Let's start, if you would, in
1 Peter 1. And we'll read a fairly long
passage, verses 1-12. And the main verses I'll concentrate
on are 10-12 and primarily verse 12. So 1 Peter 1. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ
to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia,
Asia, and Bithynia. elect according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience
and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Grace unto you
and peace be multiplied. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy
hath begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead. to an inheritance incorruptible
and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven
for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto
salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time, wherein ye
greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are
in heaviness through manifold temptations, that the trial of
your faith, being much more precious than of gold, that perisheth,
though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and
honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ, whom having
not seen ye love, in whom though now ye see him not, yet believing,
ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving
the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. So verse
10 is where we'll concentrate some. Of which salvation the
prophets have inquired and searched out diligently who prophesied
of the grace that should come unto you. Searching what or what
manner of time the spirit of Christ who was in them did signify. When he testified beforehand
the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow.
And verse 12 is especially important unto whom it was revealed that
not unto themselves. So the prophets, not unto the
prophets, 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 spirit of Christ sent down from heaven, which
things the angels desire to look into. So first, I always find
it profitable to get context, and I always appreciate the fact
that Brother McDaniel does the same thing. So Peter wrote this
epistle to Jews spread out. Among those, what we would know
today is Eastern Europe, and Western Asia, and even all of
Asia. Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia,
and Bithynia were located around what is today modern-day Turkey,
south of the Black Sea and north to northwest of Jerusalem. The
epistle is a general epistle written to a collection of Christian
Jews who were spread out among the Gentiles in cities such as
the ones he names in his salutation, as well as others in Asia Minor,
the western part of Asia. Peter does not explicitly indicate
that he writes to the Jews. It's not an obvious statement
that he makes. However, the contextual clues seem to indicate as much. Importantly, he calls his audience
those who reside as strangers in the epistle's salutation.
And then again, in the second chapter of 1 Peter, he calls
them aliens and strangers. These were Jews living among
the Gentiles, being strangers to their customs and traditions.
So Peter is well recognized as the apostle to the Jews, and
that's evidenced by Paul's letter to the Galatians. Quote, but
on the contrary, seeing that I had been entrusted with the
gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter to the circumcised. For he who effectually worked
for Peter in his apostleship to the circumcised, effectually
worked for me also to the Gentiles." So of course the circumcised
are the Jews and the uncircumcised are the Gentiles. So Peter was
the apostle to the Jews. Even so, even though the epistle
was written primarily to Jews, The epistles message still lends
itself to be read and appreciated by all Christians, regardless
of heritage. And that applies even to us today,
of course. Peter's journey from an immature,
imprudent, young Christian to a mature and wise apostle is
evident when we compare the message in his epistles to some of the
things and actions that he does in the gospel accounts. I think
we all would agree that Peter had many foot-in-mouth type moments
in the Gospels. One of the ones I recollect is
when he offered to build three tabernacles. One for Moses, one
for Elijah, and one for the Lord Jesus. That was a major foot-in-mouth
moment. I cannot help but think that
Peter's main turning point from immature Christian to the Apostle
Peter was when he wept bitterly after denying the Lord Jesus
three times. I think that was a major turning
point for him. It would have been for us. In
the book of Acts, Peter's ministry is shown to be an essential ingredient
to the spread of the gospel and the laying of a solid foundation
of apostolic truth during that period of transition. Though
it is not an inspired account by any means, Foxe's Book of
Martyrs records that the Apostle Peter died by crucifixion in
Rome. and that he requested to be,
quote, crucified head down and feet upward because he was unworthy
to be crucified after the same manner as the Lord was. Of course,
that's not inspired. It may not be true, but it gives
some account, some look into how the Apostle Peter felt about
the Lord Jesus Christ and especially about his crucifixion. So in
the beginning of this first letter, Peter immediately names gracious
things that each person of the Godhead has accomplished in salvation. Namely, the Father's eternal
election of the saints, the Spirit's gracious sanctification, and
the vicarious obedience and sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. So
in his salutation, in two short verses, he sets the stage. He greets his audience, and the
triune God is exalted. For the next seven verses, Peter
highlights some very important concepts, which I only will be
able to briefly touch on. So in verse 3, he says that we
have been born again by and through Christ's resurrection. In verse
4, he says we have an inheritance with Christ eternally reserved
in heaven. Number 5, or verse 5 rather,
our salvation is on sure and steady ground preserved by God
himself. Verses 6 and 7 say that we will
face temptations, afflictions, and trials. And verses 8 and
9, he states that we are full of joy and glory knowing that
our hope is in Christ Jesus. So, so far, salvation, salvation
is at the center of Peter's message of hope. Peter goes on to say
in verses 10 and 11 that this salvation is the same salvation
that the prophets of old searched out diligently. They prophesied
of the Messiah to come. They sought out who he would
be and at what time he would appear. And after verses 10 and
11, the key passage I'd like to concentrate on is verse 12.
These prophets sought to know things about the future coming
of the Messiah and the dispensing of the full and complete revelation
of the gospel. However, it was revealed to them
that their ministry was not to conclude with instruction and
knowledge for themselves, but instead for a future generation,
the generation of the apostles and even our generation today.
The prophets were participating in the laying of the groundwork
and the work of laying down the full revelation and final revelation
of the gospel by the apostles and by the Lord Jesus Christ
himself. The gospel permeates the writings of the Old Testament,
but not in such a full and obvious way as in the New Testament.
Even as early as Genesis 3, there's a glimmer of the gospel. in that
there would be a seed of man to crush the serpent. We may
take for granted that we know that the seed of man is the Lord
Jesus Christ, but we have the advantage of the full revelation
before us in the completed canon of the Bible. King David wrote
extensively about the passion and the suffering of the coming
Messiah in the Psalms. The book of Isaiah might as well
be called the gospel of Isaiah. because such wonderful gospel-centric
messages exist in Isaiah's writings, especially chapter 53, one of
the greatest proclamations of the gospel in the entire Bible,
and it's found in the Old Testament. So today we have the full advantage,
or the advantage of the full revelation a completed body of
Christianity. The prophets had the same gospel
that we have today, only with less information and far more
mystery. It was revealed to these prophets
that they were working for a future people, as Peter states. Unto
us they did minister the things which are now reported unto you. So the Christians in Peter's
day had the advantage of the unveiled gospel coming, quote,
not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit
and in much assurance. The spirit of Christ gave the
apostles the knowledge to rightly interpret the scriptures as well
as the show of power and signs and wonders to make this the
true and complete gospel of salvation. Now finally, at the end of verse
12, Peter writes something very interesting. Quote, which things
the angels desire to look into. That really interested me when
I read that for the first time, and it's interested me ever since
I became a Christian. So this begs some questions.
Number one, what things do the angels desire to look into? Number
two, why do the angels desire to look into these things? And
number three, why don't they already know whatever it is they
desire to look into? So we have to remember that salvation
is Peter's topic up until this point. And more specifically,
the immediate context is that the prophets of old searched
out the details of the method of salvation, the coming of the
Messiah. Yet these details were not fully
revealed to them. Instead, in their seeking and
in their writing, they made ready the way of the full revelation
of the gospel. And that was to take place during
and after the Lord's ministry. One example of the outworking
of this is when Philip ministered to the eunuch in Acts chapter
eight. The prophet Isaiah had given
a somewhat veiled prophecy of the Messiah. Philip was able
to explain this scripture clearly to the questioning unit by preaching
the Lord Jesus Christ to him. And this is precisely what Peter
speaks about when he writes, unto us they, the prophets, did
minister the things which are now reported to you by them that
have preached the gospel. So the gospel and the things
in the passage are one and the same in this context. Then at
the end of the verse, the same things are those which the angels
desire to look into. I believe a valid interpretation
is that the angels desire to look into things of the gospel. So I don't think we can stop
there though. The burning question would have
to be why wouldn't the angels already be familiar with things
of the gospel? Given the advantage of today's
modern technology, I'm able to look into the Greek a little
bit without actually knowing Greek. And the language used
here I find to be interesting. The first word I'd like to highlight
is the word for desire, desire in the passage. It's the Greek
word epithumeo. It is the same word used in the
New Testament to translate the Old Testament commandment, thou
shalt not covet. So desire, covet, same word in
the Greek. The same word is also translated
lust in the King James Version. So the meaning is to set the
heart upon, to covet, desire, or lust. And hence the catchy
title, the angel's lust. The second interesting word is
the one translated to look into. It literally means to stoop down
or to look into, to lean over to look into, It is used five
times in the New Testament and three of those are in reference
to when each Peter, John, and Mary stooped over to peer down
into the Lord Jesus Christ's empty tomb after he had arisen. So remember they ran to see his
empty tomb and they stooped down to see inside of the tomb and
that is the same word used here for the angels. And sometimes
when a word is used so infrequently in the New Testament, I find
it profitable to go to the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation
of the Old Testament. And there you have a large body
of words in the Old Testament that are translated in the Septuagint.
So it's nice to go back sometimes and see how they translate some
of these words in the Septuagint. And in this case, this same word
appears five times in the Septuagint. And each time is in reference
to an individual looking out of a window. A couple times it's
David, I can't remember the other ones, but looking out of a window
is each of the five times. It's a little bit different than
stooping down to look into, as we see with the Lord Jesus Christ
tomb, but the idea is the same, is peering, is looking through
to see. Now, the third thing from the
Greek I'd like to highlight is that All of the verbs in verse
12 are either the aorist or the imperfect tense, except one,
and that is the word that's translated desire or lust or covet, and
it is in the present tense. So if we reconstruct the end
of the verse with a little bit more time-sensitive language,
it might read something like this. Things, or we've established
these things are the gospel. So the gospel, the angels presently
are desiring to stoop down to see. So it is not a thing of
the past that Peter writes about. At the time of his writing this
epistle, the angels were desiring to look into things of salvation
and the gospel. So it was present to Peter's
writing the gospel, or the epistle rather, that the angels were
presently desiring to look into these things. Surely the angels
were watching and aiding the ministry of the gospel. So they
were familiar with the Lord's preaching as well as the apostles'
ministry. They were also well acquainted
with the objective knowledge of the gospel. By that I mean
that they knew that Jesus was Lord. They knew that Jesus was
God. They knew that Jesus had died. They knew that Jesus had been
resurrected on the third day. They knew that the Lord Jesus
ascended into heaven and was sitting at the right hand of
the Father. The angels, of course, knew this. Objective truth is
truth that exists outside of the mind. So Jesus is God is
an example of objective truth. No matter if there is a mind
to perceive it or not, Jesus is always God and will always
be God and has always been God. That's an objective truth. Now
a subjective truth is one that has to be appreciated by a mind. An example would be that I believe
that Jesus is God. This is the objective truth of
Jesus' divinity in relation to my mind thinking or knowing that.
And that is subjective knowledge. The mind's comprehension and
recognition of a fact or a truth. Today we have a problem where
in the religious world gives credibility to any and all subjective
thoughts. I'm sure you've heard something
like, as long as you passionately believe something, it's good
enough. Or maybe truth is in the eye of the beholder. The
world today has little regard for what is actually objective
truth. We live in our own subjective
minds. So angels knowing objective truth
about the gospel makes them well equipped to proclaim the gospel.
And there's two verses for proof of this. In Galatians chapter
1, Paul says, if an angel from heaven should preach the gospel
to you, contrary to what you receive, he is to be accursed. So there we see that angels have
the ability to preach the gospel. And in Revelation chapter 14,
John says, and I saw another angel flying in midheaven, having
an eternal gospel to preach to those who live on the earth.
And I recall that Paul says that whether the gospel is preached
with good intention or bad intention, it's good that the gospel is
preached even so. And this, the angels preaching
this and the fact that Paul seems to indicate that unsaved non-believers
can preach the gospel, these indicate that the gospel can
be preached and proclaimed by just having the understanding
of the objective knowledge. So why do the angels then desire
to look into things of the gospel as stated by Peter? What would
intrigue the angels that they were not already privy to? If you would, turn with me to
1 Corinthians chapter 15. And I'd like to read Paul's short
description of the gospel to provide a clue. I can think of
only one thing that fits the context of what the angels would
desire to look into about the gospel that they would not already
know. So 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verses
1 through 4. Moreover, brethren, I declare
unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have
received and wherein ye stand, by which also ye are saved. and
if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed
in vain. And pay attention here. For I
delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how
that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
and that He was buried and that He rose again the third day according
to the Scriptures. Notice that at the center of
the gospel is that Christ died for our sins. The gospel is a
personal gospel. The gospel has a specific audience,
that of the elect children of God. The gospel has a specific
message, that of the sure and accomplished redemption of the
person receiving the gift of faith. One may be able to objectively
know truths or facts about the gospel, but subjectively receiving
the good news is possible only when it is delivered straight
to the heart and mind by the Holy Spirit of God through faith. Repeating the words of the proclamation
of salvation is not in itself good news. It is only good news
to those for whom it is personally intended. Christ died for our
sins. If you are not a member of God's
elect, Christ did not die for you. So what marks or identifies
you as a member of this group? How can one know that Christ
died for them? In eternity, we are marked by
election. In time, we are marked by the
delivery of the gospel through true God-given faith. Faith is
not a condition of salvation. It is a result of Christ's finished
work. I think Brother McDaniel preached
on Arminians this morning, and they missed that fact. Most today
would deny this, that faith is not a condition of salvation.
It is a result of Christ's finished work of redemption. So the elect
angels do not need salvation. The fallen angels will not receive
salvation because Christ died for men, not angels, according
to the writer of Hebrews. Is it possible that this personal
gospel is what the angels desire to look into? Would the timely
salvation of God's elect intrigue them? Isn't this personal, subjective
part of salvation one of the only things that would be hid
from them forever? Brother Wilson spoke about the
parable of the prodigal son two weeks ago. And since it is fresh
in our minds, think about which brother has the superior position
when all is said and done. The younger brother leaves the
family and squanders his wealth. He is the bad one. He is the
one who is recognized as the sinner and the lost sheep of
the family. However, because of his repentance
and the mercy of his father, the return of the wayward son
produces more celebration and rejoicing than the obedience
of the older son. It may be a stretch to apply
this to angels and men, but the concept is at least similar.
The elder brother will not experience the mercy and grace of the wrong
father. The angels are like the 99 sheep
who do not go astray. Yet the shepherd goes out after
that one single lost sheep and rejoices greatly when it is found
and brought back into the fold. Recall with me the parable of
the two debtors. One owes much money and one owes
little money. If both are forgiven, which one
will have the greater love in return? The one with the smaller
or the greater debt? Of course, the one forgiven more
will love more. The race of men are depraved
and wicked. We sin often and we sin much. We have built up a great mountain
of sin debt in our lives. Indeed, it is not just our sins
that we have to account for. It is our very nature, our sinful
nature. The depravity of our hearts and
the utter void of righteousness within us requires great forgiveness
and magnificent mercy for us to be right again before the
holy and almighty God. Compare our state to that of
the angel who has never sinned, the elect angel. The angel does
not know sorrow. He does not know sin. He does
not feel that aching need for a redeemer. Knowing this, is
it strange to say that we have the superior position? Our state
is superior to the angel who has never sinned because our
state ends better. Is it better to have never sinned
and not need a redeemer than to have sinned greatly yet have
a robe of righteousness formed by the Savior Messiah himself
in death to cover our sins? Can it be that this is what the
angels seek to peer into? In closing, I'd like to read
a portion of Paul's letter to the Ephesians. It's Ephesians
chapter 3, verses 16 through 19. That he would grant you,
according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with
power through his spirit in the inner man. so that Christ may
dwell in your hearts through faith, and that you being rooted
and grounded in love, and pay attention here, may be able to
comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length
and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ, which
surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness
of God. The true, personal, subjective
truth of the Gospel can only be known by a man or woman who
has faith that the Lord Jesus Christ has redeemed them personally. The comprehension of the breadth
and length and height and depth of the love of Christ is shared
by the saints by knowing that He loves us and has laid down
His life for us individually. Objectively knowing that Christ
died is not enough. Angels and demons both know this.
Subjectively knowing that Christ died for you is the gospel. That is the good news. Are you
able to say with Isaiah, woe is me for I am ruined because
I am a man of unclean lips? Are you able to say with Job,
behold, I am insignificant. What can I reply to God? I lay
my hand on my mouth. And how about with Paul, wretched
man that I am, who will save me from this body of death? We
are in a predicament of depravity with a solution that is unique
to mankind, and not all of mankind, only those for whom the Lord
Jesus Christ selectively and particularly redeemed in his
incarnation, death, and resurrection. So I rejoice to know that I am
a vessel of mercy, that I may comprehend the riches of his
mercy and grace. I think mercy and grace are two
of the most significant messages of the Bible. And the point of
what I'm trying to say now is that the Lord Jesus Christ died
for the elect, We are sinners, we are depraved, but we have
the mercy and grace of God the Father through the Lord Jesus
Christ. The angels don't have that. They have righteousness
because they have never sinned, but they don't have the robe
of righteousness that comes only by the Lord Jesus Christ. And
for that reason, I think they seek to peer into things of the
gospel because they know the objective gospel, but they don't
know the subjective gospel.