Well, we've seen as we've been
studying the book of Revelation, the seals, the seven sealed book
being opened by the Lamb of God. Read the article that I've put
on the back of the bulletin this week as a summary of what we've
looked at so far. This was written 1900 years and
more ago, towards the end of the first century when the Apostle
John was about 90, 95 years old. when he had the vision on the
Isle of Patmos. Written that long ago, but in what we've seen
of the seals and the trumpets and all of these things unfolding,
is it not exactly our 21st century? Have we not, I have been staggered
looking at this in detail, as to how well it portrays the days
in which we live. Nothing is out of control. God
is in control of all things. Fear not, little flock, as our
Lord Jesus Christ said to his disciples. Fear not. Those who
trust in Christ, his little flock, fear not if you're trusting in
him. You're immune. from so many of
these things, the locust stings of that fifth trumpet of the
first work, the locust sting, all symbolical, symbolical language,
not literal locust, symbolical of the demonic forces that Satan
unleashes. We may be physically touched,
but we're spiritually immune. We cannot be hurt by them. We
may be touched by the wars, as believers have been, as the seals
have been unloosed and have been opened, but we're spiritually
immune. The people of God are spiritually
immune, because Christ controls all things. Christ is implementing
the remainder of the seven-sealed book. Look in chapter 10 and
verse 7. chapter ten and verse seven but
in the days of the voice of the seventh angel that's the seventh
trumpet of the seven trumpets that were to blow when he shall
begin to sound the mystery of God should be finished as he
hath declared to his servants the prophets it's coming to an
end it must sound the completion of all things the end is coming The world makes fun of these
things where believers say, you know, they picture the religious
fanatic with the sandwich boards hanging over his shoulders and,
you know, the end is nigh, repent, the end is, you know, and it's
kind of ha ha ha, let's all laugh at it, just like they laughed
at Noah. in the days coming up to the flood, when Noah was preaching
righteousness, they laughed at him, they mocked him, they thought
he was mad, they said he'd lost his mind completely, didn't know
what he was talking about. Is it not exactly the same today?
But the end is coming, the end is coming. Not in five billion
years. It is coming. The kingdom of
Satan is ripe for judgment. Look at it. It's ripe for judgment. The only escape from it, the
only salvation from the judgment of God, is where? This is it. This is what marks us out. The
only escape from it is in the blood of the Lamb that was slain. Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.
In his blood alone is the answer to the offended law of God. That's
the gospel. That's the gospel. In His blood
alone is the answer to the offended law of God, the offended justice
of God. That is the only way that you
and I, sinners, can be justified with God, can be declared right
with God, can inherit an eternal kingdom, an eternal glory in
the blood of the Lamb. And it's just as Noah preached
righteousness before the flood. God's prophets now, Noah was
God's prophet preacher in those days. God's prophets now must
preach the gospel and must warn of the end. Look in chapter 10
and verse 11. John was told, go and eat that
little book. Take it, take it and eat it.
Take it into yourself. Imbibe it. Make it part of your
being. You know, don't just sort of
look at it from a distance as an interested bystander. Take
it to be part of you. And when it's a part of you,
it will force you to do something. Verse 11, He said unto me, Thou
must prophesy again before many peoples and nations and tongues
and kings. What? You must preach clearly
the certainty of these things. You must preach clearly the only
way of escape. You must preach clearly the certainty
of the end coming and of the judgment of God who is holy and
cannot abide sin. These things you must do. And
this book will go down into your being. And he says, in verse
10, he says, as soon as I'd eaten it, there was sweetness in his
mouth, but as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter. Because
there is the sweet. Child of God, when you first
read of the gospel of grace. When someone preaches to you
for the first time and you hear and the Holy Spirit speaks to
you and you know that that precious blood of Christ has answered
the justice of God concerning everything to do with you and
your just condemnation it's like Pilgrim in Pilgrim's Progress,
the burden falling off his back that burden that would drag him
down to hell He sees it. His eyes are open. The burden
falls off his back and rolls down into the tomb in Bunyan's
Pilgrim's Progress. When you see that, what a sweet
taste that is. What a sweet taste it is. My
sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin not in part,
You know, those who used to teach us. Jesus has dealt with it up
to now, and that's all done with. But now it's up to you. You've
got to live perfectly before the law until you die to go to
heaven. What a lie. That's not the gospel. My sin,
oh, the bliss of this glorious thought. My sin not in part,
but the whole is nailed to his cross, and I bear it none. Praise
the Lord, praise the Lord, oh, my soul. That's sweet, isn't
it? Isn't that sweet? But it gets into you. And in
your flesh there's a warfare going on between the spirit and
the flesh. And there's bitterness. Is it
bitter inside you? It clashes with your flesh. And
then the world around, it clashes with the world around, with everything
in this world around. your faith, your sweet-in-the-mouth
faith is bitter when it comes up against this fallen world,
when it comes up against the sin in this world, the evil that's
in the world, the murders, the sorceries, the fornications,
the thefts that are in the world, it's bitter when it comes up
against all of those things. Well, he's told he's got to preach,
so here's the first question as we move into chapter 11 of
Revelation. Who is it that must preach? and
must witness. Look at verses 1 and 2 of chapter
11. And there was given me a reed,
like unto a rod. And the angel stood, saying,
Rise and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them
that worship therein. but the court which is without
the temple leave out and measure it not for it's given to the
Gentiles and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and
two months who is it that must preach? and then we have these
two strange go and get a measuring rod here's a measuring rod go
and measure the temple in the middle of the city now it's picture
language this is a vision okay this is a vision this isn't real
This is a spiritual vision. And he's saying, well obviously
he's referring to Jerusalem, but only in picture, don't think
for one minute, many people make this mistake of thinking this
is about literal Jerusalem and a literal town. Absolute rubbish,
it's nothing to do with that. But Jerusalem is the picture. Jerusalem was the city of our
God. Jerusalem was Old Testament Zion,
the city of our God. Within Jerusalem, The people
that were then the only people of God in the world, the Israelites,
walked and lived and moved and had their being. And in the middle
of the city, on Mount Moriah, on the same place where Abraham
was prepared to sacrifice Isaac, There was the temple built. There. And if you went in the time of
the Lord Jesus Christ and you went to Jerusalem and you were
just wandering through the street and you could speak the language
and you said to somebody in the street, where does God live?
They would have immediately answered you. In the Holy of Holies in
the temple. Where does God live? In the Holy
of Holies in the temple. That's where he lives. Go to
the temple, he's in the Holy of Holies, don't dare go in there,
as you are, but that's where God lives, that is where God
lives. Not out and about in the city
as a whole, not in the land of Israel, not even in the court
around the temple, only in the middle of it, only in the core
of it. And John is given a reed to measure the temple, the altar,
and them that worship therein, just in the center core. What
he's saying is this, Mark out the true people of God. Mark
out, be clear who they are. Mark out the true people of God.
Do you know it was always said they are not all Israel which
are of Israel. They are not all true spiritual
Israel who are Israelites by descent from Abraham. No, no,
no, no, not at all. Not at all. Ishmael wasn't true
Israel. Esau wasn't true Israel. No.
They're not all Israel, true Israel, who are of physical Israel. No. Who are the true ones? Who
are the true people of God? The true worshippers of God?
Go and mark it out. Well, it's symbolized by the
temple in the middle of Jerusalem. But the temple court and the
rest of the city of Jerusalem, don't bother with that. It may
call itself the people of God, as they did. Pharisaical Judaism
called itself the people of God. It wasn't. They were just out
in the city generally, in the temple court. So this isn't literal
Jerusalem. It's distinguishing between that
which calls itself Christian, true Christian, and that which
really is true Christian. Look at the nominally Christian
world. It's vast. You know, we feel
like such a tiny number, don't we? True believers, I mean we
know of our friends on Free Grace Radio and the ones and twos that
are dotted all around this country that are in touch with us, it's
a tiny, tiny handful it appears in these days. But look at the
nominally Christian, look at the world that calls itself Christian. It's huge. It's huge. The whole of the Catholic world
calls itself Christian. The whole of the Anglican world
calls itself Christian. Let's go further than that. You
could even include Islam. You could even include Muslims.
Why? Who do they say their father
is? They all trace their lineage back to Abraham through Ishmael. It's an Abrahamic faith. But
what have they all got in common? What have they all got in common?
The thing they've all got in common is this. They all deny
the blood of Christ. They all deny the blood of Christ. They all promote self-righteousness,
false self-righteousness, as the way to be right with God.
And the media? You put your radio on, you watch
songs of praise, you do all of those things. The media regards
all of these nominal Christian places as being the real article,
as being the genuine article. But they're not. In John's vision,
he's told to measure only the temple, at the core of it all.
Only the temple, right in the core. And then, let's come into
the courtyard of the temple. Let's get a bit closer. Let's
come to the world that calls itself evangelical. Evangelical. Evangelical. Evangelical, reformed
evangelical Christians. Let's come to that world, shall
we? Let's come to the world of, it's the temple court, it's getting
a bit nearer to the centre. These are all professing gospel
believers, but do you know? It's full of hypocrisy. They
deny the truth. They're riddled with lukewarmness,
like Laodicea in one of the letters in chapter 3 of Revelation. They're
marked by doctrinal compromise. they tolerate false prophets
and false practices. They're the temple court. They're
the surroundings. I read a book many years ago
by a guy called Christopher Catherwood and it was a very scholarly book
on Islam and why it is, it was in the aftermath of 9-11, the
flying of the planes into the Twin Towers in New York and it
was trying to understand why the Islamic world hates the Western
Christian world so much that it's prepared to fly planes into
its twin towers in New York and commit other terrorist atrocities. And it's a very scholarly book
and it's got some very good information in it, but do you know one thing
I saw in that that I fundamentally disagreed with him on? He had
a basic assumption that a huge proportion of nominal USA evangelicals,
Presbyterians and Baptists, that they were all true Christians.
Millions upon millions upon millions of them. Hundreds of millions
of true Christians that are hated by his... And that's where I
disagree with him. They're the temple court. They're
not the temple. They're not the core of the temple,
which John is measuring out, marking out, as the true people
of God. No, they all actually deny gospel
truth, of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in
Christ alone. They, all of them, everyone,
add their own law works and their own traditions. There's only
the actual temple core. Where does God live? In the temple
core, with his people. The temple is a type of the true
New Testament church. Now look at some references with
me. First of all, turn to 1 Corinthians,
and if you can't get there, don't worry, I'll read it out to you.
1 Corinthians, chapter 3, verses 16 and 17. And I won't wait for
you to get there, if you can keep up, fine, but just listen
otherwise. Paul says this to believers,
to true believers, he says, Know ye not that ye are the temple
of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man
defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy. For the temple
of God is holy, which temple ye are." Who's the temple? Measure
the temple. Who's the temple? The true people
of God. True Christian believers. Let's
go on. 2nd Corinthians. 2nd Corinthians
chapter 6, again verses 16 and 17. And what agreement hath the temple
of God with idols? Meaning, you're the temple of
God. For ye are the temple of the living God, as God hath said.
I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their
God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore, come out from among
them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean
thing. True believers are the temple
of the living God. The next one, Ephesians. Ephesians
chapter two. and verse 21 Ephesians chapter
2 well we'll go a verse earlier verse 19 now therefore ye are
no more strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens with the
saints and of the household of God and are built, listen, 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 into an holy temple in the Lord, the
true believers, in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation
of God through the Spirit." the church, the New Testament church,
of true believers, whose trust is in the blood of Christ, whose
faith is in Christ, who love the Lord Jesus Christ, they are
the temple of, measure the temple, these are the true believers,
not nominal Christianity, not nominal evangelicals, not nominal
Reformed Baptist Presbyterian, not them, they're the temple
called, because they don't believe the true gospel, and not the
general World of Christendom? No, the Holy City is trodden
underfoot. They treaded underfoot forty
and two months. They like to think they're called
by the name, but they're not called by the name. They're false.
They're false. In Revelation 3, 12, well, look,
one more reference, first of all. Peter, Peter. 1 Peter chapter
2, verse 5. Ye also, as lively stones, are
built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also
it is contained in the Scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief
cornerstone, precious, and he that believeth on him shall not
be confounded. unto you therefore which believe
he is precious but unto them which be disobedient the stone
which the builders disallowed the same is become the head of
the corner and the stone of stumbling and a rock of offence even to
them which stumble at the word being disobedient whereunto they
were also appointed but ye are a chosen generation a royal priesthood,
an holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the
praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his
marvellous light." In one of the letters in Revelation chapter
3, the promises to those that hear the
voice and obey what he's telling them to do, you will become pillars
in the temple of God. Do you see what I'm saying? The
temple is a picture of the true people of God. Who is to preach?
Who is to witness? It's those that are the temple
of God. The New Testament temple is the
church of true believers who believe the gospel of His grace,
however much alone they appear. So, as Paul says to the Philippians,
we are the circumcision, we are the true people of God. What
do we do? We worship God in the spirit,
in spirit and in truth. That's how we worship God. We
rejoice in Christ Jesus. We don't just know about him,
we rejoice in him. And we have no confidence in
the flesh. We don't have confidence in the flesh for sanctification,
for our law-keeping, for our tradition. We have no confidence
in the flesh. We haven't got a building to
worship in. We don't need a building to worship in. We're the people
of God, we're a living building, we're the temple of the living
God. And to his church, God has given ministry gifts. Let me
just read you this from Ephesians chapter four. To his church,
he puts them in the wilderness, in a place prepared of God, to
feed them there. And in Ephesians chapter four,
verses 11 and 12, he says, God gave some apostles and some prophets
and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the
perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for
the edifying of the body of Christ. These must taste the sweetness
of gospel truth and know the bitterness of its clash with
the flesh and with the world. And these must witness, they
must witness. Look at verses 3 and 4. I will
give power to my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand,
two hundred, and threescore days clothed in sackcloth. These are
the two olive trees and the two candlesticks standing before
the God of the earth. two witnesses two olive trees
two candlesticks it's a clear reference we haven't got time
to turn to it but it's a clear reference to Zechariah chapter
four you might remember a couple of years ago we had some messages
from Zechariah on the rebuilding of the temple. After the Babylonian
exile, Cyrus is raised up and sends the people back, Ezra and
Nehemiah, and then in the prophets you've got Zechariah giving the
prophecy of this. And in his chapter 4, Zechariah
chapter 4, it talks about the two olive trees and the candlestick,
and all of these things The whole of the book of Zechariah
is about rebuilding the temple, the physical temple that had
been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar's invasion. Rebuilding that temple
in the face of the world's opposition. Is that not the battle that we're
engaged in? building the temple of God, the church of God, in
the face of opposition from the world and from Satan. And in
Zechariah chapter 4, and throughout the book of Zechariah, you read
of Zerubbabel and Joshua, the high priest. Zerubbabel is a
picture of Christ, a type of Christ. He's the prince. He's
the one who comes with the royal lineage back from Babylon to
rebuild the temple. And Joshua is the high priest. Speaking of that prophet, priest,
and king, role of the Lord Jesus Christ, picturing him, giving
the candlestick, giving light to God's people. Where does it
get its oil from? The olive trees. The olive trees
are speaking of Holy Spirit oil coming to sustain and to give
that light. And it's an assurance, as it
says in Zechariah 4 verse 6, that how does God get his job
done? How does God get the temple built? How does God get the New
Testament temple of the church established, and his kingdom
to come? How does he do it? Not by might,
not by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. It's
all speaking of the true church of Christ, and true ministers,
candlesticks, God, giving his people light to shine in this
dark place. Now what must they testify? Verse
four. These are the two olive trees
and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.
It's speaking of the oil of God's grace. This is what they must
testify. The oil of God's grace, that
God is gracious to whom he will be gracious and compassionate
on whom he will have compassion. The candlestick, speaking of
light. Light, the light. I am the light of the world,
said Jesus. His gospel is the light of the
world. He said, you are the light of
the world. You are the light of the world. Shine in this dark
world. The light of gospel righteousness.
What are we to witness? The redemption that is in Christ's
blood, because that alone is the basis of his grace. What
are we to witness? Justification and propitiation
only in that blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. But also, the other
thing that we're to witness is the certainty of the end, is
the certainty of the judgment which is to come. We're to preach
that, we're to witness, we're to testify to the fact that the
end is coming and judgment is coming with it. Verse 3, sackcloth,
clothed in sackcloth, These are to witness clothed in sackcloth.
Sackcloth speaks of repentance. You know John the Baptist didn't
have any fine clothes on. Just, what was it, camel skins
and the eight locusts and just roughly clad. It's a kind of
a humble interface with the world. Satcloth speaks of repentance.
When the people of Nineveh repented, they repented in satcloth and
ashes. It speaks of repentance in the
hope of escaping judgment. It's speaking of witnessing to
the fact that judgment is coming. Repent, for the end is near. Satcloth also indicates that
they're witnessing, that witnesses are witnessing without any of
the trappings and allurements of the world to attract the world.
You know, what do we do? We just go and preach the gospel. What do we do? When you're asked
a reason for the hope that is in you as a believer, as a member
of Christ's church, you just tell them, plainly. We don't
adorn it with anything that might attract the world. We don't have
events to show the world how easy it is to be a believer.
We just preach the gospel of God's grace. We don't do any
of the gimmicks of the world to try and get people to believe,
to try and persuade people. We just preach in sackcloth,
in symbolical sackcloth, just simply, just testify what the
truth of the gospel of grace is. and of the judgment that
is indicated by fire. Look at verse 5. If any man will
hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth
their enemies, if any man will hurt them. He must in this manner
be killed. Judgment indicated by fire from
their mouths. Listen to what God says through
Jeremiah. Jeremiah 5, 14. Wherefore, thus
saith the Lord God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, God's
word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire. My words
will be fire in your mouth. And this people would. And what
does fire do to wood? Burns it up. Burns it up. It
shall devour them. In that sense, they will be killed. They will proclaim the witnesses,
the church and the ministers, the church and the true preachers,
raised up by God. They will proclaim coming judgment
in the face of opposition, of scorn, of ridicule, of unbelief. But they will proclaim it, and
the words of God in their mouth will be like fire to devour those
who oppose. What are the weapons that they
use? We're not like Islam. we don't use the weapons of this
world, we don't use swords we don't go around beheading and
setting off bombs and doing all that kind of thing, these are
the weapons God tells us the weapons that true believers use
the weapons of our warfare are not carnal not fleshly but mighty
through God to the pulling down of strongholds and with these
words God will kill God will silence the power of That's what
it means. God will silence the power of
those who oppose. And in verse six, these have
power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their
prophecy, and have power over waters to turn them to blood,
and to smite the earth and all plagues as often as they will.
With these words, they will bring down God's judgment on this kingdom
of Satan, as did Noah. in Noah's preaching of righteousness
he preached the only way of escape but he also preached the certainty
of the judgment to come he preached the certainty of it and that
judgment came the world was flooded and in the days of Moses in Egypt
on the land of Egypt and Pharaoh that wouldn't let them go his
preaching brought down the plagues of God on that land that they
begged them to leave in the end And Elijah, seeing the state
of the nation, and its apostasy, and its total walking out on
the truth of the gospel of God's grace, brings down the judgment
of drought on that land. And it really did not rain. That
wasn't a spiritual picture, it really stopped raining for three
and a half years. And Zerubbabel and Joshua, in
their day, going back to Jerusalem, they brought down the judgment
of God on their enemies, and so the preaching of the truth
will, in God's purpose and time, bring down God's judgments, the
opening of the seals and the blowing of the trumpets on this
world. Now, for how long? For how long? This chapter, Revelation 11,
is a high-level summary of how the end comes, how it will come. And there's much more detail
to be revealed in the remaining chapters, which we will get to
in due course. But for how long? I just want
to give you this summary. Verse 3. I will give power unto
my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand, two hundred,
and threescore days." And in verse 2, the holy city, the nominal
world of Christendom, will be trampled underfoot, trodden underfoot
by the Gentiles for 42 months. What's this all about? What's
it all about? Well, 1260 days. Remember, we're talking about
symbolism. were talking symbolically. 1260
days, or, verse 7, when they have finished their testimony,
until they've said all that there is to be said, until they've
testified all there is to be testified, is until the end is
imminent. Until all the elect of God are
called out by the gospel. Until all the judgments that
God has to pronounce have been pronounced. Until God by his
two witnesses has said everything he has to say to call out his
elect and to warn of impending judgment. Now, just stick with
me on this, just stick with me with these numbers, right, but
it's absolutely fascinating, you know you get all these stupid
books like Da Vinci Codes and things like that, that's just
that's just devilish nonsense just have nothing to do with
that sort of thing but this is the word of God 1260 days now
we have to do a little bit of rounding that doesn't matter
it's near enough 1260 days is would you believe 42 months of
30 if a month is 30 days which it near enough is 30 days half
September April June and you know Near enough. I know, you
come five days short to make what we now know of as a full
year, but it doesn't matter because you know, how many degrees are
there in a circle? How many degrees right round
a circle? 360. Do you know why that was? They said, well let's
make a day, let's make a degree about the space that the Earth
moves through around the Sun in one day. Let's make a degree
of that, so 360 degrees. Not 360, 360. So a year is 360
days in these things. So 1260 days is 42 months of 30 days. It's three
and a half years. Three and a half is a time. times and half a time, three
and a half. Oh, three and a half, three and
a half, two times three and a half is seven. Seven is the number
of God's perfection, isn't it? It's half of God's perfect fulfilment. Is it perhaps that before Christ
came was 1260 days, symbolically, and since Christ has come to
the end is 1260 days, symbolically? The two together make up seven,
which is God's perfection. Two three and a halves. And then
think of this as well. The number of God's perfection
is 7, isn't it? 7. What's 1 short of 7? Even Luca knows what 1 short
of 7 is. It's 6, isn't it? If I take 1
away from 7, I've got 6. 6 is the number of the beast. 6 is the number of man. You know? Falling short. Not
perfect. Not 7. 1 less than 7. What's
6 times 7? 6 times 7? Those of you listening, wait,
there's a little boy trying to work it out quickly. Six sevens
are? Forty-two. Forty-two! Is that
not remarkable? You see, forty-two. The Gentiles
are going to trample the holy city forty-two months. That's man, six, trying to achieve
perfection, seven. Six sevens are only forty-two,
they're not forty-nine. They trample, they try and make
a perfect utopia. This world tries. What did they
do in Paris yesterday? They're rejoicing, they signed
a big agreement. Oh, we've saved the planet, we've
saved the world! As Gordon Brown slipped in one
of his prime ministerial speeches when he saved the world economy
several years ago. They've saved the world, they
said yesterday, with agreeing something about greenhouse gases
and Well, there may be a shred of truth in it, but honestly,
I think they're thinking that they're gods and that they can
do things that they can't. They really are. Because they
want this utopia of a Christless, bloodless heaven on earth. And it's false. And it fails. And it will always fail. And
it will never, ever, ever succeed. Because it always falls short.
1260 days is a long time. But it's a limited time. And
we're in it now, from Christ's ascension to his return. Three
and a half, time, times, and half a time. What are God's believing
people called to do? We're called to witness. We're
called to give a reason for the hope that is in us. 1 Peter 3,
15. Be ready to give a reason to
anyone who asks you, a reason for the hope that is in you.
You've got a hope of it. Why? What's the reason for your
hope? I'll tell you what the reason
for your hope is, should I? The blood of Christ. Is that it? Of course it is. There's no other. The blood of Christ is your only
hope. And we're to preach, and God's
anointed servants are to preach, using the foolishness of preaching,
because He pleased God by the foolishness of preaching, to
save those who believe. God's voice, God's light, God's
medium, his preachers, for his spirit to come and speak to this
world, to speak of grace and mercy and salvation, and to speak
of impending judgment and the end which is coming, calling,
warning, testifying, all the time his people growing in grace
and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ knowing more of
the sweetness of the gospel and knowing more of the bitterness
of the clash with this world and hoping for glory with a solid
hope with a certain hope I was going to go on and do more but
I'm going to stop at that point because I was going to tell you
what it is that we're to expect and what it is that we're to
expect is exactly what we're seeing today which is the true
church looking for all intents and purposes to the world like
a non-functioning church. Don't be surprised that there's
just a handful of us here in a house meeting as the church
of God. Don't be surprised that there
are ones and twos who listen to this later today, entirely
on their own. Don't be surprised. To the world,
to the religious world, to the temple court, to the holy city,
the Christendom, it looks like the bodies of God's two witnesses,
his church and his preachers, they're lying dead in the street.
and the world's rejoicing over them. We've got rid of that.
Well, can't we have a good time now? We don't need to bother
about them telling us about sin and they're effectively silenced.
God will always speak. God will always speak. We'll
come back to that next week. Amen.