Father, we would pray afresh that you would draw near to us and help us to love your Word. We pray that even in the consideration of your Word this morning, that for the child of God, you would give us great delight, knowing that you have breathed out this book for us, for those who are still left in their spiritual blindness according to your word. We pray that in your kindness, in your love, that you would turn on the light for them and that they would begin to see wondrous things. that are contained in your holy scriptures. Draw near to us. Help us to love the wonders of prophecy and see how the apostle uses this to encourage afflicted believers and as well to call us all to faith in Jesus Christ. We pray it in his matchless name. Amen. We do find in 1 Peter 1 verses 10 through 12 that there is a deep appreciation of the gospel of grace. We find that this gospel of grace is something that the Old Testament prophets, to the degree that they have received something of it, and Ben, the recipient of divine revelation, they didn't even understand everything that they wrote. Kind of a strange thing, isn't it? Oftentimes, if somebody offers a document, we want to go back and say, well, what did the author understand about this? But this is one of those instances where we have a greater and more accurate understanding than those human authors did when God was giving these messages to them. We do find that the New Testament apostles were willing to give their lives for the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and we find that angels Angels who don't need salvation. Angels who have never experienced redemption. Are looking into the matters of the gospel. I want us to begin by just reflecting for a moment on something of what Peter says. He says that there are these prophecies of the sufferings and of the glories of the Lord Jesus Christ. There are many, many sufferings that are listed out in the Old Testament, and many glories. But it's a passage like Psalm 22 that is going to talk of the Lord Jesus Christ being pierced And yet several verses later are going to talk about him declaring God's name to his brethren in the midst of the assembly, I will praise you and all the ends of the world shall remember and turn to Jehovah. So the sufferings of Jesus that are then followed by the glorious existence of Jesus. And what a change! How do those fit together? And as well, in Isaiah 53 and verse 10, there is that language of the suffering servant, Jesus, being made a guilt offering for sin. Guilt offerings are killed. Guilt offerings die. That's the suffering part. But the glory's part follows right on the heels of it, still in the same verse. The very next statement, guilt offering for sin. He shall see his seed. How is it that someone who has died can see anything? He will see the labor of his soul. He will be satisfied. This righteous servant will justify many. And the good pleasure of the Lord is going to prosper in his hand. What a wonderful thing to say of someone who has just died in the phrases before. Well, I invite you this morning to come to 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 10 and following. And as we begin, notice with me Roman numeral one, the amazing content, the amazing content of the gospel of grace. First of all, a the good news, the gospel, the good news, the good news is a message of salvation. And I want to draw your attention to the couple of words there in verse 12, those who have preached the gospel, the good news. So that's where this heading comes from, the gospel, and elsewhere he mentions that it is a gospel of grace. Verse 10, prophesied of the grace that would come to you. But this message, this good news, is a message of salvation, and that's the word that meets us at the very beginning of verse 10. Of this salvation the prophets have inquired. Peter has already used the word salvation in verse 5. Through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed at the last time. Verse 9, he uses it again, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls. So it's very plain what kind of salvation that Peter is talking about. He's not talking about some deliverance from a temporary economic crisis. He's talking about soul salvation. He's talking about the justification that begins in time and ends with the justification of being declared righteous before the whole moral universe. So Peter, who is in custody, and you may like to turn to Acts chapter 4, Peter, who in early Acts is in custody for preaching The Old Testament prophecies, there in Acts chapter 3, they healed the lame man, and then he gets an opportunity to explain what's going on with Christ, and he starts preaching about the Old Testament prophecies, and now in Acts chapter 4 and verse 8, he is standing before the rulers of the people and the elders of Israel, filled with the Spirit, and now verse 9. If we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, the healing of the lame man, by what means he has been made well, let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, By him this man stands before you whole. This is the stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone. Nor is there salvation, there's our word, nor is there salvation in any other. For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. When Peter is talking about salvation, he is talking about that salvation that begins in time with our believing embrace of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is envisioning this full and final freedom from all of our troubles, all of our tears being wiped away, all fear of the least evil, whether it is sin or punishment, is banished forever. It's all of salvation that Peter has in view. This is what Paul is talking about, our light affliction, which is but for a moment is working for us a far greater, exceeding, and eternal weight of glory. So, what is the good news about? First of all, A, it is about salvation. But secondly, B, the good news, the good news is a message of Jesus Christ's sufferings and glories. See it there in verse 11. the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. If you still have a finger there in the book of Acts, you may like to consider with me Acts chapter 3 and verse 19. And here in verse 19, Peter is going to wax evangelistic and he's going to urge them to repent But I want you to look back with me there, just a few verses before, and he's going to talk about how all of the prophets have mentioned Christ. I believe that's Acts 3 and verse 18. But now here, verse 319. Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshment may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of the restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began. You see what Peter is doing. He's saying, all right, you persecuted and afflicted believers there in Pontus and Galatia and Cappadocia. You're being persecuted because you have embraced Jesus Christ. But I don't want you to let go of your grip of Christ. I want you to see that it's the smartest thing that you've ever done. Because Jesus Christ is not someone who's just lately arrived on the scene, but Jesus Christ is someone that all of the Old Testament, since the world began, they've been talking about Jesus. This is why we had that scriptural medley. Going all the way back to Genesis 3 and verse 15. of how there is that superhuman descendant of the woman that is going to put his heel down and smash the head of the devil. Going on to Abraham in 12.3 of Genesis, And in you, Abraham, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. You persecuted believers at Galatia. Don't let go of Christ. This is the one that Abraham was talking about. And again, Genesis 22, in verse 18, God speaking to Abraham, In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because you have obeyed my voice. We read, Genesis 49, We read of Psalm 22, the piercing of the hands and feet of the Lord Jesus Christ, the dividing of his garments among them, the shame that comes that Jesus as the God-man is nailed there on the cross and right there before him in his nakedness, or almost complete nakedness, They're talking about who gets what of his clothing while he is still alive. We see in Psalm 22 the mention that this gospel is going to go to the ends of the earth. We could consider Micah's prophecy where both sides of Christ are spoken of. But you, Bekelechem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to me, thee one to be ruler in Israel." There sits humanity. And there's suffering that's involved in Christ simply becoming a man. But he's much more than a man, as Micah 5, 2 goes on to say, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting. There's going to be a little one that is born, and he's of this tribe, and yet he's got a linkage back to eternity past. We see the message, Isaiah 49 and verse 6. God says, it would be too small a thing for me to send my son, for him to give his life, and we're only going to save some from the Israelitist nation. No, that won't work. My greater plan, announced even to Abraham, is that all the families of the earth would be blessed. And God says that's what we're going to do. Isaiah 52, how his visage is going to be marred. And yet he's going to have the sprinkling of the nations, the sufferings and the glories right there together to the Isaiah 53, him being a guilt offering for sin and therefore dead and yet alive. What of this? What must Zechariah have been doing as he put down his pen, as he thought of something of the sufferings of the Messiah and of the glories to follow? And I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Jehovah is speaking through the prophet. My spirit of grace and supplication. Then they will look on me whom they pierce. Yes, they will mourn for him as one who mourns for his only son, and grieve for him as one who grieves for a firstborn. There's the suffering. Jehovah is pierced. How can that be? And then how can it be in Zechariah 13 and verse 1 that there will be a fountain open for sin and uncleanness? Whatever they did in pricking Jehovah, it was to the end that forgiveness comes. to sinners. Leighton, writing in a bygone era, says, his suffering is the purchase of our salvation and his glory is the assurance of our glory. Jesus suffered first and then entered his glory and his possession of glory makes our hope certain. What is biblical hope? It is a certain expectation of future blessing. Christ being in glory makes it certain that we will come to glory. Late and further, because of our believing union with Jesus Christ, our sins were counted as His and Christ's sufferings were counted as ours. His glory is the consequence of His sufferings, and we shall share in His glory. We get everything together with Jesus. Our sin goes to Him. His righteousness comes to us. He gets glory because He suffered. And because we're sharing with Christ, we get His glory because He suffered. Our Savior in John 17 prayed, verse 24, Father, I desire that they also whom you gave me may be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which you have given me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world. And just two verses before, Jesus prayed, and the glory which you gave me I have given them that they may be one just as we are one. Paul writes, Colossians 3, for you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When God who is, when Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Peter has been talking of the sufferings of Christ and the glory that is to follow. Yes, according to the prophets, Jesus Christ will suffer horribly and then he will be wonderfully glorified. He will move from being the wrongly convicted one to the one who righteously judges the whole moral universe. Peter says, we look back and we see as suffering scattered through the Old Testament, we see as glory scattered through the Old Testament. Further see, what is the gospel of grace? What is the gospel? The good news is a message of grace. Of this salvation, verse 10, the prophets have inquired and searched carefully who prophesied of the grace that would come to you. The unmerited favor of God to hell-deserving sinners. A salvation that is not based on works, but on the sovereign grace of God. And when you ask the question, why did God choose to save some? The answer gets traced back in Ephesians 1 and verse 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace. Why did He do it? Well, ultimately it gets traced back to this dimension in God's heart that He is kind and generous. And we don't go any further back than that. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And that, not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. If you and I are saved and ever get to heaven, the only reason that we will get to heaven is because of God's grace we believed. But even the ability to believe is a gift from God. And so Peter rightly calls it. The good news is a message of grace. They prophesied of the grace, the unmerited favor of God to hell-deserving sinners. What did we learn? Fourthly, lessons. Does Peter want these afflicted sojourners there in Cappadocia and Bithynia to think that they are a part of a new religion that started in the first century. Does Peter want to cut them loose from everything of the past and say, forget about the old. What we've got is something that is altogether new and bask in its newness. Absolutely not. Peter here is laboring to show them their connection And isn't it encouraging to think, what he's saying here in his letter is really the same thing that he's doing there in Acts chapter 3 after the lame man was healed, where he is preaching and he's saying, all of the prophets since the world began were pointing to Jesus Christ. A little later here in our verses, he's going to talk about the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Jesus. The Holy Spirit, in giving the Old Testament, was giving all of these pointers to the Lord Jesus Christ. All of the Old Testament is looking forward to the age of the Messiah, when God's superhuman seed of the woman would be victorious over the devil. The worship of Jesus is not some new religion. Worshipping Jesus Christ, rather, is the culmination of all of those Old Testament prophecies. Back in Genesis 3, we have the prophecy of that superhuman, verse 15. Then in verse 21, what is that, six verses later, we read that God covered them with skins. And so all the way back to the beginning, God killed animals and used their death to cover over the shame of man's sin. And all of those types, all of those sacrifices point to the Lord Jesus Christ. I trust that some of us, on a regular basis, when we see how the covenants fit together in the scriptures, you remember those building blocks? The Noahic covenant going out to the end of time? Father, is that Abrahamic covenant that's built, how the Mosaic is built on that, the Davidic built on that, and still going out into eternity future? I hope that as we just think about how the Bible is tied together, we say, wow, wow. And I trust that when you read what Peter is saying here in verses 10 through 12, that the prophets have been talking about the sufferings and the glories of Christ, and it's the Spirit of Jesus that we will respond saying as well, wow. This is what God planned and He announced from prophets from the time that the world began. But that's not enough for Peter. Before long, he's going to be talking about the Lamb that was ordained from before the foundation of the world. There has been a battle going on for ages. See to the woman and see to the serpent. And you at Galatian Cappadocia, I'm sorry you're going through the affliction and the oppression that you're going through. But what you're experiencing is something that's been going on for a long, long time. And you are in union with Jesus Christ. You are in union with the superhuman hero. And so don't give up. And what an encouragement to us. I also am a part of this long-standing battle. I have some who hate me because of my stand in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Should that cause me to worry and fret? Should it cause me to minimize my identification with Jesus Christ? Absolutely not. We, like those early disciples, ought to go away from our being before the religious leaders and the licking that we just took and say, blessed be God, we have been counted worthy to suffer alongside of the Lord Jesus Christ. Does Peter want these afflicted sojourners to think they're part of a new religion? Absolutely not. And don't you feel something of the power of the prophetic details of the Old Testament? I want you, if you can, if you've got a copy of the Scriptures, you have your finger there in 1 Peter? Just put your finger there, wherever it is, in 1 Peter. And then put your finger over there in Genesis chapter 3. Alright? You've got electronic copy? Please, yeah, go right ahead and open up your table of contents. And in your electronic copy, you see Genesis up there, and then you see all these other 66 books, other 65 books that are mentioned. And see where Peter is in relation back to Genesis. See it there in your paper copy. You know, it's from there all the way back to there. And you know what Peter is saying? God started talking about Jesus a long, long time ago. Now I'm ready to read Acts 3 in verse 18. I thought I was earlier. But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all of his prophets, that Christ would suffer He thus fulfilled. Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord." On down a couple of verses, verse 21, "...whom heaven and earth must receive until the times of the restoration of all things." which God has spoken by the mouth of all of his holy prophets since the world began. I didn't see it in this passage until reviewing notes this morning. But you see, in the book of 1 Peter, Peter is saying, I want to encourage believers. I want them to see the longevity of Jesus Christ and all these prophecies. But in Acts chapter 3, Peter is offering up an evangelistic sandwich. The meat is about Jesus Christ, but the bread on the bottom is that of verse 18, those things which God foretold by the mouth of all of his holy prophets. The bread on the top is verse 21. which God has spoken by the mouth of all of his holy prophets. And Peter is taking this sandwich and he says, I want you to take a bite of this and I want you to repent of all of your sins and have your sins remitted and taken away from you. Do you see it there? Verse 18, the prophets. Verse 18, the end. No, it's verse 19. Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out." Verse 21, the prophets, the other piece of bread. And so I ask you as you sit here this morning, how do you explain how the prophets got it right concerning Jesus Christ? You say, well, I guess they did a good job of guessing. They're going to talk about the piercing of crucifixion at a thousand years before Jesus came, when the method of crucifixion was not even yet known? David at a thousand years before Christ was very lucky, I guess, when he guessed that they would be dividing the garments of the Lord Jesus Christ. I guess Isaiah at 700 years before Christ was just a good guesser when he talked of one being a guilt offering for sin and yet being alive afterwards. How do we explain it? Well, we explain it as reconstructed data. There's no such thing as prophecy, you know. The prophecies, supposedly the Old Testament, were written after Jesus came. So somebody went back into the Old Testament and they put Isaiah 53 there later. They put Psalm 22 there later. They put Micah chapter 5 there later. They put Isaiah 49 in verse 6 later. You know what the problem with that is? Already at 250 years before Jesus appeared, the Old Testament scriptures were translated into the Greek tongue and scattered around, and copies come down to us from that translation, and those prophecies were already there. Well, maybe somebody messed with those Greek translations. Have you heard of the Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered in 1948? Portions of a complete copy of the book of Isaiah had not seen the light of day from a hundred years before Jesus until 1948. What are you going to do with that? I know what you need to do with that. You need to repent and receive the forgiveness of your sins. I know this may be uncomfortable. There may be something of an aversion to even, well, I just don't want to think about all that stuff. It's too technical. It's not too technical. I challenge you to give very, very careful consideration to this matter of prophecies concerning Jesus Christ. And I am convinced that if you will carefully consider the prophecies of Jesus Christ, that you will end up at His feet in worship. And let me give you a little bit of motivation for your study. You don't want to do it. I understand that. Please give careful, careful consideration to this, because if you end up where I want you to be and where Peter wanted his heroes to be, and your sins will be blotted out, isn't it worth at least the effort of a careful, Thirdly, by way of lesson, God's free grace strengthens and stabilizes our hearts even in the saddest times. Though there was nothing in me, Leighton writes, but the disappointments which cause sorrow and discomfort, I do not look for comfort in myself, but in God's free grace. Right now, I'm a mix. I'm a mix of holy desires and unholy actions. So I'm not looking for comfort in me. I'm looking for comfort in the God of grace who was thinking this before time and was doing all of this down through the centuries. When I am at my best times, Still I do not take comfort in myself, but in God's free grace I rely on the work of the Lord Jesus and His all-sufficient grace. Though I might be the worst sinner who ever came to Jesus, yet I know that the God of grace is more gracious than I am sinful." Isn't that an interesting... I don't know if I would ever put it that way. But I would ever come up with that wording. But having read the wording, I don't think I can find any fault with it. God has got more grace than I've got sin. It's true. And we've got a blessing for it. Listen to David in the psalm. Psalm 25 and verse 11. And for your name's sake, O Jehovah, pardon my iniquity, for it is great. I've got a big block here of sin that you need to deal with, but I'm confident that you, the God of covenant kindness, can deal with it. So deal with it, Lord, for your name's sake. Your name is at stake. Pardon my sin. Roman numeral two, the divine author. If we've seen something of the amazing content I want us to consider the divine author of the gospel of grace as Peter lays it out here in our verses. First of all, A, the Holy Spirit's inspiration of Old Testament prophecy. What is his name? Searching, verse 11, searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ, who is in them, was indicating when he testified beforehand. The Spirit of Christ. You remember that passage where the disciples are on the road to Emmaus after the resurrection? Jesus comes along and is with them and he opens their hearts eventually to understand what he's been... what is it that he was talking to them about? Ought not the Christ who has suffered these things then enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses, in all the prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. What does it mean that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ in conjunction with the Old Testament if it does not mean that Jesus Christ is the theme of the Old Testament? He is the Christ. He is the anointed of God. And the Messiah is known in the Old Testament. And the Holy Spirit is known in the Old Testament. All the way back to Genesis 1 and verse 2, the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the deep. But what a stupendous claim on the part of Peter to look back and say that the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit in conjunction with Jesus Christ. That's his name. But now, what was his work? Again, verse 11. He was working in the prophets. He was indicating when he testified beforehand. Testifying beforehand. It's a word from which we get witness. Martireo. I'm really ready to stand up for Christ, even if it means that I become a martyr. Then the little word put out in the front of it, so it is The Spirit was given this solemn witness beforehand through the prophets. What does this make us think of? 2 Timothy 3, verse 16, how God breathes out the scriptures. What Peter's going to talk about in 2 Peter 1, verse 21, for prophecy never came by the will of the man. Oh, I want to have a prophecy today. If I really think hard, what am I going to write? No, it comes as holy men are picked up and carried along by the Holy Spirit. Listen to Jesus as Mark records in chapter 12, verse 36. For David himself said by the Holy Spirit. How did David say this? By the Holy Spirit. What was it he said? Jehovah said to my Lord. Sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. Jesus comments on it. Therefore, David himself calls him Lord. How is he then his son? You see how the Holy Spirit, even back in the Old Testament, delighted to take the things of Jesus Christ and make them open to the understanding of man. Jesus Christ is the theme of the Bible. Secondly, the Holy Spirit's blessing of New Testament preaching. Now we're at the latter part of verse 12. We're talking about those New Testament prophets particularly. Those who have, in the language of verse 12, who have preached the gospel to you. Those who were active in the first century when this was written. Those who have preached to you the gospel. And how did they do it? By the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. From where is the Spirit sent? From heaven. What does that make you think of? Well, heaven is the place of God's dwelling, isn't it? Heaven is the place of divine power. And so when we think of these various apostles preaching the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we think of how the Spirit has been sent down so that in their preaching, they are preaching by the Holy Spirit. What does that mean? That means that God does something to the preacher. God ennobles his mental capacities and his verbal capacities so that there can be more thoughts going on at the mind. You've heard me say, Pastor Martin, talking about these later being conscious of four different thoughts going through his mind at the same time. I think that Spurgeon talked about having as many as 10 thoughts going through his mind. His mouth is engaged, and he sees the little boy back here that's not paying attention. While his mouth is still giving the gospel, he's composing an illustration, and boom, he gets that, and he's... And when he's done, he says, how did I do that? I can't do that when I'm just sitting here talking with you. God's Holy Spirit comes in an unusual way on the preacher. But that's not enough, is it? We need the Spirit of God to be sent from heaven. And we ask this question, how does the Holy Spirit assist in preaching, working on the preacher, and yet working on the hearer? And why does the hearer need to be worked on? Well, because there is none who understands. And there is none who seeks after God. Why does God need to work on the here? Because the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. Not only does he not understand them, they seem idiotic to him. I'm not going to believe that junk. Nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. How does the Holy Spirit work in preaching? At times, he gives the new birth, which is by the Spirit. And yet we are told that this new birth comes through the Word of God. In Spirit-anointed preaching, the Holy Spirit works powerfully so that Paul can look back and say, you know, I remember being a Thessalonica. Man, do I remember that. For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance." I like that word. It's the full assurance, full conviction. We preached, and you were saying, Amen. That's the truth with all of your being. Why does this preacher, at least at times, get passionate? He acts like this stuff is important, and yet I don't even know what he's talking about. What is there that I'm missing? That's the question you need to ask. What is it that I'm missing? God's Holy Spirit is involved in giving the Word originally to the prophets, and God's Spirit is involved in the preaching of that Word, helping the preacher and the hearer alike where it is Spirit-anointed. Roman numeral three. Having looked at the amazing content, the divine author, Roman numeral three, the worthy proponents of the gospel of grace. Proponent is probably not a regular part of my vocabulary either, but it works here. A proponent is a person who argues for or support something. Who are the worthy proponents? Who are the worthy supporters of the gospel of grace? Well, first of all, a the prophets search into gospel details. their search into gospel details. Consider the intensity of their investigation. Verse 10 now. They have inquired and searched carefully the godliest and some of the best men that lived prior to the coming of Jesus Christ. And what are we told is their mental preoccupation. So we like the gospel. We like to think about it. We like to figure out how the suffering servant of Jehovah is yet going to be that one who is the light of salvation that goes out to the ends of the earth. We like to think of that light of salvation. How is that connected back to that in your seed, all the families of the earth, will be blessed. We like to try to figure out how Jehovah said to my Lord. We like to figure out when Jehovah said they're going to look on Jehovah whom they have pierced. It's a diligent investigation. It's a searching out carefully. That's something of the intensity of their investigation. Now the focus of their investigation. What were they searching? They were searching what? Or what manner of time? What may refer to the general thing of the time. It may refer to just pretty much anything about the Messiah. We want to know it all. Our salvation is wrapped up with this Messiah. And certainly the focus of their investigation is on what manner of time. Daniel receives prophecies. And we read in Daniel 12 and verse 6, And one said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river. That's Daniel talking to the angel, revealing stuff. How long shall the fulfillment of these wonders be? Is it next week? Is it the week after? and the benefit of their investigation. We don't know how much the various prophets put everything together in their own minds concerning the sufferings of Christ and the glories to come. But we are told that they had enough awareness. Isaiah said this. Micah said that. David said this. Abraham said that. Moses said the other. Now, as we put all this stuff together, they knew enough to know that the following generations would understand what they wrote better than what they understood. They understood that they were serving not their contemporaries, but they were ministering this stuff, they were giving this stuff for a subsequent generation, so that you could sit here in the Gospel Age and hear of Old Testament prophecies and hear of Dead Sea Scrolls that validate they were in existence before Jesus, and that you would have the pressure on your conscience to say, what do I do with prophecy? they knew they were ministering to a generation that would come after the age of the Messiah. The prophets search. But I said worthy proponents. Who else was a supporter of this gospel? Well, be the apostles, plural, their publication of the gospel details. the things which have now been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you, the publication of it. God is at work in the giving of the prophecies, and God is at work in the New Testament preaching of these things. The prophets had a little difficulty. The New Testament The men had a little bit of difficulty in understanding. How do you fit all these sufferings and fit all these glories together? Is it all the same person? Even John the Baptist sent the message. Are you the coming one? Or do we look for another? And Jesus said, go back to your Old Testament prophets, John. The blind see, and the lame walk, and the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear. The dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them." John, have you seen any fulfillment of those things? Then know Messiah is here. And you see what Jesus is doing with that. There's a sense in which Jesus recognized that John, as one of those Old Testament prophets, it will be more powerful for him, not simply to hear Jesus say of himself, yeah, I'm the God. But it would be more powerful for Jesus to say, John, check your prophecies, if they are fulfilled. of the Messiah that know that the Messiah is here. Now, you remember, Peter had a little trouble putting the glories of the Messiah and the suffering of the Messiah together. God forbid that you would be going up to the cross. In John 18, even after Jesus said, Get thee behind me, Satan. The sufferings and the glories are going to fit together. On the night that he was betrayed, then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest's servant and cut off his right ear. This is the Savior that I love and he's not going to suffer. I'm going to cut your ear off before you're going to touch him. How does the suffering, how does the glory fit together? And yet after the resurrection, Peter got it all put away together in neat little categories in his mind and he embraced it. Sufferings and glory. And so that in the very first sermon that is recorded in the book of Acts, the day of Pentecost, who's preaching? Peter. Men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through him in your midst, the Messiah is here, as you yourselves also know. Him being delivered up by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands and have crucified and put to death. Sounds like the sufferings part, doesn't it? But in just five verses later, he's going to make mention of how the Davidic prophecy of the Holy One not undergoing decay, how that's going to be fulfilled in Jesus, how Jesus is raised from the dead. So now, same sermon, five, six verses later, verse 30, latter part, that he would raise up the Christ to sit on his David's throne. David foreseeing this spoke concerning the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. Peter's got it now. I've got a sufferings category and I've got a glories category, and this comes first and the glories come next. But when you think of how before the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Peter is withdrawing and is denied. I don't even know who that guy is. I don't have nothing to do with him. And afterwards, Peter and the other disciples, the other apostles, were preaching Christ. You want to throw us in prison? That's fine. If we're let out by an angel in the middle of the night, we're not going to the hills of Judea. We're staying here and we're preaching Christ in the temple precincts. And we're going to preach the resurrection of Christ from the dead. And we're going to preach that all of the Old Testament prophecies are fulfilled in Jesus. And you want to kill us? You can kill us, you can stone us like Stephen, and there'll be a smile on our faces. Thirdly, the proponents. Who else could be a supporter in these verses? The Old Testament prophets, the New Testament apostles, and those in that circle of preachers. Now, thirdly, see, the angels' keen interest in gospel details Things which angels desire to look into. It's a word that when they come to the tomb, they kneel down and they're peering in. I want to get a good look at your face. That's the word. These elect angels, remember, they don't need the grace of God in redemption. They are chosen angels. They are never sinned. They are the ones that when Jesus prays in Matthew 10, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven by those elect angels. No sin, no need of redemption. And yet they see redemption through Jesus Christ. They see the gospel of grace and they're leaning over, keenly interested. These elect angels know that no grace was even offered to their fellow mates, their fallen mates. The fallen angels, he does not give aid to angels, but he does give aid to the seed of Abraham. These elect angels are very interested in the gospel of grace. Jesus in his parable, Luke 15, likewise I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. Why? These angels know how big the gospel of grace is to the loving God of grace. These angels know something of the terrors of the damned, even now. These angels know how good it will be for you if you will but repent and get right with the God of heaven. by placing faith in the sufferings and the glories of Jesus Christ. And apparently these angels who are aware of one sinner who repents, apparently they know something of the struggle that goes on in a sinner's mind that is going on in your mind. The struggle when you know what God has said is true. The struggle of when you understand the reality of guilt. The Bible describes your conscience and how it works. And the Bible describes the guilt that you feel. And you find it hard to dismiss that guilt as something of an evolutionary hangover. Okay, so it's an evolutionary hangover. Where did it come from? How did it happen to fall into humanity? As we close this morning, I want you to see from our verses. Everybody thinks that the gospel is special but you. Old Testament prophets think it's special. some of the godliest, some of the choicest, some of the best men that ever walked the earth prior to Jesus Christ. And they look at these prophecies, His sufferings, and His glories, and what it's going to do for those whom God has chosen to save, and they think the gospel is wonderful. The piercing of Jehovah A guilt offering who is yet alive, in whose hands the good pleasure of the Lord is prospering? Everybody thinks it's special but you. New Testament apostles These men who, like Peter, were turned upside down by the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And then, in turn, they turned the world upside down by their preaching blessed by the Spirit. They were willing to be harassed and beaten and killed for the gospel of grace They plainly thought that the gospel was worthy of their martyrdom. Is that how you think of it? Holy angels in heaven? These holy and wise beings, never impacted by sin, value the gospel and they are keenly interested in how the loving heart of God is forgiving, hell-deserving. Think of what they see! Those who rebelled among the angels are already now in the torments and are bound in their chains. And now in the gospel of grace, God is taking sinners who spit in the face of God and He is willing to forgive them and transform them and is promising transformed beings that they'll be in the transformed heavens and the transformed earth. And they're leaning forward, trying to understand every detail of this. Are you still bored with the gospel of grace? Are you afraid that you're going to lose your freedoms by simply fulfilling your destiny? and self-consciously wanting to be that man, that woman that has been made in the image of God? Or do you feel the weight of Hebrews 2? When you think of how the prophets and how the apostles and how the angels are all worthy proponents of the gospel of grace, How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? Hear God speaking to you. Hear God appealing to you through the prophets, the apostles, and the holy angels who are amazed at the gospel of grace. Let's pray. O Father, we would have no one bored by your wonderful gospel We would have no one to think of these things of the spirit as foolishness. And so we pray that you would powerfully open minds and that you would grant faith. And we pray that on the human side, some would be willing to take up that challenge of very, very carefully considering how Old Testament prophecy works. And we pray that you would bring such an inquiry to the conclusion that the prophets were able to speak of Christ because you, the all-knowing God, were witnessing to them beforehand of the sufferings and of the glories to follow. Help us, Lord, as believers to imagine ourselves as a part of that suffering group of sojourners that has been scattered there in the back part of the Roman Empire, hearing of our connection to Jesus Christ, knowing that it's not a new religion, but it is a religion whose key person The superhuman descendant of a woman goes all the way back through the prophets to when the world began. We pray for your encouragement to us and we pray that you would increasingly give us the Spirit. Oh, we rejoice to be counted worthy of being put into a share, into the realm of sharing in the sufferings of your son. For we know that if we suffer with him, we shall also inherit the glories with him. We pray this in Christ's matchless name. Amen.