Now we're going to, our lesson
today is the death of the two witnesses. And it begins in chapter
11, verse five. But remember what he's talking
about. He's talking about, here's the subject of Revelation 11. It is the witness of the gospel,
the witness of the church throughout the last days. and these two
witnesses uh... and and if you i hope you looked
at your lesson and maybe got went through some of these verses
because i'm just convinced that these two witnesses are are symbolic
uh... of the church in the last days
to being remember that uh... the to being the the under the
law all the requirement of god for an authentic uh... authority
uh... authentic authoritative witness
of the gospel and People will try to tweak that in every way.
You may be one who says, well, I'm just convinced that it's
these two particular men or whatever. I don't see how you can support
that scripturally. And just like I told you last
week, you have every right to be wrong. That's OK. Not on the
gospel now. but on these two witnesses. But
this is the witness of the church, the true church. And you know,
I know a lot of people don't like to make this distinction,
but I think if you're gonna understand the scriptures, you have to.
Especially, for example, when you go through the kingdom parables
of Matthew 13. There is the true church of the
living God, the spiritual body of Christ, which is made up only
of God's elect, redeemed by the blood of Christ, and ultimately,
eventually, regenerated by the Holy Spirit. There are no false
believers, there are no counterfeit Christians in the true spiritual
body of Christ. We know that. Paul spoke to the
Ephesian elders about the church which Christ redeemed with his
blood. And so we have to make, but the
church here on earth, where the gospel is preached. Now we're
not talking about false churches necessarily. They come into play
here too, but that's Satan's tears. Satan's sowing his tears. And those are false Christians,
false churches. But even in churches here on
earth where the gospel is preached, where the truth is preached,
there'll be a mixture of true believers and false believers. Now, if you read the kingdom
parables, I don't see how you can deny that. You know, he talks
about the stony ground hearer, the thorny ground hearer. John
spoke of those who were with us at one time in 1 John 2. He
said, they went out from us. And remember what he said, if
they had been of us, if they had been truly members of the
spiritual body of Christ, they would have no doubt remained
with us. And so you know that. Well, here's
the church, the witness is what he's talking about here in these
two witnesses. This is the gospel. He talked about measuring the
temple of God and the altar and them that worship therein. You
see the temple of God, that's the church. That's the dwelling
place of God. Christ said, the kingdom of God
is within you. He said, where two or three are
gathered in my name, there I'll be with you, in the midst of
you. Christ is the foundation of the
church. He's the head of the church,
and he's also the heart of the church. The church is the pillar
and ground of truth. So anytime where the gospel is
preached, the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace, this
gospel of works and freewillism is not the true church. Now you
have to understand it. And I know people get angry and
they say, well, you're just too narrow or you're a hyper or whatever. Let me tell you something now.
You've got to go by what the Bible says. God's preachers don't
preach salvation by works in any way, to any degree, at any
time. It's salvation by God's sovereign
grace based on the righteousness of another, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And they don't preach any other message. Now, Satan can mimic
that message for a while. Read 2 Corinthians 11. It's what
we call the transformers. We're not talking about the kids'
toys now. We're talking about those deceivers who can say right
things at particular times for their own particular purposes.
But if you read 2 Corinthians 11, he's talking about preachers
there, false preachers there, even though they say the right
things at particular times, they can't stay with it because that's
not where their heart is. But these two witnesses, that's
the church. And listen to what he says now.
And of course, remember when we went back to Zechariah 4?
You can read that because that verse 4 is a direct reference
to that. He says in verse 5, now listen,
he says, and if any man will hurt them, to hurt them means
to wrong them. It means to treat them unjustly. It can mean, it can be physical
persecution, even death. Think about the apostles. Every
one of the apostles were martyred for the faith, everyone except
John, who died of old age in exile on the Isle of Patmos.
And think about men like Stephen, who was stoned to death, you
know, things like that, martyrs. And you could go up through church
history where, and I'm not gonna do that this morning, but you
could go up through church history. Now, the reason that he says,
if any man will hurt them, and hurting them is a direct result
of man's natural hatred of the gospel. And I always turn back
to John chapter 3. This is the verse that I think,
we could go to a lot of verses on this, but this is the verse
that I believe that brings out the reality of why the world,
Satan and the world, hates the gospel. And he says in verse
19 of John chapter 3, and remember who he's talking to here now.
He's talking to a religious man named Nicodemus who had achieved
high rank in the Jewish religion, in legalism. And he says in verse
19 of John 3, he says, and this is the condemnation, that light
is coming to the world. Now that light is Christ. That
light is the gospel that identifies and distinguishes him from all
counterfeits. And he says, that light has come
into the world, and men love darkness rather than light. Now,
when you read that on the surface, and I remember myself, before
I was converted, before I really saw the truth, before God revealed
himself, I'd read over verses like that and I wouldn't even
think about it. You know, all right, men love darkness. And
I, you know, a lot of people, they relegate that to the immoral,
perverted faction of the world. That has to be talking about
the homosexuals and the drug pushers and people like that,
the robbers, the thieves, the murderers. All right? And those things are evil. And
they do characterize a lot of, a big segment of society. But
here, listen to what he says. He says, men love darkness rather
than light. Now what is darkness? Darkness
is ignorance. Darkness is deception. Isn't
that right? Darkness is a symptom of spiritual
death, which is the absence of spiritual life. And he says,
men love darkness rather than light. Now why? Because their
deeds were evil. What deeds are evil? What does
it take the light of the gospel, wherein the righteousness of
God is revealed, to expose as being evil? It's man's works.
What man thinks is righteous and holy. What man by nature
thinks recommends him unto God. And so he says in verse 20, for
everyone that doeth evil, hateth the light, neither cometh to
the light, lest his deeds should be reproved, discovered, exposed.
Now go back to Revelation 11. That's why, that's why the world
hates the gospel. And so when this witness goes
forth, if any man will hurt them, listen to what it says, fire
proceedeth out of their mouth and devoureth their enemies.
And if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed. Now what's he talking about?
Well, he's talking about the power and the witness of the
word of God. That's what he said. The fire
proceeding out of their mouth. What is that? That's not cursing.
That's not getting a word up. That's preaching the gospel to
a world that hates the gospel. It's the word of God's judgment
against all sin and all unrighteousness and all unbelief. And what he's
showing us here is simply this, that our weapons, just like Paul
wrote in 2 Corinthians 10, he said, we're in a warfare, but
we don't war after the flesh. And the weapons of our warfare
are not carnal. It's not guns and knives and
swords. When somebody opposes us because
of the message of the gospel that exposes what they're so
proud of as being evil, what they depend on, exposing their
false refuges, when somebody acts in us, whether in just derision
or hatred or even physical, we are not given any leave by the
scripture to fight them physically or force them to believe what
we believe. We can't do that. That's not
the kind of, that's not Christianity. You know, they talk about during
the time, for example, of the Spanish Inquisition, they would
get people and torture them trying to get a confession. That was
evil. That's satanic. That's not godly. That's not Christianity at all.
That was evil. They called it Christian. Cutting
people's heads off, burning them at the stake, things like that.
That's evil. The weapons of our warfare are the truth, the gospel, and
it's aimed at the heart, the mind, the imaginations of men,
pulling down strongholds. In other words, this is a battle
of the heart, the mind, the affections, and the will. And so when he
says, and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner
be killed. This is, this shows the certainty of the ultimate
destruction, eternal death and damnation of all who oppose the
gospel of God's grace in Christ. He that believeth not shall be
damned. That's what it's saying. And
that's the manner that he's going to be destroyed. Not with a gun,
not with a sword, not with an atom bomb. Now there may be atom
bombs going off sometime in the future, I don't know, and people
may be killed. But that's not our warfare, that's
not our weapon. Our weapon is the truth. God's
gonna judge this world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained. And he's given assurance unto
all men, in this way he raised him from the dead. And so that's
how their destruction is gonna come about. Look at it again,
if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth, that's the fire of
the word of God, that's the sharp two-edged sword, and devoureth
their enemies. They cannot listen, they can
say what they want to say, they can accuse, but it will not give
them victory. The word of God is going to accomplish
what it's sent for, and if any man will hurt them, he must in
this manner be killed. this manner being that fire proceeding
out of their mouth, the word of God. That's our weapon. Now
look at verse six. He says, these have power to
shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy,
they're preaching, and they have power over waters to turn them
to blood and to smite the earth with all plagues as often as
they will. Now, this is why a lot of people
say that the two witnesses are actually Moses and Elijah. Because there is a historical
reference here. The historical reference is that
they have power to shut heaven that it rain not in the days
of their prophecy, the days of their preaching. That's a reference
back in the book of First Kings when Elijah, the prophet of God,
prayed that it rain not, that there be a drought in the northern
kingdom when Ahab and Jezebel were promoting idolatry in the
kingdom. And it didn't rain. I mean, it
didn't rain physically. And the power to shut off the
rain. Well, in the Bible, rain symbolizes
the doctrine of God. It drops like rain, the truth
of God. And the power to shut heaven
is the authority of God's word in the gospel. that tell sinners
this that without Christ there is no blessing from God there
is no way to God without Christ that's the power he's talking
about he's not saying that we who preach the gospel have the
power to make it stop raining now we know in Elijah's day that
happened but that was the work of God through that prophet and
it was a physical manifestation under that old covenant to show
that God's blessings would be shut off from those who operated
in idolatry. They're cursed. And so what we
tell people is this, people who do not have Christ, who do not
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, who are not washed in his blood
and clothed in his righteousness, There's no blessing from God
that way. Now, we can talk about physical blessings. You know,
we know unbelievers who are rich and healthy and all of that. And we may say, well, those are
blessings from God. Well, they can be, but they don't recognize
it. And what is a blessing is ultimately
going to be a curse. Think about Luke chapter 12,
the parable where Christ talked about the rich man. who had so
much he had to build bigger barns and he said, thou fool, this
night your soul will be required of you. All of your riches will
get you nothing. All of your health will get you,
you know, somebody say, well, I pray that you'll be rich, you'll
be healthy. Well, that's fine. But if you
don't know Christ, what's it all for? If you don't glorify
God with it, what's it all for? It's a curse. Cursed is everyone
that continueth not in all the things which are written in the
book of the law to do them. You see, our only hope to be
out from under the curse is to stand in Christ who was made
a curse for us. And that's what this means here.
They have power to shut heaven. What power do I have to shut
heaven? I know the only way to heaven is Christ and his blood
and righteousness alone. Now, if you don't have Christ,
if you don't believe in him, he said, I'm the way, the truth,
and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. If you don't have Christ, that way to heaven is
shut. Isn't that right? And then, so
there's the reference to Elijah. Now, he says in verse six, and
have power over waters to turn them to blood, to smite the earth
with all plagues as often as they will. Waters, plural in
the Bible, is a symbol of the nations. The nations of the world
across the waters, you see. Blood is death. And smiting the
earth with all plagues, that again, that's the curse of death,
as often as they will. And what he's talking about here
is that destruction and death will come upon the whole earth.
You see, that's the only way that God can act in justice against
those who have not the gospel, who have not Christ and his word. God's wrath abides on all who
reject that testimony. Well, look at verse seven. He
says, and when they shall have finished their testimony, now
that word finished, it's a little different word in this sense.
It's not talking about time so much as the completion of a work. That's what the word finish means.
You remember when Christ was hanging on the cross in John
19, I think it's verse 30. And he made this statement. He
said, it is finished. That's the same word. It is completed
now. God had appointed the time and
the time was set. In the fullness of the time,
God sent forth his son. But that word finished means
a perfection, a completion of the work. This is done. And so
when Christ was hanging on that cross, he said it's finished.
What was he talking about? He's talking about his work of redemption.
He finished it. We trust in Christ who finished
the work. It's the same word as end, E-N-D. For example, in Romans 10, 4,
for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believe. He's the finishing of it. He's
the completion of it. Now there's a different word
used in Colossians 1, 9, and 10 when he says, for in him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bottle and you're complete in
him. But it's the same truth. In other words, our completeness
before God is in Christ. Everything that God requires
of his people, and now listen, God requires a lot from us, but
everything that God requires to attain and maintain salvation,
the completion of it, is totally 100% in Jesus Christ and him
crucified. And everything that we do as
far as we're energized and enlivened by the Holy Spirit is the fruit
and effect of a finished work. That's why some of you might
remember years ago, a man wrote an article where the article
was entitled, The Blood is Not Enough. And what he was trying
to say in that article was that, well, Christ's death was not
enough, he said, We must also have the work of the Spirit in
us in regeneration and conversion. Well, it's true that we must
have the work of the Holy Spirit in the new birth. That's true.
But it's not true because Christ's blood is not enough. In fact, the reason that we must
have the work of the Spirit in us in the new birth is because
Christ's blood is enough. He finished the work. You see,
what happens to me as a born-again person does not complete or finish
what Christ started. What happens to me as a born-again
person is the fruit and effect of what Christ finished. And
somebody says, well, you're just splitting hairs there. I don't
think so. I know so. You see, He has the preeminence.
By one offering, He hath what? perfected by His one offering. So don't
ever get sidetracked on such a deception as to say, well,
this has got to happen because Christ's blood isn't enough.
No, His blood is more than enough, always has been. Well, this here
in Revelation 11-7, when they finish their testimony, it's
almost like God saying, I've had enough. It's over. It's finished.
It's completed. This is the end. All right? And what is their testimony? It's the gospel. And he says,
when they have finished their testimony, The beast that ascendeth
out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall
overcome them and kill them. Now that beast is the beast,
I believe, of, I've got it listed here in Revelation 13, Revelation
17. It's the same one, it's the beast,
it's a servant of Satan. It's allowed, just like Satan
is allowed for a time in God's purpose, to persecute, and he
says to overcome, He's going to make war against them. We're
going to study more about that later on. He's going to come
against the church. You know, Satan has been released
out of the bottomless pit, and he's going to deceive the nations,
and his deceptions are so subtle. You can read about him in 2 Corinthians
4. What is Satan's main goal? It's
to hide the gospel, to corrupt the gospel. 2 Corinthians 4,
3, if our gospel be hid, it's hid to them that are lost, in
whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which
believe not, lest the light of the glory of God should shine
unto them. And that's why our only hope
is to see by the power of the Holy Spirit, the truth of Christ
and him crucified, our sinfulness and his righteousness, our need
of his mercy and grace, all of that. So he's gonna make war. But he says here in verse seven,
he shall overcome them and kill them. Now, there's a lot of people,
and here's what he's, the whole context of this, I believe, teaches
us this. That as we get nearer and nearer
to the time of his second coming, the second coming of Christ,
the gospel is going to get more scarce, scarcer and scarcer.
False religion is going to get more and more. That's the beast.
That's Satan. That's the Antichrist. Satan. And a false religion will become
more popular and the gospel will diminish on the earth. This is
God's purpose now. And remember, it's not a failure.
Somebody said, what's a failure of the church? No, it's not.
It's God's judgment on this fallen world. And it's going to get
scarcer and scarcer until It seems like you can't find it
at all. Now look at verse 8. He says,
And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city,
which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt. Sodom, you know what
Sodom is. That's the Sodomites. That's
the immorality. That's the idolatry. What's Egypt? Egypt is the bondage where also
our Lord was crucified. He likens Jerusalem to Sodom
and Egypt here. And what's he talking about?
He's talking about Jerusalem which is below. You remember
in Galatians 4, Paul, when he was comparing the covenant of
grace with the covenant of works, and he used that, and he said
that covenant of works symbolized by Hagar and Ishmael was bondage,
which he said marks Jerusalem which is below. That's what the Jews were caught
up in, bondage, like Egypt. Idolatry, like Sodom. Was there
immorality there too? Sure, there's always. It's everywhere,
isn't it? But what he's talking about is
that bondage of false religion that traps people into trying
to establish a righteousness of their own, which they cannot
do. And that's what he's talking
about. And then he compared, in Galatians 4, when he talked
about Jerusalem, which is above, that's the spiritual city of
God, that's the church, that's the citizenship, the kingdom
of God. Well, he says, their dead bodies shall lie in the
street of the great city. And we'll talk more about this
next week. But there are some people who believe that that
just before Christ comes again, there's not gonna be any gospel
preached anywhere at all, not even in small segments, and there'll
be no believers on earth. And one of them, I think, I was
talking to a fellow one time, and he said, well, Christ, I
didn't reference this, but it's in the book of Luke. I'll have
to look it up again. It's the parable of the unjust
steward If anybody knows where that is. And he talks about,
he asked the question, he said, when he comes again, will there
be faith on earth? And it's a rhetorical question
there. And he said, no, there won't be. This fellow was talking
to me, he said, there won't be faith on earth. But the Bible
clearly states that when Christ comes again, there will be believers
on earth. Doesn't it? Sure. You can, we
won't turn there this morning, but you can look at 2 Thessalonians
2, 2 Timothy 4, it tells us that there's some who are going to
be caught up to be with, those who are on earth will be caught
up to be with the Lord. Now there'll be few compared
to the world population, but there will be believers on earth.
So what I think he's portraying here, what I know he's portraying
here is the diminishing of the truth and the general spread
of a lie. That's God's judgment on the
earth even as he preserves his people in his grace and power
until he comes again. And that's the death of the two
witnesses. The church will seem like a dead
thing to the world, a small insignificant thing. Let me, I'll just say this in
close. You know, a lot of people, they talk about Christendom.
You've heard that term, Christendom? And what that's talking about
is the influence of certain Christian, cultural, doctrinal things that
have influenced, especially the Western world. It has been a
deception. Christendom is not true Christianity. In fact, Christendom really spread
by the Catholic Church, which is a false church. And it became
a political thing, and it became a cultural thing. It's kind of
like everybody we know has a Bible. They don't read it, and they
don't believe it, but they have one. You go into a motel room,
you got a Bible. Somebody said, well, all that's
kind of diminishing because Islam's trying to take over and other
religions. Well, America's always been a melting pot that way,
but it's been sort of under the heading of Christendom. But it's
been a deception. But what's going to happen as
we get closer to the end time is that whatever influence, small
or large, that the truth of the gospel ever had on this earth
will be totally gone. even though there will be believers
on earth and it'll appear dead to the world.