Sermon

Ep 427 | Angels - Frank Brancato 12-19-21

Church of Christ - Bakersfield, Ca

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  1. As has already been mentioned, we have a wonderful crowd and we

  2. have quite a few folks that are visiting with us for which we

  3. are thankful. And as already been stated that,

  4. you are honored guests, and please come back every

  5. opportunity that you can be with us, we'd love to have you, as

  6. always is the case, I do consider it an honor to speak

  7. concerning the word of God. And I hope that what we have to

  8. consider will be helpful to you edifying, to you, and also

  9. encouraging to you. In some way, as you do, your

  10. very best to live the Christian Life.

  11. As you can see, on the screen, the title of our lesson is

  12. angels, as ministering Spirits. I got to give you a little

  13. background here about 30 years ago.

  14. A very good friend of ours asked me to teach them the subject of

  15. angels, And being young. I said, absolutely sure.

  16. I'll have it done by next week and I looked over all the

  17. information. I looked in the Bible, I started

  18. to study it and I thought, you know what, this subject is a

  19. little bigger than I am. In fact, I couldn't find the

  20. information that I was wanting to find to draw conclusions.

  21. About angels, for example, are they doing things for us in our

  22. life? Or are they not I remember a

  23. couple of years later, when I decided that I wanted to preach

  24. full-time and hold gospel meetings, and I wanted to build

  25. a library for my personal study, and I remember brother Johnny

  26. Elmore was helping me do that, and he was recommending books

  27. and helping me find certain books.

  28. And I sent him an email and I said, hey Johnny, what do you

  29. got on Angels? He responded with two words, not

  30. much. And I thought, well, I'll just

  31. shelf it again. But, very recently, last month,

  32. I talked on who our enemy, isn't that Satan?

  33. And I talked about some of the bad Angels, the wicked angels.

  34. And I talked about Satan and his angels.

  35. So, I thought after that, you know what, maybe we had a talk

  36. about some good angels to, they do exist and they do something.

  37. Well, first of all, I want to begin in my introductory

  38. comments to Matthew chapter 22 and verse 30.

    Matthew 22 chapter mention

  39. There are two passages that I've used as foundational passages

  40. for this lesson. The first One is Matthew 22 and

  41. verse 30 and just a little background leading up to that in

  42. Matthew chapter 22. You remember that the Sadducees

    Matthew 22 chapter mention

  43. were coming to Jesus and they were trying to stump Jesus

  44. because they didn't believe in the resurrection.

  45. So they come up with really a ridiculous illustration thinking

  46. that they're going to prove Jesus wrong.

  47. They come to Jesus and they said, you know, Moses taught,

  48. then if a man is married to a woman and he dies before she

  49. could have children. Bear children in his name, then

  50. the brother would come and the brother would marry the woman

  51. and they would have children. And they would bring children

  52. into the world for his brother. So this is what he said.

  53. He's this Sadducees says, well, there was a guy he had stir

  54. Seven Brothers. All 71 is married to the woman,

  55. he dies. No, children the second one,

  56. marries the woman. He dies.

  57. No. Children the third one.

  58. Marries the woman. No dyes and no children.

  59. Seven Brothers. Married this This one woman and

  60. then it says at the end. Oh and then she died.

  61. And they asked Jesus, the question, who is she going to be

  62. married to in the resurrection? And Jesus says, you don't know

  63. what you're talking about, you are mistaken, you don't know the

  64. scriptures and then he said this For in the resurrection they

  65. neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like the angels

  66. of God in heaven. That phrase right there that in

  67. the resurrection. One day, when we go to heaven,

  68. the saved somehow some way we're not going to be married.

  69. Like we were in this life physically when I going to have

  70. physical relationships that we had here at this life.

  71. In fact, what we're going to be like, we're going to be like the

  72. angels of God in heaven. So I thought if we're going to

  73. be like the angels of God in heaven, just maybe we ought to

  74. know a little bit more about those angels of God in heaven.

  75. Another pass. It Hebrews chapter 11 verses 13

    Hebrews 11:13

  76. and 14. But to you, which are angels.

  77. Has he ever said, Sit on my right hand until I make your

  78. enemies your footstool, are they not all ministering Spirits sent

  79. forth to minister for those? Who will inherit salvation more

  80. on that passage as we move along in our lesson.

  81. So these were the foundational passages that I decided to go

  82. ahead and write this sermon and teach it today on Angels.

  83. First of all, the work angel Literally means messenger and

  84. interestingly, the word Angel is found 300 times in the Bible.

  85. But the strange thing is perhaps 300 times.

  86. The word is used and yet there's so little information about

  87. them. Now why would that be?

  88. First of all, I don't know why God did anything.

  89. Only God Knows Why God did anything, only God knows that he

  90. revealed in his word, what he wants us to know and for some

  91. reason he didn't give a whole lot of information in the Bible

  92. about angels. So I'm speculating now and by

  93. the way this is the only comment I'm going to make in this

  94. lesson. That is speculation.

  95. The only one hears me speculating, so it's free.

  96. So, for whatever it's worth, could it not be?

  97. That God, didn't give more information about angels,

  98. because if he did, just perhaps people would be inclined to

  99. worship Angels. Maybe that's the case.

  100. I don't know. Angels are not objects to be

  101. worshipped. Angels are creatures of worship

  102. and in this lesson I'm going to do my very best.

  103. Like I said not to speculate regarding the work of angels.

  104. We want to do one thing. We want to stick to the

  105. scriptures and what we know for sure.

  106. Let's begin with talking about what we know for sure.

  107. Number one angels are created beings in Nehemiah 9:6.

    Nehemiah 9:6

  108. You alone are the Lord. You have made Heaven, the heaven

  109. of Heavens with all their host, the Earth and everything on it.

  110. The Seas and all that is in them and you preserve them all the

  111. host of Heaven, worships you, the Apostle Paul wrote this in

  112. Colossians chapter 1 and verse 16.

    Colossians 1 chapter mention

  113. He said, for by him, all things were created that are in heaven.

  114. And that are on On Earth, visible and invisible, whether

  115. Thrones, or dominions, or principalities or Powers.

  116. All things were created through him.

  117. And for him, angels are created beings and they are part of

  118. God's, please get this. There are part of God's

  119. invisible creation. All right.

  120. How many ever wondered? How many?

  121. How many angels do you remember when Jesus made the statement?

  122. When Jesus was going to go to the cross and they were going to

  123. take Jesus and arrest Jesus. Jesus tries to explain to them

  124. his disciples. He said, if my kingdom were of

  125. this world, my servants would fight Jesus could have called

  126. down as the Bible says, twelve Legions of angels, right?

  127. And could have stopped the whole thing.

  128. Makes you want to serve him even more.

  129. What about those beautiful songs we sung today about Jesus?

  130. That's because Jesus willingly and willfully submitted to what

  131. God wanted him to be. And that is his lamb to be

  132. sacrificed for the sins of the world.

  133. Now, how many? Well, the Bible talks about

  134. innumerable in, Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 22.

    Hebrews 12 chapter mention

  135. But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the Living.

  136. God, the heavenly Jerusalem to an innumerable company of

  137. Angels, in other words, too many to be counted.

  138. I like what John the Revelator said, when he saw this Vision in

  139. heaven, in Revelation, chapter 5 and verse 11.

    Revelation 5 chapter mention

  140. Notice, then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels

  141. around the throne, the living creatures and the elders.

  142. And the number of them was Ten Thousand Times.

  143. Ten Thousand and thousands of thousands how many's that will

  144. 10,000 times 10,000 is 100 million.

  145. So we're starting at 100 million then he says this and thousands

  146. of thousands innumerable have no idea what that number is too

  147. great to even count. Little point of Interest.

  148. We might say though. Remember last time we talked

  149. about Satan and his angels, remember that one passes?

  150. We talked about Satan And a third of the hosts of Heaven

  151. were cast out. Now, John saw this Vision after

  152. they were cast out obviously. And yet he said there was ten

  153. Thousand Times Ten Thousand and thousands of thousands still

  154. remaining. If we go back and we figure

  155. Satan in the third of the host of Heaven that were created in

  156. an innumerable host, right? That's a whole lot of angels.

  157. Satan's got an army folks. We need to know who he is the

  158. enemy and he's got an army. He will not have any control

  159. over you, that you will not allow, but understand, don't

  160. don't dabble in his world. He's alive and well, don't

  161. dabble in his world. What else do we know about

  162. angels? We know that there are classes

  163. or ranks or names of Angels. The highest ranking angel that

  164. we can read about in the scriptures is the Archangel.

  165. And obviously we already mentioned that the word, angel

  166. means messenger. So, Archangel means Superior to

  167. that, it means Chief messenger and Archangel is only found two.

  168. In all the Bible, it's found in the New Testament, not found in

  169. the Old Testament at all in 1st Thessalonians 4:16 for the Lord

  170. himself will descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of

  171. an archangel and with the trumpet of God and the dead in

  172. Christ will rise. First, in our conclusion, at the

  173. end of our lesson, we're going to talk about the Angels at the

  174. end and we'll get back to this passage.

  175. The other place that the word Archangel is found is in the

  176. book of Jude and is Jude verse 9 and their hits given a name yet,

  177. Michael the Archangel in contending with the devil.

  178. When he disputed about the body of Moses dared, not bring

  179. against him a reviling accusation, but said, the Lord

  180. rebuke you. That's the Archangel, there's

  181. another order of angels 2 and that is called the seraphin.

  182. And seraphim's our attendance around the throne they are ready

  183. to obey. God.

  184. In fact they are creatures that do three, these three things

  185. They honor worship and serve God.

  186. You remember when I said we're going to be like the angels of

  187. God in heaven. Sometimes people think that

  188. heaven is going to be a place where you get to do, whatever

  189. you want to do in this life, what have you loved and you get

  190. to do it forever in eternity. But Heaven is a spiritual place.

  191. It is a spiritual place. We will be Spiritual Beings like

  192. the angels of God in heaven and whatever we're going to look

  193. like. When everybody were going to

  194. have its going to be like Christ.

  195. That's what the Bible says. Spiritual place.

  196. Let me tell you what we're going to do in heaven.

  197. We're going to honor worship and serve God around the throne for

  198. eternity. That's what heaven is going to

  199. be like, oh, it's a place of rest, it's a place of reward.

  200. Our Labor's are gone, are the memories of bad.

  201. Things are removed forever. Every tear that is in the eye is

  202. taken away, they'll be no night. There are wonderful things in

  203. heaven, but let me just tell you this folks.

  204. We're going to be there for a purpose to honor worship and

  205. serve God forever. Like the angels of heaven.

  206. I love this passage and Isaiah chapter 6.

    Isaiah 6 chapter mention

  207. Beginning in verse 1, In the year that King Uzziah died, I

  208. saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up and his train

  209. of his robe. Filled the temple that shows the

  210. magnificence of God, the greatness glory and magnificence

  211. of God above it, stood seraphim, each one had six wings to

  212. covered his face to covered his feet and to he used to fly and

  213. one cried to another saying. Holy holy, holy is the Lord of

  214. hosts. The whole The whole earth is

  215. full of his glory. Six Wing characters are the

  216. seraphim. Two Wings covered their eyes.

  217. That's a sign of humility to Wings covered their feet.

  218. That's a sign of respect and to, they used to fly.

  219. Ready to worship honor and serve God around the throne?

  220. What else we also read about another kind of Angel and that's

  221. called a, cherubim they are the ones that guard sacred things.

  222. Do you remember? in Genesis chapter 3, in Genesis

    Genesis 3 chapter mention Genesis 3 chapter mention

  223. chapter 3, When man had sinned and was cast out of the garden.

  224. Remember what the head in the garden?

  225. That had the Tree of Life? And they could have the tree of

  226. life and live forever. And that was given to them

  227. before sin entered the world. When man, sinned and fell, he

  228. was cast out of the garden. And in Genesis chapter 3 and

    Genesis 3 chapter mention

  229. verse 24. So he drove out the man and he

  230. placed cherubim at the east of the Garden of Eden and a flaming

  231. sword to which every way turned, every way to guard the way of

  232. the Tree of Life. Now, obviously, God took away

  233. the Tree of Life as a consequence, and as a punishment

  234. for their sin. Surely, that's the obvious

  235. thing. But can't you see the mercy in

  236. it, too? Think about it this way if God

  237. would have not taken away the tree of life and placed a guard

  238. cherubim at it to keep it from man.

  239. If man could have got to the tree of life, after he sinned,

  240. guess what man is and in mortal sin or with no chance, Great

  241. Mercy. It was taken away.

  242. So guess what man can die and have a shot to go to heaven.

  243. Oh, the beauty of what God always does.

  244. His Mercy was shown in that great Act.

  245. Cherubim are those that guard sacred.

  246. Thanks, there's another example to in Exodus chapter 25.

    Exodus 25 chapter mention

  247. In the Tabernacle, in the holy of holies the instructions,

  248. given to build the ark, the instructions, given with The

  249. Mercy Seat in the holy of holies the picture of Heaven, the place

  250. where God was where sacrifice was made at The Mercy Seat,

  251. notice what happened with cherubim there, and you shall

  252. make two cherubim of gold of hammered work.

  253. You shall make them at two ends of The Mercy Seat.

  254. Make one cherub at one end and the other chair, but the other

  255. end you shall I'll make the cherubim at the two ends of it.

  256. One piece with mercy seat and the cherubim shalt stretch

  257. forth, their wings above covering the mercy seat with

  258. their wings, they shall face one another, the faces of the

  259. cherubim shall be toward The Mercy Seat guarding, sacred

  260. things. Are the chair been in summary so

  261. far? Archangel Chief messenger we're

  262. going to hear from the Archangel also one day.

  263. The seraphim attendance around the throne ready to serve and

  264. obey God and cherubim those that guard sacred things.

  265. Now the Bible calls Angels mighty In fact, refers to them

  266. as God's Mighty Angels. So they are Mighty, but there

  267. are limited, angels are superior to man, but they're inferior to

  268. God, angels are limited. Let's talk about that.

  269. Let me talk about what angels are not number.

  270. One, angels are not omnipotent. Or all-powerful. they're not

  271. only God is Only God is all powerful angels.

  272. Aren't in fact? The Bible says, I think it's in

  273. Revelation 12 and verse 7. It says that the wicked angels

  274. are subject to the righteous Angels.

  275. So if they were omnipotent or all powerful in their nature,

  276. that wouldn't be possible. Only conclusion, we can come up

  277. with is they're not all powerful.

  278. Only God is. What else are angels, not they

  279. are not omnipresent. God is omnipresent you what?

  280. That means. It means to be present

  281. everywhere at the same time, I can't even fathom that In our

  282. minds, our human Minds. How could it being be so great?

  283. Like, God, to be ever-present, to be present everywhere at the

  284. same time? That's not an Angel.

  285. That's God. Angels have to fly, or have to

  286. travel from place to place. Daniel chapter 9 verses 21

    Daniel 9:21

  287. through. 23, you know why there are not present everywhere at

  288. the same time, what else are they not?

  289. They're not omniscient. They are not all wise.

  290. Like God is. God is all wives First Peter,

    1 Peter 1 chapter mention

  291. chapter 1 and verse 12. It says that Angels desired to

  292. know God's plan for redeeming Fallen, man.

  293. You know why? They weren't all wise?

  294. I didn't know. So yes, they're Limited.

  295. And yet they're called mighty. Mighty angels.

  296. What else are angels that we know about?

  297. Well, they're creatures of worship.

  298. I mentioned this just touched on this briefly, Wade's been

  299. teaching us from the book of Hebrews. and in Hebrews chapter

    Hebrews 1 chapter mention

  300. 1, Jesus is described as being, exalted above the angels, And

  301. here Jesus is better than the Angels, Hebrews 1:6 but when he

    Hebrews 1:6

  302. again brings the first born into the world.

  303. He says let all the angels of God worship him.

  304. That's Jesus. Revelation chapter 7 verses 11

    Revelation 7:11

  305. and 12. All the Angels stood around the

  306. throne, and the elders and the four living creatures and fell

  307. on their faces before the throne and worship God saying, amen,

  308. blessing and glory and wisdom and Thanksgiving, and honour,

  309. and power, and might be to our god forever and ever.

  310. Amen. They are creatures of worship.

  311. What else? They possess emotions.

  312. I want to say something about emotions.

  313. Sometimes in an effort to try to steer, clear of being filled

  314. with emotionalism or making decisions that are based upon

  315. emotion and talking about religious decisions based on

  316. emotion. Sometimes we can go too far in

  317. the opposite direction and take a motion to pletely away.

  318. Our decisions are made logically to the mind as the word of God

  319. is preached to the mind. That's the heart of the Bible.

  320. And when we do that, we understand what the word of God

  321. says, we obey it, but then our emotions kick in and we serve

  322. him with everything. We've got The angels are also.

  323. Creatures of emotion. Luke 15 and 10, likewise I say

  324. to you, there is joy in the presence of angels of God over

  325. one sinner. Who repents?

  326. We had two baptisms recently. And when that happened, when

  327. Roman and Joseph obeyed, the gospel, the angels rejoiced in

  328. heaven, have you ever considered when you rejoice over someone,

  329. perhaps that's been away and they've drifted and they come

  330. back and sometimes with tear filled eyes were so thankful for

  331. that. And we are rejoicing.

  332. We are ever joyed that the Angels he ever stop to consider

  333. the angels are right there with us rejoicing in heaven.

  334. Over the same thing. They possess emotions.

  335. Here's another great thing to, you know, what they do.

  336. It take to save the paradise. I'm going to tell you.

  337. Sometimes death. Can be a scary thought.

  338. Sometimes that is. When Paul talked about death, he

  339. says, for me to live is Christ but to die is gain.

  340. And what he was saying is he was saying that if I die, it's good

  341. for me to go be with the Lord. But to live is better for Jesus

  342. Christ, so I can keep doing the work on, keep preaching the

  343. gospel. Sometimes death seems like a

  344. really scary thing. I've known people that were so

  345. scared to die. I guess that's a normal thing.

  346. We'll look here in Luke 16 and 22 the rich man and Lazarus.

  347. Beggar the beggar died, Lazarus and was carried by the angels to

  348. Abraham's bosom. The guy that was lost.

  349. He was, he died and he was buried.

  350. But to the saved. I'm going to tell you, I don't

  351. know what it's going to be like but when I draw my last breath,

  352. and it's over for me, I find great comfort.

  353. That I won't be afraid. When you cross the chilly Waters

  354. of death, I won't be afraid. Because somebody's going to be

  355. there. It's going to be an angel.

  356. He's going to bring me to Abraham's bosom.

  357. How's he going to do it? It's going to carry me.

  358. Carried to Abraham's bosom. That's What Angels do.

  359. Wonderful thoughts. I do know this about sometimes,

  360. people have they call it near-death experiences and I'm

  361. going to tell you right now. Here's a disclaimer.

  362. I don't know about any of it. I don't know.

  363. I've no explanation. I just don't But when people say

  364. they died crossed over and come back.

  365. Maybe in their mind, they hallucinated.

  366. The mind is very powerful and strong.

  367. How do I know that? How do I know?

  368. I'm just not making stuff up. Because the Bible says, it is

  369. appointed unto man. How many times once to die?

  370. And then the judgment. Once.

  371. I don't doubt that people have experiences.

  372. I'm just saying you die once. The soul leaves the body and the

  373. saved are carried. Abraham's bosom.

  374. All right, I'm going to give you now to less and I'm not gonna

  375. spend much time under it all because I want to get to what we

  376. all really want to know. Okay, I want to get to what we

  377. all want to know what are they doing for us now?

  378. Okay. Works of Angels in the Old

  379. Testament. I'm just going to read this list

  380. of, we're going to move on to our second part and then we're

  381. going to get to what we really want to know.

  382. In the Old Testament. They informed Abraham and Sarah

  383. of the birth of Isaac Genesis 18.

  384. They destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah and Genesis 19, they

  385. delivered lot and his daughters Genesis 19, they were seen in

  386. Jacobs dream Genesis 28, they gave Moses the law or get, they

  387. gave Moses the law on Mount Sinai and Paul describes that

  388. event in Galatians chapter 3. And verse 19, they LED Israel to

    Galatians 3 chapter mention

  389. the land of promise, Exodus 23, They delivered, Shadrach Meshach

  390. and Abednego from the fiery furnace Daniel 3.

  391. And they shut the mouths of lions and save.

  392. Daniel, Daniel 6, here are just some examples of some works of

  393. Angels in the Old Testament. What about Jesus and the service

  394. of angels An angel notified Zacharias of the birth of John.

  395. The Baptist. Luke chapter 1. one told Mary

    Luke 1 chapter mention

  396. she would bear Jesus, Luke chapter, 11 appeared to Joseph

  397. concerning Jesus, Matthew chapter 1, Angels preached to

    Matthew 1 chapter mention

  398. the shepherd's concerning the birth of Jesus.

  399. Luke chapter two angels, strengthened Jesus.

  400. When he was tempted, Matthew 4, Angels guarded, the Tomb of

  401. Jesus and proclaimed, his resurrection Matthew 28, and

  402. finally Angels proclaimed Jesus coming again, in Acts chapter 1,

    Acts 1 chapter mention

  403. all of these things are things that we know about that, we've

  404. read about, but really, what we want to know is Are they doing

  405. anything for us today? And if so, what is that?

  406. Well, first of all, I don't want to use descriptive phrases.

  407. You cannot read in the Bible, I'm just going to say that in

  408. advance, okay? So I'm not going to use a term

  409. that everybody has heard because it's not in the Bible and what

  410. the term is. Guardian Angels, can't read

  411. that. So I'm not going to use the

  412. words, guardian angels in this lesson.

  413. Guardian Angels is the concept that one Angel is permanently

  414. assigned. To every person you've probably

  415. seen the bumper sticker. Remember the bumper sticker,

  416. don't drive faster than your angel can fly.

  417. And the concept is this the concept or the idea is everybody

  418. gets a guardian angel assigned to them.

  419. And he's going to protect you, he's going to care for you and

  420. protect you. My question is the what happens

  421. sometimes, when somebody's not protected?

  422. What happens when they get in a car accident and they lose their

  423. life and they were protected. What about that?

  424. Did the angel take a day off? Was he not paying attention?

  425. Guardian angels that phrase is not found in the scriptures.

  426. Now what we can read about is the term we're going to use and

  427. that is the term, ministering spirits.

  428. I'm going to notice two examples of what angels have done as

  429. ministering spirits in the Bible, once found in the Old

  430. Testament and it's the Prophet Elijah First Kings chapter 19,

    1 Kings 19 chapter mention

  431. you remember, the story Ahab, told Jezebel all that Elijah had

  432. done. And then with a sword, he killed

  433. all the prophets. And Jezebel is furious.

  434. And Jezebel sends a messenger to Elijah.

  435. And the message is this may the gods, the idolatrous gods, small

  436. G May the gods do to me and even more.

  437. So to me If I don't have what happened to these prophets

  438. happened to you, Elijah. In other words, you're going to

  439. die. The Bible says that Elijah fled

  440. and he ran for his life. He dropped off a servant over

  441. there in Beersheba. And he went a little farther.

  442. In fact, the Bible calls it a Day's Journey.

  443. And the new King James says he sits down under a broom tree and

  444. he prays to God, that he would die.

  445. I'm going to tell you something, folks, I have been discouraged

  446. in my life. I would imagine.

  447. I'm talking to people that have been discouraged before.

  448. According to the Bible passage here, even a fiery man of God

  449. named. Elijah got discouraged.

  450. But I cannot remember one time. When I was so discouraged, I

  451. wanted to die. Elijah needed some help.

  452. Elijah wanted to die. Elijah was discouraged.

  453. First Kings chapter, 19. Notice what happens.

  454. Then as he lay and slept under a broom tree suddenly an angel

  455. touched him. A ministering spirit and Angel

  456. touched him and said to him, arise innate, then he looked and

  457. thereby his head was a cake baked on coals and a jar of

  458. water. So we ate and drank and lay down

  459. again and the angel of the Lord came back the second time and

  460. touched him and said, arise and eat because the journey is too

  461. great for you. So he arose and ate and drank

  462. and he went in the strength of that full food 40 days and 40

  463. nights as As Horeb, the Mountain of God.

  464. He was discouraged, and ministering Spirit came to him.

  465. Another example of the greatest one that ever lived is Jesus

  466. Remember when Jesus was being tempted of the devil, he had

  467. already been baptized by John. The Baptist in Matthew chapter

    Matthew 4 chapter mention

  468. 4, is being tempted in the wilderness by the devil, member

  469. all that. Jesus says this.

  470. Finally, he says away with you Satan, for it is written, you

  471. shall Worship the Lord, your God and him.

  472. Only You Shall Serve You know, what happened next to Matthew 4

  473. and verse 11. Then the devil left him and

  474. behold Angels, Came and ministered to him.

  475. What else? There was another time to

  476. remember that in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus goes to the

  477. Garden of Gethsemane, and he says, in Matthew chapter 26, and

    Matthew 26 chapter mention

  478. 38, he said, my soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto

  479. death, stay here and watch with me. interesting at the darkest

  480. time of his life and what he was about to go through Disciples

  481. slept. They slept.

  482. Jesus says, my soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.

  483. The Bible also says this that his sweat was as it were like

  484. great drops of blood that fell to the ground in agony.

  485. He prays to his father, he said, let this cup pass from me.

  486. Let this cup. He said, father, if it is, your

  487. will take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, not my will but

  488. yours be done. Now, remember this, I preached

  489. this a couple years ago in the last week in the life of Jesus

  490. Jesus you might remember this but when Jesus says, let this

  491. cup pass from me, it has to be more than just a cup of

  492. suffering physically. There were many that were

  493. martyred for their faith. Peter by tradition is told that

  494. he was crucified upside down because he refused to be

  495. crucified like Jesus. So he said, crucify me upside

  496. down. Crucifixion was terrible and

  497. awful and painful and I can't even believe I can't even think

  498. about how bad it would have been.

  499. But there's got to be something else.

  500. The cup has to also include God's Divine wrath for sin.

  501. Jesus, despised The Shame of the Cross to.

  502. And When sin was placed on Jesus, he had to Bear the sins

  503. of the world, he was perfect and sinless in, every way, pure in

  504. every way. And now the darkness of sin was

  505. placed on him even so God turned his face and he was alone.

  506. It has to be that too, has to be included in that.

  507. Finally Jesus says, if there's no other way except I drink it,

  508. then your will be done in Luke 23 and 43.

  509. Look at, look what happens. Then an angel appeared to him

  510. from Heaven. Strengthening him.

  511. What does it mean to be strengthened or strengthening

  512. him? It means made him strong within.

  513. That's what that actually means. That phrase means made him

  514. strong Within All right, you might wonder.

  515. I know. I used to think this I used to

  516. wonder this. What could an angel do for

  517. Jesus? That Jesus being deity, couldn't

  518. do for himself. Well, I'm going to tell you

  519. remember this from a DD standpoint.

  520. Nothing Jesus was the son of God on this Earth as our Messiah was

  521. fully Divine, but he was also the son of man, meaning our

  522. Messiah was fully human from a human standpoint in all of the

  523. agony that he's about to undergo, an angel count, came

  524. and made him strong within to endure.

  525. What he was about to endure. So this ministering Spirit gave

  526. Jesus assistance to Bear the awful hours ahead of him.

  527. He made Jesus strong Within These are just two examples of

  528. ministering. Spirits in the Bible, what they

  529. did, So what about today we go back to Hebrews chapter 1.

    Hebrews 1 chapter mention

  530. But to, which of the angels has he ever said, sit on my right

  531. hand until I make your enemies your footstool, are they not all

  532. ministering Spirits sent forth to minister for those who have

  533. salvation. Okay, the words ministering

  534. Spirit indicates the idea that there are angels, please stay

  535. with me, there are angels in the world whose purpose is to carry

  536. out God's Providence in the lives of those, that inherit

  537. salvation action. Those that inherit salvation.

  538. Now who's that? Who are they That's a faithful

  539. Christian. Whatever they're doing.

  540. They're carrying out God's. Providential care.

  541. Aren't what's Providence? What is it?

  542. Providence is the foreseeing care and guidance of God?

  543. Now, I'm going to tell you right now, if you ask me, how God

  544. takes care of his Providence, I'm going to tell you, I don't

  545. know. If you're going to ask me a

  546. question. Was that coincidence or

  547. Providence? I'm going to say, I don't know.

  548. Somebody said, one time it's probably Providence when you

  549. can't determine whether it was a coincidence or Providence.

  550. I like what Joe hisle says, though, coincidence is

  551. Providence incognito. Nothing happens by happenstance

  552. or chance. I just know that God is in

  553. control and I know that he is. Providential care is always

  554. there in, according to his will, I just know that how does he get

  555. it done? Well, according to this, Angels

  556. are doing something to help him do that.

  557. Those that are Heirs of Salvation.

  558. Iums are said, this angels are among the instruments or

  559. agencies, which God uses in his treatment of and care for his

  560. own then thersites this passage. And when Peter had come to

  561. himself, he said, now I know for certain that the Lord has sent

  562. his Angel and has delivered me from the hand of Herod.

  563. And from all the expectation of Of the Jewish people, all right.

  564. God uses them how he does that? I don't know.

  565. I just know that he does, because that's what it said, but

  566. there are two points of clarification of two phrases.

  567. We got to talk about, okay? And that is number one, the

  568. phrase we shall judge. Angels, what does that mean?

  569. I read so much from different commentators on that and it's

  570. interesting. All the varying interpretations

  571. of that. One commentator said, well, what

  572. is talking about is talking about judging Fallen Angels, the

  573. bad, Wicked ones, and gave a whole lot of reasons for that.

  574. Another said, no, it's judging the righteous angels and gave a

  575. whole lot of reasons for that. Well, how's that for a definite,

  576. maybe? What's he actually talking

  577. about? When it says, judge Angels.

  578. Well, let's notice in 1st Corinthians chapter 6 and verse

  579. 3. Paul says, do you not know that

  580. we know who's we Christians? We shall judge Angels.

  581. How much more things that pertain to this life, okay?

  582. Here it says that we are going to judge Angels.

  583. If we go back to verse 2, okay? Remember there's a context and

  584. there's a reason Paul wrote what he wrote was talking about going

  585. to the law against of brother. Don't do that first Corinthians

  586. 6. Okay, let's go back to verse 2

  587. in verse 2. It says that Saints or

  588. Christians will judge the world. I thought Jesus was going to be

  589. the judge. He is incidentally, Jesus is

  590. your savior now. But when time shall be no more,

  591. he won't be the Savior. He'll be the judge.

  592. Jesus is the judge so you and I that are Christians.

  593. We won't have any part of judging the world in that day.

  594. The Lord will do that. So what's it mean to judge?

  595. The world. It means this.

  596. It means that we judge the world in the sense of warning the

  597. world about coming judgment. This comes from teaching God's

  598. word and also by our righteous example, the life of a

  599. Christian, the word judge in verse two, very important.

  600. It actually means to pronounce an opinion concerning, right and

  601. wrong. That's the judging we're talking

  602. about people. People said don't judge, don't

  603. judge the Bible never said though, judge says judge with

  604. righteous judgment. You know, a Paul saying is Paul

  605. says you that are Christians can judge the World by what by

  606. pronouncing, or by coming up with an opinion of what's right

  607. or wrong. How am I going to know that?

  608. My opinion, no, by the word of God, I can know what's right and

  609. wrong and by my Godly life, my example.

  610. That's how you judge the world. Not that we're going to sit in

  611. Judgment at the end. So that's judging in verse 2.

  612. But to know about judging, in verse 3, about judging angels,

  613. we have to go to another passage.

  614. We have to go to Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 5.

    Hebrews 2 chapter mention

  615. For he has not put the world to come of which we speak in.

  616. Subjection to Angels. Remember when I said that the

  617. Bible describes the angels, as God's Mighty angels, and I said

  618. that they were limited but they're greater than man.

  619. I said there are superior to man, but inferior to God, right?

  620. Okay, what's beautiful, is what the Hebrew writer is saying?

  621. He has not put the world to come?

  622. That's after this life. After the resurrection, that's

  623. in heaven. He has not put the world to come

  624. in, subjection to angels. That means I will not be in

  625. subjection to Angels. and neither will you, if you're

  626. saved and you go to heaven, The judging Angels means this.

  627. Angels will be in subjection to us as we are connected to Jesus

  628. Christ. Remember when we said about, The

  629. innumerable multitude in heaven Before the Throne, and the lamb

  630. and God's going to be there. All that memorable life.

  631. Beautiful point though. Who's going to know the song?

  632. The song of the redeemed, the song of the Lamb.

  633. It's those that are in the body, those that are in Jesus Christ,

  634. those that are in the church, So angels will be in subjection to

  635. us then as we are connected to Jesus Christ.

  636. What else? Okay, here's another one.

  637. What does this mean? Entertaining, Angels on.

  638. Oh, where's All right. I've heard people say my whole

  639. life will you know after all After all, we just don't know.

  640. We may be entertaining an angel unawares.

  641. So I got to do good to everybody, or for everybody, I

  642. got to do that because who knows?

  643. It may be an angel. Is that the point.

  644. Let's notice the passage in Hebrews chapter 13, and verse to

    Hebrews 13 chapter mention

  645. do not forget to entertain strangers.

  646. That's the point for in doing. So notice some is the new King

  647. James have unwittingly entertained, angels, Now, notice

  648. does it say that you may entertain Angels know.

  649. It says some have in the past unwittingly entertained angels.

  650. let me tell you about the some Two examples.

  651. I just gave it to about Abraham. In Genesis Chapter 18 verses 1

    Genesis 18:1–3

  652. through 3. Entertaining Angels unawares.

  653. How about lot in Genesis 19? Verses 1 and 2?

  654. Entertaining Angels unawares. What's the whole point, folks?

  655. The point is not this. It is not.

  656. So that we are extending Hospitality to somebody because

  657. the greatest thing we could possibly do is entertain an

  658. Angel. That's not what that means.

  659. I think it means this, you never know the far reaches of

  660. goodness, that can come from helping somebody else.

  661. You just don't know the example, the act of kindness The work of

  662. a Christian you have no idea. You never know.

  663. Jesus wasn't concerned with hey by the way get ready to

  664. entertain Angel. This is what Jesus said.

  665. Matthew 25 and 40 and the King will answer and say to them

  666. assuredly I say to you in. As much as you did it to one of

  667. the least of these my brethren, you did it unto me.

  668. So we're not to be looking for those that are angels because

  669. all we got to do is talk about what he said.

  670. We have to do it to the least of these, my brethren What else?

  671. The flip side of that verse 45, then he will answer them saying,

  672. assuredly, I say to you in, as much as you did it, not to one

  673. of the least of these, you did it not unto me.

  674. So, We're not going to entertain.

  675. I don't believe. I don't believe that we're going

  676. to entertain a person that's actually an angel.

  677. I don't think that's what he means.

  678. I don't think that's what he said.

  679. What I think it means is this as some unknowingly entertained,

  680. angels. You have no idea that you might

  681. entertain somebody and some great good can come.

  682. And you have no idea how good that might be.

  683. I think that's the context. I think that's the point.

  684. And again, I want to stick to what we can do and not

  685. speculate. All right, in conclusion.

  686. What about the work of Angels in the future?

  687. Well, the Bible says that they're going to return with

  688. Jesus in flaming fire. In 1st Thessalonians 4:16.

  689. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven.

  690. With a shout with a voice of the Archangel and with the trumpet

  691. of God and the dead in Christ will rise.

  692. First at the resurrection somebody's going to shout,

  693. that's the Lord and then it says with the voice of the Archangel

  694. with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

  695. So they're going to be part of the future.

  696. Second Thessalonians, chapter 1, verses 7 and 8 and to give you

    2 Thessalonians 1:7

  697. who are troubled rest with it with it with us.

  698. When the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty

  699. angels, in flaming fire taking Vengeance on those who do not

  700. know God. And on those who do not obey the

  701. gospel of our Lord, Jesus Christ, they're going to assist

  702. the Lord in that. And finally, one more passage,

  703. one more passage in Matthew chapter 13.

    Matthew 13 chapter mention

  704. Beginning at verse 43. The son of man will send out his

  705. angels. And they will gather out of his

  706. kingdom, all things that offend those that practice lawlessness

  707. and will cast them into the furnace of fire, there will be

  708. wailing and gnashing of teeth who's going to do that.

  709. The Lord will send his angels to do that.

  710. But then I love this, then the righteous will shine forth as

  711. the sun in the Kingdom of their father.

  712. He who has ears to hear, Let Him hear.

  713. I love that phrase and the righteous will shine forth.

  714. Folks, I'll tell you, there's a lot of stuff about angels that I

  715. just don't know. But I do think they're

  716. ministering spirits to help carry out the Providence of God.

  717. How God does that? I don't know.

  718. But maybe it's okay not to know. Maybe looking through the eye of

  719. faith is even better when you can't explain it.

  720. But, you know what happens in that better.

  721. Without faith. It's impossible to please God,

  722. just because I may not have all the answers to line it out and

  723. you may not either, doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

  724. Doesn't mean that God's not in control and that doesn't mean

  725. that he's using his mighty angels to carry out, his

  726. providential care. Even today, I'm finished.

  727. Thank you so much for your kind listening, been a wonderful

  728. audience and I appreciate that greatly We never close a time

  729. that we teach them God's word without extending an invitation

  730. to somebody that might be subject to the gospel call.

  731. Are you here today? You're not a Christian If you're

  732. not a Christian, you can become one today.

  733. Come believing in Jesus. Repent of your sins confess, his

  734. name as the Son of God, say, I believe that Jesus Christ is the

  735. Son of God and be baptized in water for the remission of sins.

  736. Maybe you've taken those steps, maybe you've drifted away, what?

  737. A great time we come back. Be one of either Class come when

  738. we stand and what we're seeing. We thank you for listening to

  739. our podcast, put on by the Church of Christ at 22:15 plans.

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  746. We would love for you to be our honored guest.