Would you join me tonight in
the book of Revelation again? The book of Revelation, and we're
looking at a section of scripture here in the 11th chapter of the
book of Revelation. We've just about passed the halfway
point, and we've been here just a little over two years in this
book. And I, I've just really enjoyed
this time through. I enjoyed it last time through,
but this has just been a real blessing to me. And, uh, I want
to say a few things about what we said last week with regard
to versus that, uh, versus one and two, and then just say a
few things about these two witnesses. And there's much said in the
latter part of this book that is such a delight to the people
of God when they're talking about and Mike and I were visiting
this morning about the Lord God almighty. The Lord God almighty. If he was able to restrain a
wicked king from taking advantage of Abraham's wife, just think
of what he's able to do. Sometimes we lose sight of God
able to take care of down-to-earth, everyday life issues. And he
does, he did, he does, and he will continue to do so because
he is the Lord God Almighty. Now in verse one, we looked at
that a little bit last week and I was gave me something to ruminate
on to chew on over the week. And that is major Christ. Major Christ. He holds up to
all measuring sticks. He has not fallen short of the
glory of God. There was given me a reed like
unto a rod, some type of measuring instrument, and some people would
be glad to say he's measuring something to do with a temple
and an altar, and if it wasn't for the last phrase of that verse,
we'd we could say, oh, this is physical, but it's spiritual.
As so much of this book is, it's spiritual. And it says that he
was to measure them that worship therein. So whatever he is used
to measure with, he is to measure, we found out the temple of God,
and the temple of God is Christ our Lord. And there's no way
that we're able to measure Christ. Any expanse of Christ, any belief
of Christ, any thought of Christ can be more developed. I was
visiting with Donnie Bell when he was out here, and he was wondering
what some of the old writers would have to write today if
they lived today. Or would they be able to do as
much writing if they lived today as they did then? With John Gill,
if he lived today, would he be able to write comment on every
verse of the Bible. Would the other old writers,
what would they write on today if they lived today? When they
lived they had this time and they wrote and they were studious
and so forth and so on and they have spent days and years writing
their writings and we read some of them today and even after
all that they haven't come to the conclusion. of the matter,
the Lord Jesus. They haven't measured him out
yet. He's still grander and larger
than we have ever anticipated. And even those that had time
to do their study on an eight-hour day for seven days a week, it
seems like that they were doing their study, they still were
not able to come to the conclusion of, I will use the term, the
size of Christ. Now, in the next phrase there,
we find measure the altar, and that could be nothing else than
measure the salvation that God has provided for his people.
It was the altar that the sacrifice was displayed on. It was the
altar that the sacrifice was consumed on, and John was asked
to measure the altar. Well, when we think about salvation
and God's salvation and God's great salvation and his great
purpose of grace, we still, we can't put any, any size to it
because it's more enormous, it's larger than we could ever come
to a conclusion of. Even as the old writers wrote
about, they called it sortiology, salvation. They were never able
to completely, and I think that the best that they could do was
to write down verses of scripture. that shared this great truth. And that's the ones that we think
the most of. It wasn't their comments, it's
the verses of scripture. And I've noticed in reading Dr.
Hawker, he's able to go back by the power of the Holy Spirit
and pick up verses of scripture that seemingly are They just don't fit, but they
do after you read them. So the Old Testament and the
New Testament combined, we still have not been able to come to
the conclusion of the size of our great salvation. We have
an idea because he saves great sinners and those who say, and
I've been forgiven little. They have a very little salvation.
Those who say I've been forgiven a great deal have a great salvation. And then the last part of that
verse of scripture says measure them that worship therein. Measure
the saints. Measure the saints. Now I'm glad
that this refers to our position in Christ because it's on the
negative side of the line if we measure according to Adam.
We're measuring according to grace. What has Christ done? And we sing a song from time
to time. He has raised worms to sit beside him on his throne. That's a measure, my goodness.
This measure the saints, measure the church. Measure the extent
of the church. I like what we've read already
here in the book of Revelation, out of every kindred, nation,
people, and tongue. So measure the extent of the
church. It's out of all the parts of the world. The Jews had a
problem with anybody else but Jews, but we have throughout
the Old Testament that God had purpose to save the Gentiles
too. So measure the church, measure
the extent of the church, measure the privileges of the church,
measure the grace given to the church, measure the forgiveness
given to the church, measure the God of the church. And then
pretty soon we sit down and say, you're the Lord God Almighty. We can't measure you, and that's
good. If we can ever measure Christ,
and ever measure his salvation, and ever measure his church,
we're not looking at it from a biblical standpoint, we're
looking at it from a humanistic standpoint. So measure these
things. And then it tells us in verse
two that there is a part of this court that's without the temple,
leave out. Now, this just shares with us
that God instructed John not to measure a part because out
here were those who are the opposite of what we read over in the book
of Romans chapter two, where it says that a Jew is one inward
and not one outward. Now, those are the Jews. The
rest are the Gentiles. Comparatively speaking, the opposite
of a Jew that is one inward is a Gentile that is one inward. And that's one without Christ,
one without hope, one without peace, one without salvation
is a Gentile. So don't measure that. They have
no part in this. He told that group of people
in the book of Matthew that came and said all the wonderful things
that they had done for God and for the Lord. He says, depart
from me, ye workers of iniquity, for I never knew you. And what
is he saying? I'm not going to measure you.
You're not going to be measured in this host. You're not going
to be measured in this church. You're not going to be measured
as one that has this great salvation from this great Savior. So this
court, which is without, the temple, leave out and measure
it not, for it is given unto the Gentiles, and the holy city
shall they tread under foot 40 and two days. Now, in verse 3,
Just want to say a few things about these two witnesses. More,
to what do they witness? What does a witness witness to?
These are, they're called my two witnesses. Now I'm not going
to try to identify them tonight. But I just want to go over a
few things about what a witness testifies of. My two witnesses,
they're the Lord's two witnesses. Now I'm prejudiced. I'll readily
admit. I think that these two witnesses
we have in our hand right now, that's my personal opinion, that
this is the Old and the New Testament. They're not beings as we know,
human, human beings, but they are a witness of the grace of
God. And we'll look at that later,
but I just want to look at these two witnesses. Now, in the Old
Testament, it mentions about having two or three witnesses.
Now, if you're accused of murder, you're accused of a capital crime
in the Old Testament, it is required that there be two. witnesses minimum. Three is better. Two witnesses, that you have
two witnesses that will testify of a capital crime. Now, if you
can't get your two witnesses, you don't have a case. I would
like to see where the Lord picked up on this, and one place is
found in the book of Matthew, chapter 18. having a witness,
someone to testify, someone to testify of, as it says, my two
witnesses. In chapter 18 of the book of
Matthew, We have here in this chapter
one of the two times that the Lord Jesus in the recorded Bible,
and I'm convinced that there were a lot of things happen that
we don't have recorded. In fact, John testifies to that
fact, that if all the things that Jesus Christ said and did
had been recorded, he uses this terminology, the world could
not contain the whole. Now what he means by that is
the world could not contain the whole. That's what it means.
So there are a lot of other things that went on in the ministry
of the Lord Jesus and things that he said that we don't have,
but we have what he intended for us to have and not one word
too many and not one word too less. And here in the book of
Matthew, chapter 18, he uses the second time in his ministry,
recorded ministry, the word church. First time he uses it, Upon this
rock I'll build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail
against it. He's talking about the elect. He's talking about
every person that will ever be saved. In this passage of scripture,
we find that he is talking about a local assembly that I can go
to, you can go to, we go to. That's where we fellowship. That's
where we have singing. That's where we share our prayer
requests. That's where we have preaching. That's where we have
Bible classes. That's where we drink our coffee. That's where
we eat our crumpets and tea. church, called out assembly. We've been called out of this
world, we meet together, we have an interest in somebody and something. Now it's a local body, a group
of people that meet and we could go down to Rescue or to Spring
Lake, North Carolina or down there in Tallahoma, Tennessee. Did I say that right? Tullahoma,
Tennessee, where Jason is. I think we just fit right in. Local group of people. It is
not separate vineyards. We're just working in different
parts of the big vineyard. We're not in competition. My
friend down there in Central Point called up another guy,
says he believes the same thing, started another group just next
door to where they're meeting. on Sunday, and he's got it down
in the dumps. I said, don't worry about it. If he can do that,
you're not in competition with him. There's no competition. If he can do that, if he knows
what you believe, and he can do that, and he says he believes
the same thing, you're not in competition. Don't worry about
it. Now, I know, that's easy words to express to someone,
but we're not in competition. Never have been, never will be.
All right, now the Lord uses this word. Now notice here in
this passage of scripture, Matthew 18, verse 16, it has to do with
discipline. Now, my friend down in Central
Point asked Donnie Bell, how many times have you had to do
discipline in your 35 years? His answer was never. usually
takes care of itself. People come, they either accept
and stay, or they don't and they leave. All right, there it is. He says, if they will not, if
he will not hear thee, that's an issue that's developed, if
he will not hear thee, take unto thee one or two more. Now why? that in the mouth of two or three
witnesses, every word may be established. That's the point.
It's a quote from the Old Testament in the law, that in the mouth
of two or three witnesses. Now, it is much better when we
have two or three people that have seen the same thing share
their observations. We're going to get closer to
what actually happened. Whether it's an automobile accident,
Whether it is someone making a dive into the Columbia River,
whatever, it is to our advantage to have the multitude of people,
the more people, to add what they saw, we get closer to the
truth. Well, the Lord said in the mouth of two or three witnesses,
take them along in this point, but the point we want to make
is this is required under the law, and God said in Revelation
chapter 11, my two witnesses. I don't want anybody to mistake
my two witnesses, and they agree. All right? And turn with me to
2 Corinthians chapter 13. 2 Corinthians chapter 13. shares with us there this same
passage of scripture quoted from the Old Testament, and it gives
us this principle. So it is not a strange thing
for us to find that there are two witnesses mentioned in the
11th chapter of the book of Revelation. Two witnesses are good. Two witnesses. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
They're the three witnesses. Every word is established by
them. My word will not return to me void. It will accomplish
that whereunto I have sent it. And they agree on every principle
and part of our redemption. They agree in what will and must
take place to redeem the church. So we have three witnesses testifying
on our behalf. Now, here in the book of 2 Corinthians
chapter 13, 2 Corinthians 13, I'll get there. Verse 1, the Apostle Paul, as he writes
by inspiration, said, this is the third time I am coming to
you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be
established. I told you before and foretold
you as if I were present the second time and being absent
now I write to them which heretofore have sinned and to all others
that if I come again I will not spare since you seek proof of
Christ speaking in me which to you word is not weak but is mighty
in you and notice that verse one the mouth of two or three
witnesses shall every word be established now when we get over
here to these two witnesses there is a there is something that
takes place with two witnesses what does a witness do if you're
called into court What are you expected to do as a witness? Now they put our hands, I think
they still do on a Bible. Raise your hand. You promise
to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Now there's a whole bunch of
people that don't know what that means because they don't. But these
two witnesses, they're qualified because God says they are my
witnesses. And his witnesses will testify
of the truth, these in particular. Now we may say something sometime
and find out later that we were not following, we just found
out that that wasn't what the word of God said. We said it
sincerely, but we just found out. Someone brought it up to
us. We read it someplace. Someone read it or put it in
a work. We found out what we had to say
was not what the scriptures have to say. Now, these two witnesses,
these are my witnesses, and there's some things that they're gonna
say the truth about every time. Number one, they're gonna tell
the truth about God. These two witnesses will always
tell the truth about God. They will not ever tell a lie
about God. They are so in tune with God. He said, they're my witnesses.
And his witnesses, in this sense, do not deviate from the right
hand or the left hand. They have the word of God. And
they will always tell the truth about God. They will never go
up to it and almost, but they will always convincingly, convincingly
tell the truth. One of the things that my oldest
brother, Ken, shared with me just after service is here, the
last time he was here, he said, Norm, at least now you believe
what you say. That's different. He heard me before, and then
he heard me afterward, and he says, at least you believe what
you say. Now, meaning he doesn't believe what I say, but that's
not the important thing now. All right, these two witnesses.
They believe what they have to say about God. Every one of God's
witnesses are gonna, they're gonna take God's word about God.
That's all we can go on. He is the creator. He is the
sustainer. He is the one that gives life.
In him we live and move and have our being. He is the all and
in all. He is the reason that this is
running as it is. Secondly, we find out that these
two witnesses will always tell the truth about sin and about
the fall. They will not deviate. They will
not almost tell the truth about the fall or almost tell the truth
about sin. They will go past. In Adam, all
fell. by one man sin entered into the
world, and death by sin. Now that's just the truth about
it. Now, we may not like to face
it. Sometimes the truth is not hard to find, it's hard to face.
But the truth is there. Thirdly, these two witnesses
are going to tell the truth about the Son and about salvation. They will never ever say he tried. They will never ever say he died
for everyone. Never. That's not the truth. The truth is he died for his
people. He died for his sheep. We can
stand on firm ground on that. Jesus said, I lay down my life
for the sheep. And if we say nothing else, we're
just simply quoting it. And that's what these two witnesses
will testify, that they will testify the truth about the sun
and about salvation, about the sun's salvation. They will not
ever leave that. Now, as we follow this, they
are able to open the sky and they're able to close the sky.
They're able to do things that we're not able to do. All right,
and then they'll always tell the truth about the Holy Spirit
and regeneration. The Holy Spirit is in charge
of regeneration and regeneration is required to enter into the
glory of heaven. They'll always tell the truth
about this. The new birth is necessary. The
new birth is essential. The new birth is required. You
will not see the kingdom of heaven without the new birth. It will
not happen. So these three. Now, let's jump
ahead just a little bit. And in verse 15, we'll pick this
up at a little later date. We're going to the easy part.
We're jumping ahead to the easy part, verse 15. The seventh angel
sounded and there were great voices in heaven saying, the
kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord. That's easy. We don't have any
interpretation here. We don't have any question. It
just simply says that everything becomes Christ. Now, when did
he get everything before the foundation of the world? When
did he have a kingdom before the foundation of the world?
When was he king before the foundation of the world? When did he have
subjects before the foundation of the world? He has always been
king. He has always had a kingdom.
He has always ruled over all his kingdoms. And here we have
that the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our
Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever. So easy. We have the simplicity
of the Word of God expressed here in this verse of scripture.
He reigns forever and ever. Never been a time he wasn't reigning.
Never been a time he will cease reigning. He reigns forever and
ever. And that word, we get the word
sovereign out of this word. It means he is reigning according
to his purpose. He has everything in control
according to his purpose. And then it tells us in verse
16, and the 4 and 20 elders which sat before God on their seats
fell upon their faces and worshiped God. Now, it's not been that
long ago we were looking at some of the things that the 4 and
20 elders did. They're representing the church.
This is the Old and the New Testament representation of the church.
These are those out of the old economy that were Jews inwardly
and these are those out of the new economy which are Jews inwardly
and they're being represented before the throne of grace by
these four and twenty elders and they fell on their faces
and worship God. Why? Because he reigns forever
and ever. He is the one in control forever
and forever. There's never been a time when
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit were
not in control of all things. Even Pilate said, don't you know
I can do? And Jesus said, you couldn't
do anything without me. He told, Pilate was requested
by some Pharisees, put that he said he is king of the Jews. And Pilate's words were, what
I've written, I've written. Who overrode that? Who overshadowed
that? Who moved his hand? He reigns
forever and ever. Now, the 4 and 29, the church
has believed this. The Church has agreed to this. This is one of the things in
regeneration that happens in our hearts. We agree with God. We're not going to be at variance
with God. We agree with Him on this subject. We agree with Him on the subject
that He reigns. The 4 and 20 elders, they fell
down and they worship God. Why? Because he has changed their
heart. He has changed the heart of his
people to be convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is
the Lord God that reigns. He is in charge. They're there
because of God and for no other reason. They're not there because
of themselves. They're there because of God.
And these four and twenty elders had something to say. It's the
words that ring in the hearts of the church today, saying,
we give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty. I like what we heard one time
in the Bible class, he's not the Lord God Almost. He is the
Lord God Almighty. I'm still trying to grasp that. Trying to get a hold of that.
That's a sequoia. That's a giant redwood statement. You can't get your arms around
it. That he is the Lord God Almighty. Nothing stays him or stops him
or questions him. Who has given God advice? Oftentimes people try, but nobody
has. And the words that God spoke
to Job about his creation, were you there? No, we weren't there. We just don't give God advice. We give him praise, we give him
thanksgiving, we give him honor, we worship him, and we're permitted
by his grace to put our requests in prayer before him, but he
still is the Lord God Almighty, and he will not be altered even
by the words of the church. He will be altered by nothing. He will always stand where he
stands. A father that stands his ground
is much better than a father that gives up ground. And this,
our Heavenly Father, will not give up ground. He will stand
his ground because of the church and because of his glory. All
right. Oh, Lord God Almighty, the four and twenty elders. And
they say this about someone that which art and wust and art to
come. Now, who do we find that about
throughout the book of Revelation? Those are the words that are
found with regard to Jesus Christ throughout the book of Revelation.
This is the revelation of Jesus Christ. And this Lord God Almighty
is not about a peanut created God, this is about God Almighty
and he was and he is and he is to come, the Lord Jesus Christ. He came, or he was, he came,
he laid down his life, He rose again and he will come again
according to his promise. The day or the hour, anybody
that is worth their salt when they write about eschatology. I was just reading someone the
other day, I think it might have been Dr. Hawker that said, it
may be tomorrow and again, it may be in a thousand years. Nobody
puts a date on the return of the Lord Jesus. They simply say
he will return again. Without question, without doubt,
he will come again. It's not going to be by all the
signs that we have people telling us. It's just going to be he's
going to come quickly with great noise, not silently, and he will
come and receive his own unto himself and where he is, there
we shall be also. And it says, because thou hast
taken to thee thy great power and hast reigned. And the nations
were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead,
and they that should be judged, and thou shouldest give reward
unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that
fear thy name, small and great, and shouldest destroy them which
destroy the earth. And the temple of God was opened
in heaven, and there was seen in this temple the ark of his
testament. And there were lightnings and
voices and thunders and earthquake and great hail. Now every one
of those instances that are mentioned there are things that we cannot
stop. We can't halt. I think what he's
having to say in those verses of scripture is, I will and can
and do get your attention. You'll know it's me that's speaking. I will get your attention. Whether
it is in lightnings and voices and thunderings and an earthquake
and great hail, I will get your attention. Doesn't matter where
you are or what you're doing or whatever your circumstances
are. If you're living in the desert or in the mountains, I
will get your attention and I have my means. And he will shudder
us to the very core of our being with his word, with his power,
with his authority, with his sovereignty, with his kingship,
with his reign, with his lordship. He will shiver our timbers and
he will do it in such a way that we'll know that God has spoken. Every one of these things are
ways that God has used. I'll get your attention. And he does it through his word.
So we're going to stop there tonight. And Lord willing, next
week, we'll pick up here in the middle about the two olive trees
and the two candlesticks standing before God on the earth, or of
the earth, and these two witnesses. I do know this. They're telling
the truth. They told the truth. They're telling the truth. I
know this, they're gods. They're my witnesses. They belong
to me. They had a season. And it's interesting that the
times that are used in here, 4 and 12, A thousand two hundred and three
score days. And there's another passage we
just read in here. All of it's three and a half
years. And there is one specific three and a half year period
of time that are spoken of in the book of Daniel that says
in the middle of the week three and a half years in the middle
of the week. Will the Lord. The Lord will give his life.
He will put away sin. Daniel prophesied of it. That's
one three and a half year period of time that is so recognizable,
and I'm not sure that this is not based upon that statement,
but we'll look into it. We're not looking at a seven
year tribulation period. These are they who came through
great tribulation, yes. but there's not a seven year
period of tribulation. You tell that to people that
have had tribulation for 20 years. There's not this. But we get
there through great tribulation and that is here. That's our self fighting ourself.
There will not be great tribulation there. There will be peace. The
seven-year tribulation period, I was taught the faithful are
going to be taken out in the middle of the week and the rest
are going to have to be purged. That's just Catholicism. That's
just a man-made religion. God doesn't act that way. He
doesn't deal that way. He deals with us as his children.
He is our faithfulness. He is our peace and he is our
hope. And he gives to us faith, his
faith, not ours. Ours is worthless. It's Confederate
money. His is gold. Our faith is Deutschmarks
before the war, worthless. I got a million dollar Deutschmark,
isn't worth the paper it's printed on. But his faith is gold, pure
gold given to us.