[0:00] Come to the Lord in prayer. Let us pray together. As we draw near this Christmas time, O Lord, our God, and our thoughts are turned again to your dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and his entry into the world, his birth to Mary, as the very Son of God and Son of Man.
[0:25] And, Lord, we thank you that we know that that was not the very beginning of him. For we recognize that his birth into the world was the coming of the eternal God into the temporal world, the everlasting God, the God who has no beginning, the God who has always been God and always shall be God, and yet who in that moment in time and history took to himself the fullness of a human body in every way becoming like us apart from sin.
[1:08] And, O Lord, we can't even grasp how that can even be possible. The virgin birth itself, wonderful and glorious, and we know it's true.
[1:18] We can't even get a handle on that. How on earth, O Lord, can we truly understand how God, uncreated, can be united with man creation to be two natures in one person without confusion?
[1:36] O Lord, we can't grasp it, but we worship and adore you because we know it's true. We thank you, O Lord, that our minds are no way near able to comprehend you because you are God.
[1:50] And because you are God, you are incomprehensible. You are far and beyond us. You are way out there, Lord. And your mind and your thoughts are higher than ours and greater than ours.
[2:02] And we humbly bow before you, Lord, and acknowledge that we have so much more to know of you, so much more to understand of you, so much more to learn of you.
[2:12] No matter how long we've studied your word, no matter how long we've been a Christian and known your grace and your spirit at work in our lives, we know that we are so far away from even scratching the surface of the wonder of who you are.
[2:28] And yet, Lord, that is a joy to us. We're so grateful, O Lord, that we don't know it all. We're so grateful, O Lord, there's still so much of you to be discovered and known and made manifest to our minds and hearts.
[2:41] Lord, we long to know more. We long to plumb more of the depths of the wonder of the riches of God in Christ. We long, O Lord, to pierce the darkness, as it were, and to get really more light into our souls and our minds that we may worship you more, love you more, serve you more, follow you more, praise you more.
[3:06] We pray that in this time together you would draw near to us. By your Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, that you would, again, just give us a little more of a glimpse of your glory.
[3:18] Give us just a little more of a foretaste of what we shall have in heaven when we shall be known as we are known and we shall know as we are known. We shall know you, O Lord, and we shall spend eternity knowing you and discovering you as you show us more and more of your beauty.
[3:37] So be with us now. Prepare our hearts. Prepare our minds. Give us a hunger. Give us an expectancy, O Lord, as we come to you. May it be that in this time together you, O Lord, lift up your dear Son in our midst and help us to worship him in spirit and in truth.
[3:55] For we ask these things, Lord Jesus, in your name. Amen. We're going to be looking in 1 Peter and chapter 1 again, but we're not going to read from there.
[4:07] We're actually going to read from Psalm 22. Apologies that the reading from this morning is still up on the board. But Psalm 22, and then a bit later on we're going to be looking at 1 Peter, chapter 1.
[4:32] Psalm 22 begins with the words that our Lord Jesus repeats from his lips while on the cross, and therefore that should give us a very strong clue to the fact that this psalm has so much to do with and is fulfilled in so many ways in the person of Jesus Christ.
[4:54] And as we go through, as I read through, see how many things you can pick out, I'll test you on it, but just for yourself, things that pick out and say, that reminds me of something about Jesus, that reminds me of something he said, or something that happened to him, and so on.
[5:10] So let's read this Psalm 22. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning?
[5:27] Oh my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, and I'm not silent. You are enthroned as the Holy One.
[5:38] You are the praise of Israel. In you our fathers put their trust. They trusted, and you delivered them. They cried to you, and were saved. In you they trusted, and were not disappointed.
[5:51] But I am a worm, and not a man, scorned by men, and despised by the people. All who see me, mock me.
[6:02] They hurl insults, shaking their heads. He trusts in the Lord. Let the Lord rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.
[6:14] Yet you brought me out of the womb. You made me trust in you, even at my mother's breast. From birth I was cast upon you. From my mother's womb, you have been my God.
[6:28] Do not be far from me, for trouble is near, and there is no one to help. Many bulls surround me, strong bulls of Bashan, encircle me.
[6:38] Roaring lions, tearing their prey, open their mouths wide, against me. I am poured out like water. All my bones, all my bones, are out of joint.
[6:52] My heart has turned to wax, and has melted within me. My strength is dried up, like a potsherd. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth.
[7:03] You lay me in the dust of death. Dogs have surrounded me. A band of evil men has encircled me. They have pierced my hands and my feet.
[7:15] I can count all my bones. People stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them, and cast lots for my clothing. But you, O Lord, be not far off.
[7:27] All my strength, come quickly to help me. Deliver my life from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dogs. Rescue me from the mouth of the lions.
[7:38] Save me from the horns of the wild oxen. I will declare your name to my brothers. In the congregation, I will praise you. You who fear the Lord, praise Him.
[7:51] All you descendants of Jacob, honor Him. Revere Him, all you descendants of Israel. For He has not despised or disdained the suffering of the afflicted one.
[8:03] He has not hidden His face from Him, but has listened to His cry for help. From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly. Before those who fear you, I will fulfill my vows.
[8:17] The poor will eat and be satisfied. They who seek the Lord will praise Him. May your hearts live forever. All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will bow down before Him.
[8:36] The dominion belongs to the Lord, and He rules over the nations. All the rich of the earth will feast and worship. All who go down to the dust will kneel before Him.
[8:49] Those who cannot keep themselves alive. Posterity will serve Him. Future generations will be told about the Lord. They will proclaim His righteousness to a people yet on board.
[9:04] For He has done it. Praise God for His wonderful work. So if you'd like to turn to 1 Peter and chapter 1, where we've been the last few Sunday evenings.
[9:25] And we're going to pick up from verse 10. Verse 10 to verse 12. Just those three verses this evening. But we're going to read them together now.
[9:39] So 1 Peter, chapter 1, verse 10. Concerning this salvation, the prophets who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.
[10:04] It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you. When they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven.
[10:21] Even angels long to look into these things. Let's pray briefly together. We come to you, Lord Jesus, the Word of God made manifest.
[10:34] And we thank you that you are the one who speaks and you are the one who reveals. Come, we pray, and open to us your Word this evening and give us insight, revelation, and understanding by your Holy Spirit.
[10:51] For we ask these things in your name. Amen. Up until last year, Angie, myself, and the family were living in Honnerton in East Devon.
[11:07] And Honnerton is particularly associated with two notable things. First of all, it's noted as being a lace-making town. And one of its claims to fame is that the veil that Queen Victoria wore for her wedding was made by Honnerton lace-makers.
[11:25] The other thing is antiques. It's one of the antique centers of the Southwest. Now, unfortunately, of late, the art of lace-making has almost disappeared from the town.
[11:37] But antiques are still big business. And probably, I would say, around about one in four of the high street shops are given over to that trade in antiques.
[11:48] Many antiques, of course, are not just furniture and other things, but many of them are works of art. Whether that's painting or drawing, porcelain or sculpture.
[12:00] And one of the surest guarantees that an antique is genuine is something called provenance. Provenance is the historic record of any antique, of its previous owners, tracing it back to, hopefully, the artist who created it and the people that it was sold to and whose hands it passed through.
[12:22] Having that provenance is something which will guarantee not only the authenticity of the piece of art, but also will have a great effect upon its value, its worth, financially.
[12:35] If there's no provenance, then a lot of suspicions arise about whether it can be considered a genuine article. Now, the salvation that we belong, sorry, the salvation that belongs to us and to every believer is of the greatest, highest value.
[12:57] We've seen that in the previous weeks, particularly in verse 9. You are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Verse 9, Concerning this salvation, Peter goes on to talk.
[13:10] It's the salvation which has brought us inexpressible joy. In verse 8. And yet, we know that though we enjoy and delight in this salvation, there are times when its beauty, its delight are dimmed because of suffering and trials.
[13:32] That's the case there in verse 6 of chapter 1. In this, that's the salvation, ready to be revealed. In this, you greatly rejoice. Thou now, for a little while, you've had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.
[13:46] So this salvation, wonderful, fills us with inexpressible joy. Yet, in times of trial, we can value it less than we should. We can count it not as wonderful as it truly is.
[14:03] And so, Peter is writing in his letter to Christians who are struggling, struggling in a world of suffering and trial and who are knowing that their faith in this salvation is being tested.
[14:15] There, verse 7, these have come so that your faith may be tested, may be proved genuine. And so, Peter is continuing to encourage them in the trustworthiness of the salvation that is theirs.
[14:29] To encourage them by turning their thoughts to the provenance of the gospel, the provenance of the salvation, the record, the trustworthiness, the historicity.
[14:42] of the gospel. That's why he says, concerning this salvation, the prophets who spoke of the grace that was to come to you searched intently with the greatest care.
[14:55] So, what evidence does Paul, sorry, what evidence does Peter bring to concerning the trustworthiness of this gospel which has brought us salvation? What is it that he is telling us which is going to make us all the more encouraged in our faith and strengthen in our faith to trust and believe in and depend upon this salvation?
[15:16] Particularly, of course, as we've thought already that this salvation is we have in part but not the full. That's been, again, something that we've been looking at, an inheritance kept in heaven for us.
[15:27] We're prepared for that day when we shall enjoy it. We're told that it is a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. We've been told about though we don't see Jesus, we love him and though we don't see him, we believe in him.
[15:41] We're receiving the goal of our salvation. So, what is it that we can look to as substantial evidence and encouragement to believe this gospel?
[15:53] Well, the first thing which is so important is that we understand that this is not a new gospel that we have believed. It's not something new. The salvation that Peter has been describing here in these verses is not an invention of the first century.
[16:10] People often think about Christianity and they'll talk about Christianity and say, oh, well, of course, Christianity has only been around 2,000 years and they're right and they're wrong because the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and the truth of Christ is something that has been around from the very moment of creation.
[16:29] It's not an invention as it were that sort of was latched onto the Israelite faith but something which has become the extension and the growing out of what God has revealed of himself in the previous centuries and millennia.
[16:47] So these early Christians were not believing something new. That's the whole argument again of Hebrews, isn't it? We looked a little bit at that this morning how the writer there is arguing that everything that was happening in the old was preparing the way for leading up to establishing the Lord Jesus Christ as the Saviour.
[17:06] That's why we have here in verse 12 it was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you so they saw forward, they looked forward to the gospel coming and being brought out again in the future when they spoke of the things that have now been told to you.
[17:27] So they spoke the prophets of the things that have now been told to you. That's the incredible mystery, that's the incredible glory of the Bible. It hangs together and holds together because there's one theme, one message, one author, 66 books, dozens of different people writing but all of them under the guidance and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to bring to us one complete picture about the revelation of God.
[17:55] And so Peter begins by saying to him, look, the thing that you're believing the salvation you're looking to is exactly what God's people of old have always looked to and believed in.
[18:06] It's a message that all of God's prophets have spoken throughout history. Now, we know of course and this is the wonderful thing that Peter is saying as well, he's showing that they had the message, they didn't have the complete picture, they didn't have the fullness of the revelation that we have.
[18:27] Notice, they searched intently and with the greatest care trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.
[18:44] They didn't have the complete message of God's grace but they had the substance of it, they had the essence of it, what they knew and what they preached about the coming saviour was what we know to be true of Christ.
[19:03] And so when we look at the Old Testament and it's so important that we do read our Old Testaments, it's so important that we do study the Old Testament because if we don't know where we've been we won't know where we're going.
[19:15] If we don't understand how God reveals himself in the Old Testament just as we were thinking this morning, we won't understand how he has revealed himself in the Lord Jesus. It's a progressive revelation.
[19:27] In other words, it's unfolding. It's like a tightly knit bud of a rose and as you begin in the Old Testament it begins to open up and open up and open up so that the fragrance begins to come out.
[19:41] The beauty is more and more seen until eventually we have the unfolded beauty of the rose of Sharon as the Lord Jesus Christ.
[19:52] Another illustration we could say it's a little bit like a jigsaw puzzle. Each prophet brings one or two pieces of that jigsaw puzzle into the table as it were.
[20:04] And so taking all those pieces together we have the picture but until Christ comes they can't be put in the correct order. They can't be brought together to make everything clear.
[20:16] That's exactly what the writer of the Hebrews says at the very introduction to his letter. He says in the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways.
[20:29] But in these last days he's spoken to us by his son whom he appointed heir of all things through whom he made the universe. So God has spoken through the Old Testament in many different ways in symbols in different characters and types in the sacrifices in the temple and so on.
[20:49] All those pieces come together and fit together in the Lord Jesus Christ. They searched intently. They wanted to know. They longed to see but they couldn't until Christ came.
[21:01] Nonetheless this gospel message, this message of grace. Notice that. The prophets who spoke of the grace. So important we understand that as well.
[21:12] Many people look at the Old Testament and they say of course the Old Testament is a religion of law and not grace. No it's not. The Old Testament is a work of grace.
[21:28] God dealt with his people through grace. They were saved by grace. There is no other way to be saved. You cannot be saved and made right with God by obeying the law.
[21:39] We know that. That's always been the case. It always was grace. And so we find that in fact the Old Testament prophets preached a gospel of grace.
[21:50] Just as we preach that gospel of grace. God's undeserving favor to sinners. So it's not a new message. We're not believing something which is just a few years old or a few thousand years old.
[22:02] We have believed in a salvation which has been from the very start. God's love to God. The second thing is this. The prophets themselves did not invent that message either because we see that it was given to them by the Spirit of Christ.
[22:19] Okay? So it's a gospel message that has always been preached and proclaimed by God's people throughout time but it wasn't something that they themselves invented or made up.
[22:31] Trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them pointing. The Spirit of Christ in them pointing.
[22:42] Why does Peter use the phrase or the title the Spirit of Christ? Who is the Spirit of Christ? Well he is the Holy Spirit. Throughout the New Testament we find that the Holy Spirit has given the name the Spirit of God, God's Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth Jesus calls him.
[23:02] He is the Spirit of Christ. He is Paul in Romans chapter 8 verse 9. You, speaking to believers, however are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit if the Spirit of God lives in you.
[23:18] And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ he does not belong to Christ. So we have the Spirit, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, one person. Three descriptive titles.
[23:30] But of course particularly the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Christ. Because his work is to make Christ known. The Holy Spirit's ministry is primarily above all else to reveal the person of Jesus.
[23:45] To make us to know him and see him for who he is. Jesus said this himself when he was describing and explaining to the disciples on that night in the upper room about the Counselor, the Spirit of Truth.
[24:00] This is what he said in John 15. The Spirit of Truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. And again, sadly, in some quarters in the church, the work of the Holy Spirit has been diverted away from that ministry.
[24:17] People only think of the Holy Spirit as a miracle worker, if I can put it that way, making people well or healing or that sort of thing. Well, in fact, Jesus didn't speak about him doing those things, but about the Spirit testifying about Jesus.
[24:32] So that's what happened to you and I when we became Christians. Somebody began to tell us and talk to us about the Lord Jesus Christ. We previously had been unable to understand that. It had been complete foolishness to us, literally, as well.
[24:47] But then the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit, began to show us, began to open our spiritual eyes. We began to see, oh, my sin and my Saviour.
[24:59] And so he is the Spirit of Christ. And as we've said, this gospel, this wonderful gospel of grace that the prophets preached was given to them and revealed to them by the Spirit of Christ within them.
[25:13] Well, here we are then. We've got another wonderful truth that there were those within the Old Testament who were born of the Spirit of Christ. The Spirit of Christ dwelt within them. They weren't just ordinary people.
[25:25] They weren't people without the Spirit. Again, a misconception that often, sadly, even the church has is that the Holy Spirit only started to do anything when he got to the day of Pentecost. Well, read your Old Testament.
[25:37] Read about Samson. Read about Saul. Read about David. The Holy Spirit came upon them. And more than that, here Peter says the Holy Spirit, or the Spirit of Christ was in them.
[25:50] So they were people of the Spirit. Again, we must understand that the New Testament is not the age of the Spirit. The whole of the age of the church, the whole of God's people from start to beginning was of the Spirit.
[26:06] And they preached Christ. The Holy Spirit is the one who is the originator and the author of the gospel. It's God's message, isn't it?
[26:18] So they spoke of the grace that was to come to us by the Spirit of Christ in them, pointing out when he was going to suffer and his glory.
[26:30] Again, this is the wonderful truth. The message of the gospel of Jesus Christ that we have lead, the Christian gospel, Christian message. People say to us, well, how can you know that the Christian gospel is correct?
[26:42] Christianity is right and other religions are wrong. Well, simply because of this, God invented it. Every other religion is a man-made invention.
[26:53] Every other type of faith or belief system has been generated by a man. This is the gospel because it has been authenticated and authored by God himself.
[27:05] Those apostles and those who preached the gospel, Peter and those who were with him, also made this very clear. In his next letter, in 2 Peter 1.16, Peter makes this apparent to his readers.
[27:19] He says, we did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses to his majesty.
[27:31] In other words, this isn't just some fable. This isn't just some made-up story. Jesus is not a myth. Paul likewise makes it clear in Galatians chapter 1.
[27:43] I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. I did not receive it from any man, nor as I taught it. Rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.
[27:58] That's what sets apart the Christian gospel. It is not a man-made religion. It is not man seeking a way to get to God. It is God revealing how he has come down to man.
[28:14] So that's the first piece of provenance. How can we be encouraged in this salvation? Well, because we know it has been the message of God's people throughout all of time, and because we know that it did not originate with them, but it originated with God's spirit himself.
[28:32] The second thing is this. We know that we can trust and believe this gospel message, because what the prophets declared has been exactly fulfilled in the life of Jesus Christ.
[28:46] What they prophesied would happen concerning the suffering and the glories that would follow, there in verse 11, is exactly what has been happened in the very life and person of Jesus himself.
[29:00] Particularly, of course, in his sufferings and following glory. Though as we thought this morning, and as we'll be thinking throughout Christmas time, so many of those promises concerning his birth were exactly fulfilled, as the prophets had said they would be.
[29:18] We know, of course, that when Jesus himself suffered and died and rose again, his disciples couldn't grasp that. They didn't see that what had happened was the fulfillment of the promises of God and the prophets.
[29:32] Jesus had to, as it were, give them a little tweak on the ear and tell them how foolish they had been. Here's the two on the road to Emmaus.
[29:43] He said to them, how foolish you are, how slow of heart to believe all the prophets have spoken. Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory? Beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the scriptures concerning himself.
[30:01] Jesus had to show them. He had to reveal it to them. Now we don't know and we're not told exactly where Jesus went to in the Old Testament, which passages he highlighted and taught them about because it's not recorded here.
[30:16] But we can assume a few things. Firstly, concerning his crucifixion and his suffering, there's a great description of that which we read in Psalm 22.
[30:27] I hope you picked that up. I'm sure most of you did as we went through. Particularly those verses from verse 14 and following. My heart has turned to wax.
[30:43] What happened when the Roman soldier stuck his spear in the side of the Lord Jesus? Float out, didn't it? Water and blood flowed out. Mine poured out like water.
[30:55] Then my strength is dried up. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. What did Jesus say from the cross? I thirst. Look at this.
[31:08] Several hundred years before the first person was ever crucified, David speaks about the fact they have pierced my hands and my feet. But he was nailed. Didn't happen to David.
[31:21] It happened to Christ. Then we have, of course, the people who encircle him and mock him and insult him and shake their heads at him in verse seven. Well, just read again the account of the religious leaders.
[31:35] Read again how they said he trusts in the Lord. Let the Lord come and rescue him. Exactly the words here. But his nakedness and those who gloated over him, verse 17, count all my bones.
[31:48] Why? Because he was naked. We see it in a Catholic church or whatever, where they'll have a piece of loincloth or whatever to cover up Christ's groin.
[32:00] But the reality was that when they crucified someone, they crucified them naked. To add to the shame and the disgrace. And then verse 18, my goodness, they divide my garments among them.
[32:11] What were the Roman soldiers doing at the foot of the cross? They were doing just that. So that's just one place, isn't it, that we can turn to and see in exact detail how Christ fulfilled these things.
[32:27] But what about his resurrection? Because it talks about not just his sufferings there in 1 Peter, but also the glories that follow. Well, his resurrection is spoken about in the Psalms as well. Psalm 16, if you just turn there for a moment.
[32:45] verses 9 and 10. Therefore my heart is glad, my tongue rejoices, my body will also rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay.
[32:58] Now we know this is about the Lord Jesus Christ because that's the passage that Peter preached on, or one of the passages he preached on on the day of Pentecost. He said David died and his tomb is here with us.
[33:10] At least it was in Peter's day. No, he says he's talking about the Christ. Who rose again from the dead. Other places we could turn to there. Then there's of course the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ when he returned to and was enthroned in one sense at the Father's right hand.
[33:28] That's made clear in the scriptures. Don't need to turn to it, in Daniel in chapter 7. Here's Daniel's vision that he sees. Therefore there before me was one like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven.
[33:43] He approached the ancient of days, that is the picture of God, and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory, and sovereign power. All peoples, nations, and men of every language worshipped him.
[33:56] His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away. His kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. The ascension and the enthronement and the glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ, his dominion and rule over the earth, all these things, predicted, spoken about hundreds, sometimes thousands of years before being fulfilled in the person of Jesus.
[34:18] So we know that we can trust the prophets who preached the gospel of grace to us because everything they prophesied has come to be trustworthy.
[34:33] And then finally here, dear friends, we see that everything that was in one sense a shadow to the Old Testament prophets has been fully revealed for us now.
[34:45] Verse 12, it was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you. Why did the prophets prophesy? Well, in one sense, one of the reasons that God gave the prophets insight into the coming of the Messiah was to encourage God's people in their particular circumstances and situation.
[35:05] The Old Testament people of God looked forward to a Savior, looked forward to a Messiah and these prophecies gave them that encouragement that God would send a Savior and a Messiah for them and so they were strengthened in their particular trials and difficulties as they looked forward to what God would do in the future.
[35:24] But also, as we read here, they did these things and spoke of these things for our sake. They were serving not themselves but us.
[35:35] In other words, the church of Jesus Christ, what a tremendous honor and blessing and privilege you and I have, dear friends, that what the Old Testament prophets only saw in part, what they searched for intently and with the greatest care, has now been made known to you and I.
[35:55] Ordinary people like us, the incredible mysteries of God's grace and salvation, the wonderful truths that were hidden as it were within those sacrifices and within the temple, all those things that were just in the dark twilight as it were.
[36:14] We've been given the privilege of having the doors flung open and going in and seeing all the treasures. And how do we know these things? How is it that we have the full picture?
[36:26] Well again, by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit. prophets. It's not because we're cleverer than the prophets. Let's be honest, we're quite a lot dumber than most of them.
[36:40] But it's because the Holy Spirit has made these things known to us as the gospel was preached to us. God has made them known. Those Old Testament prophets saw that part of God's wonderful salvation was to bring the Gentiles in.
[37:01] to bring people from all the world and all the nations into the wonderful salvation which is in the Lord Jesus Christ. We read about that in Daniel, didn't we?
[37:12] We said that all peoples, nations and tongues and men of every language worshipped him. The wonderful gospel is that God has made Jew and Gentile one people, one gospel nation, one grace saved people.
[37:37] And so marvelous is this, so wonderful are the things that God has done for us and revealed to us and the things that God is doing for us that we're told that even angels long to look into these things.
[37:51] The phrase there that's translated long to look into, people with far greater knowledge of Greek than me have said, it's that phrase of bending over to peer down.
[38:04] You know when you're standing around a hole, if you happen to work for the council, you'll know all about that, and you're peering in. And that's what the angels are doing, they're peering over heaven's ramparts, looking down at what God is doing, they're longing to see how God is going to work out his salvation for his people in fulfillment to his prophets and promises.
[38:27] Dear friends, we have an authentic, genuine, real McCoy gospel to take to our world.
[38:38] Not a fake, not a copy, not a fraud, but something that is reliable, true, trustworthy.
[38:50] Let us have confidence in that gospel and confidence in the salvation that we have believed on in the Lord Jesus Christ for ourselves and for those for whom Christ came to save.
[39:07] Those Old Testament prophets looked forward to and predicted the suffering of Christ. Christ. And in a moment we're going to remember and look back to the suffering of Christ as we share in the communion, the Lord's Supper together.
[39:26] They knew that Christ was coming. We know that Christ has come. And therefore as we come to that table, let's prepare our hearts and minds as we sing together from our hymn books.
[39:41] We're going to sing a number 469. We'll sing the first two verses. First two verses. I cannot tell why he whom angels worship should set his love upon the sons of men.
[39:55] We're just going to sing verses one and two. Then we're going to come to share in communion together. And then we're going to sing the final two verses at the close of our time this evening. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[40:13] Amen. Amen. Amen.