Transcription
So, hey everybody. Is there a difference between, uh, angels and demons? Is there a difference between fallen angels and holy angels? Uh, and if there is, how do we know?
Well, this is a very, very important thing to work out in scripture, and we are very happy to see the incredible response by all of you who are asking, "Will you please speak on this more?" Uh, and I'm really, I'm, I'm really, um, thrilled to do that because, first of all, these topics are answered in the Bible. Uh, and I almost feel like, um, we're doing a very special public service announcement when we hear from so many of you who say that, uh, your church or your pastors won't t- uh, touch these things or talk on these things, and even, even skip over these scriptures when going through the Bible.
And so, um, I'm going to ask you to take notes. I'm going to ask you to, uh, pay attention. Uh, angels, demons, is there a difference? Why would there be a difference? How could there be a difference? But the difference is there where the scripture references angels who are holy and servants of the Lord, Gabriel, Michael, and the like, versus angels that have fallen in sin, having given themselves over to Satan's lie, and they are now very malevolent, dark, sinister powers that have fallen to the dark side by Satan's deception. The Bible's clear about those two categories of angels.
But what is also very clear, but not often thought of or discussed, is the difference between the angelic, the angelic model, the angelic, uh, being versus the demonic being, the demon, the diamona. There's a big difference. And again, a lot of, uh, I, and I get it. A lot of pastors, they don't want to get into this. And, and yet, um, it's not that I want to get into it, but it's in the Bible, and a lot of people have questions about this. But here's my main motive: is that the Bible warns us that in the last days, uh, deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons. Isn't that amazing? Deceiving spirits. That could certainly refer to demonic spirits, demon spirits, and fallen angel spirits, uh, will infiltrate our logic and our reason and theology to deceive. And what that is, is doctrines of demons. Um.
So, there's fallen angels and there's demons. I do believe there's a big difference. I know you're going to send me, you've already done this, uh, "Pastor so-and-so doesn't agree with you." I don't care. Um, and I'm not saying that to be harsh or cold. It doesn't m- Listen, I don't go around saying, "I disagree with Pastor So-and-So." I just don't get into that stuff. But when you ask Pastor So-and-So to explain, okay, if you don't agree with these Bible verses that Jack put up, then what is your explanation? And then they give you some lamerain, weird, weak answer that's not from the Bible. Now, we've got an issue. And I don't want to prove anybody wrong or or crusade somebody that's right. Just want to speak the truth and let you guys know that in the last days, Jesus warned us that there's going to be a time that will depict the last days. And it will be like the time of Sodom and Gomorrah or in the times of Noah. Jesus specifically said those two things: that the last days will be characteristically like the days of Noah. That means you got to study your Old Testament to find out what that's like. And in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah. And yes, that's right. You'll never know what that is unless you study the Old Testament again regarding God's judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah.
So, let's dive into this, everybody. Um, and this is again, I'm doing this because of popular demand. Overwhelmingly, this is what you want to hear. This is what you've said. Uh, so, first things first. Um, let's consider this heading, this topic first. And I'm going for my written notes here. So, this is kind of scary, but the creation of angels. Uh, the, the creation of angels. Mark this down, please. The Bible says in numerous places that God created angels. We, we don't have a problem with that. Just put this in parenthesis: God created angels. There is no reference to God creating demons. This is a strong argument. God created angels. The Bible says. The Bible does not say God created demons. It doesn't say. So, immediately from the start, we have some interesting departure from it being one where it's singled out. God created angels. Even Lucifer, before he fell, is an angel. Lucifer is not a demon. But there is no mention in the Bible of God creating demons. And there is a big difference between the two.
But let's first of all focus on the creation of the good side of angels. And let's just go, and this is by no means in this brief podcast, is is exhaustive. You can look at this more in your studies. Colossians chapter 1, verse 16 says, "For by him," by the way, that's Christ. "And interestingly enough, for by him, Christ, all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, dominions, principalities, or powers, all things were created through him and for him." Colossians 1, verse 16, profound statement. Jesus Christ is the author of angels and their hierarchy, their realm, the realm of the angels. This verse also applies to the physical realm, to physics itself, that Jesus created all things visible and invisible, which is fun because visible, obviously, and invisible. He created humans. But invisible are the molecules between you and I, right? That our eyes cannot see. But when the verse goes into principalities and powers and dominions and thrones, oo, wow, that is a realm of the spiritual side of God's, uh, ministry and existence. Uh, not God's existence, their existence before the holy God.
Uh, Isaiah chapter 6, beginning at verse one, start reading there, and you will read about a very special category of angel, different than all the rest, where these appear to be what is known as seraphim or cherubim. There's a difference. I have to remember what is referred to in Isaiah 6, but I, it may be seraphim. But whichever word that I'm flubbing up right now, I should have prepared for this to tell you the difference. Cherubim and seraphim are, are a different category of angel that said that before the throne of God, there's this order of angel that they have three pairs of wings, six wings total. With one set of wings, they cover their face in the presence of God. With the other set of wings, they cover their body in the presence of God. And with the final set of wings, they fly in God's presence. And they say day and night, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. The whole earth is full of his glory." Wow. Um, beautiful. I would imagine spectacular. Hard for us to fathom, but good angels, created angels, nonetheless.
Um, the next thing that we're going to take a peek at is, um, regarding the good angels. Uh, in Genesis chapter, uh, 19, uh, verse one, the Bible says, "Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot," that is Abraham's nephew, "was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, Lot saw these two angels. Lot saw them with his natural eyes. He rose to meet them and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground. And he said, 'Here now, my lords, please turn into your servants' house and spend the night and wash your feet. Uh, then you may rise early and go on your way.'" When you read the totality of Genesis chapter 19, uh, Lot, it doesn't appear that Lot immediately knew that they were angelic beings. He just knew that they were visitors. They were, they were not from this here parts. They were different, maybe in their apparel. It could be that they were different in their skin, tone, or look. But Lot saw these two angels. But watch out, because the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, uh, they're going to think they're men, and they are going to think that they can, uh, deal with them as men. Uh, Lot somehow, uh, discerns, or maybe the Lord speaks to him and tells him, or maybe they tell him, "Hey, I know we look like visitors from some other king- kingdom or realm or some other country, but truth is, we're angels." Well, in short order, as you read Genesis 19, Lot's going to find out what kind of power these guys have. But those are good angels. They're good angels. They were sent by the Lord.
If you remember, Abraham and Sarah are visited by three angelic visitors, and two of them are angels, and one of them is the Angel of the Lord, or the Angel, uh, of, of the Lord's host. The Angel of the Lord, you'll see it in your Bible capitalized. That is a reference to what's called the pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus Christ, or what is known as a theophany or Christophany. This is when Christ, who is eternal, appears physically before Bethlehem's birth, before the Christmas day. And throughout script- Joshua, again, Joshua, and in Joshua chapter 5, encounters the Lord Jesus Christ, uh, before the battle, uh, and it is, uh, the Angel of the Lord, which is none other than Christ's appearance before his physical birth in Bethlehem. So, that's the good angel side, and we could spend a lot of time talking about good angels. Um, but I'm going to leave that up to you to do more on that. Uh, before we depart from the good angel side, Psalm 148, verse 2 and 5. Psalm 148, verse 2 and 5 says, "Praise him all his angels. Praise him all his hosts." Verse 5 says, "Let them praise the name of the Lord, for he commanded and they were created." Wow. Those are good angels. Those are great angels. Wonderful. Amazing. Hebrews 1:es 6 and 7 tells us, "But when he again brings the firstborn into the world, he says, let all the angels of God worship him." That is, um, a reference to Jesus. When he brings Jesus Christ, he, God brings Christ into the world as the incarnate Christ in flesh. There, the scripture says, let all the angels worship him. Verse seven, "And the angels he says, who makes his angels spirits and his ministers a flame of fire." So, angels serve the will of God. Good angels serve the very will of God. So, do keep that in mind.
Um, we'll go to this, uh, next one, and that is the area of, um, demons. So, now we're switching to demons. So, so set angels off to the side, and we'll talk, uh, demons here right now. And let's look at this. Mark 5:es 8 and 9. Mark 5:es 8 and 9. "For he," Jesus, "said to him, 'Come out of the man, unclean spirit.'" And then he asked him, "What is your name?" And the spirit answered and said, "My name is Legion, for we are many." We know from the full reading of that chapter that the spirit or spirits or demons. It says that there are demons. And this is, of course, um, the, the account, for example, of where the, um, the demons depart from the demoniac, the man that is demon-possessed, and they enter into a herd of swine, the Bible says pigs there in Gerasa, the northeastern tip of the Sea of Galilee. And 2,000 demons were possessed by what appears to be 2,000, I'm sorry, 2,000 pigs appear to be possessed by 2,000 demons. Yikes. Um, wow. Anyway, uh, demons, demonic activity. Uh, more, more on this here in a moment, but keep this in mind. Demonic activity, demons. I'm going to diam speaking about those specifically right now. When you hear me say angels, unless I, unless I define it, I'm, I'm describing generally angels. I will never mix angels with demons. Even if it's a fallen angel, I'm not going to mix it with a demon. I believe that there's a difference. Uh, and you'll see my argument as to why it may not be convincing to you. That's okay. This is not one of those hills to die on. It's just something, um, to know about.
Um, so, if there's good angels and there's demonic activity, which we'll talk more about in a moment, what about fallen angels? Not fallen demons. Demons are already from origin, from the very origin of demons. There are, they are fallen by nature. In other words, there's good angels and bad angels. There are no good demons. They're all bad demons. Interesting, right? Think of that for a moment. Revelation 12, verse 4 says, "His tail," Satan, when you read the chapter, it's Satan's tail, his influence, his power, his deception, "drew influenced a third of the stars of heaven." The word stars is not what you think. When you read the context, they are spirits. They are angels that Satan, in his deception, influenced one-third of the angelic host in his rebellion against God and deceived a third of the angelic host. And it says, "And threw them to earth. And the dragon stood before the woman," this is Israel, "who was ready to give birth," that's to the Messiah, "to devour her child," capital C, "the Messiah, as soon as it was born." You can read Revelation 12. It's not dealing with the Catholic Church. It's not dealing with anything. It's not, it's not talking about the Queen of Heaven out of Jeremiah. No, it's speaking about Israel. From Israel came, uh, the Messiah, the child, uh, which, by the way, correlates perfectly with Genesis 3:15. But this is a case where the dragon, Satan, is a fallen angel. That's right. Lucifer was Lucifer, and then when he fell, he was referred to as, uh, the devil or the dragon.
Um, also, more on this, in fact, a lot more on this. Listen, remarkable. And here's where you may have heard of all these things. Uh, this is, you probably have not heard the following things that I'm about to read to you. So, stay tuned. Write it down so you can check it out. Isaiah, excuse me, Ezekiel chapter 28. Ezekiel chapter 28, beginning at verse 13, the Bible says, God is speaking through Ezekiel. "You were in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone was your covering or wardrobe." Isn't that amazing? Wow. Every precious stone was your covering: sardius, topaz, diamond, beryl, onyx, jasper, sapphire, turquoise, emerald with gold. The workmanship of your timberals. We use the word tambourines. The Hebrews will tell you that the word timberals here, uh, is a type of tambourine, but it's referring to his hands. So, whoever we're talking about, his hands make sound. His hands are like timberals, tambourines. Let's keep going in Isaiah, in Ezekiel 28. "And pipes as pipes that were prepared for you on the day you were created." Pipes, timberals in the context, pipes in the context, music. Whoever you are who are in the garden of Eden, you were all, all these stones were your covering. Wow. The beauty of that with gold. And your hands were like tambourines, and your side, it says, were pipes or like pipes. What do you think? Organ pipes? Uh, some type of musical pipes. They were prepared for you on the day that you were created. So, whoever we're talking about, they were created. Verse 14. "You are the anointed cherub who covers." Mic drop. Satan is a cherub. Archangel, yes. But cherub, nonetheless, and he's the one who covers, meaning he's the one who's in charge. Wow. Wow. We know from other scripture that angels sing praise to God and they worship God. And whoever this being is, he's the leader. He's the worship leader in heaven. In the day that he was created, he was the music worship leader of heaven. He was perfect in his creation and spectacularly beautiful. No doubt about it. But he's anointed. He's the anointed cherub who covers. He's the boss. "I established you. You were on the holy mountain of God." That's wild. I don't want to go down this road right now. I'd love to later. The holy mountain of God. There's only one answer to that, and it's Zion. The holy mountain of God. Listen. Sorry. I'm just, I'm too, I'm cannot contain this. I cannot prove what I'm about to say. It's so romantic. The ancient rabbis believe this, that when God spoke the universe, uh, yeah, the universe, physical universe, into existence, it started under God's feet. When he spoke it, it formed under his feet. Again, we cannot prove this. This is ancient rabbinical lore or understanding or interpretation, which is kind of cool if you think about it. When God spoke the created universe into existence, it had to start somewhere. And they believe that when he spoke it, it formed under his feet, and then emanated out. In other words, throw a rock into a still pond of water, and there is the epicenter, and then everything else goes out. There is the belief that when God spoke the created physical universe into existence, it unfurled beneath his feet, and he was standing where the Bible says he placed his name. Where did he place his name? The Bible says, God says, "I have placed my name," not only in Israel, he says, "I have placed my name in Zion." Interesting. When Christ returns to rule the earth for a thousand years, to what mountain does he return to? Mount Zion. Isn't that fascinating, just to think, just to ponder that? Um, and so, "the holy mountain of God, you walked back and forth in the midst of the fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day that you were created until iniquity was found in you." Who fits the bill? There's only one. Lucifer. Remarkable. Lucifer.
Um, let me see what I have here, um, to back that up more. So, listen to this. I'll come back to this. Write this down, please. Isaiah chapter 14, beginning at verse 9. Isaiah 14:9. I can see that we're going to run out of time, you guys. So, we'll have to cut this short and do a part two pretty soon. But, um, Isaiah 14:9, "Hell from beneath is excited about you to meet you at your coming. It stirs the dead for you, all the chief ones of the earth. It has raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. They all shall speak and say to you, 'Quote, Have you also become as weak as we? Have you become like us? Your pomp is brought down to shol to hell. And the sound of your stringed instruments, the maggot is spread under you and worms cover you. You are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning. How you were cut down to the ground and you were weakened among the nations. For you have said in your heart," here comes the iniquity that we just read about earlier in Ezekiel, "'I will ascend to heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will sit on the mountain of the congregation of the furthest sides of the north. I will exalt. I, sorry, I will ascend above the heights of the clouds and fifth pillar, I will be like the Most High God.' Yet you shall be brought down to hell to the lowest depths of the pit." Who are we talking about? The Bible gave you the answer. His name is Lucifer. Remarkable. Amazing. This is, we're talking angel talk here. Good angel going to a bad angel. That bad angel, Lucifer, in his deception, somehow swept a third part of the angelic host by lies, by whatever deception he employs. Remarkable.
The Bible tells us that angels, uh, have the capability to appear and disappear. Um, the angels, uh, in Sodom and Gomorrah, for example, they appeared and disappeared. Um, angels ministered to Elijah, they appeared and disappeared. Angels, uh, ministered, uh, to, uh, Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, appeared and disappeared. Angels, I could go on. Uh, you know what I'm saying? Um, angels appeared in the Old Testament and fought battles for Israel, appeared and disappeared. Remarkable.
Um, so, I, before I get to the punchline, uh, maybe we had to save the punchline for, for next week. But, uh, in fact, listen, that's what we're going to have to do. We have a minute left, you guys. So, I got to go anyway. So, here's the deal. You've got to go. I've got to go. Uh, we'll get back at this. So, hope, listen, go tell your friends about this stuff. Have them watch this, young and old alike, because let's be honest, I can't walk up to the pulpit on a Sunday morning and deliver stuff like this. But it's in the Bible. You should know it because, um, it's not only happened in the past, what we're going to be looking at, it's happening now. Um, it's certainly going to happen in the future. Why don't we get together next time and find out just exactly what in the world it is that's going to come down in the world in which is before us?