Here in Genesis, in chapter 1
and verse 1 and 2, this is not going to be my study. I'm studying
tonight a continuation of what we looked at last Sunday afternoon
concerning the angels. And I want us to pick this up
in our next study when we meet again on Sunday evening. But
the angels, the good angels and the bad angels. We looked last
week at Christ creating all things, and we looked at it in the sense
that He created these principalities and powers. And I want to look
at this again in general this afternoon, the creation of angels,
the fall of angels, and the judgment upon the angels. Next time, I
want to look at these things more particularly. Now, if anybody
is wondering why study angels, well, the Bible is full of angels.
It's full of the teaching of the angels, and if it's in the
Bible, we should study it. And the Lord Jesus Christ made
them. They're His. So we should study
these things, and that's what we'll do tonight and the next
time. But I first want to say something in chapter 1 and verse
1 and 2, and I want to say it because in a way it has to do
with the angels. Genesis chapter 1 and verses
1 and verse 2. Now I want to give this to you,
and without really even so much as giving you my view of these
two things, but I want to tell you there's two views in these
verses in regards to creation. And you'll have to search it
out for yourself. There's good men on both sides
of these views, and really we can't prove either one of them
dogmatically. So when we approach the Scriptures,
we have to be very humble, don't we? We have to humbly approach
the Scripture. But let me give this to you here
in chapter 1 and verse 1 and 2. In the beginning, God created
the heaven and the earth, and the earth was without form and
void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit
of God moved upon the face of the waters. Now one view is,
and probably most will hold to this view, of a continual creation. God began to create, in verse
1, in the beginning, God began to create the heavens and the
earth. That was only the beginning. He didn't stop there. He continued
on six days and created all things that we now see and things that
we can't see pertaining to this present world. He made all things
in six days. He began, and when He began,
You looked upon it. It was void. Darkness was upon
the face of the deep. But don't worry. He just began
it. He just started it. Gave him
six more days. And then he looks at it and says,
very good. That's the first view of this.
That's probably the view most of us have held all of our lives.
But there is another view of this also. And it's this. Maybe you've heard of it. It's
called the Gap Theory. It's like this. In the beginning,
God created the heavens and the earth. And He stops there. There's some kind of a gap between
verse 1 and verse 2. He began to create. He finished
the creation. It was a glorious creation. It
was a complete creation. But then something happened.
Some kind of judgment fell. Some catastrophe came. And then
in verse 2, the earth became without farm and void. And the
reason those who believe in this gap theory say became because
this word was is the same word that is used when Lot's wife
became a pillar of salt. Remember that? She looked behind
her and she became a pillar of salt. That's the very same word
here. So some would say we have this finished creation. It was a glorious creation. And
then some catastrophe happened. The earth became void and without
farm. And then God began there in six
days, created the world and the universe as we know it now. So
there's those two views. A continuation as He begins in
verse 1. And then the gap theory. And
I'll leave it to you to decide which one of those that you want
to believe. And both of them cannot be proved
dogmatically. Even though you may hold of one
and you say it can, and you may really believe one, and I know
which one I lean to. But I give you that for this
reason. I give you that for this reason. When we study about the
angels, we really don't know when the angels were created.
He goes through all of these things pertaining to the earth
Then he created man. We don't know when the angels
were created. We don't know when they fell.
And we'll look at that in just a minute. But in favor of the
gap theory, without putting my approval on it or my favor or
saying that's what I believe, in favor of the gap theory, this
would answer some questions for us. Maybe it would at least give
us some hints. That heavens and the earth were
created, the angels therefore were created, and then something
happened. And the angels fell and it caused
this big disturbance, the judgment, and then the earth was made void.
If you want to look at that that way. That would answer the questions
as far as maybe as the angels being created and fallen. It
would also give us a beautiful picture, if the gap theory is
so, of redemption. We have had people, we had a
man came here, if I'm not mistaken, one time and preached the gap
theory and preached, Brother Larry, preached that man failed
and then the Lord began and made him new. Well, that would fit
in with the gap theory, wouldn't it? He had a creation. It was
complete. Judgment came. The creation was
ruined. The Spirit of God began to move
and make all things new. Man failed. Adam fell, plunged
us all into sin. We were void. Darkness was upon
the face of our hearts, upon the face of the deep. And what
had to happen? The Spirit of God had to move
and create all things new again. So that is two of the views that
you have there. If you've never heard of that
before, you can weigh those out and study that out for yourself.
I just wanted to say that in case somebody inevitably will
come up and say, when were the angels created? When did the
angels fall? Well, that's why I wanted to
give you that. The first thing I want you to
do then is turn over now to Ezekiel chapter 28. Ezekiel chapter 28. I want you to keep your Bible
handy. Ezekiel chapter 28. I think the first thing I need
to remind you of in the study of these angels is what we looked
at last week, that they are indeed creatures. They are creatures. They're not gods in the true
sense of the word. There's only one true and living
God. Angels are creatures. And we've
got to remember, as we read last week in Colossians chapter 1,
who their Creator is. All things were made by Jesus
Christ, whether they be things seen or things unseen. Principalities
or powers, they were all made by Him and for Him. That's what
you and I looked at last week. And in the beginning, all of
these angels were created wholly. God never created a devil. He
created the spirit that became the devil. And He created those
ministering angels that became fallen spirits. But He never
created the devil. God never created a sinner, did
He? He created a man who became a sinner. And made us a sinner
in Himself. But God created all that He created
in the beginning was good. It was good. But I want us to
look here first of all in Ezekiel chapter 28 and verse 11. Ezekiel chapter 28 and verse
11. This is concerning what most
commentaries and I myself believe to be the devil. He's spoken
of here under the King of Tyrus. But King of Tyrus was never in
the Eden of God, which he says in verse 13. But let's read this.
Look in verse 11. Moreover, the word of the Lord
came unto me, saying, Son of man, take up a lamentation upon
the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God,
Thou that fillest up the sun, full of wisdom, and perfect in
beauty." Now you apply this to Lucifer, that great creature
that he made, and look what the Bible says about him. He was
full of wisdom. He was perfect in beauty. Thou
hast been in Eden, the garden of God. We know He was there,
don't we? That's where He first tempted our parents. He was fallen
by that time, but He was there. Every precious stone was Thy
covering. The sardis, the topaz, the diamond,
the beryl, the onyx, the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, the
carbuncle, the gold, the workmanship of Thy tabrets and of Thy tops
were prepared in Thee in the day that thou wert created."
He's not God. He's a creature. The creature was full of wisdom. He was full of beauty. But he's
just a creature. "...in the day that thou wast created." Verse
14, "...thou art the anointed cherub that covers..." These
cherubs seem to be the highest of the angels. Cherubs. He was
the anointed cherub. I have set thee so, the Lord
said. Thou wast upon the holy mountain
of God. Thou hast walked up and down
in the midst of the stones of fire, whatever that pertains
to. If it pertains to something that
was before the world as we know it, that he was in an exalted
position, we don't know. But it tells us here that he
was a very, very beautiful and wise angel. Thou wast perfect
in thy ways from the day that thou wast created till iniquity
was found in thee. By the multitude of thy merchandise
they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou
hast sinned. Therefore will I cast thee as
profane out of the mountain of God. I will destroy thee, O covering
cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Thine heart was
lifted up because of thy beauty. Thou hast corrupted thy wisdom
by reason of thy brightness, your splendor, your beauty. And
I will cast thee to the ground. I will lay thee before kings,
that they may behold thee." So we find out some things here
about him, that he was created in verse 13. He is a creature. Who created him? Christ. The Son of God created him, of
course, in chapter 1. We find out here in verse 12
that he was perfect in beauty. In verse 15, he was perfect in
his ways. But in verse 15, sin was found
in him. And he hints here even at the
sin, doesn't he? It was pride. Some way or another,
he was lifted up in pride. And the Apostle Paul was writing
to Timothy concerning ordaining young preachers. And he said,
be careful, don't ordain, don't lay your hands upon a novice,
somebody that's new to the faith. Lest he, being lifted up in pride,
fall in the condemnation of the devil. What condemnation did
he fall into? It was pride, obviously. And
men have speculated on this. Jones speculates it on it, and
Pink and a lot of others, that he saw the Son of God was going
to be exalted. And he got jealous. He wanted
to be exalted himself. And that's why he said, I want
to be God. I want to be like God. I want
to set myself above the stars of God. And he was lifted up.
And therefore, sin was found in him. And it was this sin of
pride. Turn back to your left in Isaiah
chapter 14. Here's another passage. even addresses him by name here
in Isaiah chapter 14 and verse 12. It speaks of his fall. Look in Isaiah 14 and verse 12. How art thou fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer? Whether this be the heaven of
heavens or the skies. Son of the morning, how art thou
cut down to the ground, which did weaken the nations? For thou
hast said in thy heart, I will ascend unto heaven, I will exalt
my throne above the stars of God. I will set also upon the
mount of the congregation in the sides of the north, I will
ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most
High." Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of
the pit. They that see thee shall narrowly
look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man
that made the earth to tremble, that did shape kingdoms, that
made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof,
that opened not the house of his prisoners? Now here he speaks
of a fall. Now art thou fallen from heaven,
O Israel. Lucifer, son of the morning. There seems to me to be three
falls. When we talk about Satan, when
we talk about these angels, and now we're concentrating on these
bad angels, but they were good angels. They were beautiful angels. And when we talk about their
fall, there seems to be three falls the scripture talks about
Satan and his angels. One is sometime in the beginning. in the beginning. We don't know
when that was. But there's where they sinned
and they failed. Remember the Lord Jesus said,
I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. When he was cast
out of heaven, it was like a big strike of lightning. He was so
bright and so beautiful, the Lord cast him down and it was
like the strike of lightning. I beheld him. The Lord said,
I was there. He did it, didn't he? The Son
of God did it. He sinned and he fell. Listen
to 2 Peter 2 and verse 4. If you can't remember these,
I hope you can jot these down. Listen to this. If God spared
not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered
them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment. He spared not those angels that
sinned. And listen to Jude 1, verse 6.
And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left
their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting change
under darkness unto the judgment of the great day." Now, when
he's talking about casting them down and them being in darkness,
that doesn't mean that they're in the darkness of hell. They're
all around us. They're in the air. They're called
the principalities of the air, the powers of air. They're everywhere,
but they're in darkness. The realm that they exist in
is a realm of darkness. They have no light. They're under
God's judgment and forever will be. He cast them out, made no
means of redemption before them, and reserved them until the day
of judgment to be punished. That's the first fall. When they
sinned, they fell. Lucifer, somehow or another,
exalted himself above God, wanted to be God, still has that desire,
doesn't he? Still trying to fulfill that
desire. He sinned, the angels sinned, and judgment came and
they all fell. That was the first fall. But
there's also, in a sense, that they fell at the cross. When
the Lord Jesus died, they fell there. He said right before He
went to the cross, Satan comes, the God of this world comes,
and He's going to find nothing in me. If He comes to you, He'll
find something in you, won't He? He can toy with us. He can tempt us. But there's
nothing in the Son of Man. And it's commonly believed, and
I think the Scripture would teach it, that there upon the cross,
the demons were there. Satan was there. Tormented the
Son of God during that darkness. Because the Scripture says in
Colossians 2 in verse 15, He was speaking here of the cross.
And He says He spoils principalities and powers. He spoils them. That
means when He overcomes them, He takes away from them those
things that they possess. He spoils them. When they used
to go into a town and defeat it, they'd take the spoils. That's
what Christ did upon the cross. When he died, he spoiled these
principalities and powers and he made a show of them openly,
triumphing over them in himself. The scripture says on the cross
he destroyed him who had the power of death, that is the devil.
In some sense, he destroyed him. He stripped him of his power.
Remember all the way back in Genesis 3.15 where the prophecy
was to Satan, you're going to bruise his heel, but he's going
to bruise your head. That took places to cross. The
Lord Jesus destroyed him in some sense of the word that had the
power over death. In Revelation chapter 12, you
that read Revelation very much realize what this chapter is
about. It depicts Satan as a great red dragon. And he's waiting
for the coming of the Son of God. He's waiting for Mary to
have this child all through the Old Testament. He keeps examining
the scriptures. He keeps listening. And he knew
that Christ was coming out of the seed of Judah. He tried to
destroy that seed. Got it down one time to just
one family was all that was left. One person. So he was waiting. When the Lord Jesus was born,
he stirred up King Herod in an attempt to get him to kill him.
He waited. He was waiting for the child to be born. Well, the
Scripture says there in Revelation 12 that when the child was born,
in time he was caught up to heaven. He was caught up there with the
Father. and sat upon the throne. The devil and his angels were
so mad, they went to make war with the church, with his people.
And that's what's taking place now. That's what's taking place
now. So there is the second fall. He fell in the beginning when
they first sinned, and the Lord Jesus cast him down and cast
him out also there when he died. You know, Satan is bound greatly
today. Ever since the cross, he's been greatly bound. He's
not had the freedom he had before then. Boy, before the cross,
he deceived the whole world. He had darkness over all the
world. The Jews is the only people that had any light. But since
then, the gospel has went into all the world, and Satan can't
stop it. So in that sense, he's been bound.
He's bound with a chain in this gospel age. He can't wreak havoc
as he did before the cross. It won't be long until he's turned
loose a little season though. And boy, we'll see his work in
thee. And then the third fall is in the end, the judgment. Listen to Jude again. The Lord
has reserved them unto the judgment of the great day. There's coming
a judgment which will be their final fall. Remember that maniac. That man of Gadara that had a
legion of devils, 2,000 devils in him. And when the Lord Jesus
went to him, remember what those devils said. Are you come here
to torment us before the time? They know. They don't know the
day, but they do know there is a day set when the judgment will
fall upon them and they will be tormented. Listen to Revelation
chapter 20 verse 10. And the devil that deceived them
was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast
and the false prophet are, and they shall be tormented day and
night forever and forever. Now here is the sad part and
here is the fearful part. Satan and all his demons were
cast into a lake of fire. Now, that lake was prepared for
them. But here's the fearful part.
Every unsaved soul is going to be put in there with them. On
the Day of Judgment, the Lord Jesus said to those on His left
hand, Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared
for the devil and his angels. That's how devastating it will
be for those who follow Him. in whom He leads around and deceives
them, they'll wind up in the same place He winds up in. Whosoever
was not found written in the book of life was cast into the
lake of fire. So there's the three falls. We
have these angels that were created and they sinned and they fell. They fell. And now they're reserved
to the judgment of the great day. And next week, whenever
we come back on our evening service, we're going to begin to look
at some particulars of what they're doing now. We have other angels. They were obviously, as far as
we know, created at the same time. The good angels. They never
sinned. They never failed. They're called
elect angels. Now, I wonder why he calls them
elect angels. Well, it must be that He chose
them not to fall. He picked those angels out of
the whole bunch of angels and preserved them from sinning against
Him. And because He chose them and
preserved them, He calls them His elect angels. Those elect
men too, aren't they? I'm looking at some of them.
He chose you. But though you failed, He had
already determined to bring you back, to save you. He elected
these angels and chose them that they may never fall, that they
may never sin. They're called His elect angels.
And they're called His holy angels because of their nature, their
characters. They're sinless. They don't know
what it is to sin. They don't know what it is to
need forgiveness. That's why they love to look
into the Gospel. What in the world is this about? Guilt? What
is that? Never felt that. Redemption? I don't need it. But, oh, my
Master has done it, and I'm interested in it. And they're here this
evening listening. They say, listen to that poor
old hillbilly talk about this stuff. And I'm teaching angels. They're learning. And they're
watching you. And they're listening to you
as you pray and seek Him for mercy. And you rejoice in His
precious blood. They say, man, listen to that.
Look at that. They're learning from you. Because
they don't know what it means to be a sinner redeemed by the
blood of the Lamb. They're also called ministering
spirits because He created them to minister for Him and to Him
and for His glory. Ministering spirits. Listen to
Hebrews chapter 1 verse 7. He maketh his angels' spirits
and his ministers a flame of fire. Hebrews 1 verse 14. Are they not all ministering
spirits sent forth to minister? And we'll see that next time.
They're sent forth to minister. Christ created these holy angels.
He preserved them. They're mighty and they're ministering
spirits. They ministered to Him when He
was here. Remember that? How often do we
see these angels coming to Him and ministering to Him? And there
when Satan tempted Him, Satan quoted that Scripture. He said,
why don't you just leap off of this temple and fall on those
rocks? It's not going to hurt you because
God says He's given His angels charge over you to keep you,
lest at any time you dash your foot against the stone. But what
did He say? You shall not tempt the Lord
thy God." He said, if I did that, I'd be tempting the Lord my God. You know why we don't take up
snakes and handle them? It'd be tempting, wouldn't it?
We'd tempt God to do that. Why didn't the Master just go
ahead and jump? He said, no, I'd be tempted. But He's promised
to give His angels, that would still be tempting. And when those
disciples took up a serpent, they didn't willingly take up
a serpent. Paul was put in wood in the fire, and one latched
ahold of him. But the Lord said, if that does
happen, it ain't going to hurt you. But you go out there and
pick up a serpent, and you're tempting God. Don't go out there
doing that and say, well, He's given His angels charge over
us. And listen to how the Lord's
going to use them in Matthew 13 and verse 41 and 42. It shows
they're His ministering spirits. And they have so much to do in
the whole business of protection and calling of the Lord's people
and preserving them and keeping them. The angels of the Lord
encamps around about them that fear Him. And listen how the
Lord sends them to do things. The Son of Man shall send forth
His angels. Matthew 13, 41, 42. He'll send
forth His angels. Whose are they? His. And they shall gather out of
his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity, and
shall cast them into a furnace of fire, there shall be well
and a nation of peace." Now that's what he does to the wicked. And
listen, 2 Thessalonians 1, 7 and 8. To you who are troubled, rest
with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with
His mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them
that know not God and that obey not the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ." They have to do with gathering the wicked. And we'll
see next time they have something to do with gathering the elect
too. They gather them also. So we have these multitude of
spirit beings, they're angels, we have the good ones, we have
the bad ones, we have the holy ones, we have the unclean ones,
and they are under the direction of their masters. And boy, they're locked in battle. I want to read Revelations 12
and close, but these mighty powers are locked in battle one against
another. There seems to be some kind of
degree of authority, greatness. They're called principalities
and powers. And when you see that applied
to our rulers, it applies to different degrees of men in authority. It applies to kings and then
to governors and local magistrates. Principalities and powers has
to do with different degrees, and when it's applied to angels,
it implies at least there must be different degrees of greatness
in these angels. You've got your Michael, which
I believe is a mighty archangel, not Christ. He may be, but I
don't think he is. You've got your Gabriel, and
you've got your other angels that's mentioned. Then you've
got your host of angels. In the wicked realm, you've got
Satan, which is Lucifer. You've got Apollon, the king
of the bottomless pit, who is under Satan. So you've got these
degrees. You've got these mighty angels,
Michael and his angels, and they're fighting against the devil and
his angels. And they're locked in this mighty
war that will continue to the last day that this world stands. Now, that's what we've got. And
that's what's going on today. And isn't it amazing that poor
fallen humanity will rise and proclaim how powerful they are,
how wise they are, their abilities that they have, and how free
that they are. And they brag about such things
as their free will and what they're going to do tomorrow, And all
the time, what's going on around us is these two mighty powers,
these two mighty angels, these two mighty armies of angels are
locked in battle one against another. And all we are is just
pawns. All we are is just weak, fallen,
helpless sinners. And when we begin to consider
this battle and these powers, And this war raging all around
us, brothers and sisters, the only hope we have, the only help
we have, is from the Son of God Himself. It's to be on His side. Or better yet, to have Him on
our side. Because He's going to get the
victory in the end. That's what the book of Revelations
is about. The victory. The victory in the
end. And the only hope we could possibly
have is to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's our only
hope. No other hope. The battle is
too great. We're too weak. Our enemies are
too many. And they're too mighty. And we'll see that next time.
But I want to end this little study by looking quickly at Revelation
Chapter 12. right quickly in Revelation Chapter
12. Let me read this to us quickly
in closing. Revelation Chapter 12 and look
in verse 1. And there appeared a great wonder
in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her
feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. And she, being
with Chal, cried for Belen in birth, and pained to be delivered. And there appeared another wonder
in heaven. 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." That indicates to us that he
took a third of the angels with him, doesn't he, when he fell?
And he did cast them into the earth and the dragon stood before
the woman which was ready to be delivered to devour her child
as soon as it was born. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
He watched all through the Old Testament waiting for him to
be born. And she brought forth a man-jaw
that was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her child
was caught up unto God to his throne, and the woman fled into
the wilderness where she had a place prepared of God, that
they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days."
All the gospel age. And there was war in heaven.
Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon
fought in his angels, and they prevailed not. Neither was their
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. And he was cast out into the
earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud
voice saying in heaven, Now is salvation and strength in the
kingdoms of our God, and the power of his Christ. For the
accuser of our brother is cast down, which accused him before
our God day and night. And they overcame him by the
blood of the Lamb, 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 knows that he has but a short
time. And when the dragon saw that
he was cast into the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought
forth a man child. And to the woman was given two
wings of a great eagle, that she should fly into the wilderness
unto her place, where she should be nourished for time, 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 wrought with the woman, and went to make war with the
remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and
have the testimony of Jesus Christ." A lot of symbols, but it really
gets your imagination stirring, doesn't it? Well, we'll have to take this
in part. Next time we'll go into this a little bit deeper and
some more particulars. May God bless you.