Running To Win 15 Minute Version

Guest (Male): Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Looking to Jesus, the founder and proctor of our faith. Believers know that fallen angels or demons do Satan's bidding on planet Earth. Real angels serve God and God alone. Today, signs to help us discern the differences between very real beings who inhabit a spiritual realm we cannot see. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is running to win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. In our current series A Flurry of Wings, we're exploring what angels do.

We're learning that angels are heavenly beings of great power, beings who have never sinned.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: No, remember now, angels are without sin and therefore there is no jealousy. And as far as the angels are concerned, they can rejoice in the success of another angel just as much as they can rejoice in their own success. Because remember, if you were an angel, anything that God would do would delight your heart. Assuming that you would have a heart if you were an angel, it would delight you. In fact, you know that someday when we get to heaven, some of us are not going to be rewarded as well as others who served in places where there was no prominence, who served in obscurity.

Are we going to be jealous and say, you know, I envy that position in the kingdom? No, because we will be without sin and like the angels, we will rejoice in those who have positions of more prominence just as much as if we were the ones who were elevated to those special responsibilities. What is the first test when you begin to think about an angel of God versus the other angels? Because remember, just as there are angels that stand in the presence of God, there are fallen angels that stand in the presence of Satan who admire him and who are there to do his bidding and if they do not, they will be punished.

What is it like therefore when you have a visitation that is an angel? How might you know whether this angel is of God? Well, certainly one of the tests is if there is any communication, you know that an angel of God always agrees with God. He agrees with God if he's from God. In fact, you know it would be interesting to see how many evangelicals even would respond if they had an angelic visitor that showed up, wings and all, and said, you know, I want you to realize that God has sent me to you with a very special message.

God has told me to tell you that you're a very kind person and you are doing these acts of charity and with these acts of charity, you are receiving God's approval and if you do them consistently, you will enter into heaven. I can just imagine it. The experience happens and somebody writes a book and says, I was visited by an angel and guess what he told me? And everybody oh, wow, isn't that wonderful? My dear friend, if you have an angel that shows up and says that, you should turn to that angel and say in the name of Jesus, begone, be accursed.

That's what the apostle Paul said. He said in Galatians chapter 1 verse 8, though we or an angel from heaven should preach any other gospel to you than that which we have preached, let him be accursed. I was meditating on that this week and I said, wait a moment, Paul, did you not mistake your theology? Why didn't you say if an angel from hell should preach any other gospel? Because surely an angel from heaven wouldn't preach another gospel. Dawn on me, Paul knew what he was saying. He was saying if there should be an angel in heaven who snuck in with that kind of theology and therefore came from heaven and he preached a different gospel, let him be accursed, begone in the name of Jesus out of here.

Did you know that there's a very famous religion that was founded because a man had a revelation from an angel and did not curse him and believed what the angel had to say. And here you have this religion that is false, that is cultic, that teaches basically that man is God all because a man had a revelation from an angel and thought that he should listen. First test, whether or not an angel is from God is, does he agree with God? Because the true angels stand in the presence of God and agree with him completely on everything.

Secondly, I want you to notice that Gabriel says, I am sent by God. That's part of his job description. I stand in the presence of God and have been sent to speak to you. Now think about that. The word angel really means messenger. In fact, sometimes the word can be used of human beings if they are messengers. Gabriel is standing here and saying, I am God's messenger and because I am sent, that means that I'm not nearly as important as the sender. The ambassador is not as important as the president whom he represents. And therefore the real angels always keep pointing to the glory and to the wonder of God and they never take any attention that would be attracted to themselves.

In fact, they disdain it because they want to make sure that God gets all of the glory. They are only on assignment to do what he asks them to do and when they've completed their assignment, they vanish. How would all the angels regard the publicity that is being given to angels today? Well, it depends what angel you're talking about. If you're speaking of the angels of God, they are abhorred. They abhor what is happening today. To them, they see this as the uttermost idolatry that people are going to be absorbed with angels and not recognize that the real issue is not angels, but one's relationship with God.

But the fallen angels, they are delighting in it. This is great. Why? Because they love to have the attraction of people and they love to have people think more about them than they do of God and their greatest delight is when somebody prays to an angel thinking that he's praying to an angel and actually praying to an angel of light, a demonic spirit who appears as being righteous, but who is wicked. A spirit who does good things, mind you, all of them do. That's what the books say. Who does good things, but he does them with the intention of deceiving.

You say, well, pastor, is this a new phenomenon? Well, it's new in the sense that years ago you couldn't go into bookstores and see all this stuff on angels, but I want you to know that everything that goes around comes around. During the ancient times, there was a heresy by the name of Gnosticism and Gnosticism taught that there was a whole emanation of angels from God to man and they began to sort out all the different angels and actually philosophically they were much more astute and much more intricate than the kind of pop writing that is being done today on angels and they had it all worked out.

What did the apostle Paul think of it? Turn to Colossians chapter 2 for just a moment. Colossians chapter 2 which was a letter that was basically written to counteract this heresy that was also being imbibed in the church. This preoccupation with angels and in Colossians 2:18 he says, let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen inflated without cause by his fleshly mind and separated from the head that is Christ. I stood in the bookstore and saw all these angel books.

And I thought to myself, how how incredibly arrogant, arrogant. To think that man would be able to enter into spiritual territory and would have the perception to know what was right and what was wrong when he was deceived and when he was not deceived and that all that you needed to do is to have this experience and then you could write a book and I read some of the stories and the angels were indiscriminate in their good deeds both to the wicked and to the to the saved and to the unsaved and and to think that this is now the map of the spiritual world.

Paul says, beware lest somebody steal your crown when you become mesmerized by the angelic phenomenon which was happening in the 2nd century. Beware. It's happened before. How do we know if an angel is of God? Number one, he will agree with God regarding everything. He's got to agree with the word. Secondly, if he is really of God, he will always honor God, always honor God. He will disdain any unnecessary attention. His goal is God. Thirdly, notice that angels act for God. I find this story very interesting because Zacharias was not exactly believing. He said, look, I'm an old man, Elizabeth is an old woman.

I think he put it more delicately than that, but the whole idea is that I don't think we can have children anymore. You know what the angel did? He says, look, I am going to strike you dumb. I'm going to strike you silent and you're not going to say one word until everything that I have predicted is going to come to pass. And if you read the second chapter, you know that the angel was right. Well, here I am in Crown Books and I'm looking at all of these angel stories. I'm looking for a story where an angel struck somebody dumb.

Can't find it. Wish wish that it happened for some perhaps, but it's not there. Everything that happens is always good. It is always positive. You realize today, my friend, that angels were frequently used in the judgment of God. You read the Old Testament and you find that there were angels that came. You remember the story of Elijah? He said to the young servant, he said, open your eyes and he opened his eyes and the entire horizon was filled with warriors. And I think it was 185,000 Assyrians slain on a single night by all these angels.

Oftentimes they were messengers of judgment. Yes, for believers they are frequently messengers of protection. Hebrews chapter 1 verse 14, they are ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation. They are sometimes ministers of communication, though that happens less frequently today because we have the Bible, we have God's word and we have the blessed holy spirit of God in our hearts who leads us. And there may be times when we have been totally unaware of it and angels have taken care of us and angels have prepared the way and angels have saved us and protected us in ways that we were even not aware of.

What I'd like to do today is to give you now in closing three very important cautions regarding angels. Very important. Number one, never never initiate contact with an angel. Never initiate the contact. If God wants to send you an angel, fine. But don't you initiate the contact. Let him be sent by God for a specific purpose. Why do I say don't initiate the contact? My dear friend, if our eyes could be open to the spirit world, we discover that the whole atmosphere right here even in the church was filled with spirits, some good and not bad.

And and what we would learn is that when you begin to initiate, you do not know but that you are communicating with an angel of light, a demonic spirit who is impersonating an angel of God.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Yes, my friend, we need discernment in a very confusing age. And even as we look at the headlines, we are oftentimes discouraged because we see throughout the world chaos and conflict. I'm holding in my hands a book entitled When Jesus Returns. The subtitle is Living in Expectation of the End Times. For a gift of any amount, this book can be yours and I want to emphasize that today is the last day we're making it available for you. Chapters include the New World Order, issues regarding the return of Christ and the rapture, the glorious return of Christ, the tribulation, heresy within the church.

All of this will be of benefit to you as you run the race of life.

Guest (Male): Today Erwin Lutzer brought more of a message on what angels do. The first in a series on A Flurry of Wings, a study of angels. Next time, tune in for why it matters so much what angels do. When Jesus returns, living in expectation of the end times. That's a book compiled by Jan Markell. It contains the best teachings on Bible prophecy from a wide range of authors. This book is our gift to you for your gift of any amount to support running to win. For full information, call us at 1 800 215 5 001. That's 1 800 215 5 001.

Online, go to offer rtw.com. That's offer rtw.com or write to us at Running to Win, Moody Church, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60614. Running to Win comes to you as a ministry of the Moody Church.