Angelic Interest in the Gospel
(No. 2697)
INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, OCTOBER 21, 1900.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
SEPTEMBER 25, 1881.
"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!
Angels take a deep interest in the Gospel because they observe God's
interest in it That for which God cares, angels care for at once. That
which grieves the Holy Spirit must be grievous to holy angels, too, and
that which gladdens the heart of God must also make glad the spirits
that bow adoringly around His Throne. The holy ones cry, each one to
his fellow, "God is glorified in saving sinful men. Our blessed Lord
and Leader went down to earth to accomplish the redemption of the
fallen and, therefore, let us learn all we can concerning His wondrous
work! And wherever there is anything that we can do to help it on, let
us stand with outspread wings, eager to fly at the command of God."
Doubtless, the angels also take an interest in the Gospel because they
are full of love. Those pure spirits love as surely as they live, and
not only do they love their God, and love one another, but they also
love us who were made a little lower than the angels. They have a great
affection for us–very much more, I imagine, than we have for them. We
are their younger brothers, as it were, and we are, by reason of our
flesh and blood, linked to materialism, while they are pure spirits.
Yet they do not envy us the love of God, neither do they despise us on
account of our faults and follies, though, I think, they must often
wonder at us. They must sometimes be ready to ask questions concerning
our strange behavior, just as two of them did when Christ had risen
from the dead and Mary Magdalene was weeping. Those angels were full of
joy because Christ had risen, so they said to her, "Woman, why do you
weep?" What could there be to weep about when Jesus had risen from the
dead?! Ah, Beloved, the angels must often be astonished at us and think
we are the strangest creatures that can be! Yet they love us and,
therefore, they take a great interest in that Gospel which promotes our
highest good. They know what we too frequently forget–that nothing can
make us so happy as for us to be holy–and that nothing can make us
holy but being washed in the blood of Jesus and being renewed by the
Holy Spirit. Out of their homage to God and their brotherhood to man,
comes that interest which makes them desire to look into the deep
things of God and His Gospel.
The angels have always taken an interest in all that concerns men. Some
of them stood at the gate of Eden, with a flaming sword which turned
every way, to keep our first father out, should he attempt to force his
way back when he had lost his right to all its joy, even as the most
loving spirit in the world is still upon the side of justice and
believes that God is righteous, even though Paradise is lost, and man
is doomed to eat bread in the sweat of his face. They are on man's
side, but much more on God's, and they say, "Let God, the ever Just
One, be glorified, whatever becomes of the sons of men."
After that fatal day of the Fall, the angels constantly watched over
men here below, and frequently spoke with one and another of them as
God sent them with messages of mercy to Abraham, or to Isaac, or to
Lot, or to Jacob, or to others of the human race. But there was a great
day when, in solemn pomp, the chariots of God, which are "twenty
thousand, even thousands of angels," came down to Mount Sinai, when the
Law of God was proclaimed. The angels were there as the courtiers of
the great King, to give additional solemnity to the declaration of the
Law of God. That they should have been present on that august occasion
shows their interest in the sons of men.
But I like better to speak to you of their coming to announce the birth
of Him of whom we sing, "Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is
given." When that birth, which they had announced, took place, how
gladly did they come and hover over Bethlehem's fields and sing the
grand chorale, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good
will toward men." It was their intense interest in us that made them
glad that our Redeemer was born. Then, as we sang at the commencement
of this service–
"In all His toils and dangerous paths
They did His steps attend,
Oft paused, and wondered how at last
The scene of love would end." At that notable time when He was tempted
in the wilderness, and was with the wild beasts, when the devil had
left Him, angels came and ministered to Him. They were always near Him
while He was here–always invisibly attendant upon His footsteps. You
remember how there appeared unto Him an angel strengthening Him when He
was in His agony in the Garden of Gethsemane–it was a wondrous thing
that the Son of God should have strength infused into Him by an angelic
messenger! With what awestruck interest the angels must have watched
our Lord upon the Cross!–
"As on the tottering tree He hung,
And darkness veiled the sky,
They saw, aghast, that awful sight,
The LordofGlory die!"
But glad were they to descend to His empty sepulcher, and to enter it,
and guard the place where, for a while, the sacred casket of His body
had lain. They spoke to His disciples and comforted them by telling
them that He had risen from the dead and, all along, they took such
interest in everything relating to Him because they recognized in Him
the Savior of sinful men–
"They brought His chariot from above, To bear Him to His Throne,
Clapped their triumphant wigs and cried, 'The glorious work is done!'"
Nor is this all. We know, from Scripture, that they not only watched
over the Savior, but they rejoice over penitents. The Lord Jesus has
told us that "there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over
one sinner that repents." That is to say, there is joy in God's heart
and the angels can see it. They stand in God's Presence and they can
see that God is glad! And we know that they also share that gladness.
In the parable of the lost sheep, our Savior represents the shepherd
calling together his friends and his neighbors, and saying to them,
"Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost." So they
do, I am sure–they rejoice over every rescued one that is brought home
upon the shoulders of the Good Shepherd!
And, Beloved, they watch over every believing soul This is one of their
chief offices, for, "are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth
to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?" That promise
which Satan misquoted is true to every child of God–"He shall give His
angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. They shall bear
you up in their hands, lest you dash your foot against a stone." From
what spiritual evils they guard us, it is not for me to attempt to
tell, nor to try to describe how, often, in mid-air, there are fierce
fights between the demons from Hell and the good spirits from Heaven.
Or how the prince of the power of the air is baffled and driven back by
Michael the archangel as he comes to takes care of the living body of
Christ, as once of old he guarded the dead body of Moses. Ah, we little
know how much we owe these invisible agents of the ever-blessed God!
They are deeply interested in all His children. The par-
able tells us that Lazarus died, "and was carried by the angels into
Abraham's bosom." What that expression means, I shall not attempt to
explain, but I am quite sure that when we who love the Lord, die,
angels will have something to do with our departure and with our
introduction into the world of happy spirits–and into the
presence-chamber of the Lord our God! I like Bunyan's account of the
pilgrims passing through the river and the shining ones meeting them on
the other side, and leading them up the steep ascent into the Celestial
City where they see their Master's face with joy, and go no more out
forever.
Nor will they have done with us even then, for when we shall be with
God eternally shut in, and safe from all danger of falling and sinning,
the angels will swell the music of our continual song, for they shall
sing, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches,
and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing." Yet we
shall be able to sing what they cannot, "You were slain, and have
redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and
people, and nation; and have made us unto our God, kings and priests,
and we shall reign on the earth."
Further, these dear attendants of our wandering footsteps here below,
these patient guardians of our nightly hours, these angel guides who
shall be our companions in death when wife and child and friend can go
no farther with us–these glorious beings shall learn from our lips in
Heaven the manifold wisdom of God. They will cluster around us amazed
and gladdened as, one by one, we stand upon the sea of glass–and they
will ask us to rehearse again and again the wonders of redeeming love
and to tell them what Conversion meant, and what Sanctification meant,
and how the power and wisdom and Grace and patience of God were seen in
the experience of each one of us–and we shall be their joyful
teachers, world without end!
Have I not proved to you that angels take an active interest in the
Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? And may I not come back to
this practical point–do you,also, take an active interest in the
Gospel–you in whose nature Christ appeared–you sons of men–you who
must be forever lost unless the precious blood of the bleeding Lamb is
sprinkled upon you?–
"Is it nothing to you, all you that pass by, Is it nothing to you that
Jesus should die?'"
It was for such as you that He died, even for the guilty sons and
daughters of men, "for verily He took not on Him the nature of angels,
but He took on Him the seed of Abraham." He took up men, not
angels–shall they, then, be interested in the Gospel, and shall not
you, whom it especially concerns, also be interested in it? I have
already reminded you that they have no brother angels to be converted
by the Gospel. They have no sister angels to be turned to God by the
story of Calvary, yet they are deeply interested in the Gospel and also
in us! And will not you, my fellow Christians, take a deeper interest
in the work of God and in the propagation of the Gospel, when your own
flesh and blood must be converted by it, or else must eternally die?
Our sisters and brothers, our sons and daughters, our wives and
husbands, possibly even our parents, will perish forever unless Jesus
Christ is brought to them–and they are brought to Him. What are you
doing, you careless professors, you who can go calmly to sleep while
men and women are being damned? What are you thinking of, you who eat
the fat and drink the sweet in the courts of the Lord's House and yet
never show to the prisoners this way to liberty, nor tell to the dying
the good news that, "there is life for a look at the Crucified
One"–nor say to the perishing that there is salvation even for them in
Christ Jesus your Lord? Up, up! I charge you by every swift-winged
angel who takes an interest in the Cross of Christ, and in the
salvation of men, AWAKE, sons of men! If you may, any way, be the means
of saving some, be active in the service of that Savior who gave His
all for you! God bless that exhortation to all whom it concerns!
II. Now we turn to the second point, which is this–that ANGELS ARE
EAGER STUDENTS OF THE GOSPEL, and of all the Truths of God connected
with it–"Which things the angels desire to look into."
It is quite certain, then, that angels do not know all that is in the
Gospel, for they desire to look into it. All the Gospel is not known to
them and I do not think that it is all known to any of us. I have
occasionally met with certain brethren who have professed to have the
whole of the Gospel condensed into five points of doctrine, so that
they could put it all into their waistcoat pocket and carry it there.
And they seemed to think that they had not anything more to learn. If
one tried to teach them any other Truth of God beside what they already
knew, they were angry, for they did not need to know anymore. They are
not like the holy angels, for they desire to look into these things.
Dr. John Owen was, perhaps, the most profound Divine who ever lived,
yet Dr. John Owen could not know, on earth, as much about certain
things as
angels did! And I should say that, this very day, he still desires to
look into the mystery of redeeming love and the Glory of Christ of
which he wrote with such wonderful power.
The Apostle Paul had been converted many years when he wrote the
Epistle to the Philippians, yet in it he expressed the longing of his
heart that he might know Christ. But did he not know Him? And if he did
not, who did? No doubt he felt that there was so much of Christ that he
had not known that what he didknow amounted to very little. I have
heard the word, perfection, used very glibly by some who seemed to me
to know little of its meaning. But will any sane man claim that he has
attained to perfection in knowledge To the Corinthians, Paul wrote, "If
any man thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought
to know." The mystery of Redemption was hidden in Christ from eternity,
and it was only made known to the Church or even to the angels
gradually. They do not yet know everything. Concerning His Second
Coming, our Lord said to His disciples, "But of that day and hour knows
no man, no, not the angels of Heaven, but My Father only."
The devil also does not know everything. I am sure that Satan did not
know that Christ came into the world to redeem men by dying for them,
or else he would never have stirred them up to put Him to death. He
would have been far too cunning for that–he would have tried, if
possible, to keep Christ alive so that we might not have been redeemed
by Him. The devil does not know as much as he thinks he knows, even
now. And, often, he is outwitted by a simple-hearted child of God who
knows how to believe in God, and is brave enough to do the right thing.
Neither men, nor Prophets, nor angels, nor devils know all about the
Gospel! They need to still go on studying, meditating and
contemplating, as the holy beings before the Throne of God are
doing–"'which things the angels desire to look into.'"
But, Brothers and Sisters, though they do not yet know all about Christ
and His Gospel, they want to know all they can. They have many other
subjects to study. There are all the worlds that God has made, and
possibly they have liberty to range over them all, yet I do not read
with reference to the marvels of astronomy, "which things the angels
desire to look into." Angels doubtless know much more than all our
scientific men do concerning the former ages of this world. They could
tell much about the various formations and strata of which geologists
talk, yet I do not find it recorded that the angels have any particular
desire to look into those things. When God created the world, "the
morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy."
They have oftentimes admired the Providential arrangements of God and
praised the wise Ruler who guides all things with Infinite Wisdom. But
now their chief contemplations seem to be fixed on Christ and His
Gospel!
Just notice two or three passages of Scripture. Turn first to Exodus
25:20, where we read concerning the cherubim, who belong to one order
of angels, "The cherubim shall stretch forth their wings on high,
covering the Mercy Seat with their wings, and their faces shall look
one to another, toward the Mercy Seat shall the faces of the cherubim
be"– "toward the Mercy Seat," as if their eyes were continually fixed
upon the redemption of Christ, the Propitiation worked out by His
Sacrifice. In Daniel's day these blessed spirits took the greatest
conceivable interest in knowing all they could about our redemption. If
you turn to Daniel 8:13, you can read what that man of God wrote. "Then
I heard one saint– 'one holy one'–speaking, and another holy one said
unto that certain holy one which spoke, How long shall be the vision
concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation?"
"How long?"–that was the question which the holy ones asked long
before Christ descended to earth! Read also Daniel 12:5–"Then I Daniel
looked, and, behold, there stood two others, the one on this side of
the bank of the river, and the other on that side of the bank of the
river. And one said to the man clothed in linen, which was upon the
waters of the river, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?"
They asked again and again, "How long?" All their thoughts were
concentrated upon the things of God and they desired to look into them.
Now I want you to remember, in order that it may humble us, that angels
have very keen intellects. I believe that they far excel us in their
prayers of thought and yet, though they have learned so much about the
Gospel, they do not pretend to have come any further than this–they
desire to look into it. You and I, perhaps, suppose that we know all
about the Gospel and that we do not need to have hours of study, and
thought, and prayer, and the unction of the Holy Spirit. Poor miserable
fools! Angels, who are vastly superior to us in intelligence, have gone
no further than to have the desire to learn and to know. I am afraid
that many of you have not got as far as that. It is a grand thing to
desire to look into these things–it proves that we already know
something of their worth when we desire to know more.
Remember, also, that the intellects of angels have never been warped by
prejudice. There is not a man among us who is not prejudiced to some
extent. Our parents warped us in one direction and our companions have
warped us another way and we have, all of us, the propensity to take a
one-sided view of things, even though we may be perfectly ignorant of
the bias and, sometimes, this prejudice of ours prevents us from seeing
clearly. But it is not so with the angels. There is no beam, nor even a
mote, in their eyes! Their knowledge is not infinite, but it is amazing
knowledge as far as it goes. Yet even they see not all that there is in
the Gospel, for, of it, as of the love of God, it can truly be said–
"The first-born sons of light Desire in vain its depths to see. They
cannot reach the mystery, The length, and breadth, and height!" Then,
again, the angels have been long looking into these things. I know not
what the age of the angels may be. We know nothing of any creation of
angels since the creation of the world. In the long ages before man
trod this earth, angels had begun to think of looking into the wonders
of God's Grace. Yet, after thousands of years, they do not fully
comprehend the mysteries of redeeming love. Ah, my Brothers and
Sisters, the Gospel is a boundless thing, even as your ruin was
infinite and horrible beyond conception. And woe to the man who tries
to make out that there is but a little Hell, and a little God, and but
little wrath of God! As surely as your overthrow was inconceivably
terrible, so the designs of God for your redemption and your exaltation
in Christ are inconceivably magnificent! "It does not yet appear what
we shall be." Some of us have very large expectations of what God means
to make even of His creatures who are now cooped up in flesh and blood,
but our highest anticipations will probably be far exceeded by the
glorious reality! Even angels do not yet fully know, after all their
study, what the mighty love of God has done and will yet do for us!
Do not forget, too, dear Friends, that angels are not subject to such
infirmities as we are. I know that I have forgotten a great deal more
than I know, and I suppose that most of you have done the same. And
when we have learned a thing, we are often like people who take up a
handful of water–it is soon all gone. What leaky sieves our memories
are! Angels, however, have no such failure of mind. They have never
sinned and, therefore, from much of our infirmity, they must be
altogether free. Yet, though far superior to us in this respect, this
is the position they have reached–they stand over the Mercy Seat, with
wings outstretched, and with their eyes continually fixed upon that
token of the Propitiation, desiring to look into it! That is where you
and I also stand–if we are truly humble, we feel that this is as far
as we have come as yet.
Now, let us enquire– What are the things which the angels desire to
look into? I can only refer very briefly to them. They are, first, the
Incarnation, life, and death of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The
way in which God could be just, and yet justify the ungodly. That
sacred art by which the suffering of the Law-Giver made a sufficient
recompense to the offended Law of God. The wondrous power of those
sufferings God-ward and manward–how these sufferings have broken men's
hearts and separated them from their sins. How they have given them joy
and peace and united them forever to their God. You and I have only
seen the sparkle on the surface of the crimson sea of Redemption–we
cannot understand the height, and depth, and length, and breadth of the
sufferings and death of Jesus Christ our Lord–so let us still desire
to look into it, as the angels do.
Next, they desire to know something concerning the Resurrection of
Christ. "How do you know that?" you ask. Why, the verse before the one
containing our text speaks of "the sufferings of Christ, and the glory
that should follow." So angels love to think of Christ as risen from
the dead, of Christ ascended, and of Christ yet to come in His Glory.
They desire to gaze into that mystery and to learn how the glorious God
can become yet more glorious by taking upon Himself our nature and so
magnifying His Grace above all His name, by redeeming fallen men, and
by lifting them up into communion with God.
Angels desire to look into all the mystery of human hearts–how they
are fallen, how they are regenerated, how they are preserved, how they
are sanctified, how they are strengthened, how they are taught, how
they are perfected. There is a wonderful field for their inspection,
there, in the work of the Holy Spirit upon the sons and daughters of
Adam by virtue of the death of Christ!
And angels want also to know what God is going to do with this poor
world. It is an awful problem to us and so it is to them, I expect. Can
you make this world out? Did you ever try to understand it? It is a
dreadful nut for anyone to crack–all these millions of men continually
dying without God and without Christ–and without hope. What are to be
the eternal issues of it all? How will it come out that God is
glorified at the last when such multitudes perish? There are some
Brothers and Sisters who think they know all about this mystery–they
have a philosophy which explains it all. I have no such philosophy, nor
do I wish to have. I sometimes found, when I was a child, that it was a
pleasant thing for me to be with my father and to hear him talk even
when I did not fully understand what he was talking about. And so I
find it a blessed thing to get near to God and to see what He is doing,
even when I do not know what He is doing, for I am perfectly satisfied
that He cannot do anything that is wrong! Still, angels and men may
join in the common desire to look into the wonderful working of God's
Providence and Grace.
But the angels also desire to look into the glory that shall follow.
What is the glory that is yet to come to those spirits of just men made
perfect who, as yet, have not their glorified bodies, but are waiting
for them until the resurrection trumpet shall sound? What will be the
glory of that moment when, in the twinkling of an eye, the dead shall
be raised incorruptible, and the living shall be changed? And what will
be the glory of that dread hour when Heaven and earth shall gather
before the last tribunal and, on the Great White Throne, the Judge
shall sit, and all born of woman shall be gathered before Him to give
an account of the deeds done in the body, whether they have been good,
or whether they have been evil? And what glory it will be, before that
day has closed, when over all the world of sinners the waves of God's
Infinite Wrath shall roll, and they shall sink to the bottom like a
stone, never to taint the earth again! And what a glory it will be when
all those on the King's right hand, all the blood-washed, all the
redeemed, shall stream up to their everlasting thrones to sit forever
with their conquering Leader, and reign eternally, peers in the palace
of the King, forever adoring, forever blessing His holy name! Oh, what
glory will be there! I will not attempt to describe it, for even the
angels, who are in Heaven, desire to look into this mystery! Even they
scarcely know what will be the glory of "the general assembly and
church of the first-born, which are written in Heaven."
You know that the Greeks had, every now and then, a great gathering of
all the nation in what they called their general assembly. Everyone was
represented there–poet and philosopher, tragedian and military man.
All the glories of Greece were there. Well, there is to come a general
assembly, an ecumenical council of the entire Church of God. And when
they shall all be there on the plains of Heaven–Prophets, confessors,
Apostles, martyrs, humble men and women from every part of the
world–not one of the redeemed will be absent! They will all be there,
with their King in the midst of them, and what a shout of victory, what
hallelujahs, what songs of joy, what triumphant jubilates shall welcome
that glad day! By God's Grace, I shall be there. My Hearer, will you be
there? Are you sure of it? If so, let the glad anticipation of it
rejoice your heart even now, though you do not know what the full
realization of it will be, for even angels, who have seen the lesser
gatherings of the saints, have not yet seen the one universal
assembly–the gathering of all the clans, the coronation of the Prince,
the marriage of the bride, the Lamb's wife and all the Glory of
God–and the splendor of the infinite meridian brilliance that will be
displayed before the wondering eyes of God's elect saints and God's
elect angels! They do not know what it is to be, nor do you, but we, as
well as they, desire to look into it, and I hope we all desire to be
there!
Now let me close by saying that as the angels are such deep students of
the things of God, let us try to be the same. I wish that I could stir
up all my dear friends who are saved to try to look more closely into
the things of God. I am afraid that we are going to have a greater
proportion of superficial Believers than we have had in the past, for
we have so many people who are always hallooing about their religion.
God bless them and let them halloo as loudly as they like, but I wish
that they had something more to halloo about. There are some who are
always crying, "Believe, believe, believe!" But, for the life of them,
they could not tell you what it is that you have to believe. And many
shout, "Hallelujah!" who do not know what "Hallelujah!" means, or they
would be far more reverent towards that blessed word, "Praise to
Jehovah!" We want, Brothers and Sisters, that you who are saved should
seek to know how and why you were saved! You who have a hope of
salvation should know the reason for the hope that is in you!
Study the Scriptures much. In the Puritan days, there used to be a
number of contemplative Christians who shut themselves up to study the
Word of the Lord, and so became masters of theology. Perhaps some were
not so practical in winning souls as they ought to have been, but now
we are getting to the opposite pole of the compass. We have many who
are rushing about and professing to feed the people–but what do they
give them? Where is your bread, Sir? "Oh, I could not let these poor
people wait." But why do you not go and fill your basket? You have
nothing in it. "Oh, I had
not time to do that. I wanted to go and give them"–Give them what?
Give them half of the nothing that you have brought? That will do them
no good at all!
There is nothing like having good seed in the basket when you go out to
sow. And when you go to feed the hungry, there is nothing like having
good bread to give them. And that cannot be the case, spiritually,
unless we are diligent students of the Word, unless we search the deep
things of God! By all means let us advance our forces into the recesses
of the enemy's country, but let us secure our communications and let us
have a good firm basis of Scriptural knowledge, otherwise mischief will
come to our scattered powers. By all means be enthusiastic. By all
means be intense, but you cannot keep a fire burning without fuel, and
you cannot keep up real intensity and enthusiasm without a knowledge of
Christ and an understanding of the things of God, "which things the
angels desire to look into."
Now, dear Friends, those of you who have nothing to do with this
matter, I would like you to go away thinking that if an angel cares
about these things, and if an angel studies them, it is time that you
did the same. I know that you are going to take your degree at the
University, good Sir, and I am very glad that you are likely to secure
a good position in life. But I hope that you are not so foolish as to
think that you know more than the angels! And if they desire to look
into these things, permit me to ask you to study your Bible as well as
all the other classics, for, after all, this is the best classic! I
know, dear Sir, that you are a masterly thinker. You can make a great
many hypotheses and pull them to pieces again, but I wish, for once,
that you would consider this hypothesis–that, perhaps, you are not as
wise as the angels. I should not wonder if that hypothesis should prove
to be true!
I have often noticed that people who rail at the Gospel do not know
what it is. Many speak against the Bible, but if they were asked, "Did
you ever read it?" they would have to answer, "No." He who studies
God's Word is usually conquered by it–he falls in love with it and
feels the power of it. So, as the holy angels desire to look into it,
look into it, yourself, good Sir, and, on your looking there, may God
give you to see Jesus, for all who look unto Him shall be saved
forever! May you be one of that blessed company, for His dear name's
sake! Amen.