Before we begin, let's go to
the Lord in prayer. Father, we thank You for this
day. We thank You for the privilege to gather to hear the Gospel
proclaimed. You've given us great blessings
to give us freedom to do this, as well as hearts to do this. Lord, increase that desire within
us. Increase that hunger and that
thirst for Christ, the knowledge of Him, of Your fullness in Him. We ask,
Lord, that You would use these words, this Scripture now and
this message now to do that in our hearts. Forgive us of our
sins, Father. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Alright, Ephesians chapter 3.
Ephesians chapter 3. Now brethren, do you have a desire? Do you have a hunger to know
more of the Lord Jesus Christ? That's our subject this morning.
Our desire. Our desire. Actually, that's
going to be our last point. First of all, we will see the
desire of holy men from the past. The desire of holy men in the
past. Look at Ephesians 3 and verse
3. Paul says, by revelation, Christ
made known unto me the mystery, as I wrote before in a few words,
whereby when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the
mystery of Christ, which in other ages, in time past, was not made
known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto His holy
apostles and prophets by the Spirit. First, we'll see here
the desire of holy men of old. And secondly, we will see the
desire of holy angels in heaven. The desire of holy angels in
heaven. Paul said the gospel was revealed
to him and he was sent to preach the gospel for this purpose.
Look at verse 10. To the intent that now unto the
principalities and powers in heavenly places to heavenly angels,
holy angels, might be known by the church the manifold wisdom
of God according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in
Christ Jesus our Lord. And then briefly, we will consider
our desire. Do you desire to know more of
the Lord? Do you hunger after a knowledge
and an understanding of the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, first of
all, we see here men of old did. The men of old, holy men of old
desired to know more of the Lord Jesus. Paul said in verse 10,
In other ages this mystery of the gospel was not revealed,
it was not made known unto the sons of men as it is now revealed
unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. Turn with me to
1 Peter chapter 1. 1 Peter 1. The Apostle Peter said that the
prophets of old desired to know more of Christ. Look here in
1 Peter 1 verse 10. He says, Of which salvation the
prophets have inquired and searched diligently. They inquired and
searched diligently who prophesied of the grace that should come
unto you. Searching what or 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 them unto whom it was revealed that not unto themselves 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. Holy men of old did not have
as full a revelation of Jesus Christ as we have in our day.
They didn't have the completed scriptures that we have. The prophets only had revealed
to them what the Spirit of Christ revealed to them. And they had
to wait on the time that the Holy Spirit would reveal to them
these things when it testified to them. And the things that
were made known to them were not made known as fully. They
were not revealed to them by the Holy Spirit like they are
now to us. It was revealed to them that
the things that they spoke of, what they were preaching, what
they were prophesying of, the sufferings of Christ and the
glory that shall follow, that those things were not going to
come to pass in their day, they were going to come to pass in
our day. That's what verse 12 says, unto
whom it was revealed that not unto themselves but unto us they
did minister. The things which are now reported
unto you, they're now preached unto you by them that have preached
the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.
But they didn't know, they didn't know as fully And it was made
known to them that these things would not come to pass in their
day. But with all their hearts, these holy men of old inquired
and they searched diligently what they did have to know more
of the Lord. They wanted to know more of the
things that you and I have revealed to us today. He says they inquired
and they searched diligently. They inquired and they searched
diligently. Can't you hear Moses and Isaiah
and Jeremiah and Samuel and these men of old? Can't you just hear
them inquiring of the Lord and asking Him, Lord, what do these
things mean? When are these things coming
to pass? Can you give me more understanding
of these things? Can you reveal more of Christ
in my heart? They searched diligently. What
things God gave them, they searched, they studied, they wanted to
know more of their Redeemer. The Spirit of Christ revealed
to Moses in type and in picture, he saw the sufferings of Christ
and the glory that should follow. You think about it, in all the
offerings that God told Moses to declare to the people, Moses
was seeing little glimpses, shadows and types of Christ in that,
but he took all these different kinds of lambs to be offered
to show little glimpses of that one body, that one offering that
Christ made. It took a bunch of different
offerings just to show that one sacrifice, that one offering
He made in His body. Moses saw in type, he saw Christ
as a scapegoat. They brought this scapegoat and
they brought it to the high priest and he put his hands on that
goat and ceremonially, in type, in picture, he says he put all
the sins of all Israel and only Israel, only God's elect is what's
pictured there. But all their sins were put on
the head of that scapegoat. And a fit man took that scapegoat
away into the wilderness and let him go. And he carried in
type, in ceremony, he carried their sins. That scapegoat carried
their sins in his own body into a land not inhabited. And in
type and in ceremony, even in type and in ceremony, that fit
man that led him away, before he could come back into the camp,
he had to wash. He had to be clean because he
was defiled by the scapegoat. Moses saw a picture of Christ
who literally did that. Moses saw Christ who literally
bore our sins in his body on the tree. Who took our sins away
to a land not inhabited. So that they'll never again be
brought up by God. They're gone. But he just saw
in part. He just saw that a little bit.
And then he saw in part the accomplished atonement that Christ would make
and he saw that in that lamb of atonement. There was another
lamb on the day of atonement and that lamb had the sins of
the people put on it. It took their place but that
lamb was killed. That lamb died. And his blood
was brought by a high priest. He saw a little bit of Christ
in that high priest. He was brought into that holiest
of holies and the blood of that lamb was sprinkled seven times
before the mercy seat. So Moses saw the sufferings of
Christ in these things. And then Moses saw the glory
that should follow. He saw that in part two. He saw
the glory that should follow. He saw that whenever God delivered
Israel out of bondage, out of Egypt by a Passover lamb. That's
the glory that followed Christ's accomplished redemption. He saw
the glory of the sufferings of Christ that followed in that
whenever that sacrifice was made on the Day of Atonement, for
another year, for another year, God passed over the sins of His
people. And then every year it was done
again to remind Him, to remind them of their sin. But it never
took away sin. But Moses, Moses did not look at these things
in hindsight like we look at them today. He couldn't look
at these things as already been accomplished in full by Christ
and see them as fully as we see them today. Christ is the express
image. He's the express image of what
was pictured in those times, what was shadowed in those times.
They were just a shadow. Christ and what Christ fulfilled,
what Christ did, what he accomplished was the express image of those
things. And not only that, but Moses couldn't pick this book
up and turn to Hebrews 9-11 and read, "...Christ being come a
high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect
tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building,
neither by the blood of bulls and goats, but by his own blood
he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us." He couldn't pick up the book and read that.
But he searched, he inquired diligently about what he had,
and he asked God to give him more of an understanding. He
searched diligently. Isaiah, he saw in part. He saw
the sufferings of Christ and the glory that shall follow.
We've been going through Isaiah since 2008. And we're at Isaiah
53 now. And we see there that the Spirit
revealed to Isaiah that Christ would suffer. Isaiah was made
to know that, Behold, I give you a sign, a virgin shall conceive
and be with child, and his name shall be called Immanuel, God
with us. He was told that. And then he
was also told he'll grow up before him as a tender plant, as a root
out of a dry ground. There won't be any form, any
cumulus about him that when men should see him, they'll desire
him. He was told these things. But he never got to see it. Not
like we've seen it. And not like we look back on
it in hindsight. He never saw him despised. He
never saw him born of that virtue. And he never saw him despised
by the Pharisees and by the Sadducees and by his own immediate family.
And then he was shown something of the suffering of Christ on
the cross. We saw in Isaiah 53.3, he said, he was wounded for our
transgressions. The Lord has laid on him the
iniquity of us all. And though he was oppressed and
was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He saw, he was
given an understanding of these things in a limited sense. He
didn't see them like we see them. He didn't behold these things
as being accomplished by Christ like we see them. And in part,
he saw the glory that should follow. He said, he said, he
shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied.
By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many. And then
he opens up Isaiah 54.1 and he says, the Lord says, sing, O
barren, thou that didst not bear, you that didn't travail, you
that didn't work, you that didn't bring forth this accomplishment,
you can sing now. And He said, and spread forth
your tent, spread forth your stakes, because you're going
to break out on the right hand and on the left hand. I'm going
to start calling my people from among the Gentiles now. Isaiah
was shown that glory that would follow, how that Christ would
be raised from the dead, and how that now, through His power,
He would send forth the Gospel into the world and start calling
out His elect from among the Jews and from among the Gentiles.
He saw it. And He believed it. Faith is
the evidence. You say, how could he believe
these things when nothing like this had ever happened yet? Faith
is the evidence. That's how we believe these things.
Faith is the evidence. But we have a more full revelation
of them. So these holy men of old, what
I'm trying to show you is they inquired and they searched diligently
to know more of their Redeemer. Now look here, and here's the
second thing. Back in our text, Ephesians 3, the desire of holy
angels. Paul said he was sent to preach
the gospel, verse 10, to the intent, Ephesians 3, 10, to the
intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places
might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God according
to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our
Lord. Back over there in 1 Peter 1.12, Peter said which things
the angels desire to look into. Which things the angels desire
to look into. Now this is amazing. This is
amazing. The holy angels learn the manifold
wisdom of God. They learn the eternal purpose
of God that God purposed in Christ before the foundation of the
world by looking at the church. By seeing what God does by Christ
in His church. That's how they learn these things.
And they desire to look into these things. Holy angels do. You think about the mercy seat. And over the mercy seat, I mean
the ark. And over the ark was the mercy
seat. And it had cherubims, angels. on each side, overshadowing the
mercy seat. And they had their faces toward
the mercy seat, covered. Their faces were covered, but
they were looking at that mercy seat. That's a picture of the
angel's desire to look into the things Christ is doing. They
were looking at that mercy seat, beholding the wisdom of God,
beholding His eternal purpose unfolding in Christ, the mercy
seat. Angels have been diligently watching
God's work in His church since the garden. There they were in
the garden, watching what God would do. He's made this world. He's made the heavens and the
earth. And then they see Him make a man after His own image. And they have to stand in amazement
at the wisdom of God in making that man. And God tells us, In
Romans 5, that man he made, he made him to be a type and a figure
and a shadow of the last Adam, Christ the Lord to come. And
so everything they beheld and happened in this Adam, they're
going to behold happened in the last Adam. They didn't know that
yet though. Not unfolded like you and I,
it's been revealed now and like they know now. But there they
see Adam created in the garden. And then they behold Satan come
into the garden and outwit Adam using Eve. And Adam sins and
plunges the whole human race into sin. Can you imagine what
they thought about that? Now how is this working for God's
good and for the salvation of His people? For His glory and
their good? They stood in amazement. They
stood in wonder. No sooner had this happened than
God comes and He seeks out Adam. hiding in the trees. And God
slays an animal. The first death in the world
was a man. He died. And when he died, he
plunged all the human race into sin with him. The second death
in the Scriptures, the second death in the Scriptures was a
substitute. A substitute that died to cover
that man's nakedness. And God showed the angels how
God works in this. And they heard God declare in
the garden, the seed of woman is coming. Something that's never
happened before. There's going to be a woman that
never knows a man that's going to have a son. The seed of woman. And Satan's going to bruise his
heel. But he's going to crush Satan's head in the process.
I can just pitch to the angels, I want to see this unfold. I
want to watch diligently what God's going to do in His church.
I want to see this unfold. And throughout all the law and
the prophets, they behold God unfold His eternal purpose in
those types and shadows, just like Moses and the prophets did.
But Paul says, but now. But now. Right now. This is the
purpose for which he sent me forth to this gospel, Paul said.
Look here, verse 10. To the intent that now unto the
principalities and powers and heavenly places might be made
known by the church the manifold wisdom of God. According to the
eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Christ came into the world. God
declared this when He came into the world. God comes down in
human flesh and He comes into the world and when He brings
us the first begotten into the world, He says, let all the angels
of God worship Him. Let all the angels worship Him. How do they do so? Holy angels
are diligently attending the preaching of the gospel. They're
diligently attending the preaching of the gospel the same as us.
That they might know by the church the manifold wisdom of God. That
they might learn the eternal purpose that God purposed in
Christ before the foundation of the world. Spurgeon made a
good comment on this. He said, the church becomes as
a museum which angels may visit with ever expanding interest
and ever increasing delight. Holy angels are learning about
God and His salvation and His will and His power and His wisdom
and His purpose by looking at what God's done for His people
and in His people. That's just amazing to me. The
angels behold the manifold wisdom of God by the church. When the
angels beheld Satan trick Eve and use Eve so that Adam sinned,
they saw Satan rage. They saw Him all through the
ages try to destroy men, try to prevent Christ from coming
into the world. But then they beheld Christ made in fashion
like unto His brethren. And this is what the Scripture
says, made a little lower than the angels. for the suffering
of death, that he might taste death for every one of God's
elect children." Here they are, holy angels, and they see this
one who's always been above them, God, the Son, and they see Him
now coming to the world as a man lower than them. They're learning
something about God, aren't they? About the wisdom of God. Ah,
they must have paid diligent attention to Him, you reckon?
You reckon they'd look to see, what is this about? You reckon
they ever get tired? You think the angels are rolling
their eyes right now when they're hearing this gospel preached?
You think they're saying, oh, I'm just so tired of hearing
that same story over and over? No. They're just as delighted
to hear it as God's people are. Angels beheld God's wisdom in
declaring His righteousness while at the same time justifying His
people. They beheld Christ the God-man
take the place of His people and own it as His place where
He should be. They beheld Him take the sin
of His people and own it as His sin. They beheld Christ take
the judgment that His people deserve and own it as His judgment. And how they must have diligently
looked into this. How they must have been looking
at this while Christ was suffering on the tree. How they must still
love to hear that story. Angels beheld the God-man go
into the tomb and the stone being rolled upon it and sealing it
there. And then three days later, they behold him come forth out
of that tomb, risen triumphant into glory and triumphing over
Satan, sin, death, and hell, crowned with glory and honor.
Hebrews 1.4 says, being made so much better than the angels. because He's obtained an inheritance,
a more excellent name than they. Now they behold Him seated at
the right hand of the Father. Now they see Him reigning and
ruling with all power in heaven and earth, governing everything
in the universe and in His church. They must be amazed at God's
wisdom. at God's wisdom for Satan to
be raging against Christ and wicked men and nailing him to
that tree and thinking, oh, we've accomplished something now. We've accomplished getting him
taking God off his throne. And yet, that was God on His
throne. That was God declaring Himself
King of Kings. That was God declaring Himself
the Savior. That was God declaring Himself
righteous. That was God justifying His people. That was God providing Himself
a Lamb. That was God justifying His people
in the person of His Son. And now His people are justified,
not by something we did, but by what Christ did. Now His people
are perfected forever, not by something
we did, but by what He did. And the angels are looking into
these things. You think they might rejoice when they hear
this? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
It's God that justifies. Who is He that can deal with
it? It's Christ that died, yea, rather, that's risen again, who's
even at the right hand of God, who ever lives to make intercession
for us. I just believe they'd like to hear that. I can hear the Holy Chorus sing
with rejoicing. Whenever he went back into glory,
you could just hear him saying, this is what he meant back there
in the garden. This is what God meant when he
said, Satan's going to bruise his heel, but he's going to crush
Satan's head. This is what he meant. And angels admire the wisdom
and the eternal purpose of God, which was hidden. This was all
hidden. Now they see that Christ Jesus
laid down His life. that He might take the law out
of the way, nailing it to His cross, that His Holy Spirit might
be poured out upon His elect Jew and His elect Gentile, and
they might be made one in one body in Christ. One with God
and one with one another in Him. They behold this now, and they
admire Christ's wisdom to prevail over every single gate that hell
lays in the way to call out His lost sheep. There is joy in the presence
of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. They're
rejoicing to see these things. They're learning. They admire
God's wisdom in how the Lord afflicts, and how He comforts,
how He upholds us. They see how He keeps back that
which we can't yet endure, and how that He gives us what's necessary,
and how He gently leads us, and how He makes us to lie down in
green pasture. We don't always like the providence
of God because we don't understand what God's doing. We don't see
it, we don't understand it, but in the end we see that what God's
doing is for His glory and our good always. And that's what
the angels are learning. They're seeing it and learning
it too. Even in the death of martyrs, angels behold God's
glory and His goodness toward His people. You've got holy men looking.
You've got angels looking. You've got anybody who knows
anything about the wisdom of God and the glory of God and
the full salvation accomplished in His Son. You've got holy men
of old inquiring and diligently seeking to know Him and know
more of Him. You've got angels learning by
looking at the church and looking at what He's doing in the church
and they desire to look into these things. Now brethren, let's
consider our desire. Our desire. Shouldn't we diligently
seek these things? We have so many more privileges.
We got so much more given to us than the prophets and the
saints of old had. Shouldn't we take advantage and
diligently search these things? The Apostle Peter, let's look
at 2 Peter 1. 2 Peter 1. I'm going to be brief
here, but You get my point already. Look at 2 Peter 1 and look at
verse 16. Peter said, We were in the Mount
of Transfiguration, and we saw Christ transfigured, we beheld
His majesty, we heard God glorify His only begotten Son. Now look
at this, verse 16. We've not followed cunningly
devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His
majesty. For he received from God the
Father honor and glory when there came such a voice to him from
the excellent glory. This is my beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased. He said we were eyewitnesses
of this. We saw Christ's majesty and we heard God declare this.
And this voice which came from heaven we heard when we were
with Him in the Holy Mount. Now you think about what a sight
that must have been. To see Christ in His majesty
transfigured on that mountain. Think of what they heard. They
heard God speak and say, this is my Son. Glorify Him. Hear Him. Bow to Him. Search
diligently to know Him. They heard those things. Man,
to be first hand and see that and to hear that, that had to
be something amazing. But listen to what Peter says.
Peter says to us right now, right here, where we are, we've got
something even better than what that is. Look at verse 19. We have also a more sure word
of prophecy. We got these scriptures right
here. That's what he's saying. We got the scriptures, brethren.
We got the word of God. Well, until you do well that
you take heed. As unto a light that shineth
in a dark place, until the day dawn and the day store arise
in your hearts, knowing this first, no prophecy of the Scriptures
of any private interpretation. God gave this through bunch of
men. And you just look from one verse
to the next verse and it all goes together like a puzzle.
And Christ is the key. It holds it all together. It
shows you the light of it. And you see and understand. There's
old books about Him. and speaks of Him and declares
Him. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man,
but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
Now do we desire, do we desire to know more of the mystery of
Christ? Do we desire like the holy men
of old to search diligently to know more of Him? Do we desire
like the angels to look into these things and to search these
things? The knowledge of Christ and the words of God are more
valuable than any any of this earth's riches. The Scripture
says, more to be desired are they than gold, yea, than fine
gold, sweeter than honey are the honeycombs. Now let me ask
you this, what do we spend more diligent time seeking? The riches
of this world or the riches of the gospel? Think of the great light and
the privileges God's granted to us in this day, brethren.
You realize that most of the prophets of old did not know
each other. Isaiah couldn't take what God
had given him and go over to Jeremiah's house and say, Jeremiah,
what did God give you? Now let's compare these things
and look at them side by side here and see if we can put this
thing together and see what God said. They didn't have that advantage. But you know what? We do. We
do. We can look at Isaiah, and go
and look at what Jeremiah said, and look at what Moses said,
and those Scriptures of private interpretation. We can see now,
by this, comparing Scripture with Scripture, what God has
said. That's a great privilege that He's given to us. And then
not only that, we can read Paul's commentary, or James' commentary,
or John, or Peter's in the New Testament, and we not only have
all the Scriptures, we got a divine inspired commentary. on all the
Old Testament. If you want to know what Leviticus
says, go to Hebrews and read it. It's all about what Leviticus
says, what the law is about. Isaiah is quoted in the New Testament
more than any other prophet. And they're telling you, this
is what that means. When it says, as it is written, it's quoting
something. If you look in your margin, it'll show you, this
is from Isaiah, or Jeremiah, or Ezekiel. And it's showing
you, this is what that means. God's given us the complete Scriptures,
all the mysteries of Christ, all the mysteries contained in
the pages of this book. He's put you and I in a country
where we're free to diligently search this book. There's people
living in countries right now listening to the Gospel now,
searching these Scriptures now, and they're risking their life
to do it. They could be thrown in prison, beaten, killed for
seeking Christ. God's given us so much light.
A church where the Gospel is preached faithfully and spirited
in truth. He's given us brethren and a
pastor who know the Gospel and who pray for you to know the
Gospel and who delight to help you and teach you in any way
that we can. God's given you who believe a new heart. He's
given you divine revelation to understand the mystery of Christ.
Ephesians 3.12. Look there. Ephesians 3.12. He
says, in whom we have boldness and
access with confidence by the faith of Him. We come to Him
and ask Him. He wrote it. We got access to
the one who wrote the book. He said, Blessed are they which
do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Do you hunger and thirst? Holy
men of old desire to know and they searched and they were filled.
The angels desire to know and they're filled. Brethren, if
you desire to know Christ and look into these words of His
book and ask Him, you will be filled. He'll teach you. He doesn't
deny anybody that comes to Him wanting to know of Him. He will
teach you. Now let me ask you a question.
These are the things I think about. We got next week Belinda
and the kids are going down to see her dad. And after we get
up Christmas morning, spend some time together, they're going
to take off down there. And I'm going to stay here. And things
like this cross my mind. What if next week my children
die in a car wreck? And I spent this whole week teaching
in the world. And they die without Christ. I don't want to live with that. That would kill me to think I
had time to redeem the time to teach them the gospel and I spent
my time teaching them the world. I spent my time by facing a computer
screen or in a TV or doing something worthless when I could have been teaching
them the gospel. I know we get tired. I know we
have to have time to, you know, sometimes you just want to lay
on the couch and veg out and turn on the idiot box and just
be an idiot. But we do a lot of those kinds
of things, more so than we, and you know it's harder to do that
which God commands us to do. It's harder And it's more, it
goes against our flesh. You would sit and watch a two-hour
movie and never bat an eye. We pick up this book and within
five minutes we're falling asleep. It's harder. It's harder to seek
God. The Spirit's willing, but the
flesh is weak. But brethren, that ought not to be an excuse.
That ought not to be an excuse. Preacher, I don't understand
the Scriptures. Well, God's given me to guide you. And He's told
us both this. Christ said, Ask and it shall
be given you. Seek and you shall find. Knock
and it shall be opened to you. So make this your preeminent
desire. He says, Seek ye first the Kingdom
of God and His righteousness. And I pray God give us the desire
that He gave to those holy men of old and that He's given to
the holy angels. A desire to truly seek Him. Amen.