I often think of the lady I heard
tell the preacher from one of the foreign countries the only
Bible she had was when she got on the computers and listened
to the preachers read their text. She had no access to a Bible.
So with that in mind, let's read the entire chapter of Revelation,
chapter 12. And there appeared a great wonder
in heaven. a woman clothed with a sun, the
moon under her feet, upon her head a crown of twelve stars. And she then with child cried,
treveling in birth and pain to be delivered. And there appeared
another wonder in heaven, and behold, a great red dragon, having
seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his head. And
his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did
cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the
woman, which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her
child as soon as it was born. And she brought forth a man-child,
who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her child
was called up unto God and to his throne. And the woman fled
into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God.
that they should feed her there a thousand, two hundred, and
threescore days. And there was war in heaven.
Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon
fought in his angels, and prevailed not, neither was there place
found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast
out, that old serpent called the devil, and Satan, which deceiveth
the whole world. He was cast out into the earth,
and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud
voice saying in heaven, Behold, now is come salvation, and strength,
and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ. For
the accuser of the brethren is cast down, which accused them
before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the
blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and
they loved not their lives unto death. Therefore rejoice, ye
heavens! And ye that dwell in them, woe
to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea. For the devil
is come down unto you having great wrath, because he knoweth
that he hath but a short time. And when the dragon saw that
he was cast into the earth, he persecuted the woman which had
brought forth the man-child. And to the woman was given unto
her two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness
unto her place. for she is nourished for a time
and times and half a time from the face of the serpent. And
the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman
that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And
the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth and
swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. And the dragon was wroth with
a woman and went to make war with the remnant of her seed.
which keepeth the commandments of God, and have the testimony
of Jesus. We began a study three weeks
ago, I guess now, on the angels. And we've been looking at different
aspects of the angels. And I chose this chapter because
it had some things, I think, that I wanted to look at this
morning concerning the angels. This book is full of symbols.
Symbols are somewhat like parables. When you look at them, Sort of
stand back and get the big picture. If you get too close to these
symbols, they get all blurry. They don't make much sense. But
if you just stand back and get the big picture, I think we can
learn something from this chapter this morning. Here in verse 1,
let's just look at this. And just look at the flow and
see what makes sense to us. Here in verse 1. Who is this? It's amazing. This woman. a glorious
person because the scripture says here she was clothed with
the sun. And she has the moon under her
feet and a crown on her head of 12 stars. And this is obviously
symbolic. And I think we have a hint there
in the last portion of verse 1 that she had a crown of 12
stars. Now, most commentators will agree
with this, and it seems like it makes more sense to me than
anything. If we look at this as the Old Testament church,
the Old Testament church, there was that holy seed, that royal
seed that began really with Seth, the son of Adam and Eve. And
you see that royal seed, the holy seed, as it went all the
way through the Old Testament scriptures into Abraham and then
Judah And then the lineage of David, and out of that came the
Lord Jesus Christ. So this is the Old Testament
church. And what are they doing? Look in verse 2. And she being
with child, cried, travailing in birth and pain to be delivered. We were talking this morning
about ladies having babies and how painful it is. Travailing
in birth. And what do you see all the way
through the Old Testament Scriptures? But this Holy See, the church,
craving for the coming of the Messiah, waiting for the coming
of the Lord Jesus Christ, looking for every little sign and every
new revelation of what tribe He would come out of, what kind
of a woman would bear the Son of God, a virgin. And they were
waiting and hoping and praying for His coming. And you know,
when He came, they were all looking for Him. So many were looking
for Him. When He was born, Hannah, That old widow lady spake of
Him to all that looked for redemption. Even the Samaritan woman said,
We've heard. We know that Messiah is coming. So all through the Old Testament,
you have these saints of old looking and waiting for the coming
of the Son of God, the Redeemer. And here in verse 3, look at
this. There appeared another wonder in heaven, and behold,
a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns and seven
crowns upon his head. Now who in the world is this?
Well, in verse 9 we are told specifically who that is. Look
at this. And the great dragon was cast
out, the old serpent called the devil and Satan. That is Satan. He is depicted here as a great
red dragon. And look here what he was doing
in verse 4. And his tail drew the third part
of the stars of heaven. We looked at that the other day,
didn't we? When he fell out of heaven, he took a third of the
angels with him, according to our interpretation of this verse.
And he cast them to the earth, and the dragon stood before the
woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon
as he was born. Now, what's he doing throughout
the Old Testament Scriptures? What did the devil concentrate
on more than anything else? Was killing this seed out of
which the Lord Jesus Christ was to come. You know he had it down
one time to one family? Just one single family was left
of this royal seed. He tried to kill them. He waited
and watched for the Son of God to be born. And anybody in that
lineage that he knew, he tried to kill them. Like a great red
dragon standing, breathing out his smoke and fire. And when
the Son of God was born, what did he do? Tried to kill him,
didn't he? He stirred up the spirit of Herod
that sent out and killed all the little children. Just like
he stirred up the spirit of Pharaoh to kill them in his day. That's
what he was doing in Pharaoh's day. Trying to stamp out and
destroy in the royal sea. That's what the devil does. That's
what he does. He's the great dragon. Here in
verse 5, look at this. And here it tells us why He wanted
to destroy this child. Look what it says in verse 5.
And she brought forth a man-child, who was to rule all nations with
a rod of iron, and her child was caught up unto God and to
His throne." Now, it's very easy to see who this is. I know some
say this is the church, but where does it say the church is going
to rule the nations with a rod of iron? It never does. But we
can find this concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, can't we?
Here's what's said of him in Psalms chapter 2. The Father
said this, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. And
he's talking about ask of me and I'll give you the heathen
for your inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth
for your possession. And listen to this, Thou shalt
break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like
a potter's vessel. Jesus Christ is ruling, isn't
He? The fathers give to him the throne
of his father David. And he says here in the last
part of verse 5 that this child was caught up unto God and to
His throne. And that's what the Scripture
says about Christ. Mark closes his gospel this way,
that Jesus was received up into heaven and sat down on the right
hand of God. So this is the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Old Testament was longing and waiting for His coming. Satan
was trying to destroy him. He came, he suffered, he bore
the sins of his people, he made a perfect redemption and atoned
for sin, and God received him up into heaven in spite of all
the devil could do. Here in verse 6, I have no idea
what this means, this woman fleeing to a place that was prepared
for her for this time. I don't know what it means, so
we might as well not even comment and go on. Don't get stuck up
on things we don't know what means. Look at it. If we don't
know what it means, let's go on to verse 7 and verse 9. And here's what he says in verse
7. There was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought
against the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels, and they
prevailed not. Neither was their place any more
found in heaven. And the great dragon was cast
out, that old serpent called the devil and Satan. which deceiveth
the whole world, he was cast out into the earth, and his angels
with him." Now, when did this take place? Well, we don't know
for sure. But I think the Lord would allow
us to speculate just a little bit because I told you last week
there's three things, there's three aspects in which the Scripture
talks about Satan being cast out. He's judged. There's war
in heaven. in the beginning. Sometime in
the beginning. We don't know when, but sometime
way back yonder in the beginning, there was war in heaven. That's
when we read to you over in Isaiah chapter 14 and the book of Ezekiel
that Satan said, I'm going to exalt my throne. I'm going to
be like the Most High. And what did the Scripture say
of him? Now art thou cast down Oh, Son of the Morning. What
a name for this demon, for this angel. Son of the Morning. He
must have been the very first creature that God created. The Son of the Morning. But the
Scripture says that he was cast down and cast out. And the Lord
Jesus said, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. So he had a fall back yonder.
That was his first fall when he sinned. And Peter said those
angels that kept not their first estate but sinned against God,
He has reserved them in judgment under chains of darkness to the
judgment of the great day. So there's the first fall. And
then last week we looked at another fall that he had, and that was
there at the cross. He fell at the cross too. There
was a sense in which He was bruised at the cross. The Bible says
He destroyed Him. Christ destroyed Him who had
the power of death. Had the power to make men fear
death. But Christ destroyed Him. You
remember that prophecy way back in Genesis chapter 3 and verse
15? When the Lord told Satan, He's
going to bruise your head. And this is when He did it, there
at the cross. He bruised His head. Through death He destroyed him
that had the power of death. And listen to Colossians chapter
1 verse 21. He made peace through the blood
of His cross. And you that were sometimes alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works, Now hath He reconciled
through the body of His flesh through His death to present
you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight." He
made peace through the blood of His cross. He reconciled all
of His people to God by the cross. And there's where the devils
were. Satan and all these devils were around the cross. And the
Bible says He stripped them off. He spoiled them. He robbed them. He robbed principalities and
powers and made a show of them openly. I don't know what all
He did there at the cross. But if you read the 13th and
14th, 15th chapters of John, where the Lord Jesus was talking
about going to the cross, starting there at chapter 12, listen to
some of the things He said about His going to the cross. Listen. He spake this right before he
went to the cross. The hour is come, John 12, that
the Son of Man may be glorified. Now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the prince of this
world be cast out. I thought he was already cast
out. He was cast out of heaven in the beginning. But here's
another casted out. He had some authority that he
didn't have after the cross. He had more freedom before the
cross than he has after the cross. And the Lord Jesus said in John
14, 30, Hereafter I will not talk much with you, for the prince
of this world cometh and find nothing in me. There's nothing
in me that he can work with because I'm holy. Then in John 16, when
he was talking about the conviction of the Holy Spirit, when He's
come, He will convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment
to come, of judgment because the Prince of this world is judged. So there was a judgment upon
Satan and his demons there at the cross in some way or another. And that's why here we're told
in verse 9, that he's cast out. He's cast out. And look here
in verse 10. And I heard a voice saying in
heaven, now is salvation come. Now salvation is coming. Strength
and the kingdoms of our God and the power of His Christ, for
the accuser of our brethren is cast down. which accused them
before God day and night. It seemed like in the Old Testament,
Satan was always permitted in God's presence to accuse his
people. He did that to Job. Remember
that? You take what he has, you take
what he's given you, he'll curse you to his face. Now, I guarantee
that's what he'll do. That's an accusation, wasn't
it? Zechariah chapter 3, Joshua the high priest stood before
the Lord, and he had these filthy garments on. The Lord Jesus was
there as his advocate, pleading his cause, but there stood Satan
at his right hand to resist him. But now, since the cross, it's
obvious that something has happened. Satan and his cohorts, his emissaries,
came against Christ at the cross. He defeated them, He put them
off, He spoiled them, and now they're not allowed up there
in heaven anymore to accuse His people. What do they have to
accuse His people of? Who is He that condemned them?
It's Christ that died. Yea, brother, who is at the right
hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. So He's
cast out. He's cast out. Out of that holy
and happy place. Satan and his angels have one
more judgment. They have one more casting down
that they must come before, and that's the judgment of the last
day. The Bible says He has reserved
them unto the judgment of the great day. They're reserved there. And you know God hasn't lifted
a finger to redeem those fallen angels. The first time they sinned, only
one time, and they sealed their eternal misery. And God will
never lift a finger to redeem them. Never has, and He never
will. Their doom is certain. Their doom is certain. Listen
to Revelation chapter 20 and verse 10. The devil that deceived
them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the
beast and the false prophet are, and shall be terminated day and
night forever and ever." So there was war in heaven. At one time
there was war in heaven. He was cast out. But you know
there is still war. There is still a war going on.
This word heaven could mean also the air. One of the definitions
of it is our atmosphere. And there is war in our atmosphere
today. There is a war going on. All
around us, Michael and his angels are fighting now with the devil
and his angels. The Bible says there is war in
high places. We wrestle against these principalities
and powers in high places, heavenly places. And you know that is
going to go on until the end of time. The war between these
angels and the war between the church and the Lord Jesus Christ.
But here's the conclusion of the whole matter, verse 8. Here's
what will always be said about Satan and his fallen emissaries. And prevailed not. They prevailed
not. Their battle ultimately is with
God and with His Christ, and they shall not prevail. The Bible
says we are more than conquerors. through Him that loved us. John was writing this to the church in his little epistle
to 1 John. And here's what he said, I have
written unto you, young men, because you are strong, and the
Word of God abideth in you, and you have overcome the wicked
one. He said in 1 John 4, 4, You,
our God's little children, have overcome them, because greater
is He that's in you than he that's in this world. The battle is
raging. And look what he tells us here
in verse 11. When the devil was cast out,
he's down here now making war with the saints, with the church,
and they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb. How did they
overcome him? Now, this is going to be important,
because I'm going to get into this in just a minute. I ask your
patience. We're just going to have one service, so be patient,
okay? But this is going to be important when we get in here
in just a minute and see who this devil is. And then we're
going to be amazed that we can overcome this fellow. But how
did they overcome? By the blood of the Lamb. I never will forget. I read many,
many years ago, Luther, Martin Luther used to tell his church,
when Satan comes and accuses you, and tells you what an awful
sinner you are, and how that you're worthy to be damned, just
tell him you know it. Tell him it's true. But tell
him Jesus Christ has stood as charity for you, and by His own
blood He has bore all your sins away and made perfect atonement. That's the way we overcome Satan.
By the blood of the Lamb. We don't do it denying our sins,
deceiving ourselves into thinking we have none. But it's through
the blood. When I see the blood, I will
pass over you. That's the way we overcome him.
And another way here he says this, by the word of their testimony. Now what is the word of our testimony? Clarence told us about it this
morning, didn't he? Here's the word of our testimony.
These are things most assuredly believed among us. When we talk about the gospel
being God's gospel, we turn right around and say it's our gospel.
This is our gospel. And we overcome Him by the testimony
of our Word. Paul said, take the sword of
the Spirit, didn't he? Which is the Word of God. That's
what we have. And whatever the Lord says, that's
what we say. And we can overcome. The devil
cannot stand before the Word of God. Our Lord quoted Scripture. Every time Satan tempted Him,
He quoted Scripture. This is the word of our testimony.
Thus saith the Lord. And how can He stand before that?
He may stand before our experiences. Now listen to me, devil. You
can't make me doubt and be afraid because there was a time when
I had this experience. He may just cut that off. He'll
have you full of doubts and turn you upside down and have you
wonder if there's ever been a work of grace started in your heart
or not. Use the Scripture. They overcame Him. by the word
of their testimony. And notice this, they loved not
their lives unto death. There was something more important
to these people than their physical lives. And that was the eternal
salvation of their souls. They loved not their lives unto
death. You read Foxe's Book of Martyrs. And some of those dear
old saints, they put them in boiling oil. boiled them alive
in oil, put them on these machines and stretched them until their
limbs come loose from their body, throwed them into the beast and
let the beast eat them on the fire. They killed them so many
different ways. And sometimes, bless their hearts,
they just didn't have the grace to say, I will not recant. Some
of them did. And they went home and they prayed
all night long and thought about it. And they came back the next
day and they said, I take it back. Everything I told you,
that was a lie. Christ is mine. I believe that
he is indeed the only way of salvation. And they threw him
on the fire. There's one thing more important
than their physical temporary life, and that was the salvation
of their eternal souls. They said, that's what's important.
That's what's important. And that is what's important,
isn't it? The Lord said, the man that finds his life, he's
going to lose it. If a man's life is temporary,
if it's the things of this world, the pleasures of this world,
the riches and so on of this world, if our lives is wrapped
up in temporal things, and that's my life, then I'm going to lose
it. But they that lose their life, they'll find it. And they'll
find their life in Jesus Christ. When Christ, who is our life,
shall appear. They loved not their lives unto
death, and therefore they overcame the wicked one. Look how Satan is characterized
here. Look how he's described. And
I think his names describe to us his character.
Here in verse 9, He's called the dragon, the great dragon. When you see that word, it means,
it identifies Him as being cruel, fearful, fearful. He stood before
this woman, great dragon. His tail, did you notice what
a tail He had? He had such a huge tail that
He drug a third of the stars and cast them the earth with
his tail. And the scripture talks about
the fiery darts. He has this fiery mouth. He's
called the dragon because he's cruel. That's his character. That's his nature. He's cruel.
He's called here the serpent. We know why he's called the serpent,
because he's subtle. He's very tricky. He's very wise. That's the way he deceived our
first parent, deceived Eve, our first mother, by his subtlety. And he's called devil. The word
means accuser. And that's all he does, isn't
it? That's all he does. If you and I never had the word
devil in the Scriptures, if all we knew is what we've experienced
of the devil, I tell you, we'd know that he's the accuser of
the brother. Because that's all he does, isn't it? How many times
does he come to you and he accuses the dear brothers and sisters
to your mind? He does it all the time. It's his fault. Do
you see what he did? That fellow, he can't even be
a Christian. I doubt he's even saved. Does
he ever accuse the brother to you? All the time. All the time. He's the accuser. He's the devil.
And he's Satan, and that word simply means adversary. Your
adversary, the devil. He's God's adversary, and he's
your adversary. And he says here in verse 12,
he has great wrath. having great wrath. The Bible
says he goes about seeking whom he may devour. That's his business,
that's his character, and that's his business. You know, you and
I should not speak lightly about the devil. I tell you, we shouldn't
be making jokes about Satan and these thoughts. And we've heard
Christians, good Christians do this. But what we should remember
who he is. He hates God. He hates Jesus
Christ. He hates you. He's not toying
with us. He hates your children. He hates our loved ones. He hates humanity. And being
down to himself, all he thinks about and concentrates upon is
pulling everybody he can down to hell with him. When we think
about him, we should be solemn, be sober, be diligent, your adversary
the devil as a roaring lion walking about seeking whom he may devour. Now, let's spend a few minutes
on this. See some things concerning the angels, the good angels and
the bad angels. We've done looked at several
things. in one or two studies before this. But let me tell
you three things that we have to remember. As we study this
and always, we have to remember this. First of all is this. These are angels. They may be
the elect angels or they may be the fallen angels. But what
we have to remember about them is they are creatures. They're not God. They're not
omnipresent. They're not almighty. There's
only one God, just one God, in the Trinity of His sacred persons.
Eight times, if I remember right, in the book of Isaiah, the Lord
made this statement, I am God, and there's none else. He has
no rivals, does He? These are mighty creatures, but
they're creatures, and they're under the feet of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Listen to this. Peter says he's
gone unto heaven and he's on the right hand of God, angels
and authorities and powers being made subject unto him. And Paul even does more than
that. He says that God has put all things under his feet and
exalted him far above all principalities and power. Jesus Christ is over
these devils. Why is this important? Well,
it's important for this reason. Men have always wanted to worship
angels. I guess ever since the world
has been, men have wanted to worship angels. They were doing
that in the book of Colossians. We have devil worship even in
our day. We have the church of Satan out
west somewhere. I guess it's still there. And
men want to worship good angels. John fell into that trap, didn't
he? And was forbid of the angels. to do it. There is one God that
is worthy of all our worship and our reverence. Worship Him
and Him only. That's the first thing we need
to remember. These are just creatures. And others exalt Satan even over
God. There's men, especially among
the Pentecostal and the Charismatic, that even tell us that God's
purpose is thwarted by Satan. that God has planned to do certain
things, He wants to do certain things, but Satan has so hindered
Him that He can't bring it to pass. You know, brothers and
sisters, that's blasphemy. That's why it's so important
to remember these angels are creatures. They're not God, and
they cannot thwart the very purpose of God. They're under the feet
of the Son of God. He reigns over them. And still
to this very day, they can't do anything without He permits
it. Now, we found that out in the
Old Testament, didn't we? And we found that out in the
New Testament. They can't even go into swine unless He permits
them. So we have to remember that. Two, secondly, we need to remember
this. Though these angels are creatures,
they are mighty creatures. They are mighty creatures. Listen
to Psalms 103. Bless the Lord, ye angels that
excel in strength. They excel in strength. And Peter
tells us in 2 Peter 2, the angels are greater in power and might
than earthly rulers. There's no comparison in their
power and in their might with earthly rulers and armies. They are mighty. They are mighty. The bad angels. Though fallen,
they're powerful and they're cunning creatures. That's why
they have such names as this. The God of this world. The prince
of this world. A roaring lion. They're called
rulers of the darkness of this world. So somebody might stand up and
say, well, I don't have anything to worry about. The Lord will
protect me. That's wonderful to know that.
But don't go on flippantly then, in a lighthearted way, because
we know the Lord will protect us, because the Scripture says,
be sober. because we are surrounded with
these mighty powers. Be diligently, because the adversary
of the devil is a roaring lion. He is walking about, seeking
whom he may devour. Therefore, since he does have
this power, then let us be sober and careful in our walk. Paul
was writing to the Corinthian church, and they got somewhat
flippant about the gospel and these powers. And Paul wrote
to them and said, lest by any means as the serpent beguiled
Eve through his subtlety. So your mind should be corrupted
from the simplicity that is in Christ. And there are some in
our day that have gone on haphazardly. They have not read the Word of
God prayerfully and carefully. And look how they have been beguiled.
They have been deceived. And the devil is behind this.
Anytime, I earnestly believe this, anytime you see a preacher
or anyone else error in the scripture, especially error with some damnable
heresy, the devil is behind it. That's his work. He beguiles
people, and he beguiles unstable souls. That's the second thing.
The first thing, they're creatures. The second thing, they're mighty
creatures, therefore we must beware. And thirdly, I want us
to look at some of the works of these angels, the ministry
of these angels. Good angels. What do they do?
There's a host of them. We don't know how many there
is, but there's a host of them. And all of these good angels,
they are employed for that which is good and just. The Lord made them. I don't know.
I don't understand why the Lord made the angels. It wasn't that
I could see he needed them as far as him being weak. He's omnipresent. He's everywhere. I don't understand why he needs
us either, but he does. I don't understand why he needs
preachers preaching to another sinner to save him, but he does. He's been pleased to use them.
And he's created this host of angels, and he uses these angels
extensively. And let me show you some places.
He uses them in a way of judgment. Sometimes he will send good angels
to judge his enemies. One night, the army of Assyria
came against Jerusalem, Israel, and the angel was dispatched
from the Lord. He went into the camp of those
Assyrians, and the Bible says they were mighty men of valor.
They were great men. And that one angel slew 185,000
soldiers in one night. One angel. Ain't that amazing? The Bible
says those that woke up the next morning, looked around, and they
were all dead men laying all around them. 185,000 people. That's a mighty angel, that.
And God used His angel for that. And you see it all through the
Scripture since then. And not only upon his enemies,
sometimes he even uses his angels to chasten his own people. You
remember David when he had numbered the people? Joab tried to get
him not to do it. He said, you're mistrusting the
Lord. But David did it anyway. And the Lord sent the prophet
and said, you choose your poison, bud. You choose your poison. And David said, let me fall into
the hands of the Lord because I know He's merciful. The Lord
sent a messenger. He sent an angel. Seventy thousand
of Israel died. And David was there next to the
threshing floor where they built the temple finally. And he saw
this angel between heaven and the earth. And he had his sword
out. God opened his heart and let him see him. Men was with
David and they saw him. Ornan and his son saw him. And
he had his sword drew back. ready to destroy Jerusalem. And the Lord said, that's enough.
Put up your sword. So God uses them for judgment,
either judgment upon his enemies or even to chasten his own people. Their greatest ministry is this. They're employed in the salvation
of God's elect. Now, this is a wonderful thought.
That God not only uses His church to save sinners, His preachers
to preach the gospel, but He uses angels, the ministry of
angels. And the scripture tells us in
Hebrews 1, are they not all ministering spirits? Who do they minister
to? To those who shall be heirs of
salvation. They minister to them and they
minister for them. We're told that there's rejoicing
in the presence of the angels over one sinner that repents. Brothers and sisters, I believe
that's the angels rejoicing over one sinner that repented. The
Lord often uses them in the sending of his gospel. Let me remind
you of these two examples. You remember when Philip was
preaching in Samaria? And an angel of the Lord spoke
to him and said, Philip, go down south of Jerusalem to the old
Gaza road. I've got an errand for you to
do. And he took off. And he went down there and met
the eunuch going back to his homeland in Ethiopia. And he
preached the gospel to him. Another example, you remember
Acts chapter 10, when Cornelius was praying and seeking the Lord.
And one morning, that angel appeared to him in a vision and said,
Cornelius sinned for Peter. He's over there at Joppa, and
he'll tell you words whereby you must be saved. That was an
angel of the Lord. Now, that's amazing, isn't it? And we can't see him today. I've
never had a vision in my life and don't desire to have a vision.
I don't desire to see an angel talking with me. But it happened
back in those days. And if it happened back in those
days, I think it's still happening today. Not openly, but I think
it's happening. It's happened so secretly, I
think, that we can't even detect it. Somebody's just in the right
place at the right time to hear the right Word. And how was all
that arranged? We've heard of these conversions
that are so miraculous, we say only God could have brought this
to pass, to have that person there. I love to read the stories
of the old Whitfields and those fellows that used to go out into
the fields to preach. And they used to be men, those
hecklers, They'd fill their pockets full of eggs and rocks and go
sit up in the trees and throw at them and cuss them as they
preached. And this one fellow was given his testimony how the
Lord saved him. And he said he was up in the
tree and had an egg in each hand. And he said a fly lit right on
the end of his nose. And he had his eggs in his hands,
and he said, and his thumbs in his ears. And there that fly
was right on his nose. And he said, I was trying to
shake the fly off and couldn't get him off. So he said, I moved
my hand to swipe the fly. And just as I unpopped my ears,
he said, I heard the preacher say, he that hath ears to hear,
let him hear. And he says, I could not put
my thumb back in my ears. I wonder what that fly was doing
on his nose. Could it have been an angel?
Could it have been a fly that brought the angel? I think the
judgment will tell, brothers and sisters, that in all of our
conversion, the angels were used. Their ministering spirits sent
forth to minister for them and to them who shall be heirs of
salvation. Thirdly is this, they protect
and deliver the Lord's people. Now, these are good angels. They
protect and deliver the Lord's people. We find that all through
the Scripture, don't we? Daniel in a den of lions, hungry
lions. They got Daniel out there and
threw several men in and they devoured them as soon as they
come to the bottom of that pit. They didn't touch Daniel. And
he tells us why. When the king looked in and said,
O Daniel, you still alive? He said, The Lord has sent his
angel. And stop the mouths of these lions. They have not hurt
me. They have not hurt me. He delivers
his people often by these angels. Peter in Acts chapter 12, when
they put him in prison, the next day they were going to bring
him forth and cut his head off. You remember what happened that
night? The angel come in and smote him on the side. His chains
fell off. They got out to the big iron
gate and it opened of its own will. Peter went out. The angel departed from him.
And Peter said, Now I perceive of a truth. The Lord has sent
His angel and delivered me. They minister for the saints. They minister to the saints.
I'll tell you one of the books that you need to read if you've
never read it. It's Foxe's Book of Martyrs. Those dear old saints,
when they were being persecuted and slaughtered, like they were
nothing better than a beast. And they have testimonies that
while they were on the rack, or while they were in the fire,
that there were comforts. They can't explain it, but such
comfort and such strength come upon them to endure their persecution. And that's angels. You remember
when the master was in the garden being tempted 40 days of the
devil? There was an angel sent to him. In the garden of Gethsemane,
when he prayed till his sweat became as great drops of blood,
an angel came to him. And this is the miraculous thing
that was said. There came an angel and strengthened
him. How could an angel strengthen
the Son of God? But he did. He did. And there's times they do us
that way. But they do it so secretly. so
silently that you and I can't detect it, as evidently we have
had brothers and sisters who have testified that they detected
it. They protect and deliver the
Lord's people. And they do this, and this is
a wonderful thought. They carry the spirits of elect
souls up to heaven. Now, we're told that. Luke chapter
16, that when the beggar died, the angels were dispatched. And the Bible said, the Lord
Jesus said, that they wrapped him up in their arms and they
carried him up to Abraham's bosom. They protect him through all
of this this atmosphere where these other wicked spirits are,
and they burrow them up to heaven. They assure their entrance there
into the Lord's presence. And when the Lord Jesus Christ
comes again in judgment, they're going to have a part in that.
Listen to 2 Thessalonians 1 and 7. You who are troubled, rest
with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with
His mighty angels. He is coming with those mighty
angels to take vengeance on them that know not God and to gather
His elect from out of the graves and from all nations. Listen
to Mark 13, verse 27. And then shall He send His angels,
and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds,
from the uttermost parts of the earth and the uttermost parts
of the heaven. So the angels are employed in
the salvation of God's elect. And they love it. That's why
they rejoice. And you know what? All the elect,
the church, and these angels are going to rejoice together
for all eternity. And I imagine that they'll talk
about some of the things that took place here upon this earth. Now, let's go right quickly,
in just a few minutes, to the bad angels. Because there's good
angels and there are mighty, mighty angels, holy angels. But
there's bad angels. As the good angels are employed
in all that's good and just, the bad angels are employed in
all that is destructive and evil. Where you see evil, you'll see
fallen angels. Where you'll see men destroying
themselves, where you see a country like ours now that's given itself
over to open and profane sins, you'll find the working of devils. One of the judgments that came
upon Egypt, the judgment of God. He sent among evil angels. And that's what's among us today,
brothers and sisters. You don't see all this perversion.
You don't see our politicians and rulers going along with all
this perversion. Look how quickly things are changing.
If you'd have told us even five or ten years ago, that then wanted
to change the definition of marriage, that it could be now between
a man and a man, or a woman and a woman? Would we have believed
it could have happened this fast? Look at all the perversions of
God's Word that we have. Who's behind all of this? Satan
and his fallen angels. And he knows he has but a short
time to do all the damage he can do, therefore he's working
overtime to do it. They can affect the physical
body. These fallen angels can have an effect upon the physical
body. Remember what Paul said about
his thorn in the flesh? We don't know what it was, but
he said, it bothers me bad. It buffets me. It torments me. And you remember what that was?
That was a messenger of Satan. That was one of Satan's emissaries
was sent to Paul and in some way was permitted of the Lord
Himself to dwell in Paul's body and torment his mind. Wouldn't
that have been awful? Remember that woman that was
bent over for 18 years and could in no wise lift up herself? Remember
who did that? The Lord Jesus says Satan has
bound her low these 18 years. We don't think about this very
much in our day because we don't know how to explain it. But I
think probably a lot of the crippling diseases could very well be demon
possession. Now that's probably a horrible
statement. A lot of people would be offended
to hear that. And I'd be careful who I made that statement around.
We used to go to a nursing home in town years and years ago,
and there were men in there, and I remember this one man in
particular. You'd be sitting and talk to him. He was just
as normal. All of a sudden, his body would
get so twisted, and he'd start sticking his fist towards heaven
and cursing God. The devil can affect bodies.
He can do that. The Bible says when Job got permission
to tempt Job, the Bible says he went forth from the presence
of the Lord and smote Job's bodies with balls from the crown of
his head to the soles of his feet. So they can affect your
body and my body. They can do that. They can affect
the mind. And here's where he works, isn't
it? In the mind. How does he affect the mind?
You know the cheap way the devil affects the mind. And we're told
in Peter's message in Acts chapter 10 that Christ went about doing
good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil. Anytime you and I turn our eyes
in on ourselves, And we get so discouraged and despondent with
our own failings and our own inabilities and our own sin. And we just continue to look
at ourselves to the point that we get so oppressed, we almost
despair. You know who's behind that? The
devil. Satan. You remember that next
time you get down and you get depressed. There's a lot of depression
among the Lord's children. And the devil was mainly the
author of it. That's why we're told to take
the shield of faith, that we may quench the fiery darts of
the wicked one. And brothers and sisters, there
are people, bless their hearts, there's lost people, a multitude
of lost people that are so depressed that they kill themselves. It's not a shock to us when people
kill themselves because the devil is a murderer. You remember that
little boy, his dad brought him to the Lord Jesus and said, Lord,
if you can do anything for us, help us. And he said, what's
the problem? He said, well, I brought this
my son to your disciples. He's got a devil and they couldn't
cast him out. And he said, what's he doing
to him? And he says he's casting him into the fire. My little
boy, he sees a fire that we got built, and we don't watch him.
He'll run and jump into it to destroy himself. When he's around
water, we've got to watch him. He tries to drown himself. And
the devils were leading this little child to such depression
and hopelessness that he was trying to kill himself. And that
happens all the time. That's his business. The oppressor
of the mind. He seeks to corrupt and hinder
people from hearing and believing the gospel. Boy, this is what
he's working at over time in all ages. He has his false apostles. He has his false preachers. He's
called an angel of light. He's not just a black angel.
He does enough harm as a black angel, but he's a white angel.
He presents himself as a white angel. And Paul was talking about
the false preachers and apostles of his day, and here's what he
said about them. Such are false apostles, deceitful
workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
And no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed into a Billy Graham. He's transformed into a Robert
Shuler. He's transformed into the Pope
of Rome. He's transformed into a good
man, a smooth man, a holy man. That's what he appears to be,
that angel of light. Therefore, it is no great thing
if his ministers be transformed as the ministers of righteousness. Anytime the lost world has a
high opinion of a preacher, The preacher better look at it. What
does the world know about righteousness anyway? When the world looks
and says, oh, what a righteous man, what do you know about righteousness?
How do you know if he's a righteous man? Because he appeals to me. He pleases me. He says smooth
things concerning me. That's of the devil. Anytime
we go out to appease the world, we're of the devil. He does that. That's his business. That's his
cheap business. His emissaries with himself seeks
every word. The Word of God is read and spoken
to hinder people from believing it. Boy, he's right here this
morning. You bet he's right here. If he's not here in person, which
he may not be, he's got some emissaries here. Some have fallen
spiritual right here this morning. Our Lord Jesus said, wherever
the gospel is preached, wherever the Word is sold, and it lands
on stony ground, it lands by the wayside where people hear
it and don't understand it, what happens? Then comes the wicked
one. The devil or one of his emissaries. And what happens? They steal
the Word. They snatch it. Word. from the heart, from the mind.
Why does He do that? Lest they should believe and
be saved. Now, that's cruel, ain't it?
That's quite a bit of power. And that's the power He has,
if God permits it. He steals the Word. And He does
that with us as God's children. How many times has the Word come
to you? Instead of being a blessing, you can hang on to it. He steals
it from you. He steals it from you. He's a
thief and he's a murderer. If our gospel be hid, it is hid
to them who are lost. How often we preach the gospel.
We preach it with all our hearts, with the sincerity as much as
God will give us. And people leave here and they're
lost. They leave here without a saving
interest in Jesus Christ. Shana read to us this morning
what a blessed chapter. Oh, every one that thirsteth,
come to the waters. I don't have anything. He don't
require anything but you to come. Come and buy without money, without
price. Eat upon Christ, that which is
good. Turn from the husk of this world. Even the wicked, turn unto Him,
and He'll have mercy upon you. And to our God, for He will abundantly
pardon. We've got a gospel to preach
to everybody, and yet the most are going without being saved.
And you can lay it at the devil's doorstep, because he blinds the
minds of them that believe not. Why? Unless the light of the
glorious gospel of Christ should shine in unto them. Now let's close by looking at
Acts chapter 26. We'll close by just reading this.
Acts chapter 26 and look in verse 15. This is where the Lord saved
the apostle Paul, saved Saul and Tarsus, called him to preach
the gospel. And look here what he says. Verse
15 of Acts 26. And Saul said, Who art thou,
Lord? And he said, I am Jesus, whom
thou persecutest. But arise, stand upon your feet,
for I have appeared unto you for this purpose, to make you
a minister and a witness both of these things which you have
seen, and of those things in which I shall appear unto you,
delivering thee from the people and from the Gentiles unto whom
now I send thee, to open their to turn them from darkness to
light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may
receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among all them
which are sanctified by faith which is in me." Turning them
from the power of Satan. And there is but one that can
deliver us from the power of Satan, and that is the Lord Himself. He breaks the chains of lust
and the dominion of sin and the power of darkness. And He translates
us into the kingdom of God's dear Son. He makes us a new creature. He saves us from the devil and
his power. And only He can do that. Only
He can do that. Bless His name. He can do it. Let's pray.