Angelic Helpers

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much. And hello again, friends. How in the world are you? “In the world, but not of it,” that’s the basis for that little, corny greeting that has become part of my trademark, so far as the radio is concerned through these years. “In the world, but not of it.” You don’t have to be tarred with the world’s brush. You can be kept by the power of God through faith. That’s why then I ask you, “How in the world are you?” I trust everything’s going alright at your house. If some of you have struck a rough day, look up and say, “Lord Jesus, see me through this one,” and He will. He’s promised never to leave you.

Paul said, “At my first hearing, no man stood with me, but the Lord stood with me”. You’re never alone, you’re never forsaken, you’re never desolate. There are always this hope, there’s always a next step of obedience, there’s always the next step of trust, if you’re working with God. Trust Him today.

Well, you and I are looking at this fifth chapter of 1st Timothy, and we are in a section that started with verse 21, “I charge thee,” said he, “Before God, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels. God, Sovereign Authority, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lordship of One Who owns you and Who uses your life.” Then he says, “The elect angels.” Now, why did he bring them in? And in another place, he said, “We are made a spectacle unto angels, demons, and men.” There’s a heavenly spectatorism, there is a demonic crowd looking on, and then there are the people all around you that are watching you. That word ‘spectacle’ is a Greek word in your New Testament, your original New Testament, that had to do with something going on in an amphitheater. A ‘spectacle,’ in the New Testament sense, is an event that’s watched, as in an amphitheater or a stadium.

He said, “We’re like players in a football game, or gladiators fighting it out in an ancient stadium, and the onlookers, in this case, are angels, and demons, and men.” The heavenly crowd, the devil’s crowd, and the world’s crowd are all watching you, my friend, to see whether, indeed, God’s Power is real in your life, and whether your testimony is genuine and sincere. They’re watching.

A man high placed in governmental circles sat beside me one day at a luncheon, and leaned over, and whispered, “How many of these guys are sincere?” The world doubts our sincerity- they think we have an angle, they think we have something to promote, but we don’t have anything to promote, but Jesus. We don’t have any product to present, but the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, salvation by grace through faith, plus nothing. And we haven’t any equipment and power to do it with except the indwelling Holy Spirit of God, Who speaks through us. That’s where we’re coming from, dear friends in the world, and you better believe it.

No, there’s an audience, the elect angels. Now, there’s two things about the elect angels, one, is they are an audience, they are aware. “There’s joy in the presence of the angels over one sinner that repenteth,” our Lord Jesus said. They are aware of what’s going on in your world and in mine. The second thing, is that they are, “Ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them, which shall be heirs of salvation.” “He maketh His angels spirits, ministering spirits,” we read there in the Book of Psalms. And in the New Testament, it says, “They are ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them, which shall be heirs of salvation.”

You put those two concepts together and you have a heavenly crowd, whose job it is to take care of you. Now, do you want to think about that? The Psalmist said in Psalm 91, “He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all Thy ways.” God is interested enough in you… He’s interested enough in you to assign angelic beings to watch over you. Do you believe that? Well, He says so. If you believe God, you better believe that.

Jesus said concerning little children, “Their angels do always behold the face of my Father, which is in Heaven.” God is especially interested in little children and that’s why those of you who do child evangelisms should be encouraged. God is interested in what you do, especially. The elect angels, now, the word ‘elect’ means selected, specially selected. And I think we have every right then, to believe that God has assigned special angels to watch over you. That doesn’t mean that you can play fast and loose with God’s Providence. If you want to fool around with God, He’ll let you pay the price. The wise man said, “When thou vowest a vow, defer not to pay it, neither say thou before the angel, “It was an error.” Don’t tell God you were just kidding. He said, “Because God hath no pleasure in the death of fools. Why should you die before your time?” If you wanna fool around with God, and play fast, and loose with Him, you have to face the truth, that says, “Be not deceived, God is not mocked.” You can’t say to God, “I was just kidding,” He won’t take it.

And so He will allow you the luxury of paying for your own perfidy, and foolishness, if that’s the way you want it. On the other hand, however, if you want to trust God completely and obey Him step by step, you can with confidence, depend upon the work of God’s ministering spirits to take care of you.

Someone called me, oh, I would suppose it was a couple of years ago, now, a radio listener that was responding to something, just like what I’ve just told you, that I had said on the radio then. She told me this story. She said, “I had been far from God, but I had repented, and I had to come to the place, where I really was praying, and seeking God.” And she said, “Shortly after really getting down to business with the Lord, and giving Him my whole life, and trusting the Lord Jesus as my Lord,” she said, “I was driving down a highway, when suddenly, the car in front of me went out of control, turned around, and was coming in my direction.” She said, “All I remember, for that moment, is that I prayed earnestly that God would be with me.” And she said, “I don’t have a clear knowledge of what happened after that, except that a few seconds later, I found myself sitting in the car on the side of the road, facing in the opposite direction. I sat there for a moment, and then the state patrolman came up.”

“He said, ‘Lady, I happened to be driving by, so that I saw all of this.’ He said, ‘I wanna congratulate you on a remarkable piece of driving.’ ” [chuckle] She said, “I told him, ‘I don’t remember doing a thing. I was just praying to my Heavenly Father.’ ” Now, let me ask you. Who did all that? “Oh,” you said, “It was her subconscious.” Nonsense. I firmly believe that there are situations in life, when the ministering angels take charge of the circumstances, in order to protect God’s child. Of course, some cynic is going to say, “Well, what about the people that were on flight whatever it was out of Detroit? Where were the ministering angels then?” And I have to say that the reputation that God has, is He hath done all things well. And if in God’s Sovereign plan, it was His provision for me to go straight to glory, by way of an airplane crash, then He did the right thing with me. You see, we don’t start by reasoning up to God, we start from God, Sovereign, perfect. “All His ways are ways of righteousness, and all His paths are paths of peace,” the Bible teaches us.

And so we start with a God who always does things right. In that connection then, in the process of a God who always does things right, we also accept what the Bible tells us concerning ministering spirits sent forth, to minister for them, which shall be heirs of salvation. That’s you and me. Depend on God to keep His hand on you. No, that doesn’t mean that you’ll be spared the troubles that come to other people. It doesn’t mean that you’ll be spared either illness or accident. It does mean that God will see you triumphantly through these things for His glory.

You see, what is involved is not my comfort, but God’s glory. Paul was in jail. He was harassed by people who were envious of him and trying to make things worse for him. But he said, “What then? Either way, Christ is preached, and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.” He took his imprisonment, and his shackles, and the harassment of envious people, as all part of what God had in mind, because God was glorified through it all. It’s not how I feel that counts. It’s what God is doing that counts. Do you buy that concept?

I’ll tell you, beloved, if you’ll set your sights on that kind of truth, that it’s not what I feel, and how I feel that is important, but what God is doing in and through my life, and whether or not He’s glorified, it will spare you a great deal of inner anguish, and problems, and questions, and it will give direction to your life, and purpose to your life, which nothing else could provide. Elect angels. Depend on the Sovereign plan of God. Depend on the Lordship of the Lord Jesus, to be your Lord and to guide you every moment, through the indwelling Holy Spirit. Depend on the angels whom God assigns to your particular life, to see you through. Alright?

Now, that’s a three point responsibility. He said, “I charge you in the Presence,” in the face of. That word ‘before’ means, actually, ‘in the face of.’ “A Sovereign God, God the Father, the One Who is your Lord, Who bought you with His precious blood, and the angels who are ministering for you and who are watching your progress, in the face of all these, who have their eye on you, and who care about you, and who are working for you, and within you.” He said, “Now, these are the things that are important.”

Well, now, time will run out, before we get into that, but he said, “Observe these things without preferring one before another.” The great temptation in dealing with people, is to discriminate, to be partial. For whatever reason, somebody has more influence than another, someone has more money than another, someone has more charm than another, someone has a better argument than another, someone is placed in a position to exercise influence, whatever it may be. The temptation is to be partial, to discriminate. And he said, “Now, God is watching you, you better be fair.” We’ll start there the next time we get together.

Dear Father, today, help us to be responsible to Thee and to those whom Thou hast assigned to our lives, through the Holy Spirit working in us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Til I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!