Address—C. Hendricks
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Turn back to Hebrews 1.
There's a lot about angels in this chapter and in the next chapter. What you have in Hebrews 1 is the the greatness of the sun.
Greatness of the Son and now that God is spoken to us in the person of the Son.
Not to prophets now, but the Son himself speaking God, himself speaking in Son.
Verse 4 after well, I'm going to read those wonderful statements again.
God hath that sundry times God, who at sundry times in in diverse manners spake in time passed unto the Fathers by the Prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the world's to being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His Person, and upholding all things by the word of.
His power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high, 7 things stated of him.
Seven wonderful things stated of him, and then verse 4 being made or taking a place so much better than the angels.
Who as he hath obtained a more excellent name than they?
For unto which of the angels, said he, at any time Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. And again I will be to Him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son. And again, when He bringeth in the first begotten into the world, he sayeth, and let all the angels of God worship him.
And of the angels he saith, who maketh his Angel spirits, and his ministers of flame of fire.
But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever.
A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy Kingdom. And so pause there. Why? Why so much about the angels?
Now that thinking of this hymn, though angels may with rapture see how mercy flows in Jesus blood, it is not theirs to prove as we the cleansing virtue of this flood. The angels praise the heavenly King and him their Lord adoring on.
We can, with exaltation, sing.
He wears our nature on the throne. Beautiful expression.
He wears our nature. He passed the angels by. We get that in the 2nd chapter where it says verse 7 Thou madest him a little lower than the angels.
And so on.
He went down below the angels in coming.
And he has ended up.
Above the angels in returning to the glory.
As a man.
Tremendous thought that God became a man.
A servant.
And the angels are servants. He could have become an Angel, but no, he did not.
He became a man. The angels do not have redemption. The angels, that is those who have fallen, there is no salvation provided for them.
Only for man's race. Why is that?
Well, the angels fell.
In rebellion against God, when there was #1 There to induce them to do it.
They did it on their own, following their leader, Satan the Devil.
And but man was deceived.
Man was led into sin by the lie of the devil.
And so God has provided A Savior for man.
Not for angels.
The death of Christ avails only for men. He became a man, that he might as man redeem man.
And this is the wondrous truth.
There's a lot connected with the angels in connection with the giving of the law. Turn back to Acts 7.
Acts Chapter 7.
And Stephen is going over the history of Israel.
And he says at the end of his message.
Verse 51 of Acts 7 Ye stiff necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost.
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As your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your father's persecuted, And they have slain them, which showed before of the coming of the justice, one of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.
I want to read that as it reads in the new translation, who have received the law as ordained by the Ministry of Angels and have not kept it.
Angels had.
Were instrumental in the giving of the law.
And Moses, of course, is considered the Lawgiver, but it was the angels that.
We're involved in giving it to him.
Again, we have.
In Galatians chapter 3.
Galatians, chapter 3.
And verse 19.
Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added, because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made, and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.
And again in Hebrews chapter 2, verse 2.
And he's referring to the law.
The Old Covenant, if the word spoken by angels, was steadfast.
In every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?
The danger, of course.
Was that some of these Jews which had professedly embraced?
Jesus as being the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God. They were in danger, some of them.
Of going back.
To the law and to Judaism until the old order of things to come to the wrong conclusion, that Jesus is not the Messiah after all. And if that's the case, then he was a false one, and what our people did to him was right. If his claims were wrong, if he was a deceiver, as they claimed and said, that deceiver said that in three days he would rise again. They went to Pilate and they said that to Pilate.
Command that the tomb be sealed and a guard be placed upon it.
So his disciples don't come at night and steal his body away. And Pilate says you have a watch. Go and make it as secure as you wish.
But an Angel came that night or that morning.
And rolled away the stone. It was huge and massive. Angels are greater in might and power. They are of a higher creatorial order than man. Man is a weakling in comparison, but man has a tremendous advantage.
Over the angels, and it is that he wears.
Our nature on the throne.
He did not become an Angel, the blessed Lord, He became a man.
One of us.
That He might redeem us from our sins and bring us into blessing. How wondrous. And so the angels they look on. Look at Ephesians 3, Ephesians chapter 3 in connection with.
This subject of the Angels.
Ephesians chapter 3.
Let's start at verse 9.
Verse 8 unto me less than the least of All Saints is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all men see what is the fellowship or the administration of the mystery which from the beginning of the world have been hidden. God, who created all things by Jesus Christ, to the intent that now unto the.
Principalities and powers in heavenly places.
Might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God.
Principalities and powers in heavenly places. The angelic Oaths.
Might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God. They are learning the manifold wisdom of God as they look down. And also First Corinthians 7, another important verse coming to mind.
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The teaching that Paul is First Corinthians 11, excuse me, First Corinthians 11 That that Paul gives in connection with man's place and the woman's place.
Now verse 9 says of 1 Corinthians 11.
Let me read verse 7. For a man indeed ought not to cover his head when he prays or prophecies, in as much as he's the image and glory of God. But the woman is the glory of the man. So this is his argument that she should have her head covered when performing those functions. For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man.
Neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man.
Another reason why he says the women ought to have.
A head covering a sign of the authority of the man over her is in verse 10 for this cause of the woman to have power or authority on her head because of the angels.
So as the angels look down, they learn the manifold wisdom of God.
They were there at his birth.
They were there at his death, at his resurrection, they were involved, they strengthened him in the garden.
Angel came and ministered unto him.
And they were involved in the giving of the law.
So in the in the Jewish mind, the angels have a very prominent place.
And they thought very, very much highly of angels. And so the writer of Hebrews, the apostle Paul, I take it.
Shows how that.
When he came, he was he came lower than the angels, and now he's been exalted above the angels and.
He's been made so much better than the angels, taking a place higher than the angels have.
As he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they, I'm reading Hebrews 1/4.
And then he says, Unto which of the angels did ever God ever say, at any time, Thou heart my son, this day of I begotten me? Now it's true that the angels are called sons of God in Scripture.
But that's as a company.
There's not a family of angels. Each Angel is created as an individual. They don't. They don't have a family they don't have.
A.
Propagation of the race by one being born an Angel. There's no such thing as an Angel being born.
They're sexless creatures and so in the resurrection the Lord says we are as the angels of God, the family, the husband, wife relationship. The marital relationship as we know it is an earthly institution, not heavenly. The only heavenly part of it is Christ in the church, of which the earthly 1 is a picture.
A picture.
But we will not have.
The same relationship to one another.
Like father and son and wife and husband in heaven that we have here.
We're not told a lot about it.
But the Lord did say will be his angels in that sense.
The human race is the only.
Group of the only family that reproduces itself.
And do we know what that is? But the angels, God never said to the angels, to anyone Angel, though the angels are called sons of God. Adam was called the Son of God. We're called sons of God by redemption. But there is only one Son of God eternal, the only begotten Son, and He never became that. All the others became sons of God. At some point in time the angels were created and we have been redeemed.
And Adam was created.
And as he came from the hand of God, he's called the Son of God.
But the angels are sons of God by creation.
The Lord Jesus is the Son of God.
For all eternity never became it.
And so I want to stress that for on to verse 5. Unto which of the angels?
Said he said God at any time.
Thou art my son, This day have I begotten thee.
No.
That was never said to the angels again.
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I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. They are just servants.
Ministering spirits and forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation.
But not in the relationship that we have.
Though we are of a lower creatorial order, we have been elevated in Christ in the sun to a higher position than the angels.
They will serve us First Corinthians.
Chapter 8 is it?
Comes to mind.
One Corinthians.
Chapter 6. Excuse me?
Verse 2, where I'll read from verse one, Dare any of you having a matter against another go to law before the unjust and not before the Saints?
Do you not know that the Saints shall judge the world? And if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know you not that we shall judge angels? How much more things that pertain to this life, I believe that will take place during the Millennium, when we will have an administrative place and the angels will do what?
We tell them to do. We will judge angels in that sense.
It has nothing to do with their salvation or anything like that, but with the with the job that they're to perform in their service in the in the Millennium.
We shall judge angels.
Well.
Verse 4 again of Hebrews 1.
Being made so much better than the angels are taking a place so much better than the angels.
As he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they, it was very important that this truth be made solid in the mind of these Jews, because they made so much in connection with Judaism, so much of the angels. And here now he's presenting one before them that is infinitely greater than the angels, the Creator himself.
Under which of the angels said He at anytime thou art my Son, that's what he always was. And now this day he have I begotten thee. This day that's the incarnation when he became a man. So in that statement Thou art my Son was his eternal glory as the Son. And this day have I begotten thee is his coming into the world.
The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
And again I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son.
And again, when he bringeth in the first begotten into the world, he saith that all the angels of God worship him. So when he comes back in his glory, and we'll come back with him, and the angels will come back with him, all the angels are to worship him.
Clearly they are creatures and He is the Creator. They had to get firmly established in their minds so that their faith embraced that truth.
That Jesus was number creature.
And the angels are nothing more than creatures.
Verse 7.
And of the angels he saith, who maketh his Angel spirits.
And his ministers a flame of fire.
I believe that.
When Satan saw.
That God placed.
Adam as the head of this earthly creation.
That it.
It provoked an intense jealousy on Satan's part.
He had aspired after that place of supremacy, and he wanted to be.
Number one.
You want it to be like God, and then God creates man and he makes him #1 down here.
And Satan.
Must have said to himself, I want to, I will destroy that. And he went about to do it.
God makes his Angel spirits. They are ministering spirits, says in verse 14. Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them? Who shall be heirs of salvation? I suppose if I went around the room and asked different ones if you have knowingly had any angelic experiences in your life.
I think some of us could clearly point to something in our life where the Ministry of Angels came in and delivered us from some accident or.
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Or evil.
The angels are ever present.
And ministering for those who are heirs of salvation.
And I believe that they they're looking at such even before they're saved.
I remember when I was just a boy of seven and a young girl the same age in the neighborhood.
We had just bought a new car.
And we like to play cops and robbers. So we got in the car and we used the dial of the radio to turn it. That was our speedometer.
And I said.
To marry.
Moon I said I'm going to get the key to the car and we'll make this more real. So I went into the house, opened my mom's purse and got the key out and went out into the garage and closed the doors of the garage so no one could see us. And I started the engine.
And we were having fun.
And justice, then?
Mom said.
Where's Chucky?
And she looked in her purse, didn't find the keys, ran out to the garage, opened the door, and we were still conscious sitting there. Another 15 minutes or so we would have been gone.
Angelic.
Interference.
That's just one instance.
I'll give you another one.
I was passing out tracks on the elevated platform in Chicago.
And everyone was rejecting them. It's a place where you change from the L to the subway. And they were all rejecting them. And I was getting pretty discouraged. And an old lady said to me, go on, go on. They're not rejecting you, they're rejecting him.
And then I started passing them again and everyone took one. They all heard her voice. They all took 1. And I spun around and I looked for her and she had disappeared. She was gone.
An Angel.
I don't know.
But some of you can come up with events similar to this.
The angels are watching over us, preserving us.
So many times and we don't realize that someday it'll all be told us.
And they're ministers, they're servants.
They're not children like we are.
And they're not redeemed like we are.
They cannot.
Though angels may with rapture see how mercy flows in Jesus blood, it is not theirs to prove as we the cleansing virtue of this flood.
Wonderful place that we have been brought into, but here he's presenting in this wonderful chapter the the the glory of the sun.
The greatness of the sun and how He is so much better than the angels, and how they worship Him as we worship Him too.
Verse 7 And of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels, spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire.
It does the will of God.
And.
The Angel does.
There was one time in the Old Testament where 185,000 of the enemy was destroyed by an Angel. 1 Angel.
Shows you how powerful an Angel is.
The Lord said to Peter, put up thy sword in the sheath like, and I now pray to my Father, and he'll give me 12 legions of angels.
Didn't need but one.
To defend him if he needed that. And of course he could have spoken the word himself.
There was a time. When was it Elijah?
He said open his eyes, opened his eyes, and he saw the Chariots of fire and all the angelic coats around about. Those that are with us are more than those that be with them.
And those that have served the Lord can tell of instances in their life of angelic intervention, but they're just creatures, and they are not in the same place that you and I are.
And here he's comparing the blessed Lord himself with angels.
But unto the Son he saith, verse 8, Thy throne, O God. Here God the Father is addressing His Son as God. Here one of the most powerful verses in Scripture showing the deity of Christ. Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy Kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity, therefore God, even thy God.
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Hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. Who are his fellows? You may us we're his fellows.
And thou, Lord, in the beginning has laid the foundation of the earth. He's the Creator, and the heavens are the works of thine hands. They shall perish, but thou remainest, and they all shall wax all the stuff. A garment then as a vesture shalt thou fold him up, and they shall be changed.
But thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail. The same is a title of the Lord of God, Jehovah God in the Old Testament. I am that I am. He is who he is. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And that title is given to the Lord Jesus in the New Testament, Jesus is Jehovah.
Jehovah is Jesus.
And that's what they had to know, that's what they had to learn, That's what they had to be made sure of. Now, this portion that I've just read is a quote from the 102nd Psalm. So let's turn back there and see how it reads the 102nd Psalm.
The Messiah is speaking. I'll stop pick it up from verse.
23.
Weakened my strength in the way.
He shortened my days. He was cut off right in the midst of his years as a young man of 33.
He weakened my strength in the way He shortened my days. I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days.
Now that's what the the Lord Jesus says prophetically here to the Father.
And now the Father answers him. And here's the answer right in the middle of this verse. Here's the answer from God. Thy years are throughout all generations.
Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of thy hands.
They shall perish, but thou shalt endure. Yeah, all of them shall wax old like a garment, and as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end. The children of thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be established before thee. That's.
The Psalm that.
Paul is quoting from and applying it to the Lord Jesus.
Right in the midst he says, take me not away in the midst of my days. And then God answers and says, Thy years are throughout all generations. As man. He says, take me not away, and God answers him. Who is God?
The Sun.
So again.
Hebrews 19.
Now let me read verse 8. But unto the Son he saith thy throne, O God.
Is forever and ever a scepter of righteousness. Is the scepter of thy Kingdom.
Thou has loved righteousness and hated iniquity, therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
And thou, Lord, in the beginning has laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of thine hands.
They shall perish.
Beautiful the expressions that are used.
In the 33rd Psalm it says, For He commanded and it was done. He spake and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast, He spake. The world's into existence Here it says that the heavens are the work of the hands.
Another place. It speaks of him, the work of his fingers, all these beautiful.
Pictures of God's creation, the one who is Lord over all, blessed forever. Thou Lord, in the beginning has laid the foundations of the earth and the heavens, of the works of thine hands. They shall perish, but thou remainest. They all shall wax oldest of the garment, and as a vesture shalt they fold them up, and they shall be changed. Well, the imagery here is just beautiful. They're just like you. You take your garment off at the end of the day, and you, you lay it down.
You hang it up in the closet and justice the universe just like that to God.
Something that he can just lay aside as he so desires. He is infinitely great. I like what one brother said.
Someone said to him as to made the question, Can God make a stone so large that he himself cannot move?
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That's nonsense, of course.
If he made a stone as large as a mountain, he could move it. If he made it as large as the United States, he could move it. He made it as large as planet Earth. He could move it. He made it as large as the solar system, He could move it. He made it as large as a Milky Way. He could move it. He made it as large as the universe itself. He could move it with his little finger.
That's how great God is.
That's how great God is.
You take an atom, you put it in the hand of a man. An atom.
The hand of a man.
That's like the universe.
In the hand of God.
And that analogy really diminishes God. He's greater than that.
That's how great he is.
And here we have this this one.
In order for us to really appreciate, to ponder, to meditate in our bed at night upon His greatness, upon the the lowliness, the low place that He took when He became lower than the angels and became a servant, is to realize how infinitely great He is.
How feebly we grasp it. We don't think of it enough. We don't. And we think of our little puny problems that we have, and they're too great for God.
Nothing is too great for God. Nothing.
The heart of the King is in the hand of the Lord. He turneth it whithersoever he will.
He controls the animals, He controls the King's heart, He controls men.
Controls everything. The sovereign of the universe, that's who he's presenting.
To these Jewish believers, I had to see who he was, who he is.
Who he ever shall be?
Thou, Lord, in the beginning has laid the foundation of the earth. The heavens are the works of thine hands. They shall perish, but thou remainest. They all shall wax old as doth A garment, and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed.
Without the same.
We change, He changes not. Our Christ shall never die. That's what we sing sometimes. All creatures change, but the Creator is the same.
Thou art the same in thy years shall not fail. But to which of the angels, said he at any time?
Sit on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool.
Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them? Who shall be heirs of salvation?
You see, it's one thing for these Jews to believe that Jesus is the Christ.
But did they really understand?
Who he was. Turn back to Matthew 22 for a moment, and this is what the the author here, Paul of Hebrews, is striving to bring before these Jewish professing Christians.
Greatness of the sun. Now even the Pharisees didn't understand this that Paul is bringing before them. And in Matthew 222041 while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, What think ye of Christ?
Whose son is he?
They say unto him, the son of David, and they were right. He was the son of David. Remember the blind man, He said, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And in his genealogy, the son of David, that's his, that's his human side.
But that's not all there is to that blessed One, they said, The son of David, he saith unto them. How then doth David in spirit?
Him, Lord.
Saying now he's referring back to.
110th Psalm.
The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool. That's what he's referring back to. How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying, The Lord Jehovah said unto my Lord David's Lord, David's the author of that Psalm, Sit down on my right hand, shall I make thine enemies thy footstool?
If David, then call him Lord.
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How is he his son?
And no man was able to answer him a word, neither dost any man from that day forth ask him anymore.
Questions. So even the Pharisees did not understand that the Messiah.
Is infinitely more than just David's son.
Just a man.
But he's David's Lord.
And that means he's God.
And they had to come to that. They had to learn that. And if that's not part of your faith?
You're not saved.
Because the Lord said, if you believe not that I am He.
Ye shall die in your sins.
You need to believe not that I am he, I am Jehovah.
You shall die in your sins.
Now, chapter 2 of Hebrews.
Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed.
To the things which we have heard, lest at anytime we should let them slip.
For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast.
And every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward in connection with the giving of the 10 commandments, the Law of Moses. How shall we escape?
Now that the the true light has come.
Now that the one who is greater than Moses, greater than the angels, greater than Abraham, greater than Aaron.
Greater than all the worthies of the Old Testament.
How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?
Which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him.
God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to His own will. For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come whereof we speak. That's the millennial reign, which is still future, and it's not being placed in subjection to angels, but to a man.
That's the Lord Jesus.
But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man? That thou art mindful of him, Are the Son of man that thou visitest him, Thou madest Him a little lower than the angels. Thou crowned him with glory and honor, and did set Him over the works of thy hands. In that one verse He was made lower than the angels, and then higher than the angels, because He hasn't placed everything under angelic power but to this man.
That was put all things in subjection under his feet.
During that he put all in subjection under him. He left nothing that is not put under him.
But now we see not yet all things.
Put under him.
Not everything has been placed under his feet yet.
Is still the rejected man. We're still going through a world of unbelief.
World that is guilty of the blood.
The Son of God.
That they nailed to cross.
One day that will all change.
But it says we see Jesus.
Who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor.
That he, by the grace of God, should taste death for every man.
For it became Him, that's God. It became God, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
Perfect means in the resurrection state He is in the perfect condition.
For both he that sanctifieth, that's Christ, and they who are sanctified are all of 1.
For which cause 1 substance 1 essence.
One lump, as it were.
One family for which 'cause he's not ashamed to call them brethren.
Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren. In the midst of the church will I sing praise.
Unto thee.
And again I will put my trust in him. And again, behold I and the children.
Which God hath given me presents us to the Father, and he says, Behold, I am the children.
Which thou has given me.
Now that's not an angelic company. That's us.
That's us redeem sinners.
I and the children which thou hast given me.
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For as much, then, as the children are partakers of flesh and blood.
He also himself likewise.
Took part of the same.
That through death he might destroy him. That had the power of death. That is the devil.
And deliver them, who through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to *******.
For verily he took not on him the nature of angels. That's not quite correct. It's He did not take a hold of angels by the hand they did. He did not espouse the cause of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham.
That is, he took hold of the seed of Abraham and is leading them all the way into the glory.