sun and the disciples were forced
to the ground. And who appeared? Moses and Elijah. And what did they talk about?
What did Moses, the law, and Elijah, the prophets, what did
they discuss? Those things which should be
accomplished at his death. So this is, you see, the Lord
Jesus Christ is the, he's the author of his own word and he's
the subject of his own word. And that's what Peter's saying
here. Peter's saying these revelations that God has made to his people. What a blessing we have. Brethren,
we've been blessed with a revelation of God that the angels cannot
know. They cannot know it. And the
Old Testament prophets did not know it. I'm not saying they didn't know God
or they didn't believe what had been revealed. I'm saying that
they looked, they searched diligently into these things. But the fullness
of it, the fullness of the revelation of God wasn't for them. They
were prophesying for us. So we go back now and we read
these revelations of Christ in the Old Testament, and we understand
them in light of their fulfillment in the New Testament. They didn't
have that benefit. They didn't have that. God has made himself known to
us in a way that, what a blessing, what a mercy, what a special,
grace that the Lord has given to us, that we might know God. We might know Him and the fellowship
of His suffering and the power of His resurrection. First question I want to ask
is, how does God reveal Himself? How does God reveal Himself?
And I want you to follow with me for a moment what the Lord
said about these prophets in verse 10. How did they have revealed
the things that they had revealed to them? Of which salvation the
prophets have inquired and searched diligently. You're here tonight. I'm here
tonight. because the Lord has put it into
our hearts to inquire as to who He is and to search diligently. Now, if that's our heart's desire,
it's a work of grace in the heart. No man seeketh after God at any
time. You and I don't have it in ourselves
to want to know God, much less to know Him. We don't even have
a desire for him, but in the new birth, the Lord gives a desire
to know him. He makes us poor and needy and
willing in the day of his power. What a blessing, what a grace
that is. These Old Testament prophets
inquired. They asked God. And then they
searched the Scriptures that they had diligently. Isn't that what we do? Isn't
that what the Spirit of God does for us? As easily distracted and as many
things that there are that would clamber for our attention, we
have a need. You know, I used to think that
church attendance and prayer and seeking the Lord was a matter
of commitment and I know better now it's not a matter of commitment
you know you can you can shame people and rebuke people for
not being committed but that's not really the problem it's not
the problem the problem is need God gives you a need and you've
got no place else to go but to him then that becomes the reason
why we seek Him. And when the Lord makes you to
be a sinner, you know you've got a problem you can't fix.
And it never goes away. It's there every day. And so
we find ourselves by the work of the Spirit of God, who Himself
convicts us of our sin because of our unbelief. and shows us
our need for righteousness because Christ is seated at the right
hand of God and reveals to us that the prince of this world
has been destroyed. The works of the devil have been
destroyed by the work that Christ accomplished on Calvary's cross.
Then God works in us. And he's the one that puts the
need in our hearts. And he's the one who gives us
a desire and a willingness to seek him. Jeremiah 29 verse 13, and you
shall seek me. He didn't say, if you will seek
me, he said, and you shall seek me and you will find me. If you seek for me with all of
your heart, that's a, That's the work of grace in the heart
when God shows us, Lord, I've got no place else to go. You've
shut me up to Christ. I've got to have you. So just
as the Old Testament prophets inquired and diligently sought, so it is today. As long as a man is nothing but
flesh, he will seek those things that gratify the flesh. The pleasures of the flesh, the
comforts of the flesh, the accolades of the flesh, man's glory. But when God puts his spirit
in you and he gives you new nature, the flesh is still there. You
still find yourself seeking those fleshly things, but now you have
a new desire. Now you find yourself inquiring
and seeking diligently on those things concerning the work of
salvation and the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's a work of grace. That's
a blessing in the heart. Turn with me just back a couple
of pages to Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11. Here again, the Lord is telling
us about these Old Testament prophets who inquired and sought
diligently of the things concerning the sufferings of Christ and
the glory that shall be revealed in Him. And yet, The revelation
that was made to them was so sparse compared to the revelation
that has been made to us. Nevertheless, they believed what
had been revealed, and here's the evidence of that. Look at
Hebrews 11, verse 13. These all died in faith, not
having received the promises, but having seen them afar off,
and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed
that they were strangers and pilgrims in the earth. For they
that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful
of the country from whence they came out, they might have opportunity
to have returned. But now they desire a better
country, that is a heavenly. Wherefore God is not ashamed
to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city. That can be said of us. That
can be said of us. The evidence of this work of
grace is that we seek a country, a better country, a heavenly
country. That this new man that God has
given us, this new spirit, this new nature that we have can never
be satisfied with the things that the flesh is satisfied with.
It can never be content with the pleasures of this world. And it must have. It must have Christ. It must
have God. That's why the Lord said, knock. And that word really could be translated, it is really
keep knocking. Don't stop knocking, keep knocking
and the door shall be open. Seek, keep seeking, keep seeking,
don't stop seeking and you shall find. Ask, inquire and keep asking
and it shall be given unto thee. What a precious promise. It's
the Spirit of God that makes us to knock. It's the Spirit
of God that makes us to seek. It's the Spirit of God that makes
us to ask. And here's His precious promise
that these things will be given. So, my question was, how are
these things revealed? They're revealed to us the same
way they're revealed to the Old Testament prophets. by inquiring
and diligently seeking. That's how they're revealed. Hebrews 1, without faith, it is impossible
to please God, for they that cometh to Him must believe that
He is, And that He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek
Him. Diligently seek Him. Now here's the thing about God's
children. They're ashamed of how diligent
they are. Lord, you see, when we hear this,
we're saying in our hearts, Lord, forgive me. Make me more diligent. Make me more faithful. And He
does. This is the blessing of affliction. This is the blessing of affliction.
David said, before I was afflicted, I had gone astray. But now, now
I've kept that word. The Lord sends into His children's
lives circumstances that are completely outside of their control. puts them in a place where they've
got no place else to go but to Him. That's a grace. That's a
blessing. That's the Lord's mercy and love
toward His children. Shuts us up to Christ. Lord, I can't fix this. And that
is always true. about our sin, isn't it? You
see, if it was just our temporal circumstances that caused us
to cry out to God, then we would have nothing more than foxhole
religion. And we would only need God when
we got in trouble. I'm saying that for the children
of God, the Lord uses trouble to remind us of our need for
him. But our real need is our sin, and that never goes away.
That's why we come to Him. We come to Christ to save us
from our sin. This diligent search and inquiry
is the work of the Spirit in us. It is the diligence of the Holy
Spirit. To be religiously diligent without
the Holy Spirit is to make a work out of religion. Men do it all. I got an email
recently from somebody in Australia that was thanking me for a message,
and I responded to them, of course, and called Angus to see if he
knew them, and he didn't. And the guy's response back to
me was that he was a sermon junkie. And that he listened, he read
his, he told me how many hours a day, what did he say, two or
three hours a day he reads his Bible. He doesn't have a TV in
his home. He doesn't allow anything to
distract him. He diligently seeks God and listens
to sermons all day long. And mine just happened to be
one that he listened to. And he told me the names of some
of the men that he really likes. And I knew they weren't gospel
preachers. And I thought, here's an example of someone who has
become very religious and also very self-righteous and very
proud of his diligent search, thinking that God's going to
reward him for his work. You see, the believer is just
the opposite, isn't it? We do have a diligent need and
inquiry for the Lord, and yet we're so ashamed of how little
we do. The Holy Spirit doesn't cause
us to glory. He won't allow us to glory in
anything that we do. He always points us to Christ.
That's what the Lord said. He said, He will take a mind
and show it unto thee. He will lead you into all truth. He would live in us. Turn with me to Acts chapter
seven, Acts chapter seven. Stephen is recounting the revelation
that God made of himself in the Old Testament. He's about to
be stoned. And he's reminding these Jews
of what the Lord said through the prophets about the Messiah. And he's revealing the Lord Jesus
who they just crucified as that one that the prophets spoke of. And he says in Acts chapter seven
at verse 37, this is that Moses. which said unto the children
of Israel, a prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you
of your own brethren like unto me, him shall you hear. So Stephen's
telling these Jews, the man that you just crucified is the Christ.
He's the one that Moses was talking about when Moses said, God's
gonna send a prophet like me. He's the fulfillment of that
prophecy. Verse 38, this is he that was in the church in the
wilderness with the angels which spake to him in Mount Sinai and
with our fathers who received the lively oracles to give unto
us. This is him. This is the Christ. This is the one that the prophets
inquired about and sought diligently to know. The one who God has
revealed to you. This is the one that Isaiah saw.
When he said, I saw the Lord high and lifted up, and His train
filled the temple, and the seraphim hovered over His throne, and
they cried, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. Heaven
and earth is filled with His glory. This is Him. This is the
Christ. This is the Spirit of Christ
that anointed David, spoke to Moses, and appeared to Joshua
at the river, revealed Himself to Daniel, This is the angel
of the Lord that came to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This is he. This is the full revelation of
God. God, who at sundry times and
in divers manner spake unto us by these prophets, hath now spoken
unto us by his son. This is the full revelation of
God. Go back with me to our text. What about the Lord Jesus? Were
these prophets inquiring and diligently seeking? Look with me at verse 11. Searching
what, how, who, and what manner of time, when, The Spirit of
Christ, which was in them, the same Spirit was in them, causing
them to inquire and to diligently search, which was in them did
signify when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and
the glory that should follow. Here it is, the crucifixion and
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is where the revelation
of God is made and what Christ accomplished on Calvary's cross. The spirit of God that worked
in them also works in us, always pointing us to the cross and
the effects that the cross had for our salvation, securing. the surety of our salvation,
putting away our sins once and for all by the sacrifice that
Christ made of himself, establishing a perfect righteousness before
God, delivering us, delivering us from the law. That's what Paul said in Philippians
when he said, though he took upon him the form
of a servant and became obedient unto death, even the death of
the cross. Wherefore, God has highly exalted
him and given him a name that is above every name, that at
the name of Jesus every time." You see, these prophets were
inquiring and diligently seeking what Christ would do in his sufferings
and in the glory that should follow. The glory that should follow
is the coming of the Spirit of Christ
in our hearts. Christ in you is your hope of
glory. The glory that should follow
is the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ, seated at the right
hand of God, It's the name that God has given
Him that is above every name. This is the glory that should
follow. The liberty that the believer
has, the freedom that we have, where the Spirit of Christ is.
This is the Spirit of Christ that was in these Old Testament
prophets. The same Spirit of Christ is in us. And what was
he telling them? Oh, that there was freedom and
liberty. Where the Spirit of God is, there's
always liberty. Where the Spirit of God is, Christ
is exalted as the one who satisfied the demands of God's law and
put away the sins of his people so that we don't have to live
in fear of wrath and judgment. The Spirit of God sets us free
from the law of sin and death. Reckon yourselves to be dead
indeed unto sin. How can it be? Well, because
it is. Because it is. That's who we
are in Christ. We're dead. He died, we died. Sin's been put away. It no longer
reigns over us. It no longer stands in judgment
of us. The Lord Jesus Christ has delivered
us. There's liberty and freedom in
Christ. This is what the prophets inquired
about and diligently sought after. And child of God, this is what
you inquire about, isn't it? This is what you diligently seek
after. Why? Because it's your sin, it's
your unbelief. The Lord told us, your sins have
separated you from your God. And you know that you've got
a problem you can't fix. So you need another to stand
in your stead and to put it away himself, that you might be free. And so here's why we are inquiring. Here's why we are diligently
seeking. Here's what we need to know about
God. My last question is, who is this
revelation for? Who is it for? And the short
answer to that is that it's for sinners. That's who the revelation
of God is for. It's for sinners. The Lord warns us in Colossians
chapter two, not to worship angels or intrude into things which
have not been seen. We have to be very careful and
tread very lightly when we talk about angels. But here again,
they're brought up as they are many times in the scriptures
and much could be said about them. But here's the one thing
I want us to see about them tonight. The last part of verse 12. Which
things, which things, these things concerning the sufferings and
the glory that should follow the sufferings of Christ for
sinners is only for sinners. Angels aren't sinners. Now the
scriptures are clear. There's two categories of angels.
There's the fallen angels. And there is, as Paul tells us
in the book of Timothy, the elect angels. And the only reason the
elect angels aren't in hell is because God elected them and
kept them. And the same thing's true with people, with men. There are the elect. And then there are those that
the Lord leaves to themselves. the fallen angels, the scriptures
are clear that one third of the heavenly host rebelled against
God and fell with Lucifer. And Jude verse six tells us that
the everlasting fire is reserved for them. But here he's not talking
about these fallen angels. He's talking about the elect
angels. He's talking about those angels that that have never sinned,
those ministering spirits. And as mysterious and careful
as I want to be about this, the scriptures are clear that these
angels observe our worship. They rejoice. There's rejoicing
in heaven over the salvation of one sinner among the angels. How would they know that? They're
observing us. Paul tells us in the book of
Corinthians that women are to keep their heads covered in public
worship, which, ladies, is your hair, for the angels' sake. So we know there's angels here, but they can't enter into what
we know about God. I mean, they're in His very presence. They see Him in the fullness
of His power and His sovereignty and His glory, and yet the attributes
of God that they can never enter into. Why? Because they're not
sinners. They know nothing about grace.
They know nothing about forgiveness. They can't look to the Lord Jesus
Christ as we can, as their brother and as their friend and as their
husband. There's no, the intimacy due
to our sin and the forgiveness that that God has accomplished
through the sufferings and the glory that should follow in the
Lord Jesus Christ. These things that the prophets
inquired and sought diligently to understand have now been revealed
to sinners. To sinners. They can't. Angels cannot enter
into worshiping God as their savior. He never needed to be saved. See, angels are like Adam before
the fall. They're innocent, but God ordained
the fall that he might reveal to his people more of his glory,
his grace, his forgiveness, his power, as a result of sin and the forgiveness
of it through the suffering and the glory that should follow
in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. This word, you see the last,
I want us to look again at this last phrase, which things the
angels desire to look into. That word means to crave. It
means to long for. It means to covet. Here are the
angels in heaven. The angels of God are coveting
what you have. They can't comprehend how we
can have this loving relationship with God. as a result of the
forgiveness of our sin. They know nothing about that. So what the Lord has revealed
to us, the prophets inquired and sought after, the angels
desire to look into it, but it's only for sinners. It's only for
those who need the suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ to put
away their sin. It's almost as if the Lord is
saying, they want what you have, but they can't have it. They
can't enter into it. which I'm sure has something
to do with what the Lord said about us standing in judgment
of angels in heaven. We're gonna have a knowledge
of God that the angels could never have. They could never understand justice
being satisfied by another. They could never understand experientially
the fiery wrath of God being quenched by the sacrifice that
Christ made. Can't you just see them all on
the precipice of heaven with their swords drawn, ready? The Lord said, I could call twelve
legions of angels. They would come deliver me, but
He didn't. And there was some confusion
with them. What's happening? What's happening? Only sinners
can understand what's happening. We understand why God had to
do what He had to do. Because we have an experience
with sin. And we have a need for a Savior. They could never enter into having
union with Christ What you and I have after the
fall is so much better than anything that Adam could possibly have.
Every attribute of God, the glory of God, the power of God, the
grace of God, the wisdom of God, the justice of God, all of these
attributes are brought to their full revelation as a result of
the cross and sin. And this is what the Old Testament
prophets inquired about they were sinners, sought diligently
to know the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow. We have a revelation of God only because we need one to suffer
in our stead, one to satisfy the demands of God's justice.
One who can express sorrow and repentance and faith perfectly
to God. One who can offer a sacrifice
that's acceptable to God. That's who God has revealed Himself
to be in His Son. Our suffering Savior. Our Heavenly Father, thank you
for your word. Forgive us, Lord, for being so
careless in our desire for thee. Lord, use your word now to increase
our need. Cause us to find our hope and
all our salvation in Christ. or it's in His name we pray,
amen. Number 18, let's stand together,
18. 18 in a spiral handbook, let's all
stand. Just three verses, even though
there's six there, we'll sing straight through. ? God gave his holy inspired word
? ? For only one great end ? ? The prophets and apostles too ? ?
Revealed the sinner's friend ? The Bible is a book of Christ,
it only speaks of Him. On every page it shows us Christ,
it only speaks of Him. ? The prophecies of old record
? ? God's wondrous mighty deeds ? ? Those deeds of power and
of grace ? ? Set forth the woman's seed ? ? The prophets all recall
? ? Reveal our Lord as prophet, priest, and king ? ? The types
the great redemption show ? ? Christ's blood and grace now bring ? Behold
the Lamb, the Baptist said, the sin-atoning One. As it was promised long before,
God's Son, as man has come. Our substitute obeyed the law,
then died and rose again. and in his word our savior said
rejoice i come again