Let's go back to Revelation 11. I've entitled today's message,
Olive Trees and Candlesticks. And I took that from verse four.
These are the two olive trees and the two candlesticks, or
lampstands, standing before God of the earth. The two witnesses
that he mentions in verse three. A lot of people are confused
about who these two witnesses are, what they're about. But the next verse, the olive
trees and the candlesticks, tells us who the two witnesses are.
And it's from a reference back in the Old Testament in the book
of Zechariah. Now, in doing this, there's a
lot of information here that we need to understand gospel-wise
concerning salvation. who these people are, what it's
all about. He starts out in verse one, and
there was given me a reed, or like a stick, you know what a
reed, like a bamboo reed, something like that, likened to a rod,
and he said, take that rod, and the angel stood, saying, rise
and measure the temple of God. This angel is Christ giving orders,
commandments to John, and he says, take that rod, and measure
the temple of God and the altar and them that worship therein."
Now what is this temple of God? Well you know about the Old Testament
temple, the tabernacle. The temple was representative
of Christ and his church. And the center of that temple
was the altar You had several altars. You had the brazen altar
on the outer court where the sacrifice, the lamb, the bolik,
was slain and the blood was shed, caught in a basin, then taken
back into the holy place where the priests were, and the high
priest would take that basin of blood into the holiest of
all, and he'd sprinkle it. You know how the Ark of the Covenant
was there. And inside that ark, inside that box, it was made
of chitim wood and it was overlaid with gold, picturing the deity,
the humanity of Christ. Now, most of you have heard this
several times, but that's what it was all about. And there was
a mercy seat made of gold, a lid that was set over top of it,
and the priest would sprinkle that blood on the mercy seat
one time. And then he'd sprinkle it around
many times. But one time on the mercy seat.
And that was a picture of Christ and the work of reconciliation
that he accomplished by the shedding of his blood one time, for by
one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.
That's all it took. The death, the one death, the
one sacrifice of the God-man as the surety, the substitute,
the redeemer of his people. That's what that temple and the
altar Pictured and then you had the other priest that attended
the outer court and the holy of holy place which had the table
of showbread had the brazen the altar of Incense and all of that
and that pictured the people of God in Christ So when you
come to Revelation 11 when he talks about the temple of God,
he's talking about Christ and his church That's what it means
He's not talking about a literal building built in Jerusalem. You know, a lot of people talk
about that. They say, well, they're trying to rebuild the temple
in Jerusalem. They're not even close. And they're
not going to get close. And if they even did, it'd start
another world war. So the thing about this is not,
these are symbols. And there's a lot of symbols
here. and they're not easily discerned unless you go back
to the Old Testament and find out what it is. You know, Christ,
he himself is called the temple of God. John 1 14, it says, the
word, that's Christ, God, made flesh, that's his humanity, the
word was made flesh, and dwelt, and that word dwelt is literally
tabernacle. The Word was made flesh and tabernacled
among us, and we beheld His glory. So He is the tabernacle of God.
And then you read passages like Colossians chapter 2 and verse
9 that says, In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead
bodily. He is the temple of God, spiritually
speaking. He's the fullness of the Father
and the Son and the Spirit in Himself. God manifests in the
flesh. And then the rest of the temple,
pictured his people worshiping, praising, honoring God. So what John is told to do here,
he's given a reed like a rod, that's a measuring stick. Now,
this is not the first time that that's happened. God gave a measuring
rod, so to speak, to the prophet Ezekiel, back in Ezekiel chapter
40, when he was told to measure things, measure issues of God. And then Zachariah was told to
measure, given a reed too. So what this is, he's telling
John to measure Christ in his church. Now why would you need
to do that? Well, we need to know, and here's
the thing about, for our salvation, for our assurance, for our comfort,
we need to know the exact dimensions of measurement that show that
we're worshiping the true Christ and not a counterfeit. And we
need to know who the people of God, the true people of God,
and not false professors. We need to know that. So we're
given a measuring rod to do that. Well, what is this measuring
rod? Well, generally speaking, it's the word of God. Isaiah
said this in Isaiah 8 20. And this is when he was fighting
against false preachers who preached a false gospel, a false God. They called him the God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, but he was a false God and a false gospel. So he said this in Isaiah 820,
he said, to the law and the testimony, if they speak not according to
this word, the scriptures that they had back then, the Word
of God through the prophets. If they speak not according to
this Word, there's no light in them. So what we need to do,
we need to go to the Word of God and find out exactly who
Jesus Christ is and who He's not. Paul spoke of this in 2
Corinthians chapter 11 when he talked about counterfeit Christ,
another Jesus, he said. If they come preaching another
Jesus, which is not another, Another of a different kind.
Who is Jesus Christ? What does the Bible tell us?
He's God, manifest in the flesh. Every bit God, every bit man
without sin. If anybody preaches Him as less
than that, they're preaching a counterfeit. How do I know
that? Because I've got a measuring rod here. It's the Word of God. The Word of God tells me who
Jesus is. so that I can know without doubt
that I'm not worshiping a counterfeit Christ. Think about that. Think about going before God
at judgment, pleading Jesus, and yet it's not the correct
one, not the right one. Like those in Matthew chapter
7, verses 21 through 23, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in your name? And Christ said, I never knew
you. And then, We need to know what he accomplished on Calvary
to save us from our sins. Did he just make salvation possible
if we do our part? Is that what the Bible teaches?
And the answer is no. Christ did not die for everybody
without exception, only making salvation a mere possibility
if sinners would cooperate and believe. Because first of all,
we know that by nature, none of us would cooperate and believe. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them. Faith
is a gift from God through Christ, one of those spiritual blessings
that we're blessed with in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Christ,
His name, Jesus, He shall save His people from their sins. And
He saved them, and He said, all that the Father giveth me shall
come to me, him that cometh to me I will no wise cast out. This
is the will of him that sent me, that of all which he hath
given me I should lose nothing but raise it up against the last
day. He mentions here the altar. That's what that's all about.
How God saves sinners. This altar that's covered with
the blood, that the blood is shed as payment for my sins. My sins being charged to Christ. His righteousness being charged
to me. What is righteousness? Think
about that. That's this measuring rod. It's
the Gospel too. It's the Word of God generally.
It's the Gospel. What is the Gospel? There's only
one Gospel that saves by the power of the Spirit, and that's
that Gospel wherein the righteousness of God is revealed. Well, what
is that? What is the righteousness of
God? Righteousness, listen, here's one thing this measuring rod
tells us, that righteousness is much, much greater than what
we call human morality, human sincerity, human religion. It's one that exceeds what any
of us can accomplish by anything we do or think or say or choose.
It's the perfect obedience unto death of the Lord Jesus Christ
that was accomplished by Him in His death and His burial and
His resurrection. It's that righteousness that
God has freely and fully imputed, charged to His people. Blessed
is the blessedness of the man to whom the Lord imputeth righteousness
without works. You see, the righteousness in
which we stand before God has nothing to do with our works.
It's all Christ's works. And that's what the measuring
rod tells us. And when it talks about measuring
them that worship therein, who's he talking about? He's talking
about believers. He's talking about sinners saved by grace.
They have life from the dead. And you hath he quickened who
were dead in trespasses and sins. And how do we know we have that
life? Because the Spirit, invincibly, irresistibly, has brought us
to faith in Christ and repentance of dead works. What are you looking
to and resting in and pleading for your hope? You believe what
we just sang, my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood
and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus. Is that your hope? Because that's
what the measuring rod tells you. That's the only right and
good hope for a sinner. Nothing else. What are you looking
to? Where are you looking? And that's
what John's doing here. He's measuring the temple, measuring
the people of God. Now look at verse two. He says,
but the court which is without or outside the temple, he says
that court that's outside the temple, leave it out or cast
it out. Don't measure it, don't measure
it not. For it is given unto the Gentiles and the holy city
shall they tread under foot 40 and two months. Now think about,
what does that mean? You know the Bible tells us,
this measuring rod tells us, that God has a people out of
every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation, Jew and Gentile.
In fact, how many times we read in scripture, just like in that
passage, Romans 116, the gospel is the power of God unto salvation,
to everyone that believeth the Jew first, because in time they
had that message first, but also to the Greek, which was a general
name for Gentiles back then, because it was what they call
a Hellenistic world. It was made up of the Greek culture. But Jew and Gentile. And the
Bible tells us that there's no difference between Jew and Gentile
in the kingdom of God. All sinners who believe in Christ,
who've been brought to faith, given the gift of faith, and
brought to repentance, they're equal members of the house of
God. the family of God, equally saved, equally righteous, equally
forgiven, equally citizens of the kingdom of heaven. So what
is he talking about here? Well, he's going back to the
Old Testament where you had the Jews viewing the Gentiles as
ungodly people, which generally speaking they were. In the second
temple, you remember Solomon built the first temple and it
was destroyed by the Babylonians. Well, when they came back they
began to build the second temple and then after that there was
what some call a third temple that was mainly built by King
Herod and they had an inner court of the Jews and then an outer
court of the Gentiles. And Gentiles who had converted
to Judaism, they could only go into the Gentile court outside.
They couldn't go into where the Jews were, because they made
that separation. And that's what the Bible talks about in Ephesians
2, when in Christ, by the grace of God, the middle wall of partition
is broken down. There's no separation now. But
here, he's using the Gentiles as a symbol of the ungodly, unbelievers. Now, how does that make sense?
Well, look over at Romans chapter 2. Now, if you're a sinner saved
by grace, this is what the Bible says about you. If I'm a sinner
saved by grace, if I'm a believer, here's what the Bible, the rod,
the measuring rod, says about me. And listen to it in verse
28. It says, for he is not a Jew
which is one outwardly, physically, by physical heritage. Neither
is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh. For he
is a Jew which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the
heart." Now what is circumcision of the heart? That's the new
birth. That's when the Holy Spirit comes in, gives us life, a new
heart, cuts away the filth of the flesh that is our ungodly
thoughts about how God saves sinners. Circumcision is that
of the heart in the spirit and not in the letter whose praise
is not of men but of God." If you're a sinner saved by grace,
you are a spiritual Jew. You're not a Gentile anymore.
You understand that? Go back to Revelation 11. That's
what he's talking about. If you're a sinner saved by grace,
you're a spiritual child of Abraham. Spiritually speaking, not physically
now. And you're not a Gentile in the sense of being an ungodly,
unbelieving person. And that's what he's talking
about. Those who do not go by the measuring rod, who do not
believe this gospel, this message of God's grace, how God saves
sinners by grace through the righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ, don't include them when you measure the temple and the
altar and the people who worship there. They don't have any right
there. You know who has a right to be
there? Those who have been born again by the Spirit. Our right
to be there, first of all, is the righteousness of Christ imputed
to us. That's the legal right. Our spiritual right to be there
is because we've heard the gospel and the power of the Spirit,
we've been born again and brought to faith in Christ. That's what
it says in John 1, 12, and 13, that when it talks about those
who receive Christ, they have the right the privilege of being
called children of God, even to those who believe on His name,
which were born not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor
the will of man, but born of God. How do I know I've been
born of God? Well, look into the measuring
right here. What does it say about those who are born of God?
They look to and rest in Christ and Him alone for all salvation. Just like David on his deathbed,
he said, this is all my hope, and this is all my desire. I
don't want any other hope, because all other hopes are false hopes.
All I need is Christ crucified, risen from the dead. He who now
intercedes for me before the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he's all my hope. That's
where my hope is built. And nothing else. I don't hope
in myself. I don't hope in my experiences.
I don't hope in the best I can do. I ought to do the best I
can do at all times. Don't get me wrong. We ought
to be the most obedient people that have ever walked on the
face of this earth. But that's not our hope. Our
hope is in the obedience unto death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's what the measuring rod, that's what the gospel tells
me. Well, he says here that these Gentiles, these unbelievers,
ungodly people, The holy city, that's the kingdom of God, that's
like Jerusalem above. Remember the Bible makes a distinction
about Jerusalem below, physical Jerusalem. And you see later
on, physical Jerusalem is an ungodly city. In fact, it's even
compared to Babylon and Egypt and Sodom. Babylon representing
false religion, Egypt representing false government, Sodom representing
the immorality of this world. All against the people of God.
All against the gospel. Because they hate the message.
You understand? They hate the message that exposes
them for what they are. That shows them that their hope
of salvation is a false hope. An abomination, actually. That
which is highly esteemed among men. An abomination unto God. And it says here that they will
tread the underfoot forty and two months. Now that 40 and two
months is equal to three and a half years. And I'm not going
to go into all this. I've preached on this. I've preached
on it, but it's a reference back into Daniel chapter nine, verses
24 through 27, which is a prophecy of the coming of Christ. And
they, you know how it talks about 77, 70 weeks, which is actually
years, 490 years between Israel going back from the captivity
of Babylon up until the time of Christ, his coming into the
world. And then his earthly ministry, his public ministry began when
he was around 30 years old or something like that. And he was
on earth in his earthly ministry after his youth for three and
a half years. And then he was crucified. And
this 40 and two months is symbolic of, well, is actually not symbolic
of his suffering because he actually suffered unto death for the sins
of his people. But then three and a half years
after that represents the suffering of the church in the first days
leading up to the time that Stephen was killed. And that was a time
of persecution for the church. And what John is actually saying
here is this. That three and a half years spoken
of by Daniel in the seventh week of Daniel, you've heard that.
That's gonna be a time of persecution for the church that's going to
last all the way up until Christ comes again. And it's gonna be,
sometimes it'll be severe persecution, sometimes it'll be light persecution. But it's always, listen, the
church here on earth in the last days, we're not at home. Our home is with God in heaven. We're citizens of a heavenly
kingdom. And the world is against us in
this message of salvation. And that's what he's saying here.
It's gonna find that the church is gonna be persecuted up until
the time that Christ comes again. he shows that he says in verse
3, I will give power or I will give a witness unto my two witnesses
and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and three scored
days which again is the three and a half years. For whatever
reason God represents these three and a half years in different
numbers. Most commentators, you've heard
in Revelation and Daniel, it says time and time and time and
a half. That's the three and a half years.
And again now, it's not three and a half literal years, it
was between the death of Christ and the killing of Stephen, but
it's symbolic of the whole time period up until Christ comes
again of a time of persecution, the tribulation. You've heard
that term. It's not just seven years of
tribulation, it's the whole time of tribulation, because the world
hates our message. And so he's gonna give these
two witnesses. Now, who are these two witnesses?
And people argue over this. Some people say, well, it's Moses
and Elijah. Because you remember back in
the Mount of Transfiguration, Moses and Elijah appeared with
Christ. Well, I'm gonna tell you something, it's not Moses
and Elijah. Some people say it's Elijah and Enoch because they
believe they didn't die. They just were taken to heaven,
they come back. The two witnesses are identified. Listen, look
at verse three again. I will give power unto my two
witnesses. They'll prophesy, they'll preach
the gospel. That's what they're gonna do.
They're gonna preach the way of salvation by God's grace through
the Lord Jesus Christ. And they're gonna stand firm
against those who preach salvation by works. And that's going to
bring that hatred and that persecution. They're going to tell people
who don't go by the measuring rod of the gospel that they're
lost, that their deeds are evil. That they're producing fruit
unto death and dead works. And God is not pleased, understand
that. And it says they'll be clothed
in sackcloth. You know what sackcloth represents? It represents repentance. Sorrow
unto repentance. They're gonna tell people who
don't know Christ, as measured by this rod, that you don't know
God. that you're lost. You're on your
way to hell unless God does a work of grace. And that's gonna bring,
and you need to repent. Remember it says in 2 Peter 3
and 9 that God's not willing that any should perish, that's
any of his people, his elect, but that all should come to repentance. And that's what that sackcloth
represents. Preaching the message that exposes the lost for what
they are. And that's what brings out this
hatred, You see, there's no way of salvation in any other way. So who are these two witnesses?
Well, he says in verse four, here they are. These are the
two olive trees and the two candlesticks standing before God, the God
of the earth. Well, this is a reference, turn back to the book of Zechariah. Zechariah is right before Malachi,
the last book of the Bible, or the Old Testament, rather. Now, first of all, That in Revelation,
that which is called a candlestick or a lampstand has already been
identified back in Revelation chapter 1 as the churches. The
churches which are founded on the gospel. The gospel of God's
grace, the gospel of God's sovereign grace. They're the lampstands,
they're the candlesticks. They have the light of truth.
Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good
works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. You're the
light of the world. Philippians, Paul wrote that
we are to shine as lights in a dark world. Christ is the light
himself and he gives his light to his people and to his two
witnesses. Well, what is this olive trees
and lampstand? Well, look at Zechariah chapter
four. Now I'm going to read this and make some comments and then
we'll conclude. And I'm going to come back Lord
willing next week and say some more about it. But look at what
it says, the prophet Zechariah, you know, Zechariah prophesied
in the days when Israel was brought out of Babylon and they were
to come back to the homeland. and they were to rebuild the
temple, and in many ways they were derelict in their duty to
rebuild the temple. What it meant to rebuild the
temple back then was to reestablish the worship of the true and living
God. And instead of rebuilding the temple and putting their
efforts and their money into that, they went to build homes
for themselves. And some of them were elaborate
homes, and nothing wrong with having an elaborate home, but
the worship of God is first and foremost for the people of God.
And Zechariah was sent to urge the people through the prophetic
word, you don't need to neglect the worship of God. That's the
main thing. We were talking about this last
week. You know, the whole book of Ecclesiastes is about that. God says that we have every right
to enjoy the works of our labors, our jobs, our families here on
earth. but not without knowing and glorifying
God first. And I've heard people say, well,
you don't make God first in your life. He's everything. Well,
you've got families to take care of. You've got jobs to go to.
You've got to do all that. And you're to be diligent, and
you're to enjoy the fruits of your labors. But the worship
of God is everything. Don't neglect God. his worship,
the people of God or not. Well look at Zechariah 4 verse
1 it says, the angel that talked with me, that is the angel the
messenger that talked with Zechariah, he came again and he waked me,
woke him up as a man that is wakened out of his sleep and
he said unto me, what seest thou? He's giving Zechariah a vision
and he says, I said I have looked and behold a candlestick all
of gold and a bowl on the top of it and his seven lamps thereon
and seven pipes and seven lamps which are upon the top thereof."
You see the picture there? These lamp sticks with seven
bowls and the candlestick with seven lamps on it and a line
that's going somewhere. Well, where's the line going?
Verse three, and two olive trees by it, one upon the right side
of the bowl, the other upon the left side thereof. So I answered
and spoke to the angel that talked with me, saying, what are these,
my Lord? Then the angel that talked with
me answered and said unto me, knowest thou not what these be?
And Zechariah said, no, my Lord. Well, in verse six, then he answered
and spoke unto me saying, This is the word of the Lord unto
Zerubbabel. Now, Zerubbabel was the governor,
appointed governor of the people that came back out of Babylon
and he was to lead them in rebuilding the temple and establishing the
worship of God. Zerubbabel was a type of Christ,
leading the people of God out of captivity and establishing
the worship of God. So, Zechariah the prophet is
told to say to Zerubbabel, And listen to what the lesson of
these two witnesses, the candlesticks and the olive trees. Not by might,
nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. And
he says, who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel,
thou shalt become a plain, and he shall bring forth the headstone,
thereof with shoutings crying, grace, grace, undo it. This vision of the candlesticks
and the olive trees, it's a picture of the message of God's grace. It's not by our power and our
might and our goodness. And look down, we won't read
the whole thing. Look at verse 11. Then answered
I and said unto him, what are these two olive trees at the
right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof?
And I answered again and said unto him, what be these two olive
branches? which through the two golden
pipes emptied the golden oil out of themselves. What's happening
here? These olive trees, olive oil, they're feeding the lamp
sticks with oil that they might burn. And he says, and he answered
me, said, verse 13, knowest thou not what these be? And I said,
no, my Lord. Then said he, these are the two anointed ones that
stand by the Lord of the whole earth. So go back to Revelation
11. I know all this can get confusing.
I understand that. But here's basically what the
two witnesses are. The reason it's two is because under the
law, it took two witnesses to give authority to any matter. And you know Christ, he sent
his witnesses out two by two. All of that. In the Bible, you
have the Old Testament and the New Testament, two witnesses. All of that, so that's the reason
there too. But what they represent, the
candlesticks are the churches that stand for the light, preaching
the light, witnesses of the light. The olive trees are the ministers
that feed the church in the power of the spirit with the oil and
the truth. So just like what am I doing
up here? I'm telling you all the truth
so that we can collectively be two witnesses, be witness to
the world of the gospel. And that's what it is. It's not
two individuals. Not anybody comes back from the
dead. It's the church, fed by the witnesses of God, the preachers,
the evangelists, the pastors, in the power of the Spirit. And
that's the oil. You remember when John was speaking
of those who had apostatized, fallen away from the church in
1 John 2? But he looked at the people of
God and he said, but you have an unction, an anointing from
the Holy One. Well that's that olive tree.
These two olive trees that he's talking about, that's the preaching
of the Word and the power of the Spirit that reaches to the
people of God and lights us up, literally, to set forth the truth,
the truth of who Jesus Christ is and what He did and why He
did it and where He is now. And that's what this stands for.
And I'll talk more about that next week, Lord willing, but
I hope you see this, you know. Go back to the Old Testament.
And what do these two witnesses speak of? Grace, grace, grace. It's not by our power or our
goodness, it's by the power and the might and the goodness of
God in Christ for our salvation. Okay. I hope I didn't confuse you.
I really do. We'll talk more about it, though,
and hopefully we'll be able to see it clearly. Let's sing a
song. We haven't sung this hymn in
a long time. 334, Be Thou My Vision.