HP Mansfield - Class 3: Angelic Manifestations in the Life of Daniel (Part 1)

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:00

   My dear brethren and sisters in Christ Jesus, angelic manifestation is stressed in the book of Daniel more than any other book of the Bible. However, in fact, we find the ministration of angels flowing throughout the whole of the Word of God. And this morning as more or less introduction to the section of Daniel, I want to first of all traverse some of the scriptures where reference is made of this. And I think that if we try to meditate upon these scriptures, to which I will introduce you, and draw into our own lives the impact of the exhortation, we might find that we can make Yahweh even closer to us than may first of all appear.

2. 0:53

   I direct your attention first of all to a passage in the Old Testament in the book of Genesis. And in Genesis chapter 28 and verses 11 to 16. And here we have the experience of Jacob. Jacob has been driven from his home. He has made his way in fear towards the north and he has come to Bethel. Night time is drawing on. The sun is disappearing. The city of Laz is shut against him.

3. 1:27

   And tired and despondent, Jacob lays himself down to rest upon one of the slabs of stone that you find in the area of Bethel. If you were to visit Bethel today, you would find the hills are terraced in a natural way. And those terraces form a sort of a stairway as they lead to the heights of the hill.

4. 1:52

   And it would have been upon one of those that Jacob laid himself down to sleep. Before sleeping, Jacob addressed himself to the father in prayer. That is not told us in this 28th chapter of Genesis, but it is told us in the 35th chapter of Genesis, verse 3, when Jacob recapitulates his experiences here.

5. 2:18

   And he tells us there that Yahweh answered him. And therefore, first of all, he had engaged in prayer at that particular moment. And we read that he dreamed, and behold, a ladder, a stairway, we are taught in Wutherah's translation. Not a ladder as we might understand it, a stairway, such as the hills of Bethel to this very dire terrace.

6. 2:41

   And so he saw this stairway reaching up to heaven. And on the top of it, there was God. And the angels of God were ascending and descending upon it. And behold, Yahweh stood above it and said, I am Yahweh Elohim of Abraham, thy father, the Elohim of Isaac, the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed.

7. 3:08

   Now this was a tremendous vision. He saw a stairway leading up into heaven. And notice that word, behold, in verse 13. Wherever you read that word in Scripture, you do not ignore it. It means that that captured his attention. Behold, he said, he saw something. And his eyes riven it upon the revelation that he has seen.

8. 3:30

   And wherever you find that word, you do not ignore it. Because it is underlining what is being said. And he saw thereupon the vision of the great in-create. He did not know him as Yahweh. Later on he asked that that name should be given unto him, the name of deity. But it was withheld from him.

9. 3:50

   And so as he looked up, he saw the revelation of the great in-create. We are not told what he saw. But what he did see, in addition to that, were the angels ascending and descend that stairway. Ascending the stairway to the Creator in the heavens and down again to Jacob, tired, despondent, filled with fear, asleep and lowly in the darkness of that hill.

10. 4:14

    And he heard the voice of God. And the voice of God promised that he would be brought back to that land again. And his seed would be brought back to that land again. And the voice of the great in-create said, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land.

11. 4:41

    I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. And in that man's life, we have the manifestation of Yahweh through the angels, overshadowing him through every adverse circumstance of life into which that man was brought. And if ever one has felt encouraged and stimulated in moments of depression and difficulty, it is by the life of Jacob and the way in which Almighty God directed his life, until finally he rejoices in the company of his son.

12. 5:19

    It's a tremendous experience, or I have found, to study the life of Jacob. And so we read in that particular narrative that he awakened out of his sleep and said, Surely Yahweh is in this place, and I knew it not. And he was afraid and said, How dreadful is this place! There is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.

13. 5:42

    But he's stimulated. He's stimulated by the great revelation that was given unto him, that he is not on his own. Lonely as he may be there, he is not on his own. There is a great power that's going to overshadow his life, and he's a recharged man next morning. And you read that in the 29th chapter in verse 1.

14. 6:03

    We read that Jacob went on his way. But you notice in the margin, the Hebrew is, He lift up his feet. Jacob now marched on his way. He knew that God was with him. Previously he had been dragging his feet. He was tired and despondent and filled with fear. Now he knew that God was with him, and he had the revelation of that in his life.

15. 6:23

    And as he contemplated that stairway with the angels ascending and descending, he saw how that Yahweh would be able to guide the fortunes of his life through the ministration of those angels that he saw. And he never forgot that. When we come to the 48th chapter of the same book, and at verse 16, He commends them to the angel.

16. 6:54

    He said in verse 16, The angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lands, and let my name be named upon them. The angel which redeemed me from all evil. So he realized that all the circumstances of his life, there the angels were, overshadowing his destiny. He says in the previous verse, The Elohim fed me all my life long unto this day.

17. 7:24

    So you see, there he felt the power of the angelic ministrations in his life. And the question we've got to ask ourselves is this. Have you ever felt the power of God in that way in your life? The ministration of angels. I believe that I have. And a little later on, I want to give you a couple of illustrations of what I mean by that.

18. 7:53

    But in the meantime, bear this out, that the same God dwells in heaven, and the same angels are there as ministering spirits sent forth to minister for you and for me. And that is the power of this subject that we're considering this morning. You turn over to the fifth chapter of the book of Ecclesiastes, and again you are introduced to the angelic ministration of the affairs of saints.

19. 8:24

    Because in Ecclesiastes chapter 5, and at verse 6, we have these words. Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin, neither say thou before the angel that it was an error.

20. 8:45

    Neither say thou before the angel that it was an error. What does the wise man mean? He means this, that our lives are overshadowed by the angels, and they are taking account of what happens as far as we're concerned, and our reaction to certain circumstances of life. And therefore, nothing that we do is unknown of God.

21. 9:12

    We know that. Not that the great Inc. create himself takes heed of what we personally are doing, he has his ministers to attend to that, and they can report to him if they so desire. But they are there overshadowing our lives, and they are there recording the things that we do. And I believe that when the Lord Jesus Christ returns, we are told that he will return with a large company of angels, and that they will go forth and supervise the resurrection, and I believe likewise they will supervise the judgment seat.

22. 9:47

    I believe that we will stand before the angels in that time, that we might learn from their lips our own lives as though they had been recorded in the book of Kings or Chronicles. We will learn from them the circumstances of our life, and learn when we have shown faith, or when we have been deflected therefrom, because these things are recorded.

23. 10:10

    And then it will be no use to say before the angel it was an error. So we must do that even now, we must correct this way. Again, you come to the New Testament, you find similar words used in relation to the angels. Take that familiar passage, the first of Corinthians chapter 11, where the apostle Paul is dealing with the memorials, and also with the conduct of sisters in the ecclesia.

24. 10:37

    And we have this in verse 10. For this cause ought the women to have power on her head because of the angels. Because of the angels. We don't see them, but they are observing our conduct, and they are recording this, so that in the day of judgment there will be the results of their records.

25. 10:59

    And therefore, you see, because of that invisible presence of Almighty God, because of that, we need to be careful as to our demeanour. In the 18th chapter of Matthew, and at verse 10, the Lord Jesus Christ, in speaking of the little ones, he speaks of those guardian angels that are there to supervise their lives.

26. 11:24

    So he says, do not despise 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.

27. 11:38

    How close are we each one to Almighty God? When there are angels in heaven specifically directed to attend to our affairs, and if need be to behold the face of the Father in heaven on our behalf. How dare we despise any of these little ones as the Lord describes them, when that is the power of their life.

28. 12:09

    And how conscious are we, little ones, to the presence of God and the ministration of his angels in our life. Jacob was tired, despondent, and lonely. He lay out on a hard bed in the open air, formed as it were in a stairway, and in his dream he looked up that stairway, and found he was not on his own, for the angels were there ministering on his behalf.

29. 12:46

    Up and down the stairway they went, to the Father in the heavens, so that there was a very close and intimate link between Yahweh in the heavens and the lonely pilgrim on the earth. That was his staircase. What about our own? Each one of us can have that vision, each one of us can see that stairway, each one of us ought to be cognizant of angels ascending and descending in that way.

30. 13:15

    Consider the angelic ladder. There at the very top is Yahweh. Yahweh who is supreme and remote from humankind. He is there in the heavens as a great king above all the Elohim, as we are told in Psalm 95 and at verse 3. A great king above all the Elohim, supreme above all else, unapproachable by human power.

31. 13:46

    And the stairway is there. And on the right hand of the Father at this moment, there is the Lord Jesus Christ at the right hand of God. The one who was of our nature and understands our intrimost thoughts. The one to whom we can turn at any time because he understands. He understands more than we might understand ourselves.

32. 14:13

    He understands better than the closest relationship we can establish upon this earth can understand us. and then there are the angels and we are told that they have been given into the care of the Lord Jesus Christ, that he supervises them. And those angels subject to Christ form a bridge between heaven and earth.

33. 14:37

    And they are operating on the behalf of saints. It's clearly revealed in the book of Daniel how this takes place. And we have read this morning in that 34th Psalm in verse 7 that the angel of Yahweh encampeth around those that love and fear him. And the psalmist says taste and see that Yahweh is good.

34. 15:00

    He invites us to understand these things and to recognize that and to taste and see that he is good. And so the ladder comes down and you know it comes down even further because there are apostles elected by the Lord Jesus Christ to be helpers for us. The apostles who recorded the words of revelation so that we have them here and by that means we can proceed up that stairway towards heaven.

35. 15:29

    And they had their helpers and men like Timothy and Titus and Silas and so forth who expounded and exhibited the power of that word. And so we are able to go up step by step. Silas we know, Timothy we know, Demas we know. we are very familiar with them because they failed often as we often fail.

36. 15:52

    Paul is a little higher. Would I consider Paul a man so dedicated as he was to act as he did and to dare all that he did? He seems a little above me. I am more familiar with Mark. And above Paul the Lord Jesus Christ, the angels ministry. And lower than Paul, there we have our own brethren, Brother Thomas, Brother Roberts, raised up by God to establish the truth in these days without any shadow of a doubt.

37. 16:24

    The truth didn't come into being by chance of caprice. And Yahweh was supervising the lives of those men through his angels as they were brought to an understanding of the things of God. That we might be drawn up that ladder, that stairway towards heaven. And what I'm trying to impress you with brethren and sisters is this, that in the battle of life, in the wilderness wandering toward the kingdom of God, you are not on your own.

38. 16:50

    I do not care what your state of life might be. I don't care what problems you have suffered. I don't care how lonely you may be. You are not on your own. And I want to bring this out this morning, that as far as Almighty God is concerned, as far as the power of the Word of God is concerned, and the love of God, I have learned this in my life, and I say it before God, really meaning this, that I have learned more about the love of God in adversity, and in trouble, and in depression, than ever I have in success, and in power, and so forth.

39. 17:26

    The reality of God and the love of God has made more obvious to me, under those circumstances, than in any so-called triumph. And I have felt that it's only under those circumstances of difficulty, and problem, and trouble, that one is able to take hold of the hand of God in that way, in a figurative sense, and to be let out of it, and to understand what is meant by that.

40. 17:50

    And we come to the eighth chapter of Romans, and we listen to the apostle Paul, who knew all about this, and he tells us in Romans chapter 8, and verses 28 and 29, he teaches us that we are not left on our own, in Romans chapter 8, and verse 30, 1, what shall we say to these things?

41. 18:19

    If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Now, alter the next part of the Bible. It's wrongly translated.

42. 18:41

    It should be a question, not a statement. It should read, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? God the justifier? Will he do it? He will not. Who is he that condemneth? Again, it's a question. Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again? Who is even at the right hand of God?

43. 19:03

    Who also maketh intercession for us? Will he condemn? He will not. Those are what Paul is telling us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation? Distress? Persecution? Famine? Nakedness? Peril? Sword? By no means. For thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

44. 19:28

    No, in these things we are more than men. Who then will separate us from the love of God? If it is not God that's going to lay anything to the charge of God's elect, if it is not Christ who is going to condemn, who will bring that about? Self. And that only. In other words, the apostle Paul is telling us that there are two in heaven that has done everything possible to ensure our salvation.

45. 20:01

    that the father and the son are doing everything in their power that we might attain under the kingdom of God. And Paul says, understand this and draw upon that strength because we can become more than conquerors through that and they won't condemn us. It is only ourselves that can separate ourselves from the love of God in that way.

46. 20:23

    That is what he is telling us there. And you know, elsewhere we are told in Hebrews chapter 4, verse 15, that we have a high priest who can help us. We have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin.

47. 20:44

    Therefore let us come, not boldly, that is not the word at all, freely, let us come freely unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. We are cast down with the realisation that we fail so often. We do things that we hate because we do those things as the apostle Paul did.

48. 21:04

    There is the high priest who understands and as I said before often understands better than our own brethren and sisters understand us. And we can go and approach the father through him with every confidence and for everything. So Paul tells us in another place, all things he said. I want to emphasise that and so we go to the book of Nehemiah and at the ninth chapter to see how this great man of action and of faith prayed unto the father at a certain moment of crisis in his life.

49. 21:47

    So in Nehemiah 9 and verse 32 part of his prayer was given here. Now therefore our God, the great, the mighty, the terrible ale who keepeth covenant and mercy, let not all the trouble seem little before thee that has come upon us. great. They're very tender words, brethren and sisters. This great man of faith, he is approaching the great creator, our Elohim, the great, the mighty, the terrible power, right remote from human control in all his majesty and glory.

50. 22:32

    And this man's bridging that great illimitable distances and coming into the very presence of the great in create and he says, please don't think that the things for which we are praying are too little for you to consider. And there is the humility of this man. Again, Jeremiah was reminded of this and now we're coming a little closer to our subject of Daniel.

51. 23:01

    Jeremiah was reminded of this in the 29th chapter because here we have the message and the letter that he sent to the people in Babylon at that particular time and he told them that they would be there for 70 years and he warned them against the false prophets who were prophesying falsely in the name of Yahweh as you have it in verse 9.

52. 23:22

    And then there was a message to them, a message to all faithful Israelites in that time of great crisis for the nation. And Jeremiah says as we have it in the 10th verse, thus saith Yahweh after 70 years be accomplished at Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good word toward you in causing you to return to this place.

53. 23:47

    And here you have some of the most tender words in the whole passages of scripture as Yahweh addresses himself to his disobedient nation. And he goes on to say, for I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith Yahweh, thoughts of peace and not of evil, and as an alternate rendition, to make your latter end an object of hope.

54. 24:16

    I know the thoughts that I think toward you, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to make your latter end an object of hope. Then ye shall call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you, and ye shall seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart, and I will be found of you, saith Yahweh.

55. 24:39

    Now that's God's thoughts to us. His thoughts to us are thoughts of peace and not of evil, to make our latter end an object of hope. You consider the people of Israel at that particular time, where was there any evidence of the love of God? All they could see was the Babylonians, swarming down against the city.

56. 25:03

    All they could see were the hostages taken into Babylon. All they were going to see shortly was the temple of smoking ruin. They're going to see their nation smashed up. They're going to see the beloved city sieged and destroyed. They're going to be taken into pain and anguish, into dispersion. Where was the love of God?

57. 25:21

    There was no love of God there, and they could really feel incensed against God. But God said, I know the thoughts that I think toward you. they are thoughts of peace and not of evil. They're thoughts of peace and not of evil. And if only they would have hearkened unto him, if only they would have turned unto him, the mighty power of almighty God would have been stretched out for Israel, even at that stage, and would have saved them at that time.

58. 25:50

    That's the power we have access to. And that's the manipulation of angelic ministration in the days of Daniel. And I want you now to turn to James 1 and see what James says regarding this. Just to bring this section to a climax. And there we read in verse 17 of James 1, So Yahweh is here called the Father of Lights.

59. 26:29

    And the Father of Lights in the natural heavens is the sun. So he is the sun in the heavens. And in the Psalms he is called a sun and a shield. So he is likened to the sun in the heavens, with whom, says James, there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

60. 26:50

    But that doesn't seem to be the case. Because in wintertime, there is a variableness in the sun. It's not as warm as in the summer. And there is a shadow of turning as far as the sun is concerned. Because it's daytime and dark. But James said that there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

61. 27:14

    So James must have known something about the science of the sun far in advance of his age. He must have understood that the world was round and the evolutions of the heavenly bodies and so forth. And he recognized that as far as the sun is concerned, it's shining forth, it's warmth, it's light, it's power, did not have variation.

62. 27:38

    It was constant. It was constant. And the sun is constant here. It's as strong in Australia as it is in England. It's as strong in winter as it is in summer. But it doesn't seem like it to us, does it? It doesn't seem like it. Because of the position where we stand in relation to the sun.

63. 28:01

    That's why. Because in winter time our position in relation to the sun is different than in the summertime. Because when you're down in the tropics your relationship to the sun is different when you're in the northern sand.

64. 28:17

    There's no variableness, neither shadow of turning in the sun, but it seems like it because of the very position in which we've placed ourselves in relation to the sun. And that's the same with Almighty God. There's no change in here. No shadow of turning. But sometimes we put ourselves in the darkness. Sometimes we close God off from us.

65. 28:42

    And it seems to us as though the light is going out and it's cold and bleak and miserable and God is not with us. But that's not God. That's us. And that's what we must learn in these relationships. You know, in the third chapter of Colossians, the Apostle Paul says in relation to these things, he says in relation to these things in the third chapter of Colossians, If ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.

66. 29:17

    He says, elevate yourself into the heavens at the right hand of God. Consider and see the Lord Jesus Christ at the right hand of God and seek those things. Lift your mind up above the earthy things and seek those heavenly things and try to come into the presence of God. Now that is what the angelic ministrations mean to us.

67. 29:41

    We can come into the presence of God. We can do it by the power of prayer. We can do it by the reading of the word. When we read that word and we concentrate upon that word, God is speaking to us. When we engage in prayer to the Father, we're speaking to God.

68. 29:58

    Now true friendship has a mutual interchange of thought and words. So we've got to listen to God and speak to God. We've got to do both those things, you see. And because we are finite, we've got to try to bring God into our lives. I believe this can be done. You know, in the tabernacle, as Brother Watts illustrates in his model, there was the shining light, that's all.

69. 30:25

    There was the Shekinah light, and that Shekinah light was the symbol of deity. And they remembered the Shekinah light. They knew that they could not picture deity in their mind. So they had that shining light, the Shekinah light. And sometimes, you know, you need aids to that end. When you engage in prayer, speak personally to God.

70. 30:45

    As though he's in that room, speak to him in that way. I mean, of course, in private, individual prayer. I'm not talking about communal prayer. But speak to him as though he's there. Father and friend, what did we see this morning? Father and friend. How did I address my father? How do I address a friend?

71. 31:04

    Father and friend, and that is how he has revealed to us. Seek those things that are above, because he can help us. Many years ago, I'd been invited by an ecclesia that was in trouble. There had been a bit of a division in this ecclesia, and they wanted me to go over there and try to help them in this problem.

72. 31:23

    I went over to that ecclesia, and I stored both parties in this particular trouble. One party, obviously, was right in their knowledge, but wrong in their attitude. The other was wrong in their knowledge and wrong in their attitude. And it was that grouping that I went first to see, ultimately. And they were very, very difficult to handle.

73. 31:47

    And we were discussing the matter to them, but they would not listen to reason. They stood up, and they were threatening, and they were very, very bombastic, and very, very derogatory, both of me and a lot of other brethren as well. And I will well remember this happening. I will remember one, as I was sitting down there, one man coming up, and he's threatening me, he's talking like this in a frightful way.

74. 32:12

    And you know, I felt so bad about that. I realised it was hopeless. The whole case was hopeless. I thought I've wasted my time. And he's talking to me, and you know, I didn't hear what he's saying. It was useless. I didn't care what he said. I couldn't answer what he was talking about.

75. 32:31

    I was sitting down, and I thought to myself, I can do nothing about this. This is out of my hands. I put it in the hands of God. I gave a prayer at that particular time, and I spoke in that fashion, as far as the Father was concerned, and I said, I can do nothing about this matter.

76. 32:48

    It's out of my control. I can do nothing. And I leave it in the hands of God, whatever might happen. Amazingly, incredibly, before I left that place, they had changed, and nothing I said had changed them. Whether they felt they'd gone too far and retraced their steps or not, I don't know. I believe that's angelic ministration.

77. 33:12

    I believe in this happening in a very concrete way. I'll give you another example. There was a boy. He came to my home one night because he had to go up before the authorities as a conscientious objector. And in Australia, I used to represent them at court. In Australia, an Australian was able to go into court with all the prerogatives and all the privileges of a solicitor and a lawyer and to conduct the case exactly the same as they were, to question and cross-examine and protest, do anything that a lawyer would.

78. 33:48

    You sat there with the prosecuting counsel and you conducted the case in that way. And I used to have to do this quite a bit. This boy turned up to me one Sunday night. He was a very, very backward boy. He was backward in the sense that he was a little bit dull and he was very, very shy.

79. 34:08

    Very, very shy. He came in to see me. I didn't even know him, although he used to go to the meetings. But he came in to see me and I asked him what he wanted and he told me what's wanted. I said, why didn't you come in earlier? Because he's got to go up Wednesday night before the case and his Sunday night.

80. 34:26

    Why didn't you come earlier? And he burst into crying. So I said, well, you better come in and I start to examine him. He couldn't answer a thing. He absolutely knew nothing. He wasn't baptized, which was a condition of exemption at that time. And he knew nothing about the Bible and I was very worried about this.

81. 34:47

    We were able to get the case adjourned for a while as I was going away and I got my son Graham to go and tell them that I was away and I'm representing him and the case was adjourned. When I came back he'd come every week a couple of nights and we'd go over the truth until you know, I could see behind the facade of that voice and we came to feel it a privilege to be able to speak to him on the truth.

82. 35:15

    So we tried to teach him something about the conscientious eviction and so forth. And the day came that we went to court and there's about 25 Christadelphians in the court to hear this case. It's very dramatic and like Rome, you know, when they have the lions they seem to like to come and look at what was going to go on.

83. 35:33

    The man just for the prosecuting council was never been on this case before and he came to me and he told me this and I said well look just in this particular case this boy is not very shy, you will have to be very very careful in the questionings if you want an answer.

84. 35:47

    Oh he said you want me to go light on him do you? I said not at all. I'm fully confident of the boy but if you want answers you'll have to give it in basic English. Alright. The magistrate came in, he'd never had a conscientious objective case either. So the only one with experience in the court was myself.

85. 36:05

    I loaned the magistrate incidentally, I loaned him my procedure, court procedure and he thanked me very much. And you see this is happening. Now the case commences and the case commences and I questioned the boy and in my questioning I made it obvious that this boy had in fact been a little bit backward, never took his exams, never did much good for himself and here he is in court and so forth and I rested my case.

86. 36:38

    The prosecuting counsel got up and he started to question the boy as well. Oh no, before I sat down the magistrate interrupted me, he says just a moment. He turned to the boy and he said, why didn't you take your exams? The boy didn't know. He said, did you try to learn? Yes, he did try to learn.

87. 36:57

    Did you forget these things? Yes. Well, that's so. You can only use the materials God's given you. Get on with the case. That was very good. And the prosecuting counsel saw this. And he thought, well, the magistrate's in favour of it. I know little about the case. I must now help the boy.

88. 37:21

    So he starts to question the boy. And he says, first of all to the boy, what do you do Saturday? Oh, he went out distributing literature. What pleasure do you have? Well, pleasure is mostly at the meeting. Do you swear much? Not at all. Do you drink at all? No, never. Is it a law of your community that you should not drink?

89. 37:39

    Yes, it is. Well, he said, perhaps you could quote your statement of faith to that effect because we bring that into court. What law is it in? The boy didn't remember. Now, never mind about the boy being back when I was trying to think, how am I going to get a nap of this?

90. 37:59

    I'm beginning to sweat. And you can feel the tension building up. And the magistrate comes in to help the boy. He says, look, how can you expect him to remember every law? Give him the statement of faith. Give it to him and he'll look it up for you.

91. 38:16

    They gave him the statement of faith. And he started, you see, page one, page two, page three, and I'm scribbling down now. How can I get out of this? What can I possibly do? And all of a sudden, course 34, what's it say? Be sober. Sober.

92. 38:37

    So with that I got up and I said, if I please you are not like to put a witness in the box and I'd like this boy to be removed. I'm not supposed to do that. He said, what for? I said, well, the act requires collaborative evidence and I'm going to give that correct collaborative evidence.

93. 38:53

    He said, I don't need that. I think it's quite genuine. The prosecutor got up, I said, I'm convinced he is your honour. That, I believe, was angelic ministration. I had nothing at all to do with that.

94. 39:12

    And the full drama of it, I have not expressed this morning. And it made a tremendous impact upon me. And now let me tell you a different case. Because there was another boy later came up. And this boy was a bright boy. And he knew all about the Bible. And he knew how to express himself.

95. 39:32

    And I knew he knew how to express himself. We never had our meetings. We didn't have our prayer meeting. We didn't prevail on that. We're too busy to do it. We go into that court and he was a standing disgrace. And the registrate says, look, I know Mr. Mansfield, he said, and I am very reluctant, he said, to throw out any of his cases.

96. 39:53

    In this case, I'm going to adjourn the case so that the boy can go away and study his Bible. And I held my head in shame. Because, you see, in case number one, we're drawn upon the power of God and it was evident in the court. In case number two, we had never done so.

97. 40:12

    And that was evident in court. And both the success and the disgrace has faded from the minds of those particularly concerned. But it's not faded from my mind. And I can feel now as I speak to you, the disgrace of that case, as I felt the elation of the other case. And I felt in both instances there was the power of God to help us.

98. 40:34

    And angelic ministrations are there in a very real way to help us in the things of God. Let me quote to you two more passages of scripture and then unfortunately time has got away from me and we'll have to continue this session tomorrow, God's willing. In the 54th chapter of Isaiah and verse 17 is your heritage, your heritage, no weapon that has formed against thee shall prosper and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn.

99. 41:05

    This is the heritage of the servants of Yahweh and their righteousness is of me, says Yahweh. There is your heritage. Isaiah chapter 54 and verse 17. And now I'm going to give you another passage of scripture which has meant a lot to me personally and I think that this is your assurance and that is in Isaiah chapter 50 and at verse 10.

100. 41:28

     And there we read these beautiful words. Who is among you that feareth Yahweh, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness and hath no light? When the darkness of depression comes over one, when the future looks foreboding and evil, when there seems no way out of a circumstance in which one has been brought.

101. 41:56

     I've gone through the valley of the shadow of death like that brethren and sisters and felt the power of it. I felt things crushing down upon me that I cannot extricate and I know not what to do and you just have to wait under circumstances like that. There is darkness and no light.

102. 42:18

     Let him trust in the name of Yahweh and stay upon his God. There's the answer. And under those circumstances of difficulty and trial we will learn that we do not do that in vain. We will learn of the power of the great in-create and our minds will go back to lonely Jacob, fearful and afraid as he's in that lonely darkness and the dark and the night is coming upon him and he knows not where to turn and the city of Lazarus closed against him and he's out in that wilderness and he lays him down on the hard bed of the rock and he sees the vision of the angels ascending and descending and we can feel the same.

103. 43:05

     well on your behalf then sisters I'd like to thank our brother Mansfield for the way in which he dealt with this theme of angelic ministration in the life of believers and we have a few minutes for any questions or comments. yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes two. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Well, many have done that in the past, and he's now

104. 44:15

     drawing upon that past experience. For example, Abraham entertained angels, though Abraham and Sarah did not know them as angels at first. Lot likewise entertained angels, though Lot did not understand them to be angels at the first. There was Gideon likewise, and also Manoah the father of Samson. All of these entertained strangers, and they proved to be angels. Now, of course, there's the basis upon which the Apostle, I believe, is making his observation here. But in a measure, we can do the same thing.

105. 44:51

     Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. And in a sense, when a person was on a work of God, he becomes, as it were, a messenger of God. And the term angel can be used in that relationship. There were many, the word has been rendered in the Scriptures, not merely for immortal angels, but for mortal messengers of God as well, who were sent forth by Paul, for example, on their work. And so he is saying, be not forgetful to entertain strangers, because some have entertained angels unawares, and they've received a tremendous blessing from so doing. We know the case of Abraham, we know the case of Lot, of Gideon, and Manoah. They all experienced the blessing from doing this work to those angels whom they entertained, not knowing that they were angels, nor consciously entertaining them, that they might receive a reward. But they received a reward.

106. 45:50

     And so with the work of those that were appointed as apostles in those days to go forth in the ministration of the truth, they were the messengers of Yahweh at that time, and it was important for people to recognize that, to entertain, not desiring a reward, but to do so that they may attain that reward that was given those who afterwards learned that they had entertained these angels.

107. 46:16

     going forward to the Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe Fe the stranger, the angel, that we've all been staying unawares when the call comes. I know Berenice Mahal is much younger than I am now, used to suggest that possibly it could be one of the dead who's been raised to immortality, if it's a call to the Christian of judgment.

108. 47:07

     But in any case it will be a powerful one, will it not? And I think it doesn't just help us. We appreciate the fact that there's one time in our life, saying here we believe there will be the call, and it will either come by or who the immortalised state, or who the angel, or the other half of the family. And therefore I've got to be all just to be sure that we are prepared and ready to change the one, which may be the good for us.

109. 47:44

     There is no doubt about it in my mind that the angels will be used as a means of gathering us to the judgment seat of Christ. And therefore we should be ready to receive them whenever they may appear on that mission. And of course these words can be applied in that way. But I don't think we limit it to that way, and I'm sure that brother does not mean it to be limited to the angel that may induct us to the judgment seat, because of course this was written for saints in every age. And those saints have had angels and they've ministered unto them in this regard, but they've helped people because they have been on the work of the Lord. And therefore, in doing that, in a sense, though they have not consciously thought about it in that way perhaps, they have at least entertained angels unawares of the very significance of this as it would be seen from heaven above. But of course I do believe that we will be inducted to the judgment seat of Christ by the angels, because we are told specifically that they will be sent out and that people will be gathered to the Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore we need to be ready to entertain them in that relationship, need to be ready to meet them, that we might be taken to the judgment seat in that way.