Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2697
“Which things the angels desire to look into.” 1 Peter 1:12.
THE Apostle Peter wrote his first Epistle to a persecuted people, many of whom were in great heaviness through manifold trials. The sufferings of the early Christians are something terrible even to think upon—the world has scarcely ever beheld more relentless cruelty than that which pursued the first servants of our Divine Lord and Master. Peter, therefore, when he wrote to these tried saints, sought to cheer and encourage them. What, then, did he write about? Why, about the Gospel! For there is nothing like the simple Doctrine of Salvation by Redemption to comfort the most distressed spirits.
The chapter from which our text is taken is just as plain as the Gospel itself. Peter here tells the elect strangers that they were “begotten again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fades not away.” And he also reminds them that they “were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold,” “but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” In this Chapter we have all the great central Truths of the Gospel—Election, Redemption, Regeneration, Effectual Calling, Sanctification and Final Perseverance. Brothers and Sisters, whenever we need consolation, let us never go away from the Gospel to find it! The child of God always finds his best comfort in the things of God. If your comforts can only come to you from worldly society, it is quite clear that you belong to the world—but if you are one of God’s true children, all that you need to cheer you under the heaviest trial is already provided for you in the Gospel of Christ—and will speedily be applied to you by the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, if you only seek it at His hands.
Peter here prescribes a remedy for lowness of spirits and for general depression. That remedy is to take a deeper interest in the things of God, to give ourselves more intensely to the consideration and contemplation of them. They are well worthy of all the thought that we can give to them, for if the Prophets, those men with the grandest of human minds, Divinely Inspired, yet had to search deeply to understand God’s Word as revealed to them, there must be something in it that we shall do well to search out! And if the holy angels, those mighty intelligences, do not so much see, as “desire to look into,” the things of God, there must be some very deep things hidden within the simplicities of the Gospel which you and I ought to search out! If we did search them out, we would be greatly cheered and comforted. Our minds would be taken off those trials which now so often vex us. We would be lifted high above them. We would not travel slowly and painfully over this rough road and have our feet cut with every sharp flint—and our spirit pierced with every sore trial—but we would rise, as on eagle’s wings, and ride on the high places of the earth and rejoice in the Savior who has done such great things for us! We would eat the fat things, full of marrow, which God has provided for those who diligently study His Word and prize it above all earthly treasures.
I am not going to say anything at this time about the high interest which the ancient Prophets took in God’s Word, but I shall confine myself very much to the interest which angels take in it in order that I may stir you up to imitate their example. I want, first, to remind you that angels take an active interest in the Gospel of our salvation. And, secondly, to show you that angels are eager students of it—“which things the angels desire to look into.”
I. First, I want to remind you that ANGELS TAKE AN ACTIVE INTEREST IN THE GOSPEL OF OUR SALVATION.
It is true that they are not interested in it for themselves. They have never sinned and, consequently, they need no atonement and no forgiveness. Doubtless, they have some sort of indirect interest in it which I will not attempt to explain just now, but, certainly, as far as the Gospel brings salvation, healing, pardon, justification and cleansing, angels do not need it. Never having been defiled, they need not to be washed. And being perfect in their obedience, they need not to be forgiven for any shortcomings. And yet they take a deep interest in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ! What, then, shall I say of the madness of those who are defiled by sin and yet have no interest in the Fountain where they can be washed whiter than snow? What shall I say of the fatal folly of those who are guilty and yet take no thought about the method of pardon which God has provided in Christ Jesus, His Son, and our only Savior?
The angels are not even interested in the Gospel because of its relation to any of their fellows, for fallen angels have no part nor lot in its provisions. When they fell from their first estate, God left them forever without hope—and they live in their rebellion against Him, waiting for the awful day when they shall receive the full recompense of their infamous revolt. There is no mercy for fallen spirits! I see how God exercised His Sovereignty, for when men and angels had both sinned, He passed by the greater sinners and took up the lesser ones. The fallen spirits “He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of The Great Day.” Yet He looked on men, the creatures of a day, with eyes of pity and compassion and sent His Son to earth, in our nature, that He might redeem us from the wrath which was justly our due! The angels have no direct interest in the death of Christ, or the blood of Christ because of any blessing which will come through Him to any of their former angelic companions. Yet they desire to look into these things. What, then, shall I think of myself, and of you, my Brothers and Sisters, if, being saved, we take little or no interest in the Gospel as the one means of saving our fellow men? Shame upon us if we have less pity for mankind than angels have, for men are our brothers, and nothing can save them but the Gospel of Jesus! Our common humanity ought to make us seek their welfare and we ought to take the deepest imaginable interest in the things which make for the peace of their immortal souls!