The Message of the Prophets

[0:00] All right, 1 Peter, 1 Peter chapter 1, 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 10 through 12. You want to get me a water now? I can feel it coming on.

[0:14] We're 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 10 through 12 and just to remind ourselves a little bit about Peter, Peter is writing to a group of five regions, churches in these regions, and he's writing to them because they are about to undergo persecution.

[0:33] They're about to face suffering. And in some cases, many of them have already started that suffering that they are going to go through. And so my contention is that this letter that he writes to them is meant to help them understand what all God has provided for them to help them as they head through this suffering.

[0:57] And so we're here in this passage, which honestly is a, thank you, which is a little unusual. It almost feels a little bit like a parentheses, like he's, you know, thought of something and thrown some things down here under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that are sort of related.

[1:14] But I think that they are deeply related to what we have been discussing. So we'll read the passage, pray, and then get going. In 1 Peter chapter 1, beginning in verse 10.

[1:25] Concerning the 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.

[1:46] It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you in 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.

[2:07] Let's pray. Father, what we need this morning is we need for your Holy Spirit to illuminate our minds about what that passage meant as Peter wrote it.

[2:21] And then to be able to, under the illumination of the Spirit, take that truth and apply it to our lives. So I pray you help us do that. And I pray that you would help us understand and know the truth and then empower us to live it out.

[2:39] And we pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. I think it might have been some hurricane, something, another six, seven years ago.

[2:54] It was supposed to be coming towards Port Lavaca, but it didn't. It actually went a different direction. And it was one of those things. You got to understand, sometimes living on the coast, you get all these warnings about tropical storms and hurricanes.

[3:07] and sometimes we sort of laugh at it because there's a big buildup and then there's nothing. I remember Tropical Storm Bill was going to be the worst tropical storm and it came.

[3:19] And the meme, the meme that came out of Port Lavaca was one of those plastic lawn chairs laid over on its side and said Tropical Storm Bill came but we survived. But sometimes it goes and it is dangerous.

[3:33] I would never tell anybody not to evacuate. We evacuated for Hurricane Harvey but there was one hurricane that was supposed to come our way and it really didn't, I don't know if it just didn't materialize or what. But my wife and I, we went over across the road to the beach and we just sat there and of course it was a little bit cold because of all the windy rain coming at us and it was dark and it was raining and all this sort of stuff and we were just sitting there under one of the cabanas at the table on the beach just kind of watching, enjoying the coolness of the time.

[4:03] And I don't remember what all we talked about but it was just one of those moments that as we sat there, it's just burned into my memory. And it was one of those moments that I think about often as I think about different struggles of life or whatever, I think about, you know, that was such a pleasant moment.

[4:23] It was a moment just sort of captured in time in my mind. And I've had several moments like that throughout my life. Things that just kind of emblazen upon my mind.

[4:34] And sometimes, sometimes it's a message, sometimes it's a truth that just sort of rings true. And I carry that with me for the rest of my life. And I would assume that you're at least not entirely different from me and that you have some of these moments yourself where something happened or some message came to you or some truth began to be realized in your mind and you can look back at that time, maybe not remember everything, but you know, man, that was a moment that was different for me.

[5:07] That was a moment that changed for me. I had a youth group that we were doing a youth retreat for. And I remember that the last message of this retreat was a powerful message that God used in the lives of, I mean, the entire baseball team attended our youth group, right?

[5:23] And it was interesting because at the beginning of that service, those young men were very flippant, disrespectful, trying to outdo one another and being the class clown. And by the time the message was over, two of those men gave their heart and life to Christ for the first time, three or four of them repented of their sin.

[5:42] It was just a moment that God moved and the message of that was something that they'll never forget. I saw one of them years later who he points to that as a turning point in his Christian walk.

[5:53] I say that because what we have in front of us is something that I think is a turning point and a point in time at which a message of truth comes out that changed the world.

[6:07] It didn't just change my life or your life or some experience that we had, but this literally changed the world. And it was the message of the prophets.

[6:20] And that's what Peter is getting at. He's basically saying Christians are shaped for suffering. And a part of that shaping of that suffering is the message of the prophets.

[6:31] The message of the prophets is underneath and undergirding your salvation as a Christian. And to understand it, to know how it is shaping you for suffering, Christ predicted, verse 10 and 11, and Christ preached, verse 12.

[6:49] So Christ predicted. In verse 10 and 11, the structure of this passage is a little strange, but I think that we can walk through it pretty easily. If you just think about it, I'm going to ask a couple of questions.

[7:01] And don't think to yourself the answer to the question out of anywhere else, but just look at what the text says, right? Just look at verse 10. Just look at verse 11 as I ask these questions.

[7:11] I think it will help you grasp what this passage is talking about. He says, the question I have first is, what were the prophets prophesying about? Well, the prophets were prophesying about a grace, a grace that was to come to you.

[7:28] This grace was full all in the message that the prophets preached. And it was about this grace that was to you. And he's talking to you there, to these Christians in these five regions.

[7:42] Now, the thing is, is that the passage tells us that they did something with this particular message. What did the prophets do to that prophetic message?

[7:53] It says that they searched and inquired. So it's almost like they took this thing and they just sort of opened it up and they just began to peel back the layers of this message, trying to grasp and understand something about it.

[8:08] There was something about the message that they themselves preached, that they themselves wrote down, that they were trying to get a handle on, right? So the next question I would ask is, what were they looking for?

[8:25] I mean, if they were opening up that message and they were trying to understand something, what exactly were they looking for? Well, when I read my translation a while ago, which is the English Standard Version, there's a few other translations that follow it.

[8:40] It said that they were looking for what person or what time. Now, if you have a different translation, yours said something to the effect of what time and what kind of time or what time and what circumstance.

[8:55] Well, you say, well, which is right? That's really hard to determine because the little word that's at question here is the Greek word, tis.

[9:08] The Greek word, tis. And it can be who or which. And so, like, if we had a situation here where, you know, somebody said, well, so-and-so cut off the lights.

[9:19] And there was a group of people, and I said, well, which one of them cut off the lights? I could say which one of them, and we know we're talking about a person. But if I said, which light are we turning off, then we know we're talking about a thing.

[9:29] And the problem is that this word could be used in either way. But the point of the whole thing is that if you think about what's being said here, is that if they're talking about a person, then what they're after is they're looking for something about this person that would help them to know that he's arrived.

[9:46] And if it's the time, then they're looking for something about the world around them that shows them that the season has arrived, that the time has arrived. What these prophets were after, because they were prophesying throughout the Old Testament, is they wanted to know when is the Messiah coming.

[10:04] So they would crack open their own message that they were preaching, and they would search inside of it looking for when is the Messiah coming.

[10:16] All right? Great. We got it. Well, then, the last thing, really, or a couple last things to think about is who was working with them through all of this.

[10:29] It says the Spirit of Christ. Now, that's not a different Spirit. That is the Holy Spirit. Sometimes he's called the Spirit of God. Sometimes he's called the Spirit of Christ. We can't get into why that changes at times today, because that's not our point.

[10:42] But the point is that this is the Holy Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit of God moved these prophets. He gave them dreams. He gave them visions. And they prophesied. And you say, well, who are we talking about?

[10:53] We're talking about Ezekiel. We're talking about Jeremiah and Isaiah. We're talking about Hosea. We're talking about Elijah and Elisha. We're talking about the prophets, right?

[11:05] That's who we're talking about. He moved them to give their prophetic message, whether they preached it, whether they wrote it. But then at the same time, they also began to open up to look at what they prophesied.

[11:20] Because they didn't understand everything that they had prophesied. So they were looking into it. And what exactly was this message of grace?

[11:32] It tells us in the passage what the message of the prophets was. The message of the prophets was the sufferings and the subsequent glories of Christ.

[11:46] The sufferings and the subsequent glories of Christ. So what this passage is meaning, verses 10 and 11, is that the salvation that Peter has been describing in verses 1 through 9 is what the prophets longed to grasp and understand.

[12:08] But it's the same message that they were preaching, though they didn't understand everything about it. And the application then, for us, is that he's writing to Christians who are about to experience a great amount of suffering and persecution, and he's writing to them to tell them of the true grace of God.

[12:29] And there's something about this grace being rooted back into the prophets that helps them face suffering. Well, how does that work?

[12:42] Well, let me give you two big thoughts. One is that if this is true, if the message of the prophets is the sufferings and the glories of Christ, if it's substantially, there's the word I wanted to use, if the message of the...

[13:01] Okay, are we together? Yes. If the message of the prophets is substantially the same as the sufferings and the glories of Christ, then one of the things that that means is that the story, the message of Christ's sufferings and glories is the center of all the Bible.

[13:21] It's the center of all the Bible. There's not two different messages being talked about in the Bible. There is one. And it's not as though God was looking down, saw Adam and Eve sin, and kind of went, well, now what am I going to do?

[13:39] No, it's that Christ has been the center of God's plan all along. He is the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. He even talks to his disciples in Luke's Gospel, chapter 24, in two places in this chapter.

[13:57] I want to read these to you because I think you'll begin to understand what I'm trying to mean with this. He says in verse 26, was it not necessary? Now, wait a minute.

[14:07] Before I keep reading that, this is Jesus after his resurrection, and he meets two guys walking on the road to Emmaus, and they're thinking about this crucifixion and the story or the report that Jesus has risen from the dead, and they're just walking together going like, wow, wow, wow, and they just don't understand.

[14:30] They just can't grasp it, right? Jesus walks up to them. They don't recognize him, and they say, hey, are you the only stranger here that you don't know what's going on? And Jesus says, what's going on?

[14:42] Okay, yeah, so anyway. So they tell him, and here's his response. Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?

[14:55] Isn't that interesting? He says the same words. And then verse 27, and beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them and all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

[15:07] So he preached about his own sufferings and glories from Moses, that's the first five books of the Bible, and all the prophets, which is a little different than what you might be thinking, but let's just go with that, right?

[15:19] Then at the end of this chapter, verse 44, he's talking to his disciples now, and then he said, he said to them, these are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and in the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.

[15:40] Did you know that the Psalms were predicting Christ? Yeah. Then it says in verse 45, then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures and said to them, thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations beginning from Jerusalem.

[16:06] The cross work of Jesus, his resurrection, his ascension, his ruling, his reigning, his return, the Bible as a whole is all about that.

[16:17] Now that may sound like a statement that says, you know, like, well, yeah, duh, like we all know that. Why are you taking that? Like, why are you hitting that so hard? Because I don't think we believe it nearly as much as we think we believe it.

[16:29] Because it's not just that it's the center of everything, but it's also from the beginning this way. Right? He's not just the center, but he's the beginning of all of these things.

[16:41] The whole reason God created the world is so that Christ could save, so that Christ could rise, so that Christ could be glorified. The whole reason he did everything was for that.

[16:52] In other words, the fall of Adam in the garden was accounted for in the fact that God wanted to send his only begotten son into the world. This makes this, this makes the salvation and the Christian message an ancient, immovable rock.

[17:13] In Port Lavaca, our soil that we had to build on was called black gumbo. It was a black clay mixed with some sand, and when it had no water, it was as hard as concrete, and cracks developed in the, I mean, we lost children in these cracks.

[17:39] They were so big, you know. But when it would rain, the black gumbo was like trying to get Vaseline off your hands. You just couldn't. You got it on your shoe, and it's gonna be there until it dries out, and you take a chisel and hammer it off.

[17:55] Building a house on that was terrible, because it would, as it would separate and pull apart, it would crack foundations, it would move houses on pier and beam.

[18:09] Any kind of thing that wanted to be built on there, you had to drill all the way down to bedrock to be able to have a foundation that wouldn't move. And here's the thing that I'm thinking about with this.

[18:21] As I think about the fact that the prophets were telling us about Christ, you have to understand that the Christian religion is not a Johnny-come-lately.

[18:32] It's not a new thing. It's not an offshoot of Judaism. It's not some sort of cultish sort of side-show freak. This is what's been from the beginning.

[18:44] Before Genesis 1-1, it was Jesus Christ and Him crucified. It was this solid rock, more solid than enchanted rock.

[18:57] This is the place that if you are a Christian, if you are a Christian, your salvation is more sure than anything else in the world.

[19:15] And that shapes you for suffering because if your life is built on family, if your life is built on finances, if your life is built built on friends, it won't last.

[19:39] I think I've told you this story about Michelle and I going swimming with her sisters out in the lake. Like, I'm afraid of the water. And we jump out of the boat and we're in this lake and I ask how deep and somebody says, nobody knows.

[19:54] I'm like... And I just about drowned my wife trying to keep my... I had a floaty on and everything. Arm floaties, yeah, and a ring and a jacket and I was sinking because my legs are made of lead and I was just panicking and in that moment trying to hold on to my wife.

[20:18] She's nothing that I can hold on to to keep me from sinking. I needed something sure and steady to grab a hold of. And you see, that's what I mean is that our salvation because it started way back here.

[20:33] It is a solid rock to build upon. So what do you need to do with that? Let me give you just three little things. Number one, you need to make sure you're a Christian. You need to make sure that you are a Christian.

[20:44] You don't need to sit there and think to yourself, oh, well, I am, I am, I am. And never test it. 2 Corinthians 13 verse 5 says test yourself to see if you are in the faith.

[20:59] It is something that should be a part of every Christian's life to go back and look at that time that you say is the moment that you became a Christian and ask yourself, was that real?

[21:11] And how do you know? Because you see that God has been working in your life changing you so that Christ becomes more precious to you and you become more obedient to him.

[21:23] And is that what you see in your life? Do you see yourself drawing closer and closer to Christ or from that moment back there do you see yourself walking further and further away?

[21:34] You need to make sure that you're a Christian. And the second thing you need to do is you need to know the rock who is your salvation. You've got to know him. Knowing him that's what keeps us there at that rock and then every day thirdly every day run to him because the more practice you have running to him when things are easy the easier it is to run to him when things are hard.

[22:03] That's Christ predicted. Those prophets that's where our salvation starts. It's an ancient thing. Second thing is Christ preached verse 12.

[22:14] The prophets understood that the message that they were preaching was not for them. It says that there. It says they were not serving themselves there in verse 12 but you.

[22:27] Now let's think about this you for just a second. He's talking to these churches that are in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia. Real places there in Asia Minor modern day Turkey.

[22:39] They made up something of a male route and the interesting thing is is that these these were places where Gentiles lived. There were a few Jews there but not very many and the point is is that he is talking to Gentile Christians.

[22:53] Now let's just be sure we're clear here unless I just don't know you very well you're all a bunch of Gentiles. Now some of you may be Jewish and I don't mean to slight you at all if that's the case but my point is is that we're all a bunch of Gentiles because basically at that time you have two races you have Jews and Gentiles.

[23:15] Gentiles was everything else right and so we're Gentiles but the other thing about these Christians in these five regions is that they had never seen Jesus with their own eyes.

[23:27] They had never been to Rome and they had never been to Jerusalem and they had never seen anything of all that the gospel speaks about. They had never seen the crucifixion. They were not there when Jesus rose from the dead they believed based on the testimony of other people.

[23:50] So these Gentile Christians who live after the death and resurrection of Christ Peter says that the prophets knew that they were serving them.

[24:04] That the prophets message wasn't for themselves but they were serving you. you who are Gentiles you who are after the death and resurrection of Christ you who had never even seen Christ with your own eyes that that message was for them as well.

[24:21] And it doesn't matter if they're Jews or Gentiles the point is is that anybody after the death and resurrection of Christ this message of the prophets from the Old Testament is for them.

[24:33] and the message that they had it tells us is something that's been announced through those who've preached the gospel. So in other words when somebody gets up and they take and they explain who Christ is and what Christ has done and the gospel and all these kinds of things very thing that I'm doing right here this is substantially the heart of the message of the Old Testament.

[25:00] you're getting what the prophets prophesied now fulfilled in Christ. What this means then is that the Old Testament is yours as a Gentile Christian.

[25:15] The Old Testament is yours as saints who have been saved by the Lord Jesus Christ. The Old Testament belongs to all Christians regardless of race.

[25:26] The Old Testament is yours because the Old Testament predicts of the Lord Jesus Christ who has now been preached to you through the gospel. And you know what's so glorious about this message?

[25:38] The angels long to look into it. What a fabulous statement. And it gives us a moment just to say a couple of words here.

[25:50] First is this the angels long to look into this message because the angels will never experience this message.

[26:03] The angels will never be human beings who are in rebellion against God who then he gives his only begotten son for and takes and saves them and makes them his children.

[26:18] Angels are beneath human beings. Angels are there to serve human beings who trust in Christ.

[26:29] I know sometimes we hear people talk about that their loved one has gone on to be an angel and I know that typically that means the idea not that they are really angels but that they are with the Lord.

[26:40] But just so you know if we become angels in heaven we're going backwards. That's not the direction we want to go. These angels they look at what Christ has done for us and they long they marvel at wanting to see and understand what this is.

[27:03] So here's what this means for us. This means for us a couple of things. Number one it means that the Old Testament and the New Testament tell the same one story. It tells the same in one story.

[27:16] As a matter of fact if you could take your Bible and very carefully take the page that says Old Testament on it that's all it's got just cut it out throw that away then open to the middle of it and find where it says the New Testament cut that out throw that away you don't need either one.

[27:30] Most people are going like that is sacrilegious why would you cut anything? Well I'm just trying to get across the point that those divisions were put there by us. God did not give an inspired title page that said Old Testament.

[27:44] That is one story and it tells about one thing and that one thing is Christ his sufferings and subsequent glories. But the other thing that this means and maybe this will help you is that now now because this is all one story because this belongs to you you as a Gentile Christian you anyone who is in Christ whether Jew or Gentile we're going to see that in just a second you are now the special chosen people of God.

[28:21] You you are now the special chosen people of God. In Ephesians chapter 2 verse 11 Paul's writing to a group of Gentile Christians and listen to what he says to them.

[28:37] He says therefore remember at that time or at one time you Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision which is made in the flesh by hands.

[28:49] In other words that was a insult and a slander thing. That's what David said to Goliath you uncircumcised Philistine. It's just kind of a slur towards them because of the difference between them.

[29:02] Verse 12 he says this remember that you were at that time separated from Christ alienated from the commonwealth of Israel strangers to the covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the world.

[29:16] Now why is that the case? Because it was the Jews it was Israel that received the oracles of God. It was them that received the covenants and received the promises and received all of this revelation from God and they had it within their borders and anybody who came to Israel like a Rahab could hear the message and they could also become one of God's people.

[29:37] But now something has happened to make it so that that message that they had is not just kept to them any longer. Listen to verse 13.

[29:48] But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. In other words you were separated from Christ but by the blood of Christ you've been brought near to Christ.

[30:02] You were alienated from the commonwealth of Israel but by the blood of Christ you are now a part of the commonwealth of Israel. You were once strangers to the covenants of promise but now by the blood of Christ you are no longer a stranger to the covenants.

[30:18] You now have hope and you are with God in this world. And in verse 14 he says for he himself is our peace who has made us both one and has broken down the wall or broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility.

[30:37] You see there's this theological perspective and I have to get here because I feel like the weight of this doesn't make sense unless I get here so I'm going to go quickly but there's a theological perspective out there that says Israel is different from the church.

[30:54] That says Israel is different from the church. That there are things that God has still got to do with the nation of Israel that he's not going to be doing with the church. And this showed up in my life as I was a youth pastor one time and I was studying and I was teaching the youth and they wanted to study the book of Revelation because there's no youth group on the face of the planet that doesn't want to study Revelation because they all love dragons.

[31:20] Which is Satan by the way so don't love dragons. But I was going to teach through the book of Revelation and my pastor comes to me and he says so what's going on in the youth ministry and we get to talking I tell him that we're going to teach through the book of Revelation and he says well why are you going to do that?

[31:37] I said well it's in the Bible. You know like I really didn't have a good reason why I was teaching that except the kids wanted it you know and he says well you don't have to teach that because that's not for Christians.

[31:52] That's for Jews at the end of time because we're all going to be raptured out of here and we're not going to be here and so that's for them to have not for us. Beloved what that does is that takes what Jesus Christ has done on the cross and says well this was God's plan B let's get back to the real thing God's plan A called Israel.

[32:21] No beloved. God doesn't have a plan A and a plan B. He has a plan Christ. You are God's chosen special people today which means all of the promises that means all the glory and everything that he has had all through the Old Testament is yours in Christ Jesus.

[32:46] This is the message of the gospel that we need because we are not some you know child over here that nobody wants anything to do with that somebody some you know came along and God said okay maybe you can be a part of this but really my real thing is Israel.

[33:04] No. You are God's chosen special people. You are no longer strangers from the covenants. Because see here's the deal think about this at the Lord's Supper when we take the Lord's Supper one of the things that I come back to again and again and again is I say that the juice right the cup represents the new covenant.

[33:24] covenant. And the new covenant is written in Jeremiah a prophet of Israel. And if that's not for the church then you have no grounds at all to ever say that you're forgiven of anything.

[33:44] Because the forgiveness of the cross is only offered by way of the new covenant. And if you're not a part of God's chosen special people then that covenant is not for you.

[33:57] It's just that simple. But the fact is is that covenant is absolutely for us. And we have forgiveness because of what he's purchased for us.

[34:10] This gospel message is valuable for our lives. And I want to close this by giving you three reasons why it's valuable for us. Number one this gospel message helps us to understand why bad things happen in this world.

[34:28] The entirety of the gospel message helps us to understand why bad things happen in this world. And they happen because of sin. And it's in two ways.

[34:41] Sometimes things happen in this world not directly related to any particular person's sin but related to the sin of Adam that cursed the entire cosmos.

[34:53] Why do we have hurricanes? Why do we have wildfires? Why do we have animals that attack? Why do we have diseases? Why do we have cancer? Because this is a cursed world.

[35:07] This is not how it ought to be. Drive out any road you want to and look at how beautiful it is and it's cursed. And the gospel message teaches us that.

[35:20] But it's not just that. It also teaches us why it is that people are so hateful and ugly to one another and it's because of sin. And without understanding the gospel message we can't get our minds around the problem that's out there let alone the solution to fix it.

[35:39] The second reason we need this gospel message is because when we suffer when we suffer we tend to sin in our suffering. When we suffer we tend to sin in our suffering.

[35:57] We tend in those moments of weakness because of the suffering to be angry with God. To sort of push back against God a little bit like Job.

[36:10] You remember Job? Job suffered greatly in several places throughout the book of Job. You see Job going like alright God you come on down here and let's have a talk because I got some questions for you.

[36:25] That's not a good attitude to have towards God. But we need this gospel message because it's true that in our suffering we sin and we need to know we can run to Christ for forgiveness.

[36:38] forgiveness. Because there's not a one of us who's ever handled all the suffering that we've been through perfectly and we need to know there is forgiveness to be found.

[36:57] But the third reason is this that this gospel message is for people who are suffering because it's the only power that there is to help us live in a way that honors God in our suffering.

[37:13] We're not going to get power from anything else but the power of the Holy Spirit in us provided for us by the death and resurrection of Christ in the new covenant. Even Job, even Job understood the gospel and had the gospel in the mix of all of this.

[37:33] You know Job lost all ten of his children in the same day. He lost all of his livestock. He lost all of his livelihood.

[37:47] He lost his wealth. He lost his wife's support. She came to him and she said just curse God and die. He had terrible friends who were constantly accusing him of doing something nefarious and evil because of all of these bad things happening to him.

[38:06] And he even lost his health. His body was covered from head to toe with boils. But he remembered the gospel.

[38:19] You say Job remembered the gospel? I think you're going to be surprised by this. Yeah. He remembered the gospel. You see Job was probably a contemporary of Abraham. This is pretty old.

[38:30] But listen to what he writes in Job chapter 19 verse beginning of verse 23. Oh that my words were written. Oh that they were inscribed in a book.

[38:45] Oh that an iron pen and lead or with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever. I want what I've said to be here forever. Very resolute in what he's about to say.

[38:58] Verse 25. For I know I know that my redeemer lives. I know it.

[39:10] I know that my redeemer lives and at the last he will stand upon the earth. He's looking at both the resurrection and the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[39:22] He doesn't have all the same words that we have but that's what he's looking at. He knows that my redeemer lives and at the last he's going to take a stand upon the earth. And in the middle of his suffering that's where he's throwing his hope upon.

[39:34] But he goes further he says and after my skin has been thus destroyed. In other words my body is going to get laid in the ground. It's going to decay.

[39:47] It's going to be gone. after my skin has been thus destroyed yet in my flesh now how's that possible?

[40:01] It's just been destroyed. Resurrection of the saints where the perishable puts on the imperishable and the corruptible puts on the incorruptible.

[40:13] In my flesh I shall see God. He goes further in 27 where he says whom I shall see for myself. He's not talking about I'm going to read about this from someplace.

[40:23] Somebody's going to give me a vision of this. I'm going to get to kind of get a sampling of this. No, no, myself, for myself, with my own eyes, I'm going to see God in a new flesh.

[40:36] my heart faints within me. Beloved, I'm just trying to say, and maybe I should have just said this to begin with and be done with it, right?

[40:53] The Christian message of the gospel is older than creation. It's not an American religion. It's not a Jewish religion.

[41:04] it's not an African religion. It's not a white southern religion. It's just the truth of the existence of God.

[41:22] And to endure suffering, nothing else will help. So may your heart faint. May your heart faint as you think about that your redeemer lives, and at the last he will take his stand upon the earth.

[41:40] Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray.