R558 Angels

God has an encouraging Word for you and me today through the Bible-based preaching of Dr. Don Wilton and a message on angels. As we study the Word together, let's connect on our website, tewonline.org. It's the place to sign up for the daily free devotion by email.

That's online at tewonline.org. Now, Dr. Don Wilton. And I want you to know that I am very excited about what God has in store for us, and I know that God is going to bless our hearts as we study His Word together. This morning I want you to open your Bibles to Psalm 91, and Psalm 91 is really going to be the key verse for this entire miniseries for the next several weeks. We're going to hear about this particular verse many times.

We're going to quote it many times. We're going to write this verse upon our hearts as God begins to speak to our hearts. And so I want you to follow along in God's Word, Psalm 91.

I want you to know that I know nothing about angels, and I have nothing to say about angels outside of God's Word. And it's a wonderful thing to be able to study His Word together. There is a Bible provided for you.

It's in a red cover. And if you'd like to take that copy if you don't have one of your own, Psalm 91. Now, before we read the one verse that we're going to be looking at this morning, let's just put it into context. The other psalmist is saying that if you make the most high your dwelling place, even the Lord who is my refuge, then no harm will befall you and no disaster will come near your tent. Now I want us to all read verse 11 out loud.

We're going to do this a little differently this morning. We're going to read verse 11 and read it out loud together. For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.

What an incredible verse. The Bible says that God will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all of your ways. Now folks, I want to begin this morning by asking a question and then trying to answer it. Why would we want to study angels?

Why a subject like this? What is it about angels that would cause us to want to study angels? Could I just do a very quick poll here this morning? How many of you would say to me, pastor, I'm really looking forward to learning about angels. Would you raise your hands?

I just wanted to find out. I think that's probably most of us. There is a great level of interest. Let me make several suggestions to you this morning and perhaps this will help us to get off to a right foot and to put the study of angels into the right context. Why would we want to study angels?

Number one, perhaps because we have heard about them. Perhaps because we have heard about them. I don't know about you, but I've heard about angels. I've heard about angels as I was growing up. I can't tell you exactly what it is that I've heard about angels, but I've heard about angels. It seems to me all my growing up years I've heard about angels. We've heard about angels. And I think that it's time for us to try and find out what it is that we've heard about angels.

I think one could go up to the majority of people today and say, well, what exactly is it that you've heard about angels? Well, we've all heard that they fly around little things. We know for certain they must have harps.

If they don't have harps, they couldn't possibly be angels. We know they somewhere, but we don't know exactly where they are. We've told stories about them. We've listened to anecdotes. And of course, there are a million jokes that have been told about angels.

We've heard about them. A second reason why we would study angels, perhaps, is because we know very little about them. May I suggest to each one of us who worship the Lord today that perhaps we would be surprised at the paucity of our knowledge concerning angels. Now, I know that there are some who have studied angels in great detail. There are some very fine books. Dr. Billy Graham has written probably one of the finest books on angels.

I have that in my possession. And others have written books on angels. There are some people who have taken time to study the subject of angels. But if the truth were known and I'm in that category, most of us, I think if we were honest with one another, we don't know a whole lot of substance about angels. Perhaps a third reason why we would study angels is because we are very curious about them. Now, I am.

I will admit that readily today. They say that curiosity killed the cat. If that were the truth, I would have been dead many years ago when it comes to angels. I find them fascinating.

But for some reason in my life, I've never taken time to stop and to satisfy my curiosity. I'm going to make a very bold statement. Who are angels? What do they do? What do they look like? Where are they?

How do I know where they are if they are where they say they are? What do they do for me? How do they relate to me if indeed they do relate to me? Why are there angels? Where do they come from anyway?

Why would God have these? And you see, I don't know what to call them right now. Creatures being, are they people? Do they have names?

Are they male or female? Do they have husbands and wives? Are there a whole lot of little angels? How do angels keep going?

I mean, we know how we replenish the earth. We'll do angels. How do angels keep going?

I mean, what happens? Where are they? Who are they? We're curious about them. Perhaps a fourth reason why we would want to study angels is because the Bible is full of them. The Bible is full of them. Now, my friends, I want to say something, and this may come as somewhat of a surprise to some of us here this morning, but did you know that the Bible talks about angels 248 times?

Now, that's a lot of times. 248 times, occasions, God in His Word tells us about angels and their activities. So I want to find out why it is that God would allow such prominence to these beings called angels. Number five, fifth reason perhaps why we would study angels is because God's love and care incorporates them.

Now, here is something that piques my interest somewhat. Who is God? God is a God of love and God cares for us very, very much indeed. As we stand here, as I stand in this pulpit this morning using one person as an illustration, my dear friend and our friend, Mr. Bill Littlejohn had surgery this week and Bill is in ICU at the moment at Spartanburg Regional and he's under excellent care.

I'm so grateful that I live in a place where we have such fine doctors and medical personnel and nurses. We know that he is in excellent care. Number two, I know that Bill is a man who loves the Lord Jesus Christ.

There is no doubt about that. God has his servant in the palm of his hand and he is watching out for him. But you know something?

There's something else that I know. That God's love and God's care incorporates angels. In other words, even as we stand here this morning, God's angels have been dispatched to express God's care and love to Mr. Bill Littlejohn and to people in every walk of life, no matter where they are, who love the Lord. God does something and the angels become the expression of the character of God. Now hold on to that thought. I think that's enough reason to want to study what the Bible teaches about angels.

Let me give you a sixth possible reason. We would want to study angels perhaps because our faith is strengthened by them. What is the mode of operation of our Christianity? It is the expression of our faith. God says that we love him and that the expression of that love is encapsulated in our faith. Faith means that I don't necessarily always understand why God would love me the way that he does, but I accept what he does because I express my faith in him. I don't necessarily understand how God would protect me in the world in which I live, but I express my faith, which means that I take him at his word. God has said that and I'm willing to accept that. Well, when we begin to study angels, we are going to be strengthened in our faith. I have sent my angels to watch over you. That strengthens my faith. You got a son or daughter at college right now?

Someone who's away from town? Just think about that. Let me give you perhaps another reason why we should study about angels, because extra resources are given through them. Extra resources are given through them. Now just watch this, folks.

Just listen to this very carefully. Just think of all the resources we've got. We've got the Spirit of God, number one.

The presence of God, the promises of God. We've got one another. We've got the Word of God, the Bible. We've got precious grandparents and parents and loved ones who care for us. We've got safe motor cars to drive.

We've got all kinds of things. In fact, in Ephesians chapter 6, Paul talks about putting on the whole armor of God. He says, listen, you have made available to you God's armament.

You can put on God's armor. I think it was Friday, my wife was out with some folks and they went to Greer, if any of you have ever been to Greer, and they went to Greer. They went shopping or something. When they came back from Greer, Karen said to me, she said, you know, she said, I'm very grateful that I am alive to tell you what I'm about to tell you. And I said, why?

What happened? She said, well, I was riding in Greer somewhere and I came up to a stop sign and the sign changed from green to red. And I knew that even in America, red means that you're supposed to stop your motor car. And so she said she began to stop and she came to a stop. Unfortunately, there was an 18-wheeler that was behind her. The 18-wheeler, this truck driver decided that he wasn't going to stop. He decided that he didn't have enough time.

In fact, it didn't matter to him whose lives were at stake at that particular point in time. I don't know whether he thought about it or even if it was an issue to him, but he began to gun that 18-wheeler and Karen said she looked in her rear view mirror as she stopped. And she saw this 18-wheeler bearing down upon them, going flat out to try and beat the red light. And Karen told me that that man in that truck began to swerve, missed her motor car by just fraction of an inch, swerved around the whole thing and was going so fast that couldn't stop and went right through the red light on total red. And it was just by God's grace that nobody else was coming from this side.

Nobody else was caught in the middle and by God's grace, she wasn't rear-ended. And who knows what kind of Sunday we could have been having today. Now folks, listen. God, we're going to discover, has given to us through angels extra resources in our journey of life. Now you're going to say to me, pastor, how do you know that it was an angel that protected your wife from a terrible situation? I don't know. But I am going to tell you that God's word tells us that I will command my angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.

I like that, don't you? So why do you suppose we should study angels? Well, perhaps because we have heard about them, perhaps because we know very little about them, perhaps because we are curious concerning them, perhaps because the Bible is full of them, perhaps because God's love and care incorporates them, perhaps because our faith is strengthened by them, perhaps because extra resources are given through them.

So where do we go from here? What does this verse tell us, this key verse? What can we look forward to in this study of angels?

Let me just mention three things to you taken from Psalm 91 and verse 11. The first thing is this, that angels are a God thing. Angels are a God thing.

Now I want us to just stop right there. Angels are a God thing. Did you notice in that verse, God will send his angels. Now there is possessive case there par excellence and bar none. God will send whose angels? His angels.

This is a God thing. And folks, I don't know about you, but I like that. I remember in many years ago, I remember when I was 17 years old and I graduated from high school. And back when I graduated from high school, war was going on. There was a big war and lots of people were dying.

And about the ninth month of our senior year, maybe our seniors need to listen to this. Every single young man in the entire country got call up papers. We were drafted. We didn't volunteer or say, well, I'll join and I'll go for a little while. We just got drafted. We had no choice.

It was not an option. And I'll never forget because the day came in our high school, a quad high school, a big high school like Spartanburg and Dorman. And they got all of us seniors out there in this big gymnasium and the military showed up and they were all decked out, these gentlemen, and they handed out to us little envelopes. And I got mine.

I can still see mine today. It had Donald John Wilton, that's me, written on the front. And I opened that up and we all stood there dead quiet because we knew what it was. And we opened up and I took out this document, this document that looked in and had Donald John Wilton. It had a number with an N after it, which I've still got on my dog tags. That was my number. I was going to become a number from then on. And then it also said where I was to report one week after graduation from high school.

One week, exactly. We graduated on Friday. The next Friday I was on a troop train. And it said I was to report to the first special services battalion. Under that it had armored division. And then under that it had in brackets a little phrase that was very interesting. It said combat unit.

I said thank you very much. And I looked at that and we began to show some of my friends were going to the Navy and to the Air Force and some were going to the Marines and some were doing this and I, where are you going Don? Well, I'm going to first special services battalion armored division combat unit. And I'm leaving as soon as we graduate. This was about October of that year that I graduated and we were going to leave at the end of December. And I remember going home and I remember showing this to my mother and father.

And I said, Dad, you know, I know what combat is and I remember Dad speaking to me. And before I knew what I had graduated from high school and I had hardly had time to even appreciate the fact that I was now a high school graduate. That the next week there I was at the train station in Cambridge. And there were young men all over the place. We were dressed in civilians, civilians as we called them. And everybody was talking and there was a buzz and people were high-fiving and trying to pretend how happy we were.

There must have been a thousand or two thousand, I don't know, but the train station was packed. And just as I got onto that train to take my four-day trip up into the central part of Africa to go to this unit that I had been assigned to and I knew that I might not come home for a long time. My father looked at me and he said to me with his hand on my shoulder, Son, I know that you're going off and we don't know when you're going to come home and we know that you may never come home. But I want you to never forget to keep God in the center of everything you do. Because if you keep God in the center of everything you do, you cannot go wrong. Sometimes the simple phrases are the most powerful. Keeping God in the center of everything we do, we can't go wrong.

Perhaps you need some centering and we would love to pray with you about what it is to completely focus on Jesus. Our prayer team is ready right now at 866-899-WORD. That's our phone number 866-899-9673 and it'll connect you with us 24 hours a day. Happy to talk, listen, pray and connect with resources that will help change your life.

You can find those also online at www.tewonline.org. And now back to today's great teaching with Dr. Don. Now I'm going to show you something during these weeks, folks. Something most extraordinary about angels. And we begin even here in verse 11. Angels are a God thing.

God, the sovereign God of the universe is at the center and He is the center. He is the centerpiece on the mantelpiece of our very existence and everything and anything that we might say about angels, we're going to discover is inextricably intertwined into the sovereignty of Almighty God. You cannot speak about angels or talk about angels or write about angels or thank God for angels or be involved with angels without turning your thoughts and attention to Almighty God.

You cannot do it. And any angel talk that is void of Almighty God is not angel talk. It's just speculation.

It's a nice story. I'm going to tell you, my friends, if you ever hear anything about angels and it has nothing to do with God, just put it down in your book of fairy tales. Angels are a God thing. Number two, angels are a commissioned thing. Angels are a commissioned thing. Here in our verse this morning, God will command His angels concerning you.

It's a wonderful truth that we are going to try to come to grips with. How that God commissions His angels. They are God's special agents. They are dispatched by God's command to carry out what God intends for them to carry out. They are totally subservient to Him and to His good pleasure.

They are not bound by nor dictated to by the whims of human fantasy or imagination. Angels are God's commissioned agents. Now if you will beg my pardon, there is a sense in which we're going to discover that God in His heavenly realm frequently calls upon His angels and dispatches them. He sends them.

He commissions them. And that brings me to the third interesting point about what God will teach us and beginning today in His Word. Angels are a God thing. Angels are a commissioned thing.

But number three, here's what I really like. Angels are an us thing. Now watch this folks. Here in this incredible verse, He will command His angels concerning who? You. To God who? You. In all whose ways?

Your ways. Angels are an us thing. Now this is just wonderful news because what God is telling me here is that angels have something to do with me. And in fact they don't just have something to do with me. They have a whole lot to do with me. And in fact they don't only have a whole lot to do with me. They have everything to do with me.

Because God says the us thing goes to an extreme. The us thing includes and involves not part of my ways or some of my ways, but all of my ways. Angels are involved in the totality of everything that I'm about. Wow.

Wow. Everything I'm about. You mean to tell me God is interested in where I am and what I'm thinking and how I'm doing? You think the angels are going to help me with my marriage? You think they're going to be there when I'm on the highway? Do you think they're going to take an interest in the little things?

Absolutely. God tells us that His angels are far more vast, far more significant and number far more than all the stars in the heavens. I want to ask you a question. Do you know this God who commands the angels? You've been listening as Dr. Wilton is preaching and teaching from the pulpit.

But now open your heart to what he wants to share as he steps into the studio. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ? Why don't you pray this prayer with me right now? Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner and I know that Jesus died for me on the cross. Today I repent of my sin and by faith I receive you into my heart in Jesus name. My friend, I welcome you today into the family of God.

This is exciting news. Perhaps you were praying along with Dr. Wilton and gave your life to Christ moments ago. We have free resources Dr. Don wants you to have if you gave your life to Jesus or rededicated your life if you call us at 866-899-WORD. Once you call us and get your free resources, that's 866-899-9673. And before we get away, closing thoughts from Dr. Don. You know, I'm so glad that we've been able to share together by means of radio today.

You just mean so much to me and how thankful we are for the Word of God together. You can call right now and connect with me at 866-899-9673. Did you get that? 866-899-9673. Call and connect with me right now. Let's stay connected online at www.tewonline.org. This program is sponsored by The Encouraging Word and your generous prayer and financial support.