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Well, my wife sent me an article, and normally, you know, I use funky stuff to introduce what I'm going to talk about. And I thought, well, why should today be different? It's an article in Newsweek, and a man named A .J. Jacobs, an author, wanted to know how difficult it would be to follow every rule in the Bible.
I read that, and I thought, that guy's not too smart. So he found himself growing his beard. Now this is the entire Bible. So he's, you know, Old Testament bound here. Found himself growing his beard, struggling not to curse, and asking strangers for permission to stone them for adultery.
That could create some issues for you. He spent the year carrying around a stapled list of more than 700 rules and prohibitions identified in the Bible. And he also consulted with religious leaders, and this kind of tells you where he's coming from.
Religious leaders. And he spent some time with the Amish, Hasidic Jews, and Jehovah's Witnesses. You know, and you could just argue, hey, he might as well have gone to the legalists, the legalist plus, and the ultra-legalists.
So they had this short little interview, and I'm just going to give you a snippet of that. Newsweek. It has been over a year since your experiment ended, and you shaved your beard. How's the life of sin?
Mr. Jacobs, it's all right. I miss my sin-free life. Now listen to this. But I guess I was never sin-free. I was able to cut down on my coveting maybe 40%, but I was still a coveter. Flat screen TVs, the front yard of my friend in the suburbs, a better cell phone, higher Amazon rankings, because he is an author.
He says, I live in New York. I work in publishing. So there's a lot of coveting, lying, and gossiping. Newsweek. What if any roles are you still following? Well, he says, I'm not Gandhi or Angelina Jolie, but I made some strides.
The experience changed me in big ways and small ways. There's a lot about gratefulness in the Bible, and I would say I'm more thankful. I focus on the hundred little things that go right in a day instead of the three or four things that go wrong.
And I love the Sabbath. There's something I really like about a forced day of rest. Now this is interesting. He says, also during the experiment, I wore a lot of white clothes. Because Ecclesiastes says, let your garments always be white.
And I loved it. Wearing white made me happier. Now there's somebody who has totally missed the point. Absolutely missed the point. He did get one thing right, though. We cannot obey the law of God. We can't.
We're sinners. And the good news is that God chooses sinners. The Holy Spirit sets them apart, and the Lord Jesus Christ redeems them. That's the good news. And as Peter goes on to tell his readers, encouraging them in the midst of a difficult world, he gives them these exhortations, these encouragements, so that in times of difficulty, they can rejoice.
They can think on the promises of God. They can think of what awaits them in the future, not the difficulties that they have now. And may I say to you that if you're focused on plasma TVs, you've got some real issues.
But I have a question for you. Have you ever heard the saying, you know, that someone was born with a silver spoon in their mouth? What does that mean? Of course, it means that they were born with privilege.
They were born rich. My question, my initial question to you would be, were you born rich? Were you born into a privileged home? Did you ride the red carpet into the Ivy League schools? Was that your life?
Can I just tell you this morning, as we look at 1 Peter 1 10 -12, that if by the grace of God you now belong to Christ, you are in fact a child of privilege. And we're going to see those privileges this morning.
1 Peter 1 10 -12, again, this entire book, and it's important to think of the theme, encouragement in times of difficulty, what to think about when you're being persecuted, when things are going wrong, when you feel, when you're suffering physically, when you're suffering mentally, when you're suffering emotionally, what do you do?
1 Peter 1 10. As to this salvation, in other words, the salvation that he's talking about is everything that's gone before. 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 preach the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.
Now this morning, I want us to see three particular privileges given to believers, children of the living God, so that you will be challenged to rightly think about the blessings poured out upon you by the sovereign Lord of creation.
Not just this morning for a few minutes while we're together, but every single day, and especially, especially in times of difficulty. It is easy to become discouraged or downcast, depressed, whether it's because of a situation at work, at home, at school, with friends, or even with family.
And again, I believe our tendency is to focus on our difficulties, our light afflictions, and to forget the manifold grace of God. Don't fall for that. If you belong to Christ, you have something better than silver, or as I said last week, better than gold.
And yet you need to be constantly reminded of it. And when you're not here, you need to constantly remind yourself. Our outline this morning, three privileges. Number one, you are more privileged than the prophets of the Old Testament.
Number two, you are privileged to hear messengers proclaiming the truth. And number three, you are more privileged than the angels. First, you are more privileged than the prophets. As I said in verse 10, as to this salvation, look at that there in verse 10.
What salvation is Peter talking about? And the answer is, of course, that he's talking about everything that he's been proclaiming up to this point. By pointing to the work of God in the lives of believers, and reminding these that he's writing to, of the security of salvation because of the sovereignty of God in electing them, in choosing them, sanctifying them, of setting them apart, and redeeming them.
I had a question this week. Somebody emailed me and said, you know, if I'm saved, how can I know if I'm one of the elect? Let me just quickly answer that from the pulpit by saying, if you're saved, you are one of the elect.
If you're one of the elect, you may not be saved. You say, how is that possible? Because you could be elect and not believed yet. Once you believe, you can know that you're one of the elect because you believe.
And I'll probably get some more questions about that this week. But what better comfort, what better cause for rejoicing is there than knowing that this life is short, and heaven is both assured by the power of God, and that it lasts forever?
Life is short, but heaven is forever, and it is promised to God's children by God himself. That is a great comfort. Now, these prophets, these Old Testament prophets foretold of a grace that was to come.
Again, look at the text. As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come. Now, does that mean that they weren't living under grace? Were they bound to...were they saved by the law somehow?
And the answer, of course, is no. God has only and ever saved men by grace and grace alone. The law was never intended to save, excuse me, was never intended to save, but to show that complete obedience, as with our friend, Mr. Jacobs, is, was, and always will be, impossible.
We cannot obey the law of God. Galatians 3 .24 says this, therefore, the law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ so that we may be justified by faith. Tutor, the word tutor just simply means a guardian, one who sets limits on behavior, sets the acceptable parameters.
So, the idea then is that the law just set the boundaries. It let us know what we could and couldn't do, and guess what? We never kept it. Could not keep it. Hebrews 11 is an entire chapter extolling the believers, praising the believers of the Old Testament.
Why? Because they perfectly obeyed the law? No, for their faith. In fact, what does Hebrews 11 say? Without faith, it is impossible to please God. What about keeping all the commandments? Without faith, it is impossible to please God.
Paul writes in Romans 3 .28, for we maintain that a man is justified by faith, apart, separate from the works of the law. The Old Testament itself is replete with references to the grace of God. What did Noah find?
Favor with God because he was completely obedient? Doesn't say that. But Noah found favor or grace, chesed, in the eyes of the Lord, his unmerited favor. But the grace that these Old Testament prophets were looking for was a particular event of grace.
It was the coming of the Messiah. The grace was not a generic grace, but directed toward believers. Look at the words there, to you. Was a grace coming to you? What was that grace? What was it if it was not the finished work of Jesus on the cross?
We can see that they were looking for the Messiah, for the anointed one, as we examine what they were doing. Look back at the text. The prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries.
First, they were making careful searches. That term just means that they exerted effort to find out or to learn. They investigated. They were like detectives on a case, looking through everything, searching for clues, trying to figure out the coming of Messiah.
Secondly, they made inquiries. They were searching diligently. They were seeking intently. One writer says that this is like miners digging from valuable metals. They were searching through everything, looking, digging, trying to find it.
MacArthur rightly observes, if they had no revelation about a future grace brought by Messiah, they would not have sought further information about it. For one does not ask questions about something he is unaware of.
Isn't that right? You can't ask for more information about a topic if you don't have any in the first place. If you don't know that something exists, if you've never heard of it, you're not going to ask about it.
Now, may I challenge you? The Old Testament prophets did not have God's full revelation. Most of them didn't even have all the Old Testament. And yet they wrestled with it to try and comprehend the fullness of God's word.
They wanted to get everything that God's word said. You have the complete revelation of God. Do you wrestle with it? Do you diligently make inquiries? Are you like a miner digging for valuable metals?
Are you like a detective looking for clues? Or do you figure that that's just for the Old Testament prophets, for pastors, for theologians? You have such a privilege. Just in the pages of Scripture, what a privilege you have.
It is one the Old Testament prophets did not have. And again, are you exercising it fully? Are you utilizing that privilege fully? Now, how do we know that they were limited in their knowledge of the Messiah?
Peter tells us what the prophets were investigating. Look at verse 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.
Think about it. Here were these saved and godly men used by God to proclaim and to record his word. They believed it, but they could not figure out who the Messiah was or when he would come. That's what that phrase means, person.
They wanted to know who the person was. And even the last Old Testament prophet wondered about these things. Who was the last Old Testament prophet? John the Baptist is right. Please turn to Luke chapter 7.
Luke chapter 7. I'm going to be reading verses 18 to 22. And seeing the works of Jesus, Luke 7 verses 18 through 22, the disciples of John reported to him, John the Baptist, reported to him about all these things.
Summoning two of his disciples, John sent them to the Lord saying, are you the expected one? What does that mean? Are you the anointed one? Are you the Messiah? Or do we look for someone else? When the men came to him, they said, and meaning coming to Jesus, that's why the H is capitalized there.
They said, John the Baptist has sent us to you to ask, are you the expected one? Or do we look for someone else? At that very time, he cured many people of diseases and afflictions and evil spirits. And he gave sight to many who were blind.
And he answered and said to them, go to John, or go and report to John what you have seen and heard. The blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have the gospel preached to them.
In answering John the Baptist, Jesus specifically quoted Old Testament prophecies to confirm to him, to John the Baptist, that he was the long anticipated Messiah. Now, how do I know that? I mean, look at that passage there in Luke.
Look towards the end there, where Jesus is telling the disciples what to say. See how many things are capitalized there? They're written in all capital letters. That's because those are quotations from the Old Testament.
Jesus is saying, these are the Old Testament prophecies I fulfilled while you've been with me. Go tell John what you've seen. Because John, being an Old Testament prophet, will understand that the fulfillment of these prophecies means what?
That I am the Messiah. So Jesus is telling the disciples of John the Baptist, you go tell him that I am the one. Notice also back in 1 Peter, in verse 11, there is a rather unique phrase here, the spirit of Christ.
In fact, when I searched for it, I could find only one other place in the New Testament. The spirit of Christ, what does that mean? The prophets had this spirit within them. Who was that spirit? Was the same spirit, or it was the spirit moving them to foretell or to prophesy about Messiah, the chosen one, the lamb who would take away the sins of the world.
It was, in fact, the same spirit who moved them while writing scripture. As Peter would write in 2 Peter. Who is that? It's the Holy Spirit. Commentator Hebert says this, for Peter and his readers, the spirit of Christ was a natural Christian identification of the Holy Spirit, whom they had experienced as followers of the Messiah.
He was the spirit of Yahweh who inspired the prophets. When Peter said to his readers, it was the spirit of Christ working in these prophets, his readers would have had no doubt that this was the Holy Spirit, the one who led them to write about the coming Messiah.
Now, these prophets did not know who or when. Those were the things that they were trying to figure out. They wanted to know who the Messiah was going to be and when he was going to come. But they knew much of what was going to happen.
Look again at verse 11, as he, referencing the Holy Spirit or the spirit of Christ, predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. They knew that this Messiah was going to suffer and that he was going to be glorified.
And when we think of the sufferings of Christ, they were foretold. They were in the Old Testament. And isn't that one of the amazing things about the Bible? God says things and then he does what? He brings them to pass.
God says something will happen and it does. And now think about this, Jesus, existing in the form of God, always being God, did he know what was going to happen? He absolutely knew what was going to happen and yet he came anyway.
He came anyway, he suffered anyway. Isaiah 53 verses 7 to 11, a passage with which we're very familiar. Isaiah 52, starting at about verse 15 and then on through 53, known as a passage. Of course, as you've heard many times, the numbers are not inspired.
They were put there much later for ease of use. But Isaiah 53 verses 7 to 11, talking about the suffering servant, the Messiah to come. He was oppressed. Think about Jesus as I read this. He was oppressed and he was afflicted.
Yet he did not open his mouth, he did not defend himself. Like a lamb that is led to slaughter and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment, he was taken away.
And as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due. His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet he was with a rich man in his death.
Because he had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in his mouth. But the Lord, Yahweh, the covenant God, was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief. If he would render himself as a guilt offering, he will see his offspring, his spiritual children, he will prolong his days.
And the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in his hands. As a result of the anguish of his soul, he will see it and be satisfied. By his knowledge, the righteous one, my servant, will justify the many as he will bear their iniquities.
Jesus Christ justified many as he bore their iniquities, their sins. The sovereign plan of God was for the second person of the Trinity to come and to suffer, to redeem a people as we saw earlier in 1 Peter.
Acts 2 verses 22 and 23 says this, Peter preaching. Men of Israel, listen to these words. Jesus, excuse me, the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through him in your midst.
Just as you yourselves know, this man delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death. He's preaching to a group of Jews and he says, listen, you turn him over to the Romans.
They put him to death. You're responsible, the Romans are responsible, and God planned it from the beginning. But look, Acts 2 .37, this is the interesting part. Acts 2 .37, Jewish audience, understanding, knowing the Old Testament.
Listen, now when they heard this, they were okay with it. They were pierced to the heart. Why? Why? Because they knew the Old Testament. They knew the Old Testament prophecies. They knew that what Jesus had suffered was exactly what the Messiah was going to suffer.
They were pierced to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brethren, what shall we do? The spirit worked on their hearts, used the truthfulness, the fulfillment of prophecy to convict them of their sinfulness and to save them.
So the sufferings of Christ, he suffered more than any man, was disfigured beyond recognition as a result of his sufferings. But notice, we go on with the text, it talks about the glories that would follow, and literally that phrase should read, the after these glories.
After what? After these what? After these sufferings, right? After he experienced several sufferings, he would experience several glories. It's the only time the plural of glory appears anywhere in the New Testament.
What were those glories? Well, think about the subsequent things that are described about Jesus. His resurrection from the dead, certainly a glory. His ascension into heaven, certainly a glory. His being seated on the right hand of the Father, where is the right hand of the Father, where he intercedes on our behalf, certainly a glory.
His soon return, where he will come in all his glory. And his judgment of the world, where no man will question his glory. So the prophets, these Old Testament prophets, searched diligently, wanting to know who the Messiah would be and when he would appear.
But they did know what? That he would suffer, and they also knew that he would be glorified. Now look at verse 12. It was revealed to them, to these Old Testament prophets, that they were not serving themselves but you.
Now, it was revealed, as is obvious here even in the English, is passive, meaning they didn't inherently know it, it wasn't something that they figured out themselves, but it was revealed to them by the Spirit.
They were not able to, they would not be able to grasp everything that God, the Holy Spirit revealed to them, but these would be revealed in a later time so that they were writing some things that were meaningful to them and some things that wouldn't be completely fulfilled until much later.
They knew that they were serving believers down the road. But the Messiah that they longed for and knew would come, has come. Jesus is that Messiah, the one whom they prophesied about. They would have been joyful to have been living at this time.
And how do I know that? Well, I just, I can look at an Old Testament saint like Simeon in Luke 2. I love this passage. There's a song about this. I love this passage because it shows the joy of an Old Testament saint seeing his Messiah, Luke 2, 25 to 32.
And there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death, that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Christ, the Lord's Messiah, the Lord's chosen one.
And he came in the Spirit into the temple. And when the parents brought in the child Jesus to carry out for him the custom of the law, then he, talking about Simeon, took him into his arms and blessed God.
Verse 29, now, Lord, you are releasing your bond servant to depart in peace, to die in peace according to your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation in the person of Jesus Christ, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light of revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people, Israel.
Again, beginning of verse 32, all capitals. Why? A fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. Simeon got it. He had waited his whole life for the consolation that God promised. And here Jesus was, and Simeon delighted in it.
Simeon had great joy in this. How about you? Are you that content in knowing Jesus Christ? Could you leave this world satisfied because you know Jesus as your Savior? Your first privilege is that you are more privileged than the prophets.
Even though they wrote the Old Testament, you are more privileged because you have, you know more than they did. And you have Jesus as your Messiah, as your Savior. Secondly, you are privileged to hear messengers proclaiming the truth.
And this is kind of self-congratulations, by the way. Verse 12b, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preach the gospel to you. Now, how did the apostles and disciples preach the gospel before the printing of the New Testament?
They couldn't go to Romans chapter 1 and just start reading. They couldn't go to 1 Corinthians 15 and just start reading. They couldn't go through the gospels and just start reading. Well, we already saw that in Acts.
What did they do? They courted the Old Testament prophets and told their listeners that Jesus was the fulfillment of these prophecies. And that's also how Jesus preached the gospel. Look again at verse 12.
To you, through those... Well, actually, let me just say this. This is also how Jesus preached the gospel. What did he say? He said, in your hearing today, these things have been fulfilled. He constantly, as I even refer back to when he talked to John the Baptist disciples, he courted the Old Testament prophecies so that his hearers would know that he was the fulfillment of the Old Testament.
Look again at verse 12, to you, through those who preach the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Two important notes. First, the agent through whom the saving gospel is preached is who?
Or whom? The Holy Spirit. He inspired the ancient prophets to write of the Messiah, and he moves in the hearts of the elect when they hear the word of God presented to convict them of sin, to pierce their hearts, and to bring them of the love of Messiah, the Lord Jesus, just as we saw in Acts 2.
That's what the Holy Spirit does. It was the same for you. There was a time where you did not believe, and the Holy Spirit convicted you by what? The preaching of the word. You heard the gospel and you believed.
I mean, there are many times I know in my own life where I heard the gospel and I rejected it. Sometimes it wasn't presented with love, but whatever the reason was, I heard it, I rejected it. And the same thing is true for every person here, saved or unsaved.
You've heard the gospel before, and you've either rejected it, rejected it, rejected it, and then accepted it, or you've never accepted it. But if you have received Christ, it is not because you chose him, but because he chose you.
The Father chose you. The Father drew you, the Holy Spirit drew you, setting you apart to be holy. Second, it's important to note that the Holy Spirit is sent from heaven. You say, why is that important?
Because it tells us more about the working of the Trinity. Isaiah 48, verse 16, not really sure how I remember this verse, other than the fact that when the Jehovah Witnesses come to the door, this one doesn't work because they've changed this one too.
But Isaiah 48, 16, and if you divide 48 by 16, you get 3, which is the Trinity, and that's how I remember it. Come near to me. I mean, you have to do whatever you can to remember these kind of verses.
Come near to me. This is preexistent, or pre, well, this is before Jesus was born. He said, this is his voice, and this is him speaking, Isaiah 48, 16, come near to me. Listen to this. From the first I have not spoken in secret, from the time it took place, I was there.
And now the Lord God has sent me, talking about the Father, has sent me and his Spirit. The Spirit was always sent. Now, does this mean that he didn't exist in all places? No, as we talked about in Sunday school.
Psalm 139 says that he is everywhere. Jesus said of the Spirit in John 15, 26, when the helper comes, talking about the Holy Spirit again, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will testify about me.
Again, Jesus talking about the Holy Spirit, John 16, 7. But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.
Now get this, as I said in Sunday school, the Spirit, the Holy Spirit is not a lesser part of the Godhead. However, he has a different role. We can call this pneumatology 201 or trinity 101, however you want to look at it.
But just as the Son does the Father's will, over and over again, he said, I didn't come here to do my will, but to do the Father's will. The Spirit does the will of the Father and the will of the Son in pointing to Jesus.
Sometimes the workings of the triune God are a bit of a mystery, but it is one that we should long to look into. Mark 112, somebody might come up to me and say, well, wait a minute, didn't the Spirit compel or force Jesus out into the wilderness in Mark 112?
Well, it's true, but wasn't that God's plan all along for Jesus to be tempted out there? The Trinity is a difficult doctrine, but it is clear that every single person is of the Trinity, is God. And so the issue isn't, is the Holy Spirit lesser?
The issue is, what was the Holy Spirit's role? The Holy Spirit comes alongside us, leads us into truth. And here, in this case, he is sent from heaven. So we have the Holy Spirit coming from heaven. And it's by the Holy Spirit that we are convicted of sin.
It's by the Holy Spirit that we are taught. These men were commissioned by the Holy Spirit that the apostles were. And today, as we preach the Bible, as we preach the words of the prophets and of the apostles and of their immediate disciples, of their associates, we are doing what?
We are proclaiming exactly the same things that the prophets in the Old Testament did and the apostles of the New Testament did. We are preaching the word given to them by the Holy Spirit. Thirdly, our third privilege, you are more privileged than the angels.
Look again at the text. Things into which angels long to look. Now, I find this fascinating. In fact, as I broke up 1 Peter and decided how to parcel it out, this was kind of a small section, but I thought, boy, this is going to be a tricky part here.
Things into which angels long to look. I think it's fascinating. I remember the first two non-biblical books I read as a Christian, and they were about spiritual warfare. And the truth is that they were built on speculation.
I mean, they were fiction, and they weren't really all that well written from a biblical perspective, but they seemed really, really cool. And I didn't know better, and I thought, boy, this is really neat, kind of looking behind the curtain and seeing how things work.
But why was I so fascinated with this? Because I couldn't really see the angelic realm, obviously, or the demonic realm, and so I wanted to know what was going on back there. I wanted to understand what I'd never experienced, what I couldn't see.
Listen to what Wayne Grudem says about angels and their desire to see us. Though the world may think such Christians insignificant and worthy of pity or scorn, angels who see ultimate reality from God's perspective find them, talking about Christians, to be objects of intense interest, for they know that these struggling believers, believers with difficulty, are actually the recipients of God's greatest blessings and honored participants in a great drama at the focal point of universal history.
We, too, may rightly think of our Christian lives as no less privileged and no less interesting to holy angels than the lives of Peter's readers. In other words, just like Peter's readers would have fascinated the angels to look at in that same way we are.
Why? What would be about us that angels would long to look at? What things would they long to look at? What's a summary of all the marvels of salvation? The Father's election, the Spirit setting apart, the Son's redemption, the surety of our salvation.
What's so fascinating about it? Well, because angels, for one thing, cannot be redeemed. Angels can't be. Men can be, thankfully. But angels, once they've fallen, they are doomed. Jesus didn't die for angels.
Hebrews 2 .16 tells us that, for assuredly, he, talking about Jesus, does not give help to angels, but he gives help to the descendant of Abraham. So they cannot be redeemed because Jesus didn't die for them.
And secondly, I mean, this is angelology 101. Angels who fall, angels who fall have no hope. Jude, verse 6, says,. And angels who did not keep their own domain fell, sinned, but abandoned their proper abode.
He, talking about God, has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day. Angels cannot be redeemed. Jesus didn't die for them, and when they fall, they have no hope. So they're sitting there, and again, we don't know what angels' existence is like.
But they're sitting there, and they see these Christians being redeemed. It's fascinating to them. It's fascinating. Sin is outside of their experience, and so is redemption. They just look at it, and they long to have a better understanding of it.
But unlike angels, who have no sin nature, which is why it's so dramatic when they fall, they're not tainted by Adam in any way, so they have no sin nature. They are truly morally free. They have a free will.
They are perfectly free to obey God. And in contrast, we do not. We cannot be sinless. They can be. The Greek verb long pictures a strong interest or craving, and it is a continuous craving. They have a strong desire to know.
The second Greek verb at the end of verse 12, it's translated to look, and it literally means to stoop or bend over so as to get a better look. And so they are constantly longing, wanting, stooping, bending, trying to get a better look and figure out exactly what was going on.
But even though redemption is something they never experienced, what do they do when they see it? They rejoice in it. Luke 15, quickly, Luke 15, verse 7, Jesus talking. We have the three parables there.
Jesus says in verse 7, I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance. They rejoice. Luke 15, 10, in the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents, and they will join in the everlasting song.
They worship God. They rejoice in his work, but they long to know more about it. They're fascinated by the work of God in the lives of the redeemed. Now, in concluding, unlike our Mr. Jacobs, I would hope that no one is under the delusion that somehow you can keep the law of God.
I mean, really, he didn't do it. He didn't really even try. He just kind of measured it after he made up a list of things. And actually, I would say that he rather made a mockery of trying. And could I just tell you that what is the hope in that?
If I just give you a list of things to do and tell you to do that, if I just say to you, here's the good news. Here's some encouragement. Be good. That's no encouragement. There's no hope in that. The hope Peter was writing about is contained in the fact that in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, we have the truth fully revealed, which was partially hidden to the prophets in spite of their diligence and in spite of the fact that they wrote the inspired word of God.
The gospel has been made known to you. God has sent the gospel to you. God has revealed Jesus Christ to you. And that is a second privilege and one not fully understood by the angels. As the chosen, as the elect, as the set apart and the redeemed by the blood of Christ, children of the living God, you have privileges and in them, in these privileges, you have hope.
You are more privileged than the prophets. They long to know what you have revealed to you by the grace of God. You are privileged to hear messengers proclaiming the truth. So many in this world have not believed and have not heard the truth.
But by the grace of God, you have done both. And third, you are more privileged than the angels. They long to fully comprehend what is a reality in the life of every believer, the redemption of sinners.
My challenge to you this morning, are you living in light of the privileges your father has provided you? I remember once I had a woman who said she was a Christian tell me that she was a child of the king.
And by that, she simply meant that she had access to wealth. As children of the living God, you have been given privileges. Not the proverbial silver spoon in your mouth. But you have been privileged beyond measure by virtue of God causing you to be born again to a living hope.
Are you letting circumstances, trials, or even sin, the cares of this life, rob you of your heavenly joy? Rob you of the hope of heaven? Don't do that. Don't do that. Let nothing steal your hope, obscure your hope.
Focus on your hope. Let's pray. Our father, you have indeed privileged us, your children, with blessings unknown before the coming of the Savior. Unknown by many still in this world. Father, you've blessed us with things that angels long to fully understand.
Would you so focus our minds on the great things that you have done on our behalf that the difficulties, trials, even our own sins, Father, as grievous as they may be to us, would not steal from us the joy of our salvation, the hope that you have secured for us in heaven.
Lord, would you keep our focus on the greatness of the gifts that you have given us? And none greater than your son, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.