Now, Revelation 11, if you've
read it, how many of you read it this week, just in preparation?
Alright, it's pretty weird. I mean, there's some stuff here
that you're like, eh, I'm looking forward to seeing what this might
be. Well, remember some of the things that we've learned as
we've started looking to learn to read Revelation is that its
genre doesn't change. The type of literature that it
is doesn't change. It's apocalyptic literature.
The context within the writing, remember that John did not put
a big 11 there. John did not put the two witnesses
at the top. John did not break the thought.
But we did that later in history so that we can find the text.
So as we're reading continually in this letter, we are now still
in the same style of writing. We're still in the same context.
We're still looking at this repeated picture. of judgment or of impending
judgment and we're still seeing some things that are happening
continually. Now there are a lot of people
who like to put a lot of effort into identifying what's going
on in chapter 11. And I have heard through my lifetime
a lot of different things. But it bears to be reminded that
when we see the pictures of all these other chapters, and then
we begin to see the pictures of chapter 11, and then in 13,
and then in 19, and 15, and 19, and some other places, we don't
need to all of a sudden say, okay, John's showing us pictures,
and now John's being literal. John's showing us imagery, now
John's talking about an actual narrative of the future. We can't
mix that. If it's not the same for the
beginning, it's not the same for the middle, it's not the
same for the end. And that's what's been very frustrating
for so many of us through the years of trying to figure out
how to interpret this book because we need to interpret it ideally
as we read it in its context. So what? What difference does
it make? What difference did it make to the people of its
day? And what difference does it make for us this evening?
And I will tell you that chapter 11 is probably one of the most
difficult passages when dealing with Revelation. It's one of
the toughest because it's got a very gruesome picture of some
folks laying dead in the street, of a beast coming and killing
them, and fire coming out of people's mouths and all this
other kind of stuff. And if we were to turn that into a Hollywood
movie, it'd look like X-Men on fire. I mean, it'd be a pretty
neat system to watch somebody put special effects on. But it's
not about X-Men on fire. It's not about any of these things. What is the theme that we've
been hearing since Chapter 6? Judgment. judgment, that God
has a pending or an anticipatory judgment of all humanity. Those who are righteous are sealed
for all of eternity in Jesus Christ. Those who are not righteous,
those who do not believe, those who do not have faith, they're
not sealed by the Spirit, they will endure the judgment of God.
Remember that we are human beings, so the pictures that we see need
to be equally an opportunity for us to understand in some
sense, though we know that the judgment of the Lord is quick
and immediate. Sometimes we see the narrative playing out as
though the day of the Lord where people are hiding but they can't
hide, where people are running but they can't get away. It's
not the fact that this is how God's going to do it. He's not
going to shake the earth for a couple of days while people run for
their lives. It's going to be an immediate thing that we know
because the day of the Lord will reveal everything. But yet the
language of Revelation is supposed to help us grasp the severity
of it, as well as the blessing of it for the church. The severity
of it for unbelievers and the blessing of the church. One thing
that we've seen is we've seen these trumpets, these bowls,
not the bowls yet, seals and now trumpets, and we're going
to see some bowls. Remember that sevens are important, twelves
are important, and now tonight we're going to see that there's
some numbers that John's playing with again. He's using sevens
math. So now we've got to figure out
how to do math and if you know anything about multiples and
multiplication division you'll see that John is continuing to
use derivatives of 7 and multiples of 7 as he talks tonight. So let's get into it as we get
started. I'm going to read a few verses,
talk about them, read a few verses, talk about them. Chapter 11,
verse 1. Then I, remember who's speaking, John, was given a measuring
rod like a staff, and I was told, rise and measure the temple of
God and the altar and those who worship there. But do not measure
the court outside the temple. Leave that out, for it is given
over to the nations that they may trample the holy city for
42 months. And I will grant authority to
my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1260 days, clothed
in sackcloth. All right, so now we're thinking, what in the world
is happening here? Why isn't that about just two
people in sackcloth testifying? And why isn't this really about
42 months, 1260 days? And why isn't this about measuring
a temple? But why would this all of a sudden
start this? John was just commissioned to
do what? To continue to preach. Then John was shown the vision,
this interlude before the judgment, between the sixth and seventh
seal, before the judgment. Now we're to measure, sort of
giving a rod like a staff, rise and measure the temple of God
and the altar and those who worship there. But before I get into
that, I want to explain some of the numbers because it's really
important to get the picture of these numbers because they're
all throughout this text. So let's think about 42 months
for a moment. If somebody thinks about 42 months
and that's actually the same as 1260 days as we see there
in verse 3, this number is 7 times 6 is what? 42, alright? And the number of days in 42
months, with the assumption, with the general assumption,
a month is 30 days, is 1260 days. And so here in this picture,
we're seeing John use a Jewish type of language, a Jewish type
of imagery, where he's taking the derivatives, or not the derivatives,
but multiplying 7, and showing the perfection of everything
that God is talking about. So it's a completeness. Because
remember what 7 is? fullness, completeness, finished. God rested on the seventh day.
Seventh is holy. Seventh is perfect. Seventh is
complete. So these 42 months and 1260 days, the number 42
is 7 times 6 and the number of days and 42 months is 1260. So
the two are identical in length. And here in Revelation chapter
11, they have the same sort of usage that we see in Daniel chapter
7. And if any of you have ever read
Daniel, you know the 70 weeks in Daniel that are prophesied
there. The expression that we see in Daniel is time, times,
and a half a time. Remember that? And so we start
seeing time, and then time and a half, and then half a time.
I failed math. Let's call Trey. He can help
us understand what that means. But it's not trying to get us
to figure out a specific day or a specific length of time.
It's just to show us a few things. In Daniel, if you will, and Revelation
chapter 11, they're used to express the exact same idea, which is
there's something complete that's about to take place. Forty-two
months is three and a half years. Sometimes years are indicated
as days. So three-and-a-half days is indicated
three-and-a-half years. Three-and-a-half years is what?
Half of seven. And so it's not a fullness, but
yet it's half full. And so what we need to understand
about this three-and-a-half, as we'll see later on down in
this text here, is that there's suffering that takes place and
it's not It's not complete suffering. It's half of complete suffering.
So John's intention here is not to have his readers, although
I think they might have been a little confused. I mean, I
don't know for sure, but they probably didn't read too much
into it. They didn't gather in circles and say, hold on, let's
do this and let's figure this out. What does he mean? They
probably just meant, well, okay, this is indicative of the type
of writing we're used to and that's half of seven. It's a
number of completeness. So there's a season here that's not going
to be forever. And I think that's what John's
trying to help us understand. So in this, it's not dealing
with, if you will, in Revelation, some people would say, I'll just
help you understand this, that John is trying to reveal the
destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. Well, friends, we
know this letter was written in the 90s. We know historically
that Jerusalem was taken in 70 AD. 25, 26 years difference. Why would John
write a letter prophesying about the destruction of a temple that
was already destroyed? It's not there. So, we're not
looking to figure out when that's going to be, because it's already
taken place. A lot of people have come to
that conclusion, especially since about the 1920s and 30s, because
it fits in what we call a dispensational understanding of the Bible. A
different time period for each different thing. And that some
people believe that, you know, there is a pre-tribulation, and
that a tribulation is going to be seven years, or three and
a half years of peace, three and a half years of of suffering,
and that there's going to be a private, invisible rapture,
that Christians are just going to vanish at the end of that
three and a half years, and that the devil's going to come out
of some kind of hiding or holding cell, and he's going to sit into
this new temple that John was measuring, and then some things
are going to take place. And we'll see how that looks
later on when we start getting into some of the other beasts
that we see here in this letter. But the point is to understand
that John is not trying to teach us something hidden, but he's
very clearly trying to show us something that's not full or
complete or eternal. This is not dealing with the
destruction of the temple by the mere common sense that why
would we be talking about the destruction of a temple that
John was just told to go measure? Does that make sense? Don't measure
the outside because the unbelievers are out there. Don't measure
that. What is the point of being measured in the first place?
The point of being measured is just not the measure of those.
What did John say? I heard a number, a count, a
measure, and their number was 144,000. 12,000 from this tribe, 12,000 from
this tribe, 12,000 from this tribe, 12 is the number of completeness.
So we've got 12,000. We've got 12 times 12, and 12,000
times 12 is 144,000. We've got all this. It's showing
that the fullness of the people of God are in. They're sealed. They're protected. Nobody is
going to be lost. Jesus says that all that the
Father give to me come to me and all that come to me I will
never cast away. I will never throw away. So that
if we are in Christ Jesus, we have absolute certainty. No matter
what we're going through, no matter what suffering may come
upon us, no matter what calamity or persecution or even death
and martyrdom comes, we are not going to die and lose our eternal
life, even though we may die in the flesh. So, the same type
of thing is happening here. It's not a new temple, because
even in the context of this verse, though we're measuring a temple,
we know that it's preserved, because the temple are the...
Somebody's Morse coding out here. But we also know that the people
are the temple of God. Do we not? Are we not the temple?
Is Jesus not the temple? Are we the pillars in the temple?
Those are the images that we see continually. So in this context,
if we're thinking that there's a new temple to be measured out
and made, not only do we violate the common sense of the text,
but we also violate the common sense of our theology. We violate
the common sense of the theology in that we know that Jesus Christ
is the great high priest. He's the final lamb. There is
no reason to have a temple because Jesus himself, I know that's
redundant, but Jesus Specifically said in John chapter 4, there
will come a day, and now is this time, the time is now, that no
one will worship on this mountain or that mountain, but that all
will worship the Father in what? Spirit and in truth. So we don't,
our worship is not bound up to this room. Our worship of God
is not bound up to the other place we work. The worship of
God wasn't bound to my living room when we started Grace Truth
Church four and a half, five years ago. It's not bound to
where we are. We worship in spirit together.
We worship in truth together. So God has no intention of having
a place set apart wholly where He meets man anymore. The Holy
of Holies is a place that's symbolic of the presence of God with His
people. And the mercy seat, Jesus Christ is the mercy seat. Jesus
Christ is where God meets man now. Jesus Christ is the mediator. So there's no real reason for
us to just throw out all that was clear, and I pray that it
has been clear up to this point, all that was clear of these first
ten chapters, then all of a sudden now we're shifting gears into
this narrative of of discovery. In Daniel chapter 9, verse 27,
we start to see about these 70 weeks. And we're not going to
go there, and quite honestly, I'm not as fluent on what Daniel
teaches. I remember when I first, I took
four classes on Revelation and eschatology when I was in my
seminary studies. Only one was required, but it
wasn't good enough, so I'd go to a different school and take
another one, and then I'd sign up and take an audit class at
another school, and then I'd go and try to figure out how
to look at the other classes and some other seminaries and
universities, and I'd download their coursework and then I'd
just do it again, because I never could find the answers that I
was looking for. I never could find the point
of all this, because everybody teaches Daniel and Revelation
from a very bulleted form. In other words, they don't read
it and say, I mean, have you ever found a commentary that
goes through verse by verse of Revelation? doesn't really exist. I mean, they do in antiquity,
but they don't really exist in present day because if you look
at it, you usually have Daniel and Revelation together in those
things because it's more of an eschatological commentary. It's
more of a topical commentary. And then they take these things
and you've got more charts in there than you do words. You've
got more pictures than you do, and drawings than you do anything
else. If we start looking and figuring
out, well, this means that, and this means this, and that means
that, and we've got... When we piece the book together,
which really everything we've probably been taught as Americans
about Revelation can fit on one or two index cards. It's shorter
than the entire letter itself. And I believe that though there
is an allusion, remember I talked about allusion last week and
the week before? That means it's a look back to something. I think
it's very obvious for the readers of Revelation in the first century
to know that there was some symbolism that was in Daniel that is also
at play here. Are they talking about the same
thing? Maybe so, but it's not important to the context of the
letter. It's not important to understand that. But when we
see in Daniel chapter 9, They'll be 70 weeks. Now you know what's
going on in Daniel. They've been in captivity for
a long, long time. And the word of God is, or God
is teaching him, they're going to be in captivity for 69 weeks.
And then at the end of 69 weeks, in the 70th week, it's going
to be split into two. Three and a half days and then
three and a half days. Does that not sound familiar? We see it right here in this
section of Revelation. But God reveals in that last
week, the period of suffering is over. And in this last week,
we're going to set it up and there's going to be half of it
that's going to be tough. And what happens at the end of the
70th week, just like the 77th trumpet and the 7th bowl and
the 7th seal, it's the end. Christ returns. But in preparation
for that, things are geared up and are presently also being
experienced by people who follow Christ and people who belong
to the Lord. Captivity and martyrdom and suffering. And so here, In
the latter part of the end of the seventh week in Daniel chapter
9, God redeems His people and their suffering is no more and
the redemption plan of God is complete. The same thing, the
same type of language is here in Revelation 11. In 42 months,
which is three and a half years, which is half of seven, just
like the final week of Daniel was divided in half, some people
say well the three and a half weeks of Daniel's last week,
I mean the three and a half days of Daniel's last week is the
beginning of the world up until the what? The destruction of
the temple. And then the latter three and a half days means from
the ascension of Jesus Christ until the Second Coming, or the
destruction of the Temple until the Second Coming. Either way,
it doesn't matter. What we've been seeing is that
what plays out in history is a symbol, is a type of judgment. Why? Because the wages of sin
is death. We're not free from the physical curse, though we
are free from the eternal curse. We're not free from this world.
I mean, trees die now because of sin. Earthquakes happen because
of sin. Tornadoes take place. Hurricanes
take place because of sin in the world. These things are malicious,
but they are not evil. They're not sinful because the
world isn't committing sin. It's the product of a fallen
world. We are experiencing the work of God in judgment on a
world that has fallen. even though the judgment that
we experience on this earth is temporal. Remember all that?
We talked about it. So, in this now, for 1260 days,
42 months, three and a half years, there'll be persecution. What's
that mean? That means there's going to be
persecution as long as you're on earth. But there's going to
come a time when all that's over. There's not going to be a time
when it's going to be gone. There's not going to be a time
when you're not going to have hatred, when you're not going
to have hostility. There's not going to be a time
for the church where it's going to not encounter hatred and hostility,
but it will not have these things forever because that 70th week
is going to be finished, that 7th seal is going to be opened,
that 7th trumpet is going to be blown, that 7th bowl is going
to be poured, and all is going to be made right with the world.
So the question then is, how do we stand? Because, I mean,
it's pretty intense. I mean, here's this measuring
of the temple, the sealing of God's people, and then God's
saying, I'm going to let all the world trample all over the
outer courts of my people. And then I'm going to grant authority
to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for these three
and a half years clothed in sackcloth. Get the picture of sackcloth.
What's it a sign of? Huh? Morning. Yeah. Is that what y'all are
saying? I can't. Yes. Sure. I don't know. I've thought about
that myself, but I don't know. I think it more has something
to do with the fact that it's half when you look at it in that
way. Half of seven years. But yeah,
I thought about that too. I don't want to dig into it in
case I'm wrong. So how do we stand? Well, we've
been measured, we've been sealed, we've been secure. The measuring
of this temple, as we'll see, is God's assurance. We've been
counted. Jesus says, I go to prepare a
place for you. Beloved, I mean, think about that. He's reminding
John to remind his readers who are suffering, is Jesus really
going to prepare a place for you? And he's like, look here,
I measured it out, and only mine are going to fit in here. Only
the ones for whom I have died are going to stay. Only the ones
who are going to be sealed until the end will come into this place.
I mean, that's good stuff. That's the picture that this
is trying to show us here. Look at verse 4. It talks about
these two witnesses who are in mourning, who are broken, who
are dependent upon the Lord. A lot of times when you saw sackcloth,
people would put it on because they were weeping not just over
things that were bad or wrong, but over their sin. They were
weeping over the reality that they were broken and mournful
over who they were. And you see Isaiah, you know,
thinking of the mournfulness that he had. I think I might
have mentioned this Sunday or it might have been last Tuesday
night, but, you know, send me. unclean person with unclean lips
amongst the people of unclean lips. Sackcloth and ash is a
symbol of recognizing one's own wickedness and one's own mortality
and one's own sin. And it's a stance of repentance
and brokenness before the Lord. And these two olive trees and
two lampstands, verse 4, that stand before the Lord of the
earth. These are the... Who are those? These are the
two witnesses. And if anyone would harm them,
fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone
would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed. They
have the power to shut the sky that no rain may fall during
the days of their prophesying. And they have the power over
the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth
with every kind of plague as often as they desire. Now, for
just a second, imagine who these people sound like. Have we already
heard this already? Have we already heard an allusion
to Egypt and to Moses? The plagues upon the earth, the
curses upon the unbelievers. And so here are these two witnesses
and a lot of people say, well see this is Elijah and this is
Moses, come back. No, it's not Elijah and Moses
come back, because the Bible doesn't teach us that they come
back. We've already seen the work of Moses and Elijah, and
the work of Moses and Elijah, as a matter of fact, we even
see the work of Noah as a prophet of God. Does not Peter allude
to Noah and his prophecy and the preaching of Noah? in the
coming of Jesus Christ and the death and the resurrection of
Jesus Christ. We see the repentance that doesn't
come, the baptism that God brings in judgment over the earth when
He drowns unbelievers and only saves seven people. And we even
see the baptism that comes through Christ who drowns the old man
and crucifies us with Him and raises us to the newness of life
and sees us as the heavenlies. We see this continual illusion,
this picture, these two witnesses. And people say, well, that's
very specific. Well, it's not very specific. I mean, think
about it for a minute. Why two? If he's talking about
Christians in the church, which I believe is very clear here
once we get through it, then why two? Why not say all the
multitudes? Or why not say the 144,000? Well,
we'll see them later. But what we're seeing here is
what in the world do we think about when we think of two witnesses?
Just off the top of our head. What pops into your mind? Say
again? Elijah and Elisha. Okay. What
else? What about in practice? Two witnesses
in the law. Prove and prove truth and validate
the message. So that even Jesus says where
there are two or more gathered, I am there with them. Now of
course Christ is with each of us individually, but friends
the validation of the testimony of God is always with two or
more. And so here in this, we see that
two or more witnesses are required for testimony, required for validation,
required for court trials. They sound, it says, like Elijah. They sound like Elijah because
they're preaching like Elijah. They sound like Moses because
they're doing the works that Moses did through the plagues.
But who did those works to begin with? Who were they? Who was
the one with the power? God did all these works. And
so here they are not Elijah and Moses, but he goes on to say
they are the two olive trees and two lampstands. Now, what's
that? And they stand before the Lord
of the earth. Okay, well, what have we already heard in this
letter about lampstands? They're the church. Church. Write
this to the angel of the church of Laodicea. Write this to the
angel of the church of Ephesus. Go. I have a zeal. You have zeal. I know what you've done. I give
you commendation for all these good things. You don't tolerate
Jezebel. You don't tolerate sin. You don't
tolerate that. You stand for good doctrine.
You're sound. But I have this one thing against
you. Jesus says to the church of Ephesus that you have forsaken
your first love. Go therefore and do the things
you did before lest I what? Remove your lampstand. We see
the teaching of the church of Jesus that the church is a light
like a city on a hill. And we know that the lampstand
here are the people of God preaching the Word of God. John the Baptist
preached in this same manner. The presence of the Holy Spirit
in the temple made up the idea that God would move mightily
with His people. These lampstands and physical
reality of the temple stood before God in the presence of the temple. And they burned with the olive
oil in them. Friends, the Reformers understood
this so clearly that they signed their letters sometimes with
this statement. Coram Deo. In the face of God. Under the gaze of God. God always
looking at us. And so here we are the lampstand
standing before the Lord. The church of Jesus Christ stands
under the gaze of God. And He is pleased with us. And
He empowers us by the Holy Spirit of God. And we will speak His
Word. John the Baptist said that he
was not Elijah. John the Baptist said that he was not the light.
But he came to what? Bear witness to the light. Or John the Gospel
writer said that about John the Baptist. He was not the light,
but He came to bear witness about the light. Jesus said He was
the light of the world. Jesus said then the church was
the light of the world to reflect the perfection of God's righteousness
through Jesus Christ, that we are sealed and we belong to Him,
we've been purchased by God. I tell you, if there's no other
language in the New Testament that gives security, it's that
we've been purchased. We've been bought. It's not. All these other arguments, though
they're very clear, may be a little confusing sometimes about how
we have security. But friends, we are secure in
Christ because Christ has paid for us and purchased us with
His blood. In the same way, this church, these two witnesses,
we are the church of God in power, just like we saw in Acts chapter
1 verse 8. We are the witnesses of God in
the power of the Holy Spirit. What does he say there? What
does the doctor say in that? And the Spirit of God will come
unto you, and power will come unto you, and with power you
will be my witnesses. In what? All the earth. All the
earth. The question is not who's sending
this message. And I believe the question is
that we're not worried about who these people are. We know
that whether they are specific people or not, we know that the
church in the very same way today is doing the same work that Elijah
and Moses did. We are preaching the same way
that the apostles did. We are seeing God work in the
same manner that He's always worked. God is immutable and
His movement and His actions and His purposes are eternal.
And so that God has decreed and what God has completed, God is
continuing to work and complete. So here, these olive trees, these
two lampstands stand before the Lord of the earth, and it says
in verse 5, and if anyone would harm them, fire pours out of
their mouth and consumes their foes. What is that? I mean, this
isn't little Godzillas running around puffing smoke at people
and burning them up. And I say stuff like that and
I really think about that. I mean, when I read this, my
imagination goes crazy and I think of guys just, you know, I think
of the rubber-suited Godzilla back when I was in grade school. You know, breaking the little
rubber suit and doing like that and crushing things and breathing
fire and burning the entire world down and all that good stuff.
And I just, I don't think that's what's happening here. I think
that the Word of the Lord is what's coming out of their mouth.
And you might think about that for a second. How are we breathing fire out
of our mouth with those who plan to hurt us? How are we not? Does the fire of the Word of
God not consume our adversaries? Does not Paul teach in Ephesians
6 that the Word of God is the sword of the Spirit? And that
it is what? It is effectual to eliminate
all the schemes of the devil? All of them? So that no matter
what comes, and the word there in the Greek is rima, it's not
logos for the word, rima, which indicates the hearing, the heard
word, the spoken word, not just the word in itself as a noun,
but the action of the word being engaged in our hearts and minds.
So the hearing of the Word of God is the sword of the Spirit. Jesus Christ, as we'll see later
in this letter, is the one who spews with the word, the sword,
out of His mouth and destroys all of His enemies and destroys
His adversaries. In the same manner, the Word of the Lord
through the church, through the Christians of this world, in
every season of this world, in every presence of this world,
we who hold the Word of God in our hearts, and what does Paul
say, and in our mouths, and we profess and confess, we believe,
and therefore we do. What does John even say? He who
is the Antichrist says that Christ has not come, but he who is able
to confess that Christ is God and has come from God, he is
the children of God. So if we look at this and we
think, well, how can they not? We're still harmed. Well, they're
killed, remember? But even if we're martyred, even
if we're persecuted, if we speak the Word of God, does the Word
of God not burn our persecutors? Does it not consume them? Does
it not bring more hatred and anger? And sometimes does it
not also bring salvation? I think we underestimate the
reality that God has given simple things and simple means to produce
supernatural things. the Word of God spoken. I had a young lady today, she's
a freshman in high school. How can I let a friend of mine
who used to believe, who doesn't believe, into believing again?
And I said, you need to read John's Gospel and you need to
be prepared to always speak the truth of the Gospel into the
lives of those people who are unbelievers. I said, because
the only thing that's going to save your friend is that he or
she hear the Word of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ through
Scripture that God would give them ears to hear and eyes to
see through the hearing. That's it. And it's so perplexing
because in our present day, there's probably a billion dollars worth
of books that have been printed and published on how to lead
people to Jesus Christ. Just Walk Across the Room is
one that we did as a church years ago. That was the name of it.
Bill Hybels wrote that book. Just Walk Across the Room. First
step in the leadership. Relational evangelism. I enjoyed
that. Evangelism explosion. That was
a training that we did back then. Okay, you know what I'm talking
about. Faith. There's a whole curriculum. You
get certified. You can get certified in faith. You can get certified
to teach faith. You can be a certified trainer. You can be a certified
coach in faith. You teach people how to go door
to door. And if they check the card at the end, they got saved. You can have heaven here. and
hereafter. I mean, that's the H. F-A-I-T-H. Why not the Word of God? God
is prescribed that His Word be given. You're confused. I'll go through it after so you
can laugh with me and cry at the same time. God has given
His Word simply as a conduit of His grace. That's it. Just that easy. It's not magic. It's not the book. It's not the niceness or the
cheapness of it. It's not even the faith of the
one who speaks it. It's not even anything to do
with us. It's just a mouth that God owns
and has created for His purpose and for His glory. And we speak
the Gospel. We speak the Word of God into
the lives of other people. And when God is ready to blow
in the hearts and lives of those people, they come to faith. And
when they don't, what does scripture teach us? The word of God never
returns void. So when I teach the scriptures,
and it aggravates people. You know, back in the day when
I was just really hostile and loved a good fight, I prided
myself on being able to shut down opposition to truth and
argument. And now people get upset with
me because I don't engage in that way, because it's a fruitless
endeavor. Just the Bible says it, that's
it. Well, I want to be able to prove the resurrection. Well,
the Bible says that Jesus was raised from the dead. I don't
believe the Bible. Yes, you do, you liar. I mean,
you know, you calling me a liar? No, God called you a liar. I
just repeated it. You're saying, I believe. I don't believe. Yes,
you do. The Bible says you believe. How do you know my heart? I don't,
but God does, and He says you believe, and you suppress the
truth with your works of unrighteousness. See, that's the thing. Because
each time we answer, we're preaching the Word of God, and the fire
consumes people. And they'll eventually cut off
our heads for that stuff. And the laws of the land turn
against the church. It's because God has established
revival to be the outcome. He allows the devil to be the
agent of hostility toward the church. But yet Jesus is the
one who commands the fallen angels to do the bidding that they've
been sent to do. And here are these lampstands, the church
of Jesus Christ. The church will never die, though it does die
often. Though parts of the body will
die, the church has never died. Have you realized that? There's
never been a time in history where there wasn't a remnant
of God's people. There's never been. Because if there were ever
the obliteration of God's people from the earth, I believe that,
I don't believe it could happen, but I believe that something
drastic would happen. Because where then will the gospel come
from? God's not going to change who
He is for the sake of man's traditions and man's history. So though
we might suffer, the body of Christ is perpetual. The church
lives in perpetuity. We are the people who will continue
to exist for the glory of God with the Word of God in our mouth.
2 Corinthians chapter 4, one of my favorite places in Scripture
that's not in John, is Where we get that cool song we like
to sing back in the megachurch days. Struck down and not destroyed
perplexed but not driven to despair. All that kind of stuff. It's
not really cool to sing if you think about it. But it was sort
of poppy. So it gets you started. Y'all
ready to have some fun? That's a good song to sing after
you hear that to open a worship service. Anyway, come on, put
your hands together. What are y'all doing? Put your
Bibles down and stand up. We don't need the Bibles today.
We got it on the screen. I felt one wrong doing that.
I even ingest because it was real.
What was I saying? Oh, the Word of God. 2 Corinthians
4, there we go. It's always suffering. Being
given over unto death, but yet being alive. And even when we
die, Paul says, we live. So that's what this is trying
to teach us here. We have the power to shut the
sky. The prophets of God have prayed to Him and the sky has
shut. We have the power to turn blood, turn water into blood. Because God sends His prophet
to do that. You know what's crazy? That stuff isn't necessary anymore. Because the validation of God's
message is to transform heart. Not the signs and wonders. Does
God do signs and wonders? I think He can and does. Are
they normative? Absolutely not. Because we don't
need to see, listen, we don't need to see the signs and wonders
when we can see them right here. Well, how do I know that what
you're telling me is true? Because the message that I bring to you
comes from men through whom God used mightily and He showed that
their message was true. For they raised people from the
dead. See? If we don't believe the testimony
that comes from man, wow, that's bad. If we don't believe the
testimony that comes from God, that's awful. How much worse
the Hebrew writer says it is going to be if they ignore the
testimony that comes down from heaven. Jesus says, I am the
one who comes down from heaven. Only the Son of Man has come
to and fro and gone from heaven to earth and back to heaven.
Only I can be lifted up and draw men unto salvation. Only I can
do it. And the only way that it can
be done is if you tell them of My teaching. So that through
the teaching of this Word, I will, when I want to, put My heart
in them. That makes a really dull altar
call, doesn't it? You want to believe in Jesus
Christ? Do it. What's it look like? You'll see. Believe! Believe! That's why it's so simple. That's
why Charles Finney, I talked to Jesse today, he said he was
plumb sick to his stomach when I made a couple of quotes of
Finney Sunday. And I said, well, that is the father of all evangelism
that we know today. It was the quote about Jesus
not being able to impute righteousness to us. He could barely afford
to take care of His own. That kind of stuff. Listen. People were just as complex during
the days of Peter. They were struck to the heart.
Peter preached that God had come to earth and lived and His righteousness
is perfect. And that He died and He was raised
from the dead. And that He took the wrath of
God for you. And people would hear it. And
it says they were struck in the heart, they were quickened in
the heart, they were broken in the heart. And they came and
they said, what must we do to be saved? And what does he say?
Believe, repent, believe the gospel. Repent, change your mind
about what you're doing to stand before God this day. Believe
on Jesus Christ this moment. How do we know they're born again? 3,000 people showed up the next
day to learn. That's how we know. That's how we know. The Word will do what it needs,
what it is sent to do. Look at verse 7. And when they
finish their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless
pit, remember that in chapter 10? The beast that the angel
unlocks and lets out, will make war on them and conquer them
and kill them. and their dead bodies will lie
on the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom
and Egypt." Uh-oh, we've got two more cities being named.
What's the one city that's already been named? Babylon. And now we've got Sodom and Egypt,
where the Lord was crucified. You see that? Where was the Lord
crucified? Jerusalem. Well, I pray tell,
is it talking about the great city that is symbolically called
Sodom and Egypt? Babylon, where the Lord was crucified. He's talking about the earth.
He's talking about all over the earth. He's talking about the
epitome of... Remember we talked the beast from the abyss in chapter
9, not 10. Chapter 9, verse 11, it says
His name is Abaddon and Apollyon, which means destroyer. What are
we learning here? Well, let's keep looking. And
so for three and a half days, that's half of seven, half of
a week. Some of the peoples and tribes and languages and nations,
so now we realize it's not in one place, right? Some of the
peoples and tribes and languages and nations, will gaze at the
dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb. And
those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make
merry and exchange presents because these two prophets had been a
torment to those who dwell on the earth." So now we see those
who dwell on the earth of all tongues, of all nations, of all
tribes. Friends, this is the antithesis. This is the alternate
picture of the every tongue, every nation, every tribe in
glory singing praises to God forever. These are the others
who are a part of the same mix. Except these are the unsealed.
And when they see the church suffer, they gloat. When they
see the church suffer, they get excited. When they see the work
of Satan, they rejoice in it. How many big false prophets fall
throughout the ages? And nobody even makes an inclination. Let a Calvinist pastor get a
DUI. Make CNN. That just happened. God bless him. Oh, let a Bible
teacher get caught screaming at somebody. Let a theologian
sign up for a website he shouldn't be on. The whole world goes nuts. And that's not even what we're
talking about. I'm just showing you that people love it when the church
fails. People love it more when the church is destroyed. People
love it. People don't have a problem with
health and wealth churches. The world loves it. People don't
have a problem with benevolent ministries. They love it. People don't have a problem with
soup kitchens, with clothes closets, with Offerings and tithes and
giving that helps take care of their needs. Nobody has a problem
with this stuff. People have a problem when the
Word of God is preached. They hate Him, so they hate it. And then they hate the messenger.
And then they hate those who hang out with the messenger. That's what's happening. Why?
Because Satan hates God. And His children, who are all
those who are not sealed in Christ, are the children of Satan. And
the irony of it is he's really not their father, he's just their
brother in judgment. The witnesses of the world, when
we die, our witness is finished. When the church is persecuted
and destroyed and their tongues are cut from their body, then
their word is finished, when their testimony is finished.
The beast rises and kills them. Now, I don't want to dig too
much into this because we don't really know, but let's look at
what those could mean. Martyrs are obvious, right? Martyrs. How about just saints who die?
That would work too. How about persecution that comes
from governments and it doesn't kill us? Put us in prison? Take
our property away from us? It's happening right now, y'all.
America's got it made because the church in America is small.
And the church in America has been relegated to the religious
right, to the Republicans, not the Christians. Some Republicans
are Christians, but few Christians are Republicans. Jesus is not a political party.
Jesus is not a way of life. Jesus is not the Constitution
of the United States, which I passionately support. But one day, as it already
is, God in His infinite wisdom will take away the rights that
protect our civil liberties. And for the true believers of
Jesus Christ, we will cease to have the freedom to preach without
persecution. And you know what's crazy? Throughout
all of history, the only time people do preach is when they're
threatened to lose the ability to. When people have come through
history and started taking Bibles away, revival comes. People are
willing to die to keep their Bible. And it's so precious to
them, they begin to share it and copy it and write it down.
Friends, we have got it so made, so made in our liberties in America,
where there is liberty There is no need for God. And God we trust was put on our
money for a reason. Because it is our God. 1952.
Indivisible. What is that at the end of the
Pledge of Allegiance? It's got God in it. Added in 1954. The founding documents of our
nation were partly penned by a man named Roger Williams, established
and put out for publication by people who were deists. And we have a pluralistic society
where everybody has the right to believe what they want to
believe, and it is a precious thing that God has given us.
But friends, that's not forever. And we don't have liberties in
this world so that we can enjoy them. We have liberties in this
life so that we can share the true liberty that comes through
the gospel. There's a grand satanic movement
against the church at every breath. A grand movement. And it's causing
us pain. It's causing us death. And the
world hates the church. Sodom hated God. Egypt hated
God. Babylon hated God. This beast,
Satan, will bring persecution. And the word out of those who
die will cease. This wickedness of the world,
the wicked ones of the world, hate God's people. What does
that mean for the suffering people of God? What does that mean for
John's readers? They resonated with that. They're
like, you're right. That's what we're going through.
God's Word in us. People hate us because God's
Word is in us. Cain hated his brother, not because
his brother worshipped God, because Cain worshipped God. Cain hated Abel, because Paul
says it clearly, because Abel's works were righteous. And I often like to suggest this. Let's say that Abel and Cain
worked together and that Abel did a lamb exactly the way he
did it for his brother. And he shoved it over there to
his brother and said, okay, you give this to God in the same
manner I will. Cain's works are still wicked. Good works unto God without being
sealed by God are wicked works. Right theology without the new
birth is wicked works. Benevolence, love, care, giving,
all these things without being a child of God are wicked works. People don't care if you do good
things. People care if we are righteous. You find that one person in your
life who is not living for Christ but professes to be in Him. And
just ask the question, is what you're doing, do you believe
it's honoring to the Lord? What happens most of the time? I mean, it's like W.W.A., W.W.F.,
M.M.A., whatever you want to call it. It's just like a match
of war preparation has just happened. I remember the first time that
ever happened to me, I asked someone, are you in the faith? I said it just like that. What
do you mean? I said, are you born again? Are
you a believer? Are you in Christ? And the heralding
of profanity that followed, I love to say that I just peaceably
walked away, but I rebuked so hard and loudly, it sort of got
a little inappropriate. I guess I see who you really
are now. I mean, you know, stab, stab, stab. You ever had people do that?
You know what happens when a believer is called out like that? Oh,
forgive me. Forgive me. You're right. Don't judge me. I'm not judging
you. Jesus has judged you. Jesus says in 1 John, if you
say you have fellowship with Him, you walk this way. Jesus
has made it. I'm just repeating Jesus. Is
it wrong to say the words of Christ? No, it's a command. Teach
all nations to obey me. Salvation comes through hearing
the words of Christ. What words? All of them. Any
of them. God can draw people to Him and give people to the
Son through any of the words of Christ. We've boiled down the Good News
to just a specific little point. You are not destined unto wrath,
but to eternal life in Jesus Christ. How? Does it matter? I'm telling you that you are.
I just don't believe that. The world hates us. But we who
suffer in the world are not gone. Look at verses 11-14. There's
not a lot there. But after the three and a half
days, a breath of life of God entered them. They're dead when
we suffer, when we have persecution. Friends, we're not dead. We're
just gone. We're someplace else. We're with the Lord. And our
bodies can rot. Hallelujah. Rot. I'm looking
forward to it. Being free of this body. Free
of its pain. Free of its temptation. Free
of its frustration. Some really wise brother decided
to start a dialogue recently on could Jesus sin? It's been
interesting. I'll be glad when I can't anymore. And when I die, there's hope
that I will also live. And there's also hope that I
will also live again. And there's hope that you, beloved,
will also live again. How in the world did the witnesses
of God come back to life? The same way the witnesses of
the dry bones came to life in Ezekiel 37. God's Word spoke
to them. And it says, The breath of life
from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and great
fear fell on those who saw them. Friends, I want you to know something.
Just as a small crowd of people witnessed the resurrection of
Jesus Christ, there shall be the entirety of the human race
witness the resurrection of God's people. And the way that God establishes
the peace that surpasses all understanding in the face of
persecution and even death, Well, we can see in the annals of history
where men and women have burned alive singing praises, not, oh
my God, this hurts, ah, but singing praises to God, which is humanly
impossible. It's because God has shown them
a glimpse of an imperishable reward. And one day, everyone who has
been taken by the sword or by the torch or by the lion will
be vindicated. Christ will be vindicated. We
shouldn't have our feelings hurt when people reject the gospel.
We shouldn't take it personally when people don't want to hear
what we have to say or don't want to come to our church or don't want to
fellowship with us and don't want to hear truth. We should
just praise God that He gave us the ears to hear in His mercy
and pray that God would give us the patience and the tenderness
to continue to teach those who reject the truth. Because when
God brings us to life by His breath, it tells us that all
the fear, all who saw, fear fell upon them. And they heard a loud
voice from heaven saying, come up here. I mean, imagine that.
We got them, we got them, we got them, we hate you. Friends,
do you not recognize how bad the world hates Christ? I mean,
look at where we are as a government. Look at where we are as an institution,
as a people, as a country. Look at what is normative. You
say, well, it's about 50-50. No, it's about 99 to 1. It's just sometimes some people's
idols don't look quite as wicked as others. So-called gay marriage
and sexual debauchery and wickedness and just flat out, I don't know,
abuse of power and all these other things. Did I say abortion?
Yeah, abortion. Gender neutrality, all this. Well, that's wicked.
It's not any more wicked than God and country. It's not any more wicked than
people who just put their faith in everything but Jesus Christ.
It's not any more wicked than having faith in your own morality.
Jesus came to die so that He could rescue us from our morality.
Because our morality is wickedness before Him. We must be made new.
We must become righteousness. And the only one who is righteous
is Jesus Christ, who is the righteousness of God. People hate us as Christians. And the more we say the truth
of Christ, the more they hate us. But friends, it's not over.
And these Christians were dying in droves. It's not over for
them. They will be vindicated one day, and that's what John
is showing them. And they went up to heaven in a cloud, and
their enemies watched. And at that hour, there was a great
earthquake. A tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were
killed in the quake, and the rest were terrified and gave
glory to God, to the God of heaven. The second woe is past. Behold,
the third woe is about to come really quickly. As we see this
ascension of God's people to meet Him in the air, just like
what Paul talked about, we see the reality of judgment coming.
Now keep in mind, we've already said this is not this linear
thing that's happening in time that we can say, okay, here this,
now this, now this. It's going to be instantaneous, but for
us to understand it, it's played out in a narrative, in a picture.
The trumpet of God is about to sound, the end is about to come,
and all things will be put under the feet of Christ. He wins the
end. That's what's happening. And
we as the church are able to stand because this day is coming. This day is upon us. Take away time, there's no time. When shall it come? In the twinkling
of an eye, like a thief in the night, when we least expect it,
on a date that no one has prophesied, We'll finish the rest of this
next week, down through 19, and maybe get into chapter 12. But church, there is security
here. There is rejoicing here. There
is hope here. That nothing can separate us
from the love of Christ. Nothing can kill us. Nothing
can stop us. Because Christ is God. and we
are His. Let's pray. We thank You for those truths,
Father. Lord, help us not to look past things that we see,
but Lord, to put them in perspective as we read this letter. Put them
in their proper voice. Lord, help us to leave this place
tonight fulfilled and energized knowing that we have nothing
to fear. And Lord, help us to be passionate
about sharing our faith with others. And where we feel insecure,
Lord, and where we feel as though we're failing in our ability
or our understanding, Father, purpose for us to pray and to
dig into Your Word that You would fill us up with all that we need
to be Your mouth, to be Your voice, the conduit of salvation to those
around us as we herald the good news of Jesus Christ. And it's
in his name we pray. Amen.