WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT ANGELS?        Hebrews 1:14

 

 

                I had a visit with my family doctor this morning. Before I left, he asked me, “What do you know about angels?” I responded, “Not much.” Then, I proceeded to tell him what little I do know. The following is basically what I told him.

                The word “angel” means “messenger.” An angel is essentially a messenger from God, one created and sent of God. Without question, there is a specific order of heavenly beings called “angels.” The fallen angels (Rev. 12::4), are commonly referred to as “devils” or demons (James 2:19). Those fallen angels are messengers of Satan, bent upon the destruction of our souls. Whereas the angels of God are described as “ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation.”

 

 

The Angel of The Covenant

                The Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, is called “the Messenger (Angel) of the covenant” (Mal. 3:1). Commonly, in the Old Testament, when we read of “the Angel of the Lord” appearing to men, as he did to Abraham, Monoah and his wife, etc., the one appearing was the Son of God himself. Those pre-incarnate manifestations of Christ were preludes to the coming of our great Savior to accomplish the redemption of his people. To say that Christ is “the Angel of the Lord does not, in any way, contradict the fact of his eternal Deity. He is both Jehovah and Jehovah’s Messenger. In his eternal Deity, our Savior is God himself, over all and blessed forever. In his mediatoral capacity, as our Surety and Substitute, he is “the Angel of the Lord.” As the Angel of the Lord, “the Messenger of the covenant,” the Son of God comes to men to reveal and fulfil all the stipulations of the covenant of grace for us (Jer. 31:31-34; Heb. 8:6-13), thereby securing our “eternal redemption” (Heb. 9:12). Having fulfilled all the requirements of the covenant as our Substitute, our Savior now sits upon the throne of universal monarchy, ruling all things according to the purpose of God as our God-man Mediator, to give eternal life to his people (John 17:2; Rev. 10:1-6). He and he alone is able to fulfil the book of God’s decrees (Rev. 5:7). He who rules the universe is God in human flesh, our Savior and Redeemer, “the Angel of the covenant.” Rejoice!

 

 

The Angels of The Churches

                In Revelation 1:20, and in chapters two and three, the pastors of local churches are called “angels,” because faithful men, gifted and called of God to the work of the ministry, are God’s messengers to his people. Not all pastors are designated “angels;” but all who are truly God’s messengers to the souls of men are to be esteemed as such. Why? Because God has ordained the salvation of his elect by the hearing of the gospel (Rom. 1:16-17; 10:17; 1 Co. 1:21-24; James 1:18; 1 Pet. 1:23-25). Let no one despise or lightly esteem the ministry of the Word. Gospel preachers are essential to both the salvation of chosen, redeemed sinners and the edification of his church (Eph. 4:11-16).

                People often say, “I follow the Lord. I will not follow a man.” Certainly, there is a sense in which this is right. Every man is responsible for his own soul. Each one must search the Scriptures, and make certain that the preachers he hears are true to the Word of God. God’s servants are not inspired, infallible instructors to be blindly followed,  or priests  to whom you trust your soul.  Yet,  if anyone follows

 

 

 

 

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Circumcised “ACCORDING TO THE LAW”

Luke 2:21-24

 

Our Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled all the law for us, from the beginning to the end of his manhood, that he might by his obedience unto death bring in everlasting righteousness for us and put away our sins forever, and that he might do so in a way that honors God.

Even as he was coming into the world, our Surety cried, “Lo, I come to do thy will, O God!” He did the will of God as a man, all the days of his life. When he had done it completely, he cried, “It is finished,” and breathed out his life in triumphant death. It is by his obedience to the will of God for us as our Surety that we are “sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ” (Heb. 10:7; John 19:30; Heb. 10:10).

                In Luke 2:21-24, we see our Savior, Mediator, Surety, and Substitute beginning to fulfil the law of God in the room and stead of his people. When he was just a baby, eight days old, he was circumcised “according to the law”

Circumcision was instituted under the law as a symbol of the new birth, that circumcision made without hands by the Spirit of God. The cutting away the filth of the flesh showed the necessity of God’s elect being purified by his grace (Phil. 3:3; Col. 2:10-12; Tit. 3:4-7). But Christ had no sin. Why was he circumcised? The answer is obvious. He was circumcised as our Surety.

 

Identification

                Circumcision identified the Son of God as one with Abraham’s seed whom he came to save (Heb. 2:16-17). He passed by the fallen angels. He passed Adam’s seed. He took hold of Abraham’s seed, to save Abraham’s seed, God’s elect, his covenant people.

              Understand this. Our Lord Jesus Christ did not come to save Adam’s race. He did not die to redeem Adam’s race. He did not fulfil the law for Adam’s race. If he had, Adam’s race would be saved. Christ took hold of Abraham’s seed, came to save, died for, and fulfilled all the law for Abraham’s seed, God’s chosen race, his elect nation, his own peculiar people.

 

Blood Shedding

              Circumcision required the shedding of blood. Here the God-man shed a few drops of blood by a painful act done to him by order of God’s law, as a foreshadowing of the pouring out of his life’s blood unto death, by the order of God’s law, in the most painful, ignominious manner possible.

 

Debtor To Do The Whole Law

              By submitting to this ordinance of the law, our blessed Savior voluntarily made himself a debtor to do the whole law for us (Gal. 5:3). Circumcision was the legally required pledge of every Israelite that he was a debtor to keep the whole law. Our Lord Jesus Christ, “by being circumcised,” wrote Thomas Goodwin, “did as it were set his hand to being made sin for us.” Christ hereby obliged himself to keep the whole law for us, and to offer, not the blood of bulls and goats, but his own blood to satisfy the law’s penalty for our sins.

 

 

 

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“ACCORDING TO THE LAW”     Luke 2:21-24

 

                Everything our Savior did as a man he did “according to the law.” When the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world to save his people from their sins, he willingly put himself under the law and became voluntarily subject to the law in all things as a man. He did so because God cannot justify the guilty except upon the grounds of strict justice. Righteousness must be maintained and justice must be satisfied in the exercise of mercy, love, and grace. He who is our God and Savior is “a just God and a Savior” (Isa. 45:20). “By mercy and truth iniquity is purged” (Prov. 16:6).

 

Made Under The Law

                Therefore, “when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,    To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons” (Gal. 4:4-5). Now, since his work is finished, since he has brought in an everlasting righteousness and made an end of sin for his elect, Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled. “The LORD is well pleased for his righteousness' sake,” to justify us and forgive our sins. Our Redeemer has magnified the law and made it honorable (Isaiah 42:21). Though the yoke of the law was a heavy yoke, and only a shadow of good things to come, if we would have those good things, Christ must bear the law’s heavy yoke for us. And he did it as our willing Substitute and Surety. Though the carnal ordinances of the law were what the Holy Spirit calls, “weak and beggarly elements,” and but the “rudiments of the world,” our Lord Jesus Christ submitted to all the ordinances and institutions of the law as a man, that he might fulfil the law for us and bring it to an honorable end.

 

The End Of The Law

Having fulfilled all the law in the room and stead of his people, “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth” (Rom. 10:4). He is the end of the law in every sense of the word. He is the end of the law as its object. The law was given to point us to Christ, to shut us up to Christ. Now that Christ has come, the law has no other purpose. He fulfilled it. Christ is the end of the law’s curse. The curse of the law was spent on our Substitute. Therefore, those who are redeemed by his blood have no fear of being cursed by the law (Gal. 3:13). Our Lord Jesus Christ is the end of the law’s power. Having slain our Substitute, all who are in him representatively are now dead to the law (Rom. 7:4). He is also the end of the law’s rule. Being made free from sin in Christ, all believer’s are free from the law’s rule. We are now ruled, motivated, and governed by the grace of God in Christ, not the law of God (Rom. 6:14-15).

 

The Law Established By Faith

God’s holy law requires from all men perfect righteousness and complete satisfaction. It will not bend. It will not accept sincerity, repentance, or the greatest, most costly sacrifices men can make. How, then, can fallen, guilty, depraved sinners meet the law’s demands? How can we escape the wrath of God? There is only one way. – “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” Our faith in Christ does not satisfy the law’s demands; but Christ, the Object of our faith, does. Thus, when sinners, who can never meet the law’s demands, believe on Christ, “we establish the law” (Rom. 3:31).

 

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Christ, he must hear, heed, obey, and follow those men who are the angels of God to their souls (Heb. 13:7, 17).

                Such faithful men are portrayed as “ beasts (living creatures)before the throne of God (Rev. 4:6-11). By the gifts and grace of God the Holy Spirit, they are bold as lions, strong as oxen, compassionate as men, and soar to heaven like eagles, seeking a word from God for the souls of men. Like the seraphs described in Isaiah 6, they are humble, conscious of their unworthiness, but swift to do the will and work of God to which they are called. With their eyes always fixed on the blood, they ever set forth the glorious holiness of God. By the unction of God’s Spirit, when God speaks by his servants to the hearts of chosen sinners, they expose the sins of men and bring the gospel like live coals from off the altar, and proclaim to all who believe, “Thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin is purged!” Gospel preachers, the angels of God to the souls of men, lead sinners in the worship of God, giving “glory and honor and thanks to him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever.” Blessed are those people to whom God has sent a faithful man, as an angel of God, to minister to their souls.

 

 

Ministering Spirits

                Then, there are those heavenly, ministering spirits, who were created and sent forth by our heavenly Father to minister to (serve the needs of) those who shall be the heirs of salvation.

God almighty has an elect people scattered through all the human race, through all parts of the earth, who must and shall be saved. For every chosen sinner there is an appointed time of love when he must be called by grace (Ezek. 16:6-8). It is the work of the heavenly angels to preserve and protect chosen sinners until the time of their calling. They are instruments of God in prevenient grace, whereby the elect are kept, provided for, and secretly directed, through all the days of their rebellion, until they are brought at last to the feet of the Savior.

Yet, the angels’ ministry to God’s elect is not over once the chosen are called. The superstition regarding each person having a guardian angel is as foreign to the Scriptures as the idea that babies who die in infancy become angels. God’s elect do not have a guardian angel. All God’s angels are our guardians. None of us will ever know, this side of eternity, what wonders the angels of God have done to protect and care for us during the time of our sojourn on this earth. When our pilgrimage here is over, the angels of God carry God’s Lazaruses away to glory.

The angels of God are highly intelligent spirits, excellent in wisdom and power, and are the secret servants of Emmanuel’s kingdom, ministering to all who shall be heirs of God’s salvation. Could we see how they watch over us, how they guard us from countless evils, did we but know how safely they keep us in the midst of countless foes, we would like the prophet’s servant see the mountains around us full of horses and chariots (2 Kings 6:17). If a single angel destroyed seventy thousand at God’s command (2 Sam. 24:15), and a hundred and eighty-five thousand Assyrians who came against Israel (2 Kings 19:35), how safe God’s elect must be, who are protected by the angels of God, kept by the power of God, and secure in the hands of our omnipotent Savior! Only in eternity will the heirs of salvation begin to discover what we owe to the perpetual ministry of these ministering spirits! Well may the heirs of salvation rejoice with such heavenly protectors surrounding them and ministering to them with unceasing joy.