The Privilege of Our Salvation

 

 

"¹⁰ As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, ¹¹ seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. ¹² It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things into which angels long to look."

I Peter 1:10-12

 

Good Morning my beloved,

 

Welcome to worship this Lord's day! We're so glad to have our brothers and sisters from around the world here with us today. Please know, that we continue to lift all of you up in our prayers. We would  ask that you would do the same for us. We are so grateful for those of you who have been sharing the ministry website with all of your family and friends. May God's blessing be upon each and every one of you. We pray that God's Word will reach those who desperately need to hear it, for Christ's sake and God's glory.

 

It’s easy for us to lose perspective when we're going through challenges, feeling like you're alone in a world that is set against you. I want you to know that whatever challenge or struggle you are going through right now, it’s nothing that your salvation can’t get you through. When disappointments and the issues of life come at you fast and hard, focus on your salvation and praise!

 

I've heard many Christians say that they do not have any joy in their lives, their joy in life is their friends, their families, or their careers. I fear that for too many believers, salvation is nice, but not necessary. It’s not the essential core without which life would disintegrate. I believe that for every Christian, the joy in our life had ought to be in our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and the salvation that He has provided. 

 

Life is full of issues, we all experience problems. Not only do we all experience problem, but Christians particularly due to the increasingly hostile and persecuting world in which we live. More than ever, we need look to the salvation of our souls. I cannot perceive a word as blessed, as hopeful, as comforting, or as reassuring as the word "salvation." 

 

We have cultivated a society that believes personal fulfillment, ultimate happiness comes from things such as financial security, material possessions, status, success and achievement, or relationship with someone else. However, most often, these people who have these things and in great abundance, are generally still dissatisfied with an unfulfilled life, lacking meaning and a true purpose. Their personal relationships are often superficial and shallow. Even though they are surrounded by people, they experience a profound sense of loneliness, longing to feel some real connection.  

 

In order to find all of these things, and so much more, we need to look no further than Jesus Christ.

 

Let us pray.

 

Heavenly Father,

 

Father, we thank You for Your Word for us today. Such a rich and powerful portion of Scripture. May we always a passion and hunger for Your Word. Fill our hearts with a desire for Christian fellowship.

Lord, we pray that even in the midst of trials, we would never lose our perspective of the glorious reality of our salvation.  Thank You for the reassurance of just us how secure our salvation in Christ truly is.

 

Father, thank You for the calling a wretched man like me to the ministry, it is a day I'll never forget. Such a high calling, one of which I am so unworthy, and undeserving, thank You for the honor and great privilege. Thank You for the wonderful flock that You have entrusted me with. Nothing can compare to the greatness of pointing the lost to Christ, the Savior of eternal souls.

 

Father, I pray that You would touch the hearts of those who have not yet come to Christ, draw them unto Yourself, that even one more might know true saving faith. Lord, speak to the hearts who have come to think Your church is an elite social club, rekindled their hearts and remind them that we are saved to to share the love of Christ with the lost and dying world.

In Christ's name

Amen

 

Today's Message: The Privilege of Our Salvation

 

God has a sure-fire method of getting our attention, to remind us of the greatness of our salvation, that He is more than enough. He puts us in the fires of affliction! As believers, we have the responsibility to set our hearts toward the cross and the things of Christ.

 

Opening your Bibles with me to I Peter chapter 1, we come to verses 10 through 12. Peter’s readers were enduring affliction, they were hated, some were facing martyrdom for their faith. They have been blamed for the burning of Rome. Peter has been telling them that no matter how severe the persecution, no matter how painful the rejection, you can always look ahead to the salvation of your souls. Peter is really opening up his heart to reality of salvation, in this wonderful epistle. Peter is celebrating salvation.

 

I invite you to follow along with me as I read to set the text in our minds, as we prepare our hearts for what the Spirit has to say to us. I Peter 1:10-12.

"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 the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things into which angels long to look."

 

Our salvation is great because of Jesus Christ, our Savior, who purchased it. It is great because of the dramatic difference, the incredible transformation that it produces in a person's life. But Peter, through the guidance of Holy Spirit, rather than focusing on the greatness of salvation through the eyes of the recipient,  takes a closer look at the greatness of salvation through the eyes of those Who brought it. The Old Testament prophets who proclaimed the message, the Holy Spirit who inspired the message, the Apostles who were the New Testament gospel preachers and the angels.

 

In verses 10 and 11, he says "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 the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. " Peter uses the word grace, as a synonym for the salvation which we have received but won’t completely understand until Christ returns.  Here, he is demonstrating the greatness of our salvation by how the prophets viewed it. They studied their own writings in order to know all they could about the promised salvation. 

I want to pause for a moment on the word "grace" for a minute, because it is an important word. In fact, Peter uses ten times in his epistle: 1:2, 10, 13; 2:19-20; 3:7; 4:10; 5:5, 10, 12. Grace is a widely misunderstood concept in the church today. Many Christians have confused God's grace for a laid-back Christianity that urges us not to be too hard on ourselves and not to be judgmental of others. The result is, that we end up being tolerant of all kinds of sin. Allow me to remind you, sin that the Bible strongly confronts.

 

 Grace is the unmerited of God, His undeserved kindness that He shows through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the sins of the world. You cannot appreciate God’s grace until you fully understand just how unworthy you are of such a precious gift. How undeserving you are to receive anything other than judgment of God. You need to understand just how privileged we are to receive the incomprehensible greatness of salvation.

 

The more I continue to grow in Christ, the more I see how desperately wicked I am, which makes me cling to the cross even more and celebrate the gift of God’s grace more joyously. God's great grace is the driving motivation for my obedience. God's grace reminds me that there is hope for every sinner, regardless of how great his sin! I owe Him my life. The only thing that keeps you from experiencing God’s grace is your pride.

 

In verses 10 and 11,  Peter is saying, "This salvation that you have received is the very thing that these great men of God spent their lives looking for!" From Moses to Malachi, the Old Testament prophets wanted to understand salvation. You need to understand, they had received a salvation not having fully seen its accomplishment. They received salvation without ever seeing or knowing the Savior, Jesus Christ. They were totally engrossed by the promises of salvation. The great mystery in their prophecies was that this salvation, which was to come, was a salvation that would beyond Israel to all the nations of the earth. A salvation by grace that God promised would embrace the world.

 

Don't misunderstand in thinking they "prophesied of the grace that would come," there are a number of people who make the terrible error that the Old Testament was all law and no grace. Because by nature is God gracious, He was as gracious in that age as He is in our age. God is and has always been immutably gracious.

 

From beginning to end, all prophecy in the Bible finds its fulfillment in Jesus Himself.  All of God’s Word reveals Christ to us in some way,  Christ is God’s Word to us in these last days, in this era when God is calling people into His kingdom from every nation. Salvation speaks about the act of saving. Grace speaks about the motive and it embraces God’s motive behind His saving work. 

 

All the way back in Genesis 43, "As he lifted his eyes and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother’s son, he said, "Is this your youngest brother, of whom you spoke to me?" And he said, “May God be gracious to you, my son."

 

And, in Exodus 22:27, "for that is his only covering; it is his cloak for his body. What else shall he sleep in? And it shall come about that when he cries out to Me, I will hear him, for I am gracious." Even the patriarchs were fully aware of the grace of God.

 

The prophet Jonah said in chapter 4 verse 2, "He prayed to the Lord and said, “Please Lord, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity." The prophets knew that God was gracious.

 

So, you see, even in the Old Testament, there was never a question about whether God was gracious or not. Scripture is replete with statements about the grace of God. The fact that God did not consume them for their sin was an indication of His grace. 

 

In Isaiah 45:20-22, Isaiah was announcing that He is a Savior to all the nations. Gather yourselves and come; Draw near together, you fugitives of the nations; They have no knowledge, Who carry about their wooden idol And pray to a god who cannot save. "Declare and set forth your case; Indeed, let them consult together. Who has announced this from of old? Who has long since declared it? Is it not I, the Lord? And there is no other God besides Me, A righteous God and a Savior; There is none except Me.
^"Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; For I am God, and there is no other."

 

Isaiah is prophesying that every nation will bow the knee to God, and will enter into a salvation. Look at chapter 55:1-7, "Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; And you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and delight yourself in abundance. Incline your ear and come to Me. Listen, that you may live;
And I will make an everlasting covenant with you, According to the faithful mercies shown to David.
^"Behold, I have made him a witness to the peoples, A leader and commander for the peoples. ^"Behold, you will call a nation you do not know, And a nation which knows you not will run to you,
Because of the Lord your God, even the Holy One of Israel; For He has glorified you." Seek the Lord while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the Lord, And He will have compassion on him, And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon."

 

God is saying that nations are going to come, every one can come. And, the Gentiles, who were not His people will become His people. What a profound statement. So, you need to understand, that what the prophets were writing about, is a salvation grace to come that was far larger than anything they had experienced.  They were writing about Jesus, the Messiah, who would bring a salvation, that would reach the entire world.

 

In Psalm 22, the prophesying about details His crucifixion, and in Isaiah 53, prophesying about the details His suffering. They were prophesying that the Messiah would suffer. They also prophesied that Messiah would triumph. Look at Psalm 2, verse 6 "But as for Me, I have installed My King
Upon Zion, My holy mountain." In Isaiah 9:6, "For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;
And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God" In Psalm 110:2, "The Lord will stretch forth Your strong scepter from Zion, saying,
“Rule in the midst of Your enemies."

   

Then, they prophesied the Messiah would save. He would bind up the broken-hearted and would bring salvation to the ends of the earth. That is why Jesus went to the synagogue in Nazareth and read these words from Isaiah 61, "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, Because the Lord has anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to captives And freedom to prisoners; To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord." And then, He closed the book and said, "Today the Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."

 

In Luke 24:25, when Jesus met the disciples on the road to Emmaus, they were brokenhearted because He had died, and they hadn’t really clearly understood the part about suffering and death. Jesus said "O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures"

Where did the prophets get the Scriptures? In II Peter 1:20-21, "But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God."

 

The Apostle Paul says in II Timothy 3, "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work." It was nothing less than the Spirit of Christ within them indicating the predictions about His suffering and His glory. 

 

Now, verse 12 affirms that Holy Spirit revealed this great salvation to that generation. "It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things into which angels long to look." It was revealed to them that the Old Testament prophets were not serving themselves. In other words, this whole message was not for their generation. This is very significant, I'll show you.

 

Numbers 24:17 says "I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near; A star shall come forth from Jacob, A scepter shall rise from Israel." Back as far as the Pentateuch, the Spirit of God beginning to testify about the coming Messiah.

 

We can pick up a bit more insight in Hebrews 11:13, which says "All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth." The prophesies were not for that generation, they were for a time that would come to pass. A future time,  where salvation would be accomplished and Gentiles would be involved in covenant blessing from the work of Messiah. The prophets saw the Messiah and the grace to come. Though they didn't know who, they didn't know when, they saw the salvation. It was revealed to them, all of this was the testimony of the Holy Spirit.

 

It was also the pattern of the Apostles preaching. The Apostles preached the Christ crucified, risen which means they preached who and when. They preached the gospel. That is a very relative statement, because it brings in the New Testament apostles. "In these things," are the details of the Old Testament prophecies of Christ are fulfilled. Everything that the Spirit revealed to the Old Testament prophets, "now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you." These thing the prophets longed to see. These things into which angels long to look.

 

The Apostle sums it up in I Corinthians 2:2, "For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified."

 

That beloved, is all the message I will ever have to give.  

 

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." - Romans 1:16

 

In Closing..

 

How wonderful that the angels of heaven want to take a look into this wonderful salvation which has been declared by the prophets, revealed by the Holy Spirit, and is available for all who will receive it by faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord! Although, we may not be capable of fully comprehending this, it clearly indicates the supreme importance, the limitless value of our salvation, of our redemption which the angels wish was theirs.

 

The reality of this Salvation and Living Hope, because you know what the prophets never fully knew and what the angels wish they knew, this salvation, which was held in awe and wonder by prophets and angels alike new, I believe that our response should be a new, even greater and deeper appreciation for God's plan of Redemption and Christ's saving work on the Cross!

 

May it be so.. 

 

 

And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;

the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;

The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.

Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen

 

 

 

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