How To Interpret Scripture

So I'm going to read 1 Peter 9-12, that's where we'll be today. Obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Concerning this 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.

It was revealed to them that they were serving not 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. You may be seated. Peter, in the first eight verses of this epistle, has outlined most of what the rest of the epistle is going to be about.

And the rest of the epistle is going to be a detailed explanation of some of these truths that we've already dove into. And this is one of the reasons why I sort of joked that the guy that took six weeks to get through eight verses is going to get through four verses in one night. And part of it is because a lot of the things that I could say about some of these verses I've already said. the concept of you're going to suffer we're even going to talk about it again tonight but I don't have to go into grave detail as I have already but if you want to look quickly just at verse 9 because again I don't have time to do them all so it will be a little quick verse 9 where it says obtaining the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls that immediately follows Peter's explanation that you will be tested as gold that perishes that your faith will be tested as gold that perishes though it's tested by fire and the whole point of that was that your faith is better than gold gold is a precious metal and it survives fire and your faith is even more precious than gold Our suffering leads to assuring us of our faith, which directs our hope to the outcome of our faith, the final redemption of the body.

In other words, our whole self will be saved on the last day. So while you're suffering in your body now, that's actually helping you to be assured of the faith that you have, so that you can then have greater hope for what's going to happen eventually. and so the outcome of your faith is the salvation of your soul. Faith justifies us. We're justified by faith, but our faith also will prove on the last day to be what brings us to that point that God will redeem us.

Where I want to focus today is the next verses. Talking about the salvation that we're going to be received, Peter says, concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully. So the question is, what did these prophets search and inquire? First of all, I guess maybe I want to point out, there's no prophets here today.

If somebody tells you they're a prophet, or if they tell you they're an apostle, the only thing you know for sure about them is they're a liar. And you probably know that they're probably not a Christian. people who purport to be speaking for God when God has not assigned to them that they're speaking for God are blaspheming God so God has a specific set of people who he has given prophecy to and we take that very seriously because when God says something we have to do it and so if somebody comes to you and says well God said this then technically if it was true that God said it you're obligated not only to believe it but to follow whatever the commands lead to and this is why it's extremely dangerous when people who God has not appointed to be prophets speak for God prophecy is completely different from what I'm doing right now I'm preaching I'm telling you what my time in the word and my time with the Lord has brought me to be able to explain the sense of the text that's already there I'm not trying to give you anything new. I'm not trying to reveal something that God has not already revealed.

I'm preaching. I'm not a prophet. If anybody tells you, well, this is the modern day office of prophet, it's not. The office of prophet is gone. It was gone when the apostles finished writing the New Testament. But now we have all of the apostles and prophets' writings.

And so we preach that text. but the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours that Peter's talking about are the Old Testament prophets and so what did these Old Testaments do they prophesied that the Christ would suffer and then there would be subsequent glories and what Peter tells us is that those who've preached the good news to us now and to his hearers they're the ones from whom they heard it from and that this mystery, this mystery of who the person or time that these prophets were speaking of is something that even angels want to look into and understand. So if you imagine elect angels, the ones that aren't fallen with Satan, imagine them being perfectly holy, set apart by God from the moment of their creation for all eternity, never to fall. angels who fall remain fallen angels who don't fall remain unfallen and these angels who actually are in the throne room of God sometimes we read about it and they worship God and they have all sorts of powers that we don have it seems some of these angels They want to look into the mystery that been revealed to us So what I want to do today is I want to give you a little bit of a lesson in how to interpret Scripture. Peter is trying to tell us how to interpret Scripture.

And it's interesting because Peter is one of the most qualified people. And ironically, it's because Peter made so many mistakes. if you read through the life of Peter, you'll see how many times Peter misunderstood what Jesus was even saying right to his face. Right? Jesus literally called Satan Peter one time. I mean, that's pretty bad. Jesus called Peter Satan.

Did I say it backwards? Did I? I was trying to... Oh, yeah. Everybody looked really confused. Like, I thought it was a striking thing.

No. Thank you. Jesus called Peter Satan one time. when Peter spoke against a prophecy that Jesus said that would have to be fulfilled. And so Peter learned through the experience of misinterpreting the words of God, how to interpret the words of God. And Peter learned from the best, Jesus Christ himself, who would have perfectly always interpreted the scripture while he walked the earth.

And we also believe that the Holy Spirit of God is able to perfectly interpret his own scripture, which he wrote. And so when the apostles of the New Testament write the New Testament, and they use Old Testament scriptures, and they refer to those in the New Testament, they are perfectly interpreting the scripture. What we believe is that the New Testament is an infallible interpreter of the Old Testament.

And, actually, vice versa. God's word is forever established in heaven. It's firmly fixed. And when God breathed out the Old Testament to those prophets, he was also able to comment on what would happen in the new. And so what we see in the Old Testament most commonly is we see pictures and shadows, and we see stories, and we see things that happen over and over, and these things are all pointing towards a greater fulfillment that Jesus Christ would come to fulfill.

And what Peter tells us is that what was predicted was the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. I'm just going to share personally, this was shocking to me. When I became a Christian, and I think it's part of the tradition that I was first learning in, the idea that Christ would suffer was shocking to me. I thought that all the Old Testament people thought the Messiah was going to come and just immediately set up a kingdom.

That's what they were looking forward to, the kingdom and the king would come. And that the idea of Jesus Christ's suffering was completely foreign to the Old Testament. That's what I thought. And yet we're going to show here that that's as far from the truth as possible. The Old Testament believers knew, in fact, that the Christ would suffer if they believed what the Scripture said.

But the prophets most certainly did. Turn to Jeremiah 31. I'm just going to add in here that when the prophets searched and inquired, What I want to, we're going to go to Jeremiah 31, 31. What I want to communicate is that when the prophets searched and inquired, they were searching the scriptures. They were inquiring of the scriptures. They were reading each other, basically, is what it's saying.

When Jeremiah wrote prophecies, and he was inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in him was indicating, when he was predicting these things he was predicting, Jeremiah didn't sit there and take a personality test and try to figure out what was going on. He didn't just meditate. He read the other scriptures. He was inquiring of God. And these things were mysterious, but he understood what he was writing.

And it was revealed to him that he was not serving himself. Jeremiah writes of a future deliverance. He knew that he wasn't going to make it. He knew something was going to happen after 70 years and he'd be dead. It was revealed to him that he was writing for future generations. And that's what Peter tells us.

It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves, but you. So while he wanted to see the Messiah, he knew he wouldn't. We actually have the hope that we'll see him and not taste death. So what we're going to do, we're going to look at some Old Testament fulfillments that happened in the New Testament. So we're going to wear out the Bible pages today.

If we didn't on another day, I thought we did once, but there's a lot. So Jeremiah 31, 31 to 34. Listen and try to listen to some of the phrases that we're going to see repeated in the New Testament. Jeremiah says, Behold, the days are coming, declares Yahweh, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke though I was their husband declares Yahweh for this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days declares Yahweh I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people and no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother saying no Yahweh for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest declares Yahweh for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more so now turn to Hebrews 8 what I'm trying to show you in as few passages as necessary because we could do this all week is that Peter when he says that the prophets prophesied about the grace that was to be yours, that Peter was right He knew that these prophets prophesied about that Many people read that passage in Jeremiah and they say this If you read the whole thing you might get this impression They say well that just about the nation of Israel The physical little strip of land over there on the eastern side of the Mediterranean, there were some people there that God was promising something to, and it wasn't for anyone else.

It wasn't for Gentiles, and it certainly wasn't for you in this room today. But what is, I was going to say Paul, but what does the writer to the Hebrews say in verse 6 of chapter 8? He says, but as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is much more excellent than the old, as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises.

So he's talking about a new covenant. For if the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. for he finds fault with them when he says behold the days are coming declares the Lord he's quoting Jeremiah when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt for they did not continue in my covenant so I showed no concern for them declares Yahweh for this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days declares the Lord I will put my laws into their minds and write them on their hearts. It's the same thing.

Jeremiah prophesied about the grace that was to be yours because the grace that he's speaking of here in Hebrews chapter 8 is the grace we've received. This is Jesus Christ, the mediator of a better covenant. Turn to Isaiah 12. I do encourage you to go ahead and read some of these passages in their fuller context. Isaiah 12. You will say in that day, I will give thanks to you, O Yahweh, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, that you might comfort me.

Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and will not be afraid. For Yahweh, God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation. He says, With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation, and you will say in that day, Give thanks to Yahweh, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples. proclaim that his name is exalted notice in 1 Peter 2.9 same book we were studying Peter says you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation a people for his own possession that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light so Isaiah says that we're going to proclaim it and then Peter says that's what you're doing now Ezekiel 36 one more passage to remind us that the grace that was prophesied to us was actually prophesied a long time ago Ezekiel 36, 25 I'll start reading, try to keep up if you're paging with me 25 to 27, we'll just read a couple verses and then go to the next chapter I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness.

And from all your idols I will cleanse you. This is regeneration. Listen, I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. Real quick, I love verse 31.

Then you will remember your evil ways and your deeds that were not good and you will loathe yourselves. for your iniquities and your abominations. Chapter 37, verse 24. Ezekiel is still talking. He just talked about the dry bones being given life from death. He says, My servant David shall be king over them. Quick quiz.

Who died first, Ezekiel or David? Say it louder. David is already dead. Right? But Ezekiel says, My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes.

They shall dwell in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They and their children and their children's children shall dwell there forever. And David, my servant, shall be their prince forever. Now is Ezekiel literally telling us David's going to come back to life and be a forever prince, you think? Do you think Ezekiel even thought that?

But some people would force you to read the text in such a way that this is just hoping David's going to come back. I don't see it. I see Jesus Christ pictured there, typified by David's entire life except for his sin and repentance. Jesus, of course, never sinned and has no need for repentance. But David was typical of the man of God. He was the man who is after God's own heart.

And David is a picture of who Jesus, who the Messiah would be one day, in so many ways, a conqueror. One who would conquer all of God's enemies in the name of Yahweh, in the power of God. and so when Ezekiel predicts that his servant David shall be king over them Ezekiel is saying that the Messiah is going to come and he's going to come from the line of David and he's going to be like David but David's dead and that's why it's so glorious that Jesus Christ is resurrected in 1 Peter 2.10 the verse after the one we just looked at Peter says once you were not a people but now you are God people Once you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy And so we have this picture that we are God people And I missed that verse in Ezekiel 36. You don't have to turn back there if you're not there.

But he said, my dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. It's just another fulfillment. We could have almost picked a page of the Old Testament and just pointed at it randomly, and then found the fulfillment in Christ. This is everywhere. This is how we interpret Scripture. We interpret Scripture by realizing that all of Scripture is about Jesus Christ.

Martin Luther said the entire Scripture deals only with Christ everywhere. So when Peter says, The prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what? What person or time the Spirit of Christ was indicating. They were always inquiring, who is it going to be? They knew Messiah was coming. Who is it going to be?

What are going to be the signs of the Messiah's coming? What are the things He'll do? And so they studied the Scripture. And that's why we know things that Jesus came and did. Micah 5.2 I'm going to gloss over a couple of these Micah 5.2 is the one where it says he'd be born in Bethlehem Isaiah 7.14 is where he says he'd be born of a virgin I think it's Numbers 23 where it says that there'd be a star that rises over where he's born I don't remember the reference right now but there's all these predictions about even Jesus' birth that would tell us who the Messiah would be so that when he came it would be unmistakable people would not have an excuse and people like Simon would be able to say they've seen the salvation of Israel.

So if you look at Matthew 1 real quickly, just to fulfill those prophecies, I don't want to read every one of them because there's a lot more we're going to do tonight, I hope. But in Matthew 1.22, All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel. which means God with us.

When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus. Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, there it is. Born of a virgin, born in Bethlehem. You can't control your own birth, unless you're God. But you could say Jesus faked some of the prophecies, like, well, he knew the Old Testament prophecy, so he did some of this stuff.

People could make that argument, right? Like, well, of course he pretended to heal people because he knew he was expected to heal people. But you can't predict what city you're going to be in unless you're God. Unless you wrote the scripture yourself that predicted where you're going to be because you wrote history before we even got to see the created books that we're reading.

How about Jonah? Turn to Matthew 12. Jonah came before all these guys Jeremiah, Isaiah might be the first prophet there might be one other one Jonah is really early on if you look at a chronological sequence of the Bible and the prophets do you remember what Jonah did? come on kids, you guys got to know something there everybody remembers what about Jonah? swallowed by a big fish, that's what we remember right?

We see comical pictures of a huge whale and all that stuff. And the fish vomited out. Yeah, he got vomited out, right? The fish vomited him. And you know, it's funny, this isn't what this sermon is about, but the grave vomited Jesus out. You ever think about when you, I hate getting too graphic, but you ever think about when you have to vomit?

There's a point where there's nothing stopping it. And whatever it is that's in there has to come out. Like the thought of trying to keep it in is disgusting. Because there's a reason why it's such a wretched wretch that comes out. And when Jesus Christ was in that grave, the grave could not hold him. It had to spit him out.

Just like the fish spit out Jonah. Jonah was in a boat, but Jonah was put in the belly of the fish. But what does it say here? Matthew 12, Jesus says, an evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, verse 39 but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish so will the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth this is what I'm submitting to you this is what I want you to understand when you read the bible that when you read Jonah it's not some neat story about a guy that was just a pretty bad evangelist or about a guy who, the story is not about racism as I've heard some people say Jonah is about.

Jonah was a story of God's power to save anybody he wanted whether it was Jew or Gentile. That's one of the main points of Jonah is we see that God is the Savior of the whole world not just the Jews. But primarily from the very beginning Jonah was written so that we might know something about the Messiah. And Jesus interprets Jonah for us. He interprets it perfectly.

And he tells us that when we see the sign of Jonah, three days and three nights in the grave, and then coming out, that is going to be evidence for us that he is the Messiah that's been pictured from the beginning of all time, and even from the beginning of Scripture. so Jesus Christ is the center of every scripture he's the center of I won't say every word of the Bible it gets a little strange but You're reading the Bible, Old Testament. I want you to remember that. I want you to see Jesus in there.

I want you to see His power to overcome sin, His power to regenerate hearts, His power to save people. And I want you to see the shadows and types that have been created from all time. And if somebody tells you, you can only believe that there's a type of Christ if it was explicitly stated in the New Testament, I think that's false. I think that's completely false.

Peter tells us that the prophets who prophesied about the grace it was to be your assertion inquired carefully. And I don't think they could have exhaustively explained every single possible type in the New Testament. They didn't mean to. That's for you, when you're reading the Scripture, to see. This is why when you come here, if we preach through Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Isaiah, Genesis, we'll point to Christ every sermon.

Spurgeon said, know Christ in your sermon, sir, then go home and never preach again until you have something worth preaching. I agree with him. Turn to Isaiah 53. So the person of Christ was predicted by the prophets. Peter also says that the sufferings of Christ were predicted. and we're going to also see that the subsequent glories were predicted. And one of the things I want to open your mind to is that the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories are connected.

That's why it says subsequent. I actually looked that word up to make sure I knew what it meant because I kind of got the idea of what it means. But it means that which follows after. It is subject to. It has to happen as a result of. and so the subsequent glories that we see predicted by the prophets required the suffering to come first which should be great comfort here it should be great comfort in Isaiah 53 who has believed what he has heard from us and to whom has the arm of Yahweh been revealed for he grew up before us or before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground he had no former majesties that we should look at him and no beauty that we should desire him Jesus isn't the Vidal Sassoon surfer Jesus that's in most of the pictures we see, just so you know.

Jesus is of perfect beauty, and we couldn't comprehend it if we could see it. But Jesus Christ came as a humble servant. But listen to what he did. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hide their faces, He was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.

Forsaken by God. But he was pierced for our transgressions. This is substitutionary atonement. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. so that we could have peace with God. And with his wounds we are healed.

Skip to 7. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He perfectly fulfilled that scripture. Like a lamb led to the slaughter, he opened not his mouth. How about 9? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death.

Remember the rich man Nicodemus that buried him? although he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth it was the will of Yahweh to crush him he has put him to grief when his soul makes an offering for guilt he shall see his offspring he shall prolong his days the will of Yahweh shall prosper in his hand out of the anguish of his soul he shall see him be satisfied now we have the glory so we have the sufferings now the subsequent glory by his knowledge So by knowing him, the righteous one, my servant, shall make many to be accounted righteous. That's imputation words right there. The difference between infused righteousness and imputed righteousness.

In one case, you're actually granted righteousness so that you have some of your own that God could see. That would be infusion. If God infused you with righteousness, then you could go be a Catholic, I guess. And you could go do good works and earn your salvation. God imputes righteousness to the ungodly. And what it means is that although you're still ungodly, he sees you as righteous.

He treats you as if you had lived the righteous life that his righteous one, his servant, Jesus Christ, lived. He was numbered with the transgressors, is the last line there. Yet he bore the sins of many. He was numbered with those thieves on the cross, right? There's two guys next to him that were literally deserving of capital punishment. We have to assume.

They could have been good guys that were falsely accused like Jesus. But chances are they were guys that deserved it. The one guy admitted that. But I didn't just read a New Testament book. This was written over 700 years before Jesus even came on the scene. I think that escapes us sometimes.

It reads exactly like his life. and yet we act like the Old Testament prophets didn't know what they were talking about that they were confused about who the Messiah was and that when he came everybody was just blown away by how different things really were from the New Testament God to the Old Testament God and that's false Jesus Christ is the Savior that was predicted his sufferings were predicted in this whole chapter if you memorize one chapter of the Bible in your life I hope you do a lot more than that But start with Isaiah 53 What a great chapter and I tell you what you will be amazed how many times you see it quoted in the New Testament when you just read through it, quoted non-stop. I'm amazed it's not the most quoted section. Psalm 110 is.

Maybe that's the most quoted psalm. Isaiah 53, great chapter about Jesus Christ, though. He's predicted there. Psalm 69, more predictions of his suffering. Look at Psalm 69. I want you to be blown away by the specificity of these predictions about Jesus that came true.

In Psalm 69, 7 through 9. I almost just said Jesus said, but he did. But of course when it was written, this was written by David. It says, It is for your sake I have borne reproach, that dishonor has covered my face. He says, I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother's sons. He says, For zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.

Now that was certainly true about David, so don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying that David didn't fulfill these things himself. I'm not saying these things weren't true about the writers of the Old Testament. when they were written about real Old Testament people. Jonah really did the things Jonah did. But there is a deeper meaning to these texts that the New Testament authors want us to see.

They point us to constantly. Jesus points us to them constantly. And so if we look at Psalm 69, zeal for your house has consumed me. The reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me. I want you to remember that phrase, the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me, because we're going to see that at the very end of the sermon, Lord willing.

Hopefully Jesus just comes back, saves us all the trouble. Just go be with him right now. But John chapter 2, Jesus tells us in verse 17, or John tells us, His disciples remembered that it was written, Zeal for your house will consume me. Jesus Christ fulfills this zeal for the house that consumes him and it is for his sake or for our sake that he is born reproach penal substitutionary atonement Jesus Christ is hated so that we might be loved in Psalm 22 verse 1 the psalmist David cries out my God my God why have you forsaken me and then in Mark 15 34 Jesus says on the cross my God my God why have you forsaken me and if you read Psalm 22 it's like reading Isaiah 53 it's just a description of Jesus' experience that he's having on the cross and I want you to think about one thing when Jesus Christ says my God my God why have you forsaken me we can think about it as oh that's so great that Jesus was willing to be forsaken by the Father and suffer the penalty of all those kinds of things but what I want you to remember is while he was on the cross he was thinking about you needing to know that that's what he's doing so he says my God my God why have you forsaken me and he's mocked for it and they say well why won't his God save him and he suffers the shame of the fact that they see that he's not being saved right then.

So that people in 2020 can open their Bible and see that he was pointing to Psalm 22 so they could learn the truths that we're understanding right now. So that we could see that the whole plan from all time was for this stuff to happen. I don't know about you, but I'm going through suffering. I'm not so concerned about anyone else, let alone future generations.

What love? We can't match His love. We can only enjoy it and bask in it. Try to imitate it and trust Him to give us the power to do so. In Psalm 16, we're going to move forward a little bit here. The resurrection of Jesus Christ was indicated, which is key to His suffering and subsequent glory.

There's no glory without resurrection. I want you to understand that so Peter says that the sufferings of Christ were indicated and the subsequent glories and I'm going to tell you that you need the resurrection for that to happen in Psalm 16 again David writes in verse 8 I have set Yahweh always before me because he is at my right hand I shall not be shaken so David proclaims his faithfulness which is not a bad thing I don't think David means I'm perfectly faithful but it's good that David was a faithful guy his whole life therefore my heart is glad and my whole being rejoices my flesh also dwells secure and then David says in verse 10 for you will not abandon my soul to shoal you won't abandon me to the grave or to death he says or let your holy one see corruption you make known to me the path of life in your presence there is fullness of joy at your right hand are pleasures forevermore now look at Acts chapter 2 where Peter is preaching what is maybe legitimately the first apostolic sermon after Jesus has ascended into heaven it's chapter 2 of Acts he's preaching to the people who very well may be the people he's writing to in this letter we're reading and Peter says in verse 25 for David says concerning him He going to quote Psalm 16 He says I saw the Lord always before me for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken So now he saying that David wrote this And we just read that David wrote it Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced My flesh also will dwell in hope. And he says, for you will not abandon my soul to Hades or let your Holy One see corruption.

You have made known to me the paths of life. You will make me full of gladness with your presence. So Peter quotes what I just read. and then he says brothers may I say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried and his tomb is with us to this day David's still dead Peter's saying so let's do some logic here like what was David talking about if the very prophecy that David said appears to not be true about David at least right and Peter says being therefore a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ that he was not abandoned to Hades nor did his flesh see corruption this Jesus God raised up and of that we are all witnesses being therefore exalted at the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.

Peter sees Jesus in Psalm 16. David writes it in the first person. Peter says, 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 was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ. and the subsequent glories. Peter is telling us that the prophets would have read Psalm 16.

Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, all these guys would have sat there and they would have read things like Psalm 16 and they would have thought to themselves, well, David's a prophet and David's dead, so there is someone coming. They would have known these things and we should know them too. in his 1859 sermon Christ Precious to Believers Spurgeon quoted a Welsh minister as saying something that is actually falsely attributed to Spurgeon but it's a good enough quote it's like a Spurgeon quote he says I have never yet found a text that had not got a road to Christ in it if I ever do find one that has not a road to Christ in it I will make one I will go over hedge and ditch, but I would get at my master, for the sermon cannot do any good unless there is a savor of Christ in it. That is why we preach Christ from every text of Scripture.

That is why we believe that He is the center point of all of history, of all of Scripture. He is our all in all. and the subsequent glory that he obtains as the result of his sufferings and his resurrection pictured in Isaiah 60 and a few other verses here we'll look at in Isaiah 60 Isaiah says arise shine for your light has come and the glory of Yahweh has risen upon you talking about glory right arise now you hear that phrase rise and shine that's where you get it from arise shine you have been blessed to know of the resurrection you have had your eyes open to the fact that Jesus Christ descended into heaven after being raised from the dead now you rise up his glory is shown on you if you know this you've seen some glory for behold darkness shall cover the earth and thick darkness the peoples but Yahweh will arise upon you and His glory will be seen upon you. You are an epistle to all men, right?

Written by God. How you act and how you live is a reflection of what you think of God and His glory. And people will notice. Nations shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising. This is fulfilled and being fulfilled, right? It's already and not yet.

We've received the glory of Jesus Christ from His resurrection. We've received the forgiveness of sins. we have light but we still live in a dark world don't we? I mean literally right now there's a company that sells child pornography called Netflix in the form of a movie that people are actually defending and the irony of it all is that movie makers have been exploiting children for decades on the screen, not just behind the scenes which I know is going on but now it's a big deal in this one movie.

And it's worse, maybe. But every movie I saw growing up had wickedness in it, and there were kids as part of the set. So they saw it. They were there. But we live in a very dark world right now. We're going to go Tuesday to preach where people are literally tearing their babies apart, burning them to death inside what should be the safest place to be.

But we know that one day there will be light. one day we won't have to worry about those things then will appear in heaven the sign of the son of man and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn Matthew 24 30 and they will see the son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory the glory of our Lord is coming and it comes after his resurrection it comes after and subsequent to his sufferings and what I'll tell you is that should bring you hope because if the Son of God who was not spared any suffering receives glory as the result of that suffering then you too can have hope in your tribulation that what the letter is about you too can endure suffering like a good soldier with the hope that there will be some crown at the end Peter talks about it repeatedly. 1 Peter 1, verse 7. Let's just look just in this letter where Peter talks about glory.

In 7 he says, The tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory, In honor of the revelation of Jesus Christ. Your faith is going to result in glory. In 11, one of the verses we're on, we saw the glory in there. Verse 21. Chapter 1. Talking about you, who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead, there's your resurrection, and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

There's resurrection, then glory. Look at 1 Peter 4.11. I just want to look at the word glory real quick. Whoever speaks is one who speaks oracles of God. So this is how you serve the church. Whoever serves is one who serves by the strength that God supplies, in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.

To Him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Jesus Christ gets the glory. in verse 14 of chapter 4. There's more glory. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. You are blessed if you're insulted for Christ.

How many of you wake up and pray for insults? I mean, we rarely pray for the things that actually bring us blessing. we pray for things that are comfortable to us Peter says don't suffer as an evildoer yourself and then in 16 he says if anyone suffers as a Christian again talking about suffering let him not be ashamed but let him glorify God in that name suffer as a Christian chapter 5 Peter says to the other elders He says, I'm a fellow elder, a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed. It's not fully revealed yet.

We can taste it, but we don't fully experience it yet. It's coming, though. It's coming. That's your promise. Verse 4, to shepherds that do a good job, you'll receive an unfading crown of glory. You can look at verse 10 and 11 later.

After you've suffered a little while, you're going to go to glory in 10. But I want to point you to Jesus Christ. Revelation 19, 7. Let us rejoice and exult and give Him glory. For the marriage of the Lamb has come. He's the Lamb.

And His bride has made herself ready. And in verse 11 of chapter 21, Revelation 21-11, speaking of God's bride, Jesus' bride, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. Jesus' bride shares in His glory because she's one with Him. That's the beauty. It's one of the reasons why we don't like people to tear apart marriage. because marriage is a picture of Jesus Christ's love for his bride.

And he's one with his bride and she shares his glory. The glory of God will give us light. It will be our lamp for all eternity. The entire Bible is about Jesus Christ. He is the focal point. His sufferings and subsequent glory is repeated so that we, the dull of heart and mind, may believe.

All of the Bible was written to reveal Him so that we may know Him, live for Him, and glorify Him. Romans 15, verses 3-7. Paul said, For Christ did not please Himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me. Remember that from Psalm 69? For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction. That through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope.

Endurance. What do we need endurance for? For suffering, right? For difficulties, afflictions, tribulations. May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God let me pray, Father in heaven we are in awe of your perfection and when we look at your word and we see how you've laid it out so perfectly we are sorry that we don't study it more I confess with the people today that we need to study your word more with hearts that actually want to know you oh how many days we've read a few chapters of the Bible so we could check off a box on a list give us hearts that desire to know you better and as the result of that hearts desire that we would study to show ourselves approved workmen who need not be ashamed, who rightly divide your word, who interpret Scripture the way that we do. taught to interpret it by the apostles and Jesus Christ himself.

In whose name I pray. Amen.