The book of Revelation chapter
11. This is where we've come to in
our study of this book. I want to read it tonight in
your hearing. Revelation chapter 11. Let's
begin reading in verse 1. And there was given me a reed. I guess we'd call that measuring
tape in our day, like unto a rod. And the angel stood, saying,
Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them
that worship therein. Let the court which is without
the temple leave out, and measure it not, for it is given unto
the Gentiles. And the holy city shall they
tread under foot forty and two months. And I will give power
unto 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.
And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their
mouth, and devoureth their enemies. And if any man will hurt them,
they must in this manner be killed. These have power to shut up 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 with all
plagues as often as they will. And 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. And their dead bodies shall lie
in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom
and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. And they of the
people, and the kindreds, and tongues, and nations shall see
their dead bodies three days, and then half, and shall not
suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves. And they that
dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and
shall send gifts one to another, because these two prophets tormented
them that dwell on the earth. And after three days and a half
the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon
their feet, and great fear fell upon 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 the tenth part of the city
fell. And in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand,
and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of
heaven. The second war is past, and,
behold, the third war cometh quickly. And the seventh angel
sounded, and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The
kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and
of His Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever. And the four
and twenty elders which sat before God on their seats fell down
on their faces and worshipped God, saying, We give thee thanks,
Lord God Almighty, which art and was, and art to come, because
thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned. And
the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of
the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou should
give reward unto thy servants the prophets. and to the saints,
and them that fear thy name, small and great, and shall destroy
them which destroy the earth. And the temple of God was opened
in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his
testimony. And there were lightnings, and
voices, and thunders, and an earthquake, and great hail."
I want us to look, get a general view tonight, an overview, if
you will, of chapter 11. And next week, the Lord's Willing,
we'll go into some detail because there's all kinds of questions
that pertain to the 11th chapter of Revelations. So I want to
look tonight mainly at the church being the testimony in this world.
One thing we often need to remember as we study this book, these
two things we need to remember. That when we look at the book
of revelations, we have to remember that we're studying for the most
part symbols. Symbolic things. If we don't
remember that, then we'll start looking at this literally and
there's no way possibly we can understand that. We've been studying
about a star falling out of heaven into the earth. And that's symbolic. It cannot be literal. If it was
literal, then it would destroy the earth. We've read about the
bottomless pit being opened up and smoke coming up out of the
pit and darkening the air and locusts coming up out of the
pit. None of these things can be literal. They're symbolic
of Satan's power to deceive. His influence upon society, how
hell darkens the understanding of men, but all of this is symbolic
and you and I have to remember that. The second thing we have
to remember is this, that we cannot establish doctrine by
these symbols. You cannot go here and look at
these symbols and establish doctrine with them. They are sort of like
parables, aren't they? You look at parables and Usually
parables have one central theme, one main theme that they teach. And let me give you an example
of that. You remember the parable of the virgins, the ten virgins,
Matthew chapter 25. The Lord told about five foolish
virgins that took their lamps and took no oil in their lamps.
And he told us about the five wise virgins that took oil in
their lamps and They waited for the bridegroom to come. Well,
at midnight, there was a cry made. The bridegroom comes. Go you out to meet him. And all
the virgins, the ten virgins, arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish virgin said,
We have no oil in our lamps. Give us some of your oil for
our lamps. And the wise virgin said, We
just have enough for ourselves. Go to them that buy, and buy
from them, and get oil for your lamps. So while they went to
buy, the bridegroom came. And the five wise virgins that
had oil in their lamps went in to the wedding, and the door
was shut. And then the foolish virgins came and began to knock
and said, Open to us. And the bridegroom from within
said, I don't know who you are. I don't know you. Now what does
that teach? If we're not careful and we go
there and take that apart too much, we can teach heresy. We can begin to teach that the
Holy Spirit can be bought and can be sold and you can buy it
and have all in your vessel. But that's to teach one thing.
And the Lord said in the very verse when he finished that parable,
be you also ready. The Lord Jesus Christ is coming
and the whole message behind that parable was this one thing,
be ye ready. And how can we be ready? We cannot
apart from having the Holy Spirit. If we have not the Spirit of
Christ, we're none of His. And that's what that whole parable
was about. Make sure that you have the Spirit
of Christ dwelling in your heart. So when you and I come here to
the book of Revelations, that's what we have to remember. We
don't come here to establish doctrine. We go other places
to establish that. One of the things that makes
the 11th chapter of Revelation so concerning to me and others
also is it pertains to the church in the very last days. of the
history of this world. This happens just before the
seventh and last trumpet blows. This is what's going to take
place with the church in the very latter times of the history
of this world. We're told here that the beast
out of the bottomless pit, and that's Satan, he makes war against
the saints, the church. Now, that's not unusual, is it?
I mean, you and I face that now. We wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against spiritual
wickedness and against the rulers of this world. That's always
been that way. But what makes this so concerning
is what he went ahead to say. Not only did he come against
them, but he overcomes them and kills them. Now this has never
happened before. Your adversary, the devil, as
a roaring lion, he goes about seeking whom he may devour. He's
always done that. But now God gives him permission
with all of his fallen angels through the sinfulness of this
world and probably the dominion of governments, wicked governments,
they overcome the church And the words of the Holy Spirit
says here, he kills her. Now in what sense she's killed,
I'm not for sure. I imagine there'll be many saints
that will be killed physically. But in general, I think it teaches
this. The church in the latter days
of the history of this world will be killed as far as her
power and influence is concerned in this world. I think there's
coming a time that the church of the Lord Jesus Christ will
finish her testimony, and when she does, she will lose her power
to witness any longer. She'll lose all of her influence
to witness. She will basically lay as a dead
person in the streets, like our text said. This reminds us of
how it was in Sodom and Gomorrah. Remember what the Lord told us
in the days of Lot? So shall it be in the coming
of the Son of Man. And Lot lost all his influence
to witness. He went to his sons-in-law and
said, Get out of this place. The Lord is going to destroy
this place and the only remedy we have is to flee. And they
did not take him seriously. As a matter of fact, they mocked
him. They laughed at him and they perished there in the overthrow
of Sodom and Gomorrah. And the church's testimony before
this world, I earnestly believe the scripture teaches here, someday
will become meaningless. It will be completely rejected
and as Lot suffered from his son-in-laws. The church will
suffer from this world. They'll be mocked. Worldwide
mockery. Peter said, In the last days
there shall come scoffers, mockers, walking after their own lusts.
And I think this is what this is teaching. Verse 8 tells us
how devastating this event will be for the church. We're told
there that their dead bodies shall lie in the street of that
great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt where
also our Lord was crucified. Now what do we learn from this?
This is the last days. And the church is here in the
last days. And she is overthrown. She is
killed and she is lying in the streets that spiritually is called
Sodom and Egypt. Now what is it about Sodom and
Egypt that is so concerning? Well, Sodom is the place of perversion. It's a place where people went
after strange flesh. Men with men working that which
is unseemly. Women leaving the natural use
of the woman burned in their lust one to another. It's a place
of open fornication. It's a place where people are
so proud they couldn't even blush about it. So when you think of
Sodom and Gomorrah, you think of all kinds of sexual perversion. People are unashamed and they
cannot blush. And it's something that is, you
know, years ago, sometimes we would, when I was a kid, you'd
run into some of the perverted things, but you may run into
it once in 10 years. But now, Gary, it's every day
in your face, isn't it? And the Lord said Lot down in
Sodom was grieved in his soul from day to day hearing and seeing
their ungodly deeds. That's what we face, the church
is to face in the last days. It's a continue and open perversion
of all that's good and honorable, especially sexual perversion. What about Egypt? He said here
that not only that it was in the street of that great city,
Sodom, but it's in the street of Egypt. Now, Egypt, you remember
what Egypt was. Egypt was a government that had
a king over it that was very cruel and oppressive. When they
saw that the children of Israel were increasing in number, what
did they do to them? They brought them into subjection
to them. They made slaves out of them. Just before the Lord
sent Moses to deliver them, he said, I hear the sighs and cries
of my people in bondage. So when you think about Egypt,
you think about that oppressive government. And when we look
at this, this is the two ways, two means by which, at least
partly under the influence of Satan and by God's permission,
the church will be overcome in the last day. It's this ungodly,
open, and profane perversion from common people, old and young
alike, and from oppressive governments. I really think that you and I,
brothers and sisters, can look for this. I know we've heard
this most of our lives, but one thing we can probably look for
is a one-world government. It will combine The government
will combine in the latter days of the history of this world
with the one purpose of shutting down the church of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And he makes the statement here
that this is the place, this is the great city where our Lord
Jesus was crucified. Now, this tells us here that
this is symbolic because our Lord was not crucified in Sodom.
Sodom was long gone and he wasn't crucified in Egypt, he was crucified
in Jerusalem. But this is symbolic of something.
This is symbolic of the attitude of those men who mocked and blasphemed
and crucified the Lord Jesus Christ. What kind of time and
what was the attitude when our Lord was crucified? Man, it was
a blasphemous time, wasn't it? Religion had so degenerated,
even from the high priest down to the common people, there was
nothing but hypocrisy, there was nothing but pretense, there
was nothing but blasphemy even against the Lord of Glory. Even
the high priest commanded, when the Lord Jesus was arrested,
that the guard should smack him. And they accused him of all kinds
of horrible blasphemies, called him a that he was told him that
he was a barn of fornication. And I think you and I will see
in the last days, we'll see religion degenerate into the most blasphemous,
wretched organizations that we've ever witnessed in our life. I
was just doing some studying, some research on the charismatic
movement, all these wealth and health preachers. in our day,
and prosperity preachers. And as I began to get into that
and study and look at more, I could not believe how that had increased
in our day. There's preachers that are worth
them anywhere, and I was just watching and doing some research
on it last night, these charismatic preachers on health and wealth.
Their net worth is from 55 million to 750 million dollars. And they're blasphemers. They
blaspheme the Lord of glory. They blaspheme God. They blaspheme
the Holy Spirit. And I'm telling you, their ministry,
their gospel that they say they preach has degenerated into nothing. But those things which dishonored
God, and that's what we're going to see increase in the last day. And we'll have oppressive government,
I earnestly believe this, that will come together to shut down
the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Just like it was in our
Lord's day. Mockers. Some have called this,
chapter 11 of Revelations, the time of Jacob's trouble. You'll
find that in Jeremiah chapter 30 in verse 7. And it says this,
Alas, alas, alas, for that day is great. There is none like
it. It is even the time of Jacob's
trouble. And some have suggested if you
want to see what it's going to be like in the latter days of
the history of this world, just read the book of Jeremiah. And
Sidney and I had just finished that book. Nobody would listen. They come to Jeremiah and said,
What's the word from the Lord? And he said, This is the word.
And they said, We're not going to do that. We're going to go
do just exactly what we want to do. And boy, the trouble that
came. Nebuchadnezzar came against them.
Hauled them off into captivity. And the book of Lamentations,
tells us such a dreadful time, such a sad and heart-wrenching
time. John Bunyan said Revelations
chapter 11 will be the saddest time in the history of the church
in this world. He said it will be a time that
will try men's souls. And that's still to come. That's
still to come. That's what we face here. sad
and dangerous time. In the last days, perilous times
shall come. But notice the attitude of the
world when this happens. Is the world sorrowful? Are they
heartbroken? When the bodies of the saints,
the church lays in the street as dead men, do they say, Oh
my, what have we done? We'll never hear the gospel anymore.
That's not what they say at all, is it? Look here again in verses
9 and 10. And they of the people, and kindreds,
and tongues, and nations shall see their dead bodies three days
and a half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in
graves. And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over
them. They shall make merry, and shall
send gifts one to another, because these two prophets tormented
them that dwell on the earth. The whole world rejoiced. All
the nations were glad. It was Christmas Day for them.
And don't just tell us that we can't take these two prophets
literally. It wasn't two prophets that God
sent out to preach and they were killed in some little location. This is something that happened
worldwide, and every nation and kindred and people was aware
of what was happening and they rejoiced over it. They said,
these prophets tormented us. The church tormented us. And
we're so happy that we'll never hear their voices again. Verse 10 shows absolutely, brothers
and sisters, how the world feels. about the true church and the
true message that it preaches. What Christ-haters this world
is. How their sins have blinded their
minds and hardened their hearts. The church tormented us. What was the church preaching
that tormented them? They were preaching the gospel.
It was the testimony of God that Paul preached. And what was that? Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's what they preached. The
world is tormented over here in the gospel of salvation. The
gospel that your sins can be forgiven. The gospel of eternal
life. and hope and heaven at last through
Christ the Lord? How ungodly would the world have
to be to despise such a message? And yet that's where it will
be in the last day. Don't that show us, brothers
and sisters, how deceitful Satan is? Don't
that show us that how hardening sin is? That when God pulls His
hand back and lets this world go after Satan, it will be so
deceived that when the church lies in the street with no more
testimony of the free grace of God, the wonderful gospel, the
church will rejoice and say, oh, this is what we waited for. We'll never have to hear that
again. Aren't you glad the Lord has
saved you? Aren't you glad He's opened your mind? Made you hunger
and thirst? for His salvation. Give you grace
to believe it. But their rejoicing will be short-lived. Verse 11 tells us that their
bodies lay in the streets of this great city for only three
and a half days. That's not long, is it? That's
not long. It'll be an awful, awful time.
However long these three and a half days are, I doubt seriously
if they're literal. But it just shows us that it's
a set time and it's a short time. The church will be overcome.
The church will be killed, whatever that means. And she'll lie in
the streets and be mocked and have no influence and have no
power. And it'll be a sad time indeed,
but it will be a short time. And this world is going to rejoice
about it, but their rejoicing is premature. You know, often
in the Old and New Testament as well, sometimes the church suffers
apparent defeat. And I'm sure if you lived in
some of these times, you would say, boy, that's the end of the
church. But sometimes their apparent defeat is just before deliverance
comes. You go back to the story of Egypt.
And now he had oppressed the children of Israel and brought
them into slavery. They got up one morning and headed out. Boy,
we're out of here. And they got to the Red Sea,
and that's as far as they could go. We're going to die here. And I guess they had every reason,
naturally, to feel that way. The deep sea was in front of
them, mountains on either side of them, and Pharaoh's army was
behind them. And some of them thought that's
it for the church. But what happened? Suddenly,
the Red Sea parted. The children of Israel went across
to the other side and watched the deep waters cover their enemies. They went out into the desert
for 40 years. And the whole generation died. And some of them begin to think,
no doubt, will we ever get to the promised land? And some of
them, no doubt, through their unbelief, thought, we're not
going to make it. But suddenly, Joshua, under the aid of the
Holy Spirit, takes them into the land of Canaan, to the land
flowing with milk and honey. They get over there and many
years have passed. They've so sinned against the
Lord that he brings Nebuchadnezzar against them. He hauls them off
into captivity into Babylon. They're down there for 70 years.
And I imagine some people thought, boy, that's it for the church.
That's it for the church. It's scattered. It'll never be
regathered. But a king is suddenly a new
king is brought to the throne and he gives the Jews liberty
to go back home and build their temple and their wall. You never
count the church out, do you? You never count the church out. Just about the time you think,
boy, she's gone, she's defeated. And when you look at us, when you
look at us, we're just, we're so weak. We're so few. This work in our hands is unstable
as water. But I'm telling you, the church
has a Savior. The church has a Sovereign Lord.
And in His hands, brothers and sisters, she will at last win
the victory. We are more than conquerors through
Him that loved us. And don't we see that here in
our text? We see it here in verse 12. Look
at this. Just the time when they were
rejoicing, in verse 11, And after three days and a half the Spirit
of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their
feet. And great fear fell upon them which saw them. And they
heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither.
And they ascended up into heaven in a cloud, and their enemies
beheld them. The church will get the victory
at last. Don't count her out. Not because she's so strong and
wise, but her Lord is. Upon this rock I will build my
church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Here in verse 12, we have a strong
hint. how the church has been able
to continue for these 2,000 years and testify in spite of all her
opposition. Here in verse 11, an act of three
days and a half, the Spirit of life from God entered unto them. You know why they lay lifeless
in the streets as dead? You know why they lost their
influence? Because God had taken the Spirit
of life away from His church for a time. And when the Spirit
is taken from His church or an individual, we can do absolutely
nothing. Ain't that so? Look what he says
here in verse 3. We have a very powerful hint
of this. In verse 3, he says, I will give
power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy, preach,
testify a thousand, two hundred, and three score days, clothed
in sackcloth. I will give power unto my two
witnesses. What is that power? Look back
over in the book of Acts with me right quickly. Acts chapter
1. We're told exactly what this
power is. Look at it. Back in Acts chapter
1. And look here in verse 4. Acts
chapter 1 and verse 4. Let me ask you this while you're
turning. You ever wonder what happened
to those apostles? What made them become such bold
people? Remember how timid they were
when the Lord was here with them? Man, they were ashamed. They
were afraid. Peter was so afraid of a little
maid that he denied the Lord Jesus Christ. And after the Lord had been crucified,
they went in the upper room and every one of them hid out. And
the Bible says they wept and feared That's all they needed
to do. And you know something? If it
had been left up to them, the church age would have ended right
there. How did they muster up the power
to go on? How did they bring the world
under subjection to them, the world around them? When they
preach, what made men cry out? Men and brethren, what shall
we do? How did they get 3,000 saved under their ministry? 5,000
saved under their ministry? And how did they go out into
the world of the Gentiles and invade the darkness of Satan's
kingdom and deliver so many people from it? How did they do that?
Well, he tells us here in the first book of Acts. Look at it
in verse 4. Here's where the Lord Jesus was
risen from the dead, and he was teaching them now for forty days
and forty nights, and here is his commandment to them. And
being assembled together with them, commanded them that they
should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the
Father, which, said he, you have heard of me. For John indeed
truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the
Holy Ghost not many days hence. When they therefore were come
together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, will you at this
time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them,
It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the
Father has put in his own power, and look at this, but you shall
receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you,
and you shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria,
and unto the uttermost parts of the earth." Have you wondered
how the church has been able to exist and preach to the world
for 2,000 years now? Well, this tells us something.
This is why the gospel is without. This is why God's elect have
been called in from every nation and tribe and tongue. And this
is why the world, the church continues to preach, even though
they suffer opposition from the world, is because of the power
of the Holy Spirit. That's it, isn't it? You shall
receive power. And every time Satan assaults
the church, when the Spirit is there moving and working in His
grace, the church increases in strength and most of the time
in number. But in Revelations 11, when the
Spirit of life for a while is taken away, the church is so
weak and she cumbers to her opposition. It's that way in our personal
lives, isn't it? Did you ever find sometimes in your life where
you were scared to death that you were going to quit believing?
You just realized that I can't even believe. I can't quit believing,
but I can't believe. I can't pray. My desire is gone. And it almost scares you, doesn't
it? Then the blessed Holy Spirit of promise. He's there. And He strengthens you. He makes
you to know that, no, I've begun a work of faith in your heart,
and I'll carry it on. This is why you don't quit desiring
the Lord. He works in you to desire. You're
here tonight because you're hungry. You're thirsting. Where does
that hunger and thirst come from? The Holy Spirit of promise. Oh,
what a blessing how essential it is for the church and us as
individuals to be born of the Spirit. to be indwelled by the
Spirit, to walk in the Spirit, and not to grieve the Holy Spirit
of God. For without Him, we can absolutely
do nothing. Lord's Will and we'll start here
next week and go into just a little bit of detail, but I want us
to look at the main theme of that chapter tonight. Our Father, thank you for your
Word. Thank you, Lord, for encouraging
your people, warning your people, upholding your people. And thank
you for the promise that you've given to your church that the
gates of hell would not finally and totally come against her
to overcome her. Hell is stronger than we are.
And if you're not with us, we'll fall. But Lord, we're utterly
dependent upon your promises that you'd never leave us. You'd
never forsake us. So, Lord, we look to you and
we continue in spite of all opposition because of your great promises
to us. Thank you for your word. Please bless it to our hearts.
We pray for Christ's sake, Amen.