Angelology

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I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Hebrews.
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We are in chapter 13.
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I wanted to kind of give you a little bit of a heads up about some things that are coming in the next few weeks.
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We are going to do a three-part series on angels starting today, going to next week and then the week after.
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Then I will be out for a week.
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I have a training course that I have to go and do.
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Byron is going to be preaching on propitiation, which will be good.
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That is a subject that needs often to be expressed upon.
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In August, I am going to be doing a four-part series on Reformed Theology.
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It is partially in response to the recent statements that have been put out by the SBC.
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The elders had a meeting this week and feel like it is something that needs to be addressed.
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We are going to take a little bit of a step away from Hebrews in the month of August.
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Just be ready for that.
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Know that it is coming.
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We will be doing angels in the next few weeks.
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Again, I wanted to begin this morning by reminding you what we talked about last week.
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In Hebrews 13, verse 2, the subject of angels is introduced in a very unique way.
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In a way that I think is very powerful because it tells us something about how we live in this world.
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That we actually live in a world which is influenced and is visited by beings that are not of this world.
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But are actually heavenly, angelic beings.
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Something I mentioned last week is that it is not really the focus of the text.
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The focus of Hebrews 13, verse 2 is...
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How many of you remember? What is the focus of the text? Hospitality.
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Paying attention.
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Very good.
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The focus of Hebrews 13, verse 2 is hospitality.
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And it uses the references to angelic visitation as a reasoning behind why we should always be hospitable.
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Always be willing to open up our homes to one another.
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To demonstrate love to one another.
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Because we never know how we are ministering in the economy of God.
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We may even be ministering to an angel.
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As the approach of this text.
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The text is telling us, do not ever hold back hospitality.
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You do not know who it is that is at your door.
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You do not know who it is that is coming into your home.
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You do not know who it is that you may be ministering to.
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And what did I say last week? It may be an angel or it may even more importantly be a saint of God.
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It might be one of God's people that you are ministering to.
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It might not be a heavenly angel.
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But it might be a saint of God that you are ministering to.
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And that is sort of the attitude of the passage.
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It is about hospitality.
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However, angels are mentioned.
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And they are mentioned in a very unique and very powerful way in this text.
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So, as I said, I am taking an aside.
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This is sort of my, you know, one of the pastor's prerogatives.
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I get to focus on things sometimes.
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And this is a subject that is very rarely dealt with in the church.
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Particularly today in a very modernistic world.
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We have gotten away from the discussion of the supernatural.
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We try to find a scientific explanation for everything.
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And we try to find a way of measuring everything.
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And we have gotten away from the discussion of that which is outside of the measurable, natural, you know, sight, seeing, hearing, touching, feeling.
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All these things that we measure by our senses.
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And we have gotten away from the very clear spiritual things that the Bible discusses.
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And the Bible gives us as things that we need to know about.
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Because these things have influence in our world.
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Does anybody in here want to take a moment to try to deny that there is demonic influence in the world? Yeah, I don't think anybody here would even attempt to deny that we see demonic influence all over the world.
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Well, there is also angelic influence in the world.
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And this three-part series, by the way, we are going to deal with all three.
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We are going to deal with angels today.
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Next week it is going to be on Satan himself.
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And then we are going to talk about demons.
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And that is the sphere of angelology.
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It looks at it from the good, from the bad, and then also the very worst, who is Satan himself.
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So, let's begin by reading the text together as we always do.
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It is standing to give honor and reverence to the Word of God.
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And we will read this passage and then pray that God lead us in a fruitful study of it.
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Hebrews 13 and verse 2 says, Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
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Father, I thank You for Your Word.
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I thank You for the truth of Your Word.
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I thank You that every word in this book is true and from Your lips.
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It has been breathed out by You.
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And Father, it can be trusted.
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I pray that You will move on us this morning to a fruitful study.
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I pray that You will keep me from error.
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I pray that this would minister to the hearts of Your people and reassure them, Lord, that You love us and care about us so much that You have even assigned to us, Lord, these angelic beings, these unseen beings that have influence in this world and are busily going about and ministering and bringing about Your will.
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We thank You, Lord, for all that You do.
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And we praise You and thank You for all that You're going to do in this service.
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In Jesus' name, Amen.
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One of the very first issues that people often have when they're discussing angels is the fact that the Bible, even though it mentions angels on many occasions, doesn't really say a whole lot about them, even though it mentions them.
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It mentions them sort of in an assuming way as if to just sort of, you know, and the angel said or the angel did.
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It doesn't really explain much about who they are or what they are.
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And it's one of the more difficult things.
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In fact, as I mentioned last week, Billy Graham spent time many, many years ago and he wrote a book on angels.
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It's one of the, you know, a Christian bestseller.
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Many people have it in their library.
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Many pastors have it on their shelves.
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But one of the things he said in the book, and I think it was kind of profound, but simple but profound, he said when he began, when he decided, what started the book was he decided to preach a sermon on angels and he went to his library to find information and there wasn't anything there.
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He said, when I went in to look for information on this subject, it was just there wasn't hardly anything that had been really written about this subject.
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And I've got to be honest with you.
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I'm sure there are things out there that have been written.
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But in comparison to other aspects of theology, such as the Trinity, which has had, you know, volumes written on it, or the deity of Christ, volumes written on it, or, you know, the anthropology of, you know, sinful nature of man, anthropology and all those, the subject of the study of man, all those things, you know, you could fill rooms with the pages that have been written on those subjects.
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And yet when you come to angels, you find that very little is written.
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And what's interesting to me is that it's gotten to the point where it seems like it doesn't matter to people.
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Well, yeah, not much is written about it, not much is said.
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We know they're in there.
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It's sort of, you know, they're stuck in the book and we see them all throughout the text.
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But, you know, we don't really know that much about them.
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So it's not really that big of a deal and not really something that we need to invest a lot of time in.
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And that's sort of the attitude that a lot of people have.
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And it's sad because when the Bible makes a point to tell us about these creatures, these angelic beings, it's important enough for it to go in the Scripture.
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It's important enough for us to study it.
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You know what I mean? If it's important enough for God to focus on it in Scripture, it's important enough for us to spend some time looking into it and knowing something about the subject.
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As I said, if I went around and talked to the average person, and when I say average person, I mean average Christian person.
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If I went around to the average Christian person and I began to ask them about angels, the vast majority of them, their theology of angels is going to come from popular culture.
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It's going to come from television and movies.
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It's going to come from a very modernistic approach to the way angels are and what angels do.
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I remember a few years ago, and some of you I think were there, when I was describing how Ezekiel describes the angels.
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And he describes them in a very horrific way, not in a way that we know, because I asked my Sunday school this morning, we talked about angels.
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I said, what do we always think about angels? We think about a very beautiful girl or woman in a gown with wings and a halo.
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That's always the picture.
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And I even drew a little on a piece of paper.
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I said, don't we always think beautiful gown, little wings and a halo.
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What do we call it when we fall down in the snow and do our hands like this? We're making snow angels, right? Because that's what angels look like.
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We see them as that, but in Ezekiel, the picture is much different.
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These creatures are fearsome and frightening to the point that Al Mohler even made the point, well, I can't say what he said from the pulpit, because it was funny what he said, but not appropriate.
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It wasn't inappropriate to the point of badness, but I wouldn't repeat it in the pulpit.
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But what he said effectively was they would have scared him to death if he saw them.
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This is Al Mohler, president of Southern Seminary.
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He said people make such a big, they flippantly talk about angels.
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He said if you really saw one face to face, it would scare the life out of you.
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Now, do they come to us in the appearance of people at times? Yes.
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Does this text reference that? Yes.
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But the truth of the matter is when times, especially in the Old Testament, when there were times where angelic creatures were given to demonstrating their real appearance, it was a frightening experience.
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And it was not something that was ever taken lightly.
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And it certainly did not look like precious moments or the little cherub creatures that sit on the novelty store knick-knack stands.
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So what do we know about angels? What do we know about angels? What we're going to do today is we're going to have somewhat of a Bible study.
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This is a little bit different than a typical sermon for me, because I'm going to have you going through a lot of scripture, having you thumb through a lot of places.
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I normally will put it on the screen, but I didn't do that today because I want you to have your thumbs ready.
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And if you don't want to necessarily be running to every place, just write things down, maybe read it later, because these things are important.
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Number one about angels, something you need to think about is, number one, the Bible assumes that they exist.
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The Bible assumes that they exist.
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And what I mean by assumes is it doesn't ever try to explain them.
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I've often said something about the existence of God that most people don't even think about, is that God's existence is assumed in scripture.
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In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, right? It doesn't say, because people always say, well, where did God come from? How did God be? If God made everything, who made God? All these questions come out because people have a hard time understanding the self-existence of God and the fact that God is not a created being, so they have problems about the fact that God exists.
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But the Bible just assumes it.
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The Bible assumes God exists.
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The Bible also assumes angels exist.
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Thirty-four of the sixty-six books of the Bible make direct, specific references to angels.
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Thirty-four of sixty-six.
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That's more than half, a little more than half.
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And Jesus Christ taught that they exist.
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Everybody turn with me.
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If you've got your Bibles, turn to Matthew 24.
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Matthew chapter 24 and go to verse 31.
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Jesus is talking about the second coming.
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He's talking about His return.
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And in verse 31 He says, And He will send out His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather His elect.
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By the way, the word elect is not a word for in Scripture, as a lot of people today seem like it is.
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Elect is right there.
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And they're the ones whom God will be gathering from the four winds and from one end of heaven to the other.
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And who are the ones who are going to gather the elect in the end? The Bible says it is angels.
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Again, this is Jesus teaching.
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He's teaching about the existence of angels.
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He's assuming that they exist and that they have purpose.
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They're not just out in the air somewhere.
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They're going to be used by God to bring about His will.
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And something that really bothers me again today is in Christianity, there's this huge sweeping movement to get away from the supernatural to the point that many Christians just don't believe in angels anymore.
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They don't believe in demons anymore.
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If you talk about demon possession, people think, oh, you must be one of those country Christians.
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You must be one of those southern crazies that talk about demon possession.
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We've got people that are eating people, folks.
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We've got demon possession going on in our world.
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It's out there.
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There are crazy people out there, and it is not just bath salts.
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Alright? I'm telling you straight up, there is some demonology going on out there.
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And the truth of the matter is we get away from the supernatural because we want to have that erudite appreciation for modern Western science, which is constantly changing every year.
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Every year they're editing their science books because everything changes every year.
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When a new person has a new theory, new idea, everything changes.
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But the reality is there is a spiritual realm, and there really are angels, and the Bible doesn't ever try to explain it.
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It just assumes it because it is the truth.
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And that's something we can't ever let our minds forget.
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Again, for a Christian to deny that angels exist, you have to essentially say you either deny scriptural infallibility or that all of those verses don't have anything to do with biblical scriptural angels, or rather supernatural angels.
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And it's just foolishness.
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And not only does the Bible assume that they exist, the Bible also describes that they were created.
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Again, taking you through the Bible, turn to Psalm 148.
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We already read it this morning.
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It was our opening text for the morning.
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But in Psalm 148, I wanted to show you something because I imagine as we read it, some of you probably didn't even notice what it said in regard to angels.
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It says in Psalm 148, it says, Praise the Lord.
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Praise the Lord from the heavens.
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Praise Him in the heights.
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Praise Him, all His angels.
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And keep that in your mind.
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It says, Praise Him, all His angels.
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Praise Him, all His hosts.
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Praise Him, sun and moon.
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Praise Him, all you shining stars.
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Praise Him, you highest heavens and you waters from above the heavens.
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Let them praise the name of the Lord, for He commanded and they were created.
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Now that whole list that came before, sun, moon, stars, heavens, all that, and angels is part of that list.
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And it says, God commanded and they were created.
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Pastor Foskey, why is that important? It's important because one thing that you need to understand about angels is that angels are not eternal beings.
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Angels are not gods.
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Why is that important? Because when we start talking about Satan next week, one of the most dangerous theologies that is out in the world today is the idea that Satan is somehow equal to God.
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That Satan is the bad and God is the good.
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Well, Satan is the bad, but he ain't equal with God.
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Satan is a created being, the same way other angels are created beings.
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And that means he is in an order under God who created all things.
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If you have a theology that puts Satan...
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And there are a lot of people who do.
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A lot of people have a theology that puts Satan equal with God.
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And there's this war going on and God's at war with Satan.
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Trust me, if Satan has to ask permission to touch Job, there's no war.
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I mean, really.
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In war, there's a possibility of winning.
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Satan's already lost.
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In a war, there's a possibility of victory.
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The victory is already won.
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There is no war.
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One of the things that people often forget is Satan is Satan because God allows him to be Satan.
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Think about that.
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Satan is how he is because God allows him to be that way.
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At any moment, God could take him out of the game.
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He's not going to because he's already told us how he's going to bring about the end of Satan himself.
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But the reality is, don't ever for a second think that angels are gods and don't think for a second that Satan is some type of a god.
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He is not.
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And that's an important little piece of theology I think we all need to remember.
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Angels are created beings.
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When were they created? We don't know.
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There's a passage in the book of Job, which we talked about in Sunday School this morning.
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If you want to write it down, Job 38, 6 and 7, which seems to indicate that the angels existed prior to the creation of the world because it says that when the world was being formed, the stars sang in the heavens.
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And oftentimes in the Old Testament, stars reference angels.
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And in that reference, a lot of people have thought, well, it could be that angels were created sometime in eternity past and that they were there when God created the world.
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However, there are other theologies that believe that sometime between day one and day six, God created the angels.
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And a lot of people say it was when he put the stars in the sky.
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That was a reference to the creation of angels.
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There is no definitive answer.
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I'm not telling you that you may not have an opinion on it.
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Certainly you may have an opinion on it.
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But I don't think that the scripture gives us definitive answer when they were created.
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It simply tells us that they were to tell us the specific truth that they are not gods.
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They are created beings.
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And that's a very important piece of theology that we need to keep in our minds.
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But what kind of beings are they? They're created beings.
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But are they created beings like us? Well, no, they are not created beings like us.
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Even though they do share some qualities which are shared by human beings.
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Number one, the quality that they would share with us is that they are personal beings.
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What does it mean to be personal? I had fun with this with the kids this morning because we got to talk about what things are personal, what things are not.
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What does it mean to be a personal being? There are three things that equip personality.
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Intellect, emotion and will.
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Those are the three things which indicate personality.
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We talked about if I walk out to that tree out there and I start talking to that tree, that tree doesn't have an intellect to be able to respond to me.
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It doesn't have emotions to be able to get mad if I say those are the ugliest branches I've ever seen.
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And it certainly doesn't have the will to slap me with one of its branches if I offend it.
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It's not a personal being.
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Does it exist? Yeah, if you run into it, it's going to hurt.
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It has being, but it doesn't have person.
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It doesn't have personality.
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It doesn't have intellect, emotion and will.
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However, throughout the scripture, we see that angels have intellect, emotion and will.
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We see that angels have thoughts and they are able to do things.
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They are able to will that things happen and they are even able to fall.
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Demons were not created as demons.
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Beloved demons were created as angels and they willed to fall.
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It's part of the explanation of how we got demons to begin with.
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Satan is the rebellious one and following after him were the rebellious third.
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The Bible says a third of the angels fell.
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So right there, intellect, emotion and will.
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They are personal beings, but here's where they're different from us.
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Because yes, they're personal beings, but angels are spiritual beings only.
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You have spirit and flesh, right? Some people call it the dichotomy of man, that we are spirit and flesh.
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Some people try to make it a trichotomy.
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They say mind, body, spirit.
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And that's the psyche, the pneumo, the psuche, the pneumo and the sarch, which is the flesh.
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And they make this big distinction between the three.
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In the reality, though, the Bible really talks about the spirit and the flesh.
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We are spirit and we're constantly fighting a battle with the flesh.
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Before we become believers, we are dead spiritually.
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So we live in accordance with the bond of the flesh, the boundaries of the flesh.
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But then we become saved and our spirit is made alive.
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And thus we have this battle going on between the flesh and the spirit.
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And I've often said this.
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If you live according to the flesh, you're living as an animal.
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But if you live according to the spirit, you're living as an angel.
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It's a little different because we have both qualities.
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We have the spirit and the flesh.
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But an angel is spirit only.
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They are spirit beings.
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And that way they are not like us.
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However, they have in scripture come and been demonstrated as demonstrate themselves as human beings.
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They have come in the form of men.
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By the way, they've never come in the form of a female.
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Every angel you've ever seen in the movies has been female.
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Every angel you've ever seen in the precious moments is always female.
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The Bible never describes angels in the feminine.
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It's always the masculine.
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Michael, Gabriel, it's always in the masculine.
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That's just an interesting little way pop culture sort of subverts biblical teaching.
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Because the idea that angels are all somehow women.
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They're asexual creatures.
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Jesus said, when we die, we will be in heaven like the angels who neither marry nor are given in marriage.
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Which indicates that they're asexual race.
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That they do not have that type of relationship with one another.
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As such, sexes doesn't matter.
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But they're always spoken of in the masculine, not in the feminine as we often describe them.
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Now, angels are organized and ranked.
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That's something I always kind of thought was kind of neat.
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Because if you look through the Bible, you will see things like Michael the...
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What kind of angel? Archangel, right? That indicates the level of rank.
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You talk about the chief princes in Daniel chapter 10, verse 13.
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And there are two types of angels.
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Anybody want to go for $10,000 and tell me what the two types are? I'm just kidding, it's not a game show.
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But what are the two types of angels? Cherubim and Seraphim.
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And this is something important, beloved, because I'm going to give you an application for this that I don't think many people have ever considered.
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Both the Cherubim and the Seraphim are servants of God, but they serve God differently.
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The Seraphim are what are called worshipping angels.
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Isaiah chapter 6 tells us about these angels.
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It says that they are in the presence of God, worshipping Him all the time, saying, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.
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And they give that what's called the trihasion.
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The three holies.
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The statement of who God is.
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He is holy, holy, holy.
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And they're always...
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And does anybody remember what they look like? My kids knew this and I was so happy.
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My Sunday school kids, they knew this.
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What do they look like? Halos and wings? No.
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They have six wings.
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With two, they covered their face.
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With two, they covered their feet.
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And with two, they flew.
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Why? Because they were designed to be in the presence of God.
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And in the presence of God, even the angels cover their face.
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And in the presence of God, the angels cover their feet.
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Do you remember when Moses went to the burning bush? What did God say to Moses from the bush? Take off your shoes from upon your feet.
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For the ground upon which you stand is holy ground.
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The angels are constantly there in the presence of God.
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That holy presence.
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They cover their face from His glory.
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They cover their feet.
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Their feet represent creatureliness.
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The face represents the glory, covering the glory of God.
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And the two wings, they fly in and about saying, holy, holy, holy.
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So there's your worshiping angels.
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That's a category.
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They're angels just created to worship.
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And then you have the warrior angel.
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Yeah.
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There's a warrior angel class.
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We always think of cherubs.
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You think of the cherubs as a little fat doll, right? No.
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The Bible describes the cherub, the cherubim, as that angel which has been created by God to stand in protection of His holiness.
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And guess what? They ain't got six wings.
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The Bible says they have four wings.
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With two, they cover their chest.
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And with two, they fly.
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Why do they cover their chest? It represents armor.
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These angels have one purpose.
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To stand between the holiness of God and the world's taint.
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And keep that taint of sin away.
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Everybody remember Adam and Eve.
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Adam and Eve were kicked out of the garden.
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And what did God station at the garden? At the entrance of the garden.
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The cherubs.
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What was their job? Don't let them back in.
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Don't let them back in.
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The Ark of the Covenant we talked about this morning.
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The Ark of the Covenant.
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God's perfect, holy presence.
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And the cherubs above it.
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There to ward off the taint of sin.
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It's interesting.
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Like I said, I bet many people have never thought of this as an aspect of an application.
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When I look at God's people, I see a similar dichotomy.
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I see God's people.
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Do all cherubs worship? Yes.
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But cherubs also protect.
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And I see God's people sort of separated in that way.
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I see God's people as there are people who are really good worshippers.
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People who are really good at worshipping God.
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And there are people who God gives the gift of being a spiritual warrior.
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James White is my absolute favorite.
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Dr.
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James White stands up.
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He stands before the Mormons.
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He stands before the Muslims.
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He stands before all of these other people.
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And he stands for the Word of God as a warrior for the faith.
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And it's a beautiful thing to see.
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Do people think about Christianity? Oh, we have to be pacifists.
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No, we're not pacifists.
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We just don't use our fists.
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We fight with the one thing God has given us to battle with.
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His Word.
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This is what wins the spiritual battles.
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So I always thought it was an interesting dichotomy.
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The warrior class and the worshipping class of angels.
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And what do angels do? They worship and they stand in protection of God's holiness.
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But what is the ministry within the church? What is the ministry within the body? And I need to start bringing this to a close, so I'll go through this rather quickly.
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We've already seen that they worship God.
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We know that they also minister to God's people.
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First and foremost, they minister to Christ.
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If you think about it, they minister to Christ.
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It was an angel who announced the birth of Christ.
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It was an angel who protected Him as a child, who kept Him from being killed along with the other children of Bethlehem.
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It was an angel who strengthened Him after His 40 days in the wilderness, having been tempted by Satan himself.
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What does it say after that? It says angels came and ministered to Him.
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And it were angels who stood on the day of His resurrection and explained His resurrection to the women and to the others.
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And finally, it was angels who were there on the day of His ascension to explain.
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The same way you saw Him go, you will also see Him return.
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Angels minister to Christ.
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They also minister to Christ's people.
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They minister to us.
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They minister to us.
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They protect us.
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They are sent to protect and to serve believers.
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And there are so many stories.
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And I don't like to go to Reader's Digest and all these different stories to come and read you stories.
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But all of you know of people who have had experiences and you've read about missionaries who were in a situation where they thought all was lost.
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And they were surrounded by people who were going to take their life.
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And then nothing happened.
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And then they found out later, why was there no attack? Well, you guys were protected.
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By who? Well, we saw your protectors.
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I've heard that story over and over by different people in different missionary situations.
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It's an amazing reality.
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That they protect the godly.
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They oppose their enemies.
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And they are specifically assigned at times as guardians.
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But one of the most important things, I want to finish with this.
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And I do want you to read this with me.
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One of the most important things angels do for the believer is they provide an angelic escort at death.
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Turn with me to Luke 16.
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And we'll finish here.
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One of the hardest things we have to deal with, folks, is the reality of death.
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You know that.
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It's something that can cause us to be stirred in the heart if we sit and think about it and focus on it.
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And especially if we focus on it apart from faith, it can be downright disheartening.
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It causes people to turn from everything from drinks to drugs to alcohol to all kinds of other things.
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Because it's a frightening reality.
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The fact that every one of us one day will no longer be here.
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But Luke 16 tells us a story.
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It tells us about two men.
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One was a rich man who had everything that he ever wanted in life.
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He had food, he had fine clothing, he had a fine place to live.
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But he was greedy and selfish and not one who loved the Lord.
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And it tells us also about another man who lived in squalor and his life was treated shamefully by others and he died not even having anyone to bury his body.
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Luke 16 starting here at verse 19.
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There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day.
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And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus covered with sores who desired to be fed from what fell from the rich man's table.
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Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores.
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We see the picture.
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We see the picture.
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But now let's know what Jesus said.
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And by the way, this is one of those times where I don't think this is a parable.
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This is the only time in Scripture Jesus told a story where he used a proper name.
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Now somebody might say, well that doesn't mean it's not a parable.
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It means a lot to me.
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Because, you know, he never gave the good Samaritan a name.
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He never gave the prodigal son a name.
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But he says Lazarus here.
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And he says this, verse 22.
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The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side.
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Beloved, if you read on, it says the rich man also died and was buried.
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And in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham fall.
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At the death of the righteous there is an angelic escort.
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But at the death of the wicked, he closed his eyes here and opened them in hell.
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Can I tell you that I think that this text relays to us a confidence in death that unbelievers do not have.
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And that is that we will not face it alone.
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And to me that means a lot.
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That God would love us so much that that thing which we know we all have to face, and we face with a mount of fear, that we will not be there alone.
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Let's pray.
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Father, thank You for the reality of Your Word which tells us that angels do exist.
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They have an integral part in Your plan.
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And that they minister to us throughout our lives and even into our death.
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I pray, God, I pray that this message has been an encouragement to Your people.
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I pray that the believers here would be encouraged by it, and Lord God, that the non-believers would be convicted by it.
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To be convicted of our sin, Lord, to know that we should turn to Your Son, Jesus, and join with the heavenly hosts which sing, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty.
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Thank You for this message.
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Thank You for Your love.
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Thank You for Your grace and all that You give us.
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In Jesus' precious name, Amen.