26. The Kingdom Parables – The Seventh - The Parable Of The Dragnet - Part 2 Of 6 Series

26. THE KINGDOM PARABLES – THE SEVENTH - THE PARABLE OF THE DRAGNET - PART 2 of 6

Last time we were part way through verse 49 of the Parable of the Dragnet and this we will continue. We looked at what “the end of the age” means in the New Testament and this time we look at the reaping of the angels. The END OF THE AGE is so important because it fixes much of the teaching in the proper perspective. We must understand what that term means.

(CONTINUED) [D]. Verse 49 – THE SEPARATION AT THE END OF THE AGE

{{Matthew 13:49 “So it will be at the end of the age. THE ANGELS SHALL COME FORTH AND TAKE OUT THE WICKED FROM AMONG THE RIGHTEOUS,”}}

Angels have a very special ministry. One aspect of this is towards the righteous – {{Hebrews 1:14 “Are they not all MINISTERING SPIRITS sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?”}} They minister to us, for we believers will inherit salvation.

{{Psalm 91:11-12 “He will give His angels charge concerning you TO GUARD YOU IN ALL YOUR WAYS. They will bear you up in their hands lest you strike your foot against a stone.”}} Angels are our protectors and I can testify to that for the number of times an axe just swiped past my legs as if it had been pushed away, when I was doing wood chopping. It was like a miracle.

What angels did for the Lord they can do for us – {{Matthew 4:11 “Then the devil left Him, and behold, ANGELS CAME AND BEGAN TO MINISTER TO HIM.”}} Of course we also have the Holy Spirit. We are indeed blessed. Angels are the ministers of God to the saints.

HOWEVER, they have another side to their ministry. They are agents of judgement and destruction against the enemies of the Lord. Just consider this episode where the men are angels – {{Genesis 19:1 “Now the TWO ANGELS came to Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground,”}}. The angels came to Sodom for a distinct purpose. It was to destroy the stronghold of the homosexuals, but before that, they had to deliver Lot for the sake of Abraham, because I think Lot was reluctant to leave of his own accord. He was a very poor testimony.

{{Genesis 19:11 “They struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves trying to find the doorway.”}}. Angels are capable of great destruction, but in that case at that time, all they did was cause blindness to fall on the evil men.

{{Genesis 19:13 “for we are about to destroy this place because their outcry has become so great before the LORD that the LORD has sent us to destroy it.”}}. The filthiness of Sodom rose to heaven and it was to be destroyed along with the towns of the plain. It took only two angels to destroy all that. Angels are powerful.

Having established angels’ ministry, and that they are powerful, we need to know that they are agents of destruction and judgement in our Matthew verse – they come forth and take the wicked away. Look at what Paul called them – {{Hebrews 1:7 and of the angels He says, “Who makes His angels winds, and His ministers A FLAME OF FIRE,”}}. Fire is a biblical symbol of judgement, consistently so. It can also have a purifying effect as it judges away the rubbish.

When the Lord Messiah returns at the end of the Tribulation/the time of His Second Coming, all the angels come with Him as well as His Bride who is forever with the Lord. He returns to Israel but on the way He must destroy all the nations gathered against Israel in an attempt to annihilate the Jewish nation. {{Zechariah 14:2-3 “For I will gather ALL THE NATIONS against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be captured, the houses plundered, the women ravished, and half of the city exiled, but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city. Then the LORD will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle.”}}. That will be the Battle of Armageddon. See how this gathering of the nations happens - Revelation 16:12-14.

Regarding the Armageddon Battle, it is covered by Jude (who actually quotes the Book of Enoch) – {{Jude 1:14-15 About these also, Enoch in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied saying, “Behold, the Lord came with MANY THOUSANDS OF HIS HOLY ONES TO EXECUTE JUDGMENT UPON ALL, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”}}