Doctrine For Difficult Days

[nChrist]

Doctrine For Difficult Days
by J. Vernon McGee
The Purpose and Nature of Man

 
Three Proofs

Now briefly, what’s the proof of that? I want to give you three proofs.
 
Historical Proof

History has proven that man is fallen and totally depraved. I do not see how anyone can miss this today. Someone asked the novelist William Thackeray one day, “Why is it that you do not have any paragons of virtue as your heroes? Why is it that your heroes and heroines are so fallible and so filled with faults?” He replied, “My business as a novelist is to hold up a mirror to nature, and I attempt to portray human nature as I see it.” Then he added, “I see no heroes among mankind.”

Thackeray was a Christian and a very astute judge of human nature, by the way. Have you read his Vanity Fair? What a takeoff on the human family! Little Becky, the heroine — boy, is she out for herself! And the hero? Well, who in the world is the hero? The young man who died on the battlefield of Waterloo, with his face down in the mud that night? He was the biggest coward of all. And his little wife, he two-timed her. Thackeray said, “There are no heroes.” George Eliot agreed with that. She said that was the reason she had none in her writings.

The other day someone handed me a printed message by Dr. Lloyd-Jones of Westminster Chapel in London. I’ll give you only a brief synopsis of his message:

The first is, that here we are given, as I have said, the only real and adequate explanation of why there are such things as wars. Armistice Sunday, two World Wars, why have we had them? Why is man guilty of this final madness? Why is it that men kill one another and have even gloried in war? Why? What’s the explanation of it all? There’s only one answer: It’s because men are as the apostle Paul describes them, “enemies and aliens in their minds.” It is not only the teaching of the apostle Paul. You remember how James puts it in the fourth chapter of his epistle: “Whence come wars among you?” and answers the question, “even lusts that war in your members.”

What’s wrong with men today? Well, our father Adam sinned, and he plunged the entire family into sin, and every one of us is tinctured with this thing. There’s not a good one in the lot. You may think you are, but you are not. You’re a sinner in God’s sight.

At a summer Bible conference a couple came to me and said, “We are the couple who got so tired of hearing you on the radio tell us we were sinners, although we were active in the church, that we wrote to you about it. We even went to talk to our preacher about it. And he said, ‘Don’t pay any attention to that fellow McGee. He emphasizes that.’” Yet they kept listening. And when they came to me at that conference, they said that they had gotten gloriously and wonderfully saved because they had come face-to-face with the issue that they’re sinners.

My friend, until we see our true selves as sinners, we can never know Christ as our Savior. There are too many people who say, “I’ve come to Jesus.” But they have never come to Him as sinners. You have to come as a sinner, because you and I belong to a family that’s sick — not only sick, we’re incurable. Christ alone has the cure. History proves it.
_____________________________________________

[nChrist]

Doctrine For Difficult Days
by J. Vernon McGee
The Purpose and Nature of Man

The Conscience of Man

Do you know that the conscience of man tells him he’s guilty? I have a little clipping titled Guilt in which the psychologist William James writes, “One single word which torments more Americans in more unsuspected ways than any other disease of the mind or body, one word, guilt.” And you know, when you lie on the psychiatrist’s couch, that’s what he is after. He starts probing around to find out where that tender spot is, what it is back in your childhood that causes you to feel guilty today.

I don’t care who you are, you are guilty and you know you’re guilty. Your conscience bears witness to that fact. Do you know that the only place that you can unburden your guilt is at the Cross of Christ? That’s the one place you can lay down a burden of sin and know that you stand justified before God. And, my Christian friend, you’d better stay off the psychiatrist’s couch. You’ll never get cured there.

I talked to a woman the other day — oh, was she guilty! She may even be guilty of murder! She’s not sure whether she is or not. She did an awful thing, and she has tried everything to rid herself of the guilt. She has been to the authorities, and she’s been to the psychiatrists. I said, “Oh, if you’d only bring it to the Lord Jesus Christ! He said to that woman caught in adultery, ‘Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.’ That woman, a sinful woman, left cleansed because she came to the Lord Jesus Christ.” Oh, my friend, if we would only learn where to take our sins! But thank God for a conscience that tells us we are guilty.
 
The Word of God

Now let me move to the third proof. The Word of God is the final proof that mankind is fallen and totally depraved. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

Listen to David as he confessed his sin to God:
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
And in sin my mother conceived me.
(Psalms 51:5)

In other words, David said, “I started off as a sinner. I have a sinful nature, and it came to me even when I was conceived.” May I say to you, as you move through the Word of God, that’s what you find everywhere you read.

Job in despondency prayed, “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? No one!” (Job 14:4). Let me say this, there are many parents today who think they are raising carnations instead of stinkweeds. But let me give you this verse again: “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?” Do you think your child is any different from you? Are you a perfect individual? Do you always tell the truth? What is your past? Your child is just like you. “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?” You cannot and you did not. So your child is guilty just like you are.
____________________________________________

[nChrist]

Doctrine For Difficult Days
by J. Vernon McGee
The Purpose and Nature of Man

The Lord Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3, “You must be born again.” Then He added, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh,” it always will be flesh, it’s nothing else but flesh. You can’t change it. And God never changes it. Some people say, “He changes human nature.” No, He never changes human nature. But He will give you a new nature — you must be born again. He doesn’t even intend to salvage the old nature.

May I say to you, friend: This old nature that we have — we need to judge it as God is judging it. Will you listen to His injunction?

… that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts. (Ephesians 4:22)

That’s you, my beloved, and I’m just like you are. I’m a sinner saved by grace. That’s all. Take a look at Colossians 1:21:
And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled.

You can hardly turn anywhere in the Word of God without finding that concept.

The heart is deceitful above all things,
And desperately wicked;
Who can know it?
(Jeremiah 17:9)

Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor. (Psalms 39:5)

Even when you are at your best, you are only vapor or breath or vanity. Have you ever noticed that when you try to be your best, you become your worst? That’s one reason that Bahaism never appealed to me. I was in Chicago when it started, and there was a lovely temple with little booths in it, and you could go in and look at the beautiful pictures. The idea was to sit down and think beautiful thoughts. Have you ever tried that? Well, if you haven’t, when you get home tonight get in your room and say, “I’m going to think some beautiful thoughts.” And you will think of the dirtiest things you ever thought of. Why do we do that? It’s because we are sinners. That’s our problem.

But notice our Lord said:

If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him! (Luke 11:13)

Look again to the psalmist:
They have all turned aside,
They have together become corrupt;
There is none who does good,
No, not one.
(Psalms 14:3)

And Isaiah wrote this:
But we are like an unclean thing,
And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags;
We all fade as a leaf,
And our iniquities, like the wind,
Have taken us away.
(Isaiah 64:6)

_________________________________________

[nChrist]

Doctrine For Difficult Days
by J. Vernon McGee
The Purpose and Nature of Man

And note this from Ecclesiastes 7:20: “For there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin.” The New Testament confirms it:

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. (1 John 1:8)

He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first. (John 8:7)

Oh, that was a magnificent response by our Lord when the crowd of religious rulers flung down before Him a woman whom they said had been taken in adultery. He picked up a stone and said in effect, “Here, the one who is without sin among you, throw it at her.” It wasn’t thrown. Dr. G. Campbell Morgan remarked, “That took me out of the stone-throwing business,” and it ought to take you out of it, friend.

You ought to quit criticizing other people, because you too are a sinner. If you’re without sin, then you can throw stones, but I don’t think you are without sin. The Lord Jesus said to His unbelieving brothers, “The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil” (John 7:7).

This teaching on the sinful nature of man won’t make me the most popular preacher around, but I’ll tell you this: It will cause unthinking people to think! And there will be folks who will get saved. Although it won’t be popular, folks need to be told today that they are sinners and that there is no spark of good in them. Oh, how they need to know Christ who came and died on a cross for no other reason than that man is a sinner. And God, who created man, wants to bring him back into fellowship with Himself.
..........

[nChrist]

Doctrine For Difficult Days
by J. Vernon McGee
Angels

We move now to a theme which is different from any we’ve had heretofore. This theme deals with that which you and I can know nothing about by sense perception. Now, it is entirely possible that you think you have seen an angel. There are men who have thought they’ve seen angels and then married them and found out differently after they got married — or at least they found out there are two kinds of angels, good angels and bad angels! But none of us has ever seen an angel.

However, the Word of God moves back and forth from earth to heaven without any strain or difficulty. And it speaks of things in heaven as easily as it speaks of things on this earth. It moves back and forth and shifts from the seen to the unseen.

You remember the story in Luke 16 about Lazarus, the beggar who died, and the rich man who also died. Jesus told about their lives down here, and then with no strain or hocus pocus or abracadabra at all, He moved from this life right over to the other side. Our Lord spoke as comfortably of the things there as He did of the things here.

We need to recognize that creation is not limited to our sense perception. It’s not limited to what we can see or feel or what is tangible. Actually, there are a great many things that are in the physical world that you and I have to take by faith.

For example, when I studied chemistry, my professor talked about atoms. He talked about atoms, and he talked about atoms. I thought that he was acquainted with them, the way he talked about them — that they just were little fellows he tamed and kept in cages, that sort of thing! But I was amazed to discover that he had never seen an atom. And neither have you nor I ever seen an atom, but I am confident that you would not doubt that there is such a thing as an atom. It is a reality today. But the atom, although we don’t see it, is, of course, in the physical realm.

However, there are things that exist which are unseen, as we’re going to discover. Creation therefore is not limited to only what you and I know and understand. I get rather amused at the liberals today who say, “We have a broad faith, we are broad-minded — we encompass everything.” But when they begin to narrow the thing down, you wonder if they believe in anything. This is what I mean: Is it a broad faith to say, “I don’t believe in angels; I don’t believe in miracles; I don’t believe in the supernatural; I don’t believe in the Bible”? Well, when you talk like that you don’t have a broad faith, my brother, you have a narrow faith. And, friends, we do need to have a broad faith.

The Word of God is our only reliable source; it is our only authority. The only way you and I can know about angels is through what the Word of God has to say.
_________________________________________

[nChrist]

Doctrine For Difficult Days
by J. Vernon McGee
Angels

 
What Are Angels?

The Greek word for angels is angelos, which means messenger or envoy. It could refer to either human or supernatural beings. It is used sometimes, as we shall see, for human messengers. But in the Scripture, practically all instances refer to a creation of God which is above man.

The word angelos occurs 108 times in the Old Testament and 165 times in the New Testament, totaling 273 times in the Word of God. So you see that the Bible does have a great deal to say about these creatures.

Now let’s see if we can find out something more about them. First of all, we want to know about their origin. Angels are created, they are part of the creation of God. Let’s look at a number of Scriptures, first, Nehemiah 9:6:

You alone are the Lord;
You have made heaven,
The heaven of heavens, with all their host,
The earth and everything on it,
The seas and all that is in them,
And You preserve them all.
The host of heaven worships You.

That is one reference to angels in Scripture. Then let’s take a Scripture in the New Testament, speaking of the Lord Jesus:

For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. (Colossians 1:16)

The next Scripture is rather conclusive in this connection:

Praise Him, all His angels;
Praise Him, all His hosts!
Praise Him, sun and moon;
Praise Him, all you stars of light!
Praise Him, you heavens of heavens,
And you waters above the heavens!
Let them praise the name of the Lord,
For He commanded and they were created.
(Psalms 148:2-5)

In this creation of heavens and of earth and waters we have the creation of angels — in fact, they are mentioned first. Angels are a creation of God. That’s the first thing we learn about their origin.
_______________________________________

[nChrist]

Doctrine For Difficult Days
by J. Vernon McGee
Angels

The second thing we find is that angels are invisible. That is, they are invisible as far as we are concerned. The passage in Colossians says that “by Him [the Lord Jesus] all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible.” There are things that are seen and things that are not seen — angels come under the category of those which are not seen.

We have another Scripture along this same line:
… Who makes His angels spirits,
His ministers a flame of fire.
(Psalms 104:4)

And we find it repeated in Hebrews 1:14 that His ministers are spirits. So it is clearly stated the angels are invisible.

We know now that angels are created of God and that they are invisible. We know something else about them from Scripture. They are higher than man. They were created before man, and they are a higher creature than we are. And, may I say, that would stand to reason, would it not? In this earth on which we live, we find a creation beneath us, the animal world; and since we have this creation beneath us, it’s reasonable to conclude that there is a creation above us, you see.

Now I want you to notice several Scriptures which pertain to this.

What is man that You are mindful of him,
And the son of man that You visit him?
For You have made him a little lower than the angels,
And You have crowned him with glory and honor.
(Psalms 8:4-5)

God has made the angels higher than man, or to put it like the psalmist did, man has been made a little lower than the angels. You may recall what was said to King David by the woman of Tekoa as recorded in 2 Samuel 14:20: “My lord is wise, according to the wisdom of the angel of God, to know everything that is in the earth.” There was attributed to David a wisdom like the wisdom of an angel, which was quite a compliment.

It’s interesting to note that after our Lord had been tempted by Satan in the wilderness, He was with the wild animals, and the angels ministered to Him (see Mark 1:13). We assume it’s the angels alone who ministered to Him, but I believe that the animals did too. The animals were not there to hurt Him or harm Him in any way. You see, He was the One who recovered what Adam had lost. Adam was given dominion. And if you read the Genesis account very carefully, you will find out specifically that Adam was given control of the animals (Genesis 1:28; Genesis 2:19-20).
________________________________________

[nChrist]

Doctrine For Difficult Days
by J. Vernon McGee
Angels

You talk about domesticated animals, well, this man Adam had control of all of them. And we go to the circus today and see somebody go into the lion’s cage, and we see an old shaggy lion without any teeth jump through a hoop, and everybody applauds. Isn’t that wonderful to make a lion jump through a hoop! Well, believe me, Adam had what we call wild animals outside his door, running around like pussy cats. They would not harm him at all. He had dominion. That’s an important thing.

When man fell, friends, he lost something on this earth. Again, if you read very carefully in Genesis, you’ll discover that before he disobeyed God, Adam had authority on this earth over the animals and perhaps over the weather. But he lost that in the Fall. In this day when we talk so much about scientific achievements and how far man has come and how he has conquered the forces of nature, it reminds me of the politician who came down from Washington years ago for the dedication of the third dam on the Colorado River. At this dedication the politician waxed very eloquent, declaring, “Man now has conquered the forces of nature!” Well, before he got back to Washington, we had a heavy rain, and it washed out all three dams!

May I say to you, man does not control the forces of nature, not yet. He’s trying to, and I remember when they sent three planes out to try to detour a hurricane, but she had her own way, and she just kept going merrily on her way. Man does not control nature.

So our Lord was ministered to by the animals beneath Him as a man and by the angels which were above Him as a man.

Angels have great power. These two passages of Scripture mention the power of angels. First from the New Testament: “… whereas angels, who are greater in power and might [than man] …” (2 Peter 2:11). Then from the Old Testament: “Bless the Lord, you His angels, who excel in strength” (Psalms 103:20).

In spite of the fact that angels have great power, we are told specifically not to worship them. The apostle Paul wrote to the Colossian Christians:

Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels. (Colossians 2:18)

You’ll recall that John, on the Isle of Patmos, fell down to worship the angel who was so great and mighty and had revealed so much to him:

And I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, “See that you do not do that! I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God!” (Revelation 19:10)

In other words, “I worship God. You don’t worship me at all.” That is something, by the way, that is quite amazing. If we are not to worship angels, we certainly ought not to worship Mary or any other human being. If an angel appeared before us at this moment, we are not to fall down and worship that angel. In fact, if he was God’s angel, he would forbid us to fall down and worship him.
_________________________________________

[nChrist]

Doctrine For Difficult Days
by J. Vernon McGee
Angels

Now there is something else that we need to say about the angels. There are a large number of them. The fact of the matter is, as far as we are concerned, I think they, like the stars, are almost numberless. And this is the impression the Word of God gives constantly concerning them:

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels. (Hebrews 12:22)

“An innumerable company” means you can’t number them — there are more than you can count. And you will recall the apostle John’s experience recorded in Revelation:

Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands. (Revelation 5:11)

John said that he saw angels around the throne and then he saw another great circle of them, and beyond them another and beyond them another and beyond them another. John finally finishes by saying, “And there were myriads and myriads of angels.” Again, you could not count them, there were so many. They are also called in the Old Testament “the hosts of heaven.” It’s a term that would indicate a great army.

Now we want to know something else about them. They are sexless. Angel pictures showing a woman with wings are not pictures of any angel mentioned in the Word of God. Instead, the gender that is used in Scripture — ladies, forgive me — is masculine. If you are going to attach a gender to angels, it would have to be masculine. However, the reason the masculine word is used is because it is in the generic sense of mankind. Anthropos means man, and we get our word anthropology from it, but that does not denote that it means male. The angels, as our Lord said, neither marry nor are given in marriage (see Mark 12:25). As far as we know, they do not propagate themselves. We assume from Colossians 1:16-17 that the number never has increased nor decreased. There have always been the same number, and probably always will be the same number of angels.
 
 —  —  —  —  —
Who Are Angels?

It is important to see the term angel used in other connections. The word angel applies actually to God on certain occasions. When you go back into the Book of Genesis, you will find the term the Angel of Jehovah. There was the appearance of the Angel of the Lord, or the Angel of Jehovah, to Hagar. Let me give some background first from Genesis 16:
____________________________________

[nChrist]

Doctrine For Difficult Days
by J. Vernon McGee
Angels

Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. And she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar. So Sarai said to Abram, “See now, the Lord has restrained me from bearing children. Please, go in to my maid; perhaps I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai. Then Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan. So he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes. Then Sarai said to Abram, “My wrong be upon you! I gave my maid into your embrace; and when she saw that she had conceived, I became despised in her eyes. The Lord judge between you and me.” So Abram said to Sarai, “Indeed your maid is in your hand; do to her as you please.” And when Sarai dealt harshly with her, she fled from her presence. (Genesis 16:1-6)

We see now the ministry of the Angel of the Lord:

Now the Angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur. And He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where have you come from, and where are you going?” She said, “I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai.” The Angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hand.” (Genesis 16:7-9)

Then when Hagar’s son was a teenager, they both were sent away from the home of Abraham.

And God heard the voice of the lad. Then the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said to her, “What ails you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is. Arise, lift up the lad and hold him with your hand, for I will make him a great nation.” Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. And she went and filled the skin with water, and gave the lad a drink. So God was with the lad. (Genesis 21:17-20)

The Angel of the Lord here, you see, is God, and many of us believe that the term Angel of Jehovah in the Old Testament is none other than the preincarnate Christ. However, I am not going to develop that particular theme now.

I want you to notice another connection in which the word angel is applied. Men are called angels. You will find this occurring in several different Scriptures, although we’ll quote only one.

On one occasion John the Baptist sent two of his disciples as messengers with a question for Jesus. When it was answered to their satisfaction, the messengers returned to John with the answer.

When the messengers of John had departed, He [Jesus] began to speak to the multitudes concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind?” (Luke 7:24)
___________________________________________

[nChrist]

Doctrine For Difficult Days
by J. Vernon McGee
Angels

Now the thing I want you to notice is that the word for messenger here is the Greek word angelos. And you could translate it, “When the angels of John had departed,” indicating that the word angelos, angel, also applies to men. Let me give you some other Scripture references that illustrate this: In James 2:25 the word is translated messengers, and all of the salutations in chapters 2 and 3 of the Book of Revelation are directed to the “angel of the church” in all seven churches. “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write…. To the angel of the church in Smyrna write…” and so on. Well, the angel is evidently the pastor of the church, not a supernatural creature. And, of course, I like it that way because it is the only place that you will find a preacher called an angel, and I’m going to hold to that interpretation! They call pastors other things sometimes.

There is something here that I want to dwell on for just a minute, because this is rather important. The departed spirits of men have been called angels. That is where the notion has arisen that we become angels when we die. But a close examination of these Scriptures reveals that you couldn’t press it to that point at all. Again, I’m only going to make reference to these. Acts 12:15 refers to Peter’s having been put in prison and the angel freeing him. Keep in mind how the angel ministered to Peter in that connection — opened the prison doors and led him out of prison. Then Peter came to the place where the church was assembled and knocked on the door. The people inside were praying. Do you want to know the kind of faith they had? It was like our faith. They did not believe God would let Peter out of prison, yet they were praying for that! And when the little maid came running in, saying, “Peter is at the door,” they said, “Can’t be true. It must be his angel.” And when they said “his angel,” they meant his spirit. And that is the way in which angelos is used.

Here is another example of angel referring to a person’s spirit. Our Lord said:

Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 18:10)

Their angels are their spirits which are always before God the Father. By the way, this is the passage that brutal parents ought to look at. Do you want to know whether a child who dies is saved or not? The spirit goes immediately into God’s presence. How do you think God feels toward the one who sent the spirit of that little one into His presence? I think you may be able to get by with some things, but I would hate to be either a parent or any other person who killed or mistreated one of these little ones in a fit of anger. Our Lord says their angels (or spirits) are in the Father’s presence always, and from 2 Corinthians 5:8 we can conclude that their spirits go to Him immediately when these children die. That very solemn Scripture in Matthew 18 probably should be given to some of these folk today, that is, if anything would impress a brutal and almost senseless person who would mistreat a little one like that.
_______________________________________

[nChrist]

Doctrine For Difficult Days
by J. Vernon McGee
Angels

Now, I want to be very careful here to give you another Scripture that shows that the departed spirits and the angels are not the same — that departed spirits do not become angels at all. I turn to Hebrews:

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect. (Hebrews 12:22-23)

These verses make it clear that the angels and the spirits of righteous men who have been brought into God’s presence are separate. Departed spirits of people do not become angels.

Those are the three ways in which the term angel is used in Scripture that we need to note. They will keep us from getting detoured when we come to a passage and wonder what in the world the writer is talking about. It is quite clear that there are occasions when God was spoken of as an angel, when He appeared as an angel to man. And men, when they became messengers (like the disciples of John the Baptist), are called angels, or even the pastors of the churches in Revelation could be called angels. And on two occasions the word angel was used for departed spirits, first of children (Matthew 18:10) and then of Peter (Acts 12:15). But let me repeat, angels are not the departed spirits of people.
 
 —  —  —  —  —
Where Are Angels?

Now I want you to notice something else that is rather striking. It would seem that the sphere in which the angels move is the second heaven. As you and I live here on earth we see above us the realm where the birds of heaven fly, which is the first heaven. The second heaven, the stellar spaces, seems to be the place where the angels are. And out beyond is the third heaven, the place to which the apostle Paul was caught up. I want you to notice several passages of Scripture in this connection. One is in Ephesians, speaking of the mighty power of God:

which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. (Ephesians 1:20-21)

Paul is speaking of the place above where the angels are, for there are gradations of angels, as we’re going to see. But when God raised our Lord from the dead He took Him, the resurrected Man, the glorified Christ, back above and through the second heaven, the abode of the angels, clear back to the throne of God itself.
________________________________________

[nChrist]

Doctrine For Difficult Days
by J. Vernon McGee
Angels

Now notice that the Epistle to the Hebrews also has something to say in this connection:

But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. (Hebrews 2:9)

You see, when Jesus came to this earth as a man He put Himself below the place of angels. Now this innumerable company had seen Him become the Angel of Jehovah in Old Testament times. And they probably were surprised to see Him leave His throne in heaven because He didn’t do that very often. I’m confident that at His incarnation they did not know His mission since we’re told in 1 Peter 1:12 that even today “angels desire to look into” these things. They were absolutely breathless — if angels can be breathless — when they saw Him descend through their host, come down to earth, and become a man!

I think that they are learning something about God even today, because Jesus left their sphere altogether, the stellar spaces, and came down to this earth and entered the human family as a baby. You and I have no notion of what was involved in the Lord Jesus Christ becoming a man. I wish an angel could come now and tell you something about how surprised they were. And they could tell you what humiliation it was for Him to become even an angel. But how much more to become one of us “worms” — and that’s what we are in contrast to angels. Look at the little ant that’s crawling around your home somewhere. Take a good look at it. Do you want to be one of them? Of course you don’t. Do you think an angel wants to become one of us? He looks down at us and says, “Be a man? No, never!” He doesn’t want to be a man any more than you and I want to be an ant. And when the angels saw Him, the mighty Creator, leave heaven’s glory and become a man, that to them was incomprehensible!

Will you notice just one more Scripture in this connection:

Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God…. (Hebrews 4:14)

Jesus came down through the heavens, you see. And the picture is this: through the third heaven, the throne of God; through the second heaven, the stellar spaces; through the first heaven where the flying creatures move. They saw Him leave heaven’s glory. Instead of becoming an angel, Jesus came all the way down through their habitation to this earth. He became a man. And when He had finished our redemption, He went back up there so that He might become our High Priest. Oh, my friend, we have Someone up there who is just like we are — He’s a man, you see. The wonder of the incarnation of Christ is that you and I have Somebody in heaven who has lived through what we are going through. An angel does not understand us. He can’t enter into our lives at all.
_______________________________________________

[nChrist]

Doctrine For Difficult Days
by J. Vernon McGee
Angels

 
How Do Angels Relate?

What is the angel’s relation to the earth and to the human family? I’ll have to slight this, but let me mention some things. They desire to look into the gospel (1 Peter 1:12). They were present at the giving of the Law (Gal_3:19). They were present at the birth of Christ — “a multitude of the heavenly host praising God” (Luke 2:9-14). I mentioned a moment ago an angel who freed Peter from prison. And an angel ministered to the exhausted Elijah when he was running for his life. The writer to the Hebrews says angels are “ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation” (Hebrews 1:14).

Let me say that at one time I believed this verse indicated that God has put an angel with every person whom He has created in this world, a guardian angel to watch over and guard us. I no longer hold that view. Right away somebody is going to say, “Doesn’t it say here that the angels are going to minister to the heirs of salvation?” Let’s read the verse like it is. The angels are going to minister to those “who will inherit salvation.” This verse is looking forward to the time when God turns again to the nation Israel and to the gentile world — after the church is removed from earth. Notice that it does not say that the angels are ministering to those who are right now the heirs of salvation. You see, God is moving according to His program, and He has a purpose for everything He does.

Christ is the Son; angels are servants. Christ is King; angels are subjects. Christ is the Creator; angels are creatures. Christ at this moment is waiting until His enemies will be made His footstool. The Father never gave such a promise to an angel, but He says that someday His Son shall rule. This tremendous passage, Hebrews 1:5-14, sets before us the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ and the exaltation of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is higher than the angels. The Word of God does tell us that when the Lord Jesus returns to the earth, His holy angels are coming with Him. And, under His command, they are to war with the enemy.
 
 —  —  —  —  —
When Did Some Angels Fall?

There was a fall of angels. They had a fall just as man had a fall, although theirs was different in many ways. When did it take place? I can make only a suggestion. We will go into more detail in the next chapter when we see how the archangel Lucifer became Satan. I hold the view that it took place between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2, when this earth became without form and void. It goes back to the sin of a great creature who with a third of the angelic hosts rebelled against God and was plunged to earth. There is apparently no redemption for them. And the reason there’s no redemption for them is that each one was created as a free moral agent, and each one made his own decision. I think the final judgment of angels ought to make it clear that you would not want God to deal with the human family other than the way He arranged it in the Garden of Eden: that we were all in Adam, we all sinned in Adam, and Adam’s sin has been made over to us. Since that is true, the righteousness of Christ can be made over to us, and we can now be a new creation in Jesus Christ. Otherwise, if we were like the angels, there would be no redemption for us when we should fall.
_______________________________________________

[nChrist]

Doctrine For Difficult Days
by J. Vernon McGee
Angels

Also we’re told that certain angels are reserved in chains:

For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell [tartarus] and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment…. (2 Peter 2:4)

And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day. (Jude 6)

Apparently, when the angels fell, the sin of some of them was so great that they immediately were put in chains and are held for judgment.

Other angels are probably the demons that the Scriptures speak of. Those angels were never chained, and they are the emissaries of Satan today and still have a freedom. They are disembodied, but they want to be in a body. Why? That’s a strange thing, but I think in the next chapter we can come to some conclusion on that.

Therefore there are two classes of angels, good angels and bad angels. There is a tremendous warfare going on between light and darkness, heaven and hell, God and Satan. That warfare is not confined to this little earth or to man. It’s much bigger than this little earth. It reaches out yonder and touches the innumerable host of angelic creatures. In other words, God is resolving a great issue during this time in which you and I live.
 
 —  —  —  —  —
How Do Angels Rank?

Now angels are in gradations of rank. They are arranged according to orders, and we see them mentioned this way in the Scriptures.

Michael is the archangel. He’s the mighty one who stands for the children of Israel. He is mentioned in the Book of Daniel and again in the Book of the Revelation.

Gabriel is not an archangel. Gabriel is an angel who is apparently a special messenger for God. He came to Daniel to explain the vision of the end times which God had given him. He also announced the births of John the Baptist and our Lord Jesus Christ.

And the cherubim who protect the holiness of God were placed in the Garden of Eden. They did not use the sword to keep man out of the garden. Rather, they made a way for our first parents to return to God through the shed blood. Later in the tabernacle, cherubim fashioned of gold were placed over the mercy seat for that very reason. It is the same picture we saw in the Garden of Eden of cherubim looking down at the mercy seat.

The seraphim are seen in Isaiah 6:1-8. They are standing about the throne of God engaged in worship and service.

Then another is the Angel of Jehovah which we have referred to previously.
___________________________________________