In Revelation chapter 11, as
we're continuing with this refrain, sort of, that is between the
6th and the 7th trumpet judgment, the 7th one begins in verse 15
of Revelation 11, we're seeing the New Testament age as it unfolds
under the revelation of God. And there's a great, great distress
that the Bible reveals here concerning the condition of the world in
darkness, in false religion, in its false hopes, false refuges. And there's some distress, you
might say, concerning the true church of the Lord Jesus Christ
during this time because there's going to be great, great trials. They call this the tribulation
period, that's trouble. Christ told his disciples before
he ascended unto the Father, he said, in the world you'll
have trouble, you'll have tribulation. But he told us to be of good
cheer because he's overcome the world. You see, our hope, our
victory, our strength is not in ourselves and not in this
world. It's in Christ. It's in the grace of God. And
then there's going to be great distress from the church because
there's going to be great persecution that comes from the world. And
that's what these first 13 verses of Revelation 11 are really about. Now, I chose to just deal with
the first two verses today. on measuring the temple of God.
And the reason I just limited myself to the two verses here
is because these two verses lay the foundation for an understanding
of what comes next concerning the issue, and you've heard this
in Revelation, the two witnesses. Now, people have talked about
the two witnesses, and you know there's a lot of speculation
from people as to who these two witnesses are. And I want to
tell you something right now. Speculation will do you absolutely
no good. And, you know, most people believe,
well, these are two individuals and they take a stab in the dark.
They'll talk about, well, it's Moses and Elijah. Because, as
you know, Moses and Elijah, they appeared at the Mount of Transfiguration. when Christ took those two disciples,
what, two or three disciples up there, and he showed them
in that glorious vision on the Mount of Transfiguration. There
stood Christ in his glory, speaking with Moses and Elijah. And you
remember what the subject of their conversation was. They
spoke of his decease, which he should accomplish in Jerusalem.
They spoke of the death of Christ. They were speaking of the gospel.
They were speaking of the righteousness that Christ would work out on
the cross because when Luke said it this way, they spoke of his
decease. That word decease is the Greek word exodus. In other
words, his death was going to be a leading out of bondage.
That's what that means. But there's no foundation based
upon that passage and that vision that was given to the disciples
to say that Moses and Elijah would be the two witnesses. That's
just speculation. Now others say it's going to
be Enoch and Elijah, because Enoch and Elijah didn't suffer
physical death. I contend this, that Enoch and
Elijah did suffer the equivalent of physical death, because they
had to be changed. But I'm not gonna speculate on
that, I'm not gonna get into that this morning, because it
would take too much time. I believe that if these were two specific
individuals, these two witnesses, that the Lord would have put
him down here, he would have named him. And there'd be no speculation
on it. But I want you to, the key to
understanding the issue of the two witnesses is this. It's not
who they are. It's what is their message. What
is a witness? A witness is one who testifies. The key to understanding the
issue of the two witnesses is their message, and the key to
understanding that is the first two verses of Revelation 11,
measuring the temple. So let's go to it. He says, and
there was given me a reed like unto a rod. That's Revelation
11, 1. A reed like unto a rod. This
is a measuring rod. This is a description of, as
I said, what we're going to see now in Revelation 11, here in
these first 13 verses, is a description of the bitter experience. Remember,
he talked about the bittersweet gospel? The bitterness has to
do with the bitterness of conviction and the sweetness of salvation
that comes based on the blood and righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The bitterness has to do with
the persecutions and the trials that we suffer as believers and
as a church as a whole, and the sweetness of deliverance from
this world, the judgment of God upon the enemies of Christ and
his truth. So we have the bittersweet. So
remember, that's talking about the gospel. Well, now it says
there's given to John a reed like unto a rod, and look at
verse one, he says, and the angel stood saying, rise and measure
the temple of God, and the altar, measure the altar, and then that
worship therein. He says, but the court which
is without the temple, or outside the temple, that is outside the
inner part of the temple, He says, leave out. Now you may
see in your concordance there, it says cast out. So these are
cast out. They're not just ignored. Now
anytime something is cast out, it's a judgment of God. You see,
in other words, it's not just ignoring them. Don't just walk
on by me. They're gonna be cast out. And
measure it not. Now measure it not means do not
include it. For it is given unto the Gentiles,
and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two
months." Now let me show you how this lays the foundation
of understanding the issue of the two witnesses. First of all,
John is given a reed like unto a rod. It's a measuring stick.
It's a standard by which the people of God are manifest, made
known, measured. And I want you to notice that
John did not have this measuring stick in himself. It was given
to him. You see, when sinful man uses
his own standard by which to judge or measure things, it always
goes awry, doesn't it? You remember Christ said in Matthew
chapter 7 and verse 1, Judge not that you be not judged. And
he talked about how people judge wrongly, by a wrong standard. He said, why are you trying to
take the splinter out of your brother's eye when there's a
beam in your own eye? He said, with what measure you
measure, it shall be meted out to you. Man's standard of measurement
is always, always sinful. It's always lower than God's. It's always self-righteous. You
see, in Matthew 7, he's not forbidding all judgment there. You see,
we have to judge things. How many times have I told you?
You're judging right now. Because you've got to determine,
am I telling you the truth or am I telling you a lie? Now,
here's the key. What's your standard of judgment?
Is it the color of my coat? Or how tall I am? Or my manner
of speaking? Is that your measurement? Or
how I look? Do I have the pulpit presence? You know, all of that
stuff. If that's it, then it's wrong.
And certainly, if you judge by self-righteous standard, that's
wrong. Well, what is the standard of
judgment? Well, write this down on your lesson. I didn't write
it down. As I go through, I've got a string of verses in your
lesson here that you can study in your own private study. But
here's what it says, Isaiah 820. To the law and to the testimony,
if they speak not according to this word, there's no light in
them. So generally speaking, the measure,
there's a general standard. The general standard is the whole
word of God from Genesis to Revelation. What I tell you, what John speaks,
what I preach to you, what John preaches or any other preacher
must be consistent with the word of God. Now, I know people say,
well, you know, everybody has a different interpretation of
the word of God. Well, there's also standards
of interpretation. And we have to study the scriptures
in the context with a Christ-centered view. Somebody asked me, he said,
if you had to sum up the whole message of the Bible, how would
you sum it up? And I said, well, probably, and
you know, just thinking at that time off the top of my head,
you know, trying to, based upon what I've read in the scripture,
I'd say, well, I'd say three truths. Number one, God is holy,
righteous, and just, and he must punish sin with death. Now that's
it. The soul that sinneth must surely
die. There's no way God can look over
your sin. There's no way God can ignore
it. There's no way God can lighten
it. The wages of sin is death. That's
God's nature. That's God's judgment. That's
only right. It cannot be any other way. That's
number one. Number two, we are a sinful people. We are a sinful people and deserve
nothing but God's judgment of death. That's what the scripture
teaches. Everything from Genesis to Revelation
shows us that it's impossible for a sinner to be saved based
on their works and that by nature we don't We
don't have any inclination or any, uh, we don't have any desires
toward the true and living God according to his way. And then
the third one is this salvation is totally 100% by God's free
and sovereign grace based on the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And that's it. That's a summation. Now, anything you read in this
book that challenges or denies those truths is wrong. You've
read it wrong. You've measured it wrong. Think
about the Pharisee in Luke chapter 18. What was his measure of righteousness? Remember what he said? I thank
God that I'm not like other men. Now, I want you to think about
something here real seriously. We've all made this statement,
and it's a good statement to make. You hear of some heinous,
horrible crime committed by an individual. And we know our frame,
we know our potential, we know that it's only by the grace of
God that we don't do something like that or worse. But there
go I, but by the grace of God. You ever made that statement?
It's a good statement. So in essence, when we say that,
aren't we saying, I thank God that I'm not like other men?
Listen, I've made this statement about total depravity. Total
depravity does not say that we are all as bad as we could be.
Isn't that right? Don't we see and feel the restraining
hand of God even upon ourselves? So yes, I can tell you, I thank
God that I'm not like that murderer or that child molester and all
of that. I thank God that I'm not. But
here's the key. Is that my standard of righteousness? Is that my measure? If it is,
I'm sadly wrong. You understand? Somebody says,
well, I've joined the church. I got baptized. I try to attend
every service. Is that your standard of righteousness?
Is that your measure? If it is, you're sadly mistaken.
What is the standard? What is the measure of righteousness
in the Bible? It's Christ. It's Christ. Acts 17 31. How many times we
quoted God's God has appointed a day in the which he will judge
the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained
in that it give insurance unto all men and they raised him from
the dead. Christ is a standard. So generally speaking, the measure
here is the word of God. Specifically, it's the gospel
wherein the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to
faith. Now that's the measuring rod
that John is given. It's the gospel. This is talking
about the preaching of the gospels. Now whoever you believe the two
witnesses are, and I'm gonna tell you who I believe they are
next week. The issue is what are they witnessing
to? That's the issue. What are they
preaching? They're preaching the gospel.
This is a picture, this is a symbolic picture of the church in the
last age going out preaching Christ. Preaching Christ crucified
and risen from the dead. Preaching the righteousness of
God. Showing how sinners are saved and justified and forgiven
based on his righteousness imputed. That's what this is. That's the
measuring rod. He that believeth the gospel. Do you believe the gospel? The
true gospel. Now, not a false gospel. Paul
wrote in Galatians chapter 1, and he used the measuring stick.
Remember, he said, I marvel that you're so soon removed from the
gospel to another, which the word there means another of a
different kind, which is not another, But though we or an
angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you than that
which we have preached, let him be anathema." All right? What's Paul doing? He's using
the measuring rod. He's saying there's one gospel,
and in that gospel is revealed the righteousness of God, not
the righteousness of men, not the free will of men. That's
a false gospel. And those who come preaching
to you that false gospel, take the measuring rod of the true
gospel and measure it and it doesn't come out. It doesn't
measure up. Do you believe that you have a righteousness that
answers the demands of God's law and justice? You say, yes. I'll say, well, how, what, what
righteousness is it? How did you get it? If it's any
other way, but by the righteousness of Christ imputed, it's a false
gospel. Now he says here, take this measuring
rod and rise and measure the temple of God. Now this temple
here, and it's clear in the New Testament that the temple of
God is the church, the house of God, the household, the family
of God. He's not talking about a physical
building rebuilt in Jerusalem. Christ said, upon this rock,
I will build my church. How many times in the New Testament
is the church symbolized by a building? Well, so many times. But let
me just show you one. Christ said, upon this rock,
I'll build my church. The gates of hell will not prevail
against it. Look over at Ephesians chapter 2. And I've got a string
of verses on this one here in your lesson too that you can
look at. We don't have time to turn to all of them. Look at verse 11 of Ephesians
chapter 2. Now what he's talking about here
is the salvation of God's people. What is the church? You know
it's not a building, it's the people of God. And he says to
the Ephesian church, verse 11, he says, wherefore remember that
you being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called
uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in
the flesh made by hands, that at that time you were without
Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. Now he's
talking about during the time of the old covenant. And he says,
and strangers, foreigners from the covenants of promise, having
no hope and without God in the world. Verse 13, but now in Christ
Jesus, you who sometimes were far off and made nigh, brought
near to God, how? By the blood of Christ. You see,
it wasn't by your works, it wasn't by your free will, it was by
the blood of Christ. For he is our peace who hath
made both one, God's people, Jew and Gentile, and hath broken
down the middle wall partition between us. Now that's important
for what we're going to see in the next verse of Revelation
11, verse 2. He's broken down the middle wall
partition between us. In other words, there's no middle
wall partition. Well, what's that referring to? In the last
temple, what they call Herod's temple, You remember in the Old
Testament you had Solomon's Temple. Well, that was destroyed by the
Babylonian army, Nebuchadnezzar. That was destroyed. And then
the Jews, what was it, 70 years later, were brought back under
Zerubbabel and Nehemiah, and they rebuilt that temple, and
it wasn't near what Solomon's Temple was, and the Ark of the
Covenant, as you know, was missing. Well, that temple stood, it went
through some wear and tear, but it stood. But King Herod, who
was not really a Jew, he was an Edomian from Edom, but he,
because the people wanted it, because the economy was good
under him, he began to add on to it, and it was called Herod's
Temple. And in that temple, they had
a court, you had the inner temple, which only the Jews could go
in. There was a wall there, and the Gentiles who had converted
to Judaism, they could only go up to that wall. They couldn't
go past it. There was a middle wall of partition between Jew
and Gentile. There was a distinction made between Jew and Gentile. And what Paul is saying here,
that in Jesus Christ, concerning the elect of God, Jew and Gentile,
there is no division now. There is no middle wall of partition.
Verse 15 of Ephesians 2, look at it. having abolished in his
flesh the enmity, that hatred, even the law of commandments
contained in ordinances for to make of himself a twain of two,
one new man, so making peace. Now, who is the new man there?
That's the church, the United Church. washed in the blood of
Christ, clothed in his righteousness, called out, given life and called
out under the gospel by the Holy Spirit. Look at verse 16 now.
And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by his cross,
by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby. Verse 17, came
and preached peace to you which were far off to them that were
not. Now, that's the preaching of the gospel. That's the measuring
stick. Preaching peace, how does peace
come between God and sinners? By the imputed righteousness
of Christ, 2 Corinthians 5.21. He was made sin, that we might
become the righteousness of God. Verse 18, for through him we
both have access by one spirit unto the Father. It's all through
Christ. Now therefore you're no more
strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints
and the household of God, and are built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the
chief cornerstone, in whom all the building, fitly framed together,
groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are
builted together for inhabitation of God through the Spirit." Now,
I read all that because it's significant. Go back to Revelation
11. He says, you measure the temple
of God. you preach the truth concerning
the church, all right? That it's all based on our fellow
citizenship in the kingdom of God, our salvation, all the benefits,
all the blessings of it is based upon what Christ accomplished
on the cross in the shedding of his blood as the payment for
our sins. Law and justice satisfied, righteousness
established, And that's what puts every one of us who are
saved on equal footing. You see? There's nobody here. Let me tell you something. If
you're saved by the grace of God, there's nobody here that
is more saved than the other, including this preacher. And
then he says measure the altar. Why the altar? Well, what was
the altar? That's the place of sacrifice. It's all based on
what Christ did. His blood. and them that worship
therein. That's all for whom Christ died.
Christ didn't die for those who end up in hell. They're measured
in the temple of God based upon the altar right within that whole
temple. So you see there, there's the
whole issue. Now look at verse two. Now he
says, but the court which is without the temple, leave out,
cast out, and measure it not. Now, he says, for it is given
unto the Gentiles, and the holy city that they shall tread under,
foot forty and two months. Now you have to take this in
line with the context. He says, the court which is outside
the temple. Now it's obvious that their minds
would be thinking of that temple that I described to you that
Herod was building that had that middle wall partition. Because
that's the only temple that had such a court like that. And when
you see the word Gentiles there, well we know that the scripture
tells us that God's elect are made up of people redeemed by
the blood of Christ out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation,
including Gentiles. Well, what's he talking about
here? Well, he's talking about the view of the Gentiles under
that old covenant, which would be lost people. Gentiles here
is used to identify heathen unbelievers. All right? Now, what happens
to a Gentile When God saves her, saves him or her, what happens? Turn to Romans chapter 2. And this is a miracle. And I'll tell you something.
A lot of people don't want to accept this. But in not accepting
this, I'll tell you what, they're really denying salvation. God's
salvation. Look at verse 28. Look at it. For he is not a Jew," Romans
2.28, which is one outwardly. What is it to be a Jew outwardly?
He's talking about being an ethnic Jew, Israelite physically. All right? Neither is that circumcision
which is outward in the flesh. That's the ceremonial law of
circumcision. Verse 29, but he is a Jew, which
is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit,
not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God. Turn
to Galatians chapter three. Galatians three. What happens
to the Gentile when God saves him? Spiritually speaking, he
stops being a Gentile, and what does he become? A spiritual Jew.
A spiritual Israelite. Look at Galatians chapter 3.
He says in verse 26, For you are all, not just the Jews, But you are not just the ethnic
Jews, but you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been
baptized into Christ, that literally means placed into, united with
Christ, have put on Christ. To put on Christ means to believe
on him. There's neither Jew nor Greek,
there's neither bond nor free, there's neither male nor female,
for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you be Christ,
that's a possessive. It would be like if you belong
to Christ, then are you what? Abraham's seed and heirs according
to the promise. Listen, if you're a sinner saved
by grace, you're one of the spiritual seed of Abraham. And we could
go on and on. I've got other verses listed
there. But let's hurry. Look back at
Revelation chapter 11. So there's the In other words,
to be in Christ, there is no middle wall of partition here.
John's measuring the temple of God. Who is a member of the true
church of the Lord Jesus Christ? It's those who believe in Him,
rest in Him for all salvation, all forgiveness, all righteousness,
all eternal life, all glory. That's the measuring stick, and
that's the people. Now, he says at the end of that,
verse 2, and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and
two months. I'll give you a little bit of
this today, but since I'm running out of time, I'll pick up with
it next week. What is the holy city? Well,
I'm going to preach on that in the next hour. Zion is the holy
city. That's the spiritual, that's
the heavenly Jerusalem. That's the place of our citizenship
in Christ, all right? And the holy city shall they
tread underfoot. And he says 40 and two months. That equals three and a half
years. And it finds its meaning back in the book of Daniel. Now
we won't turn there today, but we'll turn there next week. But
you can go ahead and read. It's Daniel chapter nine, verses
24 through 27. It's the same time period mentioned
throughout the book of Revelation. Sometimes it's stated as 1260
days. Sometimes it's stated as a time
and times and half a time. That's what this 42 months, this
three and a half years, it's all the same. And it refers to
the last half of the time period of what is referred to as the
70th week of Daniel, which would equal seven years. Three and
a half years, and then three and a half years. Let me give
you this summation, and then I'll make good on this next week,
all right? But that's seven years divided in half. The first three
and a half refers to the time period that Christ walked the
earth in his public ministry up into the cross. It was about
three and a half years. You remember when he came on
the scene, John the Baptist said, Behold the Lamb of God, which
beareth away the sins of the world. And he was baptized, picturing
his death, burial, and resurrection showing that that was the fulfillment
of righteousness for his people. And that lasted up to the cross
three and a half years. And then the next three and a
half years was a time of preaching the gospel, the outpouring of
the Holy Spirit, and it led up to the time of great persecution. Remember when Stephen preached
and he was stoned, and after that Saul made havoc of the church
and they were scattered out. All right? So here's what he's
saying there is that what happened in those three and a half years
in the persecution of the church is symbolic and indicative of
what's going to happen to the church all the way up through
the last stage to the second coming of Christ. In other words,
folks, it's not going to be easy. It is going to be a time of tribulation
and trouble. But don't lose heart. Because,
and then, now that leads us into the two witnesses, and what happens,
and I'll show you how it all connects. But that's, don't lose
heart, because as Christ said, he's overcome this world. It
is a time of trouble and tribulation and persecution, but the victory's
ours. The victory's already been won,
because Christ is risen. He's seated at the right hand
of the Father, ever living to make intercession for us, and
he's coming again. to make his enemies his footstool
and to gather his church unto himself. All right.