Steve Shepherdhttp://www.sermoncentral.com/Sermon.asp?SermonID=133594

1 Peter 1:10 NET Concerning this salvation,

the prophets who predicted the grace that

would come to you searched and

investigated carefully. 11 They probed into

what person or time the Spirit of Christ

within them was indicating when he testified

beforehand about the sufferings appointed

for Christ and his subsequent glory.

12 They were shown that they were serving

not themselves but you, in regard to the

things now announced to you through those

who proclaimed the gospel to you by the

Holy Spirit sent from heaven — things

angels long to catch a glimpse of.

Professional golfer Tommy Bolt (known as Thunder

Tommy - March 31, 1916 – August 30, 2008) was playing in Los Angeles and had a caddy with a

reputation of constant chatter. Before they teed off, Bolt told him, "Don’t say a word to me. And if I ask you something, just answer

yes or no." During the round, Bolt found the ball next to a tree, where he had to hit under a branch,

over a lake and onto the green.

He got down on his knees and looked through

the trees and sized up the shot. "What do you

think?" he asked the caddy. "Five-iron?"

"No, Mr. Bolt," the caddy said.

"What do you mean, not a five-iron?" Bolt

snorted. "Watch this shot."

The caddy rolled his eyes.

"No-o-o, Mr. Bolt.―

But Bolt hit it and the ball stopped about two

feet from the hole.

He turned to his caddy, handed him the five-iron and said, ―Now what do you think

about that? You can talk now.‖

"Mr. Bolt," the caddy said, "that wasn’t your ball."

Dumb, dumb, dumb. He wasn’t watching or thinking. He was only interested in playing the game. He wasn’t listening to the one

person who could help him with his game.

And so it is with us in life. We often blindly go

our own way, ignoring the one person who can

direct us and bless us in life. And we know who

that person is. The Lord said, Come to me, all

you who are weary and burdened, and I will

give you rest. Matthew 11:28 NET His brother

James said, But if anyone is deficient in

wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all

generously and without reprimand, and it will

be given to him. James 1:5 NET

Concerning this salvation of ours,

there is only one way,

one approach

&

that’s through Jesus.

But many people ignorantly deny Him.

Many people live in ignorance of the God

who created them and wants to save them.

One day the preacher visited a Sunday school class. He asked, ―Who broke down the walls of

Jericho?‖ ―I didn’t, mister. Honest!‖ a startled little boy blurted. The SS teacher said, ―This

boy is honest. I can vouch for him. He didn’t do it.‖

Later, the preacher recounted the experience to an elder. The elder replied, ―Hmmm, sounds incriminating. But I’ve known the boy and his

teacher for a long time. I’m sure neither one is guilty.‖

Appalled by this time, the preacher took the matter to the Chairman of the Board. The chairman said, ―Why make a mountain out of a molehill? Let’s have the walls repaired

and charge it to upkeep.‖

The worse ignorance of all is spiritual ignorance.

And this is the world that we live in. Spiritual ignorance abounds.

The worst of all is when people don’t recognize Jesus as the Son of God and savior of the world! Our text reveals a certain amount of spiritual ignorance,

however, it’s from the people that you would not expect.

Let’s consider the spiritual ignorance of some we would not consider to be ignorant. 1- The prophets searched 2- The angels longed

1 Peter 1:10 NET Concerning this

salvation, the prophets who predicted the

grace that would come to you searched and

investigated carefully. 11 They probed into

what person or time the Spirit of Christ

within them was indicating when he testified

beforehand about the sufferings appointed

for Christ and his subsequent glory.

A couple had two little boys, ages 8 and 10,

who were extremely mischievous. They were

always getting into trouble and their parents

knew that, if any mischief occurred in their

town, their sons were probably involved.

The boys’ mother heard that a preacher in

town had been successful in disciplining

children, so she asked if he would speak with

her boys. The preacher agreed, but asked to

see them individually.

So the mother sent her 8-year-old first, in the morning, with the older boy to see the preacher

in the afternoon.The preacher, a huge man with a booming voice, sat the younger boy down and asked

him sternly, "Where is God?―They boy’s mouth dropped open, but he made

no response, sitting there with his mouth hanging open, wide-eyed. So the preacher

repeated the question in an even sterner tone, "Where is God!!?" Again the boy made no

attempt to answer.

So the preacher raised his voice even more and shook his finger in the boy’s face and bellowed, "WHERE IS GOD!?" The boy screamed and bolted from the room, ran directly home and dove into his closet,

slamming the door behind him. When his older brother found him in the closet, he asked,

"What happened?―The younger brother, gasping for breath,

replied, "We are in BIG trouble this time. God is missing –

and they think WE did it!"

Those little boys were so spiritually ignorant

that they didn’t even know who God was.

And it’s hard to believe that could happen in

America.

We understand, however, that there are

aborigines or uncivilized people in foreign

countries who may believe in some kind of

deity but they don’t know anything about the

true and living God.

Our text reads: the prophets who predicted

the grace that would come to you searched

and investigated carefully. They probed into

what person or time the Spirit of Christ

within them was indicating when he testified

beforehand about the sufferings appointed

for Christ and his subsequent glory.

Apparently, the prophets of old searched

concerning OUR salvation.

They spoke of the grace of God that was to come in the person of Christ and yet, they

didn’t understand that grace.I don’t find this to be too startling because

there are many people in our time who don’t understand the grace of God when it comes to salvation. They have the Bible available and

yet they don’t understand. And there are some people who even go to church faithfully and still don’t understand the grace of God or the

message of salvation.

There was an elder in one church who, for

some reason, just could not grasp the

principle of God’s grace. He always had it in

his mind that a person had to live exactly

right according to scripture otherwise they

couldn’t be saved. He didn’t seem to

understand where God’s grace entered into

the picture of every person’s life.

G. W. Knight wrote: When a person works

an eight-hour day and receives a fair day’s

pay for his time, that is a wage.

When a person competes with an opponent

and receives a trophy for his performance,

that is a prize.

When a person receives appropriate

recognition for his long service or high

achievements, that is an award.

But when a person is not capable of earning a wage, can win no prize, and deserves no award - yet receives such a gift anyway -that is a good picture of God’s unmerited favor. This is what we mean when we talk

about the grace of God.―the prophets…searched and investigated

carefully‖ If they ―searched and investigated carefully‖

then what about us?

93% of Americans who own a Bible, half have never read it. Only 18% of those who say they are born-again Christians read the

Bible every day.

John Quincy Adams said: ―I have for many years made it a practice to read through the Bible once a year. My custom is to read four or five chapters every morning immediately

after rising from my bed.

It employs about an hour of my time, and

seems to me the most suitable manner of

beginning the day. In what light soever we

regard the Bible, whether with reference to

revelation, to history, or to morality, it is an

invaluable and inexhaustible mine of

knowledge and virtue.‖

George Muller (1805-1898) was a Prussian-born English evangelist and philanthropist. A man of faith and prayer, he established

orphanages in Bristol and founded the Scriptural Knowledge Institution for Home

and Abroad.

When God put it into the heart of George Muller to build these orphanages, he had only two shillings (50 cents) in his pocket.

Without making his wants known to any man,

but to God alone, over a million, four hundred

thousand pounds ($7,000,000) were sent to

him for the building and maintaining of these

orphan homes. There were five immense

buildings of solid granite, capable of

accommodating two thousand orphans. In all

the years since the first orphans arrived the

Lord had sent food in due time, so that they

had never missed a meal for want of food.

Muller said: ―The first three years after my

conversion I neglected the Word of God.

Since then, I have read the Bible through

100 times, and each time with increasing

delight. When I begin it afresh, it always

seems like a new book to me. I look upon it

as a lost day when I have not had a good

time over the Word of God.‖

Like small children who can’t understand

what mom and dad do in life so the old

testament prophets did not understand

exactly what God was doing but they did

know that something good was going to

happen and they searched intently to find

out. And we, too, need to keep

searching, learning and seeking God’s will

and wisdom.

12 They were shown that they were serving

not themselves but you, in regard to the

things now announced to you through those

who proclaimed the gospel to you by the

Holy Spirit sent from heaven — things

angels long to catch a glimpse of.

A Grandmother was talking to her young

grandson, trying to explain the dangers of

smoking. ―Now Johnny,‖ she said, ―you have to

promise Grandma that, once you’re a grown

man, you will never smoke, and never drink.‖

―Never, Grandma?‖ asked little Johnny. ―Never,

boy, not even once,‖ replied the grandmother.

With his eyes wide as saucers, Johnny asked

―But won’t I get thirsty?‖

Obviously, that little boy didn’t understand and

there are many things that children don’t

understand. But what about those who are

supposed to understand and don’t?

Even ―things angels long to catch a glimpse

of.”

How could this be? Don’t angels live in heaven

with God? How could they not know about

man’s salvation on planet earth? Apparently,

they have limited knowledge just like humans.

The philosopher Freud once said to a dear

woman friend: ―You know, for more than 30

years I have been engaged in the deepest

researches into the mysterious workings of

the human personality. Yet there is one

question I cannot answer, and never will be

able to—what does a woman really want?‖

Gen. Douglas MacArthur said: The first section was studying the time-space relationship later

formulated by Einstein as his Theory of Relativity. The text was complex and, being unable to comprehend it, I committed the

pages to memory. When I was called upon to recite, I solemnly reeled off, almost word for

word, what the book said. Our instructor, Colonel Fieberger, looked at me somewhat

quizzically and asked, "Do you understand this theory?"

It was a bad moment for me, but I did not hesitate in replying, "No, sir." You could have heard a pin drop. I braced myself and waited.

And then the slow words of the professor: "Neither do I, Mr. MacArthur. Session

dismissed." There are many things in life that we don’t

understand and may never understand. And even so-called smart people or intelligent

people don’t know everything or have all the answers.

No doubt, that Bill Gates of Microsoft fame,

is a very smart man. He’s made billions of

dollars from his company and to his benefit,

has donated millions and perhaps billions to

helping needy people. So be it. But I

suspect that as far as intelligence goes his

stops when it comes to spiritual matters,

that is, the will of God and the Bible.

In a November 2005 PBS interview by

David Frost, when asked if he believed in

God, Gates replied: "In terms of doing

things I take a fairly scientific approach to

why things happen and how they happen. I

don’t know if there’s a god or not, but I think

religious principles are quite valid."

As smart as Bill Gates is, he still doesn’t understand the truth about God. And that

makes us and the angels far ahead of him!

Even though angels don’t understand some things and we don’t know why, they still

have the right attitude. THEY ―LONG TO CATCH A GLIMPSE OF‖ THESE ―THINGS‖ OR TO KNOW THESE

―THINGS.‖

What about our longing or desire? Is it God-

centered, Christ-centered,

Bible-centered or is it merely

worldly-centered?

Ephesians 3:10 NET The purpose of this

enlightenment is that through the church the

multifaceted wisdom of God should now be

disclosed to the rulers and the authorities in

the heavenly realms.

It is through the church that God’s wisdom

of salvation is being revealed! I suspect that

angels attend every church service there is!

They are wanting to know about the

mystery of the gospel. WHAT ABOUT US?

Are we eager to learn? Do we want to know

more about God and Christ and the gospel?

Are we as faithful and as inquisitive as

angels?

C.S. Lewis gave us the following insight: "Our Lord finds our desires not too strong,

but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition, when infinite joy is offered to us, like an ignorant child who wants to go

on making mud pies in the slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer

of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."

Lewis is saying that we are often satisfied

by the things of the world. Instead of

searching for the deep things of God we are

content with making mud pies when we

could be building the kingdom of God!

Henry Ford once said: "Anyone who stops

learning is old, whether this happens at

twenty or at eighty. Anyone who keeps on

learning not only remains young but

becomes constantly more valuable,

regardless of physical capacity."

And we might add that anyone who stops

learning about God and Christ have

stopped growing, loving, and serving.

Concerning this salvation of ours, we must

continue to learn and grow and serve.