>> Church, thank you for coming to our evening service.
Let's open our service page 182,
wonderful story of love, 182,
wonderful story of this evening,
the services and all the soul owners who went out today.
Thank you for all the salvations.
Prayer, Lord, that you would bless the service and
fill Pastor Shelley up with your Holy Spirit.
He preaches unto us your word this evening.
In Jesus' name I pray, amen.
This evening, I sing the mighty power of God,
that'll be in your black binders in your seat in front of you.
I sing the mighty power of God.
The mighty power of God, if you're not familiar with the song,
try to, as you can, sing the mighty--
Church times and soul winning times are there.
Also, our stats, right as a list of expecting ladies,
several to be in prayer for.
Upcoming events tonight, we'll have our first kids choir
practice.
It's just going to be in our fellowship room
immediately following the service.
So just right after--
I think my wife said she anticipates maybe
about 30, 45 minutes.
I don't know exactly.
But somewhere in that kind of time frame
is for ages four to teen.
And I believe-- are we doing the first age group first?
Yeah.
So the younger group will go first, which is four to eight.
So four to eight will be first.
And then they're going to practice
a song for the nine to 18.
Thanks for those who are planning on participating.
If you have any questions, you can ask my wife about that.
Pastor preaching-- I'm going to be preaching at Anchor Baptist
Church November 23.
That's their one-year anniversary service.
We have a flag football event that we're
going to be doing, Turkey Bowl on November 29.
Brother Marcel's leading that.
So if you have questions, ask them about that.
Ladies Christmas party, December 5.
Christmas caroling, December 8.
Our kids are going to be performing for us December 21.
Cookie Bake Off is the 21st.
We have a Christmas candlelight service the 24th,
and then men's preaching and pizza the 31st.
In the back is our prayer list.
So that's pretty much all I have as far
as announcements are concerned.
We'll go ahead and sing our Psalm of the Week, Psalm 119.
Psalm 119.
It will be passed around.
Turn two Bibles to John chapter four.
Sorry, chapter four.
Chapter four as we read the chapter.
Bible says, "When therefore the Lord knew
how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made
and baptized more disciples than John,
though Jesus himself baptized not but his disciples,
he left Judea and departed again into Galilee,
and he must needs go through Samaria.
Then cometh he to a city of Samaria,
which is called Sychar,
near to the parcel of ground
that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
Now Jacob's well was there.
Jesus therefore being wearied with his journey,
sat thus on the well,
and it was about the sixth hour.
There cometh the woman of Samaria to draw water.
Jesus sayeth unto her, give me to drink,
for his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.
Then sayeth the woman of Samaria unto him,
how is it that thou being a Jew,
askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria?
For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.
Jesus answered and said unto her,
if thou knewest the gift of God
and who it is that sayeth to thee, give me to drink,
thou wouldest have asked of him
and he would have given thee living water.
The woman sayeth unto him, sir,
thou hast nothing to draw with and the well is deep.
From whence then hast thou that living water?
Art thou greater than our father Jacob,
which gave us the well and drank thereof himself
and his children and his cattle?
Jesus answered and said unto her,
whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again,
but whosoever drinketh of the water
that I shall give him shall never thirst,
but the water that I shall give him shall be in him
a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
The woman sayeth unto him,
sir, give me this water that I thirst not,
neither come hither to draw.
Jesus sayeth unto her,
go, call thy husband and come hither.
The woman answered and said, I have no husband.
Jesus said unto her, thou hast well said I have no husband,
for thou hast had five husbands,
and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband.
In that saidst thou truly.
The woman said unto him,
sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.
Our fathers worshiped in this mountain,
and ye say that in Jerusalem
is the place where men ought to worship.
Jesus sayeth unto her,
woman, believe me, the hour cometh,
when ye shall neither in this mountain,
nor yet at Jerusalem worship the father.
Ye worship ye know not what.
We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.
But the hour cometh, and now is,
when the true worshipers shall worship the father
in spirit and in truth.
For the father seeketh such to worship him.
God is a spirit, and they that worship him
must worship him in spirit and in truth.
The woman sayeth unto him, I know that Messiah's cometh,
which is called Christ.
When he is come, he will tell us all things.
Jesus sayeth unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.
And upon this came his disciples,
and marveled that he talked with the woman.
Yet no man said, what seekest thou?
Or why talkest thou with her?
The woman then left her water pot
and went her way into the city,
and sayeth to the men, come, see a man
which told me all things that ever I did.
Is not this the Christ?
Then they went out of the city and came unto him.
In the meanwhile, his disciples prayed him saying,
Master, eat.
But he said unto them, I have meat to eat
that ye know not of.
Therefore said the disciples one to another,
hath any man brought him ought to eat?
Jesus sayeth unto him, my meat is
to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work.
Say not ye there are yet four months
and then cometh harvest?
Behold I say unto you, lift up your eyes
and look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest.
And he that reapeth receiveth wages and gathereth fruit
unto life eternal, that both he that soweth and he that reapeth
may rejoice together.
And herein is that saying true, one soweth and another reapeth.
I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labor.
Other men labored, and ye are entered into their labors.
And many of the Samaritans of that city
believed on him for the saying of the woman which testified,
he told me all that ever I did.
So when the Samaritans were come unto him,
they besought him that he would tarry with them,
and he abode there two days.
And many more believed because of his own word,
and said unto the woman,
"Now we believe, not because of thy saying,
for we have heard him ourselves,
and know that this is indeed the Christ,
the Savior of the world."
Now after two days he departed thence and went into Galilee.
For Jesus himself testified that a prophet
hath no honor in his own country.
Then when he was come into Galilee,
the Galileans received him,
having seen all the things that he did at Jerusalem
at the feast.
For they also went unto the feast.
So Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee,
where he made the water wine.
And there was a certain nobleman
whose son was sick at Capernaum.
When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judea into Galilee,
he went unto him and besought him
that he would come down and heal his son,
for he was at the point of death.
Then said Jesus unto him,
"Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe."
The nobleman sayeth unto him,
"Sir, come down, ere my child die."
Jesus sayeth unto him, "Go thy way,
thy son liveth."
And the man believed the word
that Jesus had spoken unto him,
and he went his way.
And as he was now going down,
his servants met him and told him, saying,
"Thy son liveth."
Then inquired he of them the hour when he began to amend.
And they said unto him,
"Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him."
So the father knew that it was at the same hour
in the which Jesus said unto him,
"Thy son liveth."
And himself believed in his whole house.
This is again the second miracle that Jesus did
when he was come out of Judea into Galilee.
Let us pray.
Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you for the word of God.
I thank you for the great work that you're doing
through Steadfast Baptist Church.
Thank you for the souls saved today.
I ask you to please help us to be attentive to your word.
Please remove distractions.
Help Pastor Shelley as he preaches to us.
In Jesus' name, amen.
- Amen.
I wanna look back at verse 23.
This is Jesus speaking.
He says, "But the hour cometh, and now is,
"when the true worshipers shall worship the Father
"in spirit and in truth.
"For the Father seeketh such to worship him.
"God is a spirit, and they that worship him
"must worship him in spirit and in truth."
Now, the context here is about identifying
where to worship God, how to worship God.
But in the midst of this context,
we get this really unique sentence or statement here
where it says, "God is a spirit."
And we pretty much all understand
that this is referring to the Father.
When we talk about God the Father,
we talk about him as being a spirit.
And I thought about just this concept of a spirit
and that it'd be beneficial to just go through the Bible
and just see what does the Bible teach about spirits,
just spirits in general.
And when I talk about spirits,
this is kind of a word that has a lot of definitions
and a lot of meanings.
And I'm only targeting one specific meaning here.
Spirit can be talking about like an attitude,
it can be talking about something that has life.
You know, when you talk about an animal having spirit
or something having spirits,
talking about just being alive in a sense.
Or spirit can refer to a supernatural being.
And that's really what I wanna talk about.
When we think about a spirit,
I wanna talk about supernatural beings.
And of course, one specific supernatural being,
the Bible often talks to a lot about in the spirit,
is the Holy Spirit.
So sometimes we'll talk about the spirit
and it's referring to the Holy Spirit,
which is a supernatural being.
Also, we have God here being mentioned as a spirit,
which would be a supernatural being.
We have angels and we have demons
that are referenced in the Bible
and they're often referred to as spirits.
And so I just wanna go through,
what does the Bible talk about spirits
and what are they like?
Obviously, you watch movies, you watch TV shows,
you listen to all kinds of people.
You have crazy weird ideas about what spirits are
or what they're like.
So to me, I think it's just, let's just go through the Bible
and again, this is not gonna be much of a preaching sermon.
It's gonna be more of just a,
let's all just discover what the Bible says
about these spirits together, okay?
Now go if you would to Hebrews chapter one,
go to Hebrews chapter one,
but the Bible says that God's a spirit.
So if we wanna learn, what does that mean?
What does that look like?
I think what we can do is we can go through the Bible
and see what are spirits like in the Bible
and that can help us identify and have a better understanding
of what God the Father is like
according to the scripture, okay?
Now, Hebrews chapter one, verse number four
is gonna be talking about the Lord Jesus Christ,
but it also is kind of contrasting the Lord Jesus Christ
with spirits or with angels
as they're often used interchangeably.
Hebrews one, verse four says,
being made so much better than the angels,
talking about Christ, as yet by an inheritance
obtained a more excellent name than they,
for unto which of the angels said he at any time,
thou art my son this day, have I begotten thee?
And again, I will be to him a father
and he shall be to me a son.
So Jesus Christ is different than the angels.
There's a distinction between the Lord Jesus Christ
and an angel.
The angels are not the sons of God,
whereas Jesus Christ is the son of God.
Now, verse six, and again,
when he bringeth in the first begotten of the world,
he saith, "And let all the angels of God worship him."
Notice also that Jesus Christ is worshiped,
the angels are not worshiped.
You only worship God.
And so the angels, even though they're spirits,
are not God and they're not worshiped.
In this particular passage,
I also wanna keep going though.
It says in verse seven,
"And of the angels he saith,
"who maketh his angels spirits,
"and his ministers a flame of fire."
Now, that's quoted in Psalm 104.
We don't have to go there.
Pretty much does the exact same thing.
This is just being ripped out of Psalm 104
and just interjected into the Hebrew text here.
You have to understand, most of the New Testament
is just a collage of quotes of the Old Testament.
I mean, most of the New Testament doctrine
is already in the Old Testament.
It's just simply taken out
and put into a little bit different context
to give us greater understanding
of what the Old Testament was already teaching.
But the Bible tells us that angels are notice what spirits.
That's what the Bible describes them as.
So this word is being used in the supernatural being sense,
not attitude, not just having life,
but simply these are supernatural beings.
They're referred to as spirits.
Says in verse eight, "But unto the sun he saith."
So the angels are spirits and they're ministers
and they're a flame of fire.
And what is he trying to say?
He's not saying something negative about the angels.
He's saying something positive.
He's saying these are spirits.
These are supernatural beings.
These are flames of fire.
I mean, these are great things.
But the son, it's different.
What does he say to the son?
Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever.
A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom.
Thou'st loved righteousness and hated iniquity.
Therefore, God, even thy God,
have anointed thee with the oil of gladness
above thy fellows.
So of course, the Lord Jesus Christ is not just a spirit
or God's not referring to him as just a spirit.
He's God.
So Jesus Christ is God
and the Bible distinguishes him from the father
because there's God that has thy God.
Well, how does that work?
Because the son is God, even thy God, that's the father.
And then he's been anointed with the oil of gladness
as a picture of the Holy Ghost.
So we have the Trinity in view of Hebrews chapter number one,
Jesus Christ is God.
Jesus Christ has his God,
which is in sense alluding to the father.
But again, we're just, I'm just teaching that
even though that's not the essence of the sermon,
the essence is more about the angel specifically.
Skip down to verse 12, it says that as a vesture,
thou shalt fold them up, talking about Jesus,
and they shall be shamed, but thou art the same,
and thy years shall fail not, or shall not fail.
Verse 13, but to which of the angels said he at any time,
said to my right hand,
until I make thine enemies thy footstool,
are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister
for them who shall be heirs of salvation?
So again, the Bible tells us that angels are spirits.
I'm using this text so that every time we talk about angels,
you realize we're still talking about spirits,
'cause the Bible calls the angels spirits.
They were ministers, they are to minister to who?
To us, why?
Because we're the heirs of salvation.
Also noticing, and again, I don't know exactly
how the angelic situation works.
I don't really understand exactly everything
about angels and demons, and the Bible doesn't really
give us a ton of detail about everything.
But notice that it doesn't really seem to indicate
that the angels have salvation offered to them,
because notice who's the heirs of salvation, it's mankind.
It's mankind that are essentially the ones
that have the opportunity for this salvation.
So, and we don't really see redemption or salvation
from an angelic perspective.
We don't see people that left their first estate,
angels that left with the devil,
and then they get saved later and come back or whatever.
It's pretty much you're either an angel or a demon.
You either left or you didn't.
I don't know exactly how that works,
but we are the heirs of salvation,
and we are the ones that are gonna become the sons of God,
and we are going to judge angels according to the Bible, okay?
But we're just talking about spirits.
What are spirits like, though?
It's not like there's some kind of an inferior creation
to mankind, though, 'cause the Bible actually paints
a different picture.
It actually paints the picture that angels, in some ways,
are superior to us in some aspects.
Look at chapter two, verse seven.
Thou madeest them a little lower than the angels.
Thou crownedest him with glory and honor,
and didst set him over the works of thy hand.
So the Bible's talking about the Lord Jesus Christ
is made lower than the angels.
So in some ways mankind is kind of a lower creation
as maybe lower abilities than the angels specifically, okay?
And if we keep reading, it says in verse nine,
but we see Jesus who's made a little lower
than the angels for the suffering of death,
crowned with glory and honor,
that he by the grace of God should taste death
for every man.
So another aspect we can see here is the angels don't die
or don't have the mortality limitation that mankind does
because it's saying Jesus couldn't be made like into an angel.
He had to be made like unto us.
He had to go a little lower.
Why?
For the suffering of death.
Now, of course, the Bible does say that angels,
especially the fallen ones, the demons can go to hell.
And that is kind of described as a form of death.
And I get that, but they don't have the same,
I guess, mortality.
There's some kind of a difference here.
So the angels don't have the same experience of death.
Look at verse, we already looked at these verses.
So that's kind of where I just wanted to set a foundation.
God's a spirit, we've learned that.
Number two, angels are spirits.
Bible also says they're ministering spirits.
And in some ways, they're a little bit higher than mankind.
They're a little bit elevated in some way
as far as just their creation status versus us, okay?
Now, we're gonna go all over the Bible.
So get ready to just truck through a lot of text.
Go to Genesis chapter 18, go to Genesis chapter 18.
What are angels then like?
What are spirits like?
What can spirits do, what can spirits not do?
What does the Bible just say?
You know, what are we learning about what a spirit is like?
You know, is it Casper the ghost, you know?
And you know, it's kind of,
who's actually seen Casper or something?
I'm not trying to like tattletale on you or something.
But have you ever seen it where that Casper's like,
they're all eating,
and then all the food just falls out of their body
'cause they can't like hold anything
or something like that.
Obviously, you know, that's not exactly what the Bible,
the picture of the Bible paints or whatever.
But the Bible does paint a picture that angels can eat.
So we'll see that.
We just don't see the food like falling out of their body
or anything like that, okay?
So I don't know exactly how it works,
but let's look at Genesis chapter 18, verse one.
"And the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamrie,
"and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day,
"and he lift up his eyes and looked,
"and lo, three men stood by him.
"And when he saw them, he ran and meet them
"from the tent door and bowed himself toward the ground."
So three guys show up to Abraham.
Verse eight, we're just skipping through.
I was just trying to get to the important points.
"And he took butter and milk and the calf,
"which he had dressed, and set it before them,
"and he stood by them under the tree."
Notice this, "And they did eat."
So according to the Bible, all three of these people ate.
These three men ate with Abraham.
Of course, they ate beef, so it was a good meal.
Verse 22, "And the men turned their faces from thins
"and went toward Sodom, but Abraham stood yet before the Lord."
Now, I don't understand how to interpret this.
You can have your own ideas,
but often the Bible will say or talk about angels
and call them men.
Now, I don't know if it's saying that in what sense.
It doesn't seem like it's an overly literal sense.
So I don't know if that's just the word
that's used to describe that they're male.
I don't know if it's just describing the fact
that they look like men,
but the Bible calls them men in the text.
Yet I would say that they're obviously still a spirit,
they're still an angel.
So I don't exactly understand that.
But this is who it's referring to is these men
that were there with them.
and they'd go towards Sodom.
We know that there's some three guys,
some of the men that were there,
turned their faces towards Sodom.
But then the Bible says the Lord stayed with Abraham.
Now look at what it says in verse 19, verse one.
And there came two angels to Sodom at even.
So as you kind of follow the story,
it's like three guys show up, they all eat,
two guys leave, they go towards Sodom,
and it's calling them men, men, men, men.
But then in 19, verse one, it's like,
oh, actually it's angels.
It's two angels that were coming to Sodom at Eden.
Now in verse 10, what do these angels do?
Verse 10, but the men put forth their hand
and pulled Lot into the house of them and shut the door.
So they're able to grab people
and do stuff to them, right?
They can pull Lot, they're obviously strong too.
They're just grabbing people and doing things.
Verse 11, and they smote the men
that were at the door of the house of blindness.
This also seems like a supernatural ability,
because I can't just smite a whole crowd with blindness,
yet these angels have a supernatural ability
to just smite all the men of Sodom with blindness,
as the Bible describes it.
Verse 16, and while he lingered,
the men laid hold upon his hand
and upon the hand of his wife
and upon the hand of his two daughters,
the Lord being merciful on him,
and they brought him forth and set him without the city.
So these angels have hands,
they can grab hold of your hand,
and they can drag them out of the city.
So we've learned a lot about spirits.
The spirits look like men, they can eat,
they can grab people, they have supernatural ability
where they can punish people,
they can smite people with blindness,
and they can lay hold on people.
Go through to Daniel chapter number six,
go to Daniel chapter six,
and again, we're just gonna skip all around in the Bible,
so it's not gonna necessarily be super consistent,
but I'm just trying to show you things the Bible says
about angels and says about spirits and demons
and all this different stuff.
And what I'm also gonna show is a lot of cross references
because you have a similar picture.
You kind of have the same thing being shown
from lots of different angles.
So even if you said like,
"Oh, that was just that one time,"
actually we kind of see these same elements being played out
in multiple stories in the Bible, okay?
Daniel chapter number six, look at verse 22.
Bible says, "My God has sent his angel
"and has shut the lion's mouths
"that they have not hurt me
"for as much as before him, innocency was found in me,
"and also before the OKing have I no hurt."
So notice God sent an angel,
and the angel had the ability to affect animals
and to cause their mouths to be shut.
So they have ability to do things to animals.
Chapter nine, look at verse 20.
Chapter nine, verse 20, the Bible says,
"And while I was speaking and praying,
"investing my sin in the sin of my people as your own,
"presenting my supplication before the Lord my God,
"for the holy mountain of my God,
"yea, whilst I was speaking in prayer,
"even the man Gabriel,
"whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning,
"being caused to fly swiftly,
"touched me about the time of the evening oblation.
"And he informed me and talked with me and said,
"O Daniel, I am now come forth
"to give thee skill and understanding.
"At the beginning of thy supplications,
"a commandment came forth and I am come to show thee,
"for thou art greatly beloved,
"therefore understand the matter and consider the vision."
So Daniel gets this vision from Gabriel
and notice what the Bible said in verse 21.
He touched him.
So again, these spirits are able to interact with humanity.
They're able to touch humanity.
He's able to talk with them.
He's able to give them wisdom.
He's able to give them understanding.
The Bible says that he actually left
or went as soon as the commandment came.
Now in chapter 10, it's also interesting in verse five.
"Then I lifted up my eyes and looked
"and behold a certain man clothed in linen,
"whose loins were girded with fine gold of oofas."
Notice again, it says a certain man.
So oftentimes when you're looking at the angels,
how are they described in the Bible?
Just like a man, they just look like a man does.
Says his body also was like the barrel
and his face is the appearance of lightning
and his eyes as lamps of fire
and his arms and his feet like in color to polished brass
and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude.
So while they look like a man,
they also look like a Superman, right?
They look like a supernatural being
in the sense that this isn't just
like a normal looking person.
They have this super bright visage, they're shining.
When they talk, it just sounds different.
Obviously it's a thundering booming voice
like the voice of a multitude.
Says in I, Daniel alone saw the vision
for the men that were with me saw not the vision
but a great quaking fell upon them
so that they fled to hide themselves.
Therefore I was left alone and saw this great vision
there may no strength in me for my comeliness
was turning me into corruption and retain no strength.
Yet heard I the voice of his words
and when I heard the voice of his words
then I was in a deep sleep on my face
and my face toward the ground.
And behold a hand touched me
which set me upon my knees and upon the palms of my hands.
Notice again the angels interacting, grabbing him,
touching him, setting him up, right?
It says and he said to me, oh Daniel,
a man greatly beloved understand the words
that I speak unto thee and stand upright
for unto thee am I now sent.
And when he had spoken this word unto me I stood trembling.
Then said he unto me, fear not Daniel,
for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart
to understand and to chasten thyself before thy God,
thy words were heard and I am come for thy words.
But the prince of the kingdom of Persia
withstood me one in 20 days, but lo Michael,
one of the chief princes, came to help me
and I remained there with the kings of Persia.
So notice this angel was sent to help Daniel
to talk to Daniel, but for 21 days he couldn't make it.
Why?
The Bible says that he was caught up by this prince of Persia.
So obviously there was some kind of a physical battle
between some kind of a demonic spirit
and this angelic spirit, and until Gabriel could show up
to help him overcome this battle between these two spirits,
he could not physically get to Daniel
to give him this particular word.
So again, when we think about these angels,
they obviously, while they're not like us,
I'm not saying they're like us exactly.
There's obviously some kind of difference.
They obviously have some spatial location
and they're obviously based on that spatial location.
People can interact with them
or angels can interact with them.
In fact, they can be even restricted in their movements
and be locked in a particular location
and need to be restrained
from that particular demonic spirit
in order to get to another location, right?
I mean, this is what the text is saying, right?
This angel's leaving heaven
and in his journey is being somehow caught up
in a battle royale
with some demonic force, demonic spirit,
and until he can overcome him,
he can't get to Daniel to end up relieving him
and helping him.
So there's like literal physical battles going on.
I use physical again,
someone's gonna like take me to task on these words,
but I'm just saying there's some kind of like
touching, interacting going on between two spirits
where they're battling, wrestling, fighting, whatever,
so as he can not actually get there.
There's some kind of a warfare going on
in the spiritual realm just to deliver a message.
That's pretty crazy to kind of think about
when we think about these spirits
and what these angels are actually having to put up.
They have to put up with demons literally, you know?
Like they're really having to have this kind of a battle.
And you know, sometimes think about this,
maybe God already granted your answer, your request,
and it's just taking the angels to wrestle some demon
just to literally even get you the answered prayer.
I mean, isn't that kind of crazy?
That's what the text is actually saying about spirits, okay?
But obviously the spirit is able to interact
with his spiritual realm or however that works.
There's some kind of a limitation there though.
He can't just,
the spirits aren't just flying through each other, right?
It's not like they just fly through each other.
No, the other spirit can catch the other one or something
or restrict it or cause it to not be able to do
whatever it wants to do.
It has some, you know,
and I use physicality only in our limited understanding
to try and relate to these words
of how they're capturing each other,
grabbing each other, whatever.
Just another interesting thing.
Go to Jude 9, 'cause that kind of helps with another verse
that's kind of interesting when we think about it.
Or just thinking about spirits
and how they may interact with one another.
And again, a lot of this,
we kind of have to read between the lines
or at least just take what it's saying
and kind of figure out how that could kind of work.
But it's super clear from the angel's testimony,
he was trying to get there.
It took him 21 days only because of him being held up
from this prince of Persia.
Sounds like spiritual wickedness in high places, right?
Jude 9, look at what it says here.
"Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil,
he disputed about the body of Moses,
durst not bring against him a railing accusation,
but said the Lord of Ruthy."
Notice that the angels and the demons are fighting.
And maybe this is only a verbal altercation.
I can't say for sure.
It could have been some kind of a wrestling match
in a sense, you know?
They could have actually been contending with each other,
not only verbally, but with their spirit bodies
or whatever you would say.
Kind of an interesting concept that's going on here.
So what would I say that we've learned so far
where we've learned that the angels
not only can interact with mankind,
but the angels and the spirits can interact with each other.
And that there's some way that they touch each other,
handle each other, do stuff with each other as well.
Again, not all this is gonna necessarily
all be directly related.
Let's go, I wanna go to Acts 12 next,
and then I wanna go to 1 Samuel 28.
But go to Acts chapter number 12.
It's kind of funny to me too.
Not all the angels are really even that nice
in their interactions, okay?
Well, look what it says in Acts chapter 12, verse seven.
And the old angel Lord came unto him,
it's talking about Peter,
and a light shined in the prison,
and he smote Peter on the side.
I mean, the angel just shows up
and he just punches Peter on the side, you know?
And it's just kind of funny,
like he didn't like gently wake him up
or anything like that.
The Bible just says he literally just like punched him
in the side or whatever.
He was like, wake up, you know,
or kicked him or whatever, who knows?
He basically just hit him, okay?
And he raised him up saying, rise up quickly.
He wasn't even nice, he didn't say like,
please will you get up, you know?
This is your angel alarm clock, you know, it's intense.
And his chains fell off from his hands,
and the angel said to him,
gird thyself and bind to thy sandals, and so he did.
And he said unto him,
cast thy garment about thee and follow me.
And he went out and followed him,
and whist not that it was true,
which was done by the angel,
but thought he saw a vision.
When they were past the first and second ward,
they came unto the iron gate that leadeth unto the city,
which opened to them of his own accord.
And they went out and passed on through one street,
and forthwith the angel departed from him.
So again, we don't know, we could interpret this
a few different ways, you could look at it however you want.
But somehow the angel shows up, just punches him,
says get dressed, put on your clothes, follow me.
And it's like they just walk up to the prison door,
and it just opens.
Now maybe the angel is like somehow opening it,
maybe he just like tells it to open and it opens,
I don't know, but by some supernatural ability,
the angel's just sitting here just popping locks.
You know, he's just like over here just opening doors,
opening doors.
Peter's just going following this angel wherever he goes,
and as soon as he gets out, the angel's just gone.
But again, we see these angels are interacting
with the physical world.
They're able to punch people,
they're able to just open doors,
do pretty much kind of whatever they want,
as it seems like these supernatural beings.
Go to 1 Samuel chapter 28 now,
go to 1 Samuel chapter number 28.
So it's interesting how these angels interact.
You know, I do not have every example
of this type of situation in the Bible,
or I'm sorry, in the Bible, in my notes,
'cause there's just too much content.
There's too much content.
But one thing I'm thinking about is how,
when the devil's tempting Jesus Christ
to jump off the pinnacle of the temple,
and he said that the angels with their wings
would like bear thee up,
kind of signifying the fact
that you could literally be falling,
and according to the devil, angels could catch you.
Angels could literally catch you
and cause you to stop from dying or perishing
in that particular scenario.
Now, I don't know if this is true or not.
This was way before I was ever born, okay?
So take it with a grain of salt.
I'm just gonna repeat to you the story
that my mom would always tell me,
but she told me that,
and then this was like when my brother was really young.
My brother's like eight years older than me,
so he was very young.
I'm just a twinkle in my dad's eye, okay?
But she was driving really fast.
My mom drove really fast.
I don't know if you can believe this or not,
but you know where I got it, all right?
So my mom was driving really fast or whatever,
and I guess maybe it was slick or raining or whatever,
and there was this sharp curve,
and she just went straight through the road
just off of a cliff, okay?
And according to her, she said the car just went off
and just immediately kind of flipped over.
It was like this in the air.
And my mom, this is what she would tell me,
I don't know if it's real or not,
she said the angels literally caught the car,
flipped it back up and gently set it in the water.
Now her and my brother were completely unharmed.
And not only that, when the police arrived
and it made newspapers and stuff,
they said they don't even understand
how the physics of the car could have ever sat
in the river like that or in the water
and how they survived, whatever.
So you can believe whatever you want.
But like, I'm not joking
that my mom would tell me this story.
She would say, you can ask my dad, he's still alive,
that according to my mom's testimony,
she just flew off of a literal cliff
and the car was gently set down.
I think she might have like a couple minor bruises
on her body or something, but brother, totally unharmed.
I have no idea.
But I mean, it's kind of a cool story if it's real.
It's kind of hard to believe any alternate, like any theory,
because how does a car just fly off of a cliff,
land and water and no one's harmed?
I mean, which version are you gonna believe?
I don't know.
If my mom had died, I wouldn't even be here.
I wouldn't even be born.
But this is what I believe.
I do believe angels can interact in our world, and I do believe angels could do things like
that if God's these fit.
Now, of course, my mom wasn't trying to harm herself.
It was an accident.
And I believe that that's the whole point that Jesus is saying, hey, we shouldn't tempt
the Lord our God.
Like, do not try this at home, okay?
Pastor Shelley said, no, no, no, no, do thyself no harm, okay?
Don't try this.
Don't do anything.
But hey, if I'm flying off of a cliff, I might pray like, hey, can you catch me?
You know what I mean?
I don't know how those things work.
But I do believe that angels could literally catch you and interact with you and do these
kind of things.
It's kind of cool.
Now on the flip side, angels can also do some gnarly things, these fallen angels, the demonic
spirits as well.
One of the things is being demon-possessed.
Look at 1 Samuel chapter 28 verse 7.
The Bible says, "Then said Saul and his servant, 'Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit,
that I may go to her and inquire of her.'
And his servant said unto him, 'Yeld, there's a woman that hath a familiar spirit in Endor.'"
Now again, the way the Bible is wording this is the person says they possess a familiar
spirit.
I believe this is talking about someone that's demonly possessed.
So this is someone that's not saved.
In order to have a demon possession, like have a spirit, you would have to be unsaved.
So this is some unsaved person that just allows demonic spirits, some kind of a fallen angel
spirit that allows her to kind of do supernatural things.
But we've seen a lot of positive supernatural things.
Why would we not believe that demons can also have supernatural abilities?
They just may not always be positive, right?
And what is the idea of familiar spirits?
This is like witchcraft, necromancy.
The Bible kind of paints this picture and it says it's wicked, it's evil, it's wrong.
There are games out there like Ouija boards and stuff where people are trying to communicate
with the dead.
It's wrong, it's satanic, it's deceptive.
You should have nothing to do with that kind of stuff.
Stay away from witchcraft, stay away from the Ouija board, stay away from all of this
stuff.
The Bible says that it's evil, it's satanic, it's bad.
Now does that mean that it's not real?
No, it is real.
That's why you should stay away from it.
Now there really are demonic forces and there really are dark forces and they really can
do weird things and you should just stay away from it.
Saul wants to go to this medium, this witch at Endor, and he wants to inquire of her.
We don't want to hang out with witches.
This is a wrong thing.
Verse nine, "And the woman said to him, Behold, thou knowest what Saul hath done, how I cut
up those that have familiar spirits and the wizards out of the land, wherefore then layest
thou a snare for my life to cause me to die."
So she's skeptical that she's just going to be found out.
But notice what she does in this story.
Verse 13, "And the king said unto her, Be not afraid for what sawest thou."
So she's trying to commune with the dead.
And the woman said unto Saul, "I saw gods ascending out of the earth."
Now the word "gods" here, it's lowercase "g."
I believe the word "gods" could have a couple different meanings.
Obviously, big "g," we're thinking about the supreme creator.
We're talking about the supernatural being God the Father.
That's what we think about, and that's what the Bible talks about.
But the Bible uses a lowercase "g" in different ways.
I believe sometimes it's talking about false gods or demonic spirits.
Also the Bible, I think, just in general, the word "God" could be substituted as "ruler."
If you kind of think about it, and the Bible talks about the devil being the god of this
world.
He's just some form of a ruler of this world.
The Bible talks about the rulers of the darkness of this world.
That could be in reference to the demonic spirits that have some kind of a reign, like
the prince of Persia or these different demonic spirits that are over different realms and
different areas.
The devil can't run the whole world by himself.
He's got his ministers and he's got his angels and his own hierarchy.
And so, you know, when we talk about these gods ascending, I think what she's just talking
about is demonic spirits that are essentially just that she can see somehow.
And she's just she's kind of talking about this.
Now, Samuel, I'm sorry, Samuel is not a demonic spirit, of course, Samuel saved.
He's in heaven.
But they're trying to like bring up his spirit somehow.
And she's seeing all these spirits, I believe is what she's kind of referring to, which
she says, gods notice that they're ascending.
So they're flying or whatever.
And he said under what form is he of?
And she said, an old man cometh up and he is covered with a mantle and Saul perceived
that it was Samuel and he stooped with his face to the ground and bowed himself out.
I don't know how to interpret this story perfectly.
We could kind of paint two pictures.
Maybe one is this woman is kind of just seeing visions of like spirits or whatever and then
is able to have Saul see a spirit appear or something.
Or what is happening is she is just changing and she's just kind of talking and it's really
the demon inside of her is basically talking and every interaction is just her interacting
with Saul.
You've got to lean towards that's what's actually happening. Saul is just looking at this woman
and she has just been taken over by whatever spirit she has, whatever familiar spirit,
and it's doing all this communicating, it's doing the talking, it's seeing these spirits
fly and then when Samuel comes up it's basically her talking as Samuel as it were.
Even though it is Samuel it's just that she's the one that's the vessel being used, she's
just emptying herself to be allowed for these spirits to take over and to take upon her
body to communicate.
You could interpret this however you want, that's just kind of how I envision it.
Now it says in verse 13 that Samuel said to Saul, so notice the narrator saying this is
really Samuel.
I guess by some miracle God just allowed Saul to talk to Samuel's spirit, Samuel's spirit
just kind of maybe comes into this woman temporarily to just basically communicate with Saul.
I don't know, that seems how the text actually indicates and I believe that this messaging
is probably from Samuel.
I believe that's what's really happening.
So another thing that can happen if we think about spirits is they can somehow possess
people's body.
In some way these supernatural beings can possess people's body, but I believe that
you can only be possessed if you're not saved.
So they can really only inhabit someone that is not saved.
Go if you would to Luke chapter number two, go to Luke chapter number two.
So again, we're just kind of taking a random journey through the Bible, we're just looking
at this stuff.
I tried to think really hard, how do I catalog or categorize all this stuff, but I just gave
up on that.
I'm like, we're just going to go, we're going to just run around through the Bible, right?
So we're just learning different stuff as we go.
Luke chapter two, verse number nine.
The Bible says, "And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them and the glory of the Lord
shone around about them and they were so afraid and the angel said to them, 'Fear not, for
behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people, for unto you
is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord, and this shall be
a sign unto you, you shall find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger.'
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God and saying,
'Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will toward men.'
So we have angels showing up punching people, we have demonic spirits inhabiting someone's
body, but then we also just kind of have this situation where angels just randomly appear.
It's like they were there but you couldn't really see them but then all of a sudden they're
just visible, right?
It's like this angel is telling them about this stuff and then all of a sudden it's just
like BAM!
Angels everywhere and they're all just praising God.
So it seems like somehow angels have an ability to kind of turn themselves on and off from
a visibility perspective or perhaps God is just changing their eyes to where they can
see them.
some way their visibility is not always perceived by the human eye but can be depending on how
that works.
I don't know.
There's another story about this that's kind of interesting.
Go to 2 Kings chapter 6, go to 2 Kings chapter number 6 where we see the visibility of spirits
can come and go and again we can interpret this a few different ways but generally speaking
you can't just always see angels, you can't just always see spirits but you can sometimes
see spirits, you can sometimes see angels and I don't know exactly what determines that.
It doesn't seem like it's always a miracle because obviously Abraham, it doesn't seem
like something special happened to Abraham, he just sees the two angels a lot, all the
men of Sodom, I mean tons of times people are just interacting with angels and spirits,
sometimes they're there and they just appear, sometimes they're inhabiting someone's body
so I guess they have more flexibility as far as how their visibility is perceived but they're
not always invisible.
2 Kings chapter 6, look at verse 15, "And when the servant of the man of God was risen
early and gone forth, behold, in host compass the city, both with horses and chariots, and
his servant said to him, 'Alas, my master, how shall we do?'"
So in this story they're compassed with a literal army, a physical army, and he's asking
his prophet master Elisha, he's like, "What are we going to do?"
And he answered, "Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be with
him."
Elisha then said, "Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may see, and Lord, open the
eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots
of fire round about Elisha."
So apparently, you know, they're at this battle, and yet there's all of these angelic spirits
that are from God there to protect them, to guard them, some kind of a, you know, legion
of army, and he can't see it, so then Elisha's like, "Hey, just pray, just, God, just show
this guy what's really going on."
And then just by some miracle, God changes his eyesight, allows him to see, "Wow, there's
just all of these angels, there's all these spirits here ready to battle with us, to battle
for us."
Okay?
And so we never, we may never realize how many angels or how many warriors are on our
side or with us, even when we seem outnumbered.
You know, sometimes you come to these protests at our church, there's like hundreds of these
sodomites.
Who knows how many thousands of angels could have been here, chariots of fire here, and
they just couldn't really see it, okay?
But at the end of the day, hey, if you have great faith that God can deliver you, you
don't need to necessarily see it.
This guy was afraid and by some miracle he got to see the thing that was going on.
Go if you would to 2 Corinthians chapter 11, go to 2 Corinthians chapter 11.
I'm not going to go to all my references this evening, but you know, other verses I could
think of, the Bible talks about the Holy Spirit descending in bodily shape.
So obviously spirits have a shape, they can be seen.
That's the whole point of John the Baptist, like looking up and seeing the spirit is that
he saw it.
That he saw the spirit, the spirit was in bodily shape.
So of course spirits can be seen, they have shapes, they interact, they can be visible,
they can touch, they can interact.
I mean we see a lot, they can eat, they interact with each other, there's war between angels
and demons, these different spirits that are there.
Now 2 Corinthians chapter 11 talks about Satan specifically and talks about the devil and
the Bible describes him as also this kind of a demonic spirit that exists within the
world or exists within the universe, 2 Corinthians chapter 11, look at verse 14, "And no marvel
for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light, therefore is no great thing if his
ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness whose end shall be according
to their works."
Notice that somehow the devil can even transform his own physical appearance in some way, or
at least presents himself as a good angel even though he's not a good angel.
And again, what's the parallel is how men on earth appear like they're a good guy, appear
like a good pastor, but really they're just an evil satanic, you know, demonic force that's
really in this world.
So apparently the Satan, according to the Bible, has an ability to change his appearance.
Go to Ezekiel 28, we'll learn more about the devil specifically and the demonic spirit
that he is.
Of course, not every demonic spirit, not every devil is the devil.
The Bible talks about devils, why?
Because essentially the devil term is not limited to what we think of as Satan, Lucifer.
We can think of many demonic spirits as also being devils, okay?
Ezekiel 28, verse 12, the Bible says this, "Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the
king of Tyrus and say to him, 'Thus saith the Lord God, Thou seest up the sum full of
wisdom and perfect and beauty.
Thou hast been an eat in the garden of God.'"
Now, sometimes what the Bible does is it kind of uses a, uses metaphors that are literal.
Like this is where, he's like talking to this king of Tyrus in a metaphoric way, but he's
talking literally about the devil.
So as we kind of get this double meaning here in the text.
So obviously this king is not in the garden of Eden.
Like he wasn't there back thousands of years ago.
But in a metaphoric way, just saying this king is ruling over a paradise and that it's
very beautiful.
So it's metaphoric of what Eden was like, but for the devil, it was literal.
The devil really was in the garden of Eden.
And so God often uses these.
This is why I also like personally, you could believe whatever you want.
I think the parables that Jesus uses in the New Testament were things that really probably
happened.
It was like stories of things that probably really happened, but he's just bringing them
up in a generic sense to teach us a lesson about stuff that could or would have happened.
Because God uses cardinal truths to expound spiritual truths.
So the devil was in Eden, the garden of God.
And what about the devil?
He's also, every precious stone was like covering the Sardis, Topaz, the diamond, the barrel,
the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold.
The workmanship of thy tablets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that
that was created.
Now for the king, it's probably metaphoric in the sense that he probably wears a crown,
right?
Or wears jewelry around his neck or in his clothing that's like this.
But I believe what it's saying for the devil is it's like the devil's literally ornamented
with these particular stones.
It's like he has these stones built into him somehow, or he has these colors that look
like these stones, somehow embedded into his physical appearance to where he just has this
type of a beauty about him.
And somehow the devil has pipes that are prepared in him, so he's like a walking musical instrument
or something like that.
Which also probably goes to show why there's so much satanic music in the world, is because
the devil is inherently a musical creation, you know, he's some kind of a musical being
that exists.
And that's why he uses music to basically influence a lot of people and to affect a
lot of people through his, you know, false ministry.
It says, "Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth, and I have set thee so.
Thou wast upon the holy mountain of God.
Thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.
That was perfect in thy ways from the day that thou was created till iniquity was found
in thee."
Notice also angels are created.
Every angel is created.
The devil was created.
Now we don't know exactly when angels were created.
We can only speculate.
I would speculate, this is just my personal opinion, that they were probably created
on day four.
They were probably created when all the lights were created.
Because often you kind of have in creation, you have the first three days as environments
and then the next three days are the characters that reside in those particular environments.
You have the heaven and the earth and then you basically have the sea and then you have
the land and it's kind of like okay so day one was the heaven and the earth so then you
have like the sun moon and stars kind of makes sense maybe the angels also because they reside
in heaven.
Then you have the seas you have like the fish and you have the birds of the air and then
on the land you have the land dwelling beasts and you have mankind.
So it's kind of like environment one, environment two, environment three and then you have the
characters that are primarily in environment one, environment two, environment three.
So just based on my personal speculation, the text does not say this anywhere.
There's no verse that says this.
I would just assume the angels might have been created on day four, okay, because they
kind of inhabit that first environment of heaven.
Maybe I'm totally off, but it just seems like, and again that would also give credence to
the fact of why the devil's a little bit wiser or smarter because he's seen a little bit
more, right?
He didn't see the first three days, but he did see day five in totality, right?
He was there to kind of experience that, perhaps part of day four as well.
Obviously he's the light bringer, the light bearer, and he resembles a lot of sun worship
and stuff like that.
There's a lot of parallels there.
We could talk about it later, but notice he also had a particular job.
He was the anointed cherub that covereth.
It seems to indicate that the Bible had the devil in about the highest status you could
be as a creation where he must have been where God is on his throne, maybe covering the throne.
He's there as an angel to cover God's throne, to worship God, obviously.
He's created as a musical instrument to worship God, perhaps even lead, maybe even some of
the worship of God.
These are just speculations, but the Bible does say that he walked, did you notice this?
That he walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.
The Bible describes God's throne, you know, sitting on this like a live coal pit where
there are these stones of fire.
So that's picturing that the devil had the privilege of walking around God's throne and
walking in that special privileged area that close to God.
But what is the thing that the devil just really wanted?
He wants to sit on that throne.
Okay.
So go view with Isaiah 14.
We'll see this.
It's like the devil had pretty much everything except for one thing.
He's just not the most high.
He's there.
He's walking.
He has all these special privileges, but he's not the most high.
But what we can learn from spirits is that they can walk.
They can go into heaven.
They can be in these special areas.
Obviously they can walk on earth.
They can walk in heaven.
Job one also indicates that the devil can present himself to the Lord in heaven.
And yes, Job one happened in heaven, okay?
Sorry to burst your little bubble there.
It's not temple zero, all right?
But we have in Isaiah chapter 14, kind of another one of these like double meanings
about he's talking about the king and he's also talking about the devil.
Now in Isaiah 14, he's talking about Nebuchadnezzar, super clear.
It's talking about the king of Babylon.
Look at verse four.
The proverb begins thinking of Babylon, right?
Isaiah chapter 14, then as he's talking about Nebuchadnezzar, look at verse nine, hell from
beneath his move for thee to meet the coming.
He kind of goes into a parallel about Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon and Satan.
How hell is going to be really excited to meet these two guys and how they're destined
for hell.
Okay.
Verse 12.
How are they fallen from heaven?
Oh, Lucifer, son of the morning.
How are they cut down to the ground, which did us weaken the nations?
So they share this really interesting parallel.
If you think about it, Nebuchadnezzar kind of just like lifted himself up almost to heaven
status where he's ruling over all the world and he weakened all the nations.
He destroyed all the nations in the same way that the devil literally was in heaven and
weakened all the nations through sin and through his deception and through his attack on mankind.
Verse 13.
For thou said in thine heart, I will send into heaven, I will exalt my throne above
the stars of God, I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of
the north, I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the most high.
What is it that the devil wanted?
The devil wanted to dethrone God and sit in God's seat, which is the most northern seat,
the highest seat.
That's why it's called the most high, right?
He's the most elevated position.
And of course the devil, very familiar with this, he was the anointed cherub that covereth,
he was the one that walked on the stones of fire.
He was there where the throne of God is.
But instead of being content being in, you know, primo number one creation spot, he just
couldn't handle it.
He's too prideful.
He just has to be number one.
He just has to be the best.
And so he's going to try and dethrone him.
Isn't it interesting?
It's like a lot of people leave the new IAB movement.
I wonder if it's because they just can't handle being number two.
They just have to be number one.
And so they have to dethrone somebody so they can be number one in everybody's hearts, you
know, in the congregation or something.
You know, it's the stupid, fool's errand.
Who cares if you're number two or three or four or five?
It's meaningless.
You know, why are you trying to be God?
You're not God, okay?
And quit trying to be like God.
Quit letting pride destroy you.
Because after he makes these statements, what does the Bible say?
You should be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
So, you wanna be like the most high?
Well then what does God say?
I'm gonna make you the most low.
You wanna do this to me?
Then you're gonna be the lowest of the low.
You're gonna be the one that everyone looks down upon
for all of eternity for trying to usurp God
and go against God.
And of course, you wanna go down,
you want everybody to look down upon you?
Lift yourself up with pride.
You wanna be lifted up by God?
Time to send them in a low estate.
Lower yourself.
So, we learned a couple things about spirits here.
And of course, the spirits can have a bad attitude even, right?
Spirits can have a bad spirit, okay?
The devil has a prideful spirit.
So they still have emotions like we have.
They have emotions, they can be affected by sin, by pride.
They can be affected by wrong things.
They must have free will.
Obviously, God created the devil to be good.
God created the devil to be the anointed cherub that covereth and
to worship God and to be there with him and have purpose in his life.
He rejected God's purpose in his life through his pride,
thinking that he was special.
I didn't read this, but Ezekiel had said that through the pride,
it like lifted up his heart, and his pride was in his beauty.
So also the devil, according to the Bible, is very beautiful.
It's a very attractive creation, arguably maybe even one of the most
attractive creations as far as angelic beings,
supernatural beings that God has ever created.
Now let's go to Revelation chapter 20.
Let's go to Revelation chapter number 20.
I'll give you a couple other thoughts in the Bible.
The Bible talks about God sending his destroyer
in the book of Exodus and the destroyer
kills all the first born.
God enables the devil to go in Job and afflict Job.
They, he causes weather issues.
The devil causes weather issues like a whirlwind
which kills all of Job's children.
He had to ask permission though
to afflict and to harm Job and to harm his children.
The devil when he describes Job says
that there was a hedge built about him.
So obviously the devil has restrictions
on where he can go and what he can do
and God has to enable him.
Angels have to allow him to do whatever he wants.
The Bible says in the book of Revelation
at some point the devil's gonna be cast out of heaven.
So he's gonna literally be thrown down
and not able to come back unto heaven.
He's been kicked out, okay?
And yeah, when you're kicked out
you're not allowed to come back, all right?
Revelation chapter 20, look at verse number one.
And I saw an angel come down from heaven
having the key of the bottomless pit
and a great chain in his hand,
and he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent,
which is the devil, and Satan and bound him a thousand years.
Another interesting story, I mean, the Bible's saying
one angel is gonna grab the devil
and is gonna throw him down with a chain.
So somehow these spirits, even though they're not like us,
and I'm not saying they have the same body as us,
they have some kind of a restriction with their body.
They can be chained, they can be locked down.
The Bible talks about in Jude, everlasting chains.
There's some demons or demonic spirits
that are already in hell in everlasting chains,
that they're already locked up down there.
The devil's gonna be grabbed.
What does the Bible say?
It says he's laid old on the dragon, that old serpent,
and bound him a thousand years
and cast him in the bottomless pit
and shut him up and set a seal upon him
that he should deceive the nations no more.
So obviously the devil can be interacted with.
There's some kind of a physicality there,
albeit it's a supernatural physicality
that is being talked about.
Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 15.
The Bible talks about angels being sent,
not only angels, but like demon fallen angels
being sent from heaven to come and be a lying spirit
in the mouth of false prophets.
That God allows these demons to somehow go
and afflict people and to cause them to lie.
The Bible talks about how God sent an evil spirit
to afflict King Saul and to interact with him.
The Bible talks about in Mark,
when Jesus is interacting with people
and he cast out demons that there was someone
that had a dumb spirit and they were not able to talk
because it's not the Flat Earth theory.
That is a dumb, that is a dumb spirit.
But I'm saying like it was talking about they couldn't talk.
That's what it meant to be dumb,
is that they somehow were not able to speak
because of the demonic spirit interacting in their body.
So when you think about it,
like typically we think of spirits
as not being able to interact with us,
or at least that's how I typically am kind of thinking.
But when you actually think about the text,
they actually interact with humanity a lot, don't they?
I mean, we're seeing them interact physically,
taking over bodies,
just having constant interaction with what's going on
in the world around us.
Now, what kind of body do they have?
I don't know exactly,
but the Bible does talk about some different bodies.
1 Corinthians 15, look what it says in verse number 44.
And this is talking about us.
It is so the natural body has raised a spiritual body.
There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body.
So according to the text,
there's a difference between a natural body
and a spiritual body.
They're both bodies, but there's a spirit body.
There's a natural body.
It says in verse 45,
and so it is written the first man, Adam,
was made a living soul.
The last time was made a quickening spirit,
how be it that was not first, which is spiritual,
but that which is natural.
And afterward, that which is spiritual.
The first man is of the earth, earthy the second man
is the Lord from heaven.
As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy.
And as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
As we have born the image of the earthy,
we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
So right now we have a natural body.
At some point we'll have a spiritual body
that is different and it's a heavenly body.
I don't know exactly what that looks like.
That's for a different conversation.
Some good news, Jesus Christ in his resurrected state
still ate food.
You know, he ate fish and he ate with the disciples
and a honeycomb.
So, you know, he got some fish and chips or whatever.
He got some honey in there.
I pretty much covered everything I wanted to cover,
but I want to go to just two more places.
Go to Daniel 7, Hebrews 12,
and I think we're going to finish with just those two.
But this is just kind of an interesting subject to me.
I hope maybe you learned a little bit.
Maybe you kind of like thought about things
a little bit different way.
Here's a quick summary of just some of the things
that I noticed in the text talking about spirits.
Number one, they have a body.
They have appearance.
They have visibility.
That can obviously change.
Their visibility can come and go.
They have emotions.
They can eat.
They can touch.
In fact, the Bible talks about how man did eat what?
Angels food.
So according to the Bible, there's angels food.
We have angels eating.
They can touch.
They can punish.
They can fight.
They can fly.
They can talk.
They have wisdom.
They can lie.
They can be evil.
They can possess people.
They can afflict people.
They can have beauty.
And their beauty can be different than others.
They can walk.
And then from a location perspective,
they can be in heaven, earth, and/or hell.
Because we see angels and demonic spirits in heaven.
We see them on earth.
And we see the Bible talking about them being reserved
in everlasting chains in hell,
meaning that they're already,
some demonic spirits could be in hell.
Some of the, I'm sorry, demonic spirits,
when interacting with the Lord Jesus Christ were worried,
especially the legion, they were worried
that Jesus was gonna send them to hell early.
And they begged to be in the herd of swine.
Another thing, somehow the demonic spirits
can also interact with animals.
We saw the angel of the Lord closing the mouth of the lion.
We see the legion being cast out into the swine
and causing them to just basically
violently run down the steep hill.
So somehow these demonic spirits can interact with mankind
and with animals. They can go to heaven, earth, or hell.
So why preach a sermon like this?
What is kind of the point?
Well, here's the three points that I kind of drew.
Number one is that spirits are real
and we can interact with them.
I think from the text, I mean, it's pretty clear.
Spirits are real and there is interaction that goes on.
Number two is that God is a spirit.
So if God's a spirit, at every single example,
we have a spirits that they're real
and they can be interacted with.
That causes me to believe that God is real
and can be interacted with.
I mean, it's not a big leap.
Did I just take a huge leap where you're just like,
well, that seems a little obvious.
But here's why I wanted to explain that to you.
According to Catholics, they do not believe
that the Father is real and can be interacted with.
They make God the Father an idea.
It's called divine simplicity,
where they basically abstract God away
from being something that has a body
or could be interacted with or could be seen
or any of these things that I just talked about.
It's like, how does that even make sense
when every other spirit is something that has a body,
can be interacted with,
and has all these different emotions?
It makes sense to think that God's gonna be the same way.
If God's a spirit and all these other spirits are like this,
why would God not be the same way?
And the Bible actually even describes him
in Hebrews chapter number 12.
I had you turn here, but notice how God is described.
Furthermore, we've had fathers of our flesh
which corrected us and we gave them reverence.
Shall we not much rather be in subjection
under the father of spirits?
And listen, notice God is the father of spirits.
So obviously he's gonna make spirits like him.
He's the father of spirits.
So what would I assume would be the exact same
with God the father as with all the other spirits
that he has a body, that has appearance,
that it is visible.
Now again, don't get too caught up on this word
'cause the Bible talks about the invisible God.
But here's the thing,
don't angels come and go with their visibility?
Absolutely, okay.
So obviously, I can't just like look up
and see God the Father, right?
But I also, it would be kind of a meaningless statement
if the Bible says no man shall see my face and live
if he had no face, right?
What's the whole point of when the Bible says
the invisible God?
It's that none of us have seen God and can see God.
The way to see God is to die.
Or if you're not saved,
I just don't even know that you will ever.
I mean, you may never see God.
I don't know exactly how that works.
But the Bible does talk about it one day,
way in the future where the saved
will see God's face and live.
And I think that's the ultimate thing in the Bible.
God wants that relationship with you
and God wants you to be able to see him face to face
and have that personal relationship.
But in our fallen corrupt nature, we can't handle it.
So we have to have a new body, a spiritual body
to be able to see his face and live
because of how holy he is, okay?
But also I think, you know, I can't say for sure
if God the Father can eat.
If someone can think of a verse,
I would love to hear this one.
But we know Jesus can eat.
So we do know he can touch.
I mean, in the sense that the Bible talks about
God the Son being in the bosom of the Father.
The Bible has the Lamb of God taking the book
out of the hand of God the Father.
We know that God the Father can punish.
We know that he can fight.
We know that he can fly,
at least he's just thrown and stuff's flying around.
He can talk, he has wisdom, he can walk.
He has beauty and his location can be heaven, earth,
or, you know, again, with the father,
I don't think it ever mentions him being in hell,
but the Bible does say about God specifically
that if you make your bed in hell, behold, thou are there.
So the Bible also talks about God
just filling the entire universe in some sense,
as far as his presence, so I don't understand that.
But again, I would tend to agree that all of these attributes,
all of these characteristics of spirits
would be the same with God the father.
He's the father of spirits, makes perfect sense.
What doesn't make perfect sense
is making God an abstract idea.
And I don't think that we should ever go down that road.
It's just kind of insanity, if you ask me.
Go to Daniel chapter seven, I had you go there.
So again, Catholic theologians make God an idea,
not a person.
They stripped away all of the personality of God.
And instead of being a person with emotions
or characteristics, they make characteristics God.
They're just like, love is God.
It's not God is love.
It's not that God has love to them.
It's just love is God.
Well, you know what?
God, I do not believe can be defined
as just a collage of attributes.
God is a person that has attributes.
God has love.
And look, how could he be love,
like the embodiment of love, literally,
like he's that attribute,
and then also send people to hell?
How is love sending people to hell?
Love is not sending people to hell.
You know what's sending people to hell?
Wrath.
You know what's actually sending people to hell?
It's not wrath or love.
It's a person named God.
God is sending people to hell.
And God has wrath.
And God has anger.
And God is jealous.
And God is a man of war.
And God is just.
And God loves justice.
And God will send people to hell.
And God will send Catholics to hell
for not believing in him.
There's no such thing as his idea.
You can get Matt Walsh that says,
"Well, I just think if anybody has an ember of love,
God wouldn't send them to hell."
An ember of love, what does that even mean?
Matt Walsh is like,
"If you've just loved anybody in your life,
if you just loved anything,
then I just think God can work with that."
What, work with that?
What does that even mean?
Now, quit listening to Matt Walsh.
Quit listening to Catholic apologists
and Catholic theologians,
because it's almost like they're smoking marijuana,
like a spiritual marijuana.
It's like, "Man, I think God's, he's simple, man."
Look, it's stupid, okay?
And I'd love to preach a little sermon on divine simplicity,
but I'd bore you to death.
So maybe I'll do a podcast for the people
that are interested in the future.
But I just wanted to at least teach you this
and then just kind of like explain,
hey, this is attacking this stupidity of them,
this divine simplicity nonsense.
And it's important to realize, hey, God's a person.
We interact with him.
You know, we could see him if we were in heaven,
and obviously at some point we'll see his face.
But again, there's interaction between the father
and the son in the book of Daniel.
That's what I wanted to show you,
that God is a spirit that can be interacted with.
Look at Daniel chapter seven, verse nine.
And it'll be held till the thrones are cast down
and the angel of days did sit,
whose garment was white as snow
and the hair of his head like the pure wool.
His throne was like the fiery flame
and his wheels as burning fire.
So the Bible talks about God, the father,
being like the ancient of days,
and he's sitting on his throne.
Skip down, verse 10.
And a fiery stream issued and came forth from before him.
Thousands, thousands ministered unto him,
and 10,000 times 10,000 stood before him.
The judgment was set and the books were opened.
You know, there's not millions of people,
it says thousand and thousand.
There's not millions of people in heaven
worshiping an idea,
worshiping an abstract concept called God.
You know what they're worshiping?
A person sitting on the throne,
God the Father, the Father of spirits on the throne,
they're there to worship him.
The devil didn't want to sit where an idea sits,
he wants to sit where God the Father sits, right?
Okay, don't get these weird ideas into your brain
from liars.
Now let's keep reading.
It says verse 13, "And I saw in the night visions,
"behold, one like the Son of Man came with the clouds
"of heaven and came to the ancient of days,
"and they brought him near before him."
So this is a picture of what?
The Lord Jesus Christ coming with clouds,
presenting himself unto God the Father,
the ancient of days, sitting on the throne.
And then it says, "And there was given him,
"talking about the Son of Man,
"dominion and glory and a kingdom
"that all people, nations, and languages
"should serve him,
"his dominions and everlasting dominion,
"which shall not pass away in his kingdom,
"that which shall not be destroyed."
So God the Father gives unto his Son
the Lord Jesus Christ's power and dominion,
and that everyone should worship Jesus Christ,
and that every knee should bow,
and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
And we're gonna actually see that and experience that.
So I had one more place to go.
First Corinthians 14, we'll finish, all right.
It's a long sermon, I preach long sermons.
Welcome to Steadfast.
It's freezing in here, so you'll stay awake.
First Corinthians chapter 14.
What was the verse that we started with?
God is a spirit, and what was the context?
That we must worship him in spirit and truth, okay?
So I'm hoping that I'm giving you
like a little bit of stuff to chew on.
What do we need to do?
We need to worship God in spirit and truth.
The second part of that's really easy, truth.
What does that mean?
We need to have the right doctrine.
When we talk about worshiping God in truth,
what does that mean?
We have the right Bible, we have the right doctrine,
and we have the right knowledge of God.
I don't want to worship God as an idea.
I want to worship him as a person
and the supernatural spiritual being that he is, okay?
And I want to have a greater appreciation
of who God the Father is.
Because if I'm going to worship him,
I got to worship him in truth.
Also, the Bible says in spirit.
Well, in Ephesians chapter number five,
the Bible talks about, you know,
speaking yourselves in Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs,
singing and making melody in your heart in the Lord.
And the Bible says to be not drunk with wine
where there's an excess, but be filled with the Spirit.
So how do you fill yourself with the Spirit?
Speaking yourselves in Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.
And the Bible also says giving thanks under the Lord
in all things.
So what does it mean to worship God the Father in spirit?
Well, the Bible says singing, Psalms, hymns,
spiritual songs, and giving thanks.
So what does God want us to do?
God wants us to sing and worship Him
and to say thank you to Him with the right knowledge
of who He is and what He's done unto us.
When we worship God, how does God want to be worshiped?
He wants to be worshiped with our mouths,
with us singing and making melody in our heart,
meaning it's pleasant, we're joyful,
we have the right attitude,
and that's what it means to worship Him in spirit
and in truth.
That's why we sing the hymns
because it has great doctrine.
We don't only wanna have a good attitude,
we don't only want to be singing with joy,
we wanna be singing the truth of God with joy.
We wanna be singing the songs
'cause they have great doctrine
and the hymns 'cause of the great doctrine
and the spiritual songs because of the doctrine.
That's why we try to use
the most doctrinally superior songs that exist.
We don't want it to be so simple
that it takes away from the truth of God.
We wanna have maximized truth when we sing
and when we worship Him.
And we wanna make sure that we're giving thanks
when we pray, wanna make sure that we're praying
and we're understanding who God is.
That helps us.
And in 1 Corinthians chapter number 14,
the context is about just being a train wreck of a church,
but it gives us a couple of important thoughts here.
Verse 14, "For if I pray in an unknown tongue,
"my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful."
So again, this is like you're worshiping in spirit,
but not in truth, 'cause you don't even understand
what the heck you're saying, what's the benefit in that?
And it's like, what's the benefit in worshiping
God the Father when you don't even understand who He is
or anything about Him?
That's why we come to church and we learn
and we read the Bible 'cause we wanna have a greater
understanding of who God is so that when we're praying
and that when we're singing, we know who we're praying
and singing to and about.
That's what gives Him great understanding.
You know, if you're just praising Him,
you don't even understand why or for what,
it doesn't really have as much meaning
as when you do know why and you know what you are saying.
Verse 15, what is it then?
I will pray with the Spirit
and I will pray with the understanding also.
So we don't only wanna give thanks to God,
we wanna understand why we're thanking God
and what he has done for us.
I will sing with the Spirit,
I will sing with the understanding also.
Else when thou shalt bless with the Spirit,
how shall he that occupy at the room of the unlearned
say amen, at thy giving of thanks,
saying he understandeth not what thou sayest.
For thou verily give us thanks well,
for the other is not edified, I thank my God,
I speak with tongues more than you all.
Skip down to verse 20, brethren,
be not children in understanding,
how be it in malice be children,
but in understanding be men.
Why come to a Sunday night service?
So you can be understanding like men.
Why go to church?
So that you're not like children tossed to and fro
with every wind of doctrine.
How are you gonna worship God in spirit and truth
when you don't know the Bible,
when you don't understand the Bible,
when you don't have the right ideas about God?
And look, I thought this was kind of just a fun experiment
to just go through the Bible, talk about spirits.
There's a lot more verses.
You probably could think of even more things than I showed.
That was just kind of a quick sampling,
but I just find it kind of interesting
how much we can interact with spirits
and how that has a parallel, obviously, to God himself
and how we can interact with him.
And I hope that we have a greater appreciation
of who God is and what he has done for us
so that when we sing about him,
we're thinking about him with the right kind of understanding.
Let's close with prayer.
Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for what you've given us.
Thank you for the gift of your Son.
Thank you for giving us the Bible
so that we can have a greater understanding of who you are.
Thank you that one day we'll get to see you face to face
and we'll get to have that interaction
that goes beyond faith but goes into sight.
I pray that while we are here on earth
and we have to simply use our faith
that you would still increase our understanding
and so that we could worship you both in spirit and in truth.
And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
- Amen, our last song this evening
will be page 84 in your hymn books.
Jesus is coming again, page 84.
Jesus is coming again.
Let's turn to page 134.
It's at assurance, page 134.
43, list is wrong.
This is 134.
Okay, is it 143?
Page 143.
This is a song.
We love Kids Choir.
It's the service.
Thanks so much for coming.