So we're there in Hebrews chapter 1 and look at verse number 13,
But to which of the angels said he at any time sit on my right hand,
until I make thine enemies thy footstool, are they not all ministering spirits?
The title for the sermon today is Angels the Ministering Spirits.
Let's put it that way, Angels the Ministering Spirits.
And obviously you're very familiar that I preached through the book of Revelation
on Sunday, Revelation chapter 4.
And we spent some time talking about the angels,
different types of angels that are out there in the scriptures.
I had a lot of leftover material from my sermon on Sunday that I decided,
you know what, I'll try to put it together, add some extra things.
And let's talk a little bit more about the angels,
you know, just some additional things that I think are worthy to consider.
Now again, I'm not going to in this sermon,
I don't think I'm going to even, you know, come close to all the work that angels do.
But I think it's interesting to see, you know, why God has created these beings,
what their purpose is, and how we can, you know, associate, you know,
with their work and their business.
You know, especially when it comes to our relationship with angels as human beings,
like is there some type of association that we have where we can work together,
or what have you.
And so I'll get to quickly turn with me to the book of Psalms.
Come with me to Psalms 104.
Let's just try to understand a little bit more about these angels.
Psalm 104.
And I'm going to be primarily focusing on the angels that are humanoid, okay,
not so much the cherubim or the seraphim.
We looked at that on Sunday, but those that are humanoid that appear to be human,
they interact with humans, they bring a message to humans many times from God.
And we're going to just look at, you know, their role in God's creation.
But Psalm 104 in verse number one, it says,
Bless the Lord, O my soul, O Lord my God, thou art very great,
thou art clothed with honour and majesty.
Now drop down to verse number four, it says,
Who maketh his angels' spirits, his ministers a flaming fire.
And so what we have here, as you go through Psalm 104,
you see basically God's creation.
And it says here that God maketh his angels' spirits.
So one thing that we notice immediately about angels is that they're a created being, right?
Before God created all things, he created things in heaven and in the earth.
And part of his creation in heaven is these angels, but he makes them spirits,
spirits, okay, and ministers a flaming fire.
And so the main thing that I want to draw to your thought here
is that the angels operate in the spiritual realm, okay?
They don't have a physical body, you know, how we have a physical body.
Now, there are times throughout history that they do appear with a physical body, okay?
But their natural makeup, their natural chemistry,
if you want to use that word, is a spirit, okay?
And we're going to look at this idea that they are not beings that we can see with our eyes,
but they operate in a spiritual realm.
And if you can, tonight is a bit of a Bible study.
Like I said, it's my leftover notes, my leftover verses,
and I just thought I'd show you a few other key things.
So if you can come with me to Colossians chapter one,
we are going to bounce around in the Bible a bit, okay?
So if you don't have time to turn to the passages,
please take note of these references and in your own time you can do your own study.
But Colossians chapter one verse number 16.
Colossians chapter one verse number 16.
Colossians 1 16.
Speaking about Jesus Christ who created all things, okay?
Who created things in heaven and on the earth.
In Colossians 1 16 it says,
For by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, okay?
So again, the angels in heaven, Jesus Christ created these beings, all right?
Then he says these words, visible and invisible, all right?
So we just saw, created things in heaven and in the earth, visible and invisible.
Now if you're just to follow that thought process,
when we talk about that which is invisible,
do you think that has to do with things on the earth or things in heaven based on that?
So the things that are visible is we can see with our eyes,
we can touch and feel and see one another,
these things are visible but there are things that Christ has created that are invisible.
Then he continues,
whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers,
all things were created by him and for him.
Now come meet to another passage, Luke chapter 24.
Luke chapter 24 please.
The first thing we're looking at here is that angels are spiritual beings
and they are invisible, okay?
Say about pastors, there are times in the Bible when they were visible.
There are times in the Bible when they had bodies, yes, that's the exception to the rule.
There are a few times where God allowed, once again,
these beings to present themselves in a physical manifestation
but their natural makeup is a spiritual one, one that is invisible.
Now when you look at Luke chapter 24 please,
Luke chapter 24 verse 136, this is after Christ resurrected from the dead
and he presents himself to his disciples, right?
We know that Christ when he resurrected, he showed himself many times to his disciples
and this is one time in Luke 24 36, it says,
And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them and saith unto them,
peace be unto you.
So Jesus just all of a sudden just appears right in the middle of them, right?
Just out of nowhere.
He doesn't walk in a doorway, you know, no, no.
He just appears after his resurrection before them
and verse number 37 says,
But they were terrified and affrighted and supposed that they had seen a spirit.
And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled?
And why do thoughts arise in your hearts?
Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself handle me
and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have.
So what do we learn about the spirits?
And we saw that angels are ministering spirits.
They don't have flesh and bone, okay?
He said, Look, I'm not a spirit.
I'm a physical being here.
I'm resurrected bodily from the grave.
And he compares himself to the spirits which have no physical form.
And then verse number 40,
And when he had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet.
Okay, so he shows them, they touch, they feel, that's Jesus, right?
You know, this is the resurrection of Christ is not just some spiritual resurrection.
It's a bodily physical resurrection of Jesus Christ.
And Jesus wanted to drive that point home by saying,
Look, you're looking at a body, you see my hands, you see my feet.
So I'm not a spirit, okay?
And so I just want to show you though, look,
spirits that are angels that are ministering spirits,
they don't have a physical body, okay?
Their natural makeup is not one of a physical body, of a physical realm,
not one that can be seen by the eyes, but they exist.
They operate in the world, in the spiritual realm of the world, they operate, all right?
Now, come with me to another passage.
Second Kings chapter six, in the Old Testament.
Second Kings chapter six, please.
Second Kings chapter six.
Not only did we see that they are spirits, that he maketh the angel spirit,
so he also saw that his ministers are flaming fire, that was in the Psalm.
Flaming fire?
Really interesting, actually.
And you may recall on Sunday when Daniel saw one of these angels,
that he had these eyes of flame, okay?
I mean, it's, I can't, look, I can't describe it all to you, okay?
Often when we think of fire, we associate fire with God,
we often associate with hell, and you know, the lake of fire,
and of course that's a place of God's judgment and God's wrath,
but we also need to remember that God himself is a consuming fire, okay?
And the idea of the fire of God is the idea of purity, right?
When you put something through the fire, it gets tested, it gets tried,
and out of the fire comes something of a greater purity, okay?
And when I think of the angels,
and we're not going to be talking about the devil and the fallen angels today,
maybe we can save that for another day, okay?
But I'm just trying to focus on the good angels, right?
The ones that have not rebelled against the Lord God, okay?
In them, within them, they carry the fire, a fire,
they're ministers of fire, against speaking of their purity,
speaking that, you know, they are without corruption, as it were, right?
They're without sin, again, setting aside the devil and his angels.
But in 2 Kings chapter 6 verse 15, we have this really awesome story of Elisha,
the prophet Elisha and his servants, okay?
And we have this one occasion when they are surrounded by an army, okay?
And the king wants Elisha to come out and to speak with Elisha,
to be captured as it were, and the messenger gets a fright, right?
He sees the army, he sees this multitude coming for him and Elisha,
and he starts to get really worried about it.
And it says in verse 15, 2 Kings 6 15,
And when the servant of the man of God was risen early and gone forth, behold,
and hosts come past the city, both with horses and chariots,
and his servants said unto him, Alas, my master, what shall we do?
Because Elisha, what are we going to do?
Do we run away?
What's going to happen in this situation, you know?
He's feeling overwhelmed by what he's seen.
And verse number 16,
And he answered, Elisha answers, Fear not, for they that be with us
are more than they that be with them.
You know, I want that faith.
I want that faith of Elisha when I get a moment of fear, of confusion, right?
Or you might see the attack of an enemy.
I want to remind myself, as Elisha did, that there is more, right?
For they that be with us are more than they that be with them.
Who is he talking about?
It's just Elisha and the servants.
It's two of them from the physical eye, right?
From what is visible, it's two versus an entire army.
He says there's more of us.
And then look at verse number 17,
And Elisha prayed and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may see.
That's a strange prayer.
He already opened his eyes.
That's why he saw the army.
Of course, we understand this, right?
This is his opening the spiritual eyes, as it were, right?
Not the physical eyes, but to see in the spiritual realm
is what Elisha prayed for God to open for that servant.
And then he says, and the Lord opened the eyes of the young man.
And he saw and behold, the mountain was full of horses
and chariots of fire round about Elisha.
Okay, so horses and chariots of fire.
And of course, the chariots aren't empty.
I think that should be self-explanatory, right?
The angels are there with those horses.
God sent his army and it's an army of fire, as it were, right?
But look, the servant had to have his eyes spiritually opened to see that.
Now, the Bible doesn't tell us that Elisha saw them.
He just knew they were there.
All right, I personally believe that Elisha is just acting upon faith.
He knows they're there, okay?
But the servant is lacking in faith, just like we do, right?
Sometimes when things aren't working out for us, all right?
And I love this story so much, because that which was invisible was made visible.
And when the servant saw, he just sees this fire, these chariots of fire,
these horses from heaven, this army of God, okay?
Protecting the people of God.
I love that thought.
I love the thought right now that our church right now may very well,
why not, be surrounded by these chariots of fire, these ministers of God,
these spiritual beings protecting us so we can just have a good time of service.
And we don't even see, we don't even know.
You know, we pray for God's protection many times.
And why wouldn't that be the case?
I mean, this is why we have God's Word.
It's not because God's expecting us to see in the spiritual realm,
but that we would, by faith, see what God's Word teaches us.
So these angels, yeah, they are there to protect God's people.
Now, come with me to the book of Matthew, Matthew chapter 26, please.
Matthew 26, Matthew 26, verse 51.
Matthew 26, verse 51.
Matthew 26 and verse 51.
Now, again, we're going back to Christ.
And shortly before Christ was arrested,
we know that he was surrounded by soldiers and chief captains,
people that wanted to capture him.
They were sent by the high priest.
And Peter responds in a very negligent way, right?
He draws the sword, you know the story where he cuts off the ear of a servant.
So we see this here play out in Matthew 26, 51.
And behold, one of them, which were with Jesus,
we know from another gospel, that's Peter,
stretched out his hand and drew his sword
and struck a servant of the high priest and smote off his ear.
Then said Jesus unto him,
put up again thy sword into his place,
for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.
Look at verse 53.
Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father,
and he shall presently give me more than 12 legions of angels?
Look, at any moment, Christ could have stopped the arrest.
At any moment, he could have stopped the crucifixion.
He could have stopped the shed blood.
He could have stopped his death at any moment.
He could have just prayed to his Father.
And he says, this would have happened.
Do you think that it can't happen?
His Father would have sent these legions of angels,
and that would have protected him from the arrest
and these people that were trying to obviously crucify him,
from the hands of the Romans, from the hands of the Jews.
But again, Peter, in a moment, in a lapse of faith,
thought, no, I have to stand up and protect Jesus.
Okay.
What we see with these angels,
not only are they servants and ministers to people,
general populace of God's people,
but they're also ministers to Jesus Christ.
Okay.
And Jesus doesn't even have to fight the battle.
He can just ask the Father,
and the Father will send the angels to protect him.
Another work of the angels,
come with me to Matthew 4.
Matthew 4.
And we're going to the start or the beginning of Christ's ministry.
And we know that after he got baptized,
the very first thing he did was he went out into the wilderness
and fasted for 40 days and 40 nights in preparation for his ministry.
Okay.
Fasted for 40 days and 40 nights.
And of course, I've never done such a long fast in my life,
but you'd be hungry by then.
You'd be pretty tired by the end of 40 days and 40 nights.
You know, your flesh has taken quite a beating in that process.
But he says in Matthew chapter 4 in verse number 1,
then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
And when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, he was afterward and hungered.
So he's obviously hungry, right?
Makes sense that he's hungry.
And so without going to all of it, the devil tempts him several ways.
And one way the devil tempts him is with food.
Okay.
And sometimes, you know, the devil's going to tempt you
with things that do not appear wicked at the beginning, right?
But look, if you have the need of food,
you don't go to the devil asking him for food, right?
You go to the Lord God.
All right.
And the devil's offering, hey, look, why don't you turn this stone into bread?
There's nothing wrong with that in of itself.
But what we see is that he's trying to get Jesus to rely on the assistance of the devil
rather than to rely on his father.
Okay.
But anyway, Christ passed the test.
And then what we learn here in verse number nine, Matthew 4 9, it says,
And save unto him all these things will I give thee.
The devil says this to Jesus.
If thou will fall down and worship me, then save Jesus unto him.
Get thee hence Satan, for it is written,
Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
Then the devil leaveth him, and behold, angels came and ministered unto him.
Now we don't know how the angels ministered to Christ, but we see that they did.
And I believe they brought food to Christ because he was hungry.
I believe that's one way that they ministered unto Christ.
They most probably brought him some food, right?
Food that the father had sent.
Instead of listening to the devil, just have to wait a little bit longer
for the father to come through to send the angels to minister unto Christ.
Maybe a change of clothes.
I don't know what Christ would need by the end of 40 days or 40 nights,
but the angels came and ministered.
Again, the word minister means to serve.
Okay.
So they're under the authority of Jesus Christ.
They've come to serve Christ.
You know, so the angels are most definitely servants of Jesus Christ.
But come with me now to the book of Hebrews.
I know we started with Hebrews chapter one.
Come with me to Hebrews chapter two.
Hebrews chapter two.
Say, pastor, what's the purpose of this sermon?
It's just so you have a further insight into the spiritual realm.
We often pray to the Lord going nothing wrong with that,
but sometimes the Lord will come through with the help of his angels.
Many times he'll do that.
Okay.
And you know, it'd be exciting by the time we get to heaven
and we say, Lord, remember that time you answered this prayer.
He came through with that and the Lord says,
yeah, you know, sent by the hands of that angel.
Oh my God.
Thank you, angel.
You know, we get to see the other side, the spiritual side,
you know, the deeper side that we can't see in these physical eyes.
But by faith, we know these things are true.
Hebrews chapter two, please.
Now, this is quite an interesting passage in Hebrews two nine.
This is a quote from the Psalms.
Okay.
And it says here, but we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels.
Okay.
This is speaking about Jesus Christ becoming man.
God manifest in the flesh when Jesus Christ was born.
It says here, he was made a little lower than the angels.
What does that mean?
To be made a little lower than, have you ever wondered what that means?
I guess my initial thought when I remember when I was a kid, I used to read that.
My initial thought was, well, of course the angels are in heaven.
So that they're obviously heaven is higher than the earth.
So the abode of the angels is higher and the earth is lower.
And so Jesus did not come in the form of an angel, but he came in the form of a man.
That was my kind of thought as a young person.
Some people have, you know, made the error to think this means
that the angels have a higher rank, a higher authority or higher importance than man.
But actually this very passage tells us what it means to be made a little lower than the angels.
It says in verse, if we continue, it says, this is why, for.
All right.
So let's read it again.
But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death.
So we learned something else right there, that angels cannot die.
Angels are immortal beings.
Okay.
So in order for Jesus to die and we had to die and to suffer and shed his blood for salvation.
Okay.
He had to be made lower than the angels made into a man that could perish.
He took on a mortal body.
It says crowned with glory and honor that he, by the grace of God, should taste death for every man.
Not every angel.
Okay.
Salvation is not offered to angels.
Even if the devil wanted to get saved, salvation is not available to him.
Not that the devil wants to be saved.
The devil wants to be God.
All right.
But we see that what it means to be made a little lower than the angels
is that he took on a mortal body rather than an immortal body.
Okay.
Look at verse number 10.
Hebrews 2 10.
But it became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many sons unto
glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
Okay.
So Christ came to suffer.
All right.
And by this process we have the perfect salvation.
Okay.
The salvation.
And again for what purpose I love it says that in bringing many sons unto glory.
Many have been saved because of the suffering and death of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Again, it's just reinforcing the fact that angels themselves cannot be saved.
They don't, you know, the good angels as they were, they don't need a salvation.
Right.
They're right with God.
They serve God faithfully.
And the fallen angels, they're toast.
You know, they know their end.
This is why when Christ walked the earth, how many times do we see stories where the
spirit might say, at least, you know, fallen spirits might say something like,
have you come to torment us before the time?
They know their end.
They're reprobate as it were already.
Okay.
They have no chance of salvation.
But what we see once again is that angels are immortal.
Okay.
In fact, hell was created for the devil and his angels.
That was the initial reason hell was created.
A place of eternal torment.
A place of eternal punishment for these that have rebelled against God.
Now, just to show you another interesting thing about angels, how they are immortal,
but also something else in Luke chapter 20.
Keep your finger in Hebrews.
Come with me to Luke chapter 20.
Luke chapter 20 and verse number 34.
In this story, Christ gets challenged about the teachings of marriage and divorce.
All right.
And those Sadducees, they did not believe in the resurrection to come.
Okay.
And they tried to cause Jesus to fall into a trap.
They said, well, what about a woman that's been married, divorced, and she's had several husband?
Right.
When she's in heaven, who does she belong to in that sense?
Right.
They're kind of mocking the idea of the resurrection.
And this is how Christ responds in Luke chapter 20 verse number 34.
And Jesus answering said unto them, the children of this world marry and are given in marriage.
But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world and the resurrection from the dead,
neither marry nor are given in marriage.
So we learned something.
Marriage is for this world today.
All right.
Getting married is a good thing.
Hey, but that's why when you exchange vows many times, it's till death do us part,
because we know that once we pass on, once we die in the world to come, there is no marriage.
Okay.
Now I know I'm going to be very good friends with my wife, but this is the time where you
can actually get married and have family, procreate, have children.
Okay.
So take advantage of the time you've got now, because coming to the resurrection in eternity,
that's not going to be an option.
But what God, what Jesus Christ continues to say in verse number 36, he says,
neither can they die anymore because we've been resurrected.
Then he says this for they are equal unto the angels and are the children of God
being the children of the resurrection.
So when he says, and they are equal unto the angels, what does that mean?
That angels cannot die and that angels do not marry.
Okay.
Angels cannot die and angels do not marry.
If you still having your idea that Genesis 6, fallen angels are getting married to women.
No, they don't get married.
They don't have a physical body.
They can't procreate.
Okay.
And again, Genesis 1 and 2, you know, primarily Genesis 1, right?
Everything brings forth after its own kind.
Okay.
Angels can't procreate with humans and create some being.
Okay.
That's just, that's nonsense teaching.
They're spirits.
They don't have physical bodies.
All right.
And everything brings forth after its own kind.
But anyway, the point is angels, again, we see just confirmation that angels are immortal.
They can't perish.
Okay.
And they're not given to, there's no need to get for them to be given into marriage
because they, they're eternal beings, right?
Like I understand why marriage and procreation is important on this earth.
We need to keep bringing forth generations that love and serve the Lord God.
But when it comes to angel beings, they don't need to.
There's no need for those angels to procreate.
All right.
Now we've seen how they are servants to Jesus.
We've seen some qualities about these beings,
but also want to show you some passages how they are servants to believers.
So we started with Hebrews 1.
I told you to keep your finger there if you can.
Come into Hebrews 1.
Hebrews 1 and verse number 13.
Hebrews 1 and verse number 13, it says,
but to which of the angels said he, this is the father at any time,
sit on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool.
Meaning that he's never said that.
Okay.
Rhetorical question.
And again, verse number 14.
Are they not all ministering spirits?
Again, what are their jobs?
To serve, to minister.
Okay.
Who?
It says, I lost my place.
It says, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation.
Have you been saved?
God's now got ministers for you, to serve you, to help you,
but you can't see them, but they're there.
How do I know they're there?
Because God's word says they're there.
Okay.
And they're there to serve you.
I don't even know.
Say exactly pastor.
How exactly are they serving us?
Like I said, I wouldn't be surprised if right now we're surrounded
by chariots of fire, protecting us from the evil one.
Okay.
We see that when Christ was hungry, they came and ministered unto Christ.
Look, there are going to be times in our life.
We see just some ideas of what they do, where you might be exhausted.
You might be downcast even, and God will send an angel,
which you just can't see, to encourage you, to motivate you.
All right.
So, you know, there was one time, it's not my notes,
but there's one time when Peter is in prison and God sends him an angel to open up,
you know, to, to free him from prison.
And then the angel tells Peter, go and preach.
So it's like, not only freeing Peter, but it's like, encourage him, hey, go and preach.
And I don't know, look, there might be times when you might be a little
downcast and you know, you're not sure, you're not, you know, not living,
you know, exactly how you want to be serving the Lord.
And, you know, there are times that you just might be encouraged and,
you know, you step up and you just go and serve God.
And you don't know exactly how that works,
but it may very well be that an angel touched you spiritually.
So just get up, serve the Lord.
And we don't know, we don't see it, but I know it's there.
I know these angel beings are there and I appreciate for them.
I appreciate the work that they do.
Servants to believers.
Now, another passage, First Corinthians chapter six.
First Corinthians chapter six.
I hope this is an interesting study for you.
First Corinthians chapter six and verse number one.
Now, look, we're never told to pray to angels,
to speak to angels.
Okay, look, we go to God in prayer.
We're sons of God.
Okay, we can go before his throne of grace
and bring our supplication and prayers to God.
I'm not going to some angel to pray to an angel.
Okay, the angel can only do what God commands it to do.
Okay, so I go to God and then it's God to sort out his spiritual beings,
how that's going to answer the prayers in the manner that he sees fit.
But in First Corinthians chapter six, verse number one, this is really interesting.
First Corinthians six one.
There any of you having a matter against another,
go to law before the unjust and not before the saints.
This is just saying, sometimes in church you can have brethren that fight
and maybe over small civil matters.
And the desire might be, I'm taking you to court.
I'm going to sue you for all that you've got.
And God is discouraging that kind of behavior.
He says in verse number two, do you not know the saints shall judge the world?
We're going to be judges in the millennial reign of Christ.
Kings, priests, judges, we're going to have authority.
And it says, and if the world shall be judged by you,
are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
Know ye not that we shall judge angels?
How much more things that pertain to this life?
I love that verse.
Know ye not that you shall judge?
Yeah, I didn't know that until I read that passage.
I don't blame the Corinthian church for not knowing.
All right, but again, this confirms for us
that the angels are not some high rank beings
when it says that Christ was made a little lower than the angels,
but that we're going to judge angels.
I mean, if you were to walk into a courtroom and there was a judge there,
everyone acknowledges that judge has authority in the courtroom.
All right, that's the power in that room.
Well, if angels are brought for us to judge them,
we've then been given that authority, you know, over to them.
Now, what angels are we going to judge?
Probably both, the good angels and the fallen angels.
All right, I mean, Christ has come
and he's going to judge us for the works that we do.
We know that that which is righteous, that which is eternal,
you know, it's going to last forever.
Christ comes to reward us.
It makes sense to me that then God gives that authority
and we can judge the ministers.
Maybe how they served us.
Maybe in our lives, the angels that came minister to us,
maybe we're then given the chance to judge them.
See how well they did as we lived our Christian lives.
Look, it's open-ended.
We don't know.
The information is not there, but I'm just going to show you
that we are more valuable, we have a great authority than angels
and we're going to judge them.
You know, so then they're not this like,
angels aren't like these robots.
They have like a will, you know, they have, you know,
they can strive to do better or what have you.
This is why, you know, you've got Satan as an anointed cherub
you know, in pride rebel against the Lord God.
And we know in the book of Revelation that a third of the angels
go with the devil essentially, follow after the devil.
So they have a will, they have the ability to make decisions
and they have the ability to serve in a capacity
where we are given the authority to judge over them.
I think that's really interesting how they are servants to believers
and we have authority of them in a time to come when we are to judge them.
But what I really want to look at here, if you come with me to,
we're going to look at first and second Peter.
So come with me to second Peter.
This is what I wanted to kind of end with as a thought.
So we know that they're spiritual beings.
We know that they're invisible.
We know that they're servants, servants to Christ
and servants to God's people.
We know that one day we're going to judge over them.
Okay.
We know that salvation is available to man, not to angels.
We know that they're immortal.
We know they do not marry.
But what I want to look at is the character.
The character of angels.
And we see a few things here in both first Peter and second Peter.
So let's start there in second Peter chapter two and verse number one.
Second Peter chapter two and verse number one.
Now, and I think of the angels once again, the good angels here, right?
They're serving God faithfully.
You know, they're before God's throne and they receive instruction from God
and they go about and do God's business.
And, you know, it's not unlike us because we are to be God's servants.
Now that we're saved, we are to serve our Lord Jesus Christ.
And I wanted to look at some of the characteristics of these angels
and see where I may fall short.
Maybe where you fall short in comparison to these beings.
Because we're going to judge them one day, right?
We're going to judge them one day.
And so it would make sense to me that we should be doing
as good of a job, if not better, if we're going to judge over them.
All right.
So let's look at the character a little bit here, right?
In second Peter chapter two, verse number one, it says,
But there were false prophets also among the people,
even as there shall be false teachers among you,
who privily shall bring in damnable heresies,
even denying the Lord that brought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
All right.
So I just wanted to show you the context.
We're looking at false property in second Peter chapter two.
But what God does in verse number 11, he compares the false prophets to his angels.
In second Peter chapter two, verse number 11, he goes,
Whereas angels, so not the false prophets,
whereas angels, which are greater in power and might.
Greater in power and might compared to who?
Compared to the false prophets.
Okay.
Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might,
bring not railing accusation against them, against what?
Against the false prophets before the Lord.
So even look, they're greater in power and might compared to human beings
on the earth at this point in time.
Okay.
But one thing we see here is they are not abusive of their powers.
Okay.
They're not abusive.
They have a greater power.
They have a greater mind, but they're not abusive of that.
They become very careful with how they deal with false prophets.
And I just thought about this, you know,
I don't want to be someone that abuses my power and authority.
I've been given some, I've been given the rule over you in the house of the Lord,
but I don't want to be some abusive pastor.
I don't want to direct your life or make you feel horrible.
You know, you're a child of God.
In fact, my role is to minister, is it not minister, to serve,
you know, and one way I can serve this body is by having the rule,
you know, and making sure that I do a good job out of that.
But I don't want to abuse the power that God has given me in this office,
but the false prophets abuse their power.
Okay.
So we're comparing God's angels with the false prophet.
Then it says there, once again,
bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord,
meaning the false prophets, because then it's again,
remember it starts with whereas.
So compared to the false prophets, the angels do not bring railing accusation.
Okay.
What does railing accusation mean?
To rail is essentially to drag someone's name through the mud,
to destroy someone's reputation.
But it says here a railing accusation means false accusations against people.
False prophets do that all the time.
Okay.
They'll make things up.
They'll lie about someone's experiences or life.
They drag people's names through the mud.
They destroy the lives of people.
But you see when these angels deal with false prophets,
they're very careful.
Okay.
So what I know quality, not only do they not abuse their power,
but they're careful to speak the truth.
Even when they're dealing with the false prophets.
And I suppose God will send his angels down.
Hey, tell me about the false prophets.
And the angels are like, man, I don't want to rail against this false prophet.
I mean, there's plenty that I can say,
but I want to make sure that I say what is true.
And brethren, careful to speak the truth.
I like that quality because I have that quality.
I have that, I have, I'm telling you now, I have that quality in me.
I'm very careful.
I'm, you know, I'm fearful behind the pulper to say something that is not true.
You know, and even when I'm, you know,
there are times that I've gotten prepared to preach against a false religion or a false prophet.
And part of the reason why I've got so many sermons that are like half done
is because I don't want to rail against them.
I want to say something that is untrue by mistake.
You know, because you're God's people.
This is God's house.
This is the pillar and the ground of the truth.
And many times, even when I start to investigate
and I look into false religion or false prophets,
it vexes my spirit as well.
It's like, I've got this sermon on Catholicism.
I don't know if I'll ever get there.
It's like three quarters done, but it just vexed me so much.
Because like I was looking at the Bible and I love the Bible.
Love opening God's Word and telling you what God's Word says.
But then when I went, okay, what does the Catholic have to say about that?
I just can't even bring myself to figure out what they have to say.
And then for me to communicate what they really are saying to me,
it's like this burden that I just don't want to go through.
Like, and what if I communicate that wrong?
I don't want to bring that railing accusation.
I'm not saying it's ever wrong.
Look, great men of God have preached against false prophets and false religion.
And maybe there's going to come a time when I do as well.
But I want you to understand that I just don't want to bring railing accusations
against even people that are false, even teachers that are false.
So I want to be careful with my words.
That's a good quality I have.
I want to say the truth.
I want to speak the truth.
I don't want to be comfortable in my lies.
What else do we learn about angels?
Come with me to 1 Peter chapter three.
1 Peter chapter three, verse number 22.
And this one's more obvious.
We already looked at this, but I just want to see it in writing here.
In 1 Peter chapter three, verse number 22,
speaking of Jesus Christ again,
who is gone into heaven and is on the right hand of God,
angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.
Unto Jesus.
So what else do we learn about angels?
That they're in subjection and obedient to Christ.
How about you?
How are you doing that?
Are you always in subjection?
Are you always in obedience to Jesus Christ?
Of course we're not.
We're not perfect people.
Okay.
But these angels, that's their desire.
That's what they want.
They want Christ over them.
They want to be in subjection to Jesus Christ.
How do you do authority?
Do you hate authority?
I think authority is wonderful.
I love being a father.
I love being a husband.
These are positions of authority.
I love being a pastor.
But again, I don't want to abuse my power.
I just want to love the people that are under me.
All right.
And have the fear of God, not abuse my power, not abuse my authority.
And the reason many times you take on positions of authority is because you care,
obviously you care for the people under the authority.
And when we see these angels that are saying, you know what?
We are willing to be submissive under Christ.
I'm sure Christ treats them wonderfully.
I'm sure Christ speaks beautiful words to them.
I'm sure it's an honor to be in the spiritual realm serving Jesus Christ and being obedient to him.
But we're not always that way.
We fail.
It's amazing because they're like, yeah, we're in subjection to Christ.
And when we sin against the Lord, are we in subjection to Christ when we sin?
Nope.
But we're saved.
We're children of God.
And one day we're going to judge those angels.
What an honor.
What an honor to judge beings that operated in a subjection in a greater capacity to Jesus
Christ than what we are.
But again, it just reinforces how salvation is not based on what we do,
but salvation is based on what Christ has done, right?
In Christ Jesus, we have this authority.
In Christ Jesus, you know, we are righteous, right?
We are the righteous of Christ upon us.
And in that position, we're able to judge these spiritual beings.
But again, in their character, we see they're in subjection and obedient to Christ.
You're in 1 Peter, come read to 1 Peter chapter one.
1 Peter chapter one and verse number 10.
1 Peter chapter one, verse number 10.
It says, of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently,
who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you.
The prophets that I mentioned here are the Old Testament prophets.
They prophesied of the grace that we have.
They taught salvation the same way, okay?
Then it says in verse 11, searching what?
So the prophets are searching this, or what matter of time the Spirit of Christ,
which was in them, did signify when it testified beforehand
the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow.
Again, were they made aware of the sufferings of Christ?
Says so, okay?
But when it comes to these prophets of old, they're searching for that,
trying to come to the full understanding of what this grace is, of what this suffering is.
And then it says in verse number 12, unto whom it was revealed.
Not unto themselves, but unto us, they did minister the things,
which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the Gospel unto you,
with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.
So again, it's been all the prophets have written about God's grace,
has written about God's salvation, that's been given to us by God's Holy Ghost.
We understand it perfectly now under the New Testament times.
We know the suffering of Christ, his death, his burial, his resurrection.
We understand everything that God would do to give us salvation.
But then when it speaks of the angels, in verse number 12 at the end of it says,
which things the angels desire to look into.
We've been given salvation, we understand God's grace.
And the angels says here, they desire, they want to understand it.
They've got a desire to gain knowledge, okay?
What we learn here about angels, they don't have perfect understanding, okay?
But those angels that love the Lord, they desire to grow in knowledge.
They desire to have a better understanding, meaning we have a greater understanding,
or we have the ability, let's put it this way, to have a greater understanding of God's grace,
of God's work, of God's word, than even the angels themselves,
especially in the New Testament, because we have the Holy Ghost living in us,
teaching us these things.
And the angels are like, we want to know that too.
I like that characteristic.
Are you desiring the deeper things of God?
Do you desire to know more of his word, to know more of his ways?
I do.
I'm still learning.
I'm still growing.
I'm still discovering things in the Bible to this day.
But we see the angels desire these things.
You know, sometimes people say, and I know I'm not trying to mean this in a horrible way, but
because the devil is this cherub, and the devil's been around for a long time,
and I don't agree with this statement.
If you said it, look, I'm not against you.
I'm just, it's like, oh, the devil knows the Bible better than most Christians or something
like that.
I don't think the devil knows anything.
I think he knows how to twist the scriptures for his purpose.
But who knows the deep things of God?
The Holy Spirit, not the devil.
The devil doesn't have the Holy Spirit teaching it.
And even the good angels, they're still trying to figure out,
they're still desiring to gain that knowledge.
The devil is just a corruptor.
The devil is just full of lies.
He takes what is true, and he's able to corrupt it for his purposes.
I'm not saying the devil is stupid.
I'm just saying the devil doesn't know the deep things of God.
But he knows how to corrupt.
He knows how to tempt.
He knows how to destroy.
Some other things, interesting things about angels.
Come with me to Matthew 18.
You might not be aware of this passage.
Matthew 18, and let me say, in our church, we're outnumbered.
Adults by children here.
You like that?
I like it.
I love it.
Moms, when your babies cry, obviously, you know, take them to the back
or take them outside, wherever you need to.
But don't have to apologize.
My babies cry too.
And when I was a baby, I cried too.
And you cried too.
That's what babies do.
They make noise.
Look, children are welcome to church.
They are welcome here.
Okay, look at Matthew 18 verse 10.
It says, take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones.
Guys, don't hate the children at church.
Don't get angry when they're a bit noisy and a little bit messy.
Don't despise them.
Okay.
For I say unto you, that in heaven, their angels do always behold the face of my father,
which is in heaven.
What?
Children have angels in heaven?
This is where the idea of guarding angels comes from.
I don't know if the role is to be a guardian as it were.
But one thing we see here, when little children are not treated properly, God's little children,
those that believe in him, okay, that there are angels that are standing, beholding the
father's face.
And it says that they are the angels of those children.
You know what this tells me?
You know, children are young, they're innocent, right?
Like when it comes to us adults, when we, when we're persecuted or we're hated or whatever
it is, we have the ability to go to God and say, God, help us.
Don't we?
We can go to God in prayer.
We have that maturity about us.
Little children can be despised and hated and mistreated sometimes.
And they don't have the ability, they don't have the maturity or the diligence to fully
understand, you know, wrap their heads around how they're being treated and how to even
go before God to speak such things.
The context is being mistreated, right?
So what I believe this is teaching us is that we have someone else that speaks on their
behalf to God.
They're angels before their father, before the father of Jesus.
Hey, you know, God might go to the angels, tell me how the children at New Life Baptist
Church are being treated.
How do you want the angels to respond to the father?
The adults ignore them.
Some of the adults get frustrated when they make a bit of noise and they move around,
they get messed, they make a bit of mess.
You know, we've got adults yelling at children for this and that.
What kind of response do you want these angels to say to God the Father about our church?
You know, I want these angels to go, you know what?
The children at the church are the most valued members, you know, of the congregation.
The children at church lift up their voices and sing and the adults rejoice in hearing
the voices of those children sing phrases unto you.
You know, when the children have a need, there's always an adult there helping them, right?
When the kids are running around in the car park, there are adults, there are parents
there watching them, making sure they're not going to get hurt, making sure they're
safe.
I want that to be the answer for New Life Baptist Church.
Don't you think that God's going to bless our church when he hears that from the angels
of those children?
Again, what exactly?
I don't know, but we see the context, okay?
Let's not mistreat them.
Let's not be cruel to the children.
Let's make sure our children know they are valued, they're loved, that church is for
them.
You know, we don't need to get rid of the noise and all right, children, go to the Sunday
school class and miss the sermon because you're too noisy.
No, we want them here.
In fact, adults, I'm preaching to the children.
I'm preaching to my children and to your children.
I want to make sure my sermons are able to be understood by the children.
That's what I really, that's what I want.
I'm not going to speak to you in eloquent words and high speech and I'm not interested
in that.
I'm not interested to tell you how wise I am.
In fact, I'm not that wise.
Maybe my level is at a children's level, I don't know, but I want to make sure they
understand the scriptures.
They understand God's word because they're the next generation.
The future of this church is the next generation to come.
Come with me to Acts chapter 12, please, Acts chapter 12.
While you're turning to Acts chapter 12, I'm going to read to you from Daniel 6 19, just
very quickly.
So we're looking at the task, some of the tasks of angels.
We see that they can plead to God the Father for abused or neglected children.
But Daniel chapter 6 verse 19, while you're going to Acts 12, this is the story of Daniel
in the lion's den.
Then the king arose very early in the morning and went in haste unto the den of lions.
And when he came to the den, he cried with a lamentable voice unto Daniel.
And the king spake and said to Daniel, oh Daniel, servant of the living God is thy God
whom thou serveth continually able to deliver thee from the lions.
This king loved Daniel.
He didn't want Daniel to suffer this death.
So what else do we see?
Just we see this many times in the Bible, that one of the jobs of the angels is to provide
physical protection to God's people.
I've said this before in other sermons.
Again, we have no idea, like we have no idea about the spiritual realm.
We have no idea how many times his angels has protected us from something physical.
Like we may have already had opportunities to be hurt, to be killed, you know, to be
in a car accident or some major disaster.
And we don't even know.
We just went about life.
Going to work, coming home from work, going to the groceries.
No idea that destruction was headed our way and God sends his angels, intercepted.
We're safe and we don't know.
We're just listening.
Going about life.
We have no idea how many times that has happened.
I'm confident it's happened many times to God's people.
He's going about life, wake up tomorrow, no idea that there was a spiritual attack and
God sent his angels to protect us.
Some lying around the corner, never saw it.
Some snake in the bushes, walked straight past it and God sent an angel to close its
mouth.
We've got no idea.
But I'm sure it's happened because it's what we see in the scriptures.
Now, another interesting one, Acts chapter 12, Acts chapter 12, verse number 21.
What's another role of an angel that you may not have considered?
This is about King Herod.
Not King Herod the Great in Jesus' day, but in Acts chapter 12 verse 21 it says,
And upon a day set Herod a raid in royal apparel, sat upon his throne and made an oration
unto them, and the people gave a shout saying,
It is the voice of a God and not of a man.
So Herod had great words, right?
And the people were like, wow, what a God.
And then it says this in verse 23,
And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory,
and he was eaten of worms and gave up the ghost.
But the word of God grew and multiplied.
Look, it doesn't say he gave up the ghost, and his body was in the grave,
and then all the maggots ate it.
Like literally, that's how he died.
An angel smote him, and out of his body comes all these flesh eating worms or maggots or whatever.
And that's how he gave up the ghost.
What we see here is that one of the roles of angels is to be an execution of a God on the earth.
Where God will just say, look, I'm sick and tired of this wicked person,
especially someone that does not give me the glory,
or they consider themselves to be some God, and then they pass away.
I mean, you know, on the news all the time, we hear about famous people passing away,
and we know how wicked their lifestyles are.
It wouldn't surprise me if God sent one of his angels to strike him dead, just as they stood.
And one more passage, come with me to Luke 16.
We'll end on this one, Luke 16.
Luke 16.
This one's one of my favorites, okay.
And it's a story that Jesus Christ gave of the rich man and Lazarus,
and they both pass away.
The rich man wakes up in hell, all right.
And I'm looking forward to this, this one.
I'm looking forward to this in Luke 16 verse 22.
I suppose if we make it to the rapture though,
no, no, because God sends his angels to collect his elect.
All right, so we're all going to experience this one way or another, okay.
But Luke 16, 22, the poor man passes away.
In Luke 16, 22, it says, and it came to pass that the beggar died, look at this,
and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom.
The rich man also died and was buried.
So another role that we see of the angels is to carry the soul of believers into heaven.
How good is that?
You know, sometimes I say, look, the moment I pass away,
I'm going to wake up and be in heaven.
True, but there's a process to get there.
The angels are going to collect our souls.
They're going to carry us.
I don't know how, okay.
And they're going to take us, I don't know how it works, takes our soul, right,
through the first heaven, the second heaven.
I don't know how, I don't know.
Into the bosom of someone that we love.
Maybe an Abraham, maybe a Moses, I don't know.
Some great person has gone before us.
Maybe a loved one that's saved that has gone before us.
Maybe the person that gave us the gospel that has passed away, I don't know.
But we're going to be carried away and we're going to be introduced to God's people
and we're going to get embraced.
And what a wonderful journey that'll be, to be carried by the angels.
So what if we make it to the rapture?
Well, like I said, God will send his angels and carry us into the clouds anyway.
So it's going to be, you know, the angels come and gather the elect
from the four winds of heaven, the Bible says.
So we're not going to miss that anyway.
But look, the final thing that we see is they carry the soul to heaven.
What a blessing.
What a blessing to have a chauffeur, right?
You don't have to, you know, dial Uber or anything like that.
You've got the angels ready.
God knows your time, all right?
And it's not going to be some, you know, some tunnel of light,
which most people talk about.
I saw a light in some tunnel.
You can be like, all right, you ready for the trip?
Yep, take me.
Grab you in the arms, they carry you up into heaven.
All right, brethren.
Angels, the ministers, the ministers of God.
And, you know, I just hope I've given you something to think about.
It's more of a Bible study.
So how do I apply this?
Well, look, just remind yourself that, you know, God has his ministers.
You know, as we go to God in prayer, we don't see the spiritual realm.
But God is protecting us.
You know, there are chariots of, there are horses and chariots of fire.
God's got his armies.
Look, anytime we need God's help, we can go to our Lord God in prayer.
And he's got his ministers.
He's got his helpers.
And one day we're going to be given the privilege to judge them for what they did.
Okay, let's pray.