What Angels Do - Part 2 of 2

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Looking to Jesus, the founder and proctor of our faith. The media tells us that angels come to us in disguise to surprise us with wonderful experiences. But these surprises really come from fallen angels or demons. Real angels don't have time to give us warm fuzzy feelings. Their job to carry out God's orders and minister to God's people. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is running to win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. In his current series, Pastor Lutzer is teaching us about what angels do, dispelling the myth that angels just do good deeds for us. Pastor, this brief series is a big dose of reality.
Dave McCallister: You know, Dave, there are many people who simply assume that every time an angel shows up that it's a good angel. It might be, but it might not be. It's not really for us to judge unless we know exactly what the content of the angel's message is, how the angel intends to help us. But at the same time, we must recognize that even evil angels will do good if they can deceive. It's best for us to make sure that we commit ourselves to the Lord and not commit ourselves to angels, nor ever let us worship angels. That is idolatry. I'm holding in my hands a very special book. It's a hard back book. It's entitled 1 2 3 Jesus Loves Me, a wonderful Christmas gift for a child. What this book will do is it will enable the child to learn to count, but at the same time learn about Jesus because every one of these 1 2 3s all the way to 10 has a Bible story attached to it. For example, the very first is one star. Later on, it goes on to talk about two boats. All stories from the New Testament for a gift of any amount, it can be yours. I'm going to give you that contact info right now. Go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1 888 218 9337. I'm going to be giving you that contact info again when we return. For now, let us listen. How would all the angels regard the publicity that is being given to angels today? Well, it depends what angel you're talking about. If you're speaking of the angels of God, they are up horrid. They abhor what is happening today. To them, they see this as the uttermost idolatry that people are going to be absorbed with angels and not recognize that the real issue is not angels, but one's relationship with God. But the fallen angels, they are delighting in it. This is great. Why? Because they love to have the attraction of people and they love to have people think more about them than they do of God and their greatest delight is when somebody prays to an angel thinking that he's praying to an angel and actually praying to an angel of light, a demonic spirit who appears as being righteous, but who is wicked. A spirit who does good things, mind you, all of them do. That's what the books say. Who does good things, but he does them with the intention of deceiving. You say, well, Pastor Lutzer, is this a new phenomenon? Well, it's new in the sense that years ago you couldn't go into bookstores and see all this stuff on angels. But I want you to know that everything that goes around comes around. During the ancient times, there was a heresy by the name of Gnosticism. And Gnosticism taught that there was a whole emanation of angels from God to man. And they began to sort out all the different angels. And actually, philosophically, they were much more astute and much more intricate than the kind of pop writing that is being done today on angels. And they had it all worked out. What did the Apostle Paul think of it? Turn to Colossians chapter two for just a moment. Colossians chapter two, which was a letter that was basically written to counteract this heresy that was also being imbibed in the church. This preoccupation with angels and in Colossians 2:18 he says, let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind and separated from the head, that is Christ. I stood in the bookstore and saw all these angel books. And I thought to myself, how how incredibly arrogant arrogant. To think that man would be able to enter into spiritual territory and would have the perception to know what was right and what was wrong, when he was deceived and when he was not deceived, and that all that you needed to do is to have this experience and then you could write a book. And I read some of the stories and the angels were indiscriminate in their good deeds, both to the wicked and to the to the saved and to the unsaved. And and to think that this is now the map of the spiritual world. Paul says, beware lest somebody steal your crown when you become mesmerized by the angelic phenomenon which was happening in the 2nd century. Beware. It's happened before. How do we know if an angel is of God? Number one, he will agree with God regarding everything. He's got to agree with the words. Secondly, if he is really of God, he will always honor God. Always honor God. He will disdain any unnecessary attention. His goal is God. Thirdly, notice that angels act for God. I find this story very interesting because Zacharias was not exactly believing. He said, look, I'm an old man, Elizabeth is an old woman. I think he put it more delicately than that, but the whole idea is that I don't think we can have children anymore. You know what the angel did? He says, look, I'm going to strike you dumb. I'm going to strike you silent and you're not going to say one word until everything that I have predicted is going to come to pass. And if you read the second chapter, you know that the angel was right. Well, here I am in Crown Books. And I'm looking at all of these angel stories. And I'm looking for a story where an angel struck somebody dumb. Can't find it. Wish wish that it happened for some perhaps, but it's not there. Everything that happens is always good. It is always positive. You realize today, my friend, that angels were frequently used in the judgment of God. You read the Old Testament and you find that there were angels that came. You remember the story of Elijah. He said to the young servant, he said, open your eyes. And he opened his eyes and the entire horizon was filled with warriors. And I think it was 185,000 Assyrians slain on a single night by all these angels. Oftentimes they were messengers of judgment. Yes, for believers they are frequently messengers of protection. Hebrews chapter 1 verse 14, they are ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation. They are sometimes ministers of communication, though that happens less frequently today because we have the Bible, we have God's word, and we have the blessed Holy Spirit of God in our hearts who leads us. And there may be times when we have been totally unaware of it and angels have taken care of us and angels have prepared the way and angels have saved us and protected us in ways that we were even not aware of. What I'd like to do today is to give you now in closing three very important cautions regarding angels. Very important. Number one, never never initiate contact with an angel. Never initiate the contact. If God wants to send you an angel, fine. But don't you initiate the contact. Let him be sent by God for a specific purpose. Why do I say don't initiate the contact? My dear friend, if our eyes could be open to the spirit world, we discover that the whole atmosphere right here even in the church was filled with spirits, some good and not bad. And and what we would learn is that when you begin to initiate, you do not know but that you are communicating with an angel of light, a demonic spirit who is impersonating an angel of God. Look at Swedenborg, great spiritist of a previous day. Swedenborg believed that God had given him the ability to distinguish good spirits from bad spirits just like that woman on the plane with whom I was riding sometime ago, who said that she could tell the difference because she received only those spirits she said that came to her in light. And she abhorred all the spirits that came to her in darkness. Swedenborg thought that he had that ability too. You know what he said near the end of his life? He said, I realized the demons are so deceptive that I now recognize that even I have been deceived and there is no way to tell the difference between the good ones and the bad ones. If you're the initiator, you do not know what angel is going to show up for communication, fellowship, and to do you some good deed so that you'll be deceived. You don't ever initiate the contact. Secondly, never never think of angels as a means to get to God. You see what is happening in today's society. The book that I looked at briefly is Ask Your Angel. And the author says now if you have a request and you have some need, all that you need to do is to pray to your angel and you know that the angel will respond. You'll be heard and you'll get your answer. Wait a moment. Where in the world did you pick up that heresy? The Bible says there is but one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. And now what is happening, just like ancient Gnosticism, people are putting in one mediator after another, after another, that somehow they might be able to get their request to God begone in the name of Jesus. If you need to talk to God, you need to talk to God. And the way you do it is through Christ, not through any angel period ever. Thirdly, never give undue honor to angels. Turn to Revelation chapter 22. It's interesting to do a profile on what angels think of themselves. Now there's a message I haven't thought of preaching, Daryl. That might be an interesting one. What angels think of themselves, we could do a psychological analysis, try to figure out what angels think of themselves. Of course, some of us would only have to ask our wives and we would know what angels think. But uh that aside, let's look at Revelation chapter 22. This is what the text says. This is the second time that John is receiving a revelation from an angel and he is so captivated that he falls down. But it says in chapter 22 verse nine, and he, that is the angel, said to me, he fell at the feet of the angel in verse eight. Verse nine, the angel said to me, do not do that. I am a fellow servant of yours and of your brethren, the prophets, and of those who heed the words of this book. Worship God. I am your fellow servant. I am one of you in the sense that I am a created creature who has been asked by God to do certain assignments, but do not worship me. I'm here to help you, but I will always point to God. My dear friends, today the responsibility of angels is laid out in the word of God when it says that they are ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation. If you have an angel that is coming to someone who is not an heir of salvation, that in another sense has to be a story that has to be seriously doubted. Believe the story, but don't believe the naive interpretation that is being given to it. Now yes, I do believe in angel stories. Dory Van Stone wrote a book entitled No Place to Cry. She's a woman who was abused. Many of you have heard her story. Her first book was entitled Dory The Girl Nobody Loved. When Dory was in Romania and was at an airport with a very very difficult situation, and you can read the details in her book. When it seemed as if she was not going to be able to get the visa to leave the country, and you know in those countries all of the mechanics of taking care of problems like that become very great and very formidable. A man appeared out of nowhere, had a very kind look on his face and said that I am here to help you. And without her communicating with him what her need was, actually took her by car to a place where she could get the right papers, took her back to the airport, gave her some money, helped her through customs, totally negotiated the long lines by insisting that she get past them, and helping her all along the way, knowing what flight she was going to be on though she had not communicated with him. And then suddenly when it's all over and she wants to thank him, he's not there to thank. I can't prove it, but that's the kind of thing that an angel would probably do. Yeah. Yeah, that could be an angel. Let me tell you another story. There was a man in a very primitive country who told this story in Michigan. The missionary came back and he said, I want to tell you what happened to me when I was on the mission field. He said, I saw two men fighting and there was a man who was very wounded and I decided to help that man. I took him into the hospital and gave him some some medical attention. And he said, the man told me this story. He said, you know, it's very kind of you to take care of me, but he said, we intended to kill you, me and my friends. He said, we followed you one day when you were making a journey and we wanted to see where you were sleeping and we knew that you had some money and some medicine and we wanted to kill you and get it. But while we were there, we noticed that during the night there were 28 men who were guarding you. The man said, well, to be honest with you, I'm not aware of anyone guarding me. I was just sleeping out there in the open. And the man said, no. He said, because the other man who were with me also counted them and we all agreed that there were 28. Okay, so the man comes to Michigan and he's telling this story. And as I heard it, there was a man in the congregation who said, wait a moment, wait a moment. Let's put a piece of the puzzle together here. Let's figure out what day you're talking about, what time of day. Because he said, one Saturday morning I was going to go golfing and he said, the spirit of God so laid a burden on my heart that he said, I knew I needed to pray for you. That he said, I went to the church to pray and I phoned a whole group of men and we all had a prayer meeting for you. So they put it together, you know. Morning over here, his evening there, etc. And they discovered that the whole thing jived. And then the man said, in fact, he said, the men that I called to pray are here. Why don't they just stand up? Well, they stood up and they counted them. And you guessed there were 28. Of course, they are ministering spirits sent to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation. But let me make this very very clear. If you are here today and you are not an heir of salvation, if you have never received Jesus Christ, you need something that no angel can ever do for you. What you need is a savior. And no angel can be a savior. No angel is going to be exalted as high as we are. They are never going to be heirs of God. They are never going to be joint heirs with Jesus Christ because they were never man and they never became a part of Christ like we. And that's why Beverly Shay used to sing that when we sing redemption story, they'll just fold their wings because they do not know the joy that our salvation brings. But as a result of that, what you need is faith in Christ, not an angel, but in Christ. The one mediator between God and man, the only qualified one in whom you can believe to have your sins forgiven, that you might belong to God forever. Angels agree with God. They honor God. They act for God. They can never save. They can never save. Join me as we pray. Our Father, we thank you for those ministering spirits whom you have given to us. And we pray today, Lord, that you might make us grateful that you have created angels. We want to thank you for the many times that they guided us and protected us when we were unaware of it. Undoubtedly, there are many believers who are listening to this message who could tell us of direct encounters and helpful experiences. But we pray today, Lord, that in this craze we ask, Lord Jesus, that you will help us as your people to continually point to Christ, whom the true angels worship and adore. For those who are present today who have never received you as savior, help them to know that the only person who is able to take care of their sin problem is Christ. And even as I close this prayer, if you're here today and you have never believed on him, you have the privilege of knowing that faith in Christ will save you. He that believeth on me had everlasting life. Flee to him right now. Lord, do whatever work in the lives of your people and those who do not know you that is necessary. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.
Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: My friend, don't get caught up in the occult. Don't get caught up in worshiping angels. That is sin. And those angels are actually evil angels. I'm holding in my hands a very special book. It's hard back. It's beautifully illustrated. It's entitled 1 2 3 Jesus Loves Me. Of course, as you might have guessed, it's a book for children. What a wonderful Christmas present. Do you want to see a picture of it? Go to rtwoffer.com. That's rtwoffer.com. And when you're there, of course, you can order a copy or you can pick up the phone and call us at 1 888 218 9337. What this book will do is it will teach your little children, ages two to six, to make sure that they know how to count. But also it will introduce them to stories about Jesus. What a wonderful opportunity to be able to share your faith with a child. Once again, go to rtwoffer.com. You can see a picture of the book there. rtwoffer.com or call us at 1 888 218 9337.
Dave McCallister: It's time now for another chance for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question about the Bible or the Christian life. There are many differences among denominations on such issues as the Lord's Supper and baptism. Many believe that baptism is for those who know they are believers and not for infants. This issue is at the forefront for Chad who writes, should I baptize my baby in order to avoid family disputes? I don't think I should, but I don't want to cause trouble in my extended family.
Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Well, Chad, I perfectly understand your question. We've had it happen here many times with couples here at the Moody Church. Uh for example, perhaps you have married a wife whose parents believe strongly that infant baptism takes away sin. And when they have a grandchild who is in baptized, they actually become fearful. They think to themselves, if this child were to die, he or she would not go to heaven. So it's a big deal. There are also denominations, Protestant denominations, that believe in baptism of infants, but they do not believe that it takes away sin. It's more or less the form of a dedication service. If that's the meaning of baptism, I would certainly say yes, go ahead, have your child baptized. Now if your in-laws think that baptism actually takes away sin, that's more serious. You need to help them to understand that that's not the case, that it is not baptism that determines whether or not a child goes to heaven. I personally think that all children go to heaven when they die. And it isn't baptism that makes the difference. Baptism is reserved for those who have trusted Jesus Christ as their savior. And they are baptized upon profession of faith indicating that they have believed on Jesus. Now after I've said all of that, I do also need to say that this is something that you and your wife have to pray through because it would not hurt your child to be baptized. Uh and even if baptism is understood differently than you understand it, but the bottom line is you don't want to give the impression that you think that because this child is baptized that that child is now a child of God. Because what often happens in those cases is a child grows up and thinks that he's a Christian and he proves it by his baptismal certificate. Don't go there. I guess what I'm trying to say, Chad, and this question has given me some ambivalence. To some extent, this is a matter of conscience. You need to decide what you are going to do and to say, is this worth keeping peace in our home? Or if you decide not to go through with the baptism, how can you best communicate this in such a way that your relatives will understand that faith is in Jesus Christ alone and is not in the hands of a priest or minister who happens to baptize infants. Chad, God will lead you. I know that you're a man of strong convictions. I sensed that in your letter. And I believe that you will have his mind.
Dave McCallister: Thank you, Chad, for that question. And Dr. Lutzer, thank you for walking that fine line and giving him a biblical and wise answer. Listeners, if you'd like to have your questions answered, you can go to our website at rtwoffer.com. There you can click on ask Pastor Lutzer. Or you can call us at 1 888 218 9337. That's 1 888 218 9337. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60614. Running to Win is all about helping you find God's roadmap for your race of life. Erwin Lutzer has concluded what angels do. The first message in a three-part series on a flurry of wings, a study of angels. Next time, tune in to find out what angels know. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McCallister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.