The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Panorama City, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from the tape, GC 70-12, titled "Questions and Answers--Part 40."  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE. Copyright 2001 by John MacArthur Jr., All Rights Reserved.

Question

Answer

Well, let me answer the question first of all by saying, go back to the word “will” here and let’s clear that up. When it says, “They are sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation,” it’s not talking about unconverted but elect people; it’s talking about saved people who have not yet entered into their inheritence. You see the difference? In other words, in Romans 13, it says, “Now is your salvation nearer than when you believed.” What that means is that the full, final inheritance which, as you know, where it says in Peter: “laid up for us”--we are the ones who will inherit that. It’s not talking about elect but unsaved people. It’s talking about saved people who have not yet received the fullness of their salvation.

See, salvation comes in three tenses, right? Past: we were saved from our sins; we are being saved, in the fact that we’re being preserved and kept; and we will be saved in the fullest and final and ultimate sense when we leave this world and enter into the fullness of glory.

Question (continued)

So, how do the angels minister to us?

Answer (continued)

Well, obviously they do. Right? The fact that they are invisible makes it difficult for us to know how they do that. And furthermore, Hebrews 13 says we can even entertain angels--what?--unaware. Now, the only thing I can say is it doesn’t tell us how they minister and it’s such a secret that they could be doing it and we wouldn’t even be aware of it.

Now, I can give you some illustrations that I’ve read about. The one that’s a classic is the illustration of John Paton. John Paton was a young man growing up in England and felt called of God to the New Hebrides, which were inhabited by man-eating cannibals. He was married. And he put his little wife on this ship, steamer ship, and they went by the New Hebrides and dropped them off in a little rowboat and they rowed ashore, and that’s how they started their ministry--just rowing ashore, didn’t know the language, and it’s an island full of natives. People had gone there in the past, but they were invited to lunch and never came back…you know how that goes.

So when Paton and his wife got off this little boat, they built a little lean-to on the beach. John writes in the biography that at night he could see the natives peering at him from out of the jungle. He tells stories about how that sometimes when he felt that they were coming after him, he would be in the river breathing through a reed. There were other times when he was completely exposed and they never bothered him.

After a period of time, God began to do some incredible things. First his wife gave birth to a baby, then she died, then the baby died, and he slept on their graves for three straight nights to keep the natives from digging up their bodies and eating them. He still hadn’t contacted anybody… It wasn’t long after that that there was a native thrown out of the tribe and they made contact and he began to use that native to learn the language and led that native to Christ. He finally had the privilege of leading the chief to Christ, along with all of them. In fact, it says there was something like 35 churches on those islands by the time he left.

But, toward the end--and you find this in that book written by Billy Graham, called, Angels--towards the end, when these people started coming to Christ, the chief came to him one time and asked him “Who were those soldiers that guarded your lean-to on the beach every night?” And he said, “What soldiers?” and then he realized that what he didn’t see, God allowed them to see. That’s a very unique situation. We don’t see them--they’re in a different dimension--but they are nonetheless there, active.

You remember in Daniel? In Daniel, when Daniel prayed and God sent an angel to answer his prayer, and that angel got held up by a demon for many, many days, and God sent Michael to knock that demon out and then that angel went on and finished God’s answer. Now, what that tells me is sometimes, when we pray, God uses angels to answer those prayers. Maybe to protect somebody, maybe to cause some circumstances to happen, but, unquestionably, to the saved there’s the promise that angels are ministering spirits.

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur’s Questions and Answers" by:

Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
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