Revelation chapter 11. Let's
read a few verses in chapter 11 and begin in verse 3. Tonight our study is concerning
these two witnesses, my two witnesses, the way our Lord Jesus identifies
them. Let's read it in verse 3. And
I will give power unto my two witnesses And they shall prophesy
a thousand, two hundred, and sixty days clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees
and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.
And if any man will hurt them, fire proceeds out of their mouth,
and devoureth their enemies. And if any man will hurt them,
he must in this manner be killed. These have power to shut up heaven,
that it rain not in the days of their prophecy, and have power
over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all
plagues as often as they will. When they shall have finished
their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless
pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and
kill them. And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the
city, which spiritually is called Sodom, in Egypt, where also our
Lord was crucified. And they of the people, and kindreds,
and tongues, and nations, shall see their dead bodies three days
and a half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in
graves. They that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over
them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another. because
these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.
And after three days and a half, the Spirit of life from God entered
unto them, and they stood upon their feet, and great fear fell
upon them which saw them. And they heard a great voice
from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended
up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies beheld them. The two witnesses, and they're
somewhat famous, there's been a lot of messages preached, a
lot of articles written and probably books written on these two witnesses
themselves. And we're told here in our text
that they prophesied 1260 days, 42 months, they prophesied. And the word prophesy sometimes
in the scripture means simply to foretell. The prophets foretold
a lot of the future events. But sometimes it just means to
preach, to preach the gospel, to preach the word of God, to
speak under inspiration of the Holy Spirit and so on. They did
this for, he said, 42 months and 1260 days. Another place
said three and a half years. And here in verses 6 and 7, we'll
look at this just a minute, but it seemed like they had some
special powers. They could devour their enemies,
bring plagues upon the earth, stop rain from falling down from
the skies. And verse 7 tells us that they
have a specific time to bear witness, 1260 days. And when that time is finished,
the beast out of the pit of hell will make war against them and
only with God's permission would he be able to overcome them and
in some way or another kill them. And we're told here in our text
for three and a half days their dead bodies lay in the streets
of that great city and I think that's the whole world is going
to see this. The whole world is going to enjoy
it. I think we're told that there in verse 9, all the nations shall
see him. This isn't one locality where
these two witnesses died. The whole world sees it. And
they were dead for three and a half days. Thank God it was
no longer. And we're told here that the
spirit of life from God entered into them. And when it did, they
stood up on their feet. And they heard a voice from heaven
saying, come up here. And they were received up into
heaven in a cloud. And their enemies saw them. Now
we've got one more lesson on this, and we'll look at that.
And if that is speaking, which it very well could be, of the
resurrection of the saints, this is the last trumpet, the seventh
trumpet. Paul said, when the last trumpet
shall sound, the dead in Christ shall rise. And if that's so,
if this is the physical resurrection, Then it's not secret, is it?
Because when the Lord said, Come up here, there, the enemy saw
them go up, and great fear and dread filled their hearts. It seems plain that the one who
introduced these two witnesses here is the Lord Jesus Christ,
because He said in verse 3, I will give power unto my two witnesses. They're His witnesses. He's the
one that's speaking. We looked at Him, this mighty
angel, in chapter 10, in verses 1, 2, and 3. He'd come down from
heaven. He was clothed with a cloud.
He had a rainbow upon His head. And His face was like the sun,
shining in His strength. Now, who would that be but Jesus
Christ? It has to be Him. And He says about these two witnesses
that they're My witnesses. They belong to Him. They belong
to Him by election. The Father gave these witnesses
to Him. He bought them with His blood.
He purchased them. They're His by calling. They're
His by choice. His choice and their choice.
Somebody said, did you choose Christ? I choose Him every day,
don't you? I choose Him. I choose His ways every day. But I never chose Him until He
called me. I call upon Him, but not till
He call me. I believe on Him, but not till
He give me grace to do so. The witnesses are His. He commissioned
them to do what they do. They shall prophesy. That's what
He commissioned them to do. He gave them power to do it.
I will give power unto my two witnesses. That's how they witness,
by His power. And the length of time that they're
to prophesy, He's already determined, 1260 days they shall prophesy. Even the clothes they wear, He's
already chose that too. They shall prophesy in sackcloth. Now, who are these two witnesses?
Boy, I tell you, as you read the commentaries, they range
from everything and everybody. from the Old and New Testament
to literal prophets like Enoch and Elijah. Now, there is a sense
in which the Old Testament and the New Testament are witnesses
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says that plainly, doesn't
he? Search the scriptures. For these are they that testify
or bear witness of me." From Moses all the way through Malachi,
all the prophets and all the Psalms spoke of him. It bears witness of him. And
when you come to the New Testament, it's a Christ-centered book. It's all about him and his work. So it's easy to see where some
people would say the Old and New Testament are the two witnesses. But it's difficult to see the
Old and New Testament dying and being resurrected and ascended
up to heaven in everybody's sight. It's just difficult to see that,
isn't it? There is a sense in which that could be true, but
I don't think the Old and New Testament is the witnesses that
our Lord Jesus was talking about. Others believe that this is two
literal prophets, and their names will probably be, and their persons
will probably be, Enoch and Elijah. And these were great prophets,
weren't they? And some people believe that's who this will
be, literally Enoch and literally Elijah, because these two prophets
lived in the day of great apostasy. They stood against the apostasy
in their time. Enoch lived just before the flood,
and that's when a great falling away took place, and he prophesied
of the coming of the Lord. Elijah lived in a day, you remember
Elijah's day, he lived in the day of Ahab, the king Ahab and
Jezebel, and that was a wicked generation that that man lived
in. Remember the 450 prophets of Baal that Jezebel had? That
was a lot of prophets for a little lamb like Israel, wasn't it?
And he said, Lord, I'm left alone. Ain't nobody left but me. Well,
that wasn't true. But I tell you this much, that
was a great falling away in his day. So I see where people could
come here and say, this must be Enoch and it must be Elijah. And these are the only two people
in the Old Testament that never died. Enoch walked with God,
and he was not, for God took him. And before his translation,
he had this testimony that he pleased God. He went to heaven
and never died. He went to heaven, and sometime
when he left this earth until he entered heaven, he was glorified.
His body was transfigured. He has a new body. And the same
thing happened with Elijah. Remember when he was translated? A chariot of fire come down and
swept him up? And Elijah, His brother saw it. And neither one of these men
died. And some people say they're coming
back to this earth in a physical body and going to suffer and
die for their testimony. Now, I can't see that. I can't
see that. I can't see the Lord sending two men that
are in heaven glorified with Him. back down to earth in corruptible
bodies to suffer and die again. I just can't see that, can you? Some people said, and they quote
Malachi chapter 4 and verse 4 and 5, and I want you to turn over
there. I want you to get your Bibles out and get your fingers
and hands ready because I want you to turn to several scriptures.
Look in Malachi. It's the very last book in the
Old Testament. And just before he closed this
book, he told them that Elijah was coming. You that have read
this, remember this. Look in Malachi chapter 4. It's
the very last book in the Old Testament, just before you get
to Matthew. In chapter 4 and verse 5. Behold, I will send
you Elijah the prophet. before the coming of the great
and dreadful day of the Lord, and he shall turn the heart of
the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children
to the fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse."
And some people who believe that Elijah is one of these witnesses,
they use this scripture. They said Elijah is coming before
the great and dreadful day of the Lord. But I want you to turn
with me to Matthew. chapter 17. Matthew chapter 17. While you're turning there, I
want to read another passage in Matthew 11. But you turn to
Matthew chapter 17 and hold verse 10 for just a second. Let me read you Matthew chapter
11 and verse 12. And from the days of John the
Baptist until now, The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and
the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the
law prophesied until John, and if you will receive it, this
is Elijah which was to come. He said John the Baptist was
Elijah, not literally, but in a spiritual sense. He makes it
a little bit clearer in chapter 17 of Matthew, and look in verse
10. This is where the Lord Jesus
had been transfigured. And remember the two men who
came down from heaven and talked with Him? Moses and Elijah. And then here in verse 10, they
ask Him about Elijah. In verse 10, and His disciples
ask Him, saying, why then say the scribes, that Elijah must
first come? And Jesus answered and said unto
them, Elijah must truly come first, and restore all things.
But I say unto you, that Elijah is come already. And they knew
him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they would, or listed.
Likewise shall they also do. The Son of Man shall suffer of
them. Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John
the Baptist. So Malachi said, Elijah's coming.
And the Lord said he did come. He did come. Spiritually speaking,
in the power of John the Baptist. So that would sort of eliminate,
in a sense, would it not, that one of our witnesses is Elijah
because Malachi said he would come? He's already come, hasn't
he? He's already come. I guess you could pick out any
of the prophets. Man, all of them lived in some
tough times. You could pick out Noah and Moses
and say these are two witnesses of Noah and Moses. You could
say Isaiah and Jeremiah. Pick out any of the prophets
you wanted to. Or you could say the Lord's able to raise up two
new prophets in the last days and there'll be two individuals
that will suffer and die. But I don't think, it's not my
understanding that Our text is speaking of two literal individuals. It's my understanding that these
two witnesses are the church and her ministers. These two
witnesses is the church and her ministers. And I think we have
to interpret scripture by scripture. And that's what I want to show
you tonight. There's so many places and I've looked at all
of them. where the word witness or witnesses or witnesses is
mentioned. Every last one I looked at them.
None of them pointed to two literal people. Most of the time they
pointed to the church and its ministers. Now I want to show
you that. I want you to take your Bible
and look quickly. I want you to look at Luke's Gospel, Chapter
24. Luke's Gospel, Chapter 24. This
is after the resurrection of our Lord Jesus. And look what
he says in verse 46. He's ready to go back to heaven,
leaving his apostles and his disciples. And in Luke chapter
24, verse 46, And he said unto them, Thus it is written, and
thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the
third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should
be preached in his name, among all nations, all over the world. Go into all the world and preach
the gospel to every creature and begin at Jerusalem. And verse
48, And you are witnesses of these things. Who here was the
witness? Well, mainly the apostles of
the Lord, but the disciples of the Lord and His church. Look
on in in Acts chapter 1 and look in verse 8. Acts chapter 1 and
verse 8. I could have wrote these down
and quoted them to you, but you would have forgotten them or
something. So I want you to look at them
so when you wonder who these witnesses are, we'll give you
a foundation here to hopefully bring your understanding to know
who they are. Look in Acts chapter 1 and look on verse 7. They ask Him when the kingdom
was going to be restored to Israel. It's not for you to know the
times of the season, He said. The Father has put in His own
power. But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is
come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem,
and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of
the earth." Now, here's where the apostles, the church, went
all over the world, and it witnessed to the person of Jesus Christ,
what he had accomplished on the cross, and they demanded men
everywhere repent and believe the gospel. That's what they
witnessed. And then in chapter 1 and verse
22, you see it again when they chose another apostle. Beginning
from the baptism of John until that same hour that he was taken
up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of His
resurrection. Now look over in chapter 2 and
verse 32. This Jesus hath God raised up,
wherefore we are all witnesses. Look in chapter 3 and verse 14. But you denied the Holy One and
the just, And it is art a murder to be granted unto you, and you
kill the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead,
whereof we are witnesses." Look in chapter 5 and verse 32. Look in chapter 5 and verse 30. The God of our fathers raised
up Jesus, whom He slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted
with His right hand to be a Prince and a Savior. For to give repentance
to Israel and forgiveness of sins, and we are His witnesses
of these things, and so also is the Holy Ghost whom God hath
given to them that obey Him." Look in chapter 10. I don't want
to bore you with all these scriptures. I just want you to see that time
and time again, the Holy Spirit uses this same word to identify
who the witnesses are. Look at chapter 10, verse 38.
This is still Peter preaching. How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth
with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about doing good,
and healed all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with
him. And we are witnesses of all things which ye did both
in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom ye slew and hanged
on a tree." Now look in chapter 22. I'm just hitting some high
places. If you want to get your concordance
and look, you can find even more than this. Look in chapter 22
and look in verse 14. This is where Paul is speaking.
And he said, verse 14, The God of our fathers has chosen thee
that thou shouldest know his will and see that just one and
shouldest hear the voice of his mouth. For thou shalt be his
witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard. Now look in chapter 26, one more
verse, in verse 22. Look in chapter 26 and look in
verse 22. Here Paul preaching again. Having
therefore obtained help of God, I continue to this day witnessing
both to small and great, saying none other things than those
which the prophets and Moses said should come. That is, that
Christ should suffer and be the first to rise from the dead.
So who are the witnesses? Well, we looked at mostly the
ministers of the gospel, didn't we? They're witnesses. And the church. the members of
Christ's body, believers, all believers, they're witnesses
of the Word of God, the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen
to how Paul said it to the Thessalonican church in Thessalonica 1. He
said, from you, from you believers, from you Christians, sounded
out the Word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia,
But in all places where your faith to God's Word is spread
abroad so that we need not to say anything." Paul said, you're
witnessing to everybody. What you say and how you live
your life is a witness, a testimony to the Lord Jesus Christ and
His saving work and power. Listen to how he told the Philippian
church. Do all things without murmuring and disputing, that
you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke,
in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom you
shine as lights in the world." Holding forth the Word of Life. What does the Church do? What
has the Church been doing for the last 2,000 years? Holding
forth the Word of Life. That's what we tell people, isn't
it? When we get a chance to talk to our neighbors, when we get
a chance to witness to our families or talk to our children, we hold
forth the word of life. We're witnesses. Here's what
the Lord Jesus Christ said. You are the light of the world.
He says that to his church. A city that is set on a hill
cannot be hid. And then don't light a candle,
he said, and put it under a bushel. But when you light a candle,
what do you do with it? What did he say? You put it on a candlestick. Ain't that what we're studying
about? We're studying about these two olive trees and we're studying
about the two candlesticks. They're the witnesses. And the
Lord Jesus said, when you're in me, when I give you light,
you shine. and you put it on a candlestick
and you can't be hid, that all that are in the house may see
the light. Let your light so shine before
men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father
which art in heaven. Now, this brings us here to verse
4 in our text. These two olive trees and these
two candlesticks, he said, these are the two witnesses before
the Lord. Now, as you study those scriptures
that I looked at with you in the book of Acts and the book
of Luke, just remember this. If you have to prove who the
witnesses are, there's but one place to go to prove it. And
that's the scripture. And who is it that witnesses?
It's the church and her ministers. Now, keep that in mind. Now,
who is this olive tree and who are these two candlesticks? I
thought it was strange as I looked up the two olive trees. They're
just mentioned twice in the Bible. Olive tree, the two olive trees. They're just mentioned only twice
in the Bible. Jeremiah mentioned it once, and David mentioned
it once, and both times they applied it to the church, and
mainly to the ministers of the church. Listen to David in Psalms
52.8, I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the mercy of the Lord
forever and ever. He calls himself, as a member
of Christ's body, he calls the church, a green olive tree. In Jeremiah chapter 11 verse
16, the Lord hath called thy name a green olive tree, fair
and of good fruit. So who is the green olive tree? Mainly it is the ministers of
the Lord. I want to show you, I want you to turn over to the
book of Zechariah because verse 4 is speaking of the two olive
trees and the two candlesticks. If you'll go to the book of Malachi,
the last book of the Bible, the next book to your left will be
Zechariah. If you'll turn to Zechariah chapter
4, we can look at these two olive trees and these two lamp stands. The two olive trees, let me just
give you what I'm going to say about them. They're ministers
of the churches. That's the olive trees. We'll
see that in a minute. And the candlesticks are the
churches. Now, we saw that in chapter one,
didn't we, of Revelation? John saw this vision of seven
golden candlesticks. And the Lord said, you know what
those candlesticks are? Those are the seven churches.
So let's look here just for a second in Zechariah chapter 4. Here
in verse 2, Zechariah sees this vision. Look in verse 2. And
the angel said unto him, What seest thou? And he said, I have
looked, and behold, a candlestick, that's a lampstand, made of gold,
and it had a bowl upon the top of the lampstand. And His seven
lamps thereon. He had a lampstand and then came
down and had seven bowls. And that's where they burnt the
oil in each one of those little bowls. And the seven pipes to
the seven lamps which are upon the top thereof. And the two
olive trees by it, one on the right side of the bowl and the
other upon the left side thereof. Now can you get this vision?
He sees a vision. And he sees this lampstand. And
over the top of the lampstand is this big bowl. And out of
that bowl is seven tubes coming down to each little lamp. And the oil came out of these
trees, went into the bowl, and out of the bowl down into the
lampstand and kept the lamps burning. And Zechariah didn't know what
that was. He didn't know what it meant.
And he explains it further to him in verse 11. But he changes
it just a little bit. And look at this. Then answered
I and said unto him, What are these two olive trees upon the
right side of the candlestick and upon the left side of the
candlestick? And he further answered another
question before the angel had time to ask him. He answered
again and said unto him, What be these two olive branches through
which through the two golden pipes empty their golden oil
out of themselves. And the ancient men said, knowest
thou not what these are? And I said, no, my Lord. Then
he said, these are the two anointed ones that stand before the Lord
of the whole earth. He changed this just a little
bit, though, didn't he? He went from having seven lampstands
to just Bowls are burning to just two. He said, I see these
two olive trees and the oil is coming out of the olive trees
into the big bowl and the bowl is there with all the oil and
two pipes are going down to the two candles burning. And he said,
these are the two anointed ones that stand before the God of
the whole earth. That's what's said about our witnesses, wasn't
it? The two witnesses that stand before the God of the whole earth. What are these? These are the
church and their ministry. We experience this all the time.
Do you ever come to service and you're feeling somewhat down?
Are you feeling discouraged? Or you needed light on something. You had questions on something.
And the preacher got up to preach. And it just perfectly met your
need. Have you ever experienced that?
That's what these two olive trees are. They're ministers of the gospel.
And as they preach to the church, they feed the church. God uses
these ministers to bless the church with His grace. Peter
said to the elders in his day, feed the church of God. Feed
the flock of God, which ye have purchased with His own blood.
Take in the oversight thereof. Now listen. Listen to Ephesians. Chapter
4. When Christ ascended on high,
He gave gifts to men, to His Church. He gave some apostles,
prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers for a reason. Why do we have pastors? Why do
we have teachers? Why do we have evangelists? He
answers that for the perfecting of the saints. to help the saints
mature in their faith. For the work of the ministry,
for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in
the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God unto
a mature man, that we henceforth be no more children tossed to
and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the
sly of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. These two olive trees are the
ministers of the churches. And they pour their oil into
the church, the body of Christ. And that's what edifies the church
and strengthens the church and helps the church. And these two
olive trees and these two candlesticks are the church and their ministers.
And as the ministers preach into the church, what does the church
do? They go out and witness to the world. They bear witness
to Christ and His Word. Why is there only two of them?
Why is there two olive trees? And why is this there's two candlesticks? We're told in chapter one that
there were seven candlesticks. Why did you come down to two?
Because two represents the whole. That's the only answer I can
give you. Two represents the whole. Moses said, In the mouth
of two witnesses shall the matter be established. And the Lord
said that himself. He quoted that himself. In the
mouth of two witnesses shall every word be established. And
when he sent his disciples out, he always sent them by two, didn't
he? Never sent them by three, never sent one out. He always
sent them by two. So these two olive trees represent
all the ministers of whatever capacity they have in the church.
And these two lampstands, they represent the church themselves.
And to me, that's the two witnesses. And that will take place, has
been taking place, ever since the Lord Jesus, raised from the
dead, and told His apostles and disciples, don't you leave Jerusalem. You wait until you be endued
with power from on high, because you're going to begin right here
to witness of all that you've heard and seen of me. And it's
still going on today, isn't it? What's the church's main function
in this world today? It's not even to worship. It's not even to do good. You
know what the church's main function today is? To witness to the truth
as it is in Jesus. That's what the church has been
doing, and that's these two witnesses. Now quickly, back in verse 5,
and you can go ahead and read the fourth chapter there. It's
a very good chapter to read. I think it's very telling that
he says, when he saw the oil pouring into those lamps out
of those two branches, he said, not by power nor might, but by
my Spirit, saith the Lord. And that's what the church does,
and that's how she does it, by the Holy Spirit. What are these
special powers that we find in verse 5? Verse 5 said, If any
man will hurt these two witnesses, fire proceedeth out of their
mouth, and devoureth their enemies. And if any man will hurt them,
they must in this manner, that is, fire proceeding out of the
mouth of the witnesses and devouring their enemies. Now, to me, to
take verse 5 literally would be ridiculous. And I say that with reverence
because the Bible is not an unreasonable book. Is it? Have you found anything
unreasonable or silly about it? It's not cartoonish. To see two
men going around with fire coming out of their mouths and devouring
people, I just think that's ridiculous. I don't think that's a good interpretation
of the Scriptures. Paul said the weapons of our
warfare are not carnal, but they're mighty through God to the pulling
down of strongholds. We do pull down strongholds.
The church has authority to do a lot of things, but it's through
God. It's through the Word of God,
through the truth of God, and not physical fire coming out
of somebody's mouth and devouring their enemies. What does this
mean then? Well, let's use scripture again
to interpret scripture and turn with me to Jeremiah chapter five. Fire coming out of their mouth. Now, what does that represent
to us? Well, Jeremiah was a young man. when the Lord told him to preach. And he told the Lord that. He
said, I'm just a kid. I can't speak. And he was scared. He was very afraid of the elders,
being such a young man. And here's what the Lord told
him that he would do. Look in chapter 5 and look in
verse 14. Wherefore, thus saith the Lord
God of hosts, because you speak this word, behold, I will make
my words in your mouth fire, and this people wood, and its
shower shall devour them." Now, that's not literal fire. The
people weren't literal wood. That's in the spiritual sense,
isn't it? He said, Jeremiah, I know you're
young. I know you have difficulty speaking. I know you've got this
this attitude that you're very timid about it, but he said,
this is what I'm going to do. When you speak the word I put
in your mouth, it's going to be like a fire. And when your
enemies oppose you, it's going to devour their arguments. And that's what happened, wasn't
it? Jeremiah had all kinds of opposition. If you read that
book lately, they put him down in a pit and was going to kill
him. One man took a bunch of old rags
and tied them together. A bunch of men got him up out
of the hole that they'd put him in. And he did prophesy against
those men. They come with arguments to say,
God's not going to destroy this place. And Jeremiah would just
speak the word. And they couldn't resist it.
It was like a devouring fire to them. It says, if anybody
will hurt these two witnesses, Fire comes out of their mouths
and devours them. Now, how could you hurt these
two witnesses? How can anybody hurt the church? You can't hurt
the church by persecuting the church. Every time the world
persecuted the church, the church just grew. It's like the Jews
down in Egypt when Pharaoh made slaves out of them. The more
he afflicted them, the more they grew. Look in the book of Acts
how they grew under affliction. How would you hurt the church?
I tell you the only way you could do any real harm to the church,
prove that her testimony is false. Now that would hurt, wouldn't
it? That would really hurt. But every time somebody comes
up with an argument that you're not telling the truth, church,
She comes right back with this. Thus saith the Lord. And it's
like fire coming out of her mouth and burns up the argument and
opposition of the enemy. I was watching Oprah Winfrey
the other day. I watched everything. I watched everything. I'm telling
you. But seeing this thing, Oprah
Winfrey says there's a million ways. So I said, what did Oprah
say? So I just clicked on Oprah. And
she had an audience there, and there were some believers in
the audience. And she said, I know what some of you Christians say,
and I'm a Christian. She said, I'm a Christian, and
I know what you Christians say, that there's only one way to
God, only one way to heaven. She said, there could be a million
ways to God and a million ways to heaven. Well, if she can prove
that, then the church is done for. The church is not only hurt,
but she's killed. But do you know what one woman
said? Do you know what one woman said to her? She quoted John
chapter 14 and verse 6. I am the way. I am the truth and I am the life. No man comes to the Father except
by me. And do you know what Oprah Winfrey
said? What can you say? That word is
like a fire, isn't it? And when anybody brought opposition
to tell the church, your testimony is not true, they just went to
the Bible. There's none other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. And boy, that's fire to our enemies,
isn't it? Here in verse 6 of our text,
this is somewhat difficult for me to be honest with you. These
have power to shut up heaven, that it rain not in the days
of their prophecy. They have power over waters to
turn them to blood, smite the earth with all plagues as often
as they will. Now this literally happened.
Elijah called them fire from heaven, devoured enemies. Remember
that? Moses turned their waters to blood. and the plagues down
in Egypt. And I am not absolutely denying
verse 6 could not be somewhat literal. The church may pray
for some afflictions upon people to correct them. I think it was the sixth chapter,
we saw the souls under the altar and they were praying more to
venge our blood. on them that dwell on the earth.
So the church's prophecy, the church's prayers may bring some
of these things literally upon the world. I don't know. God
knows. But I think the best way to understand verse six is in
a spiritual sense. When we talk about rain, you
know, the Bible talks about rain and lakens it unto the doctrine
of the Lord. Listen to Deuteronomy 32. The
Lord said, My doctrine shall drop as the rain, and my speech
shall distill as the dew, and as the small rain upon the tender
herbs, and as the showers on the grass. Isaiah 55, As the
rain cometh down in the snow from heaven, and returneth not
thither, but watereth the earth, makes it bring forth in bud,
that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be. It's like the rain, it's like
the showers. It shall not return unto me void,
it shall accomplish that whereunto I sent it. When God is pleased
to bless sinners with His spiritual blessings in Christ, it's always
through the truth. Is it not? When He's going to
bless somebody and save somebody, what does He do? He opens their
heart to the truth. He never saves anybody apart
from the truth, does He? Have we found that anywhere in
the Bible? It may be a truth, a sentence
that comes and awakens the person, enlightens the person, but nobody
is saved apart from the truth. Paul said, pray for men that
God preadventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging
of the truth. Truth is like rain that comes
down from heaven. Sometimes just withholding, isn't
it? God hasn't given the truth to everybody without exception.
Do you know that? So many people are living like
the desert where the rain never falls. The doctrine of Christ,
the doctrine of the gospel never comes. But if God intends to
bless any sinner and save him, he's going to do it through the
truth. And listen, who has the truth in this world? The church. The church is the pillar and
grounds of the truth, isn't it? So we can earnestly say God don't
save any sinner apart from the witness of the church. How shall they hear without a
preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
by the Word of God. That's why when the Lord's going
to save a person, He uses a minister, He uses the church to go preach
to them, just like He did Philip, went down and preached in the
desert to that eunuch going back to Ethiopia. The church can withhold the blessings. under God. If God doesn't use
the church as His witnesses, nobody's going to be saved. How
is it possible to be saved? The Lord told His apostles, He
said, I give unto you the kingdom, the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatsoever you bind on earth
will be bound in heaven. And whatsoever you loose on earth
shall be loosed in heaven. Man, that seems like a lot of
authority, doesn't it? Does the church have that kind
of authority? It does. And I'll tell you where it gets
it. From the Word of God. If I get up here, and you as
a congregation, we leave the written Word We don't have any
authority. We're just sounding brass and
a tinkling cymbal. But when we get up here as a church and as
a minister of the gospel and say, thus saith the Lord, and
we preach the truth, we have the authority to tell no man,
you cannot be saved apart from what we're telling you. Is God going to violate that?
He never will. When we tell somebody that there
is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, man, that's
rain coming down from heaven. It's showers of blessings when
you get a hold of that. And when we tell somebody this,
being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ. Let a poor sinner get a hold
of that and believe what the church tells him. I'm telling
you, there'll just be showers of blessing coming into his soul. The desert of his heart shall
bloom like a rose. Peace with God through Jesus
Christ? By merely believing on Him? Yes,
that's a blessing. But the church can pronounce
the curse too. Do you know that? And here's
the way the church pronounces the curse. He that believeth not is condemned
already. That's withholding the reign,
isn't it? The world can't command the reign. Only God can. But He won't do it apart from
what the Church says, because He's given the message to the
Church. Two witnesses. And they're going
to speak what I tell them to speak. And I've gave them my
written word. And that's what they're going
to say. And therefore, all the blessings and all the curses
come through these two witnesses. The church and its ministry.
A million ways to be saved. A million ways to go to heaven.
I imagine, don't you imagine, that this is why the world hates
the church so bad. The world does have a man-place.
The world has got this little place back here between the eternities
that when they leave this world, it's somewhere. It's not heaven.
They're not good enough to go there, but it's not hell. They're
not bad enough to go there. So they got this little middle
ground. And when we tell them there is no such place, well,
that's tormented to me. That's what they said. These
two prophets are tormented. Paul was riding to Titus to establish
the churches there on the island of Crete, ordained ministers. And he told him how to pick them,
told him what to preach. Then he told Titus, he said,
these things speak and exhort and rebuke with all authority
that no man despise thee. And brothers and sisters, when
you pick up this book, When you turn to chapter and you turn
to verse, and you speak that, you have the authority. Because
God has called you to witness for Him. Our Father, we thank You for
the Word of God. Thank You for the written Word
that You've given us and preserved for us. Thank You for the power
that's in it. And give us grace. Make us afraid. to spew out our own opinions
or listen to others. O Lord, give us grace that we'll
truly in our heart of hearts say to the law and to the testimony.
We want the written word of God. We have nothing else to say within
the authority. Thank you for your word. Bless
this message. Bless your church. Bless your
witnesses. O God, make us good witnesses. We ask these things for Your
glory and for Your sake. Amen. Anything before we go? I've kept
you just a little bit too long.