This Bible study was recorded at Calvary Chapel
of the Finger Lakes and was taught by
Pastor Bill Gallatin.
This evening we're beginning chapter 12 of the
book of Acts.
As we get into Acts chapter 12, and
actually from here on in through the book
of Acts, as we see the record of
the church being developed, we see that God
uses angels in a tremendous way.
And I don't know if I've ever really
just spent a night and brought out the
doctrine of angels, what they are, who they
are, where they're from, what their purpose is,
and what their connection with the redeemed in
the world is.
We know that they're mentioned in different places
in the Bible, and so there's so much
that has to do with angels in this
particular chapter in the church that I thought
we'd just kind of look at a few
verses tonight to give you an idea.
And as you maybe make notations of these,
you can begin to do your own study.
But it should give us a general, accurate
view of angels, when they were created, where
they came from, what their purpose is, their
relationship to the redeemed, how God uses them
for the saved and the unsaved.
And then look and see just in your
own life and maybe reflect on some experiences
or things that have happened to you, and
you might just come to understand that maybe
there's an angel that's watched over you.
We know that they are created for specific
purposes.
So we'll look at that.
Now, what we'll see here in chapter 12
is Satan beginning to try and stifle the
spread of the church in the land through
the political leadership.
We come on the scene here to Herod
Agrippa I.
Now, I just mentioned his name as Herod,
but he is the grandson of Herod the
Great, who Satan used to try and destroy
Jesus at his birth.
And Satan's always using government to try and
stifle the church.
But the glorious thing is, you remember in
Matthew chapter 16, verse 18, Jesus said, "...the
gates of hell shall not prevail against my
church."
In other words, it doesn't matter what the
government is, whether it's Nazism, democracy, communism, fascism,
or whatever it may be, socialism that's spreading
around the world today, it cannot hinder the
church.
No matter what we see, God and His
providence have everything under control.
And as we see in this chapter, before
it's over, what Satan tries to do through
Herod, God uses it again for the good
and causes the church to continue to grow.
Even though God in His sovereignty and His
providence allows one powerful figure of the church
to go into glory, but then in another
particular case, He frees Peter from jail by
using an angel, a supernatural being.
Now, they are always invisible unless they manifest
themselves in this dimension and take on human
form.
They can even adapt their bodies as they
reveal themselves to us, maybe in a situation
that none of us ever expect, and they'll
even partake of that ability to swallow and
eat food and fellowship with us.
So, there are many, many accounts in the
Bible.
We're just going to look at a few.
Know this.
If you're redeemed, if you put your faith
in Jesus Christ, God has angels that He
actually created to protect you, that are assigned
to your life continually until you go into
glory.
You say, well then, why do terrible accidents
happen and people lose their lives?
It's just that the Lord says to the
angel, hold back.
He's coming home.
That's all.
He's coming into glory.
But you may not even realize this, but
you've had many, many close calls in your
life.
Now, you don't see the hand of the
angel, maybe.
You're not aware of it.
You just see maybe a close call where
you just went through an intersection, you hit
the brakes, something happened, and boy, you just
go, how was I lucky?
And you've probably got angels with smashed knuckles
and kneecaps jumping in front of the car,
you know, putting the brakes on for you
or something in the invisible realm.
So, we'll just get into it and see
what the Lord shows us here.
Again, Satan using the government to try and
hinder the church.
Now, this Herod character was a half Jew.
He was a Hasmonean.
And he did everything that was politically correct
to keep himself in office.
When he discovered as he began to persecute
the Christians that it pleased the Jews, he
intensified it because he felt it would give
him that security of staying in office without
having any trouble in the country, you know,
maintaining the votes and the popularity of the
people.
So, it says, It was about that time
Herod the king stretched forth his hands to
vex certain of the church.
And he killed James, the brother of John,
with the sword.
This would be, you know, John, or James,
the brother of John, one of the sons
of thunder.
You remember one of the brothers who were
in that fishing business with James?
He was the son of Zebedee, and they
were all working together with Peter on the
Sea of Galilee, you recall.
And Jesus came along and called them into
the ministry.
And so, James, the brother of John, is
killed with the sword.
And because he saw it pleased the Jews,
he proceeded further to take Peter also.
Peter, at this particular time, was the significant
one of the twelve.
He was the primary leader at that particular
time, with the most importance and the most
influence.
God was using him.
And he's already been in jail once, you
remember.
And God used an angel to deliver him
out of jail.
But here he takes them again.
And in this time, he's intending to kill
him.
Satan is seeking to put him to death
through the president or the king of the
country in some way.
Stop the move of this Christianity.
Now, it's interesting.
Satan didn't care that Judaism spread.
He didn't care about Judaism at all anymore,
because remember, it's been disannulled and set aside.
God's revealing himself now through Christianity, through Jesus
Christ.
And Judaism is no longer the vehicle.
And I find it interesting.
He wasn't putting to death practicing Jews, but
he was putting to death Jews that had
become Christians.
So, he didn't care about Judaism, just as
Satan doesn't care so much about Judaism today
or any cult or any other false religion.
His concern is Christianity, the true belief and
following of Jesus Christ.
Now, Satan hates Jews, but he doesn't care
too much about Judaism, because God isn't manifesting
himself through Judaism.
There's that letter to the Hebrews that states
that it has been set aside or disannulled.
It's time had come and Jesus Christ fulfilled
all the things that Judaism was speaking of,
the Mosaic institutions.
So, when he put him in jail...
Now, again, according to Jewish law, you could
not put anybody to death during a high
feast.
So, Herod, in his being crafty, rather than
create any kind of alarm, when he put
Peter in jail, he was going to wait
until the Passover feast was over and then
have him put to death.
But he's got him incarcerated.
When he saw it, pleased the Jews to
begin to kill the Christians.
He proceeded further to take Peter also, and
then were the days of the unleavened bread,
or the seven days of unleavened bread, when
all the Jews would begin to clean their
homes, to take out any kind of unleavened
or something that had to do with sin,
to cleanse their places, in remembrance of their
deliverance out of Egypt.
And on that eighth day, they would celebrate
the Passover in remembrance of their deliverance by
God, the magnificent, miraculous deliverance from the Pharaoh
and the bondage of the world.
When he had apprehended him, he put him
into prison and delivered him to four quaternions.
I don't know how you say that, quaternions?
Quaternions.
Actually, sixteen soldiers.
What they were, they were four groups of
soldiers that had six watches during the day,
or 24-hour period, and they would watch
over a prison.
You had one of those quaternions, or four
soldiers in their ship, would watch the entrance
of the prison.
Then the second soldier would actually guard the
prison door, or the door cell, where Peter
or any prisoner was kept.
Then the other two on their ship would
be chained to the prisoner.
So here's the Apostle Peter in his jail
cell, with two Roman soldiers chained to each
arm.
The third Roman soldier is guarding the door,
and the fourth, or the quaternions, the fourth
one would be guarding the actual entrance to
the jail itself.
And they would have these shifts 24 hours
a day.
So here's these guys, that actually two of
them, just like the Apostle Paul, that are
chained to Peter, having to listen to the
story of Jesus Christ.
You know, you wonder whose prisoner is who
here.
You know, God has ways, you know.
And so here they are keeping him.
Now, here's a mistake.
Actually, it's a legitimate mistake.
You'll notice it says, "...when he had apprehended
him, he put him into the prison, delivered
him to the four quaternions of soldiers, to
keep him intending after Easter to bring him
forth to the people."
Now, we must remember when the translators of
the King James, or our English Bibles, brought
the Scriptures into printed form.
It was around 1300 to 1500 A.D.
Now, there were manuscripts, or the letters, or
the epistles, being transported around the known world
then.
But it hadn't been put together in Biblical
form until around 1500.
At that particular time, the Christians, who were
no longer keeping Passover, began to keep Easter.
They made that their Christian holiday, celebrating the
resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Now, in the original text, in the Alexandrian
text, the Greek manuscripts, this is the Passover.
The early church, the Apostle Paul, all the
early apostles, never celebrated what we call Easter.
In fact, the word Easter never came into
being until about 325 A.D. The early
church never celebrated it.
Now, when they replaced the Passover with the
celebration of Easter in 325 A.D., there
was a pagan holiday that celebrated the spring,
the coming of the spring.
And it's a German pagan holiday.
And it's called the Feast of Ostrei, or
the Spring Goddess, who brought new life.
And what they did is they made that
a Christian holiday.
And again, the early church, for 325 years,
never celebrated Easter.
The same as they never celebrated Christmas.
That didn't come into being until after 312
A.D. And again, that came out of
Rome.
It was a pagan holiday, you know, celebrating
Saturnalia and the New Year, the rising of
the sun, the lengthening of the days, the
Yule log, the death of the pagan Messiah.
And that was never a Christian celebration, but
the Roman church Christianized it to bring the
pagans into the ranks and call them Christians.
And you can go into many of your
historical books, even in the Encyclopedia Britannica, to
research that if you'd like.
And the church began to celebrate Easter.
Now, is it wrong to celebrate Easter?
I have a problem with that.
Our blessed Lord rose from the dead.
It just so happens here, the word should
be Passover, because Easter was not celebrated at
this time.
And it's not a biblical feast or holiday.
It's man-made by the church.
And it didn't come into being until 325
A.D. It was just a pagan holiday
that was Christianized.
And I know when I celebrate Easter, I'm
not celebrating Ostre, the German pagan goddess.
I'm celebrating the birth or the resurrection of
my Lord Jesus Christ.
But anyhow, Peter, therefore, was kept in prison.
But prayer was made without ceasing of the
church unto God for him.
So, in Jerusalem, the Christians who had been
in the upper room and the different Bible
studies and people had been fellowshipping together, found
out, man, the apostle Peter's been arrested.
We're just going to keep praying, praying for
his deliverance and his protection, because we know
what the government's doing to these extreme fundamentalists,
especially Peter.
And knowing what kind of a man Herod
was, they began to just pray, have a
prayer vigil for his deliverance.
And I think it's kind of, you know,
interesting how God works, even in spite of
our prayer.
You know, there's talk.
It goes around and says, you know, if
you don't have the faith and you don't
believe when you pray, you are nullifying God.
He can't do a thing.
We're going to find out here that these
people were praying for the deliverance of Peter
and then when he did get delivered, they
didn't believe it.
So, God overrides even our unbelief in his
love so often.
Whether we believe or not that he's going
to do it.
When we're praying, God in his sovereignty and
his providence so often will just go over
us.
I mean, we can fail miserably and God
cares so much for us, he'll still answer
our prayers to bless us and prove his
love for us.
But anyhow, they're praying.
And when Herod would have brought him forth
the same night, Peter was sleeping between two
soldiers.
Now, again, there's a promise in the Old
Testament.
We touched on this a couple of Sundays
ago.
Thou will keep him in perfect peace, whose
mind is stayed upon thee.
Now, here's the guy.
Now, stop and think of the peace and
the relationship that Jesus must have had with
the Lord.
And he knows that James has been beheaded.
He knows why he's there and he's next.
He's in prison and he wonders, maybe, why
did God allow it?
God has called him, you know, to be
a sort of a leader at this particular
time and yet he has so much peace
in his confidence in God and God's love
for him.
Even in this situation, he's asleep.
He's lying asleep in prison, completely free from
fear.
It just shows you when you really do
take God's promises and believe them and act
upon them, he honors them.
Thou will keep him in perfect peace, whose
mind is stayed upon thee.
It doesn't matter what the situation is.
God will prove himself faithful.
It will keep our minds centered on him.
So often, you see, we get carried away
with the vain imaginations and the fears.
Oh, what's going to happen to me next?
Oh, and then Satan is going to tell
you, this is what's going to happen to
you next.
And then you get overwhelmed with it and
then you're consumed with it and then you
know that, yes, that's what's going to happen
to me next.
God's not going to help me.
That's it.
It's over.
And you start dying from the anxiety and
it hasn't happened yet.
Satan loves to get us into that kind
of a realm and not believe the promises.
Start believing what our own thoughts are telling
us or what he is putting in our
minds.
And sometimes we panic and overwhelm and our
insides start churning and we break out in
hives.
The tension, the stress.
That's why it's so wonderful to know the
promises of God, to plead the promises.
And when the Spirit of God brings a
scripture to our minds, start repeating it.
If you have to, repeat it audibly because
you know Satan is going to come in
and say, oh, you can't believe that, and
then put some thought in your mind, this
is what's really going to happen to you.
And it's nowhere in the Bible to say
things like that.
To counterdict or counteract what God has put
in your mind.
To keep you in peace and know that
God's got things under control.
He's got the future.
It doesn't matter what man says.
Vain is the help of man.
It doesn't matter how intelligent man is, no
matter what the experts tell you.
God says, I'm going to keep you.
It doesn't matter what man says.
Your life belongs to God.
And when the Spirit of God brings you
a promise, you rest in that.
You repeat it.
You claim it.
If you have to, audibly recite it.
Open up the Bible.
Come against the vain thoughts.
Your mind can just be filled with so
much, so much fear.
The psalmist said, Lord, protect me from the
voice of the enemy.
It's just a voice.
And so, Peter's absolutely at peace.
He's not questioning why God's allowed him to
be put in jail.
He's sleeping.
Can't do anything else.
I'll just sleep.
I've been preaching to these guys for four
hours.
Driving them crazy.
They're chained to me.
They can't get away.
I'll just, I'm going to sleep.
With two chains.
One on his left hand, one on his
right hand.
Chained to the two guys.
And the keepers before the door kept the
prison.
And behold, the angel of the Lord came
upon him.
And a light shined in the prison.
And he smote Peter on the side.
And he raised him up, saying, Arise up
quickly.
And his chains fell off from his hands.
So here God sends an angel.
All of a sudden, Peter didn't know.
Now remember, the believers, his friends, are in
a house somewhere praying for his deliverance.
We know later on in the book of
Acts, God uses an earthquake.
I mean, you can't put God in the
bus.
He can use any method he wants to
give us deliverance.
We'll find out later on in the book
of Acts when the apostle Paul was in
that terrible typhoon in the Mediterranean.
An angel appeared to him to strengthen him
and encourage him.
To show him, to tell the people, don't
you jump ship.
You'll perish.
You ride out the storm.
God will keep you and protect you.
So often, you know, the enemy tries to
get us to panic and to try and
flee from the storm.
Run from the trouble.
And we play right into his hands.
We perish.
The Lord says, You ride this thing out.
I'll be with you.
You will perish.
In this particular case, he sends an angel.
Now, I want to take you through some
scriptures to show you where angels came from.
What the Bible seems to indicate.
So, turn to Genesis chapter 2.
And then you look at some of the
things that God uses angels for.
And when you understand the power of God
and his ability to do things in the
invisible realm, it gives us such security and
it gives us a healthy fear of God.
To think that I could ever, as a
human being, work something and outsmart God, or
maybe try and change circumstances when God has
such power at his fingertips.
His realm.
Far beyond human capacity.
We know that at the end of Genesis
chapter 1, the Bible says everything has been
created.
And God says this is very good.
Mankind, the universe, the stars, everything is in
existence today before the fall.
And it was very good.
Then in chapter 2, notice the first verse.
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished,
and all the hosts of them.
And that word host now means myriads or
armies.
It doesn't mean just millions and millions of
stars.
But all the hosts of them.
We'll find out that the angels are referred
to many times as watchers, spirits, angels, the
sons of God.
But they're all, as the Bible seems to
indicate, the same beings used in different capacities.
One thing we must remember, there are only
three known angels, and they're major angels.
One is Michael the archangel, the covenant angel
of the nation Israel, of the Jewish people.
Gabriel, who is very prominent to Daniel in
his life.
A messenger angel, and was very prominent in
the enunciation of Jesus Christ.
And also that third angel, Lucifer, who became
Satan, the devil, because of his rebellion.
No other angels are named in the Bible.
Only those three.
But then, as you go on to Genesis
18, something very interesting.
I'll just touch on one verse.
You can read the whole chapter.
You remember, Sarah and Abraham were in the
plains of Mamre, where they lived, far above
Sodom and Gomorrah.
And Sodom and Gomorrah was going to be
destroyed because of their homosexuality.
It spread through their whole society.
Even the young people were in it now.
And God's patience had come to an end.
It became accepted.
So God sent two angels, and the Lord
came with them to discuss with Abraham the
destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah because of their
sexual perversion.
Principally, their pornography and their homosexuality.
And it spread through all of their society.
Now, Abraham was sitting in front of his
tent, and he saw three men walk up
to him.
And all of a sudden he realized that
one of those men was the Lord himself
in human form, with two angels in human
form.
And it's interesting, as he saw that, he
wanted to invite them to have fellowship with
him.
And look at verse 8.
It says, Abraham, as he prepared a meal
for them, he took butter and milk and
the calf, which he had dressed, and set
it before them, and he stood by them
under the tree, and they did eat.
So the Lord and the two angels had
a meal with Abraham.
And then we know, as you go on
into chapter 19, the Spirit of God reveals
to us that the Lord discussed with Abraham
the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the
salvation of his nephew Lot, because he was
elect.
And he sent the two angels to deliver
Lot and his family, whoever would believe in
his family, out of the city.
And only, it turned out, his two daughters
and his wife were taken out of the
city, and then the two angels destroyed Sodom
and Gomorrah because of their sexual perversion.
I turn to Genesis 28, 12.
Now, here's a saved man, Jacob, running from
God.
He's been threatened by his brother, and he
did practice deceit with his brother, and his
mother told him to run and go up
with his uncle, Laban, in the area of
Lebanon.
And on the way, he got exhausted, fell
asleep one night, and the Lord gave him
a dream and a vision.
And the Lord showed him, you know, you
don't have to run.
You're frightened, and God opened up the invisible
realm around him because he's a saved person.
He's a child of God.
He was elect, and he had the protection
of God.
He could stand and face the situation, not
run.
And so, look what the Lord showed him
in verse 12.
It says, he dreamed and behold a ladder,
or a giant staircase, set up on the
earth, and the top of it reached to
heaven.
And this is very important to realize.
Notice the order.
Notice what it doesn't say.
It doesn't say, and behold the angels of
God descending and ascending on it.
What's it say?
It reverses the order.
The angels are ascending and descending.
In other words, Jacob, the angels are already
all around you at all times to protect
you, and they're coming up into my presence
on your behalf and then coming back down.
They're already there with you.
They're not descending to help you.
They're already there around you.
They ascend.
They come up.
Jacob, you don't have to flee.
But he shows them in this dream that
his life is surrounded with angels.
Just as your life is if you're a
child of God.
Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 33.
When the Lord Jesus appeared on Mount Sinai
to give the law to the Jews before
they began their 40-year trek through the
wilderness on the way to the promised land,
it was revealed to Moses that millions upon
millions of angels came down on Mount Sinai
with the Lord.
In verse 1 and 2 of Deuteronomy 33,
look what Moses tells us.
This is the blessing wherewith Moses, the man
of God, blessed the children of Israel before
his death.
And he said, The Lord came from Sinai
and rose up from Seir unto them.
He shined forth from Mount Paran and he
came with ten thousands, literally in Hebrew, thousands
upon thousands upon thousands or millions and millions
of saints, or his holy ones, his ones
that were set apart, the angelic hosts.
From his right hand went a fiery law
for him as he presented the law or
the Ten Commandments to Moses.
Now, we know by this already that there
are millions upon millions and millions of angelic
beings and they were created.
The Bible states in other places that they
were created by God.
But now, look at some of the things
that God uses angels for in the invisible
realm to get his will accomplished.
To deal with men, particularly with rebellious people.
Not only does he have angels designed to
protect his children, and we'll see those texts,
but he also has spirits designed to punish
rebellion.
Turn to 1 Kings chapter 22.
There's an account here of an evil King
Ahab.
He ruled over Samaria.
Now, he was evil morally.
His wife was very unclean and seduced him
and caused him to do terrible things as
a man.
Now, as far as leadership politically, he was
very brilliant.
He was very capable as a secular ruler.
He was very capable in bringing a strong
economy, but morally he was perverse.
He was corrupt.
He was a liar.
And so, God was going to deal with
his evil ruler Ahab.
And so, he used a prophet named Micaiah.
Now, what Ahab had done is he surrounded
his life with false prophets.
To hear nothing but false things.
So, God sent a true prophet to tell
him what really is going to take place.
And notice in verse 19, he said, I
saw the Lord sitting on his throne and
all the hosts of heaven.
Now, here's a reference to Genesis 2 on
the angelic host.
The host of heaven.
Here's that word host again.
Millions upon millions of angels standing by him
on his right hand and on his left.
All around the throne of God.
And the Lord said, Who shall persuade Ahab
that he may go up and fall at
Ramoth Gilead?
In other words, God's going to design in
the supernatural, invisible realm, the collapse of this
leader.
He's going to have a setback militarily.
And one said in this manner, another said
in that manner.
The spirits.
And there came forth a spirit and stood
before the Lord and said, I will persuade
him.
The Lord said unto him, wherewith?
And he said, I will go forth and
I will be a lying spirit in the
mouth of his senators and his congressmen.
His prophets.
And he said, Thou shalt persuade him to
prevail.
Also, go forth and do so.
So, we do know that God uses angels
to deceive governments with false information.
To put wrong thoughts in ambassadors.
Foolish things in leaders to make agreements that
will backfire.
That God can bring punishment and chastisement to
a nation.
The angelic realm.
Turn to 2 Kings chapter 19.
And again, how wonderful to know that God
is on my side.
Now, in this particular portion of the Bible,
Sennacherib, the Assyrian king, has surrounded Jerusalem during
the reign of King Hezekiah, who was a
very godly king.
He had brought revival.
And so, Satan sent this king, Sennacherib, to
destroy the Jews.
Now, notice what God can do to protect
just with one angel.
Look at verse 34.
The Lord said, I will defend this city
to save it.
For mine own sake and for my servant
David's sake.
And it came to pass that night that
the angel of the Lord went out and
smote in the camp of the Assyrians 185
,000 men.
And when they arose early in the morning,
behold, they were all dead corpses.
In other words, God used one angel to
smite with some disease or something while the
armies were sleeping.
And when they got up in the morning,
185,000 people were dead.
Now, stop and think of somebody who hates
God and is rebelling against God, does not
want to yield to God, is maybe being
used by Satan against the church of God.
What God can do to that person in
their sleep.
Now, I'm sure they just read the newspapers
in Hezekiah's day, horrible plague hits the Assyrian
army.
185,000 people die of some strange disease.
That's all you've seen in the newspaper.
But the Spirit of God reveals that God
used an angel for judgment.
And you see, you don't have to be
awake to be judged by God.
185,000.
Now, to show you the power, you see,
that God has and the control that the
angels have created and they're under the control
of God Almighty for His kingdom, not only
of the universe, this outer realm, but down
here also.
Turn to Job chapter one.
Look what the Spirit of God reveals to
us concerning the angels.
In this particular place, Satan himself.
In verse six, notice what the Spirit of
God reveals to us.
The responsibility that angels have to answer to
God, the Creator.
Now, there was a day when the sons
of God came to present themselves before the
Lord and Satan came also among them.
In other words, they had to report to
God.
The sons of God being, that term is
used there because God, as their Father Creator,
He brought them into being.
Just as you're referred to as a father
when you birth children, you're a father or
a mother because you birthed them.
Well, God created these angelic beings and as
a military general calls people to order, they
have to appear before God.
In fact, it goes on right now on
a regular basis.
They're under the control of God.
Nothing happens in anyone's life without the sanction
of God, the permission of God.
Whether it's evil or good, God controls it
all.
And so here, the Spirit of God reveals
to us that the created angels have to
appear and report to God on a regular
basis.
Now, notice what else the Spirit of God
reveals to us in chapter four of Job.
We'll find out later that many of the
angels rebelled with Satan and are behind much
of the evil in the world today.
But look at verse 18.
Here's a reference where the Spirit of God
reveals what God says about the angels that
followed Satan in his rebellion.
Verse 18.
Behold, he puts no trust in his servants
and his angels he charged with folly.
The foolishness of some of the angels to
believe the lie of Satan and rebel with
him against the Lord.
To stop God's order on the earth.
Now, here's something that reveals when the angels
were created.
Turn to Job 38.
Here, the Lord is speaking to Job.
Asking Job if he was an eyewitness to
the creation of the universe and the earth.
Job wasn't having a problem with evolution.
He was just having a problem with the
sovereignty of God in his life.
Questioning God why God allowed this sickness, the
trouble, and his friends to turn against him.
And he was struggling with his faith, which
I think every single one of us would
do.
But then the Lord begins to speak to
Job about the creation.
He said in verse four, Where was thou
when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Before I even brought the earth into existence.
Where were you, Job?
Declare if thou hast understanding.
Give me understanding.
Did you know how the earth is hanging
in space?
Who hath laid the measures thereof?
If thou knowest, or who hath stretched the
line upon it?
Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened?
What's the earth fastened to that it stays
in its orbit in this place?
Who laid the cornerstone thereof?
When the morning stars sang together, and all
the sons of God shouted for joy.
In other words, the angelic host that God
created.
Here it shows us that they were created
before the world and the universe.
Because when God brought the whole heavens and
the earth and the universe into existence, the
angels of God shouted for joy.
They saw it.
They were already in existence.
They were there before then.
These angelic beings.
And so when God just spoke everything into
existence, they were overwhelmed with the power and
the glory, and they shouted for joy.
The Spirit of God reveals itself.
So the angels were created before the earth.
Now turn to Psalm 68, 17.
Now remember, this is not exhaustive.
We would spend days if we wanted to
go through, but this is enough, I hope,
to whet your appetite, to give you an
understanding of what angels are all about, where
they came from, and what they can do.
And it's wonderful as a child of God
to know that they're on your side.
Look at verse 17.
Now the Spirit of God reveals again the
numbers and the myriads of angels that appeared
on Mount Sinai with the Lord when He
revealed Himself to Moses and the children of
Israel.
Verse 17.
The chariots of God are 20,000.
Even thousands of angels.
The Lord is among them as in Sinai
in the holy place.
In other words, He's making reference again to
the millions and the millions of angels that
God has around His throne that He can
send out to do whatever He wants them
to do.
Whether it's to protect you, to destroy an
enemy, to smite, to deliver, to free someone
from jail, to give someone a headache.
It's amazing what we find out, what angels
are used for.
Turn to Psalm 78, 49.
The Spirit of God reveals here what God
did to destroy the Egyptians.
Psalm 79 or 78 is a commentary on
the destruction of Egypt before God delivered the
Jews.
And again, using angels.
Look at verse 49.
Speaking what He did to the Egyptians.
He cast upon them the fierceness of His
anger.
It's interesting how He affected their weather.
In fact, you read some of the things
that God did.
It sounds like El Nino.
Just heating up things.
Again, we look at our computer models and
we watch the CBS Evening News and CNN
and they talk about El Nino and they
show the satellite pictures.
And Rosemary and I are watching.
They have this three-dimensional stuff.
Now it shows the heat from the ocean
rising up and down and fluctuating.
You know, this heat as it pulsates off
the coast of South America and goes up
towards the southern coast of Florida or California.
It's just the breath of God breathing on
the oceans.
But the secular man who leaves God out,
everything has a scientific answer.
But it would be so easy for God
just to heat up the oceans.
To cool down things a little more than
normal.
Verse 49.
He cast upon them the fierceness of His
anger, wrath and indignation and trouble by sending
evil angels among them.
And boy, you read the account in Exodus
as the families woke up and found the
firstborn of every family dead.
Parents, children, cattle, using evil angels among them.
Psalm 103, verse 20.
Bless ye the Lord, His angels that excel
in strength, that do His commandments, hearkening unto
the voice of His word.
Again, you reflect on Job chapter 1, verse
6.
How they obey His commandments.
Make a little note of this.
Chapter 4 of Daniel, verse 16 and 17.
We find out there that God had angels
watching Nebuchadnezzar's life, the most powerful man on
earth, and He used the angels to drive
him insane.
He had a nervous breakdown.
He was absolutely insane for seven years.
No hope.
He used angels.
They're referred to there as watchers.
Just affecting his mind, his thinking, and he
snapped and went insane.
Star-craving man, living like an animal, eating
straw like an ox.
He lost his personal hygiene.
They had to lock him up for seven
years.
Daniel chapter 10 is another description of Daniel.
We learn when he was fasting, seeking revelation
from God.
And this is why I like to fast.
He was at a point in his life
where he wanted to understand Scripture and he
was looking toward the future, wanting to know
what was going to happen to mankind, what
the end of the age was about, what
would happen to the nation of the Jews.
And God honored that.
After his 21-day fast, He sent an
angel.
Remember, an angel came to him.
And three times the angel said to Daniel,
Oh man, greatly beloved of God.
Do you realize how greatly beloved of God
you are?
If you're repurposed to see His face, if
you need an angel, He'll send an angel
to you.
You're the same as Daniel.
You put your faith in Jesus Christ.
It says you are accepted in the beloved.
You're greatly beloved of God.
In this marvelous chapter 10, God sends the
angel and gives Daniel the revelation.
Everything, all the Gentile powers down to the
end of the age and even shows Daniel
the second coming of Jesus Christ by sending
an angel to him.
Just to bring information, to give understanding, to
encourage.
Turn to Matthew chapter 18 and look at
this, what the Bible says concerning the children
of God.
Jesus is speaking concerning the church.
All of us, from children to you and
I, when we put our faith in Him.
And notice what He says to anybody that
would offend a child or deny them the
right to know Jesus Christ or try to
replace the truth of Jesus Christ with something
false or fictitious.
He says, Take heed, this is verse 10
of Matthew 18, Take heed that you despise
not one of these little ones.
For I say unto you that in heaven
their angels do always behold the face of
my Father which is in heaven.
In other words, the angels are always standing
in attention, watching the face of God, waiting
for directions or instruction what to do for
the redeemed.
And that's exactly what the angel received from
God when he was sent to free Peter
out of jail.
He was beholding the face of the Father
and God sent him to free Peter from
that jail.
And you have angels created that stand before
God's throne watching His face to receive directions
how to protect you and come to your
aid in any instant.
They always behold the face of the Father.
Let's quickly go to Luke.
We're almost to what I wanted to show
you.
Luke chapter 2.
Now remember in Genesis 2-1, the Spirit
of God reveals that God had created all
the heavenly host.
Everything is done in an order.
Here is where the shepherds in the field
have the appearance of the heavenly host.
Look at verse 13.
Suddenly, there was with the angel, there was
a principal angel, probably the choir director, and
a multitude of the heavenly host praising God.
So here's the heavenly host of Genesis 2
-1.
God sent millions of angels, just a group
of shepherds, in the fields outside of Bethlehem.
Jesus Christ, the coming of the Lord, His
birth, the heavenly host.
So He's got groups of them that will
come and just sing.
You remember, make a note of this, we
won't spend time there.
John chapter 20, verse 12.
What took place there?
You remember at the resurrection, Mary ran into
the tomb, and who was at either end
where Jesus' body had laid?
He was no longer there, just the empty
grave clothes like a cocoon.
Christ had risen and said there was an
angel sitting at His feet and where His
head lay, two angels at either end of
the sarcophagus of Jesus Christ.
You recall in the gospels that the Lord
sent an angel to roll the mighty stone
away from the mouth of Jesus' tomb that
was there.
If He hadn't rolled the stone away, the
women couldn't have moved it, even the men
themselves, because it weighed probably seven to ten
tons.
Some nine feet in diameter rolled down and
then sealed and cemented the opening of the
tomb.
We go into that tomb, an amazing tomb
to walk into and see where Jesus had
laid His body.
See the actual tomb.
One of the great sites in Jerusalem.
But the Lord used one angel trying to
just roll the thing away.
There was an earthquake, an angel rolled away.
Remember when the ladies got down there, Mary
and Mary Magdalene, and said the angel was
sitting on the stone.
Say, hi, girl.
He's not here.
He's risen.
Turn to Hebrews, chapter 1.
Again, putting the angels in their proper place
in comparison with Jesus Christ, the Creator.
And the writer of Hebrews here brings out
the deity of Jesus Christ.
Verse 5, unto which of the angels said
He, at any time Thou art my son,
this day have I begotten Thee.
And again, I will be to Him a
father.
He shall be to me a son.
And again, when He brings in the first
begotten into the world, He says, and let
all the angels of God worship Him.
And that's why Jesus told that one angel,
Satan, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God
and Him only shalt thou serve.
When Satan offered Jesus, you know, all the
powers of the world, if He would worship
Him, and Jesus was His Creator, reminding Satan,
you're supposed to worship Me.
And the Spirit of God reveals here in
verse 7, the angels, He saith, would worship
Him.
Let all the angels of God worship Him.
And of the angels, He saith, who maketh
His angels spirits and administers a flame of
fire.
One of those angels, the Spirit went forth
to be a lying spirit in the mouth
of Ahab's prophets.
Look at verse 14 of chapter 1, and
here again is what the Spirit of God
declares concerning your life if you're a born
again Christian.
Verse 13 and 14.
Which of the angels said He, at any
time sit on my right hand, shall I
make thine enemies thy foes?
Showing the inferiority of angels compared to Jesus
Christ.
Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth
to minister for them who shall be heirs
of salvation?
If you put your faith and your trust
in Jesus Christ, are you a born again
Christian?
If you ask Jesus Christ to forgive you
of your sin and be your Lord and
Savior, if you've done that in your heart,
then you become an heir of salvation.
You have this marvelous inheritance waiting for you
in glory.
You're a child of God.
And our angels created to minister to your
needs and watch over you forever.
Now, let's just close with this.
Look at verse 13.
I find this interesting.
I've got some interesting things happen in my
life.
Rosemary and I both.
My son.
Angels have appeared to my son Jeffrey.
An angelic being appeared in the bedroom of
my oldest son, Scott, when he was a
young boy.
We were in the living room having a
Bible study one night.
I'll never forget this.
We were up.
It was about 3 o'clock in the
morning.
We were just so excited about Jesus Christ
after a Bible study night.
We couldn't go to sleep.
So we had our Bibles open sitting on
the living room floor.
And all of a sudden, my son Scott,
he was about 9 then, walked out and
he said, the Lord just appeared or an
angel just appeared in my room, Dad.
At the foot of the bed woke me
up.
Oh, what room so shining.
We don't know.
It's how you know.
Nothing like that's ever happened to me.
But I had some interesting things on Rosemary
and I both that we can't explain.
My son Jeffrey had a very frightening experience
in his life.
He was running home one night trying to
get home before dark and he fell down.
He was about, at that time, 3 or
4, I think.
Or maybe older.
And he fell down in the park across
from our house and looked up and he
was circled with giant angels with swords looking
down on him.
He didn't have to fear.
I mean, just to protect him.
But look at this in verse 13 of
Hebrews, chapter 1.
Let brotherly love continue and be not forgetful
to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained
angels unawares.
So, you don't know who you're going to
give a meal to.
And they ate with Abraham.
There may be a knock on your door.
Some guy may just want to work around
the garage to earn a meal.
Be alert.
They might have that meal with you.
And then go on their way and you'll
never see them again.
Maybe until you get the glory.
But it says, be careful to entertain strangers.
Because sometimes people have entertained angels unawares.
So, they're very, very prominent in the Scriptures,
very active in the believer's life.
Let's go back to Acts, chapter 12.
The one thing I like about the angels
are that you never have to call on
them.
God is always one or two steps ahead
of us in our needs.
And if an angel needs to come into
our life and you need to see one,
God will have it happen.
And another thing that took place for the
children of God, when an angel appeared, there's
naturally, there's fear.
It's a supernatural, abnormal thing.
And it affects the emotions.
And when that fear comes, it's interesting.
The angel voice said, fear not, be not
afraid.
I'm from God.
I'm here to help you.
God wants to encourage you.
So, whatever your need may be.
And you don't have to worry about the
enemy.
God can take care of the enemy.
So, the angel came and told Peter to
wake up.
We're getting out of here.
Bird thyself, bind on thy sandals, and so
he did.
And he saith unto him, cast thy garment
about thee, and follow me.
And up he got, and out he went.
And he went out and followed him and
wished not that it was true, which was
done by the angel, but thought he saw
a vision.
So, Peter was thinking he was probably having
a dream.
And when they were past the first and
the second word, so, not only did somehow
a transfer the guys that were chained to
him didn't realize the chain fell off Peter's
hand, didn't fall off the Roman guards.
You know, the angel probably could have had
the chains wrapped around them and locked them
up some way.
Out Peter walked.
He walked right past the guard.
The angel opened the door of the cell.
That guard didn't see him.
Walked him right out of the prison into
the street.
And that guard didn't see him.
When they were past the first and the
second word, they came into the iron, unto
the iron gate that leadeth into the city,
which opened to them of his own accord.
And they went out and passed on through
one street and forthwith the angel departed from
him.
When Peter would come to himself, he said,
Man, it's cold out here.
I better put my clothes on.
And all of a sudden, he's standing in
the street and he's going, Well, this is
real.
I'm free, you know.
Now, I know of a surety that the
Lord hath sent his angel and hath delivered
me out of the hand of Herod and
from all the expectation of the people of
the Jews.
And so, the gates of hell, you see,
were opened.
The gates of hell cannot prevail against the
Lord's church.
We'll finish this chapter next week.
It's nine o'clock already.
Shall we all stand?
Father, it's wonderful to know that you have
angels created to watch over us.
Lord, that when we have a need, we
need not fear, you will have the help
there instantly.
Whatever we may need.
We thank you, Lord, you use angels to
give us revelation of the future.
To give us understanding of the Scriptures.
We thank you, Lord, that you use angels
to give us deliverance and to protect us.
To comfort us.
To encourage us.
We thank you, Lord, you have these ministers
of fire.
Because we're heirs of salvation, we put our
trust in you.
We thank you, Lord, also that you can
use angels to destroy our enemies.
We need not be concerned about vengeance or
fear of the future.
Lord, you have everything under your control.
You're a great and awesome God.
We're so thankful, Lord, to be the heirs
of salvation.
To be your children.
To be able to trust you.
And know, Lord, whatever our bondage may be,
our captivity may be, in an instant, Lord,
if we'll trust and rest in you, you
can deliver us quite suddenly.
Grant us, Lord, by your grace and your
Spirit, to keep our minds stayed upon thee
at all times.
And trust in you.
In your love and your power.
In your protection.
That we take no anxious thought for tomorrow.
And, Lord, be able to sleep and rest,
knowing that you have everything under your control.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
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A Walk in the Life PO Box 25099
Farmington, New York 14425 May Jesus bless you
as you study his words.