Verse by Verse Matthew 18:1-10

[0:00] and you please find in your Bible Matthew chapter 18. We're going to start a new chapter this morning. Matthew 18.

[0:18] Working our way verse by verse through this all-important transitional book, transitioning from God's dealings with Israel in the Old Testament to attempting to, in a sense, fulfill His promises to that nation through the Lord Jesus Christ, their Messiah, and the offer of the kingdom that He promised that nation.

[0:45] And so you'll see this coming right away in verse number 1, again, drawing our attention to the kingdom of heaven. That phrase, kingdom of heaven, shows up only in this book of Matthew, and it is dominant throughout this book.

[0:58] Chapter 18, verse number 1. At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? So politically speaking is their statement there.

[1:11] They're not talking about somebody who's the strongest or the largest, but He's speaking. Look at chapter 20, just for a quick cross-reference here. Chapter 20, in verse 25 and 6.

[1:25] Jesus called them unto Him and said, You know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion. So there's their authority over them. And they that are great, there's the word, exercise authority upon them, but it shall not be so among you.

[1:39] But whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister. And whosoever shall be chief among you, let him be your servant. So the question has to do with authority and with exercising authority and exercising dominion.

[1:53] And it's the princes of the Gentiles. So their question is, who's that going to be in the kingdom of heaven? Who's going to be the top dog? Who's going to be on top and in charge? And one of the mothers, that was in chapter 20, the mother of Zebedee's children asked that question about having her son sit on the right hand and on the left hand in the kingdom.

[2:14] And he answered that those positions are already filled, ma'am. Sorry, I can't help you with that. In Matthew chapter 18, that's their question, is who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

[2:25] So he's going to answer. And the answer, in a sense, is, well, it's irony. It's the one that becomes the lowest. And so look at verse number two. Jesus called a little child unto him and set him in the midst of them.

[2:40] So this is a real thing. He's using a, what's the word? An object lesson, I guess. He calls a little kid, come over here, have a seat.

[2:51] And I'm sure his disciples are like, what are we doing here? What is this, Sunday school hour or something? Why is he calling a little child here? You know, it's a little bit later that the kids are coming to him. They're bringing the kids to him.

[3:02] I think it's in the next chapter, actually, in verse 13. And the disciples, they rebuked him. Like, get these kids out of here. And so Christ is calling a little child, sets him in the midst of them in verse 3, and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

[3:21] Whosoever therefore shall humble himself. Now that's the cross, or the word to understand when he's talking about being converted. Humble himself as this little child.

[3:33] The same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Now the typical Baptist will say, Oh, you've got to be converted. Yeah, amen.

[3:43] You've got to be born again. And then he'll go and preach salvation by the grace of God through the blood of Jesus Christ. And sadly for that application, there's no bearing of that anywhere in this passage.

[3:54] I'm not talking about getting into heaven. I'm not talking about having your sins forgiven. I'm not talking about humbling yourself like a little child in order to receive Christ. Although that's, you know, a way you can spiritualize it and make an application today.

[4:09] It's not the context or the doctrine. The conversion is humbling themselves. It's debasing yourself of your pride. and not seeking to be the greatest and exercise authority over somebody else.

[4:22] And it's human nature. It's human nature to want to, especially for men, to want to dominate. Not everybody's that way, but there are definitely alpha males that cannot see the world except through their eyes.

[4:35] And everybody should just fall in line under them. And that's just a sin of some. And that's, hey, what does God do with Nebuchadnezzar?

[4:48] He has to abase him because he's exalted in pride. And he can't use a man that's exalted in pride. So he has to bring him low. And this is what Christ is telling you. You want to exercise authority, do you?

[5:01] And you're going to have to be converted. You're going to have to be dropped low. Become like this little child. He says in verse 3, Now a little child in the presence of adults doesn't say much.

[5:25] And a little child in the presence of adults in this setting, he's not telling her, hey, let me tell you all about my life and what I think about it. I remember as a young man, I was, actually I was in Bible school, and my dad was in town.

[5:40] And they were off of the mission field at the moment on furlough or whatever. And they came through and they were at our house with my wife and I. And then there was some other guy, there was a pretty well-known preacher that many of you may know, was in town as well.

[5:53] And he was, because of my dad, not because of me, he came over. And so we had a dinner and we just had a good time. And I really enjoyed hearing this pretty well-known preacher and my dad and just listened to them talk.

[6:07] And they weren't talking about the deepest things of the scriptures and the ministry. They were just talking. And I was in the room and there was a, another young man was in the room there as well, about my age.

[6:19] And I was just kind of soaking it up, enjoying just listening to these guys talk and weighing in when I could, when it was right. But I wasn't trying, I was just enjoying listening to them and their take on current events and things.

[6:32] But this other young man felt like he had to be heard. And he would not shut up. I mean, these guys were talking, be like, oh yeah. And they just, just always insert his opinion into the, like he had to be heard.

[6:46] And I was like, shut up. I felt like, go away right now. You're ruining what I'm enjoying of listening to these guys talk. And that's what, this little child here, that's not the way it is.

[6:59] They're humble. They're quiet. They're listening. They're, they're not anybody to be heard. They don't have an opinion worthy of the adults entertaining in this kind of context here.

[7:11] And Christ is telling them to humble themselves. Get over yourself if you want to be great. And that's true Christian irony that the way up is down. Come to Proverbs chapter 22. Proverbs chapter 22.

[7:29] God despises. He says, pride do I hate. He resisteth the proud. But somebody, he looks for a man with a contrite heart.

[7:44] Proverbs 22 and verse 4. By humility and the fear of the Lord are three things that you might want.

[7:56] Riches and honor and life. But you get them by humility. That's the irony of the Christian life is that you debase yourself in order to be exalted.

[8:09] And you leave, you trust the Lord that if this is what he wants, then this is how I'll live. And this is what you say in your word, then I'll obey that and allow you. And it's trusting him.

[8:19] It's taking, it's getting off of your path and your heart's drive and desire to be this, that, and the other thing and your goals and saying, Lord, this is the way I'm supposed to go. Head down.

[8:30] Let's put my, put my neck down into that yoke and learn of you and allow you to lead me through life and what do you know? He leads me to good things, to green pastures, to prosperity if he chooses to.

[8:46] Now, getting back to the passage in the kingdom of heaven likened unto this little child humbling himself and debasing himself to being low, to being greatest in verse four.

[8:57] Greatest, the same as greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Verse number five, and whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me, but whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the depths of the sea.

[9:18] Now, we're dealing with verse five and six a contrast. Of receiving such a little one versus offending one of these little ones which believe in him. Now, the word offend doesn't mean to call them a mean name and have them cry.

[9:33] It doesn't mean to hurt their feelings. It means to cause them to sin. The word offend all through this book is about offending in the law. It's about violating. And so, it's dealing with perverting or misleading, messing up.

[9:47] In this case, it's a young child. You could also apply it to a young believer who just doesn't know truth yet and that's something that God takes seriously. Somebody who's kind of indefensible maybe.

[10:01] So, this is the contrast. is receiving them or offending them or causing them to sin. He says, you'd be better off dead. And that's what the Lord Jesus Christ said about a man. The loving, wonderful, meek, and lowly Savior said, you'd be better off dead than to mess up these young ones.

[10:20] Than to cause them to offend or to offend them and to lead them astray. And that shows you that he doesn't tolerate everybody like the world today or the crescendum today pretends Jesus Christ just accepts you as you are and loves you regardless and that's not true.

[10:41] That's not true. If you got something wrong, then he doesn't like it and he wants to see it made right. In verse 7, he carries the thought on a little further saying, woe unto the world because of offenses.

[10:53] Now, that statement ends with an exclamation point. It's an exclamatory statement after talking about how men can be leading astray and perverting and messing up the youth behind them, the generation behind them.

[11:09] He's looking at the world and he's speaking of a specific kind of thing but then just looks and says, this is exactly why we are in the situation we are, woe unto the world because of offenses.

[11:21] That statement was fitting for the world that he lived in. It's very fitting for the world that we live in and God's plan and I don't need to run references on this. His promise is that he's going to destroy this world.

[11:34] We will look at one. Look at 2 Peter 3. This is something that he had in his heart from back in the beginning when he looked on man and saw that every imagination of the thought of his heart was only evil continually and repented the Lord of his heart that he made man.

[11:51] Genesis chapter 6. He said, I'm going to destroy him and he saved Noah alive. Alright, what did I say? 2 Peter chapter 3. It is absolutely God's plan to destroy the world.

[12:06] Start in verse 7. But the heavens and the earth which are now by the same word are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

[12:20] Now he destroyed it in Noah's day. He promised I'm not going to do it again until, or in other words, they're being reserved. Even if the wickedness of man gets greater and greater and greater, God has, he put his word on this and he's holding off until he's going to send the fire.

[12:37] Verse 8. But beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing that one day with the Lord is a thousand years and a thousand years is one day. The Lord's not slack concerning his promise. What's that?

[12:47] The promise to destroy the world. As some men count slackness but as longsuffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, we'll see that again in a minute, but that all should come to repentance.

[12:58] But the day of the Lord will come. It will come. That's the promise. Be not ignorant of this one thing. The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat.

[13:14] The earth also and all the works, the cities, the skyscrapers, the wonders of man, all the works that are therein shall be burned up. So there's God's thoughts about this world.

[13:26] Christ looks at it and sees the sin just like back in Noah's day when God looked and saw the sin and he's like, whoa, hunt to this world because of offenses. This thing is going down.

[13:36] It might be something that you find beauty in and we do. We find beauty in God's creation but when Christ looked on it and saw the sins of men, he saw how men cause to offend and lead astray and just the depravity of man, that's all he could say is woe unto this world.

[13:54] Woe unto the world because of offenses. Carry on in verse number 7. For it must needs be that offenses come. Now there's, the word of God has to be fulfilled and so because of what God proclaimed, what God saw, it's going to happen.

[14:10] Man's not going to fix this thing. Man's not going to clean this place up so that God can come back no matter what the Jehovah's Witnesses believe and think. They're not going to fix the world. They're not going to spread the kingdom and then, oh, one day we made it good enough for you, Lord.

[14:25] You can come back now. That's not happening. It must needs be that offenses come. Christ is looking at the world. It's so far gone and he said, well, you know, this has to happen.

[14:36] And then he continues on, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh. Now, in the context, woe to that man that is perverting the innocent and taking advantage of the helpless.

[14:50] In the Old Testament, you see all over God pledging to have the back of the widow and the fatherless. And he cares for them. And so, woe to that man that is guilty of this.

[15:02] But here he's, there's a little, a little more to this statement here. There's a little prophecy here. Woe to that man by whom the offense cometh. Look at chapter 26 and see a very similar phrase put on a specific man.

[15:16] And he's called the son of perdition. In your Bible, his name is, as a man, his name is Judas Iscariot.

[15:29] Matthew 26, verse 24, the son of man goeth as it is written of him. But woe unto that man by whom the son of man is betrayed.

[15:43] It had been good for that man if he had not been born. Because that man's end is going to be the lake of fire according to Revelation. Now, Christ says, woe to that man two times here.

[15:58] In Matthew 18, woe to that man. It'd be good if he hadn't been born. Woe to that man by whom the offense cometh. When that man, to Judas Iscariot, there's several prophecies in the Psalms especially that are fulfilled.

[16:15] One's in John 13 where Christ acknowledges that's about Judas. And a couple in Acts chapter 13. One with Peter preaching. He acknowledges a couple, two more prophecies that were fulfilled in Judas Iscariot.

[16:28] It's obvious that he's the one. In John chapter 6, Christ said, I've chosen you twelve and one of you is a devil. And he knew who it was. Judas came up to him and he says, am I the one?

[16:38] He's like, thou sayest it. Yep, you're the one. Christ knew who he was the whole time. And woe to that man. It'd been good for him that he wouldn't even have been born. Let's move on.

[16:50] Verse number eight. Matthew 18 verse eight. Wherefore, if thy hand or thy foot offend thee. I hope you're not quickly thrown off track here.

[17:01] We've already hit these passages just like this twice already, I believe. Wherefore, if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off and cast them from thee. So, are you supposed to cut your foot off or your hand off?

[17:15] Well, that's what the verse says. And it does say that. And Jesus did say that. And we take our Bible literal. But we better be careful who this applies to. Because he is telling somebody to cut their hand off if it's offending them or causing them to sin.

[17:31] Why? Because it's better, he says, for thee to enter into life, halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire.

[17:43] Notice in verse nine, if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out. Cast it from thee. It is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.

[17:56] Now, this is a literal teaching, a true teaching. But we need to understand we're dealing with the kingdom of heaven. And I can't emphasize that enough. And if you haven't been here or heard the other teachings as we built up through this book, this one's right in line with the other ones in chapter five and it might have been chapter ten, where he's saying the same stuff and he's cautioning them or warning them that you want to get into that kingdom and it's by your righteousness.

[18:22] Your righteousness has to exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees or you're not getting in. And it's an entrance, an entering into life versus being cast into everlasting fire.

[18:34] And notice, you're entering into life without your hand or without your foot or without your eyeball so this is not going to heaven and going to heaven with a patch on your eye for eternity.

[18:49] This is also getting tossed into fire, literal fire with two eyes and two feet and two hands. Your body is the point. And we've run these verses already.

[19:00] I don't want to take the time but just to solidify the teaching, when Christ comes back you're either getting in or you're getting tossed into the fire. And as we studied in Isaiah, that fire in that day is going to be burning on earth.

[19:14] And Isaiah describes Christ coming back and him kindling a fire on earth. And it's fire that's going to be, there's going to be, you know, there's demonic creatures, devils that are cast into that fire and held there.

[19:26] And there's men in there and the people that come by in Isaiah 66 can look on them and see them. And that's going to be a good warning to them, don't you trespass against the king of kings. And so in this kingdom, you're getting tossed in.

[19:40] And if you go, if you, let's take it literal, like he said, if you're having trouble with your eye or with your hand or foot or whatever the case is and you say, I am not going to let this keep me from entering into life and you take care of that thing and you go in, inside that kingdom is healing.

[19:59] And inside that kingdom, you read that in Isaiah, he'll make the maim to walk and the deaf to hear and the blind to see. So the Lord Jesus Christ offers the healing. You better, you better live this life in anticipation of that one.

[20:12] And that one, you can certainly spiritually apply to you and I today. So they are entering into the kingdom, halt or maimed, on crutches perhaps. But there's healing on the other side.

[20:26] All right, verse number 10. Verse number 10. And here we go. Isn't this going to be fun? Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones.

[20:39] He's still talking about the kids. All the way to verse 14. He's referencing what's going on with these little ones. And the reason he brought the little one into the picture was because they were talking about being great.

[20:53] Now take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones. For I say unto you that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven. Now get chapter 4 real quick here.

[21:06] Let's look at one more verse. He says, their angels do always behold the face of my Father in heaven.

[21:17] So here comes a teaching or I don't know that it's such a strong biblical teaching but it's been presumed this thought of guardian angels. Matthew chapter 4.

[21:29] Here's the only other real connection to this. And this is the devil taking Christ up to tempt him on the pinnacle of the temple. Verse 6. He says, And saith unto him, he's quoting the Psalms, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee.

[21:45] And in their hands they shall bear thee up lest at any time thou shalt dash thy foot against a stone. So Christ has angels that are sent from God to protect him and to keep him from all evil and from anything happening in this world.

[21:59] And the thought is, he has guardian angels. And then here in Matthew 18 it talks about little ones having angels in heaven that do always behold the face of my Father.

[22:09] Don't you mess with the kids because they have angels that are in heaven. So, of course, to make this, to make the connection that just because Christ has them and then it mentions their angels to say that they're guarded, well, first of all, the angels are in heaven.

[22:27] They're not down here hovering over the child, are they? And protecting them from all evil. Secondly, do little children ever get into situations where they're unprotected?

[22:43] Where they are violated or where they're led astray or where they're harmed or so can we say that they have guardian angels that are actually guarding them? I know somebody will have a story.

[22:55] Somebody will have a story about the little kid who almost fell off the swing and it's just like at the last moment the swing stopped. Had to be an angel. I know there's stories.

[23:07] I'm sure there's stories. And God can protect. And God can do whatever you want. And I feel like God's protected me in cases. I don't want to claim anything ridiculous or wild but there's been times where it felt like it didn't happen as bad as I thought it was.

[23:23] So the Lord can protect me. I'm not going to say though that there are guardian angels protecting and watching over every child and every, well children especially.

[23:35] That's kind of the typical teaching. Or every human being has an angel that's protecting them. Or everyone that's saved has an angel that's now sent to deliver them. I mean if that's the truth then I have to say I'm still alive and so are you but they didn't do a very good job with some people.

[23:52] or God just said okay they're done. We can't teach this as a doctrine and then watch it fall apart or then make excuses for where it falls apart.

[24:04] It's better yet just to not teach a doctrine that the scripture doesn't teach. I mean there's a passage what does it mean? Okay we'll try to figure out what it means but I'm not going to jump to something that it doesn't necessarily say.

[24:17] And I don't want to equate what the Old Testament said about the Messiah being protected and then claim that's true for me and for my kids and for you and your grandkids and on down the road.

[24:28] That's a stretch. So guardian angels what's the deal? Well this thought here number one is that saying that their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven this has nothing to do this is not the what the Roman Catholic Church has brought on to say that there are saints that we pray to.

[24:48] They've lived a very godly saintly life they've passed on and now they are watching our backs and I put the picture of them on my dash in my car because they're keeping my car safe or they're keeping me from the police from pulling me over where I got their picture or their statue outside of my actually the house we rent the landlord has some figurine of something out there and now it's laying over.

[25:19] I walked by it the other day and I think of Dagon the god of the Philistines is just falling over and let the landlord come and stand him back up and watch him be falling over again.

[25:31] Yeah he's not protecting my house and all my things in it my children at night because there's a statue of some saint outside all these churches put their saint figurines and their statues and the monuments and they believe this they pray to them they think that they associate this thought of some guardians out there that have gone on it's folly there's nothing no truth to it at all it's a man that's deceived and misled and so that's something that's not just within Catholicism it's in other Orthodox religions as well but it's it's there it's their attempt to make something happen that's not happening superstition that's what it is so what about angels well come to Hebrews chapter 1 it's hard to it's hard to nail I'm struggling nailing something down here because it looks like it goes different ways at times and when we were back in early in the book of Matthew I avoided jumping into something when it had to do with the star moving because there's there's just something there I can't quite nail down

[26:40] I still can't about angels Hebrews chapter 1 here we get a little description this is a quote from the Psalms in verse number 7 we'll start in verse 6 and again when he bringeth in the first begotten into the world he saith and let all the angels of God worship him so these are angels angelic beings created by God in Job they're called the sons of God that are shouting for joy when God establishes the earth or builds it he's framing it up so these beings are they precede the creation of man and in verse 7 and of the angels he saith quote again who maketh his angels spirits and his ministers that's what angels are called his ministers a flame of fire so these are spiritual beings verse number 14 says are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them not minister to them but minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation is the question angels are called ministering spirits a flame of fire these are beings that are created by God now most people most commentators most

[28:06] I don't know biblical bible dictionary kind of things they always like to say that angels are messengers that's the that's the number one term everybody associates with angels messenger that's the word means messenger and sure there's times when angels deliver messages but they're not always messengers that's just a function that God uses them for they're ministering spirits as this says here now back in Matthew 4 when we were reading about the temptations of Christ angels came and ministered to him after that he was 40 days fasting and hungered and dealt with the devil and angels came and ministered to him in the garden of not Eden Gethsemane Jesus Christ was about to face Calvary and he's praying and sweating and there were great drops of blood and the bible says in Luke angels ministered to him so they are ministering spirits there's an appearance of an angel back in

[29:08] Genesis I don't have the reference but with Hagar when she took off and she's thinking she's going to die and her son going to die and the Lord has an angel show up and talk to her and minister to her same thing with Paul in Acts 27 an angel of God whose I am and whom I serve he said stood by me this night and there's appearances all over the bible of angels there's appearances in the Old Testament of the angel of the Lord and the tricky thing is this angel of the Lord is deity he's worshipped he's bowed down to but then in Revelation there's this angel that John that Christ says I sent my angel mine angel and he delivers this word to John and John falls down twice in that book to worship him and he says see thou do it not I'm a fellow servant I'm not God I'm not deity you're not allowed to bow down to me just like what Peter said to Cornelius you can't bow down to me I'm a man so angels are in some cases it's God an appearance of God a manifestation of God other times they're just these maybe we'd call them these spiritual beings created beings that are sent forth from God to do his bidding and whatever that would be there's hosts of them but there's something else look at

[30:27] Acts chapter 12 and this is the one I think we're familiar with the rest of that probably but this is the one I believe is more in line with what we're reading in Matthew 18 when it speaks of the little ones and their angels angels as if the little ones have an angel and some kind of individual connection here alright Acts chapter 12 and this is where Peter is in prison and he's going to have his head taken off the next morning most likely he's sleeping between two soldiers bound with two chains and verse 7 says behold the angel of the Lord came upon him and light shined in the prison and so he gets Peter up and he leads him out of the prison the gates open everything's going great he leaves the angel in verse 10 at the end departs from him so Peter knows that the Lord hath sent his angel and hath delivered me out of the hand of

[31:30] Herod and he goes to the house to where these saints are praying for him and look at verse number 13 as Peter knocked at the door of the gate a damsel came to hearken named Rhoda when she knew Peter's voice she opened out the gate for gladness but ran in and told her Peter stood before the gate and they said unto her thou art mad they don't believe her for a bit but she constantly affirmed that it was even so and they said it is his angel so what are they saying they're not saying it's an angel from heaven a guardian angel that's come down knocking on the gate let me in like you would ever need to do that they're not saying that they're believing most likely that oh Peter's head cut off he's dead it's a spirit it's his ghost is what they're saying you're seeing a ghost that's not him they call it an angel and so an angel another

[32:30] I don't know if it's the definition but it's another definition perhaps it's an appearance it's a representation and that's what I think is going on with the children with the little ones is that they have a representation as little ones before the throne of God their angels I don't want to say their spirits or their ghosts like that they're not dead but the thought of them having a representation before God's throne why would it be the case well perhaps and this is perhaps because as little ones they're what we call maybe they're safe but they're not saved they're innocent and this is a whole other study to run through to find where you lose that innocence when you gain the knowledge of good and evil and that's in Romans 7 where Paul says I was alive once before the law came before I understood lust before the law taught me what it was I was alive meaning we'll use the word safe he was safe in God's eyes he wasn't considered guilty or condemned until the law came and showed him his guilt to knowledge of good and evil then he says

[33:45] I died and so then spiritually speaking he was dead and Ephesians chapter 2 and you hath he quickened or made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins so it seems as though this makes a little more sense to that thought of a representation of them in heaven let's just run go to Revelation 1 we'll have to end with this I'll show you two other cases of this not individually but on larger scales Revelation 1 and I'll show you here that these churches that John writes to have representations in heaven as well and they're angels verse number 19 write the things which thou hast seen and the things which are and the things which shall be hereafter the mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand and the seven golden candlesticks the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches and the seven candlesticks which thou saw are the seven churches the seven churches have angels it says the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches now does that mean each church has an angel that's protecting it

[35:08] I don't know that I could say that but it has a messenger to it or for it I don't know about that either but it does have an angel associated with it and the thought that the question it's a tough thing to say for doctrine come back to Daniel while I'm talking here Daniel 10 angels are connected with or seem as though they're connected with something in heaven that counters or that represents what's taking place on earth and so here's another example on something of a larger scale than just a child Daniel chapter 10 and this is some heavy stuff here it's hard to really understand all of this the things that take place in the heavens but the Bible does speak to it does give us some light and Daniel 10 just for sake of time we gotta quit here but Daniel is in verse 2 in those days I Daniel was mourning three full weeks how many days is three full weeks 21 days he's praying and he's fasting afflicting himself before God and somebody comes through

[36:21] Daniel gets a vision in verse number let's just start in verse 12 this being is speaking to him he describes his body earlier in the passage and in verse 7 Daniel Saul vision so down in verse 12 then said he unto me fear not Daniel for from the first day that thou did set thine heart to understand and to chasten thyself before thy God thy words were heard and I am come for thy words but the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days so twenty-one days this messenger if you want to call it that that has words for Daniel was withstood and he wasn't able to make it through to Daniel to deliver the words the vision but then in verse 13 in the middle he says but lo Michael one of the chief princes came to help me and I remained there with the kings of Persia so this is not a human being that Daniel is talking to this is somebody sent from God from heaven to deliver a message to Daniel and he gets help from

[37:26] Michael one of the chief princes who's that take a look at just keep your place there well actually no we'll look at look at the end of the chapter before he leaves this being says to Daniel verse 20 then said he knowest thou wherefore I come unto thee and now will I return to fight with the prince of Persia and when I'm gone forth lo the prince of Grisha shall come but I will show thee that which is noted in the scripture truth and there is none that holdeth with me in these things but Michael your prince so there's Michael who's he look at chapter 12 quickly your prince he says not Daniel's prince individually but the nation of Israel's prince 12 1 at that time shall Michael stand up the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people and there shall be a time of trouble and so forth so Michael he's the archangel mentioned in Jude as Michael the archangel disputing with the devil about the body of

[38:26] Moses we know Michael Michael is called the great prince which standeth for the children of Israel there's a prince of Grisha at that time was a prince of Persia that he had to fight with and that's who's in power and after him he says the prince of Grisha is coming that's who's coming next in power on the earth and so there are principalities and powers that Paul says that we wrestle against not flesh and blood but as Isaiah says the high ones that are on high their spiritual wickedness in high places so there's spiritual princes principalities beings angels some kind of representation out there for what's going on down here it's on larger scale like nations it's on the scale of we saw in Revelation churches and here in Matthew it seems children so there's not a lot else I can say about that it kind of goes into another realm that just gets to me untouchable and something we can't fully realize

[39:29] I don't believe but I do believe this thought of guardian angels thing is just kind of easy to knock away and just say that's not necessarily the case here it's not what he's saying that there's angels protecting the kids because the angels they're in heaven beholding the face of God not down here guarding the children but he does warn them and say don't you despise these little ones and it seems as though because they have a representation before God you might say the same thing of you today if you're born again look at Ephesians chapter 2 we've got to quit Ephesians chapter 2 just trying to run there fast you can say and make an application to you today that as a child of God entering into his family and being a child of God then you kind of you get access to up there as well and look what Paul says about you right now we'll start in verse 1 and you hath he quickened he's given you life who were dead in trespasses and sins wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world according to the prince of the power of the air the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in a lust of our flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature the children of wrath even as others but now we're the children of

[40:46] God so verse 4 but God who is rich in mercy and his great love wherewith he loved us even when we are dead in sins hath quickened us together with Christ by grace you are saved and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus present tense so in a sense if you want to make the connection to what we read in Matthew we have a representation geographically I'm still here I'm stuck in this body this temple this tabernacle Peter calls it for now but in Christ I'm in Christ there's something that went on there that I don't understand that says that he made me sit together with him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus so in Christ I have access to God in Christ he beholds the face of my angel who is Jesus Christ and I'm in him and so that's probably getting to where it boggles our minds so we better quit there so let's take a break we'll have to just be dismissed and then come back in 10 minutes so let's come name let's come near