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Well, again, it's good to see everyone here tonight. It's always great to have to pull out extra tables and chairs, that's always encouraging. And for those of you who are relatively new with us, or maybe tonight's your first night, we have been in a long study of systematic theology.
Systematic theology is where we take the subjects of the Bible, God, the Trinity, the person and work of Jesus Christ, the person and work of the Holy Spirit, and we look at those subjects in a manner which is expository, meaning we go to the scripture and we seek to pull out from the scripture what the scripture says about those particular subjects.
And we just happen to be at this time on the subject of angels. Not every systematic theology deals with angels. In fact, I have several books on systematic theology. Some are on my desk, some are on my shelf, some are on my computer.
And as I was preparing for this portion of this lecture series, I went and started pulling out the books, which ones have angels and which ones don't. And not all of them did, but most of them did. And so I felt like I didn't wanna skip on past this part.
And I'm glad I didn't because it seems as if there has been some interest. Thank you, brother. Seems as if there has been some interest in this subject. And I wanted to share it by way of just a personal testimony, something that happened to me when I was in seminary.
And no, I didn't see an angel, but I was very intrigued. I was in class one day and the professor told a story he said there was a man in the hospital who had had a vision of angels. Now, I don't know what this professor was thinking, telling a group of young men.
And he said, the man is in the hospital and he gave us his name. So as soon as class was over, I drove to the hospital because I wanted to hear this man's story. He didn't know me from Adam. And it was an awkward moment.
When I walked in and I said, please tell me your angel story. But it just goes to show how intriguing this whole subject can be. It can be one that is just absolutely enamoring for our soul because the Bible is very clear.
We talked about this last week. The Bible is very clear that angels exist. In fact, we're going to see in the course of this study that it's also clear that we do engage with angels sometimes without even knowing it.
And we take some things for granted. Again, if you're here for the first time, one of the things we take for granted in this church is that the Bible is true. The Bible is the word of God. It's inerrant.
It is infallible. It is the inspired word of God. And so if the Bible says angels exist, we believe that. We don't have to wonder. We don't have to think about it. We don't have to consider whether or not that's true.
We simply take that for granted. Now, I've taught other classes on why we believe the Bible's true, but that's not the subject for the evening. The subject for the evening is simply to say, because the Bible is true and we do believe that it's true, we don't have to wonder about the existence of angels.
In fact, as I mentioned in our course study last week, that is a big deal because people have stopped believing in the supernatural. People have stopped believing. In fact, you ask somebody if they believe in God, oh yeah, but then you begin to dig a little deeper.
And what they believe about God is usually very naturalistic. How did men come about? Were they special creations? No, they came about through evolutionary process. What happens to, are men's lives governed by Almighty God?
No, they're governed by chance and random situations. You know, that's a naturalistic worldview that's trying to fit its way into a theistic one. I want to believe in God, but I don't want to believe that he has anything to do with the universe.
I don't want to believe that he has anything to do with my life. And I certainly don't want to believe that he has anything to do with judgment. Maybe he'll bring me to heaven and that's the hope, but I don't want to invest anything.
Beloved, that's not Christianity. In fact, that's not even theism. There's a word for that. It's called deism. Deism is the belief that there is a God who created the universe, but that he simply is divorced from what is going on in the universe.
He's disinterested regarding the universe. He, as it were, started the world spinning like a top, and he just stepped back and he's watching it spin. And one day it's going to spin out like a top might eventually cease to spin.
And that's deism. And I think that's what a lot of people want. They want the idea that there's a God, but they don't want any accountability. They certainly don't want any judgment, and they don't want anyone against whom they have to be responsible, or with whom they have to be responsible.
So deism is very tempting, but the Bible doesn't teach any such thing. The Bible teaches that God exists, and it teaches that he has created angels. Now, I want to give you the blanks because some of you are, tonight's your first night here, and I know sitting there with blanks on your page, it can be rather disconcerting in your mind.
So if you weren't here last week, the first three blanks are as such. Under the existence of angels, the first is that the Bible assumes their existence. The Bible assumes their existence. It never tries to prove they exist.
It simply assumes it. It's the same way with God. It just says in the beginning, God. It doesn't try to prove God's existence. It simply assumes that he does exist. The Bible describes their creation.
And again, if you weren't here last week, you can get the audio recordings for this. If you're interested, it does describe their creation. They are not glorified human beings. This is something I didn't mention last week.
It was in my notes, but I just overlooked it. A lot of people think that when you die, you become an angel. There is no biblical warrant for that. There is no biblical, and you'll hear people say, oh, this person gained his wings, or this person gained her wings.
And I understand that that's a platitude. That is a sympathetic statement that's trying to bring some kind of softness to a hard situation, and I understand the need for that. But you'll notice when I prayed earlier, what did I pray against?
Platitudes. As I was thinking about those parents who lost their child, the last thing they need is people to come up and say to them things that are just not true. You know, and people do that all the time.
And in an attempt to try to be comforting, they're often very, very untrue statements that are made. They say, well, what does it matter? Oh, it matters a lot. The truth matters. I had a guy, well, I don't wanna get into it.
But let's be careful. I had a guy, always gets dangerous, because I have a lot of guys say a lot of crazy stuff. People say a lot of crazy things to me. I think I must have it on my face. Is it this face?
People just come and say stuff. And so we'll just leave that be. But angels are not glorified human beings. They had a special, they had a time of creation. This is described in many passages, Psalm 148, Colossians 1, several other passages.
But the Bible is silent as to when they were created. We don't know when. We don't know when they were created. We just know that they were. Some passages seem to indicate they were created prior to the creation of the world.
We talked about that last week. This is Job 38. Other passages would seem to indicate that the world was first, and then the angels came. And again, I don't argue the when. I just simply say this. We know that angels exist.
We know they had a beginning. They are not eternal beings like God. God says this very specific thing in the book of Isaiah. I am God, and there is no other. I am God, and there is none like me. Before me, there was no God formed, and there will be no God formed after me.
God is absolutely unique. He is eternal. He is eternally existing. He is self-existent, and he is without cause. Nothing caused God. You ever had in your children, there's a blessing. They'll say, well, if God made everything, who made God?
And that's a legitimate question that you have to answer, and the question is, God is not made. Because God is not created, he is creator. He is the source of everything, angels included. He is the source even of the angels.
Well, tonight, we're gonna look at the nature of angels. That was my rehashing of what we did last week. We're gonna now move to the nature of angels. And by nature, I mean, what kind of beings are they?
You'll remember, we looked at the nature of Jesus, and we said, what kind of being is Jesus? Jesus is God in the flesh. He is the second person of the Trinity. He is the God-man. He is, the Latin is vera homo, vera deus.
He is truly God, truly man. And so Jesus is unique. The Holy Spirit is truly God. And so we have one God who exists in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. By nature, they all share the essence of God.
And they interrelate and have a relationship within the Trinity. That's the nature of God. That is not the nature of angels. So tonight we're gonna look at the nature of angels. Well, the first thing we see on our sheet, to fill in the blank, is that angels are personal beings.
They are personal beings. I'll put that up. Is this a, did this not come from, you didn't see it? Right out of the box. This brand new? Right out of the box. It's no good. I hate that. I won't send you again.
I hate that. I feel like a heel sending you back. Angels are personal beings. Now, what do we mean by that? Well, if you remember, for those of you who were here, when we studied the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, we said one of the things that we needed to understand about the Holy Spirit is that he is personal.
A lot of people think the Holy Spirit is like a force, like electricity. But the Holy Spirit is never, never in scripture is the pronoun it ascribed to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is always given the pronoun he.
Always with the pronoun of person. Never with the pronoun of in-person. If I say it is a book, I wouldn't say it is a Cody, right? I would say he is a Cody, right? Because there's a difference between a book and a person.
There's a difference between a lectern and you. And the difference is person, right? When we talk about the angels, they are always given the idea of personality. They're always described as person, not simply in or it or impersonal.
They're never considered to be impersonal beings. Thank you, brother. I appreciate it. It was, yes, I think that's what it was. I think, oh yeah, now I'm cooking with gas now. Okay, all right, so does anybody remember the three ways that we note personality in a being other than the fact that they are considered by the personal pronoun of he or she?
Was there, there were three ways that we identify personality. Do you remember what those three things were? Yes, yeah, very good, very good. Holler it out when you know, yes. The first one is intellect.
What's the next one? Emotion, all right, so there's a third one. Who's gonna remember that one? As we said, we said personality is made up typically in intellect, emotion, and will, will. Now, we're not talking about free will.
That's another conversation. But the will, the desire, the ability to want or to will to do, right? Angels are shown to have intellect. I'll give you a passage for that, Matthew chapter 28 and verse five.
It says, the angel said to the woman, do not be afraid for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. Notice the angel knows what she wants. He has intellect, he has understanding, he has information.
I know you're looking for Jesus. This is after the resurrection. I know what you want. So he knows, that's a statement of intellect. First Peter 112, it was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves, but you and the things that have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.
Now, that particular passage, again, you might wanna write it down. First Peter 112, it's interesting because it basically says this. It says, when it comes to the things of salvation, angels wanna know.
They long to look at those things. Remember what I said about angels last week? The difference between man and angel is that angels do not have the opportunity for redemption. The angels that fell do not get a savior.
Mankind fell. God sent his son, born of a woman, born under the law, that he would redeem those who were under the law and give them the adoption as sons. That's the savior of the world, Jesus Christ.
Angels do not have a savior. There are elect angels and there are fallen angels, but there is no saved angel in the sense that gone from one position to another. No angel gets saved. So I think First Peter 112, when it says angels long to look at our salvation, I think that they're interested in it.
They're intrigued by the reality of our own experience of receiving redemption. See, we go from lost to saved. We go from the wretched to the righteous, and they are experiencing that, they are seeing that.
They're learning, they have intellect, they long to know. They have emotions. Job 38, verse seven says, when the morning star sang together, they shouted for joy. This is actually talking about creation.
It says the angels shouted for joy when God created the world. That's one of the reasons why I believe maybe angels were created prior to the world because they were shouting for joy when the world was created.
And remember we talked about last week, it could have been concurrent, like it was one right after the other and there wasn't really a distinct amount of time, but we know this, they were joyous and joy is a form of emotional expression, right?
So if we are correct to say that personality is defined by intellect, emotion, and will, we've seen them express intellect. They know and they wanna know. We've seen them express emotion, joy, and also when Jesus was born, the heavenly hosts, glory to God in the highest and peace on earth and goodwill toward men, right?
I always, interestingly, Patsy Hoffman, she always made a big deal about the fact, everybody says they sang glory to God in the highest, but the text doesn't say that. It says they said it. If you go back and look at it, they didn't sing.
She always pointed that out. I just remember that just now. But still, it was an expression. Glory to God in the highest is an expression. Now the issue of will, the issue of will. How do we know that angels express the concept of will?
And again, we're not talking tonight about the bondage of the will or free will versus determinate will and all those things. We're gonna talk about that a lot later when we get to anthropology and the subject of sin and how sin affects our will.
But I will say this about the will. You've got one. If you're lost tonight, your will is in bondage to sin. And if you are saved tonight, you are saved because God took you out of bondage. He took your dastardly will and he removed from your heart the heart of stone and he gave you a heart of flesh and he changed your will.
The Bible says, my people will be made willing in the day of my power. God changed your heart. So the will is there. But before we get saved, our will is corrupt. That's the point. So with angels, how do we know they have a will?
Because some of them fell. That's right, if you just wanna text for this, it's Jude, and by the way, Jude only has one chapter, so it's Jude verse six, Jude 1, six. And the angels who did not stay with their own position of authority but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day.
That's talking about the fall of angels. Revelation talks about the great dragon who took with him a third of the stars of heaven. Now we don't know for certain, but it seems to be indicating that when Satan fell, he had influenced a great number of the multitude of God's angels up to and including a third of them.
We don't know how many there are, but there's a multitude. And that's where we get the concept of the fallen angel or the demon. So we're gonna talk about, we're moving from angelology to demonology next, so we'll talk more about this later.
But the concept of intellect, emotion, and will is proof positive of personality. Angels have it. They are not its. They are they's. I'm trying to figure out a way to make that sentence work. They're not impersonal.
They are personal. And with that being said, they're also always identified in the masculine. Angels are always identified in the masculine. Every time you see an angel on a Christmas tree, it's a girl.
Every time. Or a little baby. Or it's a baby, yeah. But you almost always see angels identified as female. And not that it really matters in the grand scheme of things because they're asexual beings. They're not producing.
So in the sense of sexuality, it's not about that. But there is, it seems, within the world, a demasculinization of the world, an attempt to try to make everything masculine bad and to remove the positive nature of masculinity.
There's Bibles that are coming out that have removed any masculine pronoun for God. Now God is, some of them, God is she. Those are the very liberal ones. But some, it's just God is it. Again, making it impersonal pronoun.
But God is never called it. He is always identified by the masculine he. Angels also identified by the masculine he. Always. You'll never, you will not find in Scripture a female angel. And again, they're asexual, but the point is simply to be made, they're personal.
Never identified as it. So angels are personal beings. Number two, or letter B, angels are spiritual beings. So we see angels are personal beings. Angels are spiritual beings. They exist as spirits, not with material bodies.
Hebrews 1 .14 talks about them being ministering spirits, sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation. They are called ministering spirits. Now, I wanna talk about this for a minute because I think it's important that we realize something.
When I say the word spirit, oftentimes we bring a lot of baggage to that word. If you are a person who didn't grow up in church, you might hear the word spirit and think about the word of something like a ghost, right?
Even in the Bible, in the old King James Bible, what do we call the Holy Spirit? The Holy Ghost, right? And so that word is common to equate spirit and ghost. And the word spirit means what? Who remembers?
When we studied the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, what does the word spirit mean? Air. That's right. The word pneuma in Greek, it's where we get the word pneumatic in English, like a pneumatic tool, like you might use a pneumatic wrench.
It means air or wind or breath. Why is the word pneuma or air, wind or breath used to describe angels or the Holy Spirit? Because they are not material beings. Can you grab the wind? Can you catch air?
Now you might say, well, I can catch air in a jar or something. But seriously, you can catch a ball, you can catch a fish, but you cannot catch the wind because it doesn't have a material substance that you can wrap your hands around and get ahold of.
There's no purchase on air. There's no way to purchase on wind, understand? And so when the Bible describes a being as a spiritual being, then what it is saying is that that being is not material, not material.
In fact, I wanna just give you like a little chart here. In the world, we have the material and the immaterial. So we have the, make sure I'm spelling it right. We have the material and the immaterial.
What constitutes the material world? Everything that you can measure, right? It's a see, taste, touch, smell. What's the last one? I missed, there's five senses. See, thank you, thank you. Yeah, I knew I was missing one.
So you have the material world is what science deals with, right? I mean, honestly, what do scientists do? They spend their time categorizing the material world. All science is taxonomy. Taxonomy is the scientific process of putting things into categories.
And all science is putting things into categories, right? They create lists. So this is this, and this is not this. Because we've tested it, this does this, and this doesn't do this. So we put all things into categories.
And so material world is all things that can be touched, tasted, that can be smelt, can be heard, can be seen. This is the material world. And then we have the immaterial world. The material world is everything that we would call natural.
Everything that we would call natural. Now, I wanna make a quick note. The natural world, by itself, is still not really natural in the sense that it didn't come about on its own. So when I say natural, I don't mean self-becoming, right?
Because a lot of people believe that. They think the natural world came about naturally in the sense that it came about without a creator, simply happened, right? That's not what I mean. What I mean is the natural world is the material world.
So that would mean the immaterial world is the? Supernatural, thank you. Yeah, it's the supernatural world. Now, again, we're using words here that have so much baggage. When I say supernatural, you think television shows, Superman, you know, you think some kind of a ghost or something, right?
When I say supernatural, you're thinking all of these things that connect in our mind. What does the Bible, what language does the Bible use? The Bible doesn't use the word material and immaterial. The Bible doesn't use the word natural and supernatural.
What does the Bible use? Anybody know? Spirit and flesh. Yes, but I'm thinking, I'm not saying you're wrong, but I'm thinking a little different. Visible and invisible. That's the language the Bible uses.
The natural world is called the visible world. And the supernatural world is invisible. I'll give you a few verses to think about with that. Romans 1 20 tells us God has invisible attributes. It says we know God's invisible attributes by what he did visibly.
It says when we look out at the world around us, God's invisible attributes are seen through what has been made. We learn about this because of this when it comes to God. What do we know about God's creativity when we look at the world around us?
He's immensely creative because he created this world that's so immensely different, has such a vast array of beautiful colors and different array. Every one of you is absolutely unique. Your DNA and everything is absolutely unique.
You know, you hear people say you're one in a million and a world of 7 billion, that's not great. That means there's 100 ,000 just like you. No, you're one in 7 billion. Nobody's like you, Andy. Okay, yeah.
That is the visible showing God's invisible character. That's Romans 1 20. Colossians, I want you to see this one. Go to Colossians 1 and verse 15. Colossians 1 15, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, you know, General Electric Power Company.
That's how you get there. Okay, I'll just help you get there. All right, so Colossians 1 verse 15. This is speaking about Jesus. It says, he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation for by him, all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him.
That is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. As creator, he created everything, both that which is seen, the natural, and that which is unseen, the supernatural, the visible and the invisible. So when we ask the question, what is a spirit being?
It is a being that exists in a invisible or a state of being that's not natural to us. They have a different constitution. They are constituted differently than we are. Now, having said that, that tells us a few things about them.
They are spirit beings, but they can make themselves visible. What happened at the resurrection? The women came to the tomb and they saw, what did they saw? What? What did they see? They said they saw a man, right?
Some, depending on the, depending on who's telling the story, whether it's Matthew, Mark, or Luke, sometimes it's two men, but it's always a vision of a person, right? But in dazzling apparel. So the angel had the ability to make himself known or themselves, if it was multiple, which it certainly was because the Bible tells us there's multiple appearances.
So they have the ability to come into the natural, but they're not becoming incarnate. That's key. Only Jesus took on flesh. Angels have the appearance of flesh, but they do not become man. They simply take on the appearance of man.
That's important because the incarnation is absolutely unique. Only one virgin birth, only one Jesus Christ, only one God man. There's not a bunch of angelic men. They look like men, but they're not men.
Remember the two men who came to eat with Abram and Yahweh under the trees of the oaks at Mamre? And then those two men made a journey to a city. What was the name of the city? Sodom. What happened at the city of Sodom?
Those men looked like men, and they looked appealing to the men of Sodom. And the men of Sodom wanted to have relations with them, according to the text of scripture. And they wanted to be with these men.
That's what, they looked enough like men that they were appealing. I don't wanna go into the whole of the account, but we know that there was great judgment that happened as a result. But the point is they looked enough like men to make other men who had twisted minds want to be with them.
So angels have the ability to look like men, but they're not men. Say it again, brother. Yeah, and we're gonna, I'm actually getting there in a minute because we're gonna talk about cherubs and seraphs.
Since we're out of time, we probably won't get to it tonight, but I really want to. We gotta keep going. Get you another cup of coffee. Come right back. I really, at least I could get through these three.
But two other things real quick. Number one, because they're spirit beings, the scripture says they do not reproduce. I already said they're asexual. You want the verse for that, it's Mark 12, 25. It simply says they're neither married nor given in marriage, but they're like the angels of heaven who neither marry nor are given in marriage.
When you die, this is one way that you will be like an angel. According to scripture, when you die, you're no longer married. Your significant other becomes your brother or sister in Christ. I have a sign in my bedroom.
I made it for my wife. I do a little woodwork and I had my router and I routed out the words onto a sign. And the sign says this. It says, I know we can't be married in heaven, but can I sit next to you when we get there?
I like my wife. I would like to be able to be with her in heaven, but our relationship will be different. We won't have a reproducing romantic relationship, but we will have a relationship that is first with Christ and then with each other as brothers and sisters in Christ.
So that, again, is like angels. They don't reproduce. Angels were made all at once and the number of angels is fixed. They're not creating more angels by virtue of the sexual process as man does. They also do not die.
It's just Luke 20 and verse, I have the passage here, Luke 20 and 36 says they cannot die anymore because they're equal to the angels in heaven. So it just simply reminds us that angels don't die. They're spirit beings.
They don't have the same limitations as the natural being, the natural man. All right, if you'll grant me just another minute or two, I'll finish this and at least we'll have gotten three of these. The last one on here under the nature of angels and the next week we will look at the ministry of angels.
Last one under the nature of angels is that they are organized and ranked. Organized and ranked. You say, what does that mean? Well, the Bible uses language of organization when it talks about the hosts of heaven and God's armies.
Remember what did Jesus say to Pontius Pilate when he was brought before him? I could bring down a legion of angels if I wanted to, but also it talks about rank when it refers to Michael in Jude nine as the arch angel.
Arch being a position of authority, a high position. If you've heard of arch bishop, that means the highest bishop. Well, the same way with arch or arch angel. Michael has a position. In fact, Michael's position in scripture is so high that some people have assumed that he is Jesus.
The Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Michael, who is mentioned in the Old Testament as the arch angel, is the incarnate or Jesus is the incarnation of the angel Michael. The Bible does not teach that.
The Bible teaches that Michael is an angel. Jesus is God in the flesh. There is a difference in the nature of being. However, still keep in mind that there is an arch angel position. It's given to Michael.
And I think scripture doesn't say it. So this is where I'm gonna get dangerous. I always look over at Andy, because I'm like, you're gonna throw a rock at me. I love my elders. We have so much fun. I think Gabriel has a position of prominence.
Wouldn't you say? He is noted as being a special messenger of God. He spoke to Mary and is in other places as God's messenger. Whether or not he carries the rank of arch angel or arch angel, I've not seen that in scripture.
If you show it to me, I'd be happy to correct myself, but I didn't find that rank attributed to him. But there are in Daniel chapter 10 called chief princes. And so lends again the idea of rank among the angels, chiefs and arch angels.
And so I would like to at least think that Gabriel is among God's special messengers, used of God to do what God has commanded him to do. Now, there are two classes of angels that I'm gonna wait and talk about next week, because they're so important and so valuable that I don't wanna just run through them.
And that is the angels called the seraphim, which are mentioned in Isaiah chapter six, and the cherubim, which are mentioned in Genesis three and in Ezekiel. And I would encourage you, read Isaiah six this week.
I think it's one through nine. It's the passage where he sees the Lord in his temple and he sees the seraphim. And I want you to just take note of what the Bible describes about those heavenly angels who are surrounding the throne of God, whose day and night proclamation is this, holy, holy, holy.
So read that and that'll prepare us for the introduction to next week's lesson as we look at those two classes of angels. All right, let's pray. Father, I thank you for this time. Lord, I pray that this has been helpful, not just for information's sake, but Lord, a reminder of the supernatural nature of you and your angels, and the fact that every one of us has a soul.
Every one of us has a part of us that's going to live on after we die. And that that soul, Lord, is either going to live in a place of torment and hell, or it's going to live in a place of comfort with you.
And that is based on whether or not we have received the Lord Jesus Christ as our savior and our Lord. Father, I pray for the men and women here. Lord, if there are those here who have not received Lord, have not received Jesus as Lord, Lord, I pray that they would be struck in their soul, that they would be discomforted in their spirit, and that they would want to reach out to you, to call upon the name of the Lord, and know that today is the day of salvation.
There is no promise of tomorrow for any of us. Lord, may it be that we come to you in faith before our time has ended. But we know, Lord, that is something only you can do. Change the heart of man. We know the leopard cannot change his spots.
Only the Lord can change a man's heart. Lord, change us. Lord, draw us. Lord, save us in Christ's name. Amen. What God said, saying that the fire had been contained. Oh, praise God.