What Angels Know - Part 1 of 2

Dave McCallister: Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Looking to Jesus, the founder and proctor of our faith. Believers who know the Bible understand the difference between God's angels and Satan's fallen angels who seek to deceive us any way they can. Today we continue a study of angels and we'll move from what they do to what they know. Stay with us. 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. Pastor, angels are obviously sentient. Do you think they are as intelligent as humans or more so?
Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: You know, Dave, I tend to think that they are more intelligent because they see things really from a more eternal perspective. Of course, they are much higher up than we are. So they see what is going on in the world with more clarity, but at the same time, what we must recognize is that they cannot be redeemed. If they are fallen angels, demonic spirits cannot be redeemed because Jesus became a human being. He did not become an angel. Their sins were not atoned for. How fortunate we are. I want to ask you a question. Would you like to make an impact upon a child and you want that child to know Jesus? Do you want a legacy gift whereby you can encourage a child or encourage their parents? I have a very special book in my hand. It's entitled 1 2 3 Jesus Loves Me. It's actually written by my lovely wife Rebecca and it is written for children. Now here's what this book does. It's beautifully illustrated, but as you read it, what you will discover is that you are learning to count if you're a little child, but at the same time learning about Jesus. At the end of this message, I'm going to be giving you some contact info and for now let us listen. As all of us know in our day and age, angels are big business. There are angel computer networks, there are angel channelers, there are angel permitings. Big business indeed. We learned last week that this emphasis on angels is not new. The ancient Gnostics emphasized angels. They believed that angels would be the way in which we can get all the way to God. Nobody can have contact with God directly, they said, but through a chain of angels we can get there. And the Apostle Paul spoke against that heresy. What is unique about today is the breadth of the interest in angels and the depth of the deception. There's a movie that came out that I didn't see, but that I read about entitled Angels in the Outfield. Apparently the story is a an 11 year old boy by the name of Roger whose mother dies and then his father leaves, but before the father leaves, he says to this little boy who's basically on his own now, we will be together again as a family when the LA Angels win the World Series. Now I don't know anything about the LA Angels, but from what I picked up from reading this article, it would be equivalent to telling a boy in Chicago, our family will be together again if the Cubs win the World Series. Now you know that that would be equivalent to saying to a kid, kid, buck up, learn to live alone and don't even think about your family ever getting together again. But nevertheless, the boy prays to a God whom he doesn't know and angels come and apparently then the game is won, which may give some hope to our Cubby fans. But the reason that this movie is a beautiful illustration of where our nation is in terms of angels is that first of all, the God who sends them is undefined. He is gender neutral. Uh he is a God who does not have any ties to the gods of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He is a whoever you are out there and whatever your name might be and whatever connections you might have, please use them for me, kind of a God. And secondly, the angels turn out to be the experience that people like to have without having to confront God, the mediator, the experience of the supernatural without having to confront the issue of sin and repentance and righteousness. Beautiful example of where today's society is when it comes to angels. Forgetting there are angels of light out there who masquerade as angels of God, but are actually angels of deception, as we learned last week. What we'd like to do today is to discuss what angels know. Last week we talked about what they do. What do they know? Somebody wrote to me this week and said, do angels know our thoughts? Very probably not. They may know some of our thoughts. They may not know all of our thoughts, but one thing is sure, they can listen to all of our words and they see all of our actions. They know quite a bit. In fact, let me begin by giving you three sources of information that angels have. Where is it that they get their information? Well, number one, they know what they have been told by God. They know what God has told them. In a moment we're going to be turning to Luke chapter one, the story of Gabriel speaking to the virgin Mary and bringing her that message. Well, the reason that Gabriel could do that is because he was in the presence of God and God said, Gabriel, this is what I want you to say. And whether it is to Mary or to Daniel, Gabriel gets his messages from God. Now if you lived in the White House, you'd hear a whole lot more about what the president has to say than you would just at his press briefings. The Bible is a press briefing. It's as if God held a news conference and said, this is what I want you to know and this is all that you need to know. But if we lived with God like angels do, we get those background briefings. We get a lot of details filled in. When you read the book of Revelation, you're so impressed with the work of angels in both judgment and blessing that you realize that I'm sure that there are many times when they have information briefings when God tells them what's going to happen and what their role is. So first of all, they know what God tells them. Secondly, angels know what they observe, the things that they observe. Remember, they were there when creation took place. When God spoke the worlds into existence, angels were present and they marveled at the wonder of God being able to take nothing and create something. And they were breathless. If they breathe, they were breathless thinking about the wonder and the power of God. And they were on hand to see Adam sin and plunge the human race into its misery and its despair. They saw all that. Then they saw Noah. They saw the flood. They saw the judgment of God. They saw the tower of Babel and then they see us. They observe us. The Apostle Paul says that we are a spectacle to men and to angels. For 10,000 years they have been watching us. And consequently, we have the privilege of knowing that we are always being watched and that even if our eyes were open in this auditorium, we would see not only spirit beings, but among those spirit beings, both good and bad, there would of course be those good beings called angels. They know what they observe. Thirdly, angels know what they investigate. You see, God doesn't tell them everything. If God told angels everything, there'd be no mystery left. You know that if you were God, there would be no mystery because God knows everything and all the mysteries have been accounted for and answered and understood and explained. But angels are constantly looking into God's program. They are prying, trying to understand more. God says, here's this piece of the puzzle. Here's another piece of the puzzle and I created you as intelligent beings. Put this puzzle together and do the best you can. You say, old pastor, where in the world are you getting that? Well, look at first Peter. Turn to there for a moment and you may also turn to Luke one where we will be in just a moment. But in first Peter chapter one, this is what the text says. It says that the prophets sometimes never understood their own prophecies. They understood what God was going to do, but they couldn't put the time together. They struggled with the suffering that the Messiah was going to endure, suffering on the one hand and glory. And they were constantly getting those times confused. So it says in verse 11, seeking to know what person or time the spirit of Christ within them was indicating as he predicted the suffering of Christ and the glories to follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you in those things which now have been announced to you through those who preach the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which the angels long to look. They see redemption too. They see the prophecies. They can't quite put it all together, but they would like to be able to put it together. And so the angels long to look into it because they are fascinated with redemption as we shall see in just a moment. By the way, what can be said of good angels can also be said of the bad angels, satanic angels. How much do they know? Well, they know what they are told. Lucifer tells them certain things, gives them briefings, but his knowledge is often flawed. He is not omniscient like God. He does not know the future infallibly. He knows what is being planned, but he does not know whether or not it can be executed because there are too many contingencies. I kind of like that word. I hope you do too. There are too many contingencies that he cannot control. But he knows the plan. You see, Satan knows that somebody is going to try to assassinate the president of the United States on November the 22nd, 1963. He knows the plan. He may have even put the idea in a man's mind, but he has no assurance that it's going to come off. The gun could misfire, the assassin could be stopped before he gets into the Dallas book room depository building. There are so many contingencies. Now he knows the future better than we do on the basis of probability. You can go to a fortune teller and sometimes they are right, but not all the time because the future ultimately is not in their hands. They know what Satan is plotting, what people are thinking if they belong to Satan, but they don't know whether it'll really come off. And that's why the Bible forbids all fortune telling. It forbids reading such things as the horror scopes, deliberately mispronounced perhaps, but nevertheless very accurate. If if you're into that, you are shaking your fist in God's face and will end up with a curse. We are to trust God and not those who try to pry into the future through occult experiences. Well, folks, that's enough chit chat, don't you think? That's the intro. Now what we are going to do is get to Luke chapter one where we are going to try to understand what it is that the angels know about two different categories. The first is what they know about Christ and secondly what they know about us. And once we have finished that, this will eventually end the message. I say eventually because this is going to go on for a little while. Aren't you glad you came? First of all, what is it that they know about Christ? Gabriel has been sent to the virgin Mary and you know the story. He says the Lord is with you and then he goes on to say and I was still in first Peter when Gabriel appeared. He goes on to say in chapter one, verse 29 we read, but she was greatly troubled at this statement and kept pondering what kind of salutation this might be. And the angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, will be called the son of the Most High and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and his kingdom will have no end. What is it that they know about Christ? First of all, notice he will be the son of the Most High. You know that word sonship does not mean that Jesus originates with the Most High like we think of sonship. Sonship has to do with relationship. The son has the characteristics of the father and that's the imagery that is used to help us to understand the Trinity. And actually we might say that in this case the son is the most high. So if you're taking notes, the first thing that they know is they know Christ high in heaven. They knew him before Bethlehem. This is what exaggerates, or I should say increases their wonder, is they knew Christ in heaven. They saw him as he was. I want to quote some scripture to you in a moment and then we're going to turn to the 12th chapter of the book of John. So keep that in mind. You remember that very familiar passage which all of us know by memory. The sixth chapter of Isaiah where it says, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and lifted up and his train filled the temple, the text says, and above it stood the seraphim and they kept saying, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. Isaiah ends up finally saying, I will go to preach to these people and then the Lord says, go and preach even though I've hardened their hearts and I've closed their eyes and I have stopped up their ears and they won't believe. Now look at who was it that those angels were honoring? You say, well, that's very clear. I saw the Lord Jehovah, Yahweh as it is in the Hebrew text. That's who they saw. Well, you're right, but you know who that was? It was Christ. It was Christ. Look at John chapter 12. Jesus is having a spirited discussion with the Pharisees and they're trying to figure out who he really is and it says in verse 37, but though he had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in him that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled. And then I want to pick it up in verse 40. There's too much here in the text to comment on. Pick it up in verse 40. He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, lest they see with their eyes and perceive with their heart and be converted and I heal them. That's right out of Isaiah chapter six, the passage I just told you about. Verse 41, these things Isaiah said because he saw his glory and he spoke of him, Christ. That was Christ whom the disciples were honoring. When they were there saying, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory, they were speaking about Jesus. They saw him high and lifted up. Now you can understand why their wonder is increased because now they are going to see him lulled and despised. We're back in Luke chapter one and this is where it says now, uh he will be great and will be called the son of the highest, verse 32, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. Aren't you intrigued by the way the Bible just throws things out for us to ponder and think about? Notice that Jesus is the son of the Most High. We get that clear, but he's also looked at as the one whose father is a man by the name of David. Well, how can that be? Well, it can only be if the father if Jesus Christ who is one with the father, God becomes a part of the human family. And that's exactly the message that Gabriel was on his way to present here to this virgin. What he was saying to her is, you are going to be the mother and because David is your great great great great grandfather, in effect the child that you bear, David will be his father. He will be a man. And what a mystery. And you see the disciples know how far Christ came. They saw him in his glory. They saw him fill the whole universe with his beauty and they were singing his praises and now suddenly they hover over Bethlehem and they see this infant in the crib and they see him there and they are filled with incredible astonishment and amazement. No wonder there are some things that they long to look into. Do you think that the angels were fascinated with Christ's life on earth? I want you to know that moment by moment they were constantly hovering near him. Here is Jesus who is out 40 days and 40 nights and he's fasting and after that time he is hungry and then he has that altercation with the devil and it says that when the devil departed, angels came strengthening him. They were there. They were there. And then we come to Gethsemane where Jesus is on his knees and saying, if it be thy will, let this cup pass from me. And the disciples are thinking to themselves, Jesus, get out of this. How can you be both the man of glory and the man of suffering? It isn't right that the son of God should be spat upon and humiliated and tormented. Get out of this. And that of course is the way we as people who live in America reason, where is the escape hatch? Deliver me. And Jesus said, no, I have to keep back the angels. I could call 10 legions of angels, hundreds of thousands and they would deliver me just like that, but I need to restrain them. I will not call on them because it is needful that I suffer. And the angels saw it all. They saw it all and they wondered in amazement. Isn't that amazing? Here you have hundreds if not thousands of angels already to defend Jesus Christ, to pounce on his enemies and Jesus says no. I'm so glad that Jesus is our savior. He's the only one qualified to save us from our sins. And I have in my hand a very special book. It's a book that you want to have so that you can minister to children. As a matter of fact, it would be a wonderful gift to give at Christmas for a gift of any amount. We're making it available for you. It's entitled 1 2 3 Jesus Loves Me. That's written by my lovely wife Rebecca, beautifully illustrated. Hardback. It's the kind of book that you want lying around your house, lying around the house of those who have little children so that they might be able to not only look, but learn to count and also learn Bible stories about Jesus. For a gift of any amount, it can be yours. Go to rtwoffer.com. I'm going to be giving you that contact info again or you can call us at 1 888 218 9337. Go to rtwoffer.com. You can see the book there, but also while you are there, click on the Endurance Partner button. The Endurance Partners are those who stand with us regularly with their gifts and with their prayers. They help us get the gospel of Jesus Christ around the world.
Dave McCallister: It's time again for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question about the Bible or the Christian life. What Bible translations are appropriate? There is serious disagreement on this as noted by Kathleen who writes, I follow your teachings so much and now have a question regarding Bible translations. I've been hearing a lot of negatives about all but the King James version. Can you tell me if you've studied this or taught about it at all?
Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Kathleen, I want to speak to you very personally and thank you so much for asking this question. And it is a prominent question in the minds and hearts of many people. It is true that the King James Bible is a wonderful translation and uh it does have an interesting history. But we must understand that all translations have their limitations. None is perfectly accurate. And throughout the years as scholars have studied the various manuscripts of the New Testament, they have concluded that uh some of the manuscripts from which the King James were translated are not necessarily the best manuscripts. There may be others that may be more accurate. Now we should not be concerned about this because the changes are very insignificant. Most of them do not have anything to do with doctrine. But these manuscripts that are used by many scholars today, it is generally believed that they are a more accurate reading of what the originals said. So you have various translations and uh there are many different translations and all of them have their strong points and their weak points. For example, there are paraphrases and those paraphrases can be used and they can be of value. I don't preach from a paraphrase because it is much more contemporary and does not translate the original as literally as some other translations. I personally use the ESV, the English Standard Bible. It's a new translation of a few years ago that has been revised and it also is based very much on a literal text and probably more contemporary. You see, language always changes and that why even within the King James version there have been many many changes since it was translated in the 1600s. Most people don't know that. So the bottom line is this. If you want to use the King James, use the King James. But I would caution you to not judge those who use different translations other than the King James.
Dave McCallister: Thank you, Kathleen, for your question. Thank you, Pastor Lutzer, for that perspective. If you'd like to hear your question answered, go to our website at rtwoffer.com and click on Ask Pastor Lutzer or call us at 1 888 218 9337. That's 1 888 218 9337. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North La Salle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60614. Running to Win is all about helping you find God's road map for your race of life. Erwin Lutzer has brought part one of a message on what angels know, the second in a series on a flurry of wings, a study of angels. Next time our study of angels continues in Isaiah chapter six. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McCallister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.