Take your Bibles and turn with
me to Revelation chapter 11. It's been a little while, but
if you recall our last study in chapter 10, the Apostle John
was commanded to take the book. This is the same book that you
read about earlier in the book of Revelations that no man was
worthy to take. It was sealed with seven seals. Nobody in heaven, earth, or hell
was worthy to take this book, but the Lamb of God was worthy. And he come and took the book,
and he's been loosing the seals. And so we've been looking at
these different things and talking about the judgment of God in
the last several studies. But here he tells John, and in
our last study we looked at this, He tells John to take the book.
This is the open book. This is the book with the seals
already loose. This is the book which has been
revealed, not the sealed book. And this is the book of God's
eternal decrees. And John is commanded to take
that book, that open book, and eat it. That is, to take the
eternal purposes and decrees of God as they've been opened
to him, and spiritually eat them and digest them and make them
to be a part of it. And these judgments of God upon
men are real. I want you to know that. They're
real. And they're active. They're present. It's going on. Every day, I see
it. And in the past several weeks,
I've really seen it. And we'll talk about that in
a little bit. These catastrophes and wars and
droughts and famines but especially of the working of Satan in men. The promise of Christ our Savior
to protect and preserve and keep us until the day of his coming. Preserve us from these things
that are going on. There shouldn't be a day that
a believer wakes up in the morning and looks in the mirror that
he's not thankful in his heart that he still is a believer. that he still knows God and loves
God and worships God and he's being kept by God in this day. Take the book, he said. Who has
the book? Christ has the book. He took
the book from him who sat on the throne. Christ has the book
and he tells John to take the book. Take that open book. He's manifested both God and
God's promises to us in his son as he reveals God's eternal purpose
of grace to us. And we're to take those things
and digest those things and chew those things. And he said, they'll
be sweet in the mouth. When you eat that book, he said,
it's going to be sweet. And boy, it is when you read
it. And especially when you read it for the first time and you
discover these things revealed of God, how sweet it is to chew
on these promises and chew on these things. But he said, when
you digest them, they're going to get bitter. They're going
to get bitter. When you see these things come
to pass with your own relatives and friends, mothers, fathers,
sisters, brothers, people close to you, people you grew up with,
it's going to get bitter. When you see that storm come
through and take your house, not some stranger's house, takes
your house, it's going to be bitter. When that doctor comes
in and shakes his head and says, you have this and you have that
and it's fatal, it's going to be bitter. These things are bitter,
some of them, when they're digested. They're bitter in the stomach.
Now, having said these things, our Lord gives to John a reed.
When he's talking about a reed, he's talking about an instrument
of measurement like a yardstick. And I'll give you some scriptures
so you can understand that here in just a minute. But he tells
John, he gives to John a reed, but this reed is like a rod, telling him to rise and to measure
the temple of God and the altar and them that worship. Now, he's
just finished talking about, and he's still talking about
the judgments of God, and right in the middle of all this, he
hands him a reed, a measuring stick, like unto a rod, and tells
him to measure, and to measure the temple, and the altar, and
them that worship therein, Revelation 11.1. Now, it's important as we interpret
spiritual things not to speculate, not to say, well, I think this
means that out of the blue, but to see them as they're declared
in the Holy Scriptures. In Isaiah chapter 11 and verse
1, the prophet tells us that a rod would come forth of the
stem of Jesse and the spirit of the Lord would rest on Him. Christ is the rod given to John
to measure these things with. The Lord Jesus Christ, He's the
rod by which all things are measured. In Psalm 74 too, He likens the
church as the rod of His inheritance. And this because the church is
one with Christ. The only way we could be considered
as the rod of God is that we're one with Christ. We're one with
him. And you can read about that in
Jeremiah 10 verse 16 and other places in the scriptures. All
right, what's measured? What's he measuring? Well, he's
measuring the temple of God. That place where Israel met and
worshiped God, he's measuring the temple. He's measuring the
altar. And he's measuring them that
worship there. Now, the temple is where God
abides. If you wanted to worship God
in the days of Israel of old, you went to the temple. That's
where God abode, in the temple. That's where he met with men.
That's where he communed with men, and that's where he's worshipped
by his people. Now that temple, we know to be
Christ. We know that this body is the
temple of the Holy Spirit. Paul tells us that. And we know
that the church itself is the temple of God, all three. Now
the altar is that upon which the sacrifice was offered up
to God and the basis of our atonement and forgiveness with God. The
altar. You can't worship God without
an altar. Christ is our altar. And them that worship there.
God's people gather themselves together in God's chosen place
of worship And in their heart, God's temple, and in God's church,
God's temple, they worship God. And they worship Him as He's
manifested upon the altar of sacrifice. Christ and Him crucified. Everything we know about God,
we know by studying Christ. And especially Christ crucified.
Paul said this, he said, we have an altar, the Jews had an altar,
a brazen altar. Paul said, we have an altar whereof
they had no right to eat, which still served the tabernacle.
And Jesus Christ is that altar. By him, therefore, let us offer
the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is the fruit
of our lips giving thanks to his name. So you see now what
he's talking about here. He's talking about the temple.
He's talking about the altar, the basis of our forgiveness,
the basis of our atonement. And then he's talking about them
that gather there to worship. And here's another question.
How shall these things be measured? Well, he said, with a reed like
a rod. And a reed, according to Ezekiel's
testimony, is six cubits and a hand breath. A cubit was from
your fingertip to your elbow, and then a hand breath is how
far you can stretch your hand. And this reed, he said, was like
a rod. This measuring instrument was
like a rod. So what does all this mean? It
means that John was to measure all that God determined to protect
and preserve and maintain. That's what it means. That's
what he's talking about here. Now, can you see that by what
I've given you here this morning from the scriptures? I don't
want you to think that, well, that guy just up there just saying
this, that, and the next thing. I've tried to show you in the
scriptures that Christ is the rod. And he is that by which
all things are measured. He's going to measure things,
what He's going to preserve, what He's going to keep, what
He's going to maintain, what He's going to do. It's all measured. It's all comprehended in Christ. It's all in Him. In Him we live
and move and have our bed. I don't want you to think I'm
stretching things or resting the scriptures. Christ is the
rod and his people and their assemblies are sealed with the
Holy Spirit of promise. You know, when you go out here
and buy a piece of property, we bought the church here. We
purchased this from some people who put it up for sale. And the
very first thing we did is have a surveyor come out here and
he measured. He put a stake in out here, and
he put one in back here, and he went down there and put one
out in the middle of the road, and then he went down a little
bit and he put another one in. He measured. He measured those
things. He surveyed those things. And he measures these things
according to the strict adherence of the law. And now it belongs
to us. It belongs to us. If we want
to put a pig farm here, we can put a pig farm here. If we want
to live here, we can live here. If we don't want to live here,
we can vacate. It belongs to us. And it's ours to abide on or
ours to build on. Now, are you with me so far,
what I'm talking about here? Christ is measuring out what
is his by the gospel. what he has purchased with his
own blood, and what he intends to preserve and protect unto
his coming, and that in lieu of all these judgments that he's
sending upon this earth. But, Revelation chapter 11 verse
two, there's a but here. The court which is without Everything
God measured, everything that he comprehended in Christ, but
there's some things outside of Christ. There's some things that he does
not intend to preserve and to keep. And that court, which is
without the temple, leave it out. You don't measure it. Measure
it not, for it's given unto the Gentiles, and the holy city shall
they tread under foot 40 and two months. Now, that 42 months
is just simply saying the rest of the gospel age. That's what
that 42 months. It's a definite number. It's
set with God, but I don't know how many days it is. And Christ
said it's in the hands of God, it's not for you to know. I don't
know, but I do know it's a set number, and he tells us that
with the 42 months. And it's still got a ways to
go, he's telling us with that 42 months. Now these Gentiles
that he's talking about are not the elect Gentiles, which are
God's true Israel. They are Israel, along with the
Jews. But this is talking about unbelieving
men and women who live worshipping idols and walking in the vanity
of their mind and worshipping gods of their imagination. And
for the remainder of time, represented by these 42 months, they're going
to trot underfoot, give no respect to God's holy city and to his
church and to his pastors, to his temple, to that place where
he abides. I'm not gonna give any consideration
to it whatsoever. All right, Revelations 11 verse
3. Now he's got some witnesses.
And he said, I'll give power unto my two witnesses, and they
shall prophesy 1,203 score days, clothed in sackcloth. That is realizing the judgments
of God and the severity of God upon this world. They're going
to clothe themselves in sackcloth. And these are the two olive trees. Now, what in the world does that
mean? Well, you have to go back to
Zechariah chapter 4 to find out. But back in Zechariah chapter
4, he tells us about these two olive trees. These two olive
trees is the source of that oil that flowed into that lamp of
God within his tabernacle, which gave light, and also the temple,
same thing. And these two olive trees was
the source of that oil. So these two witnesses have to
do with those two offices which God is going to maintain throughout
the gospel age, which is evangelists and pastor-teachers. Now that's
what these two witnesses are. And I know this world speculates
and goes off the deep end with this, but that's what they are.
These two witnesses are evangelists and pastors and teachers. And
them being blessed by the Holy Spirit is that oil that flows
into that light that gives... He said, you are the light of
this world. Now don't put it under a bushel, put it on a hilltop
so people can see it. If I view these two witnesses
in the context of this revelation of Christ, they are the true
Church of God, which is manifested by these two witnesses, evangelists
and pastor-teachers. We no longer have apostles, and
we no longer have prophets. Now, if you'd like to see a little
more about this, you can read, as I said, Zechariah chapter
4. And he likens these two olive trees which provide the light
of the candlestick, which is the church, and is a picture
of the work of the Holy Spirit as he reveals Christ to the preaching
of the gospel. And these witnesses in God's
providence are the means by which His grace is bestowed upon His
elect. It comes through hearing. Faith
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. And they
bring forth the oil of His grace through the Spirit and the blessings
of His Spirit and the light of the gospel. Now you can read
that in Romans 10 verses 13 through 17 and in 1 Peter 1 chapter 23
through 25. All right, Revelation 11 verse
5. And if any man hurt them, He's not just talking about people
who are going to come up and kick them in the shins or people
that are going to take them out and set them on fire or feed
them to the hogs or torture them as they did back in the early
days. But he's talking about hurting them in any way, in any
way. He said, if you offend one of
my little ones, He said, they're the apple of my eye. What he's
talking about, you know how touchy your eye is? You get something
in your eye and you take something soft like some toilet paper and
roll it up and you just barely touch it trying to get that off
your eye. You know how touchy that is? He said, when you're
messing with one of my little ones, he said, you're messing
with the apple of my eye. And he said, it'd be better for
you that you tied a millstone about your feet and cast it in
the uttermost part of the sea. If any man will hurt them, fire
proceedeth out of their mouth and devoureth their enemies.
And if any man hurt them, he must in this manner be killed. God's servants, his church, and
his witnesses are under God's care and under God's protection. They're immortal until God takes
them out of this world. That's just so. He said this, he said, touch
not mine anointed and do my prophets no harm. That which is done unto
his church is done unto him. Isn't that what he said? He that
heareth you heareth me, and he that despiseth you despiseth
me who sent you. If you want to reverse that and
take it to the positive side, if you give so much as a glass
of water, he said, you've done it unto me. You've done it unto
me. That which is done unto his church
is done unto him, and as all his prophets' enemies were condemned
by his word, so shall also they be condemned by our gospel who
oppose it and who refuse to bow to it. All right, Revelation
chapter 11, verse 6. These have power to shut heaven,
that it rain not in the days of their prophecy. And they have
power over waters to turn them into blood and to smite the earth
with all plagues as often as they will. Now it's a well-established
fact that God's servants have, in days gone by, called upon
the Lord to do these things, and they were done. They were
done. They brought drought, famine,
plagues, and pestilence upon unbelieving rebels. And now what
happened? Moses gave Pharaoh the word of
God. You let my people go or he's
going to send plagues upon this nation. He wouldn't let them
go. God sent plagues on that nation. But they didn't do these things
to make a show in the flesh or to make themselves stand out.
My soul, if any man on this earth had a reason to stand up and
put his fingers behind his suspenders and really act like he was somebody,
it would have been Moses. My soul, he stood alone against
the emperor of Egypt, against the sovereign of Egypt. He stood
there alone with nobody but God on his side. And he so defeated
that king in the power of God that they let that whole nation
go and God wouldn't even allow a dog to bark in protest when
they went out. Now these things have been done
by God's servants according to the will of God. They don't do
these things so they can make a big show in the flesh like
these modern-day evangelists are doing and trying to make
themselves really appear as somebody. And some of these wonders were
done to confirm their office. The offices of the writers of
the New Testament. And to confirm the calling of
God. And some were given an affirmation of this gospel age. We were getting
ready to move from Old Testament types and symbols and temple
worship and the priesthood. We were getting ready to move
over into the gospel age where men worship God in spirit and
truth. And he gave some of these gifts
in affirmation of that. We don't need these things today
because we've got the whole counsel of God in a book. I don't need
these things. And God's already proven these
men. He's already affirmed these men. But these powerful things are
manifested. And I'm going to tell you something.
They're still manifested today, but more in a spiritual sense
than in the physical sense. The ministry having power with
God is able to shut up heaven to unbelieving men. He that believeth
not, the wrath of God abideth on him. You think he's just saying that
to make men fear and run down and make a profession of faith? I don't know of anything more
true than this. He that believeth not shall not
see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." Their ministry, having power
of God, is able to shut up heaven to unbelieving men and to cause
what they call showers of blessing to cease. To cease. Their ministry, having power
of God, can turn their so-called spiritual waters into blood. into blood. Their ministry, having
power with God, can bring about God's plagues, both natural and
spiritual, upon all who receive not the love of the truth. Revelation
11, 7. And when they shall 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, these witnesses. 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, that is, in this
world. I want to remind you again that
these things before us are symbolic and not to be taken literally.
This prophecy is about two men, these evangelists and these pastor-teachers,
being killed, laying in the street as though they were dead. It's
not talking about two men who are going to be killed and martyred
by the world, but rather the gospel, the church's gospel testimony,
appearing as though it had been eradicated totally from the earth,
appearing as though it wasn't even here anymore. The beast and his spiritual locusts
would arise in power and mass assemblies and so flood the earth
with their lies as to blind men's minds from the glory of God in
the face of Jesus Christ. And this may well speak of a
time when God's churches and pastors and evangelists are so
few So few that they appear as though they were dead in the
street. I'm going to tell you something. To me, I don't know
how this appears to you, but to me this reads like this morning's
newspaper. When I consider the millions
and millions of people on a universal scope and what they believe and how
anti-christ religion has so blinded their minds. And then I think
about grace preachers being a handful all over the world, just a handful. You think the beast is worried
about us here in Louisville? We're so little we don't even
appear like we're alive. Our testimony is so small and
insignificant to them that we're as though we were dead. lying
in the street. And that's what this is talking
about. And let me draw an additional
picture here. There came a time when God's
prophets of old were silenced. God said all he intended to say
before the coming of his Redeemer. And he didn't have, none of the
prophets had an open vision for 400 years. God just sat down
and didn't say no more. And during that time, the world
rejoiced. During that time, religion without
God flourished. And it appeared as though God's
messengers lay dead. It appeared as though God's messengers,
his prophets, had been eradicated from the earth. God wasn't going
to say any more. And when that happened, Christ
appeared. Now what's that tell you about
the end time? His appearance is so close, so
close. I don't wanna, I'm not trying
to make you fear and tremble and run out the yard and look
up at the sky, but I'm telling you this. 2,000 years ago, it
was near. How near is it now? This is exactly the picture which
our Lord has given us through the Apostle John, Revelation
11 verse 9. And they of the people, and kindreds,
and tongues, and nations shall see their dead bodies three days
and a half, a short but definite time, and shall not suffer their
dead bodies to be put into graves. Their tiny assemblies offer no
threat to the masses, And so they allow them to live in the
street as a testimony of their power over them. They'll let
these little simplies alone because what are they to the masses?
Huh? What are they to the masses?
Verse 10, and they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice
over them and make merry and shall give gifts one to another
because these witnesses, these witnesses, these prophets, tormented
them that dwelt on the earth. And after three days and a half,
this brief but set period of time, the Spirit of life from
God entered into them and they stood upon their feet. And great
fear fell upon all them which saw them. And they heard a great
voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven
in a cloud, and their enemies beheld them. And the same hour
was there a great earthquake, and a tenth part of the city
fell. And in that earthquake were slain
of men seven thousand, and the remnant were affrighted, and
gave glory to the God of heaven." Now it appears to me as though
just before the second coming of Christ, God is going to raise
these witnesses up One last time. One last time. He's gonna raise
them up in the earth, a revival of sorts, if you will, and cause
many to glorify the God of heaven. And all that God has purchased
in Christ and measured in Christ, He'll bless, and He'll preserve,
and He'll maintain in this world according to His eternal purpose
of grace, which our Lord has so graciously revealed to us.