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South Bay SDA Church

Jeremy Arnall

Angels Ascending and Descending

The golden moments, George Eliot writes, in the stream of life, the golden moments in the stream of life, rush past us and we see nothing but sand.

The angels come to visit us and we only know them when they're gone.

There would seem to be some truth in those words for how often when speaking of what was believed to be an angel, like I had no clue you're going to tell that story, But just like that story, it always goes like that, doesn't it?

They do some incredible deed, some incredible thing that perhaps saves your very life.

And then you turn to thank them and They're gone.

This morning, with the aid of the inspiration and the Holy Spirit, I would like to invite you to join me in looking past the veil as we consider and appreciate the angels amidst us.

The title of the message this morning is, Angels Ascending and Descending.

Lord, this morning, I am so unworthy, I just plead with you to speak in place of me.

I just want to be a nail upon which your portrait hangs.

I ask that You please just cover me with Your glory that collectively we might sit at the feet of Jesus and comprehend the gift that He has granted us in allowing angels to minister to us.

Please, Lord, send your Holy Spirit that we might comprehend.

The Bible speaks that before man was created, it says, I guess I need to turn this on or I don't see anything.

It tells us that before this earth was created that the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy.

Thus there was music in heaven before we ever knew life.

It's kind of like when families gather together around the piano, you know what I'm saying?

And you sing a song And can you imagine, I don't know what kind of instrument perhaps and how would you get thousands upon thousands and thousands of thousands of angels together around the piano anyway.

But somehow before there was planet earth, this lonely planet, It says that the morning stars, the angels, you see, would gather together and sing and shout the glory of God.

But among those angels, in fact, not just among, but Perhaps that you could say at the head or at the lead of those angels was the chief musician himself, his name Lucifer, whom God had created.

It says, you were in Eden, the garden of God, every precious stone which you're covering.

And then it lists those and it says, the workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day that you were created.

So you know, you've heard people say, oh, they've got a set of pipes on them, Right?

Well, it could be said of Sam, of, not Samson, sorry, of Lucifer that he had a set of pipes on him.

Can you imagine what it must have sounded like to hear this leader of the choir.

The Bible tells us in Isaiah 14, Ezekiel 28, that indeed pride swelled up within his heart.

And then we see this just 2 verses later.

You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you.

And no, God did not create sin, but he created free choice.

And he allowed Lucifer to choose pride, selfishness.

And thus, even though he had a front row seat at glory, He looked to self.

If he did that, being at the very mercy seat of God, then there is certainly a warning for us.

Now when you read on in these chapters, you find that Satan infected a third of the angels.

Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought.

The word for war there, you perhaps are familiar, is polemos, where we get polemics.

In other words, this was a war of words, of ideas.

And evidently, his words were so persuasive, well, notice verse 8, but these angels did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer.

So the dragon was cast out, that serpent of old called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world.

His angels were cast out with him." Notice it says, his angels.

So they were angels whose allegiance was to God, and yet Satan, because of this polemos, because of this war of words, he was able to redirect their allegiance unto himself so that they are now identified as his angels.

And let it be a warning to us, he is still using the same tactics today.

It's not the horn and the pitchforks, it's polemos, It's words, it's ideas, it's embracing doubt and questioning.

And it's 1 thing if you have a legitimate question.

It's another thing if you approach doubt as though it's something to be desirable, as though it's something that puts you on a higher plane.

He makes this beautiful planet, and of course the first, the second, the third day, and after each day of creation, Christ would say, it is good.

Bible says that Adam and Eve were perfectly happy.

They were naked, but they were not ashamed.

So it was that Adam and Eve enjoyed this relationship with their Creator and with angels, both of which instructed and warned Adam and Eve not to take of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

They were warned by God Himself and they were instructed by angels who carefully told them not to take of the tree.

Then the Lord God took the man, put him in the garden of Eden to tend and to keep it.

And the Lord God commanded the man saying, of every tree of the garden you may freely eat.

Now what I want you to notice is in verse 15 he said that Adam was to tend and keep it.

For Seventh-day Adventists and as Christians, we understand that in God's holy law, He has a commandment in which He says that we are to keep the Sabbath day, Right?

But the question is, is how is it that Adam and Eve were to guard the garden?

If you will refuse that tree, the protection and the happiness that is here in this place will be forever." And so Eve fails to guard her association and allows herself to become separated from Adam and is thus deceived by the serpent and eats the fruit.

Now she is seduced, deceived, but Adam, on the other hand, chooses to take the fruit.

He chooses to take it, knowingly take it, and thus chooses not to keep, not to guard this paradise that has been granted them.

And thus it was that it was through polemos, through this war of words, that the craftiness of Satan appears to Eve, and thus he wins possession of planet Earth.

Where he was once cast out of heaven, he is now able to influence Adam and Eve so that now they are cast out of the garden.

But immediately, Jesus establishes a plan by which Adam and Eve can be restored and by which earth can be restored.

I mean, I am so thankful he did it immediately because that means that they were able to live in the paradigm of a risen Savior.

I know he hadn't risen yet, but remember, when God speaks, it's as good as done.

And So He proclaimed through the garments that they wore, He illustrated to them what the wages of sin is, is as they saw the animal die so that they could have something to clothe their shame, to hide their shame.

And Jesus, therefore, would be the means, hear me carefully, He would be the means by which heaven and earth would now be linked.

Yes, the garden activities, walking in the cool of the day, and talking and conversing with angels, and being instructed in all the beautiful sciences of creation.

All of that can't be, but you are not forsaken.

Because of this promise and the historical reality that we now know heaven is able to be linked to earth.

John chapter 17, verse 47, Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is what?

Nathanael said to him, how do you know me?

Jesus answered and said to him, Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.

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Angels Ascending and Descending

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