So looking here at 1 Peter 1 and begin reading here
in verse 9, it says, "...receiving the end of your faith, even the
salvation of your souls, of which salvation the prophets have 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 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 if preached the
gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven,
which things the angels desire to look into. And you know, that's
a glorious thought to consider that we who have been made lower
than the angels have been given a privilege that
the angels can't even fathom. They can't even enter into it. And yet, the Scripture says that
unto the powers and principalities, the Lord has ordained the setting
forth of the Gospel, that His glory might be known in the heavens. Unto the powers and principalities,
which is speaking about those heavenly creatures, and powers
that we have no knowledge of really. The Scripture says that
the angels were sent as ministers to the heirs of salvation. They
have been ordained for a purpose, to serve God in the earth. Now a lot of people get caught
up in talking about angels and all of that stuff. Around this time of the year
you see the depictions people have of angels, and I don't know
what an angel looks like. Nobody knows. We know that they
are glorious beings because you remember when John saw the angel
and he fell down and the angel said, no, don't worship me. I came to bring you, to appoint
you to Christ. So evidently there is a glory
that surrounds the angels that is beyond what we have been bestowed
upon us, but yet we have been made the heirs of salvation in
such fashion that even the angels would desire, the Scripture says,
to look into these things. They do not see these things.
Now, he says this in correlation to what he says there about the
prophets of old, how they were privileged of God to preach great
things. Now, you often think about Elijah. I like to read about Elijah and
Elisha as well and the things that they did when they were
upon the earth. These were glorious things. I
mean, can you imagine being on Mount Carmel and confronting
these priests of Baal, knowing that Jezebel was in the White
House and She had Ahab's ear and she hated
God, and yet she was a worshipper of Baal and supported the priests
of Baal. And here is Elijah on Mount Carmel
making a mockery of the priests of Baal. And God sent down fire
from heaven and consumed the altar and the sacrifice thereon
and licked up the water that was poured out into the trenches
around there. So that was a glorious thing,
and what a wondrous thing it would have been to have been
there with Elisha when Ben-Hadad sent the army there
to capture Elisha in the city of Dothan. But yet, he couldn't
do it. And the servant of Elisha was
worried. He looked and he saw these armies
coming and he said, Master, what are we going to do? Oh, we are
in deep trouble now because these armies are going to kill us. They are going to take us captive.
And Elisha prayed and asked the Lord to open his eyes. He said,
Open now my servant's eyes that you might see. And Gehazi looked
and the mountains all around them were surrounded with angels.
And with chariots of fire, the Scripture says, surrounding them. And what a glorious thing a vision
like that is, but even such things as just stagger the imagination. Yet, that's nothing compared
to the glory that has been revealed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ
and the privilege that's been given to those who've been made
partakers thereof. What a glorious thing. And I
was thinking here, As we sang that song, it says, millions
there of flaming seraphs fly across the heavenly plain. There
they sing immortal praises. Glory, glory is their strain.
There has never been a time when they have not praised God, singing,
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come.
And there they sing immortal praises. Glory, glory is their
strain. The songwriter says, Me thinks
a sweeter chorus makes the heavenly arches ring, and the song is
heard in Zion which the angels cannot sing. Now when the Lord
revealed Himself to Moses, and He said, you know, I'm going
to make my glory pass by you, He says, I will show mercy to
whom I will show mercy." The glory of God is in the display
of His mercy to His people. Now, men like to co-opt that
and they say, well, God's obligated to show mercy to people. No,
God isn't obligated to do anything. His mercy is sovereignly dispensed. But never make any mistake about
it, God is a God of great mercy. You can't even begin to fathom,
you don't know what the limitations of God's mercy is. And when men
get up and start talking about the limitations of God's mercy,
they're talking out of school, because I don't know how far
His mercy goes, but I know this, that He will show mercy according
to the dictates of His own will and purpose. And that's a glorious
thing, to know that. And so it is that, you see, the
angels have never experienced the mercy of God. They have seen it displayed. They saw it displayed when a woman was brought to the
Lord in being taken in adultery, and the law said that she should
be stoned to death. And they heard the words come
from His lips, and He said, Neither do I condemn thee. Oh, the mercy
of God. Who can fathom it? Who can comprehend
it? The angels certainly can't. Because
you see, they saw a third of their number cast out of heaven. There was no mercy shown to those
angels who fell. And neither should men think
there would be any reason that God should show mercy to them.
Now we hope and desire that He will show mercy. But it is according
to His purpose and His will. But methinks a sweeter concert
makes the heavenly arches ring than the song is heard in Zion
which the angels cannot sing." Angels cannot know anything about
it. They cannot sing it. It is a song that only the sons
of God know. See the heavenly host and rapture. gaze upon the shining band, wondering
at their costly garments and the laurels in their hand. Thereupon
the golden pavement see the ransom march along, while the splendid
courts of glory sweetly echo to their song." Now one thing
that is certain, and that is that there is coming a time when,
according to what we read, in the book of Revelation, in John's
vision, and I believe that this is a thing which is presently
realized in the courts of heaven because the gospel has already
been demonstrated, you see. The redemption of God's people
has already been demonstrated. And the Scripture says that the
angels as well as the redeemed sing that the Lord is worthy
of praise. For he has redeemed them unto
God by his own blood. Now, what a glorious thing that
the angels can recognize that which God has done, though they
cannot enter into it, insofar as having been made privileged
to receive it as men are. And so in that way, we have been
blessed above the angels, though we have been created in glory
less. than they are. And you know,
I was blessed in thinking of that. And I wanted to look in
Psalm 31. Psalm 31. To the chief musician,
the Psalm of David. In thee, O Lord, do I put my
trust. Let me never be ashamed. Deliver
me in thy righteousness. Bow down thine ear to me. Deliver
me speedily. Be thou my strong rock for a
house of defense to save me. For thou art my rock and my fortress. Therefore, for thy name's sake,
lead me and guide me. Pull me out of the net that they
have laid privily for me or secretly. For thou art my strength. Into
thine hand I commit my spirit. Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord,
God of truth, or Thou hast delivered me. I have hated them that regard
lying vanities, but I trust in the Lord. I will be glad and
rejoice in Thy mercy, for Thou hast considered my trouble. Thou
hast known my soul in adversities, and hast not shut me up unto
the hand of the enemy. Thou hast set my feet in a large
room. Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for
I am in trouble. My eye is consumed with grief,
yea, my soul and my belly. For my life is spent with grief,
and my years with sighing. My strength faileth because of
mine iniquity, and my bones are consumed. I was a reproach among
all mine enemies, but especially among my neighbors, and a fear
to mine acquaintance. They that did see me without
fled from me. I am forgotten as a dead man
out of mind. I am like a broken vessel. For
I have heard the slander of many. Fear was on every side while
they took counsel together against me. They devised to take away
my life. But I trusted in Thee, O Lord.
I said, Thou art my God. My times are in Thy hand. Deliver
me from the hand of mine enemies and from them that persecute
me. Make thy face to shine upon thy servant. Save me for thy
mercy's sake. Let me not be ashamed, O Lord,
for I have called upon thee. Let the wicked be ashamed, and
let them be silent in the grave. Let the lying lips be put to
silence, which speak grievous things proudly and contentiously
against the righteous. Oh, how great is thy goodness!
which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee, which thou hast
wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men.
Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride
of man. Thou shalt keep them secretly
in a pavilion from the strife of tongues. Blessed be the Lord,
for he has shown me his marvelous kindness in a strong city. For
I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes. Nevertheless,
thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried unto
thee. O love the Lord, all ye his saints,
for the Lord preserveth the faithful, and plentifully rewardeth the
proud doers. Be of good courage, and he shall
strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord." Of course,
you know, as we have been looking at these Psalms and we see again
that this is the words of the Lord Jesus Christ as He gave
them to David. And surely, no doubt, David had
a measure in which he could say these things. But this is primarily
the prayer of the Lord. In Thee, O Lord, do I put my
trust. Let me never be ashamed. Deliver
me in Thy righteousness. The Lord trusted in the righteousness
of His Father. Even though He brought His righteousness
unto the Lord, yet His confidence was not in His own righteousness,
but was in the righteousness of His Father. And He came to
do His Father's will. He came to fulfill the Father's
purpose. He came to magnify and glorify
the Father's name in all things. In Thee, O Lord, do I put my
trust. Let me never be ashamed. That
is, let me never be turned aside from that which You have sent
me to do." Now, to be ashamed of something is not to confess
it. He said, let me not be in such
a state as that. What is our confession? Do we
have one? The Scripture says they witnessed
a good confession. The Ethiopian eunuch said, here
is water that will hinder me to be baptized. And Philip said
to him, well, if you believe with all your heart, then you
may. He said, I believe that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God. Confessed a good confession,
did he not? Is that not the confession of
all of God's people? I mean, does it get more complex
than that? I mean, what does a man need
to know in order to have a good confession before Almighty God?
There is no greater confession than that. I mean, what else
could a man say? What could you boast in except
that I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? Now what does
that carry with it? See, it's not just a passing
thing. Oh yeah, well, yeah, we believe that. A lot of people
say, oh yeah, yeah, we're Christians. No, that's not what I'm talking
about. I'm not talking about just saying it. I'm saying that
you actually believe it. You actually confess it. It's
actually that thing that is in your soul and heart and mind,
and it is the confession of your soul. Not just what you hope
to do or be or whatever, but what you actually have within
you that you can't... See, a good confession is one
that a man can't depart from. I mean, somebody can't come along
and convince him otherwise. Now a lot of people claim to
believe exactly what I just said, but somebody comes along and
starts telling them, whispering in their ear some little thing
or whatever, and starts sowing seeds of doubt, and pretty soon
the next thing you know they've adopted some other confession. When God gives a man a confession
such as this, he can't leave it because it becomes part and
parcel of his very being and a fiber of him. That's what the
Lord said. Bow down thine ear to Me, deliver
Me speedily. Be thou My strong rock for a
house of defense to save Me. Now the Lord Jesus knew his mortality. He knew his weakness. That's
why He prayed. He learned obedience by the things
which he suffered. He experienced what it was to
be, or what it is to be a man, a mortal man, a man subject to
like passions as we are, but yet without sin, a man who had
no compulsion to sin, no desire to sin, but yet was a man in
every way, for a house of defense to save me. for Thou art my rock
and my fortress. Therefore for Thy name's sake,
lead me and guide me." Now that, you know, a lot of people serve
God for what they are going to get out of it. I mean, you know,
people say, oh, you better not do that because God is looking.
And He's liable to bring some punishment down on you. Or you better do that so that
your reward will be greater. You'll get more stuff when you
get heaven. He'll look at you and say, yeah,
you really did a good job, so I'm going to give you this. But
what does He say here? He said, therefore for thy name's
sake, Leave me for thy glory." You see, the man who is seeking
to follow Christ, he desires to uphold the honor and glory
of the name of Christ. Not his own name. He's not looking
for what he's going to get out of it. You see, a lot of people,
they serve the Lord because they don't want to go to hell. Now,
a man is a fool that wants to go to hell. You know, I can't
say that I can imagine why somebody would, but that's not the reason
that we serve the Lord, because we don't want to go to hell.
But the reason that God's people serve the Lord is for His name's
sake, for His glory. Being delivered from the destruction
that awaits the wicked is but a by-product of the grace of
God that's given to men. and their soul was indeed delivered.
Therefore, for thy name's sake, lead me and guide me. Pull me
out of the net that they have secretly laid for me." They have
laid privilege for me. For thou art my strength. Now,
is this not true? Did not the Pharisees continually
seek to lay a net for him. They were
always trying to come up with some kind of scheme or whatever
to trip him up. They say, yeah, now we've got
him now. We've got him over the barrel here. We'll back him up
into a corner. I mean, just like we talked about
there a moment ago about the woman taking in adultery. They
thought, man, we've got him now. He can't escape this. We'll get
him with this. But they couldn't. But they laid
a net privily for him. They were constantly after him.
And of course, they ultimately laid that net which did snare
him, not according to something that surprised him, but according
to his purpose, because he ordered that to occur. And it took place
exactly as he said it would. They have pulled me out of the
net. They have laid privilege for
me, for thou art my strength. See, his constant Hope and expectation
was that the Lord's strength was His strength. It was His
strength, was it not? I mean, He said, if you've seen
Me, you've seen the Father. So He walked among men as the
manifestation of the Father. And the Father's strength was
His strength. Thou art My strength. Into Thine
hand I commit My Spirit. Now where do we read that? That's
what He said when He hung on the cross. when he gave up the
ghost. He says, into thy hand, the New
Testament uses the word commend, but the words are in meaning
the same. I commit my spirit, I commend
my spirit unto thee. I put it in thy hand for safekeeping. Into thine hand I commit my spirit. Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord
of truth. Thou hast delivered me. Now if
a man, you know, in the flesh, if a man had seen Christ on the
cross and knowing that He is expiring, how would he say, well,
how could He be delivered? In the midst of this, how could
he say that He had been delivered? Oh, deliver me. Was his prayer
not answered? No, his prayer was answered because
he was delivered from destruction. because he did the Father's will. Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord
God of truth. That was his only place of refuge
was to seek the Lord, to commit himself unto the Father. Thou
hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth. And then he says, I
have hated in contrast to that. I have hated them that regard
lying vanities, but I trust the Lord. The Lord hates the workers
of iniquity, is what Scripture says. Now, He doesn't give you
that privilege, does He? He said, do good to them that
spitefully use you. He didn't say, okay, it's okay
to hate those that lie to you. He didn't say that, did He? He
said, forgive them, even as the Father has forgiven us, as we
forgive those who trespass against us. So we don't have that privilege. We don't have the right nor the
calling to show vengeance unto men. We are not called to it. The Lord would demonstrate His
mercy in us as He walked among men. And He was condemning not. Now He, being that One who is
the righteous judge, He could hate the workers of iniquity.
And in the sense that we hate all of the enemies of God, we
can in spirit do so, but we cannot act that out before men. See, we hate lying vanities,
do we not? I mean, when I hear preachers
supposedly so, they get up and they tell lies to people, I hate
it. Sometimes I just want to snatch
the radio out of the truck or whatever when I hear some of
this stuff. But I don't have the right to condemn them, do
I? Because except for the grace
of God, there go I. I mean, what can I do about that? But I have hated them that regard
lying vanities, but I trust in the Lord. See, we see all these
things happening country and all these things, and people
are all up in arms about this thing that the President is doing
or Congress is doing or all of that. Now, at the end of the
day, I'm not saying that stuff we shouldn't think about it or
be concerned about it, but dear brethren, what can we do about
such stuff as that? It's not a thing in the world,
really. Where is our trust? Our trust
is in the Lord. You see, the Lord turns the heart
of the King with His every will. Now, I know this, that whatever
the President decides to do, it is according to the will of
God. Now, it might not be the thing that is... Judas did the
will of God, did he not? But you can be sure of this,
that the Lord is the one guiding the events of the earth to occur
exactly according to the purpose that He has for it. Whether you
like it or I like it or anybody else likes it, it doesn't make
any difference. So while there is a measure in which we might
be concerned about these things, ultimately our trust is in the
Lord. We cast our care upon Him. And whatever happens, whether
we get the troops out of Syria or
we send 100,000 more over there, I trust not in that. We're not
fearing what men can do to us. I trust in the Lord, he says.
I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy, for thou hast considered
my trouble and hast known my soul in adversities. Now, there
has never been a man that has been through any more adversity
than the Lord Jesus Christ. He went through adversity from
the day he came into the world to the day that he left it. He
was confronted with adversities. But he said, Thou hast known
my soul in adversities. In the midst of this, you knew
me. You didn't cast me off in the midst of them, but you put
these adversities there in order that I might fulfill your will.
Thou hast not shut me up to the hand of the enemy. Thou hast
set my feet in a large room. There is a Scripture, I can't
remember the exact, reference, but it says, He brought us out
into a wealthy place. And have not God's people been
brought into a wealthy place? I mean, what greater blessing
could the children of God want than what's been given us in
Christ? I mean, that is a wealthy place, is it not? He has not
shut me up to the hand of the enemy. He didn't turn, although
He gave Christ over into the hands of the enemy in the sense
that it fulfilled His purpose, but He didn't give them over
to Him to let them do with Him as they ultimately would have. They could only do what He allowed
them to do, as He said to Pilate. Pilate said, well, don't you
know that I can I've got power to condemn you. I've got power
to set you free. He says, you couldn't have any
power at all. He says, I have the power. He says, I've got
the power to lay down my life or take it up again. He says,
there ain't a thing in the world you can do. He didn't say that,
but in essence that's what he said. You know, you couldn't
do anything about it anyway. But He has set our feet in a
Lord's room. He has not shut us up to the
hand of the enemy, even as He did not shut up Christ to the
hand of the enemy. He didn't turn Him over to them
any more than He turned Job over. Now, He gave Satan a certain
leeway, did He not? But the Lord was never far from
Job, was He? In fact, he set parameters upon
what Satan could do to start with. And so the Lord never gave him over to the hand of
the enemy completely. But I set my feet in a large
room. Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am in trouble. My life
is consumed with grief. Yea, my soul and my belly. For
my life is spent with grief. And my years with sighing, my
strength faileth because of mine iniquity, and my bones are consumed."
What did Christ say on the cross? He said, My bones are out of
joint. Now He didn't say that on the cross, but in the 22nd
Psalm we read, and we know that that is that which was going on within
His soul. He said, My bones are out of
joint. He says, here my bones are consumed within me. Now what
does that mean when it's talking about the bones? You know, when
you say it's so cold I can feel it in my bones, what does that
mean? That means it just goes right
into the very heart of you. We know what that means. And
if our bones are consumed within us, that's a very big thing that
we have. And Christ endured those things
for our sake. because of my strength faileth,
because of mine iniquity, and my bones are consumed." Now,
did Christ have any sin? Well, He did in this sense. He
was consumed. Why was He on the cross? Because
of His sin. Now, did He commit any sin? No. But He said, I'm going to take
the sin of my people, and that's going to be my sin. You see,
you can't pay for somebody else's sin, but you can pay for your
sin. Now, the only way you can pay
for your sin would be to be ultimately destroyed. That would be the
only way you could pay for it. And then you wouldn't be paid
for it, you'd just be reaping the reward of what it was. But
the Lord Jesus Christ didn't just say, well, I'm going to
pay for his, his, and his. And I read somewhere the other
day some of these different celebrities
and whatnot went around to various Walmarts and stuff like that
and paid off people's layaway debts. And that was a good thing.
I mean, I'm not opposed to that, but then on the other hand, when
people let it be known that they do stuff like that, they got
their reward, didn't they not? You know, that was the thing,
but the Lord Whenever the Lord paid our debt,
He didn't just go in and say, here's $100,000, why don't you
just pay off as far as it will go? And you had 150 people that
got their debt paid completely off and 50 people that got half
of it paid off or whatever. No, the Lord took the debt. He said, I want to know the debt
of Ed Bennett. I want to know the debt of Bobby
Lynch. I want to know the debt of John
Lackey. I want to know the debt of Curtis
Humphreys. And he says, I'm going to pay
that debt in full. I'm going to make that debt my
own because I'm taking it unto myself. It's mine. That's my
debt. You know, used to, you don't
see this much anymore, but used to in the newspaper, when someone
was going to get a divorce, they would file a thing that said,
I will not be responsible for any debts incurred by so and
so, you know, after such and such a date. Well, the Lord Jesus
Christ, He said, I will be responsible for every debt incurred by those
whom I love with an everlasting love." And he paid that debt. In full. Completely. And he says
here, it is because of my iniquity that my bones were consumed within
me. That sin which I had taken unto
myself. I was of reproach among all mine
enemies, but especially among my neighbors. He said he was
wounded in the house of his friends. None eye did pity him. No man
rose to his aid. And it was according to his purpose.
But especially among my neighbors, and a fear to mine acquaintance
that they did see me without, fled from me. Isn't that right? That's what
happened at the garden, was it not? Hightailed it and ran. Peter denied Him. And so have we. Too many times
to count. And yet He has not forsaken those
who are beloved. Because you see, even Peter's
denial, even Peter's sin, was that which Christ took in His
own body on the tree. Oh, that He might give us a mind
and heart to behold His mercy revealed in the Gospel. Because
that's exactly what it is. I mean, every time you hear the
Gospel preached, if it's preached as The truth is in Christ. It is a revelation of the mercy
of God to sinners. That's exactly what the gospel
is. It brings life and immortality to light to those whom God gives
life, those whom He gives ears to hear it, and they rejoice
at this wonderful sound.