WWUTT Q&A Guest Speakers Deny a Theology of Angels?

Do the qualifications for pastors that we have given to us in Scripture apply to guest speakers in the pulpit?

Whenever we sin are we saying we're ashamed of Jesus? And who are the angels? The answers to these questions when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text a daily Bible study through the Word of God that we may know all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden in Christ.

For all our resources visit www .wwutt .com. Now here's your host

Pastor Gabe. Thank you Becky. You're welcome. So last week when we started our Q &A

I read an email from somebody who was asking for all of the what videos to be put on a thumb drive.

Right. And I mentioned that I don't have any plans on doing that.

I don't have time to do that. And plus soon as I come out with another what video

Right, it'll be outdated. Yeah, now it's outdated. Now I need to make another thumb drive with all the what videos on it.

So I said if you will send me a thumb drive along with a self -addressed stamped envelope, return envelope that's already postage paid and everything,

I will put all the videos on that drive and send it back to you. Then you've got all the what video, over 200 videos on a thumb drive including a couple that are not on YouTube.

Right. Did you mention with the self -addressed stamp? I did mention the envelope, right.

And the address I gave was the church's address. Correct. So you want to send it to First Southern Baptist Church 1220.

Thank you, 1220 West 8th Street. Yes. Almost gave our home address there. Junction City, Kansas 66441.

So once again, First Southern Baptist Church 1220 West 8th Street, Junction City, Kansas 66441.

Put attention Gabe on there somewhere. Right. And the thumb drive will get to me. Thomas sent an email and he said how much storage would need to be on the thumb drive.

Very good question. For the videos that you were referring to on Friday. Well total of all the videos that I've done it equals five gig.

Over 200 what videos at a minute and a half each, that comes out just a little over five gigabytes of memory space.

So if you sent me an eight gigabyte thumb drive, I'd be able to get everything on there for you. There we go.

So that was a good question Thomas. I didn't think about that. But yes, you need about an eight gigabyte thumb drive.

Good question. And I can get all the what videos on there. There's also four, four and a half minute what videos.

Oh right. You remember those? Yeah. Those were the very beginning. Yeah. The very first videos we did were all four and a half minutes.

Then we started talking about, well there's some of these topics we can do that won't take four and a half minutes. Right. Then we started doing 90 second videos and the intention was.

And the four and a half seems so long. I know. Yeah now they seem long. Yeah. The video that we did on tithing, that was four and a half minutes.

That one is like the second or third most watched what video. Oh wow. It's still like way up there.

Well it's very controversial. Yeah it is. So. Same with the video on heaven is for real.

Oh uh huh. That one has a lot of views too. Right. The plan was to do four and a half minute videos and then do like 10 90 second videos and then do another four and a half minute.

So we would kind of sprinkle those in with the 90 second. I've never done a four and a half minute video since we started doing the 90 second videos.

Oh that's funny. They've all just been 90 seconds. Although I do have a script that goes through the entire

Bible in four and a half minutes. Oh wow. But I've never produced it. Doing the four and a half minute what video that summarizes the entire

Bible Genesis to revelation. Oh I gotcha. Yeah. Anyway, that makes a big difference. I thought you were reading the

Bible and four and a half minutes. Wow. That's some fast talking babe. Whoa.

People say that I talk fast. I ain't that fast. I don't even think the micro machines guy could do it that fast.

That is really bad. If you were to, if you were to read the Bible out loud at a standard speaking rate, it would take you 70 hours.

Okay. I think it's 72 72 hours. I was, I was trying to wrap my mind around that four and a half minutes.

I'm like, that's, that's insane. I still have a desire to do that though. I would like to sit down.

No, not with the four and a half minutes. I'm still talking to 72 hours. I'm going back to that one.

I would like to sit down with the Bible and read it an hour a night for 72 days and out loud in the microphone and record myself doing the whole

Bible. I'd like to do it with the new American standard. If the Lachman foundation would want to have me as the voice of the

NASB, Hey guys, hint, hint. That would, uh, that, that would, you'd have to say all those names.

Yeah, that's, that's the right. But I can go listen to Max McLean. Oh, there you go. Yeah, yeah.

There you go. Then I can just imitate him. Except he said when he says

Philippi, he says Philippi, the city of the city of Philippi instead of Philippi.

I don't know. That's just random fact. Yeah. Max McLean is weird. The way that he pronounces things. Maybe he just thinks that if you say it fast enough and you say it secure enough, then it's right.

He just has that proper voice though. It's like you can't argue with a man who speaks like this. So if he's going to say

Philippi, then by Jove, I must also say Philippi. Are you going to stay

Philippi then? I don't, I don't think I can shake Philippi. Philippi is always going to be

Philippi to me. All right. So thank you for your question, Thomas. That was good for clarification. We went down a few rabbit trails there.

We did. This next one comes from number two. Question number two, we're going all the way to Singapore.

Woohoo. Isn't that awesome? Kenneth from Singapore. He says, hi,

Pastor Gabe. Before I start, I would like to say that I am an avid listener of the what podcasts and a big fan of your videos that you put out.

They have really blessed me and set some of the faulty theology I used to hold straight.

May God continue to bless your ministry and use it in mighty ways to reach out and bless more

Christians out there. That is so touching, Kenneth. I appreciate you so much reaching out like that.

I have a question about the pulpit ministry of a church. I am a lay person and slightly more theologically informed after listening to and watching great programs like grace to you, a

WWU TT and wretched my elders in church recognize this and have recently invited me to preach to the congregation in service.

And I am wondering if the Bible addresses the idea of lay preachers and do the qualities in second

Timothy to apply to such a role. I am still single and I do not hold any leadership role in the church.

Should I accept the invitation? Is there something I might be violating as far as the scriptures are concerned?

At the time of this writing, I have accepted the invitation, but I'm thinking twice about pulling out after hearing your podcast through second

Timothy two. I look forward to your reply and God bless. I meant to email

Kenneth back before putting this question on, but, but I couldn't resist.

It came from Singapore. It was very exciting. I had to read the question cause

I was curious to know what it was that I said in going through second Timothy two that made him have second thoughts about accepting that invitation.

First, Kenneth, let me put it, let me put it forward to you like this. If you have doubts and if there is a tinge of conscience as to why you shouldn't step into the pulpit, then don't do it.

If, if you feel some misgivings, if the Holy spirit is convicting you in some way, leading you to understand that you are not yet ready to do that, then don't do it.

Don't do something that in your heart you think would be sin if you followed through on it. Right. So be, so have a clear conscience.

As Paul is talking with Timothy about the way the gospel is preached, he says, we do this with a clear conscience.

There is no ego involved, right? We're not trying to make a name for ourselves. The aim of our charge is love that echoes from a pure conscience.

So do not violate your conscience and stepping into the pulpit, uh, to accept this invitation that has been put forward to you by your elders.

But furthermore, in response to this question, I would simply tell you to listen to your elders there.

There's obviously something that they see and they know you better than I know you. So some of the specifics of this question that you're asking,

I'm really not necessarily the person that can give you the proper advice, but those elders can now stepping into the pulpit, filling in the pulpit, uh, being a guest speaker, preaching a message one

Sunday, that's not the same thing as being a pastor, correct? I think it is right for you to hold yourself to the standards that are expected of pastors.

When you're talking about somebody who rightly handles the word of truth. That's, that's absolutely a standard that every

Christian should aspire to, but most especially preachers and teachers. Uh, but, but as for preaching, being a guest speaker on a particular

Sunday, that's not the same thing as being a pastor. You are certainly doing some element of shepherding because you're presenting the truth and you're shepherding people through understanding the truth of God's word.

Right. But when you think of an overseer of the church, the overseer's job is not limited to what he does on Sunday morning in the teaching that he presents.

Very much. Uh, that, that sets, that sets the tone for the entire church. Most certainly.

So, so the way that a church follows in an understanding of the word of God, you will see most exemplified in the sermons that are preached on Sunday morning, but that's not the totality of the pastor's job.

So this doesn't mean that you're accepting a shepherd's position, right? You are still under the care and under the guidance and authority of your elders in your church.

And they have seen in you a young man who is able to do this. But don't just take that invitation at face value and go, okay, here

I go. I'm going to pick whatever it is that I want to pick to preach on. Even if they've opened that door to you, choose your scripture, labor over those passages, let them convict your heart.

Stir you know that this is something that you want to preach to the people of God. Go to your elders, talk with them about the passages that you're going to preach on.

Tell them exactly what you're going to say. Maybe have an outline, approve it with them. And maybe they would also be able to give you guidance in the direction that you go in the exposition that you do, what it is that you preach on.

Um, hopefully that gives you a little bit more advice, but once again, leave it to your elders, right?

Let them, uh, let them judge your character and be able to give you a proper assessment as to whether or not you are a young man who is, uh, capable and worthy of filling in the pulpit on a particular

Sunday. This is not the sort of a thing where I'm going to be looking at you and, and looking at a resume and seeing what seminary you graduated from.

And if you're married and how you've raised your kids, stepping into the pulpit isn't, isn't necessarily, uh, you have to meet those qualifications in order to be a guest speaker.

You still have to be upright. You still have to be an upright man of God. Yes. Yes. Faithful and handling the word of truth.

Right. So I thank you for your question. I hope that is able to offer you a little bit more guidance and, uh, and I'm going to be sending you the link to this podcast, even though Kenneth is probably already listening to it, but I'm going to send you the link and say, here,

I answered your question. Kenneth, if you would please just email me back and tell me what it is that I had said out of second

Timothy two, that may be convicted you as to why you shouldn't fill in the pulpit.

I'd be curious to know that. Right. And then you can gear him a little bit better as far as what the

Bible says. Yeah. Um, in regards to what he's concerned about. Now earlier this week,

I did mention that second Timothy two versus 22 and 26 are just as applicable passages for pastors as first Timothy three, one through seven.

I only mentioned that on Wednesday, I think it was. So maybe it was that, I'm not sure, but yeah, like I said,

I'm just speculating at this point. So we're curious. All right. Good to hear from Singapore though.

Yeah, it's fun. I need to get a map and just like start sticking pins on.

We've, we've gotten emails from here, here and here. That would be great. I can go into the podcast stats and I can see where people have been listening from, but even it's not exact.

I mean, it just tells me, you know, somebody was listening from North Korea, which by the way, I've had listeners from North Korea.

Oh, none from South Korea. Really? I've never had a listener from South Korea, at least as far as the map statistics go that I get from pod bean.

Yeah. I don't. Yeah. Cause don't we know people in South Korea? I don't think I do personally.

No, we will soon. We do. We did in Okinawa. We will soon though. Yeah. Why? Because we have missionaries going there.

Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because we, I forgot about that. Yeah. Yeah. Military personnel from our church that gets deployed over to Korea.

So there was somebody there from our church recently. It was Samuel. Sam went there. He was in Korea. Okay. That was where he was stationed.

Okay. So that happens every once in a while. Of course being a military church. Yeah. But I don't think we know anybody right now that's in Korea.

I think everybody's returned. Unless, unless I've got a member of my church listening right now who wants to email me and prove me wrong.

Yes, please. Okay. Next question. This is from Mitch in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

He says, pastor Hughes, I have a friend that was talking about Mark eight 38, Jesus stating that if we are ashamed of him, he will be ashamed of us before the father and his angels.

The way that it was described to him was that Jesus was speaking of sin, showing true shame in the gospel of Jesus and the work that was done on the cross when we sin, or as first John puts it, continuing in sin.

So in other words, when we sin, we are therefore ashamed of the gospel of Jesus.

Okay. I think that's the way that that Mitch is describing it here. Okay. I had always thought that it meant shame is portrayed by Peter when he denied the

Lord three times. I would really appreciate your thoughts as this seems to be a confusing verse.

Now that this other bit of information is introduced. In addition, I want to express my thankfulness to you and your wife for the ministry of what it has been an absolute blessing in my growth and understanding of scripture.

And I try to listen to it daily. Wow. Starting from episode zero zero one and working my way through the podcast library,

I am in Philippians four right now. Oh my goodness. Bless your heart,

Mitch. Thank you. Mitch might be responsible for the spike in downloads that I noticed earlier this week.

Good. Partly anyway. Yeah. He started, started downloading all the way back at, uh, at episode one.

All right. So here is the passage that, uh, Mitch has raised a question about.

This is in Mark eight. I'm going to begin reading in verse 31. Jesus began to teach them that the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed.

And after three days rise again. And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, get behind me, Satan, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man and calling the crowd to him with his disciples.

He said to them, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me for whoever would save his life.

We'll lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it.

For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul?

For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him, will the son of man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his father with the holy angels?

So what Jesus is simply saying here is that if you are ashamed of him and of the gospel of Christ, then he is not going to be your advocate before the father on the day of judgment.

There will not be Christ standing before God saying this person's sins have been paid for by my blood and they have been adopted into the family of God and are a son and daughter of God.

Rather on the day of judgment, Jesus is going to say of them, depart from me, you worker of lawlessness.

I never knew you. So it's not technically that whenever we sin, we are denying

Christ. It's that a person's life overall would be a complete denial of Christ, nor do they even acknowledge with their lips that Jesus Christ is

Lord and that his gospel is the only way to salvation. If a person refuses to believe the gospel, then they will be refused access into the eternal kingdom of God on the day of judgment.

Right. So that, so that's simply what's, what's being said there. Um, I'm guessing again that Mitch's question or that his friend was saying anytime we sin, we are denying the gospel.

There's an element of that that can be true if by a lifestyle or if you, if you are in a lifestyle of unrepentant sin, it is though you are saying by your life that you have no confidence in Christ who is the only way to salvation.

You are saying, I can sin however, however I want. God's grace is just going to cover over me in that sin.

And that's something that Mark or Mark, I'm reading from Mark now talking about Paul, Paul directly confronted in Romans chapter six, where he says, how can we who are dead to sin still live in it?

If you are, if you're dead to sin, you're not going to return to that lifestyle, right? You're growing in holiness, not continuing to walk in sin.

Otherwise you're displaying that you're still enslaved to your sin. So there is a sense in which a person's lifestyle would be a denial of Christ, but it's not that whenever we sin, we are therefore denying

Christ. Right. That's just, that's just temptation of the flesh stumbling in our flesh.

And we have that. We're always going to be sinners until we die and go to heaven.

Even when we're not sinning, we're still sinners. Yep. For the, the fleshly human heart of man is, is always going to be inclined to the things of this world.

Right. As Charles Spurgeon talked about, he talked about it as an indwelling sin. And he said, the old man that is dead and gone, and now we're a new person in Christ, but that old man is still there.

He may, he may be suppressed. He may be way deep down inside, but there's still an element of that old

Adam that is trying to get out that, that is clawing for worldliness. And it is only when we grow in the spirit that we have less and less of the old man and more and more of the last

Adam, who is Jesus Christ. And if all of those, the apostles, and I know

Paul had, didn't he say that he's the, um, of all the centers, he's the worst or whatever.

And man, of whom I am the foremost. Yes. And it's just like, man, if they, if they still struggle with sin, who am

I to say that I'm not going to be struggling forever? You know, even more so because they were just godly men and, and went through persecution and everything.

And so it was just, it's very humbling to think that there's not going to be a time that I won't be sinning.

Yeah. We always need Christ. And this is why John Piper sermon in which he, uh, told

Christians to preach the gospel to yourself every day is so incredibly valuable because, uh,

I, the, the more I grow in sanctification, the more I grow in the knowledge and understanding of God, the more

I realize my own depravity. Yes. So as I'm maturing as a Christian, I'm actually becoming more and more aware of my sinfulness.

Uh, and, and desiring, you know, crying with Paul in Romans seven, wretched man that I am who will save me from this body of death.

Right. So there's that constant need for renewal every day, which is why

Paul said in Romans 12 to, to be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Renewing is that's constant. That's ongoing. That's not something you did on the day of conversion.

Right. You, your mind, it is all the time. Yeah. You constantly need to cleanse from yourself the toxicity of the world that you absorbed the day before and, uh, and find yourself in the word of God.

Jesus equates here in, in Mark eight, he equates love for his word with love for Christ himself.

If you deny the word of Christ, it's the same as if you deny Christ because I can say

I love my wife, but I can't stand it when she talks to me. Yeah. Then I can't possibly love my wife. Nope.

I would not feel the love. It's that's what we say whenever we say

I love Jesus, but I don't need to study the Bible. You're saying you're, you're denying his word. It's the same as if you deny

Christ, right? Who you're actually in love with is your own version of Jesus, right? Rather than who

Jesus says he is according to his own word. It makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Yeah.

Your Jesus is the one that gives you all the warm fuzzies as Becky is next to me wrapped in this blanket again, because this is the coldest room in the house.

Yes, it is. That's why it's so awesome to get emails from places like, you know, whether it's Singapore or Fort Wayne, Indiana, I make what videos and record this stuff in my basement.

Yup. And I have no idea who this is reaching out to. It's just us. Yeah, that's right.

It's just her and I just do a couple of microphones between us. Maybe our kids on down the line. Yeah. Yeah. Somewhere.

They're, they're always asking, Hey, when am I going to hear myself on the podcast? Got to grow up a little bit.

Son or daughter. They're so cute. They are absolutely adorable. We are filled with adorableness each and every day.

All right. Here we are. Rabbit trailing again. Sorry. But thank you all for your emails, whether it's from Singapore or from Fort Wayne, Indiana.

It is. It's great to hear from the listeners. And once again, I didn't plug this, this email at the very beginning, but you can email your questions to when we understand the text at gmail .com.

Next question. I think this is my last question. Yeah. This one comes from Connor. He says, Hey, a friend of mine recently asked me for a theology of angels.

And I thought I would ask the wonderful Hughes couple. What is a Christ centered theology of angels and how important do you think it is to understand?

Well, as important as it is to understand anything in the scriptures. Mm hmm. Now having a right theology on who angels are and what it is that they do, isn't necessarily one of the essential doctrines, right?

It's kind of something that you come into a little bit later after you come to understand a salvation and sin and death and righteousness.

Some of those things are more important to be studying and fill up your theological repertoire with maybe before you start getting into an understanding of angels.

But we do have some great scriptures that tell us exactly who the angels are and what it is that they do.

And I think that the most clarifying passage on the, uh, the purpose of the angelic beings is

Hebrews one 14, where it says that angels are ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation.

So what, what's the point of angels? What does God use the angels for? It's to serve us.

Angels serve those who are going to inherit salvation. And we also see there in that passage that angels are spirits.

They're ministering spirits sent out to serve. So if they're spirits, they do not have physical bodies and not having physical bodies.

This is why anytime an angel appears to somebody in scripture, the person that they appear to, they are absolutely terrified, because first they were alone in the room and suddenly there's an angel.

And they always say, do not be afraid. They have to, they have to announce first. Right. It's kind of the,

I can't even imagine. And they do, they do not look like men or women, because that's commonly the way that we see them depicted in artistic portrayals.

They are, because we don't know how to do it. Otherwise we can't perceive, you've never seen an angel. So we don't perceive an angel any other way, but, but sometimes they're described as having heads like lions, you know, eyes like lightning.

They're fierce looking, whatever it is. They look like, they don't look like the appearance that we have.

And people have bowed to them. Isn't that right? In the Bible. And it says, don't bow to me. Yeah. Yeah. That was John. It is not me who you need to bow to or something like that.

Right. And, and I can't remember which teacher it was that was talking about this, but I'm explaining why

John did that, why John fell down before an angel and worshiped. And the angel said, no, no, no, not to me.

And had him stand back up. This teacher said, if we were to see our glorified selves, who we are going to be in the presence of Christ, when we enter into his glory, we would probably bow down and worship that person.

Right. We're, they are so much more glorious and holy than we are. Oh yeah.

That in this crude flesh that we inhabit, they would appear to us as beings that should be worshiped.

That's what we would think. And so the, uh, the angels are glorious. They are holy.

Angels are holy. Of course they're made holy by God, just as we're going to be made holy. And they're in his presence.

So they have to be. Exactly. Right. Because they, they enter into and out of the presence of God. We read about that in the book of Job, but as a matter of fact, pictures in the

Bible of angels presenting themselves before God. So it's in Job one, six and in two one.

And it says there that Satan came before God on one of those occasions in which the angels had come before him and presented himself.

And that was how Satan got an audience with God. And they had that conversation about Job. Right. So in order to be there and, and live in the place where God dwells, angels likewise have to be holy.

Right. But we also know there are angels that are not holy. Right. And those would be the demons. The Satan and his minions make up the third of angels that were swept out of heaven and cast down to the earth because they rebelled against God.

So we know that angels also can exercise will. They cannot do anything outside of the will of God.

So even if Satan rebelled against God and was cast from heaven, it was God's will that that would transpire.

Satan was not allowed to touch Job the first time that God permitted him to afflict

Job. And so Satan could only do what God had permitted Satan to do. Right.

And so the, uh, so we, we see that angels do have a will. They are individual persons.

Uh, angels are limited. They're not omnipresent. Right. So it's not like there's, there's an angel that's watching every single person.

And this angel decides to go to that person or whatever. Right. Angels are not omnipresent. Only God is omnipresent.

And this is one of the reasons why Catholic theology is so flawed is because they pray to angels and they pray to dead saints like Mary, Jude, Joseph, et cetera.

And, and in doing so in praying to a dead saint or an angel, it's an acknowledgement that that person that I'm praying to is omnipresent.

They would have to be in order to hear my prayer. So it is deifying that individual that they are praying to.

The only person who can hear our prayers is God. There is no one else that can listen to us pray except him alone.

And we have it stated in first Timothy two, five, that there is one mediator between God and man, and that is the man, the

God, man, Jesus Christ. That's right. We have our prayers taken before the father because Christ is our advocate before the father.

There's no one else. We cannot pray to anyone else for to pray to another being would be to acknowledge them as a deity.

Angels themselves, not deities. They are not omnipresent. Uh, we also know that some angels are more powerful than others.

In Daniel chapter 10, Daniel was given a vision and he didn't understand what the vision meant.

And he was tormented by this vision. And he prayed to God to ask him to reveal what the vision meant.

It was something like two weeks went by. The angel Gabriel showed up, right? He doesn't identify himself.

He does in chapter eight. So we're led to believe the angel that appears to him again in chapter 10 is the same angel that appeared in chapter eight.

And that was the angel Gabriel. And he said that he was restrained from being able to come to Daniel and had to call on Michael, the archangel to, uh, uh, to do away with the prince of Persia, as he was described, who was detaining

Gabriel from being able to get to Daniel. So we know that angels have different levels of power and authority.

And proves that they're not omnipresent. Exactly. Or, uh, omnipotent. Yeah. They're also, they're also not all powerful.

They're also limited in knowledge for in Matthew 24, 36, Jesus says that not even the angels know the day of his return.

So they're not, uh, what's the word for that? Omniscient. They're not all knowing, uh, they, but they do live practically limitless lives in terms of age.

We know that God created them on a certain day, but we don't have any indication that angels die.

Right. For the same angel that appeared to Daniel and gave him the interpretation of the vision that he had was the angel that appeared to Mary in Luke chapter two.

Uh, what was that? Seven centuries later. Wow. So the, uh, so angels live really long lives longer than we live, but there is an appointed time for their judgment as well as ours in Matthew 8, 29, when the demon

Legion asked for, uh, or, or when he presented himself in front of Jesus, Legion said, are you here to torment us before the appointed time?

So there is a day that is said, and even the demons know in which the angels are going to be judged.

And we read about, but they don't know the day. They don't know the day. Right. Uh, and just to clarify,

Paul says in first Corinthian six, that we will judge angels. So we will be involved in that final judgment as co -heirs of the kingdom of God with Christ.

Uh, we know that as I said, angels exercise a particular will, but they cannot go outside the will of God.

And we just read about that this week in second Timothy chapter two, for we read that the

Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone able to teach patiently enduring evil, correcting opponents with gentleness.

God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth. And they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will.

So if a person is not a follower of Christ, they are a follower of Satan and they do the bidding and the will of Satan.

So, uh, and then we also have in Jude one, six, it mentioned that the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling.

He has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of that great day. They will be judged for having rebelled against God, those angels that will not be cast into the lake of fire on the day of judgment, they will worship

God forever with the saints around the heavenly throne. And like I said, in the book of Job, we have pictures of the angels presenting themselves before God.

They also execute God's judgments and the angels care for the saints at the time of our parting.

Remember the story that Jesus told in Luke 16 about the rich man and Lazarus. And when

Lazarus died, it says he was carried by angels to Abraham's side. Consider that, that when we die, our souls are carried to God in heaven by angels.

And Jesus even says in Matthew 24, that on the day of the Lord, the angels will gather his elect from all the four corners of the earth.

So we think of that day when we are going to be caught up in the air and be with our Lord forever. It's the angels that are snatching us up.

So this, this got their work cut out for them. That's right. This just furthers the, uh, the explanation of angels in Hebrews 1 14, who are ministering spirits, serving those who are going to inherit salvation.

Now, this is interesting that the Bible does not say that an angel is made in the image of God.

That is a signature that belongs exclusively to mankind. Angels are not among the redeemed.

God has no plan of redemption for the angels, but what we see there in Hebrews 1 14 is that they are meant to serve those who are going to inherit salvation.

When we did our study in first Peter, I mentioned this, but I'm going to come back to this passage again.

This is first Peter chapter one, starting in verse eight, Peter says, though you have not seen him referring to Jesus, you love him.

Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories, it was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves, but you in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the

Holy spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.

Oh, think about the fact that we receive a love and a grace and a forgiveness from God that not even, not even the angels get.

And even the angels wander and ponder over this grace of God that is bestowed upon those whom

God had predestined for salvation before the foundation of the world, which angels will never get, never get to know.

So there is a certain favor that God shows to us that he has not even shown angels.

And the indication that we have here from Peter is that even the angels would long to look into such things.

Did it say long or love? Long, long to look into. Oh, I thought I said love to look into.

No, they probably would. They would love to look into them, but it is not for the angels to know. It is something that God has given only to those elect whom he has predestined for adoption as sons and daughters in Christ.

I was thinking that, um, they love to see it. They would love to see like, no, no, no, not to experience it, but to watch.

They love to see it. Yeah, exactly. Right. Precisely. Because Jesus talks about in Luke 15, in the parable of, of the lost sheep, uh, the lost coin, and then the prodigal son, he mentions that the angels in heaven rejoice when one of these, uh, is found.

Yeah. I didn't think about that. Like I always thought it being the, I don't know why, but I always just, um, put the angels as, or vision them as the people like, um, his elect, not actually the angels.

Does that make sense? I don't know why I did that though. You envision angels as elect as well as people?

No, no, no, no, no. Okay. Um, my words are a little muddy. The angels rigged the election and that's how

Donald Trump got elected. No, no. Okay. So not anywhere close. Whenever it says that the angels rejoice in heaven,

I just figured that the heavens rejoice. And so the people that are up there, the souls are up there, they're rejoicing.

So I didn't really think about it as actual angels. So angels rejoicing are the people in heaven being described as angels who are rejoicing.

Yeah. But I don't know why I did that because that doesn't make any sense. If, if the Bible says angels, it means angels.

And if it says, you know what I mean? So I don't know. We're, we're definitely talking about a spiritual being with an angel as opposed to persons or saints.

I thought it was souls. I've had all kinds of wonky theology that I believe right before I came into sound teaching by faithful men of the word.

So in Psalm eight, we read David saying, Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth?

You have set your glory above the heavens out of the mouth of babies and infants.

You have established strength because of your foes to still the enemy and the Avenger. When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you care for him.

Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.

You have given him dominion over the work of your hands. You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen and also beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all of the earth? Who is man that you are mindful of him?

And yet we've been crowned with glory and honor. And so it's beautiful things, things that we are blessed to receive from God that not even the angels will receive.

But we will be fellow praisers with the angels on that day that we will be around the throne, singing and glorifying

God forever, along with the rest of his saints and the angels. So that's that's a beautiful picture.

Can't wait for the day. Deliver me from this body of death, from this corrupt flesh that I struggle with day by day.

Yes, that is crumbling. Thank you so much for your emails. Let's conclude with prayer. And that will bring this episode to a close.

Alrighty. Our wonderful God and Savior, we thank you for these lavish gifts that you have poured out upon us through your son,

Jesus Christ. We are not holy. We are not deserving to be in your in your presence, to dwell with you.

And yet we have this promise that we will be exalted even higher than the angels for those who are in Christ Jesus.

And that these angels that you have created who dwell in your holy habitation, even they serve us who are going to be inheritors of salvation.

What a wonderful, glorious God that you are. And I pray that that in all that we set our minds toward when it comes to studying your scriptures and knowing your word, that we would come to an even broader understanding of who you are day by day, whom you have revealed or what you have revealed of yourself within your word.

And we see the glory of God shining in the face of Jesus Christ. Let us not be ashamed of this word, but help us to grow in an understanding of it and share it with others so that they also may hear the gospel of peace and turn from sin and believe and be saved.

The scriptures tell us that he who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it on the day of Christ.

So, Lord, keep us steadfast in the faith and deliver us into your kingdom. Thank you for these listeners who have emailed in today.

And I want to pray specifically for Kenneth and what is before him at the church that has asked him to step into the pulpit and preach.

I pray that you would give him a clean conscience and wisdom as to how to respond to this invitation.

We thank you for Mitch. And I pray that he would know how to respond to his friend based on the answer that I was able to give from Mark 838.

And also thank you for Connor and his desire to know more about the word of God, even broadening his theology and an understanding of the angels.

May we be so blessed to know you more according to your word. And we pray these things in Jesus name.

Amen. And I even took my allergy medicines.

I don't have to do any of that. I haven't done that in a couple of days. Feeling it? Well, no.

Good. I'll get a throat tickle. Yep. And it's kind of like I could have prevented that if I took my allergy medicine the day before.

But I feel all right now, so I haven't had to worry about it. Oh, good. I'm starting to see cotton float.

Oh, the cotton trees. I didn't even think of that. Yeah, I'm not happy. I've had a headache all day.

Is that what it's from? Yeah, that. And also I was trying to cut back on soda and now's not the time.

Yep. Yeah. Welcome to caffeine withdrawals. Well, that with the cotton.

Just it was a bad headache day. Let's see. I'm just yep.