in the book of Revelation chapter
11, rather. As you know, as it started out,
John was commanded to measure the temple. Remember he said
in verse one, measure the temple and the altar and them that worship
therein. And that is measuring the church,
the true people of God, by God's standard, which is the gospel.
And so you see that this is, this is the standard that God
has given to his people by which we are to recognize and acknowledge
our fellowship in the Lord. What is, who is our salvation? Who do we trust for salvation? And those who trust in the arm
of the flesh. And then there are those who
trust in the Lord. Blessed are those who put their
trust in the Lord. And trusting in the Lord means
that we see Jesus Christ as the author and finisher of our salvation,
that he is our surety, our substitute, our righteousness, everything. This is the simplicity, what
Paul called the simplicity or the singleness of Jesus Christ. You know, that's what Satan tries
to do. He tries to corrupt the minds of people away from the
simplicity that's in Christ by complicating matters, by getting
men and women to interject their works, their will, their decisions,
their sincerity, their experiences, and it clouds the issue. But
we know we have a single message, and that is Jesus Christ is our
salvation. He is our righteousness. We have
no other. but Jesus Christ. And that's
the measuring rod. That's the measuring stick. And
then after that, he talked about the two witnesses. And these
two witnesses symbolize the preaching of the gospel throughout the
world in the last days, which God brings through his church
here on earth. God uses his people as witnesses
his preachers his church as collectively and then his members individually
to witness the gospel we preach the gospel go in all the world
and preach the gospel and uh... and that to every creature and
we're not to be discriminatory in that we're never to say well
i'm gonna preach the gospel of this one but not to that one
Just like Christ told his disciples, when you go out and you preach,
there'll be people who will just simply say, we don't want to
hear what you have to say. And what does he say to do there?
He says, well, you just leave. You wipe the dust off your feet
and you go on. You continue to pray for them.
Maybe the Lord later on will bring them to have a desire to
hear. We don't know, but that's not
our business. Somebody told a preacher, I can't
remember who it was, said, well, if you believe in the elect,
why don't you just go preach to the elect? And he said, well,
you go around and put a mark on them, and that's what I'll
do. No, no, listen. We're to preach the gospel to
every creature, everyone who will listen. And that's what
these two witnesses represent going out. Now, as we continue
through in this last age, the last days, The message of the
gospel which goes out throughout the world to all the nations,
and you remember Christ said that the gospel must be preached
in every nation and then the end will come. As that is accomplished,
he said it this way, verse 7, when they shall have finished
their testimony. In other words, when the work's
completed. That's what that means. It's the completion of a work.
And God's doing this for a purpose now, and it's for His glory.
It's for the salvation of His people, but it's also His judgment
against the world. You know, the preaching of the
gospel can be a judgment against the unbeliever. That's what Paul
said, to some we're the saver of life unto life, but to others,
what are we? The saver of death unto death.
And he says, who's sufficient for that? Not me, not you. You see, that's why this can
only be a work of God. Salvation is of the Lord. And
he's given us this gospel. It's a treasure, Paul said in
2 Corinthians 4, but we have it in earthen vessels, weak vessels. That's what I am, that's what
you are. But we have such a message, a message of God's free and sovereign
grace. But that message, as the age
progresses up to the time of the second coming of Christ,
there's going to come a time when it's completed and it's
going to diminish as far as any preaching of the gospel. It's
going to get less and less until it seems like there's no gospel
at all. And that's the death of the two
witnesses. Look back at verse, he says in verse 7, and when
they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth
out of the bottomless pit, we're going to talk about that later
on, but that's, you know, there's Satan, who is the great dragon,
then you have the two beasts, the beast out of the sea, the
beast on land, and he says the beast that ascendeth out of the
bottomless pit, and that bottomless pit is the earth, the fallen,
dark, sinful earth, because there's no end to it as far as its death
and destruction. And he says, he 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 I believe that's
symbolic not just of Jerusalem, the physical city, but of the
whole world. The kings of the earth stood
up against Christ, Acts chapter 4. And that's what it is. Do you realize this? Not to believe
God's way of salvation in Christ essentially is to say crucify. That's really what it is. Not
to believe that Jesus, the son of God incarnate, the Lord of
our righteousness, not to believe in him is essentially to say
crucify. Christ said, you can't be in
the middle. You're either for me or you're
against me. And that's the way it is. And it says now, now in
verse nine, so now the death of the two witnesses. Now I told
you last week that a lot of people say, well, then it's going to
come to a point in time where there's absolutely no gospel. preached, and then the Lord will
come back. In other words, and that may be true, but I know
this, there will be believers on earth when Christ comes back.
Read 2 Thessalonians. Well, there's so many passages,
you know. Those who are alive on earth will be caught up, the
scripture says, with him. So we know that. But here the
two witnesses are seen as dead. In other words, it's like the
message is gone. There's no hope of salvation
now. because the gospel is the power
of god and the salvation you say it faith cometh by hearing
and hearing by the word of god now look at verse nine but what
happens alright here's the revival of the two witnesses it says
they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall
see their dead bodies three days and a half now remember that
three days and a half what that what that means not only is it
a symbolic uh... uh... phrase that speaks of a
very short time which I believe that's one of the things that's
being taught here. This time period, we in our life,
because our lives are so short, and we see this as being so long,
but you know one day with the Lord is as 1,000 years and 1,000
years is a day. This is nothing in God's time
frame. It's a very short time. And then the three days and a
half speak of the time of suffering. After the death of Christ, there
was a time when the church was established, the New Testament
church was established and thousands of people were brought into the
kingdom of God by the Lord. Pentecost and Jerusalem, the
gospel was shot out into the Gentile world and God planted
churches through men like Paul and others. And it seemed to
spread out. And then the church began to
be persecuted. Great persecution. The church
of Jerusalem was scattered throughout the regions. Read it in Acts
chapter 9 and Acts chapter 10. It was scattered throughout.
And it says in Acts chapter 9, I believe it is, it says that
the church being persecuted and scattered throughout, the gospel,
they went everywhere preaching the gospel. preaching Christ,
preaching how God can be just and justify the ungodly through
the righteousness of Christ freely imputed and received by faith.
But here, after they see their dead bodies in three and a half
days, and it says in verse nine, it says, and shall not suffer
or allow their dead bodies to be put in graves. Now to leave
a dead body unburied is to show utter contempt. and hatred for
that person. And that's what's being taught
here. The world hates Christ and hates the gospel. And understand
now that even to be indifferent to him and to his message, his
truth and his people is to show hatred towards him. That's how
he takes it. But look at verse 10, and they that dwell upon
the earth shall rejoice over them. Now, anytime you see that
phrase, they that dwell upon the earth, what's he saying? He's talking about earth dwellers.
Now, aren't we living on the earth? Yes, but we're not citizens
of this world. We're citizens of the kingdom
of heaven. We're citizens of the heavenly
Jerusalem. You see that? Earth dwellers
are unbelievers. Unregenerate unbelievers. And
what he's saying is those that dwell that are so connected to
this world that they have no interest in, desire for the things
of the glory of God in Christ. This world is their home. It's
the unbelieving, fallen, sinful, unregenerate world. The non-elect,
you might say. And this world is their home,
this world is their life, this world is their goal. And whether
it's in religion, materialism, immorality, however that's expressed
in their heart, that's what they are. And he says they rejoice
over them. And they make merry. Because,
you know, it's the indication here is they're happy. They're
joyous that this gospel's gone. that they don't have to listen
to the two witnesses anymore now and he says they'll send
gifts to one to another a lot of people make a lot more out
of that phrase than what I believe is in the text but here's the
point here's the point the world is so happy it brings them together
that's what he's talking about sending gifts to one to another
and you remember what it says there in Acts chapter 4 you go
look at this I didn't reference this I may have a reference to
it somewhere in this lesson But where it talks about the kings
of the earth stood up and then it talks about the Jews and the
Gentiles all came together in opposition to Christ and his
gospel. This is what brings the unbelieving
world together. You see people who are normally
at each other's throats and hate each other will come together
and give gifts to each other. in hatred of this gospel, which
exposes them to be lost, and exposes their hope of salvation,
whatever it is, because it's not Christ, it's not the grace
of God, it's not his righteousness, it's not his blood, but whatever
their hope is, this message exposes it to be dung, dead works, idolatry,
even evil. Just like Christ stood and looked
at those false preachers and said, depart from me, you that
work iniquity. What are we saying when we preach
Christ and his righteousness? We're telling people that there's
no other way, that any other way is evil. Any other way is
idolatry. And that goes to the next line.
Look at verse 11. After three days and a half, the spirit of
life from God, wait a minute, verse 10, I'm sorry. And they
that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, make merry,
and they shall send gifts one to another. Even enemies will
send gifts one to another. Because these two prophets tormented
them that dwell on the earth. Now that word torment, remember,
I think it was back in chapter nine. Revelation 9 verse 5, that
word torment was it? That word torment is literally
a touchstone that they used in determining the purity of a metal,
like silver or gold. And they would rub that gold
or that silver up against that touchstone. And that's how they
tested the purity of gold and silver. And that's what this
is. In other words, we have the gold
and the silver of the gospel. The gold symbolizing that it's
of God, that's deity. The silver symbolizing the redemptive
work of Christ, the blood of Christ, the righteousness of
Christ. And what we do is anybody who claims salvation, who claims
to have a right relationship with God, what do we do? We take
the touchstone of the gospel and we rub their claim up against
that touchstone. And if that touchstone of the
gospel reveals that their claim is impure in the sense that they're
pleading something other than the blood and righteousness of
Jesus Christ, the one ground of salvation, his righteousness
imputed, his blood shed. If it's anything other than that,
what does it reveal? That it's impure, it's wrong,
it's deadly. And what does that do? That's
a torment. I think probably, whenever I
talk about that subject, I always reference John chapter three,
verses 19 through 20, where Christ, when he was talking to Nicodemus,
And he said there in verse 18, he said, he didn't come into
the world to condemn the world, the world is already condemned.
In other words, God didn't have to send Messiah into the world
to condemn the world, because the world was already condemned.
And then he said in verse 19, this is the condemnation, that
light has come into the world, and men loved darkness and hated
the light because their deeds were evil. Just like the light
exposes the darkness and evil of salvation by the works and
wills of men, this touchstone exposes the impurity of any hope
of salvation but Jesus Christ and him crucified and risen from
the dead. And that's a torment. The message of the gospel is
a torment. to the false religionist, to
the immoral. It's a torment because it tells
the truth. You've got a disease. I've got
a disease. It's called sin. Now understand
I'm speaking metaphorically here. We're sinners. We don't have
a righteousness, Romans chapter 3. We can't work our way to one. There's nothing we can do at
our worst or at our best to work righteousness before God. That's
it. And here's the problem. By nature,
because we're spiritually dead in trespasses and sin, we don't
desire it or want it God's way. We want it our own way. That's
the devices of men, what the scripture says. Man devises his
own way. There is a way that seemeth right
unto a man. Two times in Proverbs. I think
Proverbs 14, Proverbs 16. But the way thereof is destruction. And it might be a moral way in
the eyes of men. It might be a sincere way. It
might be a religious way in the eyes of men. But it's a way other
than the one way. Christ said, I'm the way, the
truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. So that great torment. look at
verse eleven and after the three days and a half the spirit of
life from god entered into them entered into the two witnesses
who were dead they stood up on their feet a lot of times when you go through
revelation you can see direct references from the old testament
just like for example back over in in uh... chapter eleven here
Verse 4, identifying the two witnesses, the two olive trees
and the two candlesticks, I don't believe you can mistake that
that's a direct reference to Zechariah chapter 4, the prophecy,
to identify the two witnesses. Sometimes you can't make a direct
corollary as if to say, well, this is the chapter that John
had in mind. And sometimes it just simply
reminds us of things in the Bible, and that's not bad. Just, you
know, what I'm saying is just don't be dogmatic about that
to the point of division or corruption or anything like that. But when
I read that, what I thought about was Ezekiel and the Valley of
Dry Bones. You remember that? Over in Ezekiel,
I've got it, Ezekiel 37. where the Lord said unto the
prophet, son of man, can thee, and he looked out and there was
a valley of dry bones, and he said, son of man, can these bones
live? Remember what Ezekiel said? Lord,
thou knowest. You're the only one that knows
that. How could I know that? I can't give life. I can preach
the gospel, but I can't change your heart. I can't give you
a new heart. I can't give you, I can't even do it for myself.
I can remember when I first began to hear the message of the gospel
with the physical ear, with the mental capacities that God did
give me, but even as a fallen, lost sinner. And I began to say,
I think I understand what he's saying, but I hated it. I hated it because it exposed
my deeds to be evil. I mean, I thought I was doing
fine now. I don't know about you. I thought I was doing okay.
I thought I was on the road to heaven. But the guy I was listening
to, he was telling me, no, I was on the road to hell. And I didn't
like it. And so I made it my goal to go
to the Bible to prove him wrong. And to put it in a human way
of looking at things, that was my first mistake. It really wasn't
a mistake. It was the right thing to do.
But looking back on it, if I wanted to stay on that road that I was
on, that was a mistake, because what I found out is what he was
saying was true according to the Bible, and I didn't believe
it. I told my mother, I just don't believe the Bible then.
It's an okay book, you know, it's got some good things in
it, but I don't believe it. And then the Lord At some point
in time, we were talking about this last week, I don't know
when, that's not the issue, but he gave me ears to hear. He changed
my, he turned my world upside down. He did it for every one
of you too, didn't he, who know the gospel. Turned your world
upside down, didn't he? I mean, everything I thought
was right was wrong. And what I thought was wrong
was right. And that's the issue. God gives life, so he says, Lord,
you know that these bones can live, and you remember the Spirit
of God breathed life into those bones. Well, this right here,
he says, the Spirit of life from God entered into them and they
stood upon their feet. So here's the point that he's
making here. What the world sees as dead, God makes alive. That's what salvation is as far
as the new birth, as far as our experience of it. That's what
we talk about in the book, What is Salvation? There's the eternal
realm of salvation. In the mind and purpose of God,
it's always been so. And then there's the legal realm.
On the cross of Christ, what did Christ do? He died, he was
buried, he arose again as the representative, substitute of
his people. And then there's the spiritual realm. That's when
the Holy Spirit brings his people under the preaching of the gospel,
And what happens, the good shepherd calls his sheep into the fold.
But the world sees it as dead. You take the religious world
today, and I've often told you all, I say, and you're like me
in this sense, wouldn't you love to see this building filled up?
I would. Wouldn't you love to see us having
to have a meeting? To where we're saying, well,
we're gonna have to expand or move. but we got too many people
and that we just can't accommodate i'd love to see that now for
my uh... here's what happens up people
who think that way sometimes if the lord allows them says
well what do i have to do to get more people in and then that's when men start
using their own devices well that's you know preacher don't
don't Don't preach that repentance of dead works so much, you know.
You know, maybe once in a while, you know, or something. You know,
but kind of soften that down, you know. You know what I'm saying.
They water down the men. Well, see, we're not going to
do that. By the grace of God, we're not going to do it. We're
not going to do that. Somebody says, well, you know,
well, we've got thousands in our church, and that means God's
blessing us. Does it? I'll tell you how you
know. What are they preaching? What
are they preaching? Are they preaching the same message
that's represented here? That salvation is all of God
and not of man? How many preachers this morning
stand up and preach a man-centered gospel? It seems like all of them do.
The message of the gospel is getting rarer and rarer. all
right and the world at this time whenever this this time comes
when when the testimony is finished and the two witnesses are dead
and the world's rejoicing in that sense in their release and
i'm not listen understand that now he's not saying that the
world's going to be going around looking at each other and saying,
well, the two witnesses are finally, I don't even know. They're just
rejoicing in their false religion, in their false philosophies,
in their materialistic ways. However they do it, they're just
rejoicing. And, and they're not, they're
not being faced with that torment of the gospel message, which
exposes their deeds as evil and calls sinners to repentance.
But then all of a sudden. Here's what happens, he says,
the spirit of God enters into them, and they stood upon their
feet, and verse 11, great fear fell upon them which saw them.
At this time, these witnesses are revived in the world. I don't know how this is gonna
happen. I know God's gonna do it. I can't give you all the
details, and I'm certainly not gonna say, well, this is when,
or anything like that. But the world's gonna take notice
then. Look at it, great fear. Now that's not the fear of God
which comes by the Spirit of God in faith, which is a reverence
and a respect for the glory of God in Christ. This is a fear
of punishment, a fear, a terror of the unknown. And look at verse
12. He says, and they heard a great
voice from heaven saying unto them, come up hither. And they ascended up, now this
is the two witnesses now. This is God calling them up. A lot of people call this the
rapture. And that's okay, the rapture,
the actual term is not in the scripture, but it's a catching
up. And he says, come up hither, and they ascended up to heaven
in a cloud. Now, I don't believe this is
talking about the rapture, to be honest with you. And I've
got this in your lesson. Now, not to say that there's
not going to be a rap when Christ comes again, and that's, that's
pretty much in the seventh trumpet. All right. And, and the people
of God on earth at the time of Christ second coming will be
raptured. They will be caught up. I, and
I don't believe that means that you're going to be driving in
your car and all of a sudden you're disappearing and, and
then car goes all over the place, you know, all that. I don't believe
that. All right. but the people of God are going
to be caught up and listen the world's going to know that Christ
comes again he's going to come with a shout of a trumpet we're
going to look at that later so don't get on to that now but
what I believe he's talking about here is when it says they ascended
up to heaven it simply means that they are blessed of God,
blessed with some privilege, not literally taken to heaven.
And the reason I believe that, I've got in your lesson here,
it says that same phrase, this same phrase here about being
taken, come up hither, being taken, ascended up to heaven,
that phrase, is the same phrase used of the city of Capernaum
in Matthew 11, 23, which speaks of the fact that Capernaum, even
though Capernaum was cursed, they were blessed to hear the
gospel. And that's why that same phrase is used to say that. Capernaum
wasn't literally taken to heaven, but it was described as a city
that ascended into heaven in this sense. In this sense alone,
the gospel was preached and the gospel is the only way to heaven.
It's the only way to heaven. What I believe this is talking
about is a vindication of those whom the world thought was dead.
These are the ones who are blessed of God. This gospel they have
is the only way to heaven. This gospel is a blessing. They're
blessed of God. We thought they were cursed.
This is the world speaking. We thought they were cursed.
We thought they were going to hell and we were going to heaven.
But now they're vindicated. There's life there. This is the
message that God is going to show the world is the right way. Christ and Him crucified and
risen again. One day people are going to see
that. And I believe that's what it's talking about. They were
blessed to hear the gospel. And their enemies beheld them,
it says. Look at verse 13. And the same
hour was there a great earthquake, and a tenth part of the city
fell. This is destruction coming. The beginnings of destruction.
It's starting, you see. It's leading up to the seventh
trumpet. leading up to the final woe here. And so there's destruction,
fell upon the 10th part of the city. All that man trusts in
is going to be destroyed. And in the earthquake, we're
slain of men 7,000. 7,000 meaning the completeness
of this, the completeness of God's destruction. Incidentally,
you know, 7,000 on the side of grace is the complete number
of the people of God. In an interesting, you know,
when Elijah was praying about his torment from Ahab and Jezebel,
and all of that was coming about, and he said, he thought he was
the only one, and the Lord said, I have 7,000, if not bad than
me. See, that's completeness. But
he says in verse 13, and the remnant were affrighted, those
that were left, they gave glory to the God of heaven. So who's
that remnant? That's the elect remnant. A remnant
according to the election of grace. What's it saying? All who stand against Christ
in this day shall be destroyed. Not immediately now, it's the
beginning of destructions. But the complete destruction
is coming in the seventh trumpet. But all who are in Christ will
glorify God. They're believers. And they shall
rejoice in the Lord. That's what he's saying. Somebody
said, well, it says they were affrighted. Well, you think about
it. We fret, don't we? Don't you? I mean, we've been talking about,
you know, we're in an election year, and everybody's thinking,
well, you know, our world's going to hell in a handbag. It's been going there for a long
time. But we're seeing things that maybe we hadn't seen before.
But we know God's in control. We know he's on the throne. And
then he says in verse 14, the second woe was passed, and behold,
the third woe cometh quickly. And that's the seventh trumpet.
So we'll pick up there next week.