Well, let's open our Bibles back
to Revelation 11. We'll explore the mysteries of
the book of Revelation. You all have heard me tell the
story of the young preacher who got up and preached a message,
and most of the people left with a very perplexed expression on
their face, not knowing where he was going and not knowing
where they'd been. He asked an older preacher in the audience,
he said, what did you think of that message? And the man told
him, he said, well, I just didn't get much out of it. And the young
man said, well, it was a deep subject. And the old man said,
well, it really wasn't that deep. You just made it deep. And I
thought about it. You know, when I'm studying through
Revelation here, I pray. And you have this attitude of
prayer for me, too. Don't let me make it deep. Don't
let me make that which is clear deep, so deep that we can't even
see the bottom when we look up. I also pray, too, that as I'm
studying through here, that God would erase my mind of any preconceived
notion, because we've all heard stories, read books, seen movies
of the Book of Revelation. Most stories and books and movies
I would put in the same category as I'd put Harry Potter, to be
honest with you. It's just fiction and fantasy. And men get bogged down in the
details. And that's not what we're to do. I've told you that,
number one, the key to understanding the book of Revelation is the
key to understanding any book of the Bible. And that is found
in John chapter 5 and verse 39. When Christ told the Pharisees,
you search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal
life, but they are they which testify of me. Paul wrote it
in 2 Corinthians chapter 3 when he talked about the Old Testament.
He said, when there's a veil over their heart, the veil of
self-righteousness and pride and darkness and ignorance, and
when it turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. And you begin
to see the sense of it. And those principles are the
same in the book of Revelation. They're the same in the whole
Bible from Genesis to Revelation. So let's keep that in mind. Also,
let's remember that the images and the symbols in the book of
Revelation are all found in the Bible itself. As I've said before,
you're not going to find the answer to Revelation by watching
CNN or the national news or looking at world events, reading the
newspaper. Now, there may be some things that are appropriate
there. You might see them in perspective, but you don't interpret
the Bible through them. So you go to the Old Testament
and find out what these things mean. Tonight I'm going to talk
about Christ's two witnesses. Now, in the first two verses,
that's the title of the message, Christ's two witnesses, in the
first two verses, John was given a command, it says, And there
was given me a reed like unto a rod, and the angel stood, saying,
Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and then
that worship therein. But the court which is without
the temple, leave it out, and measure it not, for it is given
unto the Gentiles. and the holy city shall they
tread under foot forty and two months." Now I preached on that
last week concerning measuring the temple, the temple being
the church of the living God, God's elect, redeemed by the
blood of Christ and regenerated and converted by the Holy Spirit,
called out ones, made up of God's people out of every tribe and
nation, Jew and Gentile. And the measuring the temple
with a measuring rod. That measuring rod is the gospel
itself. The good news of God's grace
in Christ. Preaching the gospel. How else
could we measure the temple? Not measuring it for size, but
marking it out. That's what that means. Marking
it out for peace, for safety, for provision, for fellowship. All of these things. We go into
all the world and preach the gospel. And that's what the church
is to be about in these last days. You say, well, will I be
here when Christ comes again? I don't know. I don't know, but
I know what you're to be doing while you're here. I know what
we as a church are to be doing while we're here. We're to be
evangelizing the world, evangelizing our area first. And as God gives
us opportunity to get the gospel out into the world, sinners need
Christ. Now you think about this, everyone
sitting here tonight. We all have loved ones, family
members, who are on the road to a sinner's hell. Now, we do. I don't think anybody in here
would say that every one of my immediate earthly family is saved.
And they need to hear the gospel. You say, well, they don't want
to hear it. Well, we didn't either. Did you want to hear it before
God gave you ears to hear and eyes to see? You see what I'm
saying? Now, we can't force it upon them. And if they won't
listen, the rule of scripture is move out. Get away and shake
the dust off of your feet. That's what the Bible says. You
can't force people to listen and hear the gospel. But you
can pray for them and you can do your best to seize every opportunity
to tell them of Christ and the greatness of his person and the
power of his finished work to save us from our sins. And that's
what we are to be about as a collective body in this community. Getting
this gospel out, we're not here as a closed society just forming
a club of people that we like. In fact, we don't even choose
who comes into this assembly. God adds to His church. It has
nothing to do with how we're attracted to each other or our
mutual likes or dislikes or who our mama and papa is. It doesn't.
I mean, it doesn't. It's all based upon a mutual
admiration and honor and glory and worship of Christ. And that's
what we're all about. And that's what holds us together.
Now, if that can't hold us together, nothing else will. So that's
what measuring the church is all about. God will call his
people into the fold. And we're safe and secure in
Christ, who's already won the victory. And no matter what Satan
hurls at us, no matter what the world hurls at us, no matter
what we do, God is going to keep us until the end. We can be hated. We can be persecuted, even killed
physically. Now he mentions the two witnesses
are killed and laid dead in the streets here. We needn't be killed
physically, but we cannot be ultimately defeated. That's right. Christ said that to his disciples.
He said, you'll have trouble in the world, but don't you worry.
He said, I've overcome the world. I've overcome the world. Our
victory is, his victory is ours. And so Christ conquered sin,
our worst enemy, sin. He conquered it. And he conquered
Satan, the great accuser of the brethren, and he conquered the
grave, and his victory is ours. Now it says here back in verse
2, it says this is going to take place for forty and two months.
Now I could get a big chart up here and I could draw it all
out for you, but I don't think you'd want me to do that and
I really don't want to. But all that simply means here, this
three and a half years, 40 and two months, it's mentioned throughout
Revelation. Sometimes it's referred to as
1,260 days. Imagine that. That's math, isn't
it? I'm not very good at it. In Revelation
12 and verse 14, it's referred to as a time and times and a
time and a half, or a half a time, rather. And what he's talking
about is the gospel age. That's just a period of time.
It's a symbolic number referring to the gospel age. And I believe
it's referring to the time between Christ's ascension into heaven
to his second coming. And in this gospel age, we're
to preach the gospel. And God's going to mark out his
church. He's going to call his sheep into the fold during that
time. And it's based upon numbers in the Old Testament, based upon
numbers that are revealed in Daniel chapter 9. But like I
said, you look at it yourself. If you want those figures, I'll
give them to you. I've got them written down. But
you just don't want to get bogged down in these details. But it's
just a short period of time. It's known as the Great Tribulation.
I know people say, well now, we're not going to be here during
the Great Tribulation. Well, I know the whole time between
Christ's ascension into glory, And his second coming is really
a time of tribulation. It's a time of tribulation for
the church. And it's going to get worse and
worse and worse as it goes along. Now, if you can find some way
through biblical interpretation and not reading somebody's book
to mark out seven years of that, that we're not going to be here,
that's fine with me. If we're not here, that's fine.
If we're here, that's fine with me. It doesn't matter. All I
know is we're to preach the gospel. We're to point centers to Christ
and Him crucified. We're to witness for Him, you
see. And if the Lord relieves us and takes us on home for a
period of time, then that's fine. We know we're going home sometime,
don't we? So we'll just look at it that
way. Now from verse 3 to the end of verse 13, from verse 3
to verse 13, we have the issue of Christ to witnesses. And it
says they preach the gospel to the nations at great cost to
themselves. It costs them their lives. But
in the end, they are vindicated by God. And what a great, great
testimony of peace and comfort and joy for the people of God.
Look at verse 3. He says, and I will give power,
or literally authority, unto my two witnesses, and they shall
prophesy. a thousand, two hundred, and
threescore days clothed in sackcloth. Christ gives power and authority
to his two witnesses to prophesy. Now, what is it to prophesy?
Prophesying is telling forth God's Word. Normally, when we
think of prophesying, we think of foretelling the future, don't
we? But that's not all it is. Sometimes when God reveals a
word to His people in His Word, It has to do with future events.
But sometimes it has to do with the here and now. Anyone who
speaks the Word of God, you see, in the Old Testament was a prophet,
whether referred to the past, the present, or the future. To
prophesy is to preach the gospel of God's grace in Christ throughout
the gospel age until Christ comes again. And it says here they
do it clothed in sackcloth. What does that mean? That shows
their spirit and their attitude. What does it mean to be? You
know, when they were clothed in sackcloth and ashes back in
the Old Testament, they were in sorrow. They were in mourning. What did the Lord say about the
kingdom of God? He said, blessed, blessed are
the mourners, those who are sorrow over sin. Theirs is the kingdom
of heaven. It shows their spirit and attitude
is humble, poor in spirit. Blessed are the poor and blessed
are the meek. They're submissive to the Word
and to the will of God. They're sorrowful over their
sins. They're sorrowful over the world's
rejection of Christ. Isn't that a sorrowful thing?
Doesn't that just make you want to cry? When you know sinners
need Christ, and He's the last thing they want, the last thing
they're interested in, oh, that God would bring a revival. Why
not a revival of His Word? A revival of his spirit to bring
sinners to hear the gospel. And you see so much negative
and trouble. We talked about troubles and
trials this morning. We know that to the people of
God, they are sent from God to try our faith. But at the same
time, when we see men and women through whom trouble comes, those
who reject Christ, those who upset the brethren, it doesn't
speak well, does it? It makes you sorrow. And our
testimony of the gospel is a bittersweet thing. The sweetness of the gospel
to our own souls, to hear of Christ and the comfort that he
gives his people. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
the peace that we see. All the perspective that God
gives, that everything we're going through, individually and
as a body, everything's right in line with the way God wants
things to go. The train hadn't left the track
yet. It's right on line. And that's so sweet to hear,
isn't it? Isn't it? It's comforting. It's a quiet
attitude. But then it's a bitter pill to
swallow when we see the great rejection that our loved ones
and others go through when they reject the gospel and they have
no interest in it. Now that's what these two witnesses
are going to do. They're going to preach the gospel.
It says for 1,203 score days clothed in sackcloth, that's
the same as that number, that 40 and two months up there. And
what I, again, what I believe it's referring to is that time
period between Christ's first coming and his second coming.
The gospel is going to be preached. Now, who are these two witnesses?
Who are they? Well, he tells us who they are
in verse four. He says, these are the two olive trees. and
the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth."
That's who they are. Where do you get that language
at? You know, a lot of people speculate on this. Some people
say, well, it's talking about Enoch and Elijah. Where do you
suppose they get that? Well, you know, Enoch was taken
away. He was taken up. Now, I believe
Enoch did die. He experienced what I believe
is the equivalent of death. I mean, I don't believe Enoch
is existing right now in a dilapidated, disintegrating, sinful body in
the presence of God. Elijah was carried off in a fiery
chariot in that great vision, but he too experienced the equivalent
of death. But some people say, well, they
didn't die, so they've got to come back again so they can die.
Well, that's speculation at the best, to try to reason that way. We have nothing within these
verses or in any other verse of scripture that would point
to that. Some say it's Moses and Elijah because of what's
stated afterward, but hold on to that. What this is, throughout
the Old Testament, and he says, look at it again, verse four,
these are the two olive trees, two, there are two witnesses,
two olive trees, two candlesticks. And throughout the Old Testament,
two, has always been the number of witnesses required under the
law to establish the truth of their testimony. You can read
that in the book of Deuteronomy. Even the Lord said, let every
word be established out of the mouth of two or three witnesses,
at least two. In Hebrews chapter 10, look over
with me, the book of Hebrews, and this was always required
under the law to establish the truth, the authority of something.
In other words, a man couldn't just come along and speak on
his own, even our Lord in his humanity. He said, if I bear
witness of myself, my witness is not true. Remember he said
that in John chapter 6. But he said, I have greater witness.
And he said, John the Baptist bore witness of him. The Father
bore witness of him. The Father said, this is my beloved
Son in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye him. The Holy Spirit
bore witness of him, descended in the form of a dove. The Holy
Spirit and the Father witnessed of him when they rose him from
the dead, from the grave. And so he said, let everything
be established that way. Look at Hebrews chapter 10 and
verse 28. He's speaking of the law of Moses
here, verse 28. It says, he that despised Moses'
law died without mercy under two or three witnesses. It took
two, at least two, to put a person to death under the law of Moses.
Had to be two witnesses. You see? And our Lord established
rules and regulations. I know sometimes we don't like
that term, but on how to deal with this thing about accusations
towards each other, how do you do it? You go to that person,
if you accuse an elder, if you accuse any brother, you go to
that person one-on-one, you try to work it out between yourselves
to see if it'll go no further. If that doesn't work, what do
you do? You take two or three with you. And then if that doesn't
work, you bring it before the congregation. Now, men don't
like that method. But that's the scriptural way.
That's that's the New Testament way. But that was the law. And then look over at Luke chapter
10. Look here with me. Two witnesses. That was the establishment
of truth. Verse one of Luke chapter 10. It says, after these things,
the Lord appointed other 70. He's talking about disciples
here. And he sent them two and two. before his face into every
city and place, whether he himself would come. He sent him out two
by two. Therefore, he said he unto them, the harvest truly
is great, but the laborers are few. Pray, therefore, that the
Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth laborers into
his harvest." What's he talking about? Going out and preaching
the gospel to the lost. And he said, the harvest is ready,
but the laborers are few. He said in verse three, go your
ways, behold I send you forth as lambs among wolves. That's
not a safe place to be in this world, is it? A lamb among wolves. That sounds like tribulation
to me. That sounds like trouble. Well, you want to mark it out
at this time or that time, it's trouble, isn't it? He says in
verse four, carry neither purse nor script nor shoes and salute
no man by the way and into whatsoever house you enter first say peace
be to this house. And if the Son of Peace be there,
your peace shall rest upon it. If not, it shall turn to you
again." What he's talking about there is if you go in the house
where they believe the gospel, where Christ is their hope. He
says in verse 7, In the same house remain eating and drinking
such things as they give. For the laborer is worthy of
his hire. Go not from house to house. So in whatever city you
enter in, you see, two by two, established by two witnesses.
Now these back here in Revelation 11, they're witnesses for Christ.
Now that's the main thing we need to know. We need to know
more of what they're witnessing and prophesying to than we do
who they are. Don't we? They're preaching Christ
and Him crucified. They're witnesses for Christ
and the established truth of the gospel as preached into the
world. Evangelizing. Go into all the
world and preach the gospel. to every creature. He that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. The gospel is the power of God
unto salvation. It pleads the Lord by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. So whoever they are,
we know right now they're gospel witnesses of the grace of God
in Christ. That's their message. Now let
me give you a second thing here. You may have in your concordance
there In Revelation 11, if you have a sinner or an inverse concordance,
you may have marked in your concordance by the phrase, two olive trees,
Zechariah chapter 4. I want you to turn over there.
Find Zechariah chapter 4. Now, Zechariah was a prophet
in Israel who prophesied of the coming of the Messiah, the We
read a portion of this a few weeks back, Zechariah chapter
2. Speaking of the church, the people of God, Christ the branch,
who will come and redeem his people out of all the earth,
not just Jews, but Jew and Gentile, God's elect out of all tribe,
kindred, tongue, and nations. Chapter 3 is that famous chapter
in Zechariah where Joshua, the high priest of Israel at that
time, In Zachariah's vision, standing before the court of
God's justice, being accused by the adversary, that's Satan.
And the Son of God steps in as his defense attorney, as his
advocate. He said, this is a bran plucked
out of the fire. This is one redeemed by the Lord.
And they took away his filthy garments. Do you remember that?
And they put on him that white robe. That's representative of
how Christ took our sins upon himself. and gives us his righteousness. And then he puts the fair mitre
on his head. That's the work of the Spirit
to give our minds and our hearts and our eyes the glorious vision
of Christ. See the whole picture there.
Look at Zechariah 4. Look at verse 1. It says, And
the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me as a
man that is wakened out of his sleep, and said unto me, What
seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and
behold, a candlestick all of gold, and a bowl upon the top
of it, that is, the bowl that holds the light, the oil for
the light, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the
seven lamps which are upon the top thereof." Now, you remember
he said these are the two olive trees, these are the two candlesticks.
The establishment of the truth out of two witnesses. And who
are these candlesticks? Well, has that been mentioned
in Revelation before? The seven churches. Seven candlesticks. Isn't that right? That's what
he's talking about here, talking about the church. Under the emblem
of two witnesses, go on, he says in verse 3, and these are two
olive trees, buy it, one upon the right side of the bow and
the other upon the left side of the bow. So I answered and
spoke to the angel that talked with me, saying, what are these,
my Lord? Then the angel that talked with me answered and said
unto me, knowest thou not what these be? And I said, no, my
Lord. Now look at this, verse 6, he said, Then he answered
and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto
Zerubbabel. You ever heard of him before?
Zerubbabel. When Israel was delivered from
the Babylonian captivity, God appointed a leader, a governor,
a king, you might say, to lead them in the rebuilding of the
temple. His name was Zerubbabel. That's who he is. He's representative
of the king. He's a picture of Christ, the
king. So you have Zerubbabel, the picture of Christ as the
king. You have Joshua, the picture of Christ, our high priest. And
you have Zechariah, the picture of Christ, our prophet. Our prophet,
our priest, and our king. And he who is our mediator, our
prophet, priest, and king, works through his church, the candlesticks. He's the light of the world.
And we shine with his light. Isn't that right? That's what
the candlestick did. We shine with his light. But
what about these olive trees? Now look here in verse 7. Let's
go on here. He says, Who art thou? O great mountain, before
his irrevocable, thou shalt become a plain, and he shall bring forth
the headstone thereof with shouting, crying, Grace, grace unto it. What's our message? Grace, grace
unto it. Now that's the two olive trees
and the candlesticks. And then another thing, these
images of the two olive trees that supply oil for the lampstand,
they refer to Zerubbabel, the royal figure who was to rebuild
the temple, a picture of Christ. Joshua, the priest who would
lead the people of God in their worship of him, a picture of
Christ. Both prefigured Christ, our king
and our high priest. both pointed to his coming into
the world. They are witnesses that speak
of Christ, our prophet, priest, and king. And the vision of two
witnesses in Revelation 11 is symbolic, a symbolic picture
of the church, the people of God upon the earth during the
entire time of tribulation as we witness that bittersweet gospel,
the words of the gospel and warn the inhabitants of the earth
of the final judgment yet to come. The church is the witness
of Christ, because it's the pillar and ground of truth. Witnesses
of Christ, the light of the world. And look over at Revelation 5.
Look here. When we look at those emblems,
Zerubbabel, the king or the governor, Joshua, the high priest, Zechariah,
the prophet. What does the Bible say about
the people of God, the church? Look at Revelation 5. In Revelation
5 it says they sung a new song, saying, prophesying, thou art
worthy to take the book. Who are they talking about? They're
talking about the Lamb slain and the foundation of the world.
The Lion of the tribe of Judah. That's our testimony established
out of the mouth of at least two witnesses. and to open the
seals thereof. Christ is worthy, for thou wast
slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every
kindred and tongue and people and nation, and hast made us
unto God kings and priests." Just like Zerubbabel and Joshua. And we shall reign on the earth.
Christ is our King. We reign on the earth through
Him in the preaching of the gospel. That is our authority. We are
ambassadors of Christ. And we're priests unto God, for
each and every individual believer here tonight, you have free access
into the very holiest of all by the blood of Jesus. That's
who I believe the two witnesses are. It's an emblem of the church,
the witness of Christ here on this earth. You know, Paul referred
to God's elect as an olive tree in Romans chapter 11, didn't
he? He spoke of the Jews, God's people among the Jews, who were
the natural olive tree because they were the first converted.
And he spoke of the Gentiles who were the wild olive tree
because they were grafted in, they came later, you see. And
that olive tree makes up what thing? God's elect out of every
tribe and nation, the Church. When you see those emblems in
Scripture and interpret Scripture with Scripture, I don't see what
else they can be. Go back to Revelation 11. It's
the Church here on earth during this time. He says in verse 5,
now look here, he says, And if any man will hurt them, fire
proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies.
And if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed. And these have power to shut
heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy, and have
power over waters to turn them into blood, and to smite the
earth with all plagues. as often as they will. Now this
is what leads some people to conclude that the two witnesses
are Moses and Elijah. But these images refer not to
Moses personally or Elijah personally, they refer to the authority of
the gospel that we preach. The law and the gospel. You see,
as I said, we're ambassadors of Christ. When Jeremiah spoke,
it is said in Jeremiah chapter 5 and verse 14 that fire proceeded
out of his mouth. And you remember when it was
said that Jeremiah wanted to quit. He got discouraged. He wanted to shut up. He said,
I quit. He said, I'm not going to preach
anymore. There's a bunch of ignorant, rebellious people out there.
They don't want to hear what I say. They make fun of me. They
call me the prophet of doom. You know what they called Jeremiah? They called him the burden. The
burden of the word of the Lord. Here comes the burden. He doesn't
have anything good to say about us. We can go over here and find
500 prophets that'll say something good about us and make us, we'll
walk out tonight feeling good, walking on cloud nine. 500 false prophets. You know
what Jeremiah said about them? He said they cry peace, peace
when there is no peace. My friend, there's no peace without
Christ. It's a false peace. He said they heal the wounds
of the daughters slightly. It's almost like if Jeremiah
comes along, he preaches the message of grace that convicts
sinners, pricks them in their heart and brings them down in
the dust as a sinner seeking mercy. They get wounded, but
a false preacher comes along and just puts a bandaid on it.
Just slightly. So Jeremiah said, well, I want
to quit. And these false preachers in Jeremiah, they'd do anything
they could to get people into church. We were talking. I shouldn't be laughing because
it's sad. I don't know if y'all saw in the paper. New church
starting up down there in the AEP building. And they said every
visitor gets a free coupon to a buffet down there. Well, they
might have a coupon day. Let's have a coupon day and get
them in. Well, my friend, that's not what the two witnesses did.
That's not what Jeremiah, Ezekiel, or any of the prophets did. They
preached the Word of God, the powerful, sharp, two-edged sword,
that which wounds the sinner and comforts the sinner saved
by grace. And Jeremiah got so discouraged.
There were so many against him, he said, I'm going to quit. And
it says this, wherefore, thus saith the Lord God of hosts,
because you speak this word, behold, I will make my words
in thy mouth fire. And this people would, and it
shall devour them. And Jeremiah said, then I said,
I'll not make mention of him. I'm not going to mention the
Lord God again. I'm not going to speak any more in his name.
I'm not going to preach his word. And here's what Jeremiah said.
He said, but his word was in my heart as a burning fire shut
up in my bones. And I was weary with trying to
quit. That's what he means there. And
I could not stop. My friend, if the fire of God's
word is within your heart, you can't help but speak it. That's what he means here in
Revelation 11. If any man will hurt them, fire proceeded out
of their mouth." What is that fire? That's the judgment of
God against all unrighteousness. That's what that fire is. That's
the judgment of God. And when they hurt the two witnesses,
when they kill the two witnesses, they're sealing their own death
warrant. That's what it means when it
says, he must in this manner be killed. They may not be killed
in the exact same method, but they will die. He that believeth
not shall be damned. That's what the scripture says.
That's the fire that proceeds. And then here in verse 6, When
it says these have power to shut heaven, that's speaking like
Elijah. Back in 1 Kings chapter 17, Elijah
spoke the Word of God by the power of God and the heavens
were shut up and there was no rain. And what this is saying is in
the preaching of the gospel, there is the blessing of God
from heaven, but those who reject Christ receive no blessing at
all. The heaven is shut up to them.
It's a closed book. There's no open way. Christ said,
I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh under the
father, but by me, my friend, if you reject Christ and his
blood and righteousness, you have no access in the heaven.
It's shut up. There's no blessing from God
and there's no access for you without Christ. It's impossible,
just like Elijah spoken, no rain fell. And just like Moses spoke
the Word of God and by the power of God he turned the waters of
Egypt into blood, their life flowed. You know that's what
that was. The Nile River was their life and it was turned
into death. That's what blood means, death.
And just like Moses brought down those plagues on Egypt and turned
the whole vibrant city, beautiful city with all of their gold and
their jewels and their pyramids and their thrones and all of
their cloth. All of their animals turned it
all into death. Because without Christ, there's
nothing but death. Nothing. No life. He told Martha,
he said, I am the resurrection and the life. There's no life
without Christ. There's no resurrection without
Christ. Look at verse 7 of Revelation 11. These plagues, as often as
they will. This is speaking to those, the
two witnesses, the church preaching the gospel. And this is the shape
and the condition and the fate of all who reject it. In verse
7 it says, and when they shall finish their testimony, the beast
that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them
and shall overcome them and kill them. The church will accomplish
and fulfill its mission. Here on this earth, our mission
as a church has an appointed time where it will end. It will be finished. We may not
be around to see that. It may go beyond us for several
hundred years. I don't know. But I know that
the mission will be fulfilled. God's Word will not return void. It will not. Whatever God sends
it out to accomplish, it's going to accomplish. And the gospel
will be preached throughout the world. And God's elect will be
regenerated and converted. They'll be born again. Christ
said it. He said in John 6, 37, all that
the Father giveth me shall what? Come to me. And of him that comes
to me I will in no wise cast out. He said, I laid down my
life for the sheep. And he said, other sheep I have
that are not of this Jewish fold, them I must bring. He's going to bring. You see, God is not willing that
any of these should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
And Christ will come again when this mission is completed and
the last topstone is laid. The last one of God's elect is
called into the kingdom, and that's God's appointed time,
and that's when he'll return. I don't know when that'll be.
But the gospel age will come to an end. Christ said in Matthew
chapter 24, the first thing that must happen is the gospel must
be preached in every nation. And the church at that time,
as a great missionary evangelistic organization, will finish its
testimony. And then the beast which comes out of the pit, what
is that beast? That's the anti-Christian world,
friend. Don't look for a monster or a
science fiction movie or a horror movie. That's the anti-Christian
world. And they'll be urged on, that
beast will be urged on by hell to wage war on the church. And
that is Armageddon. Now that's an interesting word,
isn't it? That perks up just about everybody's ears, you know.
But it's coming. And I'll deal with that later.
But not all believers will be killed. Now look here, he said
the beast will come and make war against them. She'll overcome
them and kill them. Not all believers will be killed,
but there will be so few on the earth at that time that the world
will look upon the church as being dead. The church as an
organization, as a mission, organization will have so little influence
in the world. Look at verse 8. Now this is
something you need to say here. This is interesting. And their
dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city. Now
what city? which spiritually, now he's talking
about a spiritual city, spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt where
our Lord was crucified. Sodom and Egypt, the great city.
Now that place physically refers to the earthly Jerusalem where
our Lord was crucified. But here it's a spiritual emblem
and it's an emblem of religion. that is opposed to Christ. What an emblem. What a picture. Religion. Do you know that the
disciples were persecuted more by religious men and women than
they ever were by any publican or harlot? Did you know that?
Stephen was stoned in the name of religion. Christ told his
disciples, he said, they will throw you out of their synagogues,
and when they kill you, they'll do it thinking they're doing
the service of God. The publicans and harlots who
were not converted usually just said, leave us alone, go about
your business. But it was false religion, anti-Christ, that persecuted
our Savior. and his people, described spiritually
as Sodom. You know Jerusalem was referred
to in the Old Testament as Sodom? Look at Isaiah chapter 1. Remember
the prophet Isaiah? He was a man of Jerusalem in
the southern kingdom of Judah. And here he's talking about religion
without Christ, religion without heart. That's what he's talking
about. Men coming in their ceremonies
and their outward signs and outward forms, but no grace, no Christ,
no redemption, no justification before God, no heart faith. And he says in verse 9, talking
to Jerusalem now, he's not down here at Hittite land and Amorite
land and Canaanite land, he's talking to Jerusalem. And he
says, except the Lord of hosts hath left us a very small remnant,
we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like
unto Gomorrah. Hear the word of the Lord, you
rulers of Sodom. Now, where is he? He's in Jerusalem. Hear the word of the Lord, you
rulers of Sodom. Give ear unto the law of our
God, ye people of Gomorrah. That was their spiritual condition.
They were religious outwardly. What Christ say of the Pharisees,
outwardly you're like whited sepulchers, all polished up and
look beautiful, but inwardly you're full of dead men's bones,
open graves, stinking in the nostrils of God. For what purpose
is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? Their problem wasn't
that they weren't sacrificing, and many times, the multitude
But it was for nothing. They didn't see Christ. They
didn't see the grace of God. And it was referred to that way.
And then Egypt. What's Egypt an emblem for? Bondage. Idolatry. False religion. Even though the whole unbelieving
world will be instrumental. Go back to Revelation 11. Instrumental
in the death of the two witnesses. The main instrument Satan will
use is false religion. Especially that which comes in
the name of Christ. but denies the truth of Christ.
Look at verse 9. He says, And they of the people,
and kindreds, and tongues, and nations, shall see their dead
bodies three days and a half. Now, that's a very short period
of time. You see, it's going to appear like the beast wins
out. But his supposed victory is going to be short-lived. That's
what that means. Very short time. And it says,
three days and a half, and shall not suffer. They won't allow
their dead bodies to be put in graves. You see that? That whole unbelieving world,
they'll see these dead bodies for a very, very short period
of time. The church faithfully bears witness
of Christ throughout the whole gospel age, but the beast's triumph
is significantly shorter. Just a very short time. And they
won't even allow the bodies to be buried. Back in those days
when there was a conquering of a nation, And they wouldn't allow
the bodies of the soldiers, the enemy soldiers, to be buried.
It was a sign of contempt and hatred. Everybody could see. It says in verse 10, and they
shall dwell upon the earth, they that dwell upon the earth. Now,
that's the inhabitors of the earth. Those are earthly people,
earth dwellers. You see, we're not earth dwellers.
I don't mean we're all space cadets, but we're not earth dwellers. We're in this world, but we're
not of it, you see. He's talking here about people
who are of the world. And they'll rejoice over them,
over the death of the two witnesses, and they'll make merry, and they'll
send gifts one to another. They'll exchange gifts over this
issue. They'll honor one another. That's
what that means. Boy, you really got them. That
kind of thing. Patting each other on the back
for such an accomplishment. And it says, because these two
prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth. That's how
they see the preaching of the gospel. It's a torment to them. It's not peace. It's not solace
to the soul to hear Christ preach. It's a torment. A great natural
man hates the things of the Spirit of God. He can't know them. He
can't see them. He hates them. Oh, my soul, you
keep telling me that my righteousness is no good, that I have no hope
but the righteousness of another. I don't want to hear it, they
say. That just hurts my pride. It offends my dignity. I'm a
sinner? We're not sinners now. Somebody may say, oh, we don't
even know a tenth of it. And they view it as torment.
It's an offense to them. Verse 11, he says, and after
three days and a half, the Spirit of life from God entered into
them. Now, here the Spirit of God enters into these dead bodies,
just like, just like, oh, Ezekiel prophesied to the bones and dead,
dry bones and breathed life into them. And they stood up upon
their feet. The church comes alive again,
and great fear fell upon them which saw them." I believe that's
talking about the second coming of Christ. After that short period
of time, just when the beast appears to win out, God raises
up this mighty army. who they thought was dead, and
to continue the church's witness of Christ in the second coming.
And the church, still described as two witnesses, now hears the
voice, says, Come up hither. Come up here. See verse 12. 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. I'll
tell you one thing about this. This is no secret rapture here.
It says their enemies beheld them being taken up in the cloud. Who's the cloud? That's Christ.
Same cloud that led Israel through the wilderness. This is no secret
rapture. It's not going to be you looking
around and saying, where did he go? Like the woman called up and
she couldn't get a hold of any of her relatives. She thought
the rapture had happened, so she called up everybody to see who
was around. No, it's not going to be, this
is not a secret. It says here, their enemies beheld
them. They saw what happened. And not
only that, it says in verse 13, in the same hour there was a
great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and the
earthquake were slain of men 7,000. The work of destruction,
see, the destruction of the earth is beginning here. A vast number
will be killed in this pending destruction. This is all symbolic
of the awful events on the very eve of final judgment, and that
number 7,000 is symbolic of the complete number of those destined
for destruction. Now, not everybody was immediately
destroyed. There was a part remaining. And
it says in verse 13, it says, and the remnant were affrighted.
It means they were afraid, not humbled, but afraid, and gave
glory to the God of heaven. This doesn't mean they were converted.
It simply means they were struck with terror and they acknowledged
God. Notice, it doesn't say they gave
glory to the God of redemption. Their fear was a legal fear and
their repentance was merely fear of punishment. You see, when
Christ comes again, every knee is going to bow and every tongue
is going to confess that He's Lord. For the people of God,
It'll be a willing submission to the Lord of Glory. Peaceful,
comfort, victory. For unbelievers, it'll be a forced,
forced submission to a God they do not love and do not want.
But it's comforting to believers, isn't it? It's a comforting picture
and set of circumstances that God will bring about to comfort
His people that the victory is won in Christ. All right. Brother Joe is going to come
and lead us in hymn number 384, Where He Leads Me, 384. I can hear my Savior calling. I can hear my Savior calling. Can hear my Savior calling. Take thy cross and follow, follow
me. Where he leads me, I will follow. Where he leads me, I will follow. He leads me, I will follow. I'll go with him, with him all
the way. I'll go with him through the
garden. I'll go with him through the
calling. Go with him through the garden. I'll go with him, with him all
the way. Where he leads me, I will follow. Where he leads me, I will follow. Where he leads me, I will follow. I'll go with Him, with Him, all
the way. I'll go with Him through the
judgment. I'll go with Him through the
judgment. I'll go with Him through the
judgment. I'll go with Him, with Him, all the way. Where he leads me,
I will follow. Where he leads me, I will follow. Where he leads me, I will follow. I'll go with him, with him, all
the way. He will give me grace and glory. He will give me grace and glory. He will give me grace and glory
and go with me, with me all the way. Where he leads me, I will
follow. Where he leads me, I will follow. Where he leads me, I will follow. I'll go with him, with him all
the way.