seeking for the help of the Lord. I direct your prayer for attention to 1 Peter chapter 1 and verses 10 through to 12. This is the fourth one in our series of the epistles of Peter and this evening it is a salvation of great interest. You will remember last week, last Thursday, we saw the end in view of times of trial, and that end was the salvation of our souls. In verse 9, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. And then in the next three verses, the apostle shows of what great interest this salvation was to prophets, to preachers, to the Holy Ghost, and how much it centers in the cross of our Lord. So we read from verse 10, 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 have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, which things the angels desire to look into. Salvation of Great Interest. I remember reading some years ago of the Reverend Kirsten. He was the founder of the Netherland Reform Congregations in Holland. They were founded in 1907.

And when he was exercised on the ministry as a very young man and still at home, his mother noticed that at two o'clock in the morning, his light was still on. And she went to see what he was doing. And he was searching the scriptures. And he said, mother, he said, must I not inquire as to how God saves his people?

And that was his Real desire, how does God save his people? And this is what has been occupying the Lord's people, prophets, angels, right from the beginning of time. I wonder how much it has been with us to actually think on this and to meditate upon it. What is the plan of salvation? How does God save his people?

We think of Jonah in the whale's belly, been there three days, three nights, and naturally speaking, no hope, no deliverance from himself or from any other. And yet the Lord brought him to cry unto the Lord. even from that place cast out from his sight and then he says this salvation is of the lord and the lord spake unto the fish and vomited him out on the dry land salvation deliverance from the consequences of sin deliverances from death unto life from the power of satan to the power of god we've sung of it in our hymns, at least the two that we've sung so far.

The first one, William Gadsby setting forth the design of salvation, and then the water from salvation's wells, the blessings of the gospel. Well, I want to look, and basing on these verses that Peter brings, and this must be very strengthening, the people of God to know that this salvation is not a small thing, it's not a light thing, it's not a thing of yesterday, but it's a thing of thousands of years going right back to the fall and before that. And if the angels look into it and they are not partakers of it, they are not fallen souls that are to be redeemed by Christ. How much more should we who rely upon this salvation for our eternal comfort and joy desire to look into it and to understand a little about it. So, basing on these verses, we have four points.

Firstly, a salvation prophesied by prophets. And then secondly, a salvation centering in the cross. And thirdly, a salvation preached with the Holy Ghost. And lastly, a salvation looked into by angels. But firstly, is salvation prophesied by prophets? Verse 10, of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you. They asked, they inquired, by the use of means, by searching the scriptures, by prayer, by supplication, looking into the types and into the shadows, those things signified by the law. What did they mean? Why were they appointed? What were they pointing to? What was the purpose of them?

Persuaded that Nothing that the Lord does is without a purpose, but it is all pointing to this one great design of saving his people, Christ's people, from their sins. And it is specifically mentioned here that it is a salvation of grace. And this is very, very important because The covenant or testament under which our first parents were, was a covenant of works.

And that covenant they break. That covenant cannot be mended by us. It is broken. Whoso breaks the law in one point is guilty of all. Adam, as our head, he sinned, he fell. He incurred the death penalty and no one can dispute that. We all know that we must die literally, but we have died spiritually and that is very evident as well. When men by nature say depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. We do not seek after God by nature.

And so there must be another covenant, another way of salvation. And that covenant is the covenant of grace. It is where God reveals that not for any good in us whatsoever, He will save, just purely by His own grace and mercy in Himself, His sovereign goodness.

And this then was shown right from the beginning of the world, gradually through types and shadows, but especially through covenants. We had right at the very start the promise of the seed of the woman that should bruise the serpent's head. The first promise of Christ, that Christ would come and that he would suffer, but in suffering he would bruise the serpent's head. He would deliver us from Satan's power.

And then there was a series of covenants that were made. There was a covenant that was made with Noah, of which we still see the sign, the bow in the cloud, I do set my bow in the cloud. And that agreement with Noah and with his seed was that when God brought rain upon the earth, a cloud, he would not destroy the world again by a flood. And at that time, Noah had offered a sacrifice, the Lord smelled the sweet savour, and that was the seal really of the covenant, but the sign of it is in the bow, and that is all of grace.

Why did the Lord make such a covenant? Why did he make such a promise? Not for anything in Noah, very soon Noah had sinned. But it was all of his grace and mercy. And the Lord made a covenant with Abraham, the covenant of circumcision firstly to his seed and the covenant with him that in him and his seed should all nations be blessed. And that covenant also was renewed to Isaac and to Jacob.

Then also a covenant revealed and shown to David, and David especially, a prophet, one that in the Psalms spake again and again of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, David's greatest son, when shown the manner of Solomon's kingdom, a kingdom of peace, He says, is this the manner of man, O Lord God? As if he was inquiring, he was seeking this what you have shown me, is this what Christ shall be like? Is this a type of him? We have these pictures that are right through. We think of Moses, Moses on the mount. The people, they had sinned.

The Lord was going to consume them, but Moses made intercession, and Moses was then given this promise by the Lord. He says, except thy presence go not with me, carry us not up, hence my presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. And in that covenant, in that which the Lord revealed to Moses, It was all of grace, O make all my goodness pass before thee in the way. David, he says, although my house be not so with God, yet hath he made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure, this is all my salvation and all my desire, though he make it not to grow. The Lord had promised him that of his seed should sit upon the throne. David was shown and he was able to write in Psalm 22, beginning that Psalm, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

A beautiful prophecy of the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ. Psalm 69 as well, they gave me gall to drink. Those prophecies of the sufferings of Christ upon Calvary. We think of the path that Elijah walked with Israel, their hearts turned away from the Lord, following after Baal, provoking the Lord to anger, nothing in them for God to show mercy and to save them and to deliver them. But he sends them three and a half years of famine, And then he sends Elijah to make trial upon Mount Carmel, and they make thee two altars, and the God that answers by fire, let him be the true God. And when the prophets of Baal couldn't bring down fire from a God that didn't exist, then Elijah, he builds the altar. And he prays to the Lord that it might be known that the Lord had turned their hearts back again. Why did he turn their hearts back?

Nothing in them. All of grace and all of mercy. And what a picture we get. What a sight. The fire falls from heaven. Not on the prophets of Baal, not on the Israelites that followed them, but on the sacrifice, a type of the Lord Jesus Christ made manifest in the flesh, burnt up. Not only the sacrifice, but the altar, the stones, the wood, the water, everything must have been a fearful sight. The great thing that was done at Calvary was the wrath of God falling upon the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let thy hand, we read in Psalm 80 verse 17, let thy hand be upon the man at thy right hand, the son of man whom thou made as strong for thyself. That is the Lord Jesus Christ. And these prophets of old, they were looking, looking to his coming, longing for that time to appear. a book really that or prophecy that shows it more clear than in Isaiah really the gospel according to Isaiah and in Isaiah 11 and verse 10 we read and in that day there shall be a root of Jesse which shall stand for an end sign of the people to which shall the Gentiles see and his rest shall be glorious. And then going on from that into the 40s, 40s chapter 41 and 42, having 42, verse 1, behold my servant whom I uphold, mine elect in whom my soul delighteth.

I have put my spirit upon him. He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. The bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench. He shall bring forth judgment under truth. He shall not fail nor be discouraged till he has set judgment in the earth, and the isles shall wait for his law. And then after Isaiah 53 that sets forth the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then we have the blessings that follow from that in Isaiah 54. And we have that in verse 3.

For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left. Thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles. and make the desolate cities to be inhabited. And there's beautiful verses that are set forth through Isaiah. Isaiah looking diligently, what do these things signify? Prophesying by the spirit of what should actually come. Talking of the gospel days, therefore thy gates shall be open continually. They shall not be shut nor day nor night, that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles, that their kings may be brought. Beautiful words.

Think Isaiah 62 and verse 2. And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory. Thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name. And the reason why we read Psalm 62 in our reading, a Psalm of David that speaks of the salvation of the Lord. David, he says in verse six, he only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense, I shall not be moved. In God is my salvation and my glory. The rock of my strength and my refuge is in God.

And so all the time the prophets looking into this come to this verdict unanimously again and again. Salvation is of God. God will save his people. God will appear. It will be a salvation of grace. of mercy, not of works, lest any man should boast, but all of the work of God. And this then was the theme and what was looked into it, all the sacrifices, the Passover, the way Israel was delivered from Egyptian bondage, the way they were brought out unto the Lord in the wilderness.

These are things that the prophets, they prophesied. and they looked diligently into. Now we have, of course, record in the Old Testament of all what they said and all what they did. May I desire also is to be looking into this. We have the anti-type, we have the full light of the New Testament, But then we can look back and we can now see what these things were pointing to, what their significance was, and sometimes we can see even greater light shown to us by looking at those things that have gone before. The Old Testament interpreted by the new.

So a salvation prophesied by prophets. Then I want to look secondly at salvation centering in the cross. In verse 11, 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. who can't help but thinking of our Lord going to those two on the way to Emmaus, who had seen Him crucified and slain, but who could not see that this was the Redeemer, that this had fulfilled the Old Testament Scriptures. And so he draws near to them, ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory. And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, in all the scriptures, He opened to them the things concerning Himself. An exposition by the Lord Himself that that which was prophesied was a suffering Saviour.

It was salvation through death, salvation through a sacrifice, salvation through blood-shedding without the shedding of blood, There is no remission. That is what is emphasised. Right the way through the Old Testament and the prophets, they were looking at a salvation that was of a sacrifice, an acceptable sacrifice. Again and again, it was emphasised that sacrifice had to be acceptable.

The lamb had to be spotless, the fire It had to be from heaven. It couldn't be from man's kindling. It had to be of God. We think of Abraham offering up his son, a substitute in the ram given. Again, a sacrifice. God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. Sacrifice, an offering thou wouldest not. but a body hast thou prepared me.

Paul speaks of this in Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 10, verse five, and he is quoting from Psalm 40, a Psalm of David, recognizing that these things have been spoken of before, and that this is what they pointed to, the death and rising again of the Lord Jesus Christ. We mentioned the Passover. When I see the blood, I will pass over you. How was that blood to be shed?

How was it to be that the Lamb of God, and we think of John Baptist, behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world. It is the pointing out that great antitype of all those sacrifices, this is the true Paschal Lamb, this is the provision that Abraham spoke to is son of. We think of the prophecies of Zechariah and how that he speaks of the sufferings of our Lord in the 12th chapter.

I will pour upon the house of David, upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications They shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his own son, and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.

This is the salvation that is looked for Coming to Malachi, behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me. The Lord whom he seeks shall suddenly come to his temple. Even the messenger of the covenant whom he delight in, behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. But it is coming for this cause, said I, O Lord, as he stands before Pilate, came I into the world. to bear witness unto the truth.

There must be, if there is to be salvation, justly, righteously, and provided freely by grace by God. God must provide it. God must be the offering and the offerer, and it must be by the shedding of blood. And so God becomes man. Emmanuel, God with us, a real body. a real soul, the body that he would suffer in, that he would lay down and take up again, the body that he would offer up as an acceptable sacrifice.

This is the salvation that centres in the cross. There is no salvation in any other but the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no salvation in any other act than that of which the Lord himself did, to lay down his life and then take it again. He said, this commandment have I received of my father. Remember, the Lord is the lamb slain from the foundation of the world, appointed to that end. There's salvation in all that had been prophesied could not come in any other way but the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Dear Job, he says, is looking into this. I know that my Redeemer liveth and he shall stand the latter day upon the earth. And he knows about the resurrection too. After my skin worms destroy, This body, yet in my flesh, shall I see God for myself and not another.

He knew what it was to have a look into and desire to know how he was to be saved, how he was to be delivered. And it was through redemption, redemption through blood, set free by the payment of a price, and that price the shedding of the blood of the Lamb of God. And this is what Peter then is impressing upon those to whom he writes to strengthen their faith, that these prophets all looked into this salvation, that they saw it as a salvation that centred in the cross or in their day in the shedding of blood. And we know how that blood was then shared.

But then we have, thirdly, a salvation preached with the Holy Ghost. In verse 12, we read this, 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. You would remember that our Lord at the end of the gospel according to Lou charged his disciples that they should tarry in the city of Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on high. Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be damned. But there was no use to go preaching without the Holy Spirit. It needed a witness from heaven. It was not man's gospel. It was God's gospel. It was a salvation. that was of power, and Peter was to proclaim it, proclaim it on the day of Pentecost, proclaim it 10 years later to the house of Cornelius.

And in each time, it was that the Holy Ghost fell. And when the Holy Ghost fell, then there was conviction of sin. Then there were those that were brought to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. And Peter recognised that as he preached the word to the house of Cornelius, and as he had done the 10 years before, he said, the Holy Ghost which fell on us fell on them.

The same power attending the preaching of the word. It wasn't the Holy Ghost on its own. It wasn't preaching on its own. It was the two joined together. And when Paul speaks of the Thessalonians, He says of them that they received the word, not in word only, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. And it is the power of God that brings salvation. So when Paul writes to the Ephesians, in Ephesians chapter 1, he says it is the same power that was wrought in raising Christ from the dead is put forth in them to make them a believer.

Maybe we don't realise how dead we are. It's one of the most hated doctrines of the Christian faith. The total depravity of man, the desperate wickedness of the heart, the alienation of man against God. And that we need God to instigate salvation and to save us and to pass by us when we're in our blood and to bid us live. And it needs that power of God to awaken the dead.

Ezekiel was shown a vision, and it was a vision of dry bones that were very dry and they're very scattered, very many in the valley. And he was asked, can these bones live? And he said, thou knowest. And he was bid then to prophesy or preach. And those bones began to come together And then there was put sinews on them and flesh on them, but there was no life in them. Then he was told to prophesy again, to breathe upon those bones. And life came into them, breath came into them. They stood up an exceeding great army.

And God said to him that this was the whole house of Israel, who said that their hope was lost, their bones were dried. But there was hope under the power of God, under the preaching, With the power of the Holy Spirit they were quickened and everyone that is saved, everyone that partakes of this salvation partakes of it. through the power of the Holy Spirit, through the means of the ministry of the Word. It was the Holy Spirit that moved Philip and told him to go down to Gaza, which was desert.

And there he found a chariot with a eunuch in it, Ethiopian eunuch. And he joined himself to that chariot. He heard the prophet read Isaiah 53. He said to him, understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, how can I accept some man guide me? You know, the Holy Ghost not only told Philip to go down to the desert, but when he saw the chariot, he said, go join thyself to this chariot. And the eunuch said, he said, whom speaketh the prophet this of himself some other man? And where he is reading, he was led as a lamb. to the slaughters of sheep before her. Sheer it is dumb, so he opened not his mouth.

Philip, he began at the same scripture and preached unto him, Jesus. And through that sermon, he was brought to faith. I believe that Jesus is the son of God and he is brought to desire to be baptized, a real believer. It had pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save them that belief. And that saving is not through the eloquence of the preacher, it's not through his persuasion, it's not through something he does, but it is the power of God that is working through him as long as he preaches the word.

Our commission is to preach the word, the same as what Philip did, beginning at the same scripture, preaching unto him Jesus, the same as what? Our Lord did to the two on the way to Emmaus. He really preached unto them Jesus in all the scriptures. This is the commission then.

And this is the expectation that where God sends a minister and he sends his spirit, there will be souls quickened into divine life. And their salvation is by God brought from death, spiritual death, the spiritual life, brought from being unconcerned to be concerned, brought from not knowing the Lord to know the Lord, brought from being one that had no hope to have a glorious hope in heaven, that hope of which we had in our previous Thursday evening, looking at these words, an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. And then again, those that were kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. All the time it is emphasized this is the power of God.

This is the work of God. This is not man's work. This is the Spirit's work. And this is what we vitally need. And may we remember that the Holy Spirit is also the author of the scriptures. All scripture is given by inspiration of God. It is spirit breathed.

May we remember that it is then the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. Our Lord says, I will pray the Father, he will give you another comforter, which shall abide with you forever. He testified he shall not speak of himself, But whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he show unto you. Wherever the Holy Spirit is active in a congregation, then it will be evidenced, not as the Pentecostals will set forth of being ecstatic or some other displays of the Spirit, but it will be that Christ is precious.

Christ will be revealed. Christ will be believed in. There will be power to bring souls to repentance, to godly sorrow for sin, to believe and to have assurance of salvation, and to rejoice in the Lord their Saviour. If there is salvation, there must be a Saviour, and that Saviour is our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. On to then. Lastly, a salvation looked into by angels. By angels.

I want to go back to the Prophet Zechariah, just for a moment, in the beginning of that prophecy. As you read in the first chapter of it, verse 12, then the angel of the Lord answered and said, O Lord of hosts, how long You remember, this is the angel's inquiring into these things. How long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years? That's the 70 years in Babylon. The Lord answered the angel, that talked with me with good words and comfortable words.

So the angel that communed with me said unto me, Cry thou saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy. And I am very sore displeased with the heathen that are at ease. I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction. And then he goes on, and if I jump through to verse 17, cry yet saying, thus saith the Lord of hosts, my cities through prosperity shall yet be spread abroad, and the Lord shall yet comfort Zion and shall yet choose Jerusalem.

The angels themselves, they do not have an interest in salvation in themselves. They have no need of salvation. They're not lost, not the elect angels aren't. They do not need blood shed for them, but they're interested, they wonder. And we read our Lord saying that when the soul is quickened and brought to repentance, there is joy in heaven. Amongst those angels, over one sinner that repenteth, there are ninety-nine just persons which have no need or feel no need of salvation. We think of how it is set forth in the epistle of Paul to the Hebrews, and how that epistle begins. In Hebrews 1, and if you look at verse 14 or verse 13. But to each of the angels said he at any time, sit on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool. Are they not all ministering spirits? Send forth the minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation.

And right from the beginning of the world We have angels, angels appearing to Abraham. We have angels appearing to Gideon. Angels, God's host, appearing to Jacob and the angels on the ladder ascending up into heaven and descending again. And when he left Laban, he said, as he saw the angels, this is God's host.

These angels are very interested in what God is doing on earth, what he is doing. And also they are instrumental, they are ministering to God's people. He shall give his angels charge over thee, lest thou dash thy foot upon a stone. The angels at the last shall be sent forth to gather his elect from the four corners of the earth. The angels are his servants.

Dare those that when their Lord came, they heralded it to the shepherds as they were watching over their flock by night. They told Joseph the babe was to be called Jesus and Mary also. How? that the Holy Ghost should overshadow her. And that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. His name was to be Jesus.

The angels have a great part to play in salvation and in looking into it. When the disciples, when our Lord ascended up into heaven, they stood gazing up into heaven, there stood those angels next to them. Why stand ye looking up into heaven? He that has ascended shall come in light manner with power and great glory, and he shall come with all his saints and with all his angels. Angels. Those that view the face of God, those that are in heaven, and yet they view what God is doing on this earth.

The salvation that he has planned and that he is bringing to pass step by step, soul by soul, brought from death unto life until that day that all shall be gathered together in heaven. What a salvation that is. Well, what is the design of Pete as he shows this? It seems as if he has spoken of, in verse 9, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls, and then he thinks, this salvation. What is this salvation? How great is this salvation? How that it has occupied prophets. How they've longed to know what this meant.

We live in these gospel days when we see that they looked and it was dark and through those shadows and those types. But they make it even more real that this salvation is ordered in all things and show a glorious plan that is being revealed and is being revealed by God to sinner after sinner, brought to know it. just like Reverend Kirsten was. And we trust those of us who know the Lord have had it shown to us, that secret of the Lord, which is with them that fear him. How God can save sinners and yet be just. What is this covenant of grace, this way God saves so freely, so graciously, and yet through his sufferings upon the cross.

How much do we dwell upon it? How much do we realise that we have been partaker of something so great? Sometimes we might think of the Apostle Peter and others, the Apostles, and think, well, if we'd have lived in their day, what a privilege to walk with the Lord, to see the Lord, to hear him speak. What must that have been?

They were just men like we are. all their infirmities, but the Lord was with them. But dear friends, we partake of the same salvation that Peter did. We partake of that which the Lord brought out at Calvary. And the last soul that is called by grace and gathered home, they've all been made partakers of this same salvation. this work of God's grace, this work of His mercy, that which has been conveyed to us through the power of the Holy Spirit and through the ministry of the Word, that which even angels desire to look into. May we look into it. May we be strengthened to think of what a great salvation it is. What deep foundations, what great deep laid plans, what wonderful execution over thousands of years, how effectual it is in bringing sinners from darkness to light. Not only those wonderful examples in the Word of God, the Apostle Paul, but I hope we can each say that we also are monuments of grace, miracles of grace, partakers of this salvation. And if we have been partakers of grace, as the psalm says, he shall give grace and glory.

Yes, they are both joined together. May we know then that which Peter is setting before, these strangers scattered, the people of God through the nations, in a way to strengthen them and to encourage them in what they have been partakers of, not a thing done in a corner, not a thing that, yes, this world today has little time for it, doesn't look into it, cast it away as a thing of naught, but as if the apostle would say, the prophets of old didn't do that. Our Lord didn't esteem that as he suffered on the cross. The preachers of the Word with the Holy Ghost, they don't count it a small thing, nor do the angels. May we esteem and value that salvation as a great salvation, as a wonderful salvation, and bless the Lord, if ever, that we are partakers of it and know something of it in our own soul, a salvation of great interest. Amen.