”God’s Election of Angels”

( 1 Timothy 5:21)

Introduction: As Reformed Christians, we often think about God’s

sovereignty over the destiny of all men, whom He has made in His
image, but we seldom ever think about His predestination of angels.
God, in eternity, did most sovereignly determine the events and
outcomes of all the decisions of all of His creatures, both
rational and non-rational, according to His infinite knowledge and
wisdom, for His own glory. A non-rational creature is obviously
one which does not have the power to think, such as a rock, a
plant, and various kinds of insects and animals. Rational
creatures are those which have the power of thought. They can
reason. They have the ability to contemplate their own existence;
they know that they are. They also have the ability to make moral
decisions, something which no animal can do.
It is obvious that man falls into this latter category. Man is
a rational being; he is a thinking creature. But men are not the
only rational creatures which the Creator has made; He also made
angels. But they are different than man. Angels are spiritual
rather than physical beings. They are superior to man in
knowledge, strength and power. They are however like man in that
they have the ability to choose between good and evil, and the
Bible tells us that they in fact made a moral choice in time which
resulted in the fall of some, and the confirmation in righteousness
of others. The Bible tells us that another similarity between men
and angels is that their eternal destiny was determined in eternity
by God’s decree. And what I want you to see this evening is that,

God has predestined some of His angels to everlasting bliss

and some to everlasting destruction, according to His sovereign
good pleasure.

I. God Decided What He would Do with His Angels in Eternity for

the Glory of His Name.
A. God Is Sovereign Over the Destinies of All of His Creatures.
1. We have seen that all of God’s decisions are eternal
dec i si ons .
a. God knew all that could possibly be known from
eternity.
(il God’s knowledge is perfect.
(iil He knows all things that are and all things
that could possibly be, at the same moment.

b. And God combined His perfect knowledge with His

perfect wisdom in order to ordain whatsoever comes
to pass for His glory.
(il God’s perfect wisdom is His ability to take
His perfect knowledge and use it to make the
most perfect plan.
(iil The result is that God has rendered certain
everything that would take place in His
decree.
(iiil And what has been pointed out on numerous
 2

occasions is that God ordained all as He did

in order that He might make known His glory
in the greates way possible.
Is this the best of all possible worlds?
Men in trying to alleviate the problem of
the existence of evil say that it is;
that this is the best world which God
could have made.
From a man-centered perspective, we could
imagine a better world, one free of
catastrophe, disease, death, and all
moral evil.
But from a God-centered perspective, God
ordained all that He has in order that He
might manifest the greatness of His glory.
God ordained things as He did in order
that He might most fully display it.
This is the best of all possible worlds,
if it were not, He would have ordained it
otherwise.

2. In His Eternal Counsels, For His Own Glory, He Determined

the Outcome of All of His Creatures.
a. He determined the destiny of all men.
(il We saw this two weeks ago.
(iil God sovereignly chooses whom He will have mercy
on and whom He will not.

b. And the destiny of the world and its inhabitants.

(il God has also predestined what He will do with
the universe He has made, along with the earth
and all of its creatures.
(iil It too shall be released from its bondage to
sin in the final day.
(iiil ”FOR THE ANXIOUS LONGING OF THE CREATION WAITS
EAGERLY FOR THE REVEALING OF THE SONS OF GOD.
FOR THE CREATION WAS SUBJECTED TO FUTILITY,
NOT OF ITS OWN WILL, BUT BECAUSE OF HIM WHO
SUBJECTED IT, IN HOPE THAT THE CREATION ITSELF
ALSO WILL BE SET FREE FROM ITS CORRUPTION INTO
THE FREEDOM OF THE GLORY OF THE CHILDREN OF
GOD” (Rom. 8:19-211.

B. But Also Included in God’s Eternal Decree Was the Election of

Some of His Angels to Be Confirmed in Holiness, and Some to
Fall from Their Holy State.
1 . God did not just determine in general to confirm the
angels which remained holy and to reject those which
did not, for this is not the Biblical meaning of
predestination.
a. The situation for the angels is the same as it was
with man.
b. God does not look forward and see what the angels
are going to do and then choose those who remain
faithful to Him.
c. This would then not be God’s choice, but merely God’s
 3

reaction to His creature’s choice, which is not

biblical.

2. Rather, He determined, for His own good pleasure, to

give some of His angels a special grace of perseverance
and to withhold it from others.
a. He gave all of His angels, when He created them,
the power to remain holy.
(il Even as God gave Adam a law and the power to
fulfill it, so He did with the angels.
(iil He did not command them to do something which
they couldn’t do, but which they could.
(a) Man in the garden had the ability to keep
God’s commandment as we1 1.
(bl But now that he is fallen, he does not
have that ability.
(cl But that is man’s fault and not God’s.

b. But to His elect angels He gave this special grace

so that they wouldn’t fall in the rebellion.
(il When God chose the elect angels, He did not
contemplate them as fallen, but as unfallen.
(iil When God chose those whom He would save from
Adam’s race, He contemplated them as fallen.
(iiil But when it comes to the angels, we know that
they are not represented in Scripture as
falling into sin and then being redeemed.
(ivl Rather, the angels which fell, fell irrepairably,
and those which didn’t were confirmed eternally.
(vl And this is all due to God’s gracious choice.

3. And so God decided what he would do with his angels in

eternity for the glory of his name.

11. And God Placed the Angels Under a Probation, Even as He Did Man,
and Sentenced Each of Them According to Their Deeds.
A. The Angels Were Placed Under a Probation the Same as Man.
1 . All were created good, but some fell by their own
volition.
a. God did not create any of His angels as evil.
(il Everything that God made was good, ”AND GOD
SAW ALL THAT HE HAD MADE, AND BEHOLD, IT WAS
VERY GOOD. AND THERE WAS EVENING AND THERE
WAS MORNING, THE SIXTH DAY’’ (Gen. 1:31 1.
(iil At the end of those six creation days, God had
made all that He made, including the angels.
(iiil And God pronounced His divine benediction upon
His creation, saying that it was good, that is,
that there was no imperfection in it.
(ivl And so God did not make the angels evil.

b. Rather, those who fell did so by their own

volition, according to their own choice.
(il God ordained all that comes to pass in time,
but He does so in such as way as to not
violate the will of His creatures.
 4

(a) When you break the law of God, you know

the Bible says that God had ordained that
you would.
(bl And yet you also know that He did not coerce
you, that is, He did not force you to sin.
(cl But you sinned only because you wanted to.
(dl Therefore you have only yourself to blame.

(iil And so it was with the angels, God did not

force them to sin, but gave them the power to
resist sin, which some exercised and others did
not.
(iiil But this is ultimately rooted in God's decree,
He kept some from sinning and left others to
the consequences of their sin.
(ivl But what exactly was that sin?

2. Some believe that the angels fell through sexual

immorality. (see Gen. 6).
a. It is thought that some of the angels cohabited
with women, and the women bore them children.
(il On this view, the angels, or "the sons of God,''
were tempted to lie with human women, or
"the daughters of men" [Gen. 6:1-41.
(iil The result was that giants were born to them,
called the "Nephilim," who were might men, men
of renown.

b. But this is really a mistaken view of the "sons of

99
God.
(il These could not have been angels because
angels do not have the power of procreation in
Scripture.
(iil It is said of those who are resurrected, "THEY
NEITHER MARRY, NOR ARE GIVEN IN MARRIAGE, BUT
ARE LIKE ANGELS IN HEAVEN" [Matt. 22:301.
(iiil It may then be argued that the angels possessed
men who then went to the women.
(ivl But there is no indication in Scripture that
this in fact happened.
(Vl The problem with this view for our purposes is
that the angels were already fallen, because
Scripture indicates that they fell with Satan.
He is represented in Scripture as taking a third
of the angels with him in his fall, "AND ANOTHER
SIGN APPEARED IN HEAVEN: AND BEHOLD, A GREAT RED
DRAGON HAVING SEVEN HEADS AND TEN HORNS, AND ON
HIS HEADS WERE SEVEN DIADEMS. AND HIS TAIL SWEPT
AWAY A THIRD OF THE STARS OF HEAVEN, AND THREW
THEM TO THE EARTH" [Rev. 12:3-41.
(vi1 And Satan, when he tempted Eve in the garden, was
already fa1len.
(viil And if the angels were already fallen as well,
this would not have been the occasion of their
fall.
 5

(viiil It is better to see this episode as dynastic

kings who have taken to themselves harems and had
children who were also mighty princes.
(ixl The reason being that this act brought judgment
upon men and not upon the angels.

3. Others believe that the angels fell for the same reason
that Lucifer, the star of the morning, fell, namely pride.
a. It could be that they wanted to follow Lucifer in
His rebel1ion.
(il As was quoted from Rev. 12, the dragon took a
third of the stars with him.
(iil When Lucifer purposed to exalt his throne above
that of Jehovah, he was cast to the earth and a
third of the angels with him [Isa. 14: 12-20).

b. Or it could be that they rejected the reason for

their creation.
(il The author to the Hebrews tells us concerning
angels, "ARE THEY NOT ALL MINISTERING SPIRITS,
SENT OUT TO RENDER SERVICE FOR THE SAKE OF
THOSE WHO INHERIT SALVATION? [ 1 : 1 4 ) .
(iil It could be that some of the angels, who were
created superior to man, and for the purpose of
serving man, were not willing to submit to God's
plan for them because of pride, and along with
Lucifer rebelled.
(iiil They did not want to stoop so low as to serve an
inferior being.
(ivl This is another possibility derived from the
Biblical facts.
(Vl But the point is that there was something
which the fallen angels failed to do, which
the elect angels overcame.

B. As a Result of Their Probation, The Angels Were Sentenced

on an Individual Basis to the Glory &God.
1 . M a n was given a representative in the garden.
a. God gave man the perfect representative in Adam.
b. And in the garden, he represented all of mankind,
and all of mankind fell in his first transgression.

2. But the angels were judged on an individual basis.

a. There was no angelic Adam.
b. Those which remained faithful were confirmed in
holiness and happiness.
C. Those which fell were condemned to everlasting
destruction.

3. And all these things were ordained by God for the

demonstration of His glory.
a. God is glorified in the confirmation of the elect
angels.
(il Again the goodness of God shines forth.
(iil He could have ordained that all would be lost in
the rebellion.
 6

(iiil But instead He determined to preserve some to

minister as messengers of Christ.

b. And God is glorified in the destruction of the fallen

angels.
(il As it is with fallen man, so it is with the
fallen angels.
(iil God manifests the terrible judgments of His wrath
upon vessels prepared for wrath.
(iiil He passes over them in His mercy in order to
display the glory of His justice.
(ivl And each are judged according to their own
merits; there is no injustice, but the perfect
carriage of absolute justice.
(vl And all to the glory of God.
C. Uses.
1 . God created the angels to be ministering spirits for
the sake of you who would inherit salvation. Are you
thankful that God created these beings and commanded
them to render to you this gracious service?
a. He did not allow all of them to fall, but preserved
some.
b. These same elect angels are those who are
ministering to you in this life.
c. There is also some indication in Scripture that the
angels particularly watch over you children.
(il ”SEE THAT YOU DO NOT DESPISE ONE OF THESE
LITTLE ONES, FOR I SAY TO YOU, THAT THEIR
ANGELS IN HEAVEN CONTINUALLY BEHOLD THE FACE
OF MY FATHER WHO IS IN HEAVEN” [Matt. 18:10).
(iil You may not necessarily have a particular
angel watching over you, but the Scriptures do
say that God sends forth His angels as
ministering spirits to render service to all
who will inherit salvation.
(iiil And this includes all of God’s people, not
just the children.

d. And so God’s grace is seen in preserving these

angelic beings to advance your salvation.

2. And as you think about God’s gracious preservation of

His elect angels, does this again stir within you a
thankful heart for God’s gracious choice of you; that
He did not leave you to your sin and its consequences,
but has given you a gracious eternal inheritance?
a. We always thank those who do acts of kindness to us.
b. Why don’t we thank God more than we do for His
wonderful and gracious blessings.
c. I think as we hear these truths over and over again, it
causes us to become somewhat hardened to their value.
d. May the Lord show us again how much we are indebted
to Him for our salvation and all that we have!

3. And are you aware from the teaching of Holy Scripture

that if you reject Christ and turn aside from His
 7

commandments, that you have only yourself to blame?

a. God could not hold anyone accountable for their
sins if they were not in fact responsible for them.
b. There is no injustice with God!
c. But when we sin it is our own sin, and when we
disbelieve, it is our own disbelief.
d. If you have unbelief in your heart, you must go to
the only One who can remedy that situation! You
must turn to Christ!
e. But you can never blame God for your sin!

4. And lastly, do you realize that all that God ordains, He

has ordained for His glory and not yours? Do you realize
that you, as well as the angels, were created solely for
God’s glory?
a. Do you realize that God has not created everything
and ordained the end from the beginning simply to
give you a blessing?
b. The glory of God is the purpose He has made all
that there is.
C. He is glorified in showing mercy on undeserving
sinners like us, and He is also glorified in
sentencing others to their justly deserved wrath in
hell fire for eternity.
d. You cannot begin to see what the will of God is for
your life unless you first see your sole purpose in
life is to give Him honor and glory.
e. You exist only for the good pleasure of God, to be
pleasing to Him.
f. And when your life is pleasing to Him, He blesses
you with abundant life, but only as He is first
glorified in your life.

5. People of God, let us bow and give thanks for the

indescribable gift of God’s Son to us, and let us
worship Him forever for His mercies to us by seeking in
all of life to glorify Him! Let us pray.