Good Works Are Supported by Your Communion with Angels

Please turn your Bible to Hebrews chapter 1. The sermon today will be on Hebrews 1 .14, which says, Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?

Angels are not a topic very frequently taught on, and yet they are something Scripture speaks much about. So it is worth spending some time of meditation on what Scripture says about angels in order that we might have this comfort from the Lord.

If you will stand, we will read verses 5 -14. These are the words of the Lord. For to which of the angels did God ever say, You are my son, today I have begotten you? Or again, I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me.

And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, Let all God's angels worship him. Of the angels, he says, he makes his angels winds, and his ministers a flame of fire. But of the sun, he says, your throne, O God, is forever and ever.

The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.

And you, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain. They will all wear out like a garment. Like a robe, you will roll them up.

Like a garment, they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end. And to which of the angels has he ever said, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet?

Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?

Amen.

You may be seated.

The Blessing of Angels in the Christian Life

Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for your blessings to us, blessings that we have in Jesus Christ. You have given us many things in him. You have given us your spirit. You have given us each other.

And you have even given us this promise of angels. We pray that you would open our eyes to understand these things today. In Jesus' name, amen. There are many things, difficult things we are called to in this life.

We are called to resist temptations. We are called to undergo many trials. We are called to do great good works. There are various reasons that people are not as equipped as they could be because they do not understand the blessings of the gospel.

We have talked about that in previous weeks, about how understanding the blessings of the Lord, the grace that he gives, the fact that he has ordained good works for us, the fact that we are united together with Christ, the fact that the Spirit unites us together with him, the fact that we are united together with each other, both the saints on earth and the saints in heaven.

All these unions and communions are important and given to us as comforts and as encouragements in good works. And so it is the case with angels, through our communion with angels. If you consider the scene in the book of Kings where Elisha and his servant are surrounded by Syrian forces, and the servant is terrified.

He doesn't know what's going to happen. He doesn't know whether or not he will perish. It's very much like people today who face the trials that God has put around them and don't know whether or not they will perish, are very discouraged by them, but Elisha prays that his eyes would be opened and he sees all around countless angel armies, men on horses, chariots of fire, and this, as his spiritual eyes are opened and he recognizes that he is surrounded by angels, it's a great comfort to him, it's a great encouragement in the trial that he has to endure.

So it is to be with us. If we are to undergo the trials that we have before us today, the great works that God has called us to, if we are to resist temptation with any kind of real encouragement, we are not to neglect any of the truths that God has given us as encouragement, and that would include our communion with angels.

My prayer for you today is your eyes would be opened so that you would see the angel forces around you, indeed today, and I mean this in a very literal sense, we are surrounded by innumerable angels, and that should be a great encouragement to you.

Today we will look at simply what angels are, our communion with them, and how this is to be an encouragement in good works. So just considering this passage, are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?

The Nature of Angels as Spirits and Elect Beings

So they are spirits. Angels are spirits. It means they are, in a sense, personal. That means that they are immaterial. In our catechism, you may know that we speak of God as a spirit. God is a spirit, infinite, unchangeable, immortal, right?

He is a spirit, but that does not mean he is a spirit like the angels. The angels, you can think of them as created substances, right, but God is not any sort of created thing. So when we call God a spirit, we're affirming that he's immaterial, we're affirming that he's personal.

What we're not affirming is that he is like the angel in a positive way, in those negative ways of what he is not, right, but not in a positive way of being made of a similar substance that they are made of.

God is uncreated. Now the angels were created, and by all accounts, it seems that they were created on the first day. Now there are many people, I'm always surprised at how many works say that we can't really say with confidence when the angels were created.

Job 38 .7 says that they shouted for joy when the foundations of the earth were laid. The Bible tells us that on the first day, God created, he formed the earth. That is when the foundations of the earth were laid.

So if they were rejoicing for this, it seems only sensible to affirm that they were created on the first day. And there is an order among them. They are not all of one simple kind. We see all different kinds of angels with different kinds of tasks.

We even read of the archangel Michael, arch meaning chief, right. So there are different orders of angels. We're not given all the details of what they might be. A lot of people have fanciful ideas about what the order of angels would be.

Some in my opinion read too much into seraphim and cherubim. These are not necessarily orders or labels of offices so much as they are descriptions. Seraphim meaning fiery. But we do know simply by observing that there is a chief angel, Michael, simply by observing different tasks that they are given that there is an ordering to the angels.

Now we are also told that the angels, the holy angels before God are elect angels. This is what Paul tells Timothy. They are elect. God has chosen them to preserve them unlike the fallen angels, the demons who have fallen, who are not elect, who are not chosen to be preserved by God.

Angels Serving the Elect and the Communion of Union in Christ

Now who is this for? This is for the sake of those who will inherit salvation. This is for the sake of the elect. Now when it says those who will inherit salvation, that's primarily talking about the salvation that not the one that we enjoy now but the one that awaits us in the future.

Later on in Hebrews it talks about how Jesus will come a second time unto salvation. And so that is distinguishing it from the first time He came. Now you might say, well the first time He came, didn't He come for salvation?

Yes He did, but when it uses the word salvation there, it's talking about that final salvation, that glorification where man is rescued from all difficulties that befall him in this life. So when it talks about those who will inherit salvation, it primarily has that in mind.

And yet all the same, that is not to keep us from arriving at the conclusion that God assists us by His angels not only merely after conversion but even in our earlier years. We see in Matthew that even the little ones who in Luke are called infants have angels of God standing before Him in heaven.

Okay, so there are indications that God upholds us, God assists us, ministers to us by His angels, or rather they minister to us and He helps us through them. They minister to us even in our earlier years.

Now some people would object to this and say, well the angels are not subject to God's decree, they're not knowledgeable about His decree of election, so how could they know who is elect beforehand in order to serve those who are elect beforehand?

Well I would say that even like we can often speculate about whether or not God is doing a work in someone that may lead to their salvation, so the angels might by God's direction and who to assist deduce the same.

And so He does not have to declare all of His decree to them in order for this to be true that they assist the elect even in earlier years. Now there is also a very common idea that originates from extra biblical writings.

There is one angel assigned to every person that you have your own individual guardian angel. This is not the case. There's nothing in the Bible that indicates that so directly. There are a few things that people think say that, you know, there are angels in heaven that I just mentioned for the little ones, or Peter when he's let out of prison by an angel and then people observe that they think that he is his angel, right, suggesting that maybe he has a particular angel.

Yet we see in Scripture the pairing of one to many or many to one. Consider that Michael fights for all of Israel and so that is one angel for many. We see many to one with Jacob's ladder, right, all the angels for just one Jacob, right, Elisha's horsemen all around, Lazarus being carried by multiple angels, right.

So all these things are, they let us know that there's not a one to one relationship between angels and humans, rather frequently is many angels to an individual. This is supposed to be a great comfort to us.

And so if you, a lot of people try to comfort themselves with the idea that they have one angel assigned to them, isn't it much better to have many angels working for us? That is a much greater comfort.

That's much greater comfort. And if you believe that there is one angel that is dedicated to you, that calls for all kinds of superstition and nonsense that that can lead to. And so they serve. How do they serve us?

For what purpose do they serve us? Your mind might immediately go to mere preservation, but consider that this is for good works. They minister to us for the sake of supporting us in good works. And I'll give you three reasons for that.

The Law, Salvation, and the Purposes of Good Works

The first is just here, just here in this context. We see in 2 -2, it says, for since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received just retribution.

That's talking about the angels delivering the law. Okay, so in context, it immediately talks about the nature of angels. One of the things they have done is given the law, and if good works, as we've defined it in the sermon series, is sincere obedience, what could be more helpful in that task than the giving of the law?

Secondly, all the way at the end, so you have the near context, all the way at the end of the book, it encourages love and good works, telling us to continue in brotherly love, show hospitality for one another.

Why?

Because by it, some have been visited by angels. Angels have even blessed brotherly love. Now, that's not supposed to be a promise that you will receive manifestations of angels. It's a statement about the past, right, that the people in the past have had encountered manifestations of angels, and angels have blessed good works.

And so we see in the near context and the far context that what's in mind with the assistance of angels has to do with good works. Secondly, it talks about those who will inherit salvation. So there's an orientation here around people's salvation and the nature of angels having to do with that salvation.

Later on in Hebrews 6, it will speak of love and good works as, in Hebrews 6, 8, as something that pertains to salvation. He says, brothers, we are sure of greater things to you, things pertaining to salvation.

God is not so unkind as to forget your love and your labor. So salvation is something that is connected with the notion of good works. We are not to suggest that we are saved by our good works. But in this salvation, God is sanctifying us.

God is carrying us along. God is producing good things in us. He is producing out of us good works. So that orientation of the angels around salvation implies an orientation around good works. And also, this is just a logical consequence of what we've seen in previous weeks, that God has saved man particularly for good works.

He has created people for his own possession, purifying them for good works, Titus 2 .14. God has ordained good works for them beforehand, Ephesians 2 .10. Christ has, we are made new creations in Christ Jesus for good works.

Same verse, Ephesians 2 .10. If these are the primary purposes that God has for us in good works, and angels are sent to assist us, is it not the obvious conclusion that they would be assisting us in that primary purpose that God has for us?

Of course.

Of course it would be. Now, how is it that we have a union with angels? First of all, this is not the same union that we have spoken before that is established directly in Christ Jesus. Okay, we do not have, so it says in the next chapter that it was not for angels that Christ died on the cross.

It's not for angels that he came to save. It was rather for the offspring of Abraham. He has not sent them the Holy Spirit. It is mankind. It is the offspring of Abraham that has the Holy Spirit. Those who by faith are children of Abraham.

They have the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one who unites us to Christ in the vine, and then in him we are united with the other saints, both saints on earth, saints in heaven. We are all united together, bound together by that one union.

This is not the same union that we have with angels. Rather, it is union that is via that union we have in Christ, but not directly through.

It.

Simply, it is the case that if the angels have an obligation and loyalty to Jesus Christ, to God himself, and then we are united to Christ, we are in him, the natural implication of that is that angels would then not serve only him, but also serve us.

That union establishes our union, a secondary kind of union, with the angels. Let me give several proofs of this. First of all, just note the context here. Those who inherit salvation, what did it say before in verse 2?

It said, in these last days he spoke to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things. Who is the heir of all things? Jesus Christ. It is in him that we become heirs. So it is in him that we become those who are appropriate for angels to serve, those who will inherit salvation.

Consider what Hebrews 2 says in chapter 7. You made him for a little while lower than the angels. You crowned him with glory and honor. Now, you may notice this is quoting Psalm 8. Psalm 8 says that man is made a little lower than the angels.

Here in Hebrews 2, it talks about Jesus being a little while lower than the angels. And he is raised to glory, and his people raised to glory with him. It speaks of him being raised to glory in verse 9.

It says, but we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor. And then in verse 10, it speaks of this glory being given to us. For it was fitting that he for whom and by whom all things exist and bringing many sons to glory should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.

So us being in Christ, lowly creatures, him having come to earth, him through his perfection, having been exalted on high, being raised to glory, raises us up with glory so that while we were created a little lower than the angels, Christ being made a little while lower than the angels raises up above the angels.

The whole point of chapter 1 is how he's greater than the angels. We raised up with him, likewise, greater than the angels, though we were originally created lower. Consider the words of Ephesians 1 and 2.

Ephesians 1 verses 20 through 21 says that God seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.

Okay, so he has seated him above all authority and power and dominion. If you're familiar with the language of Ephesians and Colossians, powers and dominions refers to not just earthly rulers, it refers to heavenly spirits.

He has placed them above all of them. Okay, he is seated at his right hand above all those. What does Ephesians 2 verse 16 say? And he raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Jesus Christ.

So who else has been raised in Christ Jesus above all dominions, etc.?

So we have.

We have been raised up with him and we are seated with him. And consider what this means for judgment. Job 4, 18 says, God judges even his angels. Christ is ruler over them. He guides them. He judges them.

What does 1 Corinthians 6, 3 say? Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How is it that we are to judge angels? Well, in Christ, it is nonsensical for one who is a lower being to judge one who is a higher being.

Okay, there's no position of authority with which one could do that. What has happened here is we in Christ have been raised up higher than the angels so that it is appropriate that as Christ has judgment, we sitting on his throne with him, we being seated with him in the heavenly places, will, when it is fully manifest, judge angels.

And it is so because all of this that angels serve us, not because we were created greater than them, but rather Christ has earned a glory that is higher than them. And because of their loyalty to him, because of their obligation to him, they, therefore, have an obligation to us.

If you're a servant in a man's house, you don't just serve that man. You serve his whole family. It is the same thing. We are his body. We are his family. The angels do not just serve Christ. Since we are united to him, they must serve us as well.

Christ is the door. He's not just the door to the sheepfold. He is the door to heaven. He is the door to the access to the angels. Now, that is the nature of this union having been established in Jesus Christ.

Proximity, Worship, Concern, and Aid in Communion with Angels

What is the nature of the communion? Remember, union is the bond, right? There's some relationship between us. Communion is the thing shared within that bond. What is the communion? First of all, there is a communion of proximity.

Angels, while not being material beings, do have physical location. Okay, you see this in several places. You see this in Daniel 10, where it describes Michael going out to fight the prince of Persia, coming and going.

You see this in many places that angels travel. They exist in particular places, and so they have a proximity to God's people. One of the things shared is simply location with God's people. They also share with us, they also have a communion with us in worship.

In Hebrews 12, 22, and I feel like I quote this more often. I quote possibly any verse in the Bible, but in Hebrews 12, 22, it says, For you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering.

This is describing worship. When we are gathered together, we are gathered together. It describes us having gathered together with a heavenly assembly that includes innumerable angels in festal gathering.

There is a communion of us in worship to God. They worship God singing before Him. We see many scenes of this in Scripture, Isaiah 6, Revelation 4, etc. We likewise sing to God. There is a communion between us in shared worship toward God.

There is also, likewise, a shared concern. Because they are sensible to what's going on with us, they have a desire for our good. We see, for example, in Zechariah 1, the angel of the Lord leads other angels in lamenting of Jerusalem's poor condition, of Israel's poor condition.

So there is a question of what it would mean for an angel to mourn given that they don't have weaknesses like we have weaknesses. I'm not necessarily trying to explain that their mourning is like our mourning.

I'm just saying that there's something analogous going on there. And it says, likewise, that they rejoice when just one person is converted, one person is brought into the kingdom. So there is a concern for us, a concern that has something analogous to lamenting and to rejoicing.

So there's a shared concern. And then there is aid. And so they are partnering with us in the things that we are doing, assisting us in them. And so there is a communion in that sense, working with us in that way.

There are several things that we do not have communion in. One is worship of them. We should not worship angels. And this is what most people are doing when they're worshiping idols, is they're worshiping false gods.

First Corinthians 10 explains that there are demons behind idols. And when you worship an idol, you are worshiping an angelic spirit, a demonic one. There is also no communion of speech. You do not pray to angels.

You do not talk to them. They can hear you.

They're around. They're observing.

You are not to talk to them. They are not mediators for us. There's only one mediator between God and man. That is Christ Jesus. Christ has not shed his blood for them. They don't have a special access.

They have a kind of access to the throne, but it's not the kind of access that we would have to be able to make the kind of prayers that we make on behalf of one another, pleading on the basis of the blood of Christ.

Now, this communion that we have with angels is a really wonderful thing. If you were, if you had just one servant in your home, given our culture, you know how rare servants are. You know, if you just had one or a few servants in your home, you would feel like a very blessed man or woman to have servants attending to me, to caring about me, whose main objective in life is to watch over me.

You have innumerable angels that are doing this. How much has God cared for us that he does this? And consider what this verse says too in Hebrews 1 14. Are not they all ministering spirits? It is not some of them.

It's not, okay, well, you've got the real big guys who sit next to the throne, and that's all they do. You know, they just hang around God. They don't come and hang around us. Are they not all ministering spirits?

Even the greatest of them are sent for our assistance. It is a wonderful blessing from God to have this communion with angels. Now, how do they encourage, how do they support good works? There are three categories of their ministries that I think are a good way to think about how they support good works.

I'm not going to exclusively talk about all their ministries towards us. There are some things that are worth thinking about that I won't mention, like the fact that there are multiple verses that talk about them carrying the elect to glory.

You see that with Lazarus, etc. Right, there are many different ministries, but how do they support us in good works now? I'm going to break these categories into different observations or different categories of their power.

Okay, the first is their power of observation. They have a power of observation. Okay, this is unlike the dead. Remember last week we talked about with our communion, the saints in heaven, that they're not watching down.

Okay, that's not what the cloud of witnesses mean. Cloud of witnesses means that they are testifying to us by their past lives, right, by the history of them, of God's faithfulness. They can't see us.

They will witness when we finish the race, but they do not witness us now. The angels do witness us. They are aware of what is going on. Uh, consider that they make it a habit to study us. In Job, you see Satan going up and down the earth to study mankind.

God asks him, have you considered my servant Job? And Satan immediately responds as though he had studied him quite a bit and knew quite a bit about him already. Right, there's a study that's happening with angelic power.

And I know that's a demon, but if you consider that all God's holy angels are sent out for the sake of those who will inherit salvation, ought they not to be concerned about us in even greater ways? First Corinthians 4, 9 says, we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men.

That's Paul speaking, being a spectacle to angels. Angels are watching. He knows that angels are watching him. They have limitations in their understanding. They are not omniscient. They don't know all things.

They do not know the heart. Jeremiah explains that only God knows the heart. Now that does not mean that they cannot deduce a lot about where your heart is at. Just like another person, if they see you sweating, they can deduce that you are nervous.

Okay, an angel has a lot of capacities for observation. Capacities beyond those capacities that we would have. And they are wise beings. They've been around for a long time. There's no reason not to think that they would be very good at deducing things about what are going on in the heart.

But they do not know the heart directly the way God knows the heart. So these angels are watching and they are, you know, like the comical Sherlock Holmes thing where he knows everything just based on a few details or whatever.

You know, it's probably something similar to that where they understand much about us. And why is this important for us in good works? Well, it's because if that is the case, how much more should their witness encourage us to good works for accountability and for desiring their rejoicing?

1 Corinthians 11 .10 motivates head coverings with the presence of angels. 1 Timothy 5 .21, Paul says to Timothy, and the presence of God in Christ Jesus and of the elect angels, I charge you to keep these rules without prejudging, doing nothing from partiality.

He charges him saying, I'm telling you to do this given that angels are watching. Angels are watching. Pursue this good work that God has called you to because angels are watching in both directions, right?

You'll avoid sin because it's something that would, they would lament in an analogous sense. This is something you pursue good works because they will rejoice. It is something that we are to desire. God tells us about this so that we would desire it.

There is supposed to be this communion. Maybe I should have added this to the list. That communion includes a bond of love. You know, a care for God. We should love all of God's holy things, the angels, holy beings of God.

We should love them. They love us. We should desire their rejoicing. Now consider another power, which is power of physical manipulation, okay? We see this at certain points. We see in Revelation 16 angels pouring out plagues in vengeance for God.

We see Job being afflicted physically by Satan. They can give strength or take it away. You see Paul describing the thorn, an angel from Satan who has come and given him a thorn in his flesh. I don't want to make too many claims about what that would be, but I think that physical weakness is definitely on the list of possibilities at least, and that's where I would lean toward it being.

Angels strengthen Daniel when he faints. They strengthen Christ when he fasts. They strengthen Christ when he is praying on the mountain before his crucifixion. They assist in travel, or they can hinder in travel.

Consider that Paul was hindered in going to the Thessalonians because of Satan. First Thessalonians 2 .18, because we wanted to come to you, I, Paul, again and again, but Satan hindered us. Peter is released from prison and made able to travel by an angel, okay?

So they can assist and travel. They protect. Psalm 91, 11 through 12, for he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.

They can protect. Even preventing occasions of sin, you know, those temptations that you could walk into, they can divert. These are various ways that angels are capable and do assist God's people. You know, if you've ever been to a foreign place and had guides, it is very comforting to have them to protect you from all the things that are going to happen.

You know, when I remember the first few times I went to the Philippines and I had my family all around me who, you know, is able to speak the language, etc. They, yeah, it's just very comforting that I know that I'm not going to get into any trouble because I have all these guards and guides around me.

That is a comforting thing. Okay, now they also have abilities of spiritual manipulations. Okay, first they can repel temptation. Consider that Satan tempts. Okay, he can give evil suggestions to the mind.

Ananias, it said that Satan filled his heart with an evil desire to steal from the Lord. Judas, Satan filled his heart with evil desires. David, Satan incited him to conduct the census that he ought not conduct.

Yeah, you have many examples of temptations. Now, is it not the case that angels can fight against these things? Indeed, do. In fact, if you've ever wondered what that mysterious statement is in Jude about Michael contending over the body of Moses, I believe this is precisely what's going on.

Let me read to you these verses. Jude 1 .9 says,. But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, The Lord rebuke you.

What is interesting about the body of Moses? Deuteronomy 34 .6 says this,. And he buried him in the valley of the land of Moab, opposite Beth Peor. This is God who buried him, by the way. God's burying him.

But no one knows the place of his burial to this day. The most common interpretation of this among, you know, especially Reformed authors, especially the Puritans, is that Satan had in mind that he wanted to suggest to the people where the body was so that they could do whatever idolatrous things with it.

And Michael is fighting against Satan so that that would not happen. And keeping the people from that temptation to reveal where the body of Moses is. So they can protect from temptation. And consider especially how much this is needed even in dreams.

You know, if you have sinful things that happen in your dreams, lust, anger, all kinds of things, that is not... A lot of people think that, Oh, because I'm in less control in my dreams, therefore those aren't sinful.

No, if you have sinful desires, even in your dreams, that is wrong. And how is it... Consider that we see in Scripture angels manipulating dreams. How is it not important to have God's angels protecting us from such suggestions of Satan?

You know, that phrase, suggestions of Satan, is something in our confession, something our confession even acknowledges happens. These demonic suggestions impressed upon the mind. And so likewise, likewise angels can make such good suggestions, right?

Man might talk to his outer senses, angels can impress things upon the inner senses. Consider that the angel appears to Mary and to Joseph in a dream. Now, how is that happening unless the angel is capable of impressing things upon the mind?

Okay, if that's God just doing it, making an angel appear, then it's not really an angel. It's God, you know, showing an image of something that's like an angel, right? It's not really an angel at that point.

So it must be the angel that is impressing this on the mind to Joseph and Mary. So angels are capable of doing such things. We see that Satan does such things. He offers evil suggestions. Likewise, angels offer good suggestions.

Consider what it says about the teaching of demons in 1 Timothy 4 .1. Now, the Spirit expressly says that in latter times, some will depart from the faith, devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons.

What does it mean for a demon to have a teaching? Is it not some suggestion from the enemy, right? Likewise, likewise, there can be good suggestions as well. The Bible talks about how from the lips of infants, God has ordained praise.

You know, how do the infants know to praise God unless there were some suggestion to them? How do they know to sing hosannas? You know, the Bible, once again, you see that connection in Scripture with infants in the gospels, right?

Their angels stand before God in heaven. Out of their lips, He's ordained praise. You know, it's letting you know that there's something going on there, that God is assisting them in their praise by the angels.

And that's what we have confirmed in Hebrews 12, 22. We are assisted in our praise by angels. That's what we sing in our hymns, that angels would assist our praise. You know, if you sing that and don't mean it, now you can start meaning it.

And they can also impress, excite emotions. You see Saul being tormented, Saul the king, right? Being tormented by Satan, being tormented by demonic forces. Likewise, angels can incite peace. Now, how are these things, these internal suggestions, distinguished from the work of the Spirit?

Okay, first of all, they are external rather than internal. And by, okay, so I was using the word internal before to distinguish it from man, right? Man, the outer senses, right? Right, hearing, that kind of thing.

Speaking about angels impressing upon inner senses. Yet, distinguished from the Holy Spirit, there's a sense in which the Spirit is in us, okay? He dwells in us and is internal. It is immediate that He is working on our heart.

Angels, it is from outside, right? That such impressions would happen. That's the first way they're distinguished. Also, the Spirit, once again, directly working on us. Angels simply can only excite what is already there, right?