The ranks of angels as described in scripture, asserting that God created angels with varying degrees of intelligence and power, and organized them hierarchically. It identifies cherubim, particularly those guarding the Ark of the Covenant and surrounding God's throne in Revelation 4, as the highest rank due to their proximity to God. Seraphim, described in Isaiah 6 as crying "Holy, holy, holy," are also presented as being in God's presence, with their name meaning "burning one," signifying zeal for God's uniqueness. The sermon further discusses archangels, identifying Michael and likely Gabriel as chief messengers, and touches upon terms like princes, thrones, dominions, and powers, which denote angelic beings with authority and influence, including both holy and evil angelic forces engaged in spiritual warfare over earthly nations. The common term 'angel' is used both generally for all ranks and specifically for the lowest rank, serving as messengers.
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Jim, I deeply appreciate that. Just to let you know what's involved, it was a brother-in-law, the husband of my wife's sister, went to be with the Lord early yesterday morning. He was sixty-eight years of age, but he definitely knew the Lord Jesus as his Savior, so we rejoice in that, that he's rejoicing with the Lord up in heaven right now. I would appreciate your prayers, however, because I... I'm supposed to bring the major message in the funeral service up in Pennsylvania around two o'clock tomorrow afternoon. And this man who just went to be with the Lord was a businessman there in the Lancaster, Pennsylvania area.
He was the owner of a large sales stable where he would sell steers and dairy cows and goats and sheep and other kinds of livestock to people that would come in there, farmers, etc. and he said dealings with many many people over the years from many different states and many of these people will be unsaved people a lot of Amish people will be coming to the funeral service were convinced interestingly many Muslim people have bought goats from him over the years and it could very well be there'll be Muslim people present as well and so I would deeply appreciate your prayers we intend by God's grace to make the gospel very very clear to people and make an appeal to them to trust the Lord Jesus as their Savior.
So please, if you would, if God brings that to your remembrance tomorrow, bathe that in prayer because this could be a very important time in the lives of the people who will be coming. One of the ministries of Friends of Israel is that of publication. I mentioned on Sunday evening about the Bible Study magazine that it publishes Israel My Glory. but it also publishes books dealing with different biblical theological subjects and a number of books which which I've authored and which they published are available for purchase in the bookstore and on the book table in the foyer I'll just briefly mention three of them this morning one entitled Maranatha our Lord come this is a very thorough in-depth study on the the rapture of the church as spelled out for us in the Word of God and then a book entitled there really is a difference Perhaps you've heard such terms as covenant theology, dispensational theology, premillennialism, all-millennialism, post-millennialism.
Maybe you've wondered, what are these terms about? Well, we describe what each of these terms mean. We indicate what each of these teaches and believes and how they got started. Each of these views got started historically. But then we give a biblical as well as historical defense for the dispensational premillennial understanding of the Word of God. So those are the issues that are addressed in that particular book. And then with our dealing with the subject of angels from the Word of God, we have a book there entitled Those Invisible Spirits Called Angels. And the materials I'm presented to you this week are derived from this book.
But it includes a lot more than we will have time to deal with as well. But all I did was just go through the scriptures, take from them what the Bible tells us about angels, and I've arranged that in a logical, easy-to-understand order. So those are a number of the items available for purchase in the bookstore and on the book table in the foyer. In our study of the doctrine of angels, we look so far at the number of angels and the nature of angels. And this morning I'd like for us to pick up on a third major thing we see from the scriptures about angels, and that is the ranks of angels, the ranks of angels. When you look at everything the Bible tells us about these unique heavenly beings, it becomes obvious that God created the angels with different degrees of intelligence and power.
Some are more intelligent and powerful than others. And then in line with these different degrees of intelligence and power, God arranged this enormous host of angelic beings according to rank, much like a modern day army would be arranged today according to rank. And this is why the scripture is frequently referred to God as the Lord of hosts. The word translated host literally means armies. And so the idea is that God is the commander in chief over this great host of the angelic armies. of the heavenly realm now there are many terms as you know applied to angels in the Bible and we're convinced that a number of these are referring to different ranks other terms may be referring to ranks but we're not certain of that and I'll point those out as we go through a number of these key terms but the first one is cherubim cherubim interestingly from all we can discern cherubim are the highest rank of all the angelic beings that God has ever created.
And one of the reasons we're convinced of that was dwelling there in a unique sense over top the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies of the Tabernacle and Temple. But remember what were located on both sides of the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant? Two images of cherubim. Cherubim. And their wings came together, almost touched, over top the Shikana glory of God. The idea is that they had the function of covering, in a sense, the unique presence of God that was there in the Holy of Holies.
The fact that God portrayed two cherubim right adjacent to his unique presence there. implies that they have the closest relationship to God of all the angelic beings when you go to Revelation chapter four and I would invite you please to turn with me to that passage Revelation chapter four we want to look at verses six through eight where the Apostle John was given a vision of heaven Revelation chapter four and beginning verse six And John says, before the throne, this is the throne of God in heaven, there was a sea of glass like under crystal.
And in the midst of the throne and round about the throne were four beasts full of eyes before and behind. And the first beast was like a lion, the second beast like a calf, the third beast had the face as a man, the fourth beast was like a flying eagle, and the four beasts had each of them six wings about him, and they were full of eyes within. and they rest not day and night saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, which was and is and is to come. When you compare the description of these four living creatures that surround God's throne in heaven with the description of cherubim that are given back in the book of Ezekiel, it becomes rather obvious that these four living creatures would seem to make up the four sides of God's throne are also cherubim.
And so the fact that they exist and serve closest in proximity or relationship to God the Father himself as he sits upon his throne in heaven signifies that apparently they are the highest rank of all the angels that God ever created. Now, interestingly, the singular term cherubim, by the way, cherubin, any... Hebrew word that ends in I am, that's a plural form of that word. For example, the Hebrew word for horse is sus. That's one horse. If you want to talk about more than one horse, you put I am on the end of sus, and susim means more than one horse.
So cherubim is talking about a lot of these angels. The word cherub, singular, is talking about one of them. Well, the word cherub literally means... to till or plow. It's an agricultural term. And that seems to imply that the whole idea of this designation is that these angels are characterized by very diligent work or service on behalf of God. Just as it takes a lot of diligent work to plow or till the soil of the earth to grow food, that they are characterized by very diligent work or service.
on behalf of God a second designation given angels in the Bible is seraphim seraphim and that designation appears in only one passage and that's in Isaiah chapter six and I'd invite you to turn with me please to that passage Isaiah chapter six where Isaiah was given a vision of heaven Isaiah chapter six verse one in the year that king usiah died i saw also the lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up and his train filled the temple and above it above his throne stood the seraphims each one had six wings with twain or with two he covered his face with two he covered his feet with two he did fly and one cried unto another and said holy holy holy is the lord of hosts the whole earth is full of his glory And the post of the door moved at the voice of him, they cried, And the house was filled with smoke.
Then said I, Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of the people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts. Then threw one of the seraphim unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar, and he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this has touched thy lips. and thine iniquity is taken away and thy sin purged please note where these angelic beings are located they are located above the throne of god which says again that they in a unique sense are covering the presence of god there in heaven now this is very significant that they are above lord willie we're going to see later if not this morning this evening that according to Ezekiel chapter twenty eight there was another angel who had the responsibility of hovering over top of God's presence on his throne covering God that angel was called the anointed cherub who covers but that anointed cherub as we'll see later on who is the most exalted magnificent of
all the angelic creatures God created was lifted up with pride over how great he was and deceived himself into thinking that he could make himself just like God in fact in Isaiah fourteen we have the record he made this boast I will make myself like the most high it is that angel through pride who fell away from God and became Satan but notice what he was saying in his sin of pride I will make myself like God do you realize the word holy literally means divided To be holy is to be divided from other persons and things.
But to be divided from other persons and things in the sense that you're different, distinct, maybe even unique, in contrast with everyone and everything else. When this exalted angel that's described for us in Isaiah fourteen, Ezekiel twenty eight, made this boast, I will make myself like the most high. That was an all-out attack upon the holiness of God. It was an all-out attack against the total uniqueness of God, that God is one of a kind, divided from everyone and everything else in the sense that there's no one else like Him anywhere, anywhere whatsoever, that He alone is God. And so when this exalted angel said, I will make myself like the Most High, he was attacking the uniqueness, the holiness of God.
And we'll see later on, according to Zechariah, because of that, God cast him out of his heaven, down to the lowest heaven, above the face of the earth. And notice who are located now above the throne of God, covering his unique presence, the seraphim. And notice what they are crying out continuously. Holy, holy, holy. In essence... unique unique unique Lord there's no one else like you you are the only true and living God you're one of a kind you're the only God who exists you will always be the only God who will exist holy holy holy so whereas the original angel that was hovering over the unique presence of God in heaven attacked the holiness of God the fact he's unique one of a kind no one else like him The angels that now replace them are continually emphasizing and focus their attention upon God's uniqueness, that he's one of a kind.
There's no one else like him. Interestingly, the term seraph, the singular form, the seraphim, the term seraph literally means burning one, burning one. And that may have two significance. One is the brilliant appearance of the angels in the spirit realm. They glow with a brilliant light. But I suspect there's a second significance of their being called the burning ones. In light of what they're continually crying out as they cover the unique presence of God in heaven, holy, holy, holy, they burn with zeal for the uniqueness of God, that He alone is God.
And there's no one else anywhere in existence that is like Him, wherever it will be again. He is totally divided from everyone and everything else. in the sense that he's different, distinct, unique, one-of-a-kind. The next term is archangel, archangel. And interestingly, that particular term appears only twice in the Bible. In First Corinthians chapter four, verse sixteen, where the apostle Paul indicates that when Jesus Christ will come out of heaven to catch his bride, the church up from the earth to meet him in the air of the rapture, that he will be accompanied by an archangel from heaven. It talks about the voice of an archangel giving a shout when Jesus comes out of heaven to rapture the church out of the world.
The only other place where the term appears is in Jude nine, where it talks about a particular archangel, namely Michael, who was contending with Satan over what was to happen to the body of Moses after Moses had died. The term archangel literally means chief messenger. Chief messenger is what the term archangel means. And Michael is the only angel who is specifically identified as an archangel. And that again is in Jude nine, where he is specifically named or designated as an archangel. Now, although Michael is the only one designated as an archangel, Over the centuries, many students of the Word of God have been convinced that Gabriel, who is named specifically as an angel, but not clearly identified as an archangel, that Gabriel probably is also an archangel, even though the Bible doesn't clearly state that.
And one of the reasons that students of the Word of God are convinced that Gabriel is also an archangel is because of the meaning of the term archangel, chief messenger. When you look at all the times that Gabriel appears in the scriptures, he's coming from God to deliver very important messages to key people here upon planet Earth. For example, in Daniel chapter nine, Gabriel is the angel that God sent to the prophet Daniel to deliver to him that incredible seventy-week prophecy of Daniel chapter nine, in which God mapped out ahead of time his whole future course of dealings with the nation of Israel. right up to the second coming of the Messiah back to planet Earth.
Then in Luke chapter one, it was the angel Gabriel who came from heaven to deliver a message to Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, to the effect that Zechariah's wife, Elizabeth, would be giving birth to the man who would be the forerunner of the true Messiah. That was a very important message. Later on in chapter one, we find that six months after Gabriel came to Zechariah, he came to the young righteous Hebrew woman, Mary, in the city of Nazareth, to deliver an incredibly important message to her, that she was God's chosen vessel through whom the promised Redeemer would be born into the world.
So because Gabriel obviously delivered some very important messages, and since the term Archangel means chief messenger, Many are convinced that he too is an archangel. Interestingly, the Jews have a very ancient tradition that claims that there are four archangels that exist. And one of them is Michael. The other one they claim is Gabriel. And then they name two other supposedly archangels who are not named in the Bible at all, Uriel and Raphael. Now, where they got those other two names from and where they came up with this tradition that there are four archangels that exist, we honestly don't know.
And there are no historical records available to us today that tell us the source of that concept or where they got the names of Uriel and Raphael from. But we do know that Michael definitely is an archangel because the scriptures clearly state that and it does appear that at least Gabriel is one as well. Then we come to a whole cluster of terms here. Let me just name them for you. Princes, thrones, dominions, powers, principalities. and the last one I'm going to give you a very literal translation world rulers of this darkness world rulers of this darkness these different terms are found for example in Daniel chapter ten Daniel chapter twelve Colossians chapter one verse sixteen and Ephesians chapter six and verse twelve now New Testament scholars go back and forth.
Are all these different designations, princes, thrones, dominions, powers, principalities, world rulers of this darkness? Are these referring to many different ranks of angels? And it's really difficult to tell. The scriptures don't make it clear whether these are different ranks of angels. It could be that they are synonyms, referring to the same kind of angels, but different synonyms for them. What we do know is this. that every one of these terms refer to power and authority to exercise rule. Power and authority to exercise rule. Just a couple of examples here. I'm sorry, not Gabriel, but Michael in the book of Daniel is called the Prince of Israel.
And the idea is that God has assigned Michael a holy angel, exalted holy angel, to the nation of Israel. And one of Michael's responsibilities to the nation of Israel is to prevent the nation of Israel from being totally destroyed or annihilated from the face of the earth. In fact, when you look at Daniel chapter twelve, we're told there that in the middle of the future tribulation period, Michael... Daniel's told your prince, the prince of your people, is going to have to stand up and go into all-out action. And the reason Michael, as the prince of Israel, is going to have to stand up and go into all-out action in the middle of the tribulation period is because in the middle of the tribulation period, as we saw Sunday evening, that's when Satan will be cast from his heavenly domain down to planet Earth, confined here for the whole second half of the tribulation period.
and Satan's first target attack is going to be the people of Israel to try to annihilate them in addition according to Daniel chapter nine verse twenty seven in the exact middle of the seven-year tribulation period the Antichrist is going to turn against the people of Israel and begin desolating them severely throughout the entire second half of the seven-year tribulation period and so because Satan and his ultimate political role in the face of the earth at that time, Antichrist, will go after the nation of Israel trying to annihilate them. That's why Michael, who's the angelic prince assigned to Israel to prevent it from being totally annihilated, is going to have to stand up and go to all-out action to prevent the people of Israel from being totally annihilated from the face of the earth.
Now, interestingly, when you look at Daniel chapter ten, there are evil angelic princes. referred to as well in that chapter. There's a heavenly being that came to Daniel there in Daniel chapter ten and that heavenly being indicated that he had to wage war against the prince of Persia. Persia was the great Gentile world power at that particular time when Daniel was living there in the late five hundred's BC. And the fact that this holy being that comes from heaven had to fight against the prince of Persia indicates the prince of Persia was an evil angelic prince that Satan assigned to influence the rulers of the Persian kingdom in their decisions and their policies and practices specifically with regard to the people of Israel.
Remember what happened in the book of Esther? when a wicked man by the name of Haman persuades the Persian king to pass a horrible decree that every Jew in one day's time is be put to death ultimately Satan or one of his evil angelic princes unconvinced was behind that movement as their way of trying to annihilate the people of Israel totally all of them in one day's time from the face of the earth but notice what God did in his sovereignty He moved a young Jewish by the name of Esther into the royal palace of that Persian king. And she became the favorite of that king.
And through Esther's influence, the king passed another decree that on the day of their slaughter, the people of Israel could defend themselves against their attackers. And they did. And as a result, the life of the people and nation of Israel was preserved for centuries to come. all this is indicated there's great angelic warfare going on in the spirit realm with regard to the policies of nations and kingdoms here upon planet earth interestingly the the heavenly being that came to daniel said that after that he would be done fighting with the prince of persia then the prince of greece would come and the implication is then he'd have to contend with the prince of greece and it's interesting greece eventually conquered the native persian kingdom and then Greece became the great Gentile world dominion and the implication is that Satan assigned another evil angelic prince to the kingdom of Greece to influence the decisions of Alexander the Great and then his Greek rulers who succeeded him after he died and particularly to influence their decisions and policies with regard to the nation of Israel and that heavenly being
said to Daniel that Michael, Israel's prince, took part in some of this angelic conflict with him against the Prince of Persia and would against the Prince of Greece. Do you realize what this is saying then? Would you and I turn on the television and we hear the news of what's going on between nations upon the face of the earth? We are hearing what's going on from a totally earthly human perspective. We are totally oblivious to what's going on in the spirit realm between powerful holy angels that serve God and powerful evil angels that serve Satan as they are waging war against each other over what goes on between the nation's international events here upon planet Earth.
Princes. World wars of this darkness. That term appears toward the end of Ephesians six verse twelve again that indicates that there are powerful angelic beings who are assigned to rulers of nations to influence the decisions of rulers of nations and kingdoms here upon planet earth as all the international relations are going on here in the world so that whether or not these different terms princes thrones, dominions, powers, principalities, world rulers of this darkness, whether or not they are referring to different ranks of angels were not certain.
But they all imply that these are powerful angelic beings who have authority to exercise rule in certain spheres within the universe. The final term we look at here this morning is the simple term angels. The simple term angels. That term simply means messenger or agent. That's what the word angel simply means, messenger or agent. And by the way, it's not always used in the Bible of one of these supernatural beings that we normally called angels. Sometimes it's used to refer to a human being who is a messenger, who has a responsibility of delivering a message on behalf of either God or on behalf of maybe a king or someone else.
But most frequently it is used for these supernatural beings that we've been looking at in our study this week. And it appears that the term angel is used in two different ways for the supernatural beings. First of all, it's used in a general sense for all the different ranks of angels. So that you can call cherubim angels, you can call seraphim angels, you can call archangels angels. It's used in a general sense for all the different ranks of angels that God has created. But then, from all we can discern, it's used in a more specific limited sense for perhaps the lowest rank of angels, kind of like the buck privates in God's angelic army of heaven, the lowest rank, the common ordinary angels that would be of the lowest rank within the angelic armies of God's heavenly realm.
so that you've got all these different interesting terms applied to angelic beings in the Bible and every one of them is significant in different ways given us more information about who they are what they are like some of the things that they do some of their responsibilities some deliver very important messages others have other functions as they are assigned by God if they're a holy angel are assigned by Satan if they are an evil fallen angel. Lord willing this evening, we want to take a look at the origin of Satan. I've made reference to it this morning, but we want to look at it more in depth.
The origin of Satan and his fall and what was involved in the fall when it took place and the results of that. And then we also want to begin looking at the fall of other angels as well. Because the Bible indicates that since Satan wanted to be just like God, and he saw that God was the ultimate sovereign of the universe, he wanted to be the ultimate sovereign of the universe. And since he saw that God had a kingdom over which he ruled as a sovereign king, he wanted to be a sovereign ruler over a kingdom. But since he saw that God had both angels and subjects serving him within his kingdom, He was determined if he were to be like God, he too had to have both angels and humans serving him as subjects within his kingdom.
But Satan had a problem that God did not have. And that's the fact that since he was only a creature and not the creator, he did not have the ability to create other angels and human beings to be subjects in this kingdom. So the most he could hope for if he were to become like God was to persuade God's angels and God's human beings to join him in his revolt against God. And so Lord William this evening will see that he succeeded in getting a sizable number of the holy angels to join him in rebuying against God. And so he was not the only angel who fell away from God. There was a large number of holy angels that fell away from God under his leadership as well. And so Lord William, those are some of the things we'll look at together this evening.
Father, once again, we thank you. for these heavenly beings that you created to serve you in your universal kingdom. And we thank you, Lord, for the revelation that you've given to us in your inspired scriptures of these heavenly beings. Really a tremendous amount of revelation, even though it doesn't seem that way to us as we just read through the scriptures and see a little bit here and a little bit there. But, Lord, when we begin to pull out the scriptures, everything that they say about the angels It develops into a massive amount of information and revelation that you've given.
And the very fact that you've given so much revelation about angels says to us, you want us as your human creatures to know about them. Not, Lord, that we become totally absorbed by them. And not to the point that I've heard some people do of even coming to the place of worshiping angels. They're so fascinated by them. But, Lord, so that you will be glorified all the more, as we see your greatness and your majesty, how you have the power to create these great beings, but how you exercise your sovereign rule over them, and how great angelic hosts serve you, worship you, adore you, and praise you.
And, Lord, we take it that you want us to learn from that, that we as your human creatures are to do the same. We are to worship you. We are to love you and adore you. We are to serve you. And by God's grace, live out our lives in such a way that you and your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, will be honored and glorified above all others. In the name of Jesus Christ, your Son and our Savior, we ask and thank you for these things. Amen.