reviews to us in his word about the subject of angels we want to pick up this evening by looking at the activities of the angels primarily the activities of the holy angels but as time permits we'll very briefly deal with the activities of the evil angels as well we noted early in our study that today there are two major classifications of angels those that are called holy angels and these are the angels that were created holy by God, and when confronted with the choice of either remaining loyal to God or rebelling against God, they chose to remain faithful to God. But then there's a second classification of angels that we could call the fallen or evil angels. They were created originally holy by God, but then sometime afterward made the faithful decision to rebel against God and thereby became evil. Let me just point something out with regard to those two classifications. We were dealing this morning with implications from the Bible to the effect that God never provides salvation for the fallen angels. And the fact that that's true indicates to us that once those angels made their choice to rebel against God, they were locked into that choice forever. They can never get saved. Now, the fact that that happened to those angels implies therefore that the other angels who at the same time made the choice remain loyal to God that once they made that choice they were locked into that choice forever as well and so they will always be holy and that would indicate therefore that you do not have more falling of holy angels away from God since that time back there when all the angels made a choice one way or the other either way they decided they were locked into That's a vision forever. The evil ones will always be evil and fallen. The holy ones will always be holy angels and faithful to God. But what are the activities of the holy angels? When you look at everything that the Bible tells us about this, you find that their activities fall into certain categories. And so first, the activities of the holy angels toward God. The activities of the holy angels toward God. Some of these I'm going to refer to and just make some references to where this is found in the Bible, but there's so many activities for the sake of time, we won't take time in every instance to look up every reference. But for example, according to the Bible, the holy angels worship and adore the triune God. They worship and adore the triune God. Remember one of our earlier sessions in Hebrews chapter one, verse six, We have the record where God the Father commanded the angels to worship His Son, to worship the Lord Jesus. That tells us, therefore, that the holy angels worship the Lord Jesus. But then when you go to Revelation chapter four, verses six through eight, where John is given a view of heaven, he saw these four living creatures that apparently make up the four sides of God's throne in heaven. And we indicated the other day, as far as we can tell, they are cherubim. and they are continually crying out, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who is, or who was, who is, who is to come. These angels, and we're told they do that day and night. They are continually adoring and worshiping God the Father on his throne there in heaven. So they worship and they adore the triune God. Secondly, Holy angels, at least in Bible times, sometimes would communicate God's will to human beings. Sometimes would communicate God's will to human beings. Remember, for example, in Matthew chapter one, where God sent an holy angel to Joseph to explain to him Mary's pregnancy and that it was not due to what Joseph concluded, but instead it was the sovereign and supernatural act of God. through the Holy Spirit that caused that concession in Mary's womb and therefore saying to Joseph, God's will for you with regard to Mary is that you take her as your wife. Communicate God's will to him. And then when you go to Matthew chapter two, when Herod was going to threaten the life of the baby Jesus, God sent a holy angel to Joseph and said, take the unchild and his mother down to Egypt till the danger has passed. And Joseph obeyed. That was God's will for him. And then after Herod died, God sent a holy angel to Joseph again down in Egypt and said, now the threat to the child's life is over. Now take the child and his mother married back home. And so Joseph obeyed. So God at different times in Bible history would send holy angels to communicate his will specifically to human beings. look if you would please at psalm one hundred and three verses twenty through twenty one psalm one hundred and three verses twenty to twenty one this is one of the places in the bible that makes it very clear that the holy angels obey god's commands they obey god's commands psalm one hundred and three verse twenty bless the lord you his angels that excel in strength. Now notice that do his commandments, hearkening under the voice of his word. Bless you, the Lord, all you as hosts, you ministers of his that do his pleasure. Indicate that the holy angels obey God's commands. They do his pleasure. They do what he wants them to do. Another activity of the Holy Angels toward God is that they administer God's judgments. They administer God's judgments. There are some examples of that in the Old Testament, for example, but one passage that makes this very clear is the Book of Revelation. In chapters eight through eleven, where we are told that Holy Angels will administer the seven trumpet judgments. of God upon the earth during the tribulation period. Then in Revelation chapter sixteen, holy angels will also administer God's ball or vile judgments upon the earth in the very latter part of the seven-year tribulation period. So they frequently administer God's judgments. And then here's another interesting one. Turn with me, if you would please, to Acts chapter seven, verse fifty-three. Acts chapter seven. verse fifty three Stephen is giving his defense to the Sanhedrin he's on trial before them and of course they're going to martyr him very shortly thereafter but he's referring here to Moses at a chapter seven verse fifty three says who have received the law by the disposition of angels The people of Israel, in other words, have received the law by the disposition of angels and have not kept it. Notice that significance. The people of Israel received the law by the disposition of angels. Look again, please, at Hebrews chapter two and verse two. Hebrews chapter two and verse two. The writer says, For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him what he's referring to in the context the word spoken by angels is the mosaic law and so both that statement plus Stephen's statement in Acts seven implies that there were angels together with Moses and the Lord on Mount Sinai. Yet they had some relationship to the law being given by God to Moses. We're not told exactly what the relationship was, but perhaps, perhaps angels were there functioning as intermediaries between God and Moses. You know, when you go back to the biblical account, when Moses was there, the Lord said to him, you cannot see me. I will not let you see me. because if a man sees me, he'll die. A mortal man, if he sees me, will die. So it could be that angels were there on Mount Sinai as intermediaries between the Lord and Moses. And perhaps the Lord gave the tables of stone to the angels, and perhaps they brought it over and handed it to Moses. But they had some relationship there to the giving of the law, from God to the Lord. through Moses to the people of Israel. Very, very interesting. Now, there's a second category, the activities of the holy angels, not just toward God, but their activities toward Jesus Christ. And when you go through this list, it's amazing how often angels were involved with the word Jesus, leading up to his birth and while he was here on planet Earth, and even after he died. For example, Luke chapter one, verses twenty-six to thirty-five, an angel, namely the angel Gabriel, came to the Virgin Mary and foretold the conception and birth of the Lord Jesus. Matthew chapter one, verse twenty-one, the angel who came to Joseph to explain Mary's pregnancy announced this child's human name. Remember what the angel said to Joseph? you shall call his name Jesus. A New Testament form of the Old Testament named Joshua, which means Savior. You shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Jesus was a form of Jehovah's saves. And so an angel announced Jesus' human name, even before he was born. Then in Luke chapter two, verses eight through fifteen there was an angel that announced Jesus' birth to the shepherds in the field and once he announced it then there was a great host of holy angels from heaven that joined together with him praising God for this great event that had just happened that in the city of David that night there was born unto them a Savior who is Christ the Lord Then Matthew chapter one, as we noticed earlier, an angel directed Jesus' stepfather to take Jesus' mother, Mary, as his wife, and to care for her. And of course, part of the implication of that was going to be to be Jesus' stepfather and provide for him, you know, as he'd be growing up in the realm of his humanity as a child here upon planet Earth. As we referred to earlier in Matthew chapter two, an angel came to joseph to provide protection while jesus was an infant so that herod could not put him to death as you know herod when he heard that the messiah was to be born in bethlehem gave an order for all boy babies two years of age another to be slaughtered in the city of bethlehem herod's way of trying to get rid of this one whom he regarded as a threat to him being the king there of israel and so God sent an angel to Joseph to tell him how to bring about the protection of the infant Jesus from Herod's threats. In Matthew chapter four and Mark chapter one, angels, plural, ministered to the Lord Jesus after he had been tempted by Satan. Keep in mind, Jesus had been out in the Judean wilderness for forty days and nights without food. And when he was in the realm of his humanity was very weakened physically, Satan came to tempt him when he was in that weakened condition. And you could imagine that would have drained the Lord Jesus even more. And I don't know what you know about the Judean wilderness. But when I was teaching at Philadelphia College of Bible, they had a program, they still have it, where students in their junior year could go to Israel and study there for half a year or for an entire year. And the instructor of our faculty, who was responsible for lining them up and preparing them to go, when he would get together with them before they would leave, he would tell them, don't you ever try? to walk across the Judean wilderness. Because if you do, in almost every instance you'll never make it alive. Well, one year there was a young man that went over there and he decided to take that as a challenge. And he went out all by himself. started near the Dead Sea and started walking west toward the Mediterranean Sea across the Judean wilderness, was in there for several days, had to sleep out of doors night and try to find provisions day by day. By God's grace, he survived. But when he came out on the western side into a village and the people who lived in that village saw him, they said to him, Did you walk across the Judean wilderness? Yes. What a fully shunned man. You had better be very thankful that you survived because most people don't make it. Well, he survived, but it had a tremendous detrimental effect upon his health for years after that. And there was Jesus out in that wilderness for forty days and forty nights without food. and greatly weakened physically in its humanity. And Satan tempted him when the temptation was over. Angels came to minister to the Lord Jesus. I don't know if they brought food to him or what, but somehow I take it helped him to regain physical strength so that he could walk out of that Judean wilderness. in spite of how weak he had been there after such an extended period of time in that detrimental place. Again, Luke, verse forty-three, one angel, an angel, came to Jesus and strengthened him during his Gethsemane agony the night before he went to the cross. And then Luke twenty-four, verse twenty-three, John twenty, verses eleven through fourteen, and the other Gospels, too, record the fact that angels witnessed and announced Jesus' resurrection from the dead. And the John passage, for example, we're told that Mary Magdalene came to the tomb by herself, and it was open, and she saw inside the tomb two angels. located one at the head of where Jesus would have laid and one at the foot of where Jesus would have laid. And they announced to her the fact that he had risen from the dead just as he said that he would. So angels witnessed and announced the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Acts chapter one, verses ten and eleven. Angels attended the Lord Jesus at his ascension. They were told there were two men, quote unquote, But as we've already noted, there were times in Bible times where angels appeared in male human form. And these were dressed in beautiful white garments, apparently almost glowing garments. There were angels that were there. They're what they said to the disciples. Why do you stand here gazing into heaven? This same Jesus will come in like manner. just as you have seen him go. So two angels were there to attend the Lord Jesus at his ascension. And then according to First Thessalonians chapter four, First Thessalonians chapter four, verses thirteen through eighteen, Paul tells us that when Jesus in the future will come out of heaven to rapture the church from the earth, to meet him in the air, that he will be accompanied by an archangel. We're told about the shout of an archangel and the trump of God will be blown. So apparently an archangel will accompany the Lord Jesus as his escort from the Father's house in heaven when he comes down to the air above planet earth to catch up his private church to meet him in the air. And then Jesus made it very clear that angels will attend him at his second coming. Look for example at Matthew chapter twenty four. Matthew chapter twenty four and we'll begin with verse twenty nine Matthew chapter twenty four beginning verse twenty nine Jesus in verse twenty one had just referred to the future great tribulation the unparalleled time of trouble in all of world history excuse me having referred to the great tribulation verse twenty nine he says immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened and the moon shall not give her light and the star shall fall from heaven and the powers of the heaven shall be shaken great cosmic disturbances will take place first immediately after Jesus comes out of heaven and his glorious second coming after the end of the tribulation period and then in other words after the cosmic disturbances have ended then shall appear the sign of the son of man in heaven and then after his sign has appeared shall all the tribes of the earth mourn and they shall see the Son of Man coming into the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, and he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, literally the sound of a great trumpet, and they shall gather together the elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other. By the way, the gathering of the elect there is not referring to church saints. This is not the rapture. Every part of Jesus' statement in verse thirty-one is taken from Old Testament passages that talk about the nation of Israel. Old Testament, God calls Israel his elect, his chosen people. And their Old Testament passage where God said to them, because of your persistent rebellion, I will scatter you to all the winds. Then he foretold, but in the future I will regather you out of the winds. And in Isaiah chapter twenty-seven, around verses eleven through thirteen God said he will regather the people of Israel with the sound of a great trumpet that's exactly what Jesus is talking about here at his second coming after the tribulation the holy angels who come out of heaven with him he will send them throughout the world and they will gather together his elect people of Israel from all four winds from all four directions with the sound of a great trumpet His angels will accompany Him out of heaven in His glorious second coming. A third category of activities of holy angels is their activities toward nations, their activities toward nations. We noted earlier in our study this week from Daniel chapter first verse of Daniel eleven, the early part of Daniel chapter twelve, that God has assigned, for example, Michael the archangel to the nation of Israel. And there God calls Michael the prince of the people of Israel. He's an angelic prince. that God assigns to the nation of Israel to influence what it does and what happens to it, and to prevent it from being totally annihilated from the face of the earth. But we also saw from Daniel ten that there was a heavenly being that came to Daniel And he indicated that before he got to Daniel, he was withstood by the prince of Persia. Obviously, this prince of Persia, which is an angelic being, if it would stood a holy being that God sent to Daniel from heaven, that prince of Persia must be an evil angelic prince, trying to prevent God's messenger from getting to heaven to Daniel. And then the heavenly being said to Daniel that when he would leave Daniel, he'd have to go back and fight again against the Prince of Persia. And then after the Prince of Persia, he'd also have to fight against the Prince of Greece. And he says that Michael stands with him in some of this angelic warfare with these evil princes that Satan assigns to nations here upon planet Earth to influence their decisions and policies and practices. All this indicates that Satan assigns, at least in some instances, evil angels to certain kingdoms or nations to influence them, but also that God assigns some holy angels, at least to certain nations and kingdoms to influence them and what they do and how they impact international events. going here upon planet Earth. And so in the heavenly spirit realm, there's angelic conflict going on between holy and evil angels with regard to the affairs of nations here upon planet Earth. Excuse me. That's why I mentioned the other day when we watch the news on television, we are witnessing, hearing about things as they appear to us totally in the human realm here upon planet Earth. But we're totally oblivious to what's going on in the spirit realm, the angelic realm, in the invisible angelic realm with the affairs of nations here upon this earth. Then there's a fourth category of the Holy Angels, and that is their activities toward the church, their activities toward the church. As you know, in First Corinthians chapter eleven, where Paul is talking about proper decor and conduct in church worship services, he spells out some distinctions between the role of male and female in church worship services. And of course, this is the passage where Paul talks about women wearing a covering. in church service, a head covering. As I'm sure you're aware, a lot of people say, well, that was purely a cultural thing. But the real problems with that, if you look at every reason Paul gives for that, every reason was non-cultural, had nothing to do with culture whatsoever. And one of the reasons that Paul gave for women wearing a covering in a worship service was because of the angels, because of the angels. Now that implies something. In fact, it implies a couple of things. One of the things it implies is that angels are present in church worship services observing what's going on. I don't want to make it feel uneasy or spooky tonight, but I think we could assume, in light of what Paul's indicated here, other pastors were going to look at that angels are present here tonight and they're watching what's going on. But the question is, what do angels have to do with this? That one of the reasons Paul gives for women wearing the covering was because of the angels. Interestingly, the most authoritative, exhaustive work on the Greek language of the New Testament is a large ten-volume set called the Theological Dictionary of New Testament Words. It is outstanding. And in their article dealing with the covering, They point out that in verse ten of chapter eleven, where Paul talks about women wearing the covering because of angels, they point out that a word that Paul uses there indicates that that covering is a symbol of authority. It's a symbol of authority. Now think of the implications of that. Where is a woman in relationship to that authority, that symbol? She's underneath it. And so the intention is that this implies that she is in submission to the functional headship authority that God has ordained for men in the local church. But again, what does it have to do with angels? Well, let me ask you a question. Which group of God's creatures were the first to rebel against God ordained and established authority? The angels, beginning with Satan, and then he got other angels to join him in their attempt to rebel against God and overthrow his authority. And to me that indicates therefore that since the covering is a symbol of authority and the woman is located underneath that, to me that says that God wants Christian women to be examples to the angels of creatures of God who are willing to submit to the God-ordained levels of authority without trying to subvert it and overthrow it. You lie the fact that angels tried to subvert and overthrow God-ordained authority that was over them. But it implies that angels are watching what's going on in the church and worship services. Look also at First Corinthians chapter four in verse nine. First Corinthians chapter four. and verse nine the Apostle Paul says for I think that God has set forth us the Apostles last as it were appointed to death for we are made a spectacle unto the world and to angels and to men that's Paul's way of saying that holy angels maybe evil angels too are watching what happens to church leadership, to church leaders. The apostles, of course, were church leaders. And he's saying that God has made them a spectacle, not only unto the world, but also to the angels. So apparently, angels are watching what happens to church leaders. What people do to church leaders. What society does to church leaders. But then on the opposite side of the coin, look if you would please at First Timothy chapter five and verse twenty one. First Timothy chapter five and verse twenty one. You know that Paul sent Timothy out as a leader to different churches to minister to them. First Timothy chapter five verse twenty one. Paul says with Timothy, I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ. and the elect angels, that you observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality. This is saying that the angels are also watching what church leaders themselves do. Not only are they watching what others do to church leaders, but angels are also watching what the church leaders themselves do. You know, Paul in First Corinthians makes it very clear to church leaders, particularly chapter four, they'd better be careful what they do to the church in which God has placed them as leaders, that they don't harm the body of Christ the church by exercising their leadership in wrong ways. And that's why Paul is exhorting Timothy. I charge you. You know, as you carry out your leadership responsibilities the proper way, because you're being observed. And one group that's watching how you carry out your leadership responsibilities as a church leader are the angels. They're watching how you function as a church leader. But then there's another very significant passage. Turn please to Ephesians chapter three. Ephesians chapter three. Let's begin with verse nine. Ephesians three, verse nine. Paul says, And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world has been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ, to the intent that now under the principalities and powers and heavenly places, that's powerful angels in the heavenly realm, to the intent that now under the principalities and powers and heavenly places, might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God. Might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God. He talked in verse nine about the mystery. And if you look earlier in Ephesians chapter three, in this instance, the mystery was God's revelation that he'd given to the effect, that there'd be a period of history in which God would build a new body called the church. And as he would build that, he would remove enmity that existed between Jew and Gentile for centuries. would remove that enmity from between them and bring these former enemies together as Jew and Gentile as equals into one body, the body of Christ the Church, on an equal basis. And Paul says, in light of that mystery, the reason God does that, one of the reasons he does that is to the intent that now unto the angelic principalities and powers in the heavenly realm might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God. What he's saying is, angels watch how God builds the church. They're always watching the church and how it's being built and how it functions, how God brings it together. And as they're watching that, they're learning things about God's wisdom that they can never learn in any other way. What that is saying is, we who make up the church are an object lesson to the angels, of the wisdom of God. Let me give you what I'm convinced is a classic example of what Paul is talking about here. About ten years ago, when the Gulf War was going on, Through the witness of a Bible-leaving church in the city of Jerusalem in Israel, there was a middle-aged Jewish man who came to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. And then began a fellowship in this assembly of believers. And after he'd been fellowshiping there for a few months, one day when they were gathered together to worship, he showed up to the meeting with another man who was a complete stranger to all the other people there as worshipers that day. At the conclusion of the worship time, he got up with his friend, walked down to the front, turned around and faced the believers that were there. The Jewish man said to them, I want to introduce to you my friend. He wants to accept Jesus as his Savior. I've been witnessing to him. My friend is an Arab. This is the man who murdered my mother. Think of the implications of that. A Jew has gotten saved by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ as a result of the witness of this local church of believers. And a man, I'm sure before he's saved, he must have hated with a passion. Number one, he was an Arab. The number two, he was an Arab who murdered his Jewish mother. But God gave him a kosher heart, changed his heart to where he developed a godly love for this Arab man, so much so he was concerned about his eternal destiny. He tracked him down, began sharing with him the truth about Christ, and brought him to the church that day and says he wants to accept Jesus as a Savior. I cannot help but feel that angels in heaven must have said, Wow! Did you see that? Who else could have the wisdom to figure out a way to remove enmity and hatred between former enemies and bring them together as one in Jesus Christ? Angels are watching the way God builds the church. And through that, through that object lesson, they're gaining insight and knowledge about a facet of God's wisdom that they could never learn or know about in any other way. All these things imply to me angels are watching the church and how God deals with it, but also how we deal with one another. How do we treat our leaders? and how do they carry out their responsibilities of leadership? Are all of us doing it the way God intends for his church here upon planet Earth? There's a fifth category of activities of holy angels, and that is Their activities toward individual saints. We noticed in a very first session, Hebrews chapter one, verse fourteen, where the writer says of angels, are they not all ministering spirits sent out to minister to those who inherit salvation? Indicated that holy angels do carry out ministries toward God's saints, toward those people who inherit salvation. Now, one way they did it, at least in Bible times, we've already referred to this in more than one way. In Bible times, from time to time, God would send holy angels to make His will known to saints. At least God did that before the New Testament scriptures were written. And we saw examples of that here this evening. But then the Bible makes it very clear that angels guard and preserve the saints. They guard and preserve the saints. And we have some biblical examples of that. Remember Gentiles' nineteen we saw on Sunday where the Lord sent two angels over to Sodom to rescue Lot and his family from that city before God would destroy that city. God sending angels to rescue at least Lot who apparently belonged to the Lord, even though he wasn't always living the way he should. How about Daniel, Daniel chapter six, other officials? in the Medo-Persian government become very jealous of Daniel because Daniel is doing such a great job in his administrative role, even though he's about eighty years of age at this time, that the King Darius is so impressed with Daniel, he's planning to elevate Daniel in authority over all these other officials. And typical of Gentiles who are anti-Semitic and they're jealous of Daniel, they decide we've got to get rid of this Jew. So they figure, well, he's a politician. All we have to do is go back and look at his record as politician. We'll be able to uncover all the skeletons of the closet and get him in disfavor with the king, and the king will throw him out. But no matter how closely they scrutinize Daniel, record as a politician, they couldn't find anything that they could bring against him. So in desperation, we'll use his religion. And so they came in before King Darius, And they tricked him into signing into Medo-Persian law a decree that if any man in that realm would pray to any God or anyone else except King Darius for the next thirty days, he'd be fed to the lions. And Darius fell for that, signing into law. And according to Medo-Persian law, even the king himself could not abolish that law once it was signed into effect. And when Darius found out that Daniel was the one that would get caught by that, He tried desperately to get around it, but he couldn't. He had to throw Daniel into the lion's den. And he was so upset by it, he couldn't sleep that night. And the next morning at the crack of dawn, he runs out to the den and he cries in, Oh, Daniel, good taken question now, was your God able to deliver you? That's a good taken question. Not a matter of God able, but did he choose to do so? Was your God able to deliver you? And then he waited and hoped that the next sound he would hear would not be allowed burp from a satisfied lion. And Daniel responded, O king, live forever. My God sent an angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions. And in essence, I'm here all in one piece. God sent his angel. to preserve the life of the saint. We have examples in Acts chapter five and Acts chapter twelve where apostles were thrown into prison because of their faithfully preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ there around Jerusalem. And in both instances, God sent angels to set them free from the prisons. God ministering to the saints, to protect them, to guard them, to preserve them. Now, in a lot of these instances, this automatically raises the question, does God assign one angel to each believer throughout life as a guardian angel? You know, does each one of us have our own guardian angel to watch over us and guard us and protect us and take care of us? Let me take you to two different passages in the New Testament that may shed some light on this. Matthew chapter eighteen, verse ten, Matthew chapter eighteen and verse ten Jesus is speaking and about children where he says to adults take heed that you despise not one of these little ones for I said to you that in heaven Their angels, notice the possessor pronoun. In other words, the angels that belong to them. Their angels do always behold the face of my Father, which is in heaven. That seems to imply that God assigned some holy angels to children, to watch over them and guard them and protect them from harm. Some children I know, the angels must be pretty busy. with the way they act. I don't know how familiar you are with the newspaper comic strip called Family Circus, but this one showed a picture of a little boy named Billy zooming across the room inside the house on a skateboard. He slams into a large chest with a big vase about as large as he is and it's ready to topple down on top of him. As invisible angels, they're just in time to catch it before it hits him. Next picture, Billy's kite got caught up in the roof of the house. He climbed up the ladders up on the roof to try to get it, but he's losing his balance. He's about ready to fall backwards off the roof, and his invisible angel is rushing up the ladder just in time to catch him. Next picture, Billy steps out in front of an oncoming car, and his angel just snatches him back on the sidewalk before he gets run over. Next one, he's in a swimming pool with other children. He's going down for the third time, and an angel is there just in time to rescue him before he drowns. The next picture, he's walking very nonchalantly across an open field, and here's a big snake coming up behind him, ready to strike him, and his invisible angel is there just in time with an invisible club to zonk that snake on the head. The next picture, Billy's angel is up in heaven, and he's standing before an authoritative angel that has the title Archangel on it, and his supervisor says, What's this? You want an assistant? And Billy's angel said, well, yes. Billy's a very active kid, and I just can't. Oops, there goes my beeper. I got to go. Jesus' statement there about their angels in heaven does seem to imply that God assigns angels to little children, at least to protect them and guard them from harm. But look at Acts chapter twelve. Peter was thrown into prison and it looked like he might be executed. And the believers are gathered together to pray. And apparently Peter knew about that and where they were praying. But in the middle of the night, God sent a holy angel, woke Peter up, loosened his chains, opened up the prison gates, set him free. It wasn't until after Peter was out, he recognized it was an angel that set him free. Peter went immediately over to the home where the Christians are praying. And look, if you would, please, at verse thirteen of Acts twelve. As Peter knocked at the door the gate, a damsel came to hearken named Rhoda. When she knew Peter's voice, she opened up the gate for gladness. She got so excited Peter was out there, she forgot to open the gate to let him in. She ran in, apparently interrupted the prayer meeting, and told how Peter stood before the gate. They said to her, You're mad. That means you're out of your mind. You hear they've been praying for Peter's protection, and when God answers, they don't believe he's done it, like a lot of us do. But she constantly affirmed that it was even so, and notice what they said. They said, it's his angel. Not Peter out there. Now notice, it's his angel, because that's the pronoun, the angel that belongs to Peter. Now, these are Jewish Christians now, and apparently they had the idea that God does assign a personal guardian angel to individual believers. And so this may very well indicate that each one of us does have our own personal guardian angel, but whether it's one angel throughout our life, or whether it's different angels that come at different times throughout our life, either way, the bottom line is the same. God uses holy angels. to guard, protect, preserve his saints when it's his will to do so. And I'm convinced when you and I get to glory, we're going to be amazed to find out how many times during our lifetime we narrowly averted premature physical death or physical harm. And the reason we did was because a holy angel was present to protect us. It's been my privilege several times to minister at the Bible conference at the SIM, Sudan Interior Mission Retirement Center, that's over here in Sebring, Florida. And one of the times we were there, one of the ladies who had been a veteran missionary for decades in Africa is now retired there, graciously invited my wife and me to her home for dinner. And while we were there, she related to us, an incredible experience she had while she was on the mission field. she had a little two-room hut the back room was a bedroom the front room was everything else that she had open doors no doors just open doorways both the front door and the door to her bedroom and during part of the time she was there as a missionary there was a rebel uprising going on the in the area and one night she had gone to sleep in her bed And she was awakened by hearing these heavy feet just pounding, running in the direction of her hut. And she just kind of raised her head to see, and she saw this huge man with a large machete in his hand running right straight for the doorway of her hut. And he came running right through the open door and headed right through the open door to her bedroom. And she's lying there watching this. But when he got to the empty door of her bedroom, all of a sudden, bam, just like he ran to the solid wall. And it stunned him. And he backed up and he looked. There was nothing there. She looked. There was nothing there. So he backed up and he ran at it again as fast as he could. It happened again. Then he took his machete and it went like this. And the open doorway didn't hit things. Then he backed up and he ran a third time and bam, he hit it again. And he finally gave up and left. And she's lying there in bed watching all this. She doesn't see anything between him and her in that doorway. And he doesn't see anything between him and her in that doorway. But she said, I'm absolutely convinced that there was an invisible holy angel standing in that doorway. And he was preventing him from getting to me to kill me. God sending the holy angel to guard, preserve, protect the life of one of the saints in that particular occasion. Now, here's a third activity of holy angels toward believers. angels somehow assist the prayers of saints up in heaven. Now, please, I'm not saying they pray for us. That's not it. But they assist our prayers in a certain way when our prayers arrive in heaven. Look, if you would, please, at Revelation chapter five and verse eight. Revelation chapter five and verse eight. John's referring to the Lord Jesus, taking the sealed scroll from God's hand, ready to break the seals. We read verse eight, when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of saints. Heavenly beings there, holding their hands, golden vials full of odors, which consist of the prayers of saints. Look at Revelation chapter eight and verse three. Revelation chapter eight, verse three. And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer, and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar, which was before the throne, and the smoke of the incense which came with the prayers of the saints, or set it up before God, of the angels hand it seems to imply that the angels mix the prayers of saints with incense to make them a sweet smelling offering to the Lord and that's all the scriptures indicate just these two brief statements about this but they're involved somehow with our saints along the with our prayers along those lines they're in heaven The final thing of their activities toward believers is that angels carried the souls of dead saints now to heaven when they died. Remember the account, which I'm absolutely convinced was a true historic event, that Jesus told in Luke sixteen about Lazarus and the rich man, Lazarus, a very poor man, but obviously a saint, a believer. And Jesus said that when Lazarus died, angels came from heaven and carried his soul to the place of blessing. By contrast, all it says is the rich man died and his soul was in torment in hell. But angels carried the souls of believers when they died to heaven. That should be a source of comfort to us as believers. That means, therefore, when we die, we're not alone. We're not alone. That God sends holy angels to escort our souls directly into the presence of the Lord in heaven. What a blessing and what an encouragement. Now let me just quickly conclude this. You're so gracious. And allow me to go some overtime here. Just quickly, the activities of angels, holy angels toward unbelievers. Activities of holy angels toward unbelievers. And I have to tell you, they're activities of judgment. Activities of judgment. Remember Genesis, angels cause blindness. upon the men of Sodom. And then they were God's instruments to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. They said to Lot, we cannot destroy this city until you get out of here. And apparently they're the ones who called the fire of God down out of heaven to destroy those two cities. Remember one of the Herods, not Herod the Great, but one of his descendants in Acts chapter twelve, verse twenty three, when some of the subjects came to meet with him and he made a speech to them they wanted to get some favor from him so they really buttered him up with all sorts of all sorts of compliments and they kept saying it's a voice of a God and not the voice of a man it's a voice of a God not the voice of a man they were ascribing deity to Herod to gain his favor and Herod accepted that description of deity he didn't reject it and Luke tells us in Acts that immediately an angel struck Herod with a fatal illness, and he died shortly thereafter. Josephus says, how accurate this is, we don't know, but Josephus says that there were literally worms that ate away as insides for the next several days with excruciating pain before he finally died. But an angel inflicted God's judgment upon that man because he accepted a description of deity to himself. We already noted that angels will pour out God's tribulation period judgments upon the unbelieving world during the future tribulation period. the seven trumpet judgments, the seven bowl or vow judgments. And then Matthew thirteen, verses thirty nine to forty two in the parable of the tares, the tares Jesus identified as the spiritual offspring of Satan, the unsaved people along this kingdom. And Jesus indicated that at the end of the age, at the time of the second coming after the tribulation period, his angels. will gather together all the unsaved people alive on the earth at that time and will cast them into a fiery place of judgment where they'll be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. So the holy angels will inflict God's judgment upon unbelievers. We have to call a quiz here at this time, and thank you for your patience in my going overtime here this evening. But I did want you to see what Holy Angels do. And when you look at that list, it says they're busy. They are busy. But we benefit from many of their ministries that in most instances we're totally unaware of whatsoever. They are spirits sent out by God to minister to those who inherit salvation. And I take it, this is simply another expression of God's grace toward us as His people. God our Father... how grateful we are to you for these heavenly beings that you send out from your holy presence in heaven to minister to the believers in your son jesus christ we praise you we thank you for this and we regard it as another aspect of your grace towards your saints and we do this in the name of jesus christ the one who created the angels and His sovereign Lord over them. In His name, amen.