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In my. I found the mercy at the old
rugged cross. Now I have peace within. of sin. His love and his grace live where
despair has failed. I'm satisfied. says why and the process of deepness
and eternal life. I I called out your name in my
sin and my shame. I found mercy. I found mercy. Get it wrong. All right, let's open our Bibles
this morning to the Gospel of John chapter 1, and the ushers
are giving out outlines if you'd like to have one of those, and
you can follow along on that to some degree, as well as in
your Bible. And we, for a long time, have
been preaching on Sunday morning on the doctrines of the Bible
and continue that this morning, though we move on today to a
new doctrine for the last, I think I preached 35 sermons
on the doctrine of the Church. And now we move on. The Gospel of John, Chapter 1.
Anyone else need an outline? You don't have one? The ushers
will bring you one if you'd like to have one. All right. I believe
that's everybody then. The Gospel of John, Chapter 1. And we'll begin reading up in
verse 43 and read through the end of the chapter. The day following,
Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and findeth Philip, and saith
unto him, Follow me. Now Philip was of Bethsaida,
the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip findeth Nathanael, and
saith unto him, We have found him of whom Moses in the law
and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.
And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come
out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and
see. Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold,
an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile. Nathanael saith
unto him, Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto
him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the
fig tree, I saw thee. Nathanael answered and saith
unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the King
of Israel. Jesus answered and said unto
him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree,
believest thou? Thou shalt see greater things
than these. Now notice this especially. And
he, Jesus, saith unto him, Nathanael, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending
and descending upon the Son of Man. Isn't that a strange expression? the angels of God ascending and
descending upon the Son of Man. Let me show you where that came
from and what it's talking about. Hold your finger there, if you
would, and look back in your Bible to the first book of the
Bible, Genesis chapter 28. And what's happening in this
chapter of the Bible is that Jacob has left home and is going
to leave Canaan and go over to Paddan Aram, where his mother's
brother lives. And it says in verse 11, that
he lighted upon a certain place and tarried there all night because
the sun was set. And he took up the stones of
that place and put them for his pillows and lay down in that
place to sleep. Now notice this verse, and he
dreamed, Jacob dreamed, and behold, a ladder set up on the earth
and the top of it reached to heaven. Now look at the expression.
and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it."
The very same expression that Jesus used in John 151, the angels
of God ascending and descending. Only in John it says, "...upon
the Son of Man." In Genesis 28 it says on it, "...on the ladder
that Jacob dreamed about that reached to heaven." Now what
is the... The emphasis of this, well, it's
showing us that that ladder that rested on the earth and the top
reached into heaven with the Lord standing at the top, that
ladder is representative of the ladder to heaven which is Jesus
Christ. He's the connecting link between
earth and heaven and so the angels of God that ascended and descended
on that ladder from heaven are the same ones that Jesus said
that Nathaniel would see ascending and descending upon him because
he, like that ladder that Jacob dreamed about, connects earth
to heaven and it's through that ladder Jesus Christ that we can
get to heaven. And if you've never trusted him
as your Savior, I want you to understand that more than anything
else, that Jesus is the Savior and he's the only way that we
can get to heaven. But we see that prefiguring of
him in Genesis 28 in the dream of Jacob of the ladder that connected
earth to heaven and the angels of God. ascending and descending
on it. And now Jesus says to Nathanael,
Hereafter ye shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending
and descending upon the Son of Man. Now notice though He said
that those who would be ascending and descending upon the Son of
Man would be the angels of God. And so this morning as we start
a new uh... doctrine uh... new series of
studies i'm going to speak this morning to you for a while on
the subject what he owes an angel what he owes an angel father
would you forgive my sins now and help me uh... uh... preach uh... for these next uh... few minutes in the power of fervor
and unction of the holy spirit of god i pray that uh... you'll
teach uh... the truth of the Bible to your
people. I do pray if there's anyone here
who's never trusted Christ and been saved that they might come
to him and be saved today. But I pray that you might bless
now this study that we're starting today with a special anointing
and that you might teach your people what you tell us in your
Word. Please help me, I pray in Jesus'
name. Amen. And so as we continue then
our study of the doctrines of the Bible, with this study we
begin a new doctrine, the doctrine of the angels. If you like to
know the Greek theological words for these things, this one is
angelology. Now that seems pretty obvious.
For example, if I spoke for a long time about the doctrine of salvation,
which is called theologically soteriology. Now, if I said the
word soteriology, you might not recognize that as referring to
the doctrines of salvation. I preached for a while on the
doctrine of man, which theologically is known as the doctrine of anthropology. But if I said the word anthropology,
you might not recognize that as referring to the doctrine
of man. However, if I said angelology,
I don't really think you'd have too much trouble figuring out
what that's talking about. It's the doctrine of the angels. Now, really, you know, we don't
think too much about this nowadays. I don't think, not as much. at
least as they did centuries ago. But the importance of this doctrine
of angels is seen from the frequency with which these beings are mentioned
in the Bible. More than 100 times in the Old
Testament and more than 150 times in the New Testament we find
the word angel. Now that in itself sounds maybe
a little bit odd because when we think of the ministry of angels,
at least with me, I think primarily of Old Testament days and how
the angels ministered in those days. And yet the truth is that
the angels are mentioned more in the New Testament than they
are in the Old Testament. And so then we begin this morning
with this study of angels, the doctrine of angels, and we desire
to examine exactly what we're talking about. So we'll consider
in this study what is an angel, and I'm going to approach it
from three points of view. First of all, the definition
of the word angel, secondly, the usage of the word angel in
the Bible, and thirdly, the origin of the angels. Where did they
come from and how did they get here? And so then let's consider
in the first place the definition of the word that is the word
angel. Now let me point out that by
definition the English word angel is a transliteration of a Greek
word which means messenger. Now let me explain what a transliterated
word is. A transliterated word takes place
when the translators of our English King James Bible, rather than
actually translating a word, rather they took the word and
anglicized the Greek word and brought a new word over into
the English language. Now, a good example of this is
the word baptize. You find it many times in the
Bible, but, for example, in Matthew chapter 3, where it's talking
about John the Baptist coming out and baptizing people, In
verse 11, John said to the crowd, I indeed baptize you with water
unto repentance, but he that cometh after me, that is Jesus,
but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes
I'm not worthy to bear. He shall baptize you with the
Holy Ghost and with fire. And so twice then in that verse
you have the word baptize and then many other times in the
New Testament. Now, if the Greek word had been
translated, it would be immerse or dilp. In other words, if they
had taken the Greek word, baptizo is the Greek word, if they had
taken that word and literally translated it and brought it
over by translation into the English language, It wouldn't
say baptize, it would say immerse or it would say dip. Therefore,
if it had been translated rather than being transliterated, that
verse that I just read a moment ago where John the Baptist said,
I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, if the word
baptize had been translated, he would have said in English,
I indeed immerse you with water unto repentance. But he that
cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy
to bear. He shall immerse you with the
Holy Ghost and with fire." And so then the word baptize, had
it been translated, would be immerse or dilt. However, the
Greek word baptizo was not translated. but rather it was transliterated
and became the English word baptize. Now the same thing happened with
the word angel. If the Greek word had been translated,
the word would be messenger. And in fact there are a number
of times in the New Testament where the word is translated
as messenger. For example, there are probably
a half a dozen or so verses where the very same word that's otherwise
given as angel in our English Bible is given as messenger. For example, in Matthew chapter
11 and verse number 10, here the scripture is again talking
about John the Baptist. In this case, when he had sent
some of his disciples to the Lord Jesus Christ, But Matthew
11 and verse number 10, Jesus says of John the Baptist, "'For
this is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger.'"
Now the word messenger right there is the very same word as
angel, the same Greek word just given in this case, literally
translated out of the Greek into the English. and it becomes messenger. You see the same thing in Mark
chapter 1 and verse 2 where it talks about the same thing and
the Lord Jesus Christ had talked about John being the fulfillment
of that passage in Malachi. that said, I send my messenger
before thy face. You see the same thing in Mark
chapter 1 and verse 2 as it's written in the Prophets, behold,
I send my messenger before thy face. Again, the word messenger
in that verse is translated out of the Greek and it's the same
Greek word that in other places is translated as angel. In Luke chapter 7, you find the
same thing again. Luke chapter 7 and verse number
24, and when the messengers of John were departed, he began
to speak unto the people concerning John. So the messengers of John
began the same word as the word angel in the New Testament. Down
in verse 27, Jesus declared, this is he, of whom it is written,
Behold, I send my messenger before thy face. And again, the word
messenger here is the same as the word for angel. In Luke chapter
9 and verse number 52, the Bible says, and sent messengers before
his face once more, the same as the word for angel. In 2 Corinthians
chapter 12 and verse 7, in a somewhat unusual usage of the word in
the New Testament, 2 Corinthians, chapter 12 and verse number 7. In this passage the Apostle Paul
is talking about what he calls his thorn in the flesh. He said,
"...lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance
of the revelations there was given to me a thorn in the flesh."
And then he calls it this, "...the messenger of Satan to buffet
me lest I should be exalted above measure." and the word messenger
there, a messenger of Satan, the word messenger is the same
as the word angel. And then another time in James
chapter 2 where the Bible is talking about Rahab and her faith
in God, way back in the city of Jericho, it says in verse
25 of chapter 2 of the book of James, "...likewise also was
not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received
the messengers and had sent them out another way. And here we
have another case where the word messengers is used, a translation
of the word that's in other places printed as angel in our King
James Bible. And so then sometimes the word
is translated messenger, and whenever it is, literally translated
its messenger because that's what the word means. However,
in using the word angel, and I mentioned that the word angel
is used over 150 times in the New Testament, But in using the word angel,
the Greek word angelos was transliterated, becoming the English word angel. So a transliteration is where
a word is taken from another language. In the case of the
New Testament, the Greek language, and rather than being literally
translated over into English, the Greek word is anglicized,
given an English spelling, and a new word is brought over into
the English language, and that's what happened with the word angel,
the Greek word being angelos. And so it's important now to
remember in studying our Bible that an angel is a messenger. If we fail to remember this,
it may result in confusion due to the fact that when the Bible
uses the word angel, it's not always referring to the spirit
beings that we generally think of when we think of an angel,
though most of the time it is. Sometimes it's used of other
things. And so then, by definition, the
word angel is a word that means messenger. What does the word
angel mean now? Talk to me. It means messenger,
and whenever you see the word angel in the Bible, it's talking
about a messenger. Now, let's move on. That's the
definition of the word. Let's move on, secondly, to the
usage of the word. How is the word angel used in
the Bible? All right, let me point out that
in the Old Testament, hear me now, and this applies only to
the Old Testament, The word angel is sometimes used of the Lord
Himself, and that is in the phrase where you read the phrase the
Angel of the Lord, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital
D. Now in the Old Testament when
you find the word Lord in that form, all four letters of the
word capitalized, the translators are telling us that that is the
word Jehovah. So the angel of the capital L,
capital O, capital R, capital D, the angel of the Lord is the
angel of Jehovah. And in fact, in almost half the
cases where the word angel is found in the Old Testament, It's
in this form, the angel of Jehovah, the angel of the Lord. Now, we can see that this angel
of the Lord was a manifestation of God himself in an especially
clear manner in certain accounts in the Old Testament. Do you
mind reading your Bible for a little while? Does that mean yes or
no? Genesis, well, if you don't want
the Bible, you don't want to be here. Genesis chapter 16 and
here we have the story of Hagar who was Abraham's wife's maid
and they had had a fallen out and Hagar had decided that she
would run away and that's what she did but in Genesis chapter
16 it says notice in verse 7 and the angel of the Lord do you
see the word Lord there Genesis chapter 16, verse 7, "...and
the angel of the Lord." Do you see that? See the word LORD? Do you see how all four letters
of the word are capitalized? Capital L, capital O, capital
R, capital D? Do you see that? Now, if you
talk to me, answer me. Say yes or no or shake your head
or something. And so, the angel of the LORD,
or the angel of Jehovah, found her, found Hagar, by a fountain
of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur.
And he said, Hagar, Sarai's maid, whence camest thou, and whither
wilt thou go? And she said, I flee from the
face of my mistress Sarai. And the angel of the Lord said
unto her, return to thy mistress and submit thyself unto her hands. and the angel of the Lord said
unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly that it shall
not be numbered for multitude." Do you see how all down through
here it keeps talking about this personage, the angel of Jehovah,
the angel of the Lord, the angel of the Lord, the angel of the
Lord talking to Hagar here? And then if you'll notice in
verse 13, and she, Hagar, called the name, look at it, of the
Lord that spake unto her, thou God seest me, for she said, have
also here looked after him that seeth me. This personage referred
to as the angel of the Lord again and again in the preceding verses. In verse 13, he's referred to
as the Lord Jehovah and as God. Thou God seest me. And so we
see then in this case especially that the angel of Jehovah, the
angel of the Lord, is actually a manifestation of God himself. You see the same thing if you'll
turn over a few pages to Exodus chapter 3, and everybody here
knows about the burning bush and how the Lord appeared to
Moses there and gave him the commission to go to Egypt and
tell Pharaoh to let God's people go. But now I want you to notice
down through here as we read this passage the expression,
the angel of the Lord and how he's referred to again and again
throughout this passage. Exodus 3, verse 1, now Moses
kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of
Midian, and he led the flock to the backside of the desert
and came to the mountain of God even to Horeb. Look at it now,
verse 2, and what? The angel of the Lord. Do you see that? The angel of
Jehovah, the angel of the Lord, appeared unto him, unto Moses,
in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush and he looked
and behold, the bush burned with fire and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I'll now turn
aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. Now
remember, who was it that was manifesting himself in this burning
bush? Up in verse 2 it said, the angel
of the Lord, the angel of Jehovah. So Moses said, well, I'm going
to go over here and see what's going on. Verse 4, And when,
look at it, the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called
unto him out of the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. And he
said, Draw not nigh hither. Put off thy shoes from off thy
feet for the place whereon thou standest. is holy ground. Moreover, he said, now look at
this, here's this person in this burning bush that's referred
to up in verse 2 as the angel of the Lord. Moreover, he said,
verse 6, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the
God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face,
for he was afraid to look upon God. And the Lord said, I have
surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt
and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters, for I know
their sorrows. And I'm come down to deliver
them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that
land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk
and honey, unto the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites
and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.
Now therefore, Behold, the cry of the children of Israel is
come unto me, and I have also seen the oppression wherewith
the Egyptians oppressed them. Come now, therefore, and I will
send thee unto Pharaoh, for thou mayest bring forth my people,
the children of Israel, out of Egypt." And Moses said unto God,
"'Who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh "'and that I should bring
forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?' And he said, "'Certainly
I will be with thee, "'and this shall be a token unto thee that
I have sent thee. "'When thou hast brought forth
the people out of Egypt, "'ye shall serve God upon this mountain. And Moses said unto God, Behold,
when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto
them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you, and they
shall say to me, What is his name? What shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I am
that I am. And he said, Thus shalt thou
say unto the children of Israel, I am. has sent me unto you."
Do you see in this passage how that the angel of the Lord of
verse 2 is called God in verse 4, in verse 6, in verse 11, in
verse 13, and in verse 14? He's called the Lord in verse
4 and verse 7 and he's called I Am in verse 14. And so then, the word angel in
these cases, just in the Old Testament when you find it in
this form, the angel of the All four letters capitalized, LORD,
means the angel of Jehovah. And from what we saw right here
in these passages, we can see that this angel is used with
reference to God himself. And as I mentioned a moment ago,
almost half of the times that you find the word angel in the
Old Testament, you find it in this form, the angel of the Lord. And so the word angel, when used
in that way, is talking about God himself. He had appeared
before Jesus came the first time and was incarnated. We had the
Lord. In my opinion, it's God the Son. the Lord Jesus Christ appearing
in a pre-incarnate form, manifesting Himself in what they call a theophany
or a Christophany, manifesting Himself to people to deliver
whatever the message was that needed to be delivered at that
time. the angel of the Lord, a pre-incarnate appearance of
the Lord Jesus Christ. So we're talking about, then,
the way the word angel is used in the Bible and in the Old Testament
and only in the Old Testament. The phrase angel of Jehovah,
angel of the Lord, the word angel in that case is referring to
God Himself appearing in a pre-incarnate form before Jesus came the first
time. Then in the New Testament we
find that the word angel is used of the seven preachers or messengers
of the churches of Revelation. Now we just finished those passages
in Revelation. in the last couple of months
where each of the seven churches in pro-consular Asia, a message
is sent and the message is directed to the angel of the church. Revelation 2.1, unto the angel
of the church of Ephesus write. Revelation 2.8, unto the angel
of the church of Smyrna write." Verse 12 of the same chapter,
unto the angel of the church of Pergamos write. Down in verse
18 of the same chapter, to the angel of the church in Thyatira
write. right. Revelation 3 and verse
1, unto the angel of the church in Sardis right. Revelation chapter
3 and verse 7, unto the angel of the church in Philadelphia
right. And Revelation 3 and verse 14,
unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans,
right? Now, in each of those cases,
the angel of whichever church he's talking about, the messenger
of that church, though there are some that think that it's
talking about a heavenly angel, All that is said to and about
these angels in these churches in Revelation make it obvious,
at least to me, that it's not talking about one of God's heavenly
angels, but it's simply giving the message to the messenger
of the church, the preacher, the pastor of the church. And so then we have in the Old
Testament a number of times the word angel in the form of the
angel of the Lord, the angel of Jehovah, talking about the
Lord himself. In the New Testament we find
the word angel used several times talking about the preacher, And
I've always appreciated that preachers are called angels in
those verses because oftentimes we're called other things, but
the angels. But then, most often, the Bible
uses the word angel with reference to the spirit beings that we
usually think of when we think of an angel. These spirit beings
whose purpose is to bless, to praise, and to obey the Lord. Now let me show you that in Psalm
number 103, and in this great Psalm of the Bible. Psalm
103 verse 20 says this, Bless the Lord, ye his angels that
excel in strength, that do his commandments hearkening unto
the voice of his word. Do you see in that verse what
it says the angels are to do? They said they're to bless the
Lord. It says that they excel in strength. It says that they do God's commandments,
hearkening unto the voice of His Word. That's why they were
created. That's the purpose of the angels,
is to bless, to praise, and to obey the Lord. over in Psalm
148, almost the very last of the Psalms, only two others after
this one. But in Psalm 148 and verse 2,
it says, "...praise ye him, all his angels, praise ye him, all
his hosts." And so then, the angels, were made to praise God,
and that's what they do. If you'll look to the very final
book of the Bible, Revelation chapter 5, here John, the author
of the book, sees a vision of something that actually has not
taken place even yet, but will after the rapture. But here's
what John said in Revelation chapter 5, verses 11 and 12,
and I beheld and I heard the voice of many angels round about
the throne and the beasts and the elders and the number of
them was 10,000 times 10,000 and thousands of thousands saying
with a loud voice, worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive
power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory
and blessing. And so John sees the angels 10,000
times 10,000 and thousands of thousands surrounding the throne
of God in heaven and praising the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ,
who died for sins. And so then, most of the time
when the Bible uses the word angel, it's talking about these
spiritual beings whose purpose is to bless, praise, and obey
the Lord, especially in ministering to God's people. In Hebrews chapter
1 and verse number 7, and of the angels, he saith, God saith,
who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of
fire." And down in verse 14 it says this, "'Are they not all
ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them, who shall
be heirs of salvation?' And so you see, God's angels, usually
when the word's used in the Bible, angel, it's talking about these
spiritual beings that we usually think of incorrectly, I might
add, as having wings and that kind of thing. This is usually
what the Bible is talking about when it talks about an angel
and they especially are used of God in ministering to God's
people. You've heard the expression about
guardian angels. and things of this nature. And
we find examples throughout the Bible that we'll look at in studies
to come of angels ministering to the people of God. We find
angels protecting God's people. We find angels making provision
for God's people. We find angels guiding and directing
God's people, and so usually, most of the time, that's how
the word angel is used in the Bible of these specially created
beings, spirit beings, made to bless, to praise, to obey the
Lord, and especially in ministering to God's people. And so we've
talked about the definition of the word. An angel means a messenger. We've talked about how the word
is used in the Bible. In the Old Testament, the expression
is found in the angel of the Lord, the angel of Jehovah, is
talking about a pre-incarnate appearance of the Lord Himself. Several times in the New Testament,
the word angel is used of preachers, but most often the Bible uses
the word angel with reference to the spiritual beings that
we generally think of when we think of an angel, these specially
created entities whose purpose is to bless, praise and obey
the Lord, particularly in ministering to God's people. And now let's
consider for a few minutes the origin of the angels. Where did they come from? How
did they come to be? Well, let me point out that the
angels did not exist from all eternity past. There's only one
person who has existed from all eternity past. and that is the
God of heaven, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Now they never had
a beginning and they'll never have an ending. They are eternal
in the true sense of the word, but that's true only of the one
God manifested in the three members of the Godhead, Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit. The angels did not exist from
all eternity. There was a time when there was
no angels. Now, the time of their creation,
they were created, by the way, We read in Psalm 148, listen
to what it says. We just read one verse. I want
to read the first five verses that it's talking about things
that God created. It says, "'Praise ye the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens! Praise Him in the heights! Praise
Him among all His angels! Praise ye him, all his hosts. Praise ye him, sun and moon. Praise him, all ye stars of light. Praise him, ye heavens of heavens
and ye waters that be above the heavens. Let them praise the
name of the Lord. Why? For he commanded and they
were created. Who was created? all of the entities
mentioned in those first five verses that are commanded to
praise the Lord. Where to praise Him, the Scripture
declares, for He commanded and they, the they including the
angels of verse 2, were created. And so then the angels, there
was a time when just as there were no human beings, there were
also no angels. They were created. Colossians
chapter 1 and verse 16 in the New Testament, speaking of the
superiority and supremacy of the Lord Jesus Christ, says this,
Colossians chapter 1 and verse 16, by the Lord Jesus Christ, where
all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth,
visible, that's you and me, and invisible, that's the angels. And here are some various groupings
of the angels, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities
or powers. All things were created by Him,
by Jesus, and for Him, for Jesus. And so then the angels are created
beings, created by God and particularly and specifically by God the Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ. So the angels then are created. They were created by God. Now the time of their creation
is not definitely given in the Bible, but there are some clues
as to when they may have been created. Now let me show you
what I mean. We're told in the Bible that
God created everything in the six days of creation described
in Genesis chapter 1. And incidentally, let me tell
you this, Genesis chapter 1 tells us exactly what happened and
how things came into being. It wasn't by some big bang. Things came into being by the
Word of God. Ten times you find in Genesis
chapter 1 the expression, and God said, and whatever he said
in one case, and God said, let there be light, and guess what
the result was? and there was light, and so it's
the Word of God. Everything God does, he does
by the power of his Word. Now, the Bible tells us, if you'll
notice in Exodus chapter 20, which is the first place where
the Ten Commandments are given, but in Exodus chapter 20, we're
told in this chapter, that God created everything in those six
days of creation. Exodus chapter 20 and verse number
11. Now listen to it closely. For
in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea. Listen to
it. and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day, wherefore
the Lord blessed the Sabbath day in Halladz." But notice that
it said that it was in those six days that the Lord made heaven,
earth, sea, and all, that in them is, well, all that in them
is includes everything. It includes you and me. It includes
the angels. And so then from that verse I
take it that the angels along with all the other things that
we're told about in Genesis chapter 1 were created during those six
days of creation. We also learn from the Bible
that the angels were created, listen to me, before the Lord
laid the foundations of the earth. Notice in the book of Job, just
before the book of Psalms comes Job, and in Job 38, the Lord
is talking to Job himself. Now, let's read in Job chapter
38, and we'll read down through verse 7, but I want you to especially
notice verse 7. Job 38, then the Lord answered
Job out of the whirlwind and said, Who is this that darkeneth
counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a
man, for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. Where was
thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou
hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof,
if thou knowest? Or who hath stretched the line
upon it? Whereupon are the foundations
thereof fastened? Or who laid the cornerstone thereof? Now listen to it. When the morning
stars hang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy."
Now verse 7 is talking about what the angels did when the
Lord laid the foundations of the earth. So I take it then
that probably what happened since we saw in Psalm 148 verses 1
through 5 that the angels were created beings. And that passage,
I don't know if you noticed it or not, but the passage in Psalm
148 talks about, "'Praise Him, ye heaven of heavens! Praise
the host of heaven! Praise Him, ye angels! Everything
in that passage is talking about things in the heavens. And so
then the angels were created possibly when the summary statement
is made in Genesis 1, 1, in the beginning God created the heaven
and the earth. Then possibly God created the
heaven along with the angels and then the earth. How many
angels are there? Well, the Bible never gives a
definite number, simply letting us know that there are multitudes
and multitudes of these angels. Psalm 68 and verse 17, the chariots
of God are 20,000, even thousands of angels. the Lord is among them as in
Sinai in the holy place. Thousands of angels, he said,
in that passage in the book of Daniel chapter 7, as Daniel is
seeing here a vision of the judgment that will come when the Lord's
time gets here. And in Daniel chapter 7 and verse
10, here's what Daniel said, a fiery stream issued and came
forth from before him Thousand thousands ministered unto him,
and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The judgment
was set, and the books were opened. Thousand thousands, the verse
says, ten thousand times ten thousand. You remember in Matthew
chapter 26, as the Lord Jesus Christ was being arrested to
be crucified the next day, and you remember that the apostle
Peter tried to fight and in fact drew his sword and cut off a
servant of the high priest's ear which Jesus then took and
handily put back in place, but Peter at that point wanted to
fight for the Lord Jesus so that he would be freed from those
who had arrested him. But in Matthew 26 and verse 53,
Jesus said this to Peter, Thinkest thou that I cannot now
pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve
legions of angels?" And so Jesus talks about twelve legions of
angels. Now, Roman legion was between
five and six thousand, so twelve legions. If we go by the 5,000
mark, that would be 60,000 angels. If we go by the 6,000 mark, it
would be 72,000 angels. And Jesus said that the Lord,
if he called for it, would send more angels than that
to free Him from those who had arrested Him and were going to
crucify Him. But thank God Jesus didn't call
them, because if He had not gone to the cross and died and been
resurrected three days later, there'd be no hope for any of
us. But thank God He let the angels
stay where they were. I'm sure that they stood around
the cross in eager anticipation, hoping that he would call on
them and they could destroy the crowd that was destroying their
Lord. But he said, no, it's more important
to me that people have the opportunity to be saved and go to heaven,
so I'm going to let the angels be while I die on the cross and
thank God that's exactly what he did. But he could have called
on the Father, and the Father would have sent more than twelve
legions of angels. That says something about how
numerous the angels are in Hebrews chapter 12. And verse number
22, the Scripture says, But ye are come unto Mount Zion, and
unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and listen
to it now, and to an innumerable company of angels. And so here
the Lord gives the number of the angels, declares that it's
an innumerable company. There's so many of them we couldn't
count all of them. They're like the grains of sand
on the seashore. They're like the stars in the
sky. There are so many thousands and
millions that we cannot number them. And in Revelation chapter
5 and verse 11, where we read earlier about the angels praising
the Lamb of God, John said, and I beheld and I heard the voice
of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the
elders, and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand
and thousands of thousands. And so we're not given a definite
number, only that it's so large that we simply don't know how
many angels there are. You know, in the spiritual realm—we'll
see some of this later in these studies— but in the spiritual
realm, there are beings, if our spiritual eyes could be opened,
we wouldn't just see each other in here. We'd see the angels
of God gathered all around. You remember the story in 2 Kings
chapter 6 how the Assyrian king had sent soldiers over to grab
Elisha the prophet out of the city of Dothan where he'd been
told Elisha was. And so the Syrian soldiers came
and surrounded that city so that Elisha could not escape. Little
did they realize Elisha didn't need to escape. They needed to
escape. But you remember how the next
morning Elisha's servant came out and saw all around the city
all of these Syrian soldiers, and Buddy had scared him to death.
He knew the king of Syria wasn't no good friend to Elisha, and
so he ran in and said to Elisha, Master, come look. Elisha came
out. He said, Look, what are we going
to do? And Elisha said, Oh, don't worry,
there's more with us than there are with them." And I've often
pictured that guy standing there and Elijah saying that to him. There's more that be with
us than be with them. And I can imagine him saying, is that right? What I count, with us
there's one, two. With them there's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven,
eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen,
nineteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five, twenty-six,
twenty-seven, twenty-eight, twenty-nine, twenty-eight, twenty-nine, twenty-nine,
twenty-eight, twenty-nine, twenty-nine, twenty-nine, twenty-nine, twenty-nine,
twenty-nine, twenty-nine, twenty-nine, twenty-nine, twenty-nine, twenty-nine, twenty-nine,
twenty-nine, twenty-nine, twenty- Then Elisha prayed a little prayer
and said, Lord, open his eyes that he might see. And immediately
the servant's eyes were opened and it said, now he didn't just
see the Syrian soldiers surrounding the city, but surrounding the
Syrians. See, there was an inner loop
and an outer loop. In that inner loop were all these
Syrian soldiers surrounding the town. But in that outer loop
further out surrounding the Syrian soldiers, the Bible says, were
horses and chariots of fire, one of the forms that angels
take in the Word of God. And so what happened next? Well, the Syrian soldiers, they
were smitten with blindness and Elisha said, Fellas, I know who
you're looking for, and I can take you to him. Just come with
me." And so I don't know how they did, maybe they formed a
line with their hands on their shoulders, because they were
all blind, you know. And Elisha would tell them, come
on, this way, this way, this way, this way. After they got
where Elisha led them, Elisha said, Lord, open their eyes now.
And they opened their eyes and they were in the middle of the
capital city of the land ready to be taken prisoner by the king
of Israel. But I'm trying to simply introduce
you this morning to these beings called angels. Now they don't
look like probably what you think of because what you think of
and generally what I think of when I think of an angel comes
from Renaissance art where they had all these, you know, half-naked
people with wings flying around. Now, the Bible doesn't say that
the angels have wings. They may, but the Bible doesn't
say it. may still for sure at one time
had wings. He was one of the cherubs and
they have wings. But the regular angel Bible doesn't
say many things that we think. We think because of Renaissance
art and that sort of thing. They didn't know any more than
we know. The only thing that we can know for sure is what's
found here in the Bible. And let me say this to you also.
I'm not talking about angels during this series so you can
come and tell me some experience you had where you think you saw
an angel. That's not why I'm doing it. Now, I've had people tell me
that. Think what you want to think.
But I understand it's possible. God can do anything he wants
to. But in this day when we have
a completed Bible, I'm very doubtful. It may be possible, but I don't
think it's very probable that an angel is going to appear to
you and me. And I'll tell you another reason.
Now, I do know of cases where angels have appeared. John G. Patton, a great missionary back
in the 1800s to what was then called the New Hebrides Islands
that was inhabited at that time by cannibals. And I really don't
have time to go deeply into this story. I'll simply say that one
night the little mission hut was under attack from the natives. They had the place surrounded
and fully intended to kill John G. Patton and his wife. So they
did what Christians are supposed to do in a situation like that.
They started praying. And all night long, the natives
stayed out there with the hut surrounded, but they wouldn't
come any closer. Well, finally, after the day
broke, the natives scattered and went back home or wherever
they went. About a year after that, the chief of that tribe
trusted Christ and got saved. And John G. Patton recalled that
experience and he said to that chief, I fully expected to die
that night. And the chief said, well, you
were expecting right because that's exactly the reason we
came to the hut that night. And he said, well, what was it
that caused you not to come out? You only came to where the clearing
ends out there and surrounded the hut, but you never attacked. And the chief asked him, well,
who were those men that you had at the door of your hut? And
he said, what men? And the chief said, well, there
were men there, big shining men, big strong-looking men, and they
kept us from coming any closer for fear of what they might do
to us. And that's what was it? It was a host of God's angels
protecting his missionary who he was not through with yet.
Now by the way, later John G. Patton was murdered by some other
natives and in fact was cannibalized. So it's not always God's will
to protect, it just depends on the situation and what God's
will is at that particular time. But what I'm saying is this,
there might be an angel, although the angel didn't really appear
to John G. Patton, he didn't even know why
the natives hadn't attacked until the fellow told him a year later,
But angels might do that for John G. Patton who's in a cannibalistic
situation where the natives are cannibals and he's trying to
do something to get them to the Lord. God might send an angel
for something like that, but pardon me, I haven't been in
that situation and I doubt that you have. You understand what I'm saying?
God might send an angel for John G. Patton in that situation.
I doubt that he's going to send one to you or me just so we can
be entertained. And so the angels of God and
in the weeks to come we'll find out more about them. Father would
you bless these things that we have seen from the scripture
this morning to the hearts
What Is an Angel?
Series The Doctrine of Angels
| Sermon ID | 724161321376 |
| Duration | 1:03:23 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - AM |
| Bible Text | John 1:51 |
| Language | English |
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