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[0:00] We're back in our 1 Peter study tonight.

[0:17] We're going to look at 1 Peter 1, verses 10-12. When Dr. MacArthur covered these verses of Scripture,!

[0:28] In his commentary on 1 Peter, he told about the true story that occurred in the closing days of the 19th century.

[0:45] A somewhat sickly city boy, raised in London, was sent by his parents to spend the summer in rural Scotland.

[0:58] And it was a trip filled with adventure for someone raised in one of the largest urban areas of the world, London.

[1:10] As it turned out, at least for this city boy, the adventure was also filled with some danger.

[1:20] One afternoon, he went swimming at a nearby lake. He swam along, and then he found himself a long way from the shore, and he developed a very severe cramp.

[1:39] He was unable to swim. He was unable to continue swimming, and about all that was left for him to do was to scream for help. The only person to hear his cries for help was a farm boy who was busy with his chores, And he ran to the lake.

[2:02] And seeing this city boy in distress, he jumped into the water. However, he swam out to him and was able to bring the city boy to shore, thus saving his life.

[2:20] Several years went by, and the two boys had a trance meeting. The city boy again expressed his gratitude for the life-saving effort on the part of the farm boy.

[2:36] And he asked the farm boy what he had done with his life. And it turned out that the farm boy had gone into medicine and was at that very moment enrolled in a medical school in Scotland.

[2:53] I know exactly where it's at, in Edinburgh. Diane had a relative that was once the head of that medical school. And the city boy sensed an opportunity, but he said nothing until he got home, and he discussed it with his parents, who were quite wealthy.

[3:19] And he informed the farm boy that it was the desire of his parents to pay for all of his medical education as an expression of gratitude for having saved the life of their son.

[3:38] And they were good at their word. And the Scottish boy had all his medical studies paid for, including advanced medical research.

[3:52] All of that was, even in those days, quite expensive. And the young man became a renowned physician and a research microbiologist.

[4:07] His name, and I'd never heard of this, but his name was Dr. Alexander Fleming. In 1928, he and his two colleagues discovered what would become a very famous drug and were recognized in 1945 for the discovery and the development of a wonder drug that became known as penicillin.

[4:37] And for their efforts, the three men received the Nobel Prize. Well, obviously, the farm boy became world famous.

[4:47] But ironically, so did the city boy that he rescued from drowning. It was during World War II that the city boy contracted a life-threatening case of pneumonia.

[5:04] He was admitted to a hospital, which administered the new wonder drug, penicillin. And that meant that the city boy was actually saved twice by Alexander Fleming.

[5:22] Dr. Fleming, the farm boy who jumped into the water and saved the city boy, had become world famous for discovering, along with his colleagues, penicillin, which has globally, I'm sure, saved tens or hundreds of millions of people.

[5:44] But the city boy that was saved had also gained some notoriety in his lifetime. His name was Winston Churchill. And during the Second World War, Churchill, of course, became the famous British prime minister as well as world statesman.

[6:04] And like Fleming, Churchill was also awarded the Nobel Prize in 1953. His award was for literature for writing the six-volume history of the Second World War.

[6:23] Well, where am I going with all this? It's wonderful to save a life. It's also wonderful to save the life of a person twice in that person's lifetime.

[6:40] But I want to suggest to you all this evening, in our study here, that it is even more wonderful to be used of God to save a person's eternal soul by telling them about Jesus.

[6:58] Tonight we're going to be teaching from 1 Peter on the greatness of salvation and the joy of seeing an eternal life saved.

[7:11] Let me read to you our focal passage. 1 Peter 1, beginning in verse 10.

[7:25] Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.

[7:51] It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves, but you and the things that have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit, sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.

[8:16] The Holy Spirit wrote these words using Peter to accomplish that mission. It's interesting that the Spirit uses the prophets of old to describe salvation.

[8:32] And they were, of course, the spokesmen of the Old Testament. We find them here prophesying of the grace that would come.

[8:45] The prophets also searched their own inspired writings so they could better understand what there was to know about God's promised salvation.

[8:58] It can be said when it came to divine truth that the Old Testament prophets had a passion for the truth surrounding salvation.

[9:10] We find this truth throughout the Old Testament beginning with the writings of Moses, first five books, all the way to the end of Malachi, the last book in the Old Testament.

[9:24] The prophets achieved, or better, were granted salvation. Interestingly, they were saved without ever having been exposed to the comprehensive truths of salvation that comes from the Lord.

[9:44] Just as one example, they never saw Jesus. these prophets of old. There may be an exception to that.

[9:55] Abraham may have actually seen Him when the three angels came. But he certainly did not understand with fullness what he was experiencing at that moment.

[10:07] But the Lord has always had something in common with His people. He has always been gracious. In the Old Testament, He was always gracious with those who believed before the Lord Jesus came in the Incarnation.

[10:28] And afterward, He was gracious to those who believe down to our day. In the Old Testament, we read these words from the Psalms.

[10:39] This is Psalm 84.11. For the Lord God is a sun, by the way, that's S-U-N. He is a sun and a shield.

[10:53] The Lord gives grace and He gives glory. He withholds no good thing from those who walk with integrity.

[11:07] Psalm 84.11. And then in the New Testament, we read these words. John 1.14. Very famous to us and known by most.

[11:19] And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we saw His glory. Glory as of the only Son from the Father.

[11:31] Full of grace and truth. Now what is it that we mean when we use the word salvation? For our purposes tonight, salvation was really a rescue operation.

[11:50] We know for certain that men and women cannot save themselves. But God can and will save. We can use the word rescue.

[12:03] From condemnation, all who trust in His provision of a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. The specific object of our trust is in the shed blood of Jesus.

[12:20] Paul says this in the great book of Romans, Romans 5.8, but God demonstrates His own love towards us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

[12:36] You know how you can read some passage a hundred times, a thousand times, and then one day it leaps off the page at you. He died for us when we were still sinners. There's hope.

[12:52] How can God do this? When we read this in the Psalms, salvation belongs to the Lord. He owns it.

[13:03] And He can do with it what He wants. The word for salvation used in the Psalms is the same word for deliverance.

[13:19] Salvation is based upon God's design and sovereign plan. Paul said this to his spiritual son in the faith, Timothy, 2 Timothy 1.9, God saved us and called us with a holy calling not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity.

[13:56] That takes salvation back to eternity. Peter wrote to us inspired Scripture concerning salvation by looking at it from four perspectives.

[14:12] He looked at salvation from the standpoint of the prophets, the Holy Spirit, the apostles, and angels.

[14:25] There's the four. So we see at the outset that salvation was the theme of the prophets.

[14:37] As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries seeking to know what person or time.

[14:52] Now Old Testament prophets were the spokespersons for God. They had a passion for prophesying of the grace that would come.

[15:09] And they were eager to tell the truth concerning salvation. But this was not an easy task. They received the gift of salvation but had never seen it accomplished through the incarnation of Christ and His atoning sacrifice on Calvary.

[15:33] That would come later. And those Old Testament prophets would be long gone. Long gone. Long gone. Long gone. Put simply, the prophets of old had never seen Jesus or had a relationship with Him in the fullest sense of the word.

[15:55] Let me make a rather bold statement. There are men in this classroom with children and grandchildren who have been exposed to more teaching on Jesus than the Old Testament prophets.

[16:09] I kept thinking, Robert, are your girls. I'd put them up against any of those guys because they hear about Him at home. In that regard, the task of the prophets was both unique and difficult.

[16:25] The ministry of the prophets was focused on the grace that would come. Future tense. They taught about it.

[16:39] and they wrote about it but without experiencing it to a significant depth.

[16:52] By examining the writings of the Old Testament prophets, they hoped to have a deeper knowledge of the great themes of God's word.

[17:02] God's grace, and this included salvation by God's grace, God's mercy, God's forgiveness, goodness, unmerited favor, and the blessings that accrue to undeserved sinners.

[17:19] If that was not enough to make your head spin, add in the truth that the grace would extend outside the borders of Israel.

[17:35] It would include every nation on earth, meaning even Gentile people. If we do not know anything else, we know these two truths.

[17:52] Salvation has always been available to sinners. Salvation has always been available by grace.

[18:06] That's how God saves. Unmerited favor. But this would be manifested, a word that means revealed, to a greater depth, in the arrival of the Son of God in the incarnation of Christ.

[18:26] This was prophesied by many of the Old Testament prophets, but probably the greatest one that prophesied concerning Christ and the incarnation was by Isaiah in the book that bears His name.

[18:47] The book of Isaiah is often referred to as the fifth gospel. Isaiah 45 verses 20-24 24 Assemble yourselves and come.

[19:04] Draw near together, you survivors of the nations. They have no knowledge who carry about their wooden idols and keep on praying to a God that cannot save.

[19:22] Declare and present your case. Let them take counsel together. Who told this long ago? Who declared it of old?

[19:36] Was it not I, the Lord? And there is no other God besides me, a righteous God and a Savior? There is none besides me.

[19:50] Turn to me and be saved all the ends of the earth. For I am God and there is no other.

[20:02] By myself I have sworn from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return. To me every knee shall bow and every tongue shall swear allegiance.

[20:18] only in the Lord it shall be said of me you are my righteousness and strength. It is here that Isaiah the prophet reveals that God has made provision for the salvation of all the nations.

[20:44] Even salvation is extended to the Gentiles. And I can hear the Jews of old going the Gentiles?

[20:57] During the time of Jesus on earth the Jews referred to the Gentiles as those dogs. The prophets wanted to know about salvation and the Messiah so eagerly that they made careful searches and inquiries even of their own writings.

[21:22] They went and re-read what they had written down believing it accurately to be inspired by God. And the prophets were very interested in just who the person would be to fulfill the role of the Messiah.

[21:45] And they wanted obviously to know the time that the Messiah would arrive. I think we're more eager to know when he's coming back. The last Old Testament prophet was actually found in the New Testament a man by the name of John the Baptist.

[22:09] Even though he was born and lived his life in the New Testament era. He was the forerunner of Christ. John knew about the ministry of Jesus.

[22:22] In fact they were cousins. His mother was Elizabeth. Remember Elizabeth when Mary went to visit and the baby in her room leapt for joy? That was John the Baptist in there crying to get out.

[22:39] But John wanted to make sure that Jesus was the expected Messiah. There have been fake Messiahs coming along at an unbelievable rate.

[22:55] Hundreds of them were alive when Jesus was on earth. You know I remember when Jim Jones led those people to death and I was in the FBI then.

[23:05] we found out there were 1200 guys claiming to be the Messiah on earth in the United States at that time. But John wanted to make sure that Jesus was the expected Messiah and this eagerness to know for sure went on even after he'd been arrested by Herod and put into prison.

[23:35] So he made an inquiry of Jesus and this is recorded for us in Matthew's Gospel chapter 11 first three verses.

[23:49] When Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples he went on from there to teach and preach in their cities.

[24:01] Now when John heard even though he was in prison about the deeds of the Christ he sent word by one of his disciples meaning follower and said to him are you the one who is to come or shall we look for another?

[24:24] Even John the Baptist had some doubts and the Lord sent word back to John and said this go and tell John what you hear and see the blind receive their sight the lame walk lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear and the dead are raised up and the poor have good news preached to them and blessed is the one who is not offended by me in other words the Lord Jesus provided proof positive that he was indeed the long awaited Messiah salvation was the theme of the spirit's inspiration very interesting portion of scripture here inspired 1st

[25:35] Peter chapter 1 second part of verse 11 first part of verse 12 the spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories it was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you when the Holy Spirit spoke or had men called to such service write down their inspired words of the living God Peter reports in and he says to us these prophecies were of a twofold nature they dealt with the sufferings of Christ and with the glories that would follow now we read a number of places in the Old

[26:36] Testament concerning the suffering of the Messiah we find references to it in the Psalms Isaiah Daniel a number of verses in Zechariah we can also read about the glories that will follow in Isaiah Daniel and Zechariah these glories include truths such as the resurrection the ascension of Christ and the enthronement of Jesus Peter uses though a most interesting phrase here he speaks of the spirit of Christ within them the spirit of Christ is inseparable from the

[27:37] Holy Spirit or the spirit of God the spirit of Christ worked in the Old Testament to record the inerrant infallible and authoritative revelation of God in fact in the book of 2nd Peter we read this passage this is 2nd Peter verse 1 chapter 1 verse 21 for no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit it was made clear that what was being written was going to take place the writings testify about God's salvation and that it would be fully accomplished through Jesus Christ the

[28:39] Old Testament prophets look forward though they themselves would not witness the fulfillment of the prophecies dealing with Jesus we can say with accuracy that the Old Testament dealt with the experience of future grace and the New Testament saved people experienced past grace and the cross marked the dividing line what came before what came after salvation was the theme of the apostles preaching when they came along in the first Peter one second part of verse twelve and the things that have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven the Holy

[29:43] Spirit is in the business of inspiration and that is why we can say the Holy Spirit inspired the Old Testament prophets apostles the apostles had the fully revealed gospel of Christ as their theme for preaching and reaching the lost these things in a phrase Peter used referring to the grace that came in the person of Christ we can go all the way back to Peter's first sermon recorded in the book of Acts on the day of Pentecost here was the heart of his message Acts 2nd chapter verse 38 and 39 and Peter said to them repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of

[30:46] Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the promises for you and for your children and for all who are far off guess who that is God's living in Washington County Oklahoma we're far off everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself so it's a message of repent and be baptized and our verse speaks of those who preach the good news another way of saying the gospel gospel means good news these included the twelve and I think we have to throw in Matthias there who was later elected to replace Judas Judas was not one of those out preaching he was dead included

[31:53] Paul Barnabas Silas Timothy Philip James the half brother of Jesus Jude the half brother of Jesus Stephen and there were others that were unnamed now not all of these men were apostles in the fullest sense of say Paul or of the original twelve and I'm including Matthias in there some had not seen the risen Christ that was one of the requirements to be an apostle you had to have seen the resurrected Jesus I had a guy throw that up to me one time well Paul never saw him I said did you ever read about the road to Damascus he did see him right before he was blinded he saw him very well these were messengers of the gospel even those who are not full apostles and they were empowered by the

[33:03] Holy Spirit Paul also speaks of this reality in 1st Corinthians chapter 2 verses 1 to 5 and I when I came to you brothers did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom for I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified and I was with you in my weakness and in fear and much trembling and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom but in demonstration of the spirit and of power so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God and salvation is also the theme of the angels an examination by angels verse 12 things into which angels long to look angels are fascinated with saved people they're fascinated with us all true

[34:36] Christians long to experience eternal holiness and experience glory we desire to have fellowship with the trinity just as angels do but angels wonder what is it like to experience the grace and glory of salvation what is it like to experience the forgiveness of sin through the atoning sacrifice of Christ Jesus never died for an angel Peter indicates that angels are continually looking with fascination into salvation's greatness though angels do not experience redemption they do have an amazing interest in it this is captured in the fifth chapter of the book of revelation starting in verse seven and he went that's

[35:56] Jesus and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne that's the father and when he had taken the scroll the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the lamb each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense which are the prayers of the saints and they sang a new song and here's what they sang and I'm going to read it I'm not going to sing it worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals for you were slain and by your blood you ransomed people for

[36:57] God from every tribe and language and people and nation and you've made them a kingdom and priests to our God and they shall reign on the earth and John wrote and he says then I looked and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels many myriads and myriads and thousands and thousands saying with a loud voice worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing here is dr.

[38:01] macarthur's ending of this lesson let it be ours as well no matter how difficult life's trials are christians can face them triumphantly because of the greatness of God's grace in giving them a salvation the prophets studied the Holy Spirit inspired the apostles preached and the angels continue to investigate down to our day amen let's close with a word of prayer gracious God and father of the Lord Jesus we thank you that the spirit of God has written and preserved the scriptures and that we can learn from them

[39:05]  Lord be with us this week bring us back safely next Monday be with all those who couldn't be here be with those that are hurting and in hospitals here among our own membership Lord we ask all this in the blessed name of Jesus amen