INTRO.- ILL.- 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." And "If any man lacks wisdom, let him ask of God."
Concerning this salvation of ours, there is only one way, one approach and 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.
ILL.- One day the preacher visited a certain 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.
PROP.- Let’s consider the spiritual ignorance of some we would not consider to be ignorant. 1- The prophets searched 2- The angels longed
I. THE PROPHETS SEARCHED
10Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, 11trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. 12It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven.
ILL.- 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.
They 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, dude. 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 in America that could happen. We understand, however, that there are aborigines 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 spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.
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.
ILL.- I knew of 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.
ILL.- 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 of old (meaning under the old testament covenant) searched intently and with the greatest care to find out about this grace. If they searched intently then what about us?
ILL.- 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.
ILL.- 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.”
ILL.- 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 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.
II. THE ANGELS LONGED
12It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.
ILL.- 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 angels long to look into these things.
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.
ILL.- 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?”
ILL.- 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.
ILL.- 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 LONGED TO LOOK INTO 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?
Eph. 3:10 "His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and 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?
ILL.- 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 spies when we could be building the kingdom of God!
CONCLUSION-------------------------
ILL.- 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.
