Turn to Isaiah 45, please. Isaiah 45. Today's Jesus offers eternal
life to as many as will let Him save them. But the Christ of
the Bible gives eternal life to as many as the Father hath
given Him. Look here in Isaiah 45. I want to start in verse
20. Assemble yourselves and come.
Draw near together, ye that are scept of the nations. They have
no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image, and
pray unto a God that cannot save. Tell me, and bring them near.
Yea, let them take counsel together. Who hath declared this from ancient
time? Who hath told it from that time?
Have not I the Lord? And there is no God else beside
me. a just God and a Savior. There is none beside me. Look
unto me, and be ye saved. All the ends of the earth, for
I am God, and there is none else. I have sworn by myself the word
has gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return. That unto
me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. Surely shall
one say in the Lord, have I righteousness? and strength even to him shall
men come, and all that are incest against him shall be ashamed.
In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall
glory. Baal boweth down, Nebo stoopeth,
their idols were upon the beast, and upon the cattle your carriages
were heavy loading. They are a burden to the weary
beast. They stoop, they bow down together. They could not deliver
the burden, but themselves have gone into captivity. Hearken
unto me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house
of Israel, which are born by me from the belly, which are
carried from the womb. And even to your old age I am
he, and even to whoreheirs will I carry you. I have made, and
I will bear. Even I will carry and deliver
you. To whom will ye liken me, and make me equal, and compare
me that we may be like? They lavish gold out of the bag.
They weigh silver in the balance, and hire a goldsmith, and he
maketh it a god. They fall down, yea, they worship.
They bear him upon the shoulder. They carry him and set him in
his place. And he standeth from his place, shall he not remove? Yea, one shall cry unto him,
yet can he not answer, nor save him out of his trouble. Remember
this, and show yourselves to men. Bring it again to mind,
O ye transgressors. Remember the former things of
old. For I am God, and there is none else. I am God, and there
is none like me. Declaring the end from the beginning
and from the ancient times the things that are not yet done,
saying my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure.
Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executes
my counsel from the far country, I have spoken it and I will also
bring it to pass. I have purposed it, I will also
do it. Hearken unto me, you stout-hearted
that are far from righteousness. I bring near my righteousness.
It shall not be far off, and my salvation shall not tarry.
And I will place salvation in Zion for Israel by glory. Don't leave when I'm finished
without giving me a hug, saying hi to me. I didn't get to shake
hands or speak to you, so it's good to see you. I want to study
some with you. This being a Sunday night, I
thought I'd just study a little bit with you if you'd like to
do that. Over in Revelation chapter 11, the book of Revelation chapter
11. And let me just read this chapter
to us. Revelation chapter 11 and let's
begin in verse 1. And there was given me a reed
likened to a rod, and the angel stood saying, rise and measure
the temple of God and the altar and them that worship therein.
But the 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 underfoot forty and two
months. And I will give power unto my
two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred
and threescore 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 proceedeth 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. And when they shall have finished
their testimony, the beast that descendeth 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
great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and 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. And they that dwell upon the
earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send
gifts one to another, because those two prophets tormented
them that dwell 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. In the same hour
was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city
fell. in the earthquake were slain of men 7,000, and the remnant
were fried and gave glory to the God of heaven. The second
woe is past, and behold, the third woe cometh quickly. And
the seventh angel sounded, and there were great voices in heaven
saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms
of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and
ever. And the four and twenty elders which sat before God on
their seats fell upon their faces and worshipped God, saying, We
give thee thanks, Lord God Almighty, which art and was and art to
come, 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 that they should
be judged. and that thou should give rewards unto thy servants
the prophets, and to the saints, and to them that fear thy name,
small and great, and shouldest destroy those which destroyed
the earth. And the temple of God was opened
in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of the
testament, and there was lightnings, and voices, and thunders, and
an earthquake, and hail." I want you to think with me just for
a few minutes tonight about these witnesses. these two witnesses
that were spoken of here in my text. Now I know, I realize that
this book is full of symbols and you can't establish doctrine
upon symbols. You just look at it and you get
a picture of what it is and it teaches us something. It teaches
us a lesson. And here you have these two witnesses.
We're told that witness for three and a half years, 1260 days. And when you see that number,
as you sometimes do during the book of Revelation, that's the
gospel age. Now, I don't have time and probably
not able. to go through and prove all of
this. So I trust you'll just read it
like the Bereans for yourself. But this is the Gospel Age. These
42 months are the time that the New Testament was established
there in the book of Acts all the way until the end of time.
And these two witnesses here is the church. We find out about
these candlesticks over in the first chapter and the second
chapter of this book. The seven golden candlesticks
are the seven churches. There he calls them seven churches
because seven is complete. Here he calls them two candlesticks
because these are witnesses. And under the law, they had to
have two witnesses to bring charges against anybody. And even when
the Lord sent his witnesses out in the New Testament, there were
always two of them, weren't there? So this is the two candlesticks,
but this is the church. of the Lord Jesus Christ. From
Acts chapter 2, the New Testament Church, up until this very hour,
and as long as this world stands, will be a witness for God. A witness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what he said, these
are my two witnesses. Witnesses. When the Lord was
ready to go back to heaven, he told his apostles, as he taught
them for many days concerning the kingdom of God, to be sure
and don't leave Jerusalem. He said, the Holy Spirit is coming. You're going to be endued with
power from on high. And then when you are, you're
going to be my witnesses. And there is when this witness
started. There is when these two witnesses
began to testify of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. You
shall be witnesses of me here in Jerusalem, in Judea, and in
Samaria, and into the uttermost parts of the earth. And you know
that's been almost 2,000 years ago, hasn't it? And isn't it
amazing that now, in 2017, we still witness The church is still here, witnessing
for the glory of God and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Go you unto all the nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to
observe all things. And that's what the church has
been doing for 2,000 years ago. But what do we witness? What
do we tell? Well, the Bible tells us this.
The Apostle Paul was leaving the church at Athias. He was going by to visit them
in Acts chapter 20. He said, I'll never see your
face again. But he said, I'm going up to Jerusalem and the
Holy Spirit witnesses to me that bonds and afflictions abide in
me everywhere I go. But he said, none of these things
move me. Now, if we want to know what
self-denial is, just listen to what the Apostle Paul says. What
is it to deny ourselves? It's not laying on a cold floor
naked in the middle of wintertime. To deny ourselves and take up
our cross and follow Christ is not to starve ourselves half
to death. Paul said this, these bonds and
afflictions abide me, but none of these things move me, neither
count I my life dear unto myself. Now, if you and I are going to
be witnesses for our Lord, there's one thing we need to come to
terms with. Our lives cannot be more dear
to us than him. I don't have a thing more dear
to me than him, do you? A man cannot stay in the ministry,
a man cannot live his life for the glory of the Lord if he has
anything that's more dear to himself than the message, than
the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. None of these things
move me. Neither can I life my life dear
to myself. Why? That I might finish my course
with joy and the ministry which I have received of the Lord and
here is what the church bears witness to. To testify of the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what you've been doing,
Donny, for several years, hasn't it? Down in the old block building,
I've heard you do it. I've heard you do it in Indiana.
Everywhere else, I've heard you testify to the gospel of the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, here's the mystery of this,
and I'll go back to this again. Here's the mystery of this. We
know these men that begin this, there were just 120 of them,
but they were personally taught of Christ. Even the Apostle Paul
on the road to Damascus, the Lord appeared to him. He gave
him all of these revelations and these fishermen and Matthew
the publican. We know why they went around
preaching the gospel of the grace of God, but how in the world
do you and I know it? Isn't that amazing that we know
it? Isn't it amazing that we're bearing witness to it all of
these years? We'll see why in just a minute.
Witnesses. Paul said, when I came to you,
I didn't come with excellency of speech or wisdom, declaring
unto you the testimony of God. I determined to know nothing
but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's our witnesses. We witness
of Him. And you know something else too,
don't we witness with our lives? The church witnesses with our
lives. When you got ready this morning
and when you got ready tonight, and your neighbor who never tends
to worship, has no interest in God, doesn't even realize he's
got a precious eternity-bound soul, when he saw you get in
your vehicle this morning and come here, you spoke to his mind. You know what you said? I'm going
to worship the living God. You are to be there yourself.
I'm going to hear the gospel. You should come and hear it yourself.
Every time we come as a church and partake of the Lord's body,
you know what we do? We bear witness. We bear witness. We show forth the Lord's death
until He comes. As you live your life, as you
men and you ladies, you work your job, and as you keep your
home, and you do all that you do for the glory of God, you
know what you do, you bear witness. This world sees your good works. Let your light shine before men
that they may see your good works. This is what the church has been
doing now for all these hundreds and even thousands of years.
God has a testimony in this world. He has a witness in this world. I will give power to my two witnesses. And they've been continuing all
this time. But here we have not only, you
notice this, candlesticks, these two candlesticks, but we have
two olive trees. We have two olive trees. And
I'm not even going to stop to try to prove this either, but
I think you'll see this better in just a minute. But these two
olive trees Now I say these are symbols, these are symbols, and
you be careful when you squeeze these things too tight. You'll
get blood out of them and that won't do you a bit of good. Don't
squeeze them too tight. But these two olive trees are
the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Now I think I'll
show you that in just a minute, but let me simply read you a
couple of passages concerning the Lord Jesus Christ and the
Holy Spirit. Listen to what he told Pilate
when Pilate was judging him. He told Pilate in John 18, 37,
To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world,
that I should bear witness to the truth. He's a witness. He's a faithful and true witness.
This book calls him that. And everyone who is of the truth,
he hears me. And what did he do when he came
down from heaven? Well, I tell you, he witnessed.
He witnessed. And I tell you, one of the greatest,
most comforting things that he ever witnessed to us, too, was
of the Father. He knows the Father's heart,
doesn't He? Nobody knows the Father but the
Son. He knows Him right well. Had
all eternity He spent with Him. And He came down from Heaven
and He told us of the Father's special care for His children. Who made the Son come up this
morning? We know that. We know why the sun came up this
morning. We know why it rose. We know
who caused it to rise. My father. That's what he said
with me. My father. Who sends the rain? It'll be raining tomorrow. Please
don't complain about the rain. Who sent it? My father sends
the rain. And He sends it on the just and
the unjust, and the good and the evil. He protects everybody,
doesn't He? If this world has anything, it's
from the Father. But you know, He has this special
protection for His children. And the reason we know that is
because the Son of God bore witness to it. He come to testify of
it. He says, He said, My little children, Don't be anxious about
this world. Don't be so concerned that you
get sick and wear it and can't even worship because you're so
concerned about what you're going to eat and what you're going
to wear and your shelter and all of this. He said, let me
tell you about your father. He feeds the lilies. He feeds
the little birds in the air and he clothes the lilies and he
cares for you. And He says, and He told us,
don't worry about securing yourself. Don't worry about that. Your
Father will do that. You seek first the Kingdom of
God and His righteousness, and My Father will provide all of
this for you. He cares for you. How do we know
God cares for His people? We got a faithful and true witness
that knows the Father well. And something else He bore witness
to, too, to His people. He said, let me tell you what
pleases the Father. And it's going to please Him
more than anything you can imagine what's going to please my Father
to do for you. It pleases Him to give you His
kingdom. Ain't that wonderful? That's
just wonderful. We live in this sorry world of
uncertainty. Sometimes I get afraid, don't
you? I don't know what's going to happen to me tonight and you
don't know what's going to happen to you tomorrow. These things
that we go through and we're so concerned about and the uncertainty
of them. So many things, we just don't
know. But I tell you, we know about one thing. We don't have
to entertain any doubts or fears about this one thing. The kingdom
is ours. He that come down from heaven
told us that, did he not? He bore witness to the truth.
He knows the Father's heart. And he says, listen, it's your
Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. I'm half tempted
to write all of my children out of what little will I've got.
They've so aggravated me. But I'll leave them something
if I've got anything left. But they'll waste it. They'll
waste it. I'll write them out something, and all the time I'm
doing it, I'll say, I shouldn't do this. Man, this is awful.
I should give it to somebody that's going to use it. It won't
be much of a pleasure to leave my son anything. He'll probably
drug up and commit suicide. Wouldn't that be awful? But I
tell you, brothers and sisters, the Father takes great pleasure
in giving all He has, all He'll ever make, giving Himself to
His people. It's His good pleasure, and He'll
not regret doing it with you. How do we know that? We've got
a faithful witness. But you know the Lord Jesus Christ, He not
only witnessed to His people for their great joy and assurance,
but boy, He bore witness to this world, not for it, but against
it. He said, the world can't hate
you. It can't hate you, but it hates me. You fellows, those
poor ignorant disciples, they hadn't learned anything much
yet. And he said, the world can't hate you. But it hates me because
I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil. I testify of
the world. I look a man right in his eyes
and I say, listen, in your heart of hearts, You're evil. Evil
is proceeding out of your heart. That's your whole trouble, is
your wicked, evil heart. And he says, the world hates
me because of it. That's what he said, wasn't it? He bore witness. He testified
of that. He testified of a day, the end
of this age, the end of the world. He says the world's not going
to continue as it is. He said the world's concerned
themselves with all the things they can gather up, worship these
things, love this world, but he said it's all coming to an
end. He bore witness to the end of this world. He said there's
coming an hour when all that are in the graves are going to
hear my voice and all of them's going to come out of their graves
and they're going to come up before me in my presence at my
feet and before my throne. They that have done good to the
resurrection of life, they that have done evil to the resurrection
of damnation. Jesus Christ is a witness. He's one of these olive trees.
And then the Holy Spirit, when the Spirit of truth is come,
He's coming. He's coming, the Lord said. He's
coming and He's coming to bear witness. He's coming to bear
witness to you Hasn't he bore witness to you? Why, sure he
has. The Spirit bears witness with
our spirit that we are the children of God. And you know something? He bears witness through the
preachers too, doesn't he? When Paul stood before Agrippa,
was it Philix or Agrippa, and said, you know, he reasoned with
him of righteousness and and judgment to come, and temperance,
and he trembled? What made him tremble? It wasn't
that he didn't hear the voice of Paul. The Holy Spirit bore
witness through that message to that man's conscience, and
he shook. He shook. When he's come, he
will judge the world. He will convince the world of
sin and righteousness and judgment to come. So we have these two
heavenly witnesses, the two heavenly. witnesses, the Lord Jesus Christ
and the Holy Spirit. I want you now to turn with me,
I want you to hold this, but I want you to turn over with
me and I want you to see this because I think Zechariah chapter
4 has a good commentary on this, these two olive trees. Now I
want you to see this. These are the two olive trees
that are standing before God, the God of all the earth. This
was amazing, I love this. Over in Zechariah, I'll give
you just a second here to see it. The children of Israel had
came back out of bondage to rebuild the temple. The temple had been
destroyed. And Zerubbabel, a man by the
name of Zerubbabel, had came back and he had laid the first
foundation stone to the temple. And they ran into all kinds of
trouble. They got into mountains of trouble. And they struggled and had all
the rubbish they had to move, and the enemies were fighting
against them, and they thought, we're not going to finish this
temple. We're just not going to finish this temple. We can't
finish the temple. And this is what the fourth chapter of Zechariah
is about. And I want to just sort of read
it to you, and look what the Lord says. In verse 1, Zechariah
chapter 4, did you find it? 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 of gold. Now what is that? That's
the church, isn't it? The Bible is the best interpreter
of the Bible. Why is it just one candlestick?
Well, there's just one church. Over in the book of Revelation,
there are seven candlesticks. That is the complete church.
The church is complete. Revelation chapter 11, there
are two because they are witnesses. So here is one church. It is
a candlestick. It is a lampstand of gold. And look at this. It had a bowl
on the top of it, and His seven lamps thereon. One candlestick
holding seven lamps. Have you seen that drawing in
the temple? All of us have, haven't we? You
go into the holy place and you see this lampstand and it had
seven lights on it. And the priests went in there
every day and filled those little reservoirs up so the lights would
keep burning every day in that lamp. And here we had seven lampstands
and seven pipes to the seven lamps which are upon the top
thereof, and two olive trees, there they are, stood by it,
one on the right side of the bowl, and the other on the left
side thereof. And I answered and spake 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. Well,
he should have known. His best friend was Joshua the
high priest. Surely he should have known what
this lamp was, with its lampstand, with all of its seven lamps. How many times had Joshua, his
friend, gone in and filled those little lamps full of oil so the
light could keep burning? And yet he said, What is this?
I don't know what this is. And he asked that question again,
look in verse 11, And I answered and said unto him, What are these
two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick, and
upon the left side thereof? And I answered again and said
unto him, He didn't even give him time to answer, What be those
two olive branches? which through the two golden
pipes emptied the golden oil out of themselves. And he answered
me and said, knowest thou not what these are? And I said, no,
my Lord. Then he said, these are the two anointed ones that
stand by the Lord of the whole earth. Now here's the picture
that Zechariah gives us. Here's this lamp stand sitting
on the floor. It has these seven lamps on it.
you've got these tubes going up out of each lamp, and they
go into these seven tubes that's feeding these lamps, go into
two large tubes, and they go up to this huge bowl that's on
top. And on each side he saw these
olive trees, one on each side, and then the branches where the
olives was leaning over into the bowl, and the oil was running
into the bowl, down through the two tubes, down through each
tube into the lamp. And that's why the lamps were
continuing to burn. The olive bush was continually
pouring oil into the tubes which went down to each little lamp. And that's why the lamp never
went out. Now under the ceremonial law, the priest supplied the
oil. But under the gospel, heaven supplies the oil. I will give
power to my two witnesses. Where does this all come from?
Look what he says in verse 6. Here's what he said. Then he
answered and spake to me, saying, This is the word of the Lord
to Zerubbabel. And here's what he's saying,
not by might, nor by power, not by might of man or power of man,
but by my spirit, saith the Lord. And then he says this, who art
thou, O great mountain? And boy, they were facing some.
Their enemies were trying to shut them down. Who are you before
Zerubbabel? You shall become a plain, and
he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shouting, crying,
grace, grace, unto it. And moreover the word of the
Lord come to me, saying, The hands of Zerubbabel hath laid
the foundation of this house, and his hands shall also finish
it, and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me
unto you." So this is the Spirit and the grace and the power of
the Lord Himself, and this is the way we know how these two
witnesses kept witnesses from the early church on up until
this very day. How in the world have we maintained
the witness? It's because this heavenly oil,
not by the might of man or the power of man, but by my Spirit. That's the way we've continued
to worship. The living Lord continually supplies
grace and power to His church. Boy, it's not easy, is it? It's
not easy, but it can be done and it has been done and it will
continue to be done as long as there is grace in the heart of
Jesus Christ to supply to His church. And I guess if you want
to follow some references on this and probably prove this
just a little bit further, when Those people became persecuted
in the early church and they went everywhere preaching. The
Bible says the Lord worked with them. There He is, isn't it? And Peter said, we've preached
the gospel. How? Well, the Holy Ghost sent
down from heaven. So there's these two heavenly
witnesses. We have the earthly witnesses,
we have the heavenly witnesses, but here's the thing about these
heavenly witnesses. It's because of them. that the
earthly witnesses are still able to witness. And you notice they continued
until the spirit of life went out of them. Look back over at
Revelations again with me, right quickly, Revelation chapter 11.
Look at something else that's so peculiar, and I'm going to
just hit on this for a minute, and I don't know if I'm right
about this or not, But I want to say something about this because
it has it here. Look at the authority of these
two witnesses in verses 5-6. If any man will hurt them, fire
proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies.
And if any man will hurt them, they must in this manner be killed. These have power to shut up heaven,
that it rain not in the days of their prophecy, have power
over waters to turn them to blood, and smite the earth with all
plagues, as often as they will. Now one thing we need to remember,
these are symbols, these are just symbols. And another thing
we can know now by looking back, this has never been literally
done by the church. Moses turned their rivers in
Egypt into blood. Elijah called them far from heaven,
but the churches never did this. But he said every time they opened
their mouth, fire proceeds. and devours their enemy. Well,
you know what the Bible calls itself? Fire. When you preach,
fire proceeds out of your mouth. Fire out of their mouth. I will make my word in your mouth
fire, and this people as wood, and it shall devour them. Jeremiah
chapter 5 and verse 14. Is not my word like a fire, saith
the Lord, and like a hammer that breaketh in pieces? Boy, I tell
you what, when a man preaches the word of God, it is like fire,
isn't it? It will burn every prop up and
under, I tell you that. And you know something else about
this fire? If your enemy hunger, feed him. If he's thirsty, give him to
drink. If he curses you, bless him. In so doing, you shall heap
coals of fire on his head. I tell you, I wouldn't want to
be in this world persecuting these witnesses, would you? Not
persecuting the Lord's saints. Oh, my. Fire. Fire. And the church as God's witnesses
by His Word can shut up heaven. That it reign no grace down upon
this world. The Lord said to Peter, I'm going
to give you the keys to the kingdom. And what you bind on earth is
going to be bound in heaven. And you know we've still got
those keys today. There is no grace coming to any man but as
the church preaches the truth to them. We've got power to shut
up heaven. Just quit preaching the truth.
God is chosen by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. We tell men there's no redemption,
there's no forgiveness of sins, except through the blood of Jesus
Christ. And I'm telling you, until they're
saved that way, heaven is shut up. There's no rain, there's
no showers of blessings, but as the church preaches the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, I don't know if that's
the true meaning, but it sounds good, doesn't it? It sounds scripture. Listen to this and see if this
probably isn't so. The church don't have the authority
to send plagues or to shed blood. But you know something? It has
the authority to announce these things and to share it in. and
the reason for them. And we do, don't we? Boy, a man's
got his sword drawn on God. You know what we tell him? Man,
you better pull up your weapons. You think you have a sword on
God? You let him whet his glittering sword. He's going to have your
blood. You got your heart angry with
the church, angry with these witnesses because you're telling
the truth and you're persecuting them? You think they're worthy
of your sword? You think they're worthy of you
to kill them? Man, heaven's wrath's on you,
world. You're going to be plagued. You're going to have wars. You're
going to have trouble. You're going to have heartaches.
You're going to have sorrow. And then you're going to have
death. Man, we pronounce all of these plagues on this world.
It's coming. You sold to the flesh. You will
of the flesh reap corruption. And what do they say? You ain't,
don't you talk like that to us. We know what we're doing. We
can figure this out. We're going to have peace and
safety. That's what we're going to have. And they hate the church
for telling the truth. No, we know what we're doing. I remember after I was reading
some history about the wars in our country, and they said after
World War I, all the big shots got together and said, let's
get the League of Nations. If we can get the League of Nations,
we'll have peace, worldwide peace. It went along to World War II,
and they said, let's get NATO, and it'll never happen again.
Went along, Vietnam, Korean conflict, Desert Storm, Desert Shield,
and this war and that war. And the world is saying, no,
we've got peace and safety, we can do this. And the church says,
no, there's nothing but plagues coming, nothing but bloodshed
and sorrow. And they spit in our face and
they go off and what happens? Bloodshed and sorrow. That's
all. And they blame the church. You're
the cause of this. These witnesses, these witnesses,
boy, they have some authority, don't they? As long as they're
true to God, as long as they're preaching the gospel, they have
heaven behind them. And God have mercy upon a world
that don't listen. Now look at this in verse 7.
Look at the death of these two witnesses in verse 7. And when they shall have finished
their testimony, the beast that ascended out of the bottomless
pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and
kill them. The death of these two witnesses. There's coming a time when their
testimony will be finished. It's going to be done. The world
said, I wish you would shut your mouth, just give it a little
while longer and her testimony is going to be finished. The
three and a half years, the 42 months will come to an end and
her testimony will be finished. Notice what he says here, the
beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit made war against
these two witnesses. That is nothing unusual, he has
always did that, hasn't he? We've always wrestled against
flesh and blood, not against flesh and blood, but principalities
and powers. Satan has always hated the witnesses
and sought to destroy them. We've fought him until this very
day, haven't we? The next thing has never happened
before in the history of the church, and he overcame them. That's never happened before.
John wrote to the church and said, You're strong. The Word
of God abides in you, and you have overcome the wicked one.
But here they are overcome. It does not sound good, does
it? They are overcome. The witnesses
are overcome. And he went on even farther than
that, and he said the beast kills them. He kills them. He wars against them, he overcomes
them, and he kills them. I do not know really how to take
this. In one sense, I do not know if And many of the church
in this time is going to be killed physically, maybe so. But I think
mainly it's speaking as to the death of her testimony. She's
killed as far as her testimony is concerned. And she lays in
the street, we're told this, dead, lifeless. And her testimony
is finished. I don't have any idea when this
day is coming, but it's coming. It's coming. Seems like to me
we were a downhill slide, boy, the last few years headed in
that direction. Didn't it, you? The world, have
you noticed the way the world is going? How will we know when the testimony
is finished? This won't happen until the testimony
is finished. How will we know when the testimony
is finished? Well, when the world hears their
witness only to mock it, just to mock it. Nobody is saved by
it. Nobody hears it. When they do,
they just mock it. They scorn it. As it was in the
days of Lot, so shall it be in the days of the coming of the
Son of Man." How was it in the days of Lot? When he went and
told his relatives, up and get out of this place, what happened?
He appeared just one that mocked. You mock, you old man, you stupid
old man, get out of our face. And they laughed at him, they
mocked at him. Peter said there would come in the last days scoffers. mockers, critics, not just one
or two. He'd have never told us that
if it had been in the minority. But I think what Peter's saying,
the majority, the overwhelming majority, will be scoffers in
the last day. What's going to happen, brothers
and sisters, when the governments scoff? The law enforcement scoffs? The schools, all of our institutions,
men and women everywhere do nothing but scoff and mock and laugh
when they hear the gospel. Well, that's the day that's coming.
Nobody is saved by the gospel. The witness is finished. The
fullness of the Gentiles has come in. Nobody will be saved. What a sad, dangerous time. Surely that will be. What a sad
time. What a sad time. What a grievous
time. Their dead bodies shall lie in
the street. They want Him to suffer their
dead bodies to be put in the grave. Oh, what a sad time for
the church, brother Donnie. For the church. And I'd never
believe it if I didn't find it here in the Word of God. What's
coming upon the poor church. Some call it the time of Jacob's
trouble. But it'll be trouble. Grievous
trouble, grievous trouble. The church will lay lifeless
and useless as a corpse as far as the witness is concerned. And you think the world loves
the church? This is Christmas to them. Yeah, they said, man,
Christmas has come. Let's send gifts to each other.
They were dancing in the street, James. They were laughing and
rejoicing. Look at their dead bodies. They
finally shut their traps. And we're so happy. We'll never
hear them again. It's Christmas. Oh, it's Christmas. Decorate our trees and buy presents. Send them one to another. The
church is dead. The witness is dead. They'll
torment us no more. Now, that's what the world's
going to think about the church. But you know, brothers and sisters,
in a way, in a way, the church can't complain too much in that
day, whenever it is, because the Bible says this day will
not come except there come a falling away Many are going to depart
from the faith, or some are going to depart from the faith. And
I think when Paul said that, he was talking about prominent
religious people, renowned professors of Christianity. And when they
depart from the faith, what's that going to do? It's going
to bring great shame and reproach on the Lord and on the church.
The church is going to lose her testimony. There's going to be
a falling away. locked. Why didn't his testimony
have any influence over his sons-in-law? Man, he'd been among them for
quite a while, hadn't he? He was a righteous man, but my
soul, what was he doing there? Associating with people when
he had no need to. I don't know what the church
is going to look like at this time, but it's going to be very
weak. It's going to be very weak. Most
of you probably heard General Calley. He was talking about
the sad state that our country's in, giving a news conference
the other day, and he said there was a time when women were respected,
honored. There was a time when Life was
valued, the sanctity of life. My soul, how many babies have
we killed in this nation in the last 20 years? Is life valued? And then he said, religion. Look
how religion has deteriorated. And everybody's lumped together.
We just had a prominent minister just south of where I live, they
just arrested him. I saw on the national news, they
just arrested this man. for molesting little children,
a pastor of a prominent church. You think he's going to have
a witness and they lump us all together? A great falling away
and there's coming a time when the world probably in some sort
of justice, ironically, are going to say, you're as bad as we are.
Ain't that sad? A falling away. But in those
days, you'll see how much the world loves the church. Brothers
and sisters, I wish I could get this in my head. This world that
we live in hates God. It hates our Savior. It hates
His gospel. There's no sense of us trying
to court its favor. There's no sense of us being
afraid of it. It's not a friend to us. It's not a friend to our
Lord. When He was here, they killed Him. And He died. Where? Where did He die? In Sodom. Where did He die? In Egypt. Now
He didn't literally die there, but what does that represent
to us? Sodom. And this is the street the church
is going to lay in. The world is going to become
Sodom. Headed that way, is it not? It's
going to become Sodom. Ruled by its lust. It s going
to become Egypt! Oppression! That s what we re
going to see in the last days. Unmitigated, uncontrolled lust. Men walking after their open
lust and hating you if you don t consent to it. And they re
going to oppress. This world says it loves Islam. We love the Islam religion. Well,
you may get a chance to embrace them when the church lays dead
in the street. And you see then, you see then,
when you have no head on your shoulder, the loving church,
a gracious church, a merciful church, and you hated it? Yes. Why? They tormented us. They
tormented us. What is it about the church that
torments this world? To preach sovereign grace? To
preach free and sovereign grace in Jesus Christ torments this
world? Torments their conscience. Men
aren't saved any other way. I won't have that. I won't have
that. You mix it up with some works
and I'll take it. But not free grace. Forgiveness
of sins? You hate me because of that?
I tell you, there's forgiveness of sins in the blood of Christ.
Yeah, but I don't have any of that. I tell you, the world is
tormented by the church. They're tormented when you go
to work because you're a witness to Christ right there where you
work, James. And it torments them. It torments their conscience,
doesn't it? And the world rejoices and these
two witnesses lay there for three and a half days in the streets
of this city. And the world rejoices and sends
their presence and they laugh and shout. But their joy is short-lived. It will be short-lived. How long
will this last for three and a half days? That's not long,
is it? That's not long. And the Lord
speaks, the Spirit of Life enters back into them. That was their
problem. That's why they couldn't witness
anymore. The Spirit of Life had left them. I've tried to preach
without the Holy Spirit. Haven't you done it? And I tell
you what, if I had to do it more than five or six times, I'd quit.
I would quit. You can't do it. That's why the
church... Can you serve the Lord? Can you
shine as a light in this world without the Spirit of life? No,
you can't. Without Him, we're dead corpse,
aren't we? But boy, after three and a half
days, He entered into them. And they stood up on their feet
and he spoke to them and said, come up here. The world hates
you, but I love you. The world kills you, but I've
given you life. Now come up here and be with
me for all eternity. And the world changed its tune
right quick and got afraid. Didn't repent, but said, boy,
we're in trouble. Three things right quick for
the comfort of the poor church in that day. This witness won't
be finished. Their witness will not be finished. It's impossible to stop the witness
of the church. You will not stop her witness
for Jesus Christ until God says it's time. He's got the days
numbered, and they will not cease to witness until they come to
the end of those 1260 days, whenever that is. Nothing's going to stop
you, Donny Bell. I don't care what kind of trouble
you go through, how the devil rages against your conscience,
turns your world upside down, hasn't stopped you yet, has it?
No. And it won't. You have no oil poured in. Oil
from heaven has been poured in. And the duration of her death
will be short-lived, three and a half days. That's not long.
That's not long. Bless her heart. She can wait
that long. She can lay and be trampled in
the mud and spit on life that long, just three and a half days.
And she needs to take this for her encouragement. God will quickly
give His church a complete and eternal victory, never to suffer
again at the hands of this world. I just wanted to encourage you,
brothers and sisters, be renewed in your testimony for our Lord.
Be renewed in it. Go to your neighbors when you
get a chance across the fence. Maybe you've been just a little
bit down about witnessing to Him and it hasn't done any good.
Try it again. Try it again. Take your pastor's outline to
work with you. Preach to them. Do it again.
Do it again. Oh, the Lord bless you. The Lord
bless you. I always enjoy seeing you, and I always try to preach
to you, and I just enjoy it. I just enjoy it. And you're so
patient and attentive, and I love you. And I want a hug before
you go, okay? I'll go out back and out the
door, and you can hug me.