I want to ask you to please continue
to remember Dave and Maria. Dave came home Friday. Greg said
he saw him and he's not doing very well at all. He has one
more week of cancer treatments left, so please remember him. Also, Dave Beatty called me and
his wife Darlene is very sick. They had to give her two units
of blood. She's not doing very well. He wanted us to remember
her prayer. Also, Shannon's wife is sick. She's
got one of those bad headaches. So please remember those that
are sickly. I want to look this morning with
you just for a few minutes at Revelation chapter 11 concerning
these two witnesses. The two witnesses. We're told
here in verse 3 again, and here's what God said Himself. I will
give power unto My two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand,
two hundred, and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. And this chapter with all of
its symbols, and this is a book of symbols. You just have to
look at the picture. You get the picture, then you
try to figure out what the picture means as you study and compare
it with other passages of Scripture. But I truly believe that you
cannot interpret the book of Revelations by looking at modern
history. Somebody will look at modern
history and say, well, surely that's America I see there in
the book of Revelations. And that's been going on for
hundreds of years. We cannot interpret the book
of revelations by looking at modern history. We can only interpret
the book of revelations by the Bible. And I do earnestly believe
that the best way to interpret the book of revelations is by
the book of revelations itself. And that's what we see here in
these witnesses. We're told here in this chapter
that these witnesses the witness of the truth that is in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And we're told of the duration,
the length of these witnesses that they prophesied for 42 months,
1260 days. In another place, it's three
and a half years, or time and times and half a time. You see
those figures in the book of Revelations. And all that is,
as you study the book of Revelation, it's just a definite time. 1260
days. That describes unto us an indefinite
period of time. How long is 1260 days? Well, if you compare it to the
Scripture, it's the New Testament church age. The church is testifying and
has been since the day of Pentecost to this world, bearing witness
to the testimony of God. The church, we're told in chapter
1, is the candlestick. He comes here and he says, these
are my two candlesticks, and he calls them two instead of
seven, because here in the 11th chapter, the church is viewed
as a witness. You look at it in chapter 1,
the seven churches, that's the complete church. The church is
complete, isn't it? The church is complete in Christ,
It'll be complete when the purpose of God is finished with numbers
in its number. They'll never be lost and never
be increased. The number will never be diminished
or increased. The number will be complete.
But here, when he speaks of the witness of the church, he calls
it two candlesticks. Because under the law, you had
to have two people to witness of a truth. And it's the same
way in the New Testament. When the Lord sent His apostles
and disciples out to preach the gospel, He sent them two by two,
didn't He? And that's the way it is. You
are a witness two by two. So the first witness that we
look at here this morning is the church, the two golden candlesticks. And you know what the Lord Jesus
told His apostles there in Acts chapter 1? He said, Don't you
leave Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit has come? and you'll be
endued, you'll be filled with power from on high. And why were
they going to be filled? Not just for their own joy, not
just for their own understanding and assurance, but he said, you'll
be witnesses unto me. That's where the witness of the
New Testament began right there in Acts chapter 2. You're going
to be witnesses to me where? In Jerusalem. in Judea, in Samaria,
and to the uttermost parts of this world. And he told them
that again in Matthew chapter 28. He said, All powers given
to me in heaven and in earth, therefore go ye unto all nations. Teaching them, preaching the
gospel to them, and baptizing them in the name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And lo, I am with you always,
even to the end of the world. So this witnessing is the church. It's the church of the Lord Jesus
Christ. These two candlesticks. But what
do they witness? What do they witness? Well, listen
to Paul in Acts chapter 20. when he was saying farewell to
the Ephesian church. He said, I go up to Jerusalem,
I go bound in the Spirit, not knowing the things that shall
befall me there. But the Holy Spirit witnesses
that in every city bonds and afflictions await me, but none
of these things move me, he said. Neither came I on my life dear
unto myself, why, that I might finish my course with joy, and
the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus Christ," listen,
here it is, here's the testimony of these two witnesses, "...to
testify the gospel of the grace of God." For 2,000 years now,
brothers and sisters, what's the church been doing? It's been
bearing witness to this world, hasn't it? That's one of the
reasons that God has left the church here, to bear witness.
What does it bear witness to? To the gospel of the grace of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you want to know what
that gospel of grace is, get my last Sunday message, and you'll
find out what that is. The gospel of the grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul said, when I came to
you, I didn't come with excellent speech. I heard a man preaching
on radio this morning. I listened to him as long as
I could endear him. And you could tell he was a smart
man. He was a brilliant man. And the words he was using, I'd
have had to have my dictionary to look them up. And finally,
what did I do? I just turned him. I turned him.
Paul said, I didn't come to you with wisdom of words. What? Preaching unto you, declaring
the testimony of God. And what is that? Well, he went
right on to tell us in the next verse, didn't he? I determined
to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And for the last 2,000 years,
isn't it amazing that the church in this world God is still have
a witness in this world and they're preaching the same thing these
apostles did. Isn't it amazing as we gather
here this morning and we can look back 2,000 years. I wonder
if those early church members, Paul and Peter and all of those
fellows thought to themselves, boy, we put in our witness. We finished our course. I wonder,
I wonder what they're going to say in the future. And here we
are, almost 2,000 years later, and we're still bearing witness
to the gospel of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're
witnesses. We're witnesses, you and me of
all people. It started out with a publican,
a few fishermen, and those who said they were ignorant and learned,
learned men, they were uneducated men, started out with just a
few, bearing witness. And to this very day, we're still
bearing witness. of the grace of God that's in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Sovereign grace. I'll tell you
another way the church bears witness, and that's with their
lives, not just with our lips. And you know if our lips and
lives don't correspond, we don't have much of a testimony, do
we? What did our Master say? Let your light so shine that
the world may see your good works and glorify the Father which
is in heaven. Paul was writing to the Thessalonican
church and he says, when I go to these other places and see
these Christians that know you, I don't have to say a thing about
you. Your life witnesses to the glory of God and how you turn
from idols to God and to wait for His Son from heaven. I tell
you the life that we live, the simple life the church lives
is a witness for the glory of God. in our Lord Jesus Christ. Peter said, they think it not
strange, they think it strange, that you run not with them to
the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you. When the Lord saves
us, He changes us. Makes us new creatures, doesn't
He? And we show forth the praises of Him that's called us out of
darkness. So there's the church. There's
the two candlesticks. But here we have something else,
don't we? We have two heavenly witnesses. We have these two
olive trees. He said there in verse 4, these
are the two olive trees and the two candlesticks standing before
the God of all the earth. The two olive trees. Now, I want
you to go home this evening before you forget it, and I want you
to read the parallel passage to this. If you go to Zechariah
chapter 4, they'll make a mental note of this or stick it in there
or something. Zechariah chapter 4. We have a good commentary
on these two olive trees. And let me tell you the vision.
Have another vision. And you just look at the vision. The Lord had called Israel out
of captivity. And they came back to Jerusalem.
They were building the temple. And boy, they were having a terrible
struggle. They had a lot of enemies that opposed them. And Zerubbabel,
their commander, had already laid the foundation stone. And boy, they were having trouble. A lot of rubbish they were having
to haul away and the enemies fighting against them. And the
Lord appeared to Zechariah and showed him this vision. What
he showed him was a candlestick. The prophet was asleep. That
happens in here sometimes. You go to sleep. The prophet
was asleep and the Lord woke him up and said, What do you
see? And there was a candlestick. There was a lamp stand standing
there and it had these seven lamps on it. And the Lord said
to him, What does this mean? What does this mean? He said,
Lord, I don't know. What does it mean? He should have known.
He should have known what that lampstand was. His best friend
was the high priest, Joshua. He went every day into the holy
place and poured oil into the lampstand. Remember? There was
a lamp stand in the holy place and the priest filled it up with
oil every morning so it would burn all day long. And he said,
Lord, I don't know what that is. What is it? And then the
Lord showed him something else. There was seven pipes going up
from this candlestick. Each pipe came down to feed a
light. And then those seven pipes went
up and met two huge pipes. And those two pipes went on up
to a huge bowl on top of the pipes. And on each side of that
bowl was these two olive trees. And the branches of the olive
trees came over into the bowl, and the olives were being crushed
and poured down in the bowl, and the oil was coming down through
the pipes into the light. No man had to fill it up like
the priest in the temple because it was supplied from another
source. You see, that's the difference
between the law and the gospel, isn't it? Under the ceremonial
law, the priest every day had to go in and fill up the lamps.
In the gospel, we have a supply from heaven. And this is the
two witnesses. You can read that there in Zechariah
chapter 4. In Zechariah chapter 4, the angel
asked about these olive trees, and he said this, Zechariah said,
What are these olive branches that empty their oil into the
pipes? What are they? This is what the
Lord answered him. He said, This is the word of
the Lord to Zerubbabel, not by power, not man's power, not by
man's might, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord." What was that
emptying out those pipes and going down into these lamps? He said, that's the Spirit of
the Lord. That's the Spirit of the Lord. And he said something
else, that's the grace. Listen to him. In the very next
verse, and you can read this when you get home. I should have
turned over and read it to you, but I don't already have time. He
said this, What are thou, O great mountain,
before Zerubbabel? And he's talking about the difficulty.
Boy, they'd run up against some mountains, and they had to quit
building the temple. And the Lord said, What are you,
O great mountain, before Zerubbabel? You shall become a plain. In
other words, I'm going to give you my Spirit, I'm going to give
you my grace, and you're going to have power to finish building
this temple. And he went on to say this, the
rubebel has laid the foundation stone in the temple, and he shall
lay the headstone, the topstone thereof, crying grace, grace
unto it. So what does that vision represent?
It represents the source of all grace and all power that seeps
right down to the church. Where does our source of grace
and power come from? How did those two witnesses continue
to witness with such opposition and still to this day witness
it? Where do we get the grace? Where do we get the power to
continue? It comes from heaven, doesn't it? Our source is from
heaven. It's these two olive trees. And
let me tell you who I believe that is. And most commentators,
I think, will bear witness to this. One is the Lord Jesus Christ
Himself. He's an olive tree, and we're
told here in our text that this olive tree is a witness. These
two olive trees is a witness. Is Jesus Christ a witness? Well, of course He is. He said
that Himself, didn't He? Listen to John chapter 13, verse
37, what He told Pilate. To this end was I born. And for
this cause came I unto the world, that I should bear witness to
the truth." God sent Jesus Christ to bear witness to the truth.
And he said, everyone that is of the truth, he hears my voice. What did he come to bear witness
to? Well, I tell you what, we couldn't know who God is. We
couldn't know God as our Father without Jesus Christ came and
revealed Him to us and told us and bore witness to who He is.
No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which
is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. What's
He declared about Him? I tell you this much, He's declared
that He's loved. Who was it told us, one of the
most popular verses in the Bible, who was it told us that God so
loved the world? Who told us that? How do we know
that God is love? Jesus Christ Himself, who knows
the Father, told us, didn't He? God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son. I'll tell you what else Jesus
Christ, of all things that He's told us about the Father, bore
witness to Him, He's told us about the Father's providential
care over all His creation. Who makes the sun to rise? We
couldn't live without that, could we? It's my Father, He said.
Who sends the rain, even on the just and the unjust? My Father.
Who clothes the lilies? Who feeds the birds? My Father.
And He bore witness to the Father's providential care over His own
peculiar redeemed people. Who supplies your every need?
Who gives you your clothes? Who gives you your food? Who
gives you your shelter? Who gives you your breath and
everything you have? Who gives you everything? The
Lord Jesus Christ has bore witness to us and said, It's my Father.
It's your Father. It's your Father. Seek ye first
the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all of these things shall
be added unto you by my Father." We don't have to be so anxious
in trying to secure our living in this world. Oh, there's people,
bless their hearts, they're killing themselves trying to secure a
living. Why? And it's interrupted the worship
of God, private and publicly. And the Lord Jesus says, let
me tell you about your father. Let me bear witness to him. He
cares for you. He'll supply your need. Quit
trying to cure so much for yourself and seek first the kingdom of
God in his right hand. And I'll tell you what else he
told us about the father too. He said, my little flock, it's
your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Ain't that
confident? You know one of the things I
rest in this uncertain world. I don't know what's going to
come on me tomorrow. You don't know what's going to come on
you tomorrow. No telling what may happen to us. This is an
uncertain world for us, isn't it? They may go to the doctor
tomorrow and say, man, you're eating up with cancer. You know
something about that, Bob. Ask Dave Engstrom about that. He
knows something about that. How many people go? I had two
brother-in-laws that went to the doctor. One of them found
out what kind of cancer he had two days before he died. They
both died within two months after getting sick. This life is so
uncertain. But I tell you one thing that's
not uncertain for the child of God, and that's the Kingdom that's
to come. It's my Father's good pleasure.
How can we know? How can we have assurance? Now,
the faithful and true witness has already told it. I know my
Father. I know what His purpose is. I
know what His will is. I know what His good pleasure
is. I've come to testify of it. It's His good pleasure to give
you the kingdom. But you know Christ bore witness
to something else, didn't He? He not only bore witness of the
Father to His people, but I tell you what He bore witness to this
world too, didn't He? He bore witness of it and not
of its goodness, of its badness. He told His disciples one day
when they were so ignorant, they didn't know what was going on.
He said, let me tell you something, this world can't hate you. Not
right now they don't hate you because you don't know much about
this world. But they hate me because I know this world. I
know the hearts of men. And they hate me because I testify
of it that the works thereof are evil. And he told the very
source of the evil, didn't he? It's out of the heart of man.
That's man's problem. That's why he needs a new heart.
Out of the heart of man proceeds evil thoughts, adulteries, idolatry,
covetousness, blasphemy, all of these evil things. The heart
is like a cesspool. It's a generator to generate
sin and iniquity and transgression. And the Master said, I'm bearing
witness against it. This world is evil. It's evil. The Holy Spirit, He's the other
olive tree. When the Spirit of Truth is come,
He will guide you unto all truth. He shall not speak of Himself,
but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak. And He will
show you things to come. He shall receive of Mine and
show it unto you. He shall glorify Me." He's a
witness, isn't He? Clarence quoted one of the Scriptures
this morning. How do we know that we're children
of God? The Spirit bears witness. with our spirit that we're children
of God. And he that believes that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God, he has the witness within himself. What is that? The Spirit of God.
And he bears witness to this world too, doesn't he? You know
what he tells the world? He tells the world of sin and
righteousness and judgment to come. He bears witness to this
world. And he's still here today, isn't
he? Still here today. So what do we have in these witnesses?
Well, we have these two earthly witnesses, the church represented
under these two candlesticks, and we have the heavenly witness,
Jesus Christ Himself and the Holy Spirit. And those two that
witness themselves, they're the source of grace and strength
that enables the church. to keep on witnessing after all
of these hundreds and hundreds of years. Now, look back at our
text in chapter 11 in verse 5 and 6. Look here. This is sort of
strange and peculiar. Look at the authority of these
two witnesses. In verse 5, If any man will hurt
them, fire proceeds out of their mouth and devours their enemy.
If any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.
These have power to shut up heaven, that it rain not in the days
of their prophecy, and they have power over waters to turn them
to blood, and smite the earth with all plagues as often as
they will." Now, if we're just talking about the two heavenly
witnesses, these two olive trees, this would be very easy to understand,
wouldn't it? We know they've got that kind
of power. But you know, we're speaking here of the church.
Does the church have this kind of power? to call them far out
of heaven and consume its enemies. Now, that's been done. Remember
Elijah? He called them far and destroyed
several people, didn't he? A few hundred of them, if I remember
right. Moses turned the rivers and the waters of Egypt to blood.
That was literally, but this is symbolically. We don't have
power. We wouldn't if we could, I hope,
call them far from heaven to destroy our enemies. There wouldn't
be too many people left, would there? Every time somebody looked
at you cross-eyed, every time you perceived somebody don't
like me, wouldn't we do that? We don't need that kind of power,
do we? The Lord Jesus told His disciples when they said, Lord,
you want us to call down fire? He said, you have no idea what
kind of attitude you display. You don't have the Christian
attitude. Well, what does it mean here then when He said they
have power to call this fire out of heaven? Well, it's symbolic
of something. And what's this fire symbolic
of? Well, let me let the Word interpret it. Listen to what
the Lord said to Jeremiah in two places. Jeremiah 5.14, fire out of the mouth. And here's
what He said. I will make my words in your
mouth as fire, and the people as wood, and its shower shall
devour them. My word is fire. Then he went
on to say in the very next place, It is not my word like a fire,
saith the Lord, and like a hammer that breaketh in pieces the rocks. It is like a fire. And man, I tell you what, I tell
you what, I had, Clarence was talking about hope this morning,
I had a false hope one time. And you know what the Word of
God did when it came to me and its power? It burnt those crops
out under me and left me laying flat with nothing. Before the Lord gives you a true
hope, I'm just about certain He'll burn away that old false
hope. And that's what fire does, devour, not just the enemies,
But those that the Lord saves burns away the vain confidence
and foolishness before He makes them well and whole. And listen
to how Paul said it in Romans 12, 20. If your enemy hunger,
feed him. If he thirsts, give him drink.
For in so doing you shall heap coals of fire on his head. So symbolically speaking, we
do that, don't we? We do it by the Word and we do
it by our prayers and kindness to those who have hated us and
treated us awful. And the church as God's witnesses
by His Word can shut up heaven that it give no rain. Now what
in the world does that mean? What is rain in the Scripture?
What does rain signify? It signifies grace. It signifies
the doctrines of the gospel. Listen to how Moses said, Lord
to Moses, my doctrine shall drop as the rain, and my speech shall
distill as the dew, and as the small rain upon the tender herb,
as the showers upon the grass, there shall be showers of blessing. And what are these showers but
the grace of God in salvation. My word coming down from heaven
shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish that
whereunto I sent it. But these showers of spiritual
blessings can never come except through the preaching of the
truth, the preaching of the gospel. God has chosen by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. Withhold the preaching,
you'll withhold the rain from heaven. Ain't that a pretty good way
to interpret that? Withhold the preaching. If I get up this morning
and say, I'm not going to preach. I'm just not going to preach.
Not going to preach to you the gospel. We'll be certain of this.
Ain't no rain of grace going to fall on our hearts this morning. Does a preacher have the power
to do that? According to God's Word, he does. He does. The Lord
Jesus told His disciples, He made this amazing statement to
them. He said, I give to you the keys
of the kingdom of heaven. What are keys for? Well, when
you come out here, this door is locked. If you don't have
a key, you can't get in this building. Key is to get you through a door,
isn't it? It's to unlock something. And
the Lord told His apostles, I give to you the keys of the kingdom
of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall
be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed
in heaven. For 2,000 years now, the church
has been bearing witness to God's Word. And they've been opening
the kingdom. And this is the way they've been
doing it. They've been saying statements
like this, if you're ever saved. You must be saved by the grace
of God. That's a key to get into the
kingdom. And you know something? You can't
get into the kingdom any other way. You think God is going to
save somebody apart from His grace? He's never going to do it. He's
done told the church, I've given you the keys to the kingdom.
Without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin.
There's no forgiveness of sin without the blood of Jesus Christ.
Now, can somebody earn forgiveness? Will God forgive somebody without
the shedding of the blood of His dear Son? No way! These blessings
cannot come to this earth. But at the word of these witnesses,
as they preach the gospel, as they preach the truth, as it
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at it this way. The church
does not have the authority to send plagues and shed blood,
as our text here says. But it has the authority to announce
the surety of these things and tell this world the reasons why
they come. We say to this world, you live
with your sword drawn on God, you live with your sword drawn
on His witnesses, and He will devour you by His sword. We say to this world, you think
Christ's church is worthy to taste death at your hands? You'll
taste death at His. We say to this world, if you
sow to the flesh, you shall of the flesh reap corruption. The world hates the church because
the church pronounces nothing for it but wars, rumors of wars
and bloodshed and sickness and sorrow and death. And why? Because the judgment of God is
upon this world because of sin. Because of sin. Oh, the world
gets angry with the church and says, we're not like that. We're
just not like that. We're not bad people. We want
peace. We're working for peace. Peace,
peace. And we can make it happen. And
they go off in a rage and mad at the church. And what happens? Wars. Rumors of wars. Bloodshed, sickness, sorrow,
hatred, enmity towards God, enmity towards one another. All of these
awful things come just like the church said they would. And it can't be otherwise, can
it? It can't be otherwise. You go out here this morning
and you talk to your neighbors, and you know what you can tell
them? God's going to kill you. God's going to shed your blood.
He's going to whip His glittering sword and He's going to cut you
asunder. And boy, they get mad at you.
You've got to go and tell your neighbors this morning, boy,
war is coming. More violence is coming. Catastrophe
is coming. Your day of sorrow is coming.
Death is coming. You can pronounce all of these
judgments. Why? Because you find it in His Word
and you just bear witness to it. And they hate the church
because of it. Why are you plaguing us, they
said? Why are you plaguing us? It's your fault! No, we're just
announcing it. And it can't be otherwise. We're
the witnesses. So there you have the witnesses.
And there you have their authority. What they have authority to do
and why. Now look in verse 7, right quickly,
the death. of these witnesses. And you must
be speaking here about the earthly witnesses, the two candlesticks. He said here in verse 7, When
they shall have finished their testimony. Oh, boy, that's a
solemn thought, ain't it? You think of that. You think
of that. This world has complained now
for years about these witnesses. complained and hated the church
for years. Why don't you shut your mouth?
We hate you. Well, just wait a few more days
and you'll be without it. A few more days and you won't
have this witness. This witness is coming to a close
when they shall have finished their testimony. Look here what
he says in verse 7. The beast that is out of the
bottomless pit will make war with him. Now that's nothing
unusual. He's always did that, isn't it? He's doing that today.
He's always did it. We wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against spiritual
wickedness in high places. We're struggling with Satan and
his cohorts right now. They're all around us. They're
here this morning. We can't see them, but they're
here. They're in our minds. They're in the air. And if it
wasn't for the blessed Holy Spirit here, they'd defeat us now. We're
struggling with them now. But he goes one step further.
Look here what he says in verse 7. When they shall have finished
their testimony, the beast that descends out of the bottomless
pit shall make war against them. And look at this, and overcome
them. Now this has never happened before
either. maybe for a time in some individual believers, but he's
never completely overcome the church. That's been impossible
up to now. John said, I write it to you,
young men, because you're strong. The Word of God abides in you,
and you have overcome the wicked one. Who is he that overcomes
the world? But he that believes that Jesus
is the Son of God. The church is overcomers, but
now, when the witness is finished, Something awful happened. That
beast out of the bottomless pit, Satan himself, overcomes them. He overcomes them. Well, it sounds like a terrible time,
doesn't it? And look what else. He not only makes war against
them, not only overcomes them, but look at this. He kills them. He kills them. He kills the two
witnesses. In what sense He kills them?
Some of them, some of the witnesses, some of the Lord's people in that day,
and a day probably that's coming soon, will probably be physically
killed. That's happened often, hasn't
it? But they're killed as to their testimony. They have no
influence in the world anymore. We're told here that they're
dead corpse. They're corpse laid in the street. As far as usefulness is concerned,
as far as testimony is concerned, shaman, they're dead. They're
dead as a corpse that should be put in the ground. They'll lay dead and useless. No testimony. I've studied so
much on this and what everybody's had to say on this, and just
about every commentary that I've read on this talks about what
perilous times this will be that's coming to the church. How do
we know when the testimony is finished? Well, that's something
we need to know, isn't it? Because when the testimony is
finished is when the devil's going to overcome them and kill
them. Well, the testimony will be finished when the world hears
the gospel that they preach, and all they do is mock it and
scorn it and laugh at it. When Lot went to his sons-in-law
to warn them to flee from the coming judgment, what was their
attitude? They seemed to him as one that
mocked. You're mocking. Get out of here,
old man. What are you talking about? The
city's going to be destroyed. Look what a beautiful day it
is. The sun's risen up and I've got work to do. Get out of my
face. You know what Peter said? Peter said in the last days and
the last times, there would come scoffers walking after their
own lust. And brothers and sisters, when
you see the world as a whole, scoffing the church. When you
see those institutions of learning, political and law enforcement,
all these big institutions with influence, and they're scoffing
at the church. And nobody anymore is believing
the gospel. No lost people are hearing and
believing the gospel. Everybody is just mocking. Everybody
is looking upon the church with disgust. And every time she bears
witness to somebody, they laugh it off. They don't care. Get
out of my face. When the world becomes that way,
then you can know the testimony is finished. It's finished. I talk to people all the time.
I talk to pastors. You're having very many people
there that profess the Lord. The Lord seem to be saving people
there. No, not here. Not around here. A lot of people getting on a
profession. A lot of people being baptized to confession. But how
many people are being made new creatures? You see many? Got a lot of scoffers, don't
we? I mean, if you believe the cardinal truths of the gospel
today, you're a fool! You're a Nathanael! I heard one
of the major newsmen say the other day, these Nathanaels that
believe that God created the world. I'm a Nathanael. I'm one of those
old, old people that just believe, and you are too. But you know,
there's a few. There are just a few. Look at
the professing Christians today that believe in evolution. He says here in verse 8, 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. This last day, the world is going
to look just like Sodom and Egypt. We're starting to see it, aren't
we? The two things that those two places represent, one is
uncontrolled lust, perverted lust. That's what Sodom represents
to us. Those homosexuals, they wanted
those angels so badly that when the angels smote them with blindness,
they are still failing to try to find the door. And when you have lust like that
that's out of control, it always leads to violence. Lot said, don't do this. Don't
do this. He even called them brothers.
Don't do this, he said. Don't do this. And they said,
you get out of our way or we'll deal worse with you than we're
going to deal with them. We have the community today that
we call the gay community. I don't say very much about them,
but they act like they're just so loving and tender and they
want to be accepted on every level. They want you to accept
their lifestyle. And when this nation bows down
to that and gives them their way, the next step of their lust
is turning to violence. You just watch it. You just watch
it. That's where our Lord was crucified
at, spiritual sodomy. And Egypt, what is Egypt? Egypt
is a symbol of oppression. All through the Bible it's oppression.
The Lord sent Moses, let my people go. You've enslaved them. You've beat them. You've oppressed
them. And that's what we're coming to. That's the last days when
the church has finished her testimony and she's right in the midst
of this Sodom and this Egypt. And boy, when she's killed, when
she's killed and her testimony is dead, and when it's finished,
and she lays lifeless and useless as a corpse, what does the world
do? They rejoice, and they sing.
Oh, oh, they sing. Oh, praise be. She's finally
gone. The witnesses are dead, and they
send presents one to another. Oh, every day is Christmas. Every
day is Christmas with this world when the witnesses have been
killed. But you know what, brothers and
sisters, the church can't complain much about this day and the awful
trouble that's coming on it because the Apostle Paul said that day
shall not come except there come a falling away first. The poor church at that day will
have to take her part and bring him that day on. Why did Lot
lose his testimony? Do you ever wonder that? I tell you when he lost his testimony.
When he moved down there among them. He associated with those
ungodly people without needing to. He should have stayed out
with his uncle Abraham. But he moved down to Sodom, took
all of his family there. and lost his testimony. In the
last days, perilous times, dangerous times will come. Prominent people,
prominent professors of Christianity will be departing from the faith. I was coming back from somewhere
not long ago and I heard in an old, old tape by Billy Graham. I thought to myself, this can't
be him preaching this. Man, this is good! This is wonderful! What a message he was preaching!
Have you heard him preach before he retired? He said there's more ways than
one. He said there's more ways than
Christ. I heard it myself. I heard it out of his own lips.
Him and Robert Shuler. Oh, those people in the dark
jungles, oh, they're saved. They believe in the higher power
and they're doing the best they can. So they're in the body of Christ.
Ain't that what he said, Larry? What is that but leaving the
faith? Prominent men in the last days
turning from the faith and being turned into fables. And in the last days, because
iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. And I've
noticed that in myself. Have you? I mean, iniquity is
just pressing you in your family, in the schools, in the government.
Iniquity just pressing in, pressing in, pressing in. And you're always
fighting against it. And sometimes you reach the end
of yourself, and you just want to shut yourself up and say,
stay out of my way. Get out of my face. I don't want
anything to do with you. You ever get like that? And you
love waxes and scones. That's what will happen to the
church in the last day. A fall in a way, or just a general
fall in a way, and then she gets weak, she gets weakened, and
then she's very easily overcome. Very easily overcome. And she's
killed, that's to her testimony. Look here right quickly now.
Give me just a little bit and I'll quit. Look in verse 10.
A couple of more things and I'll finish. You think this world
loves the church? You think this world loves her
testimony? Well, look at verse 10. And they that dwell upon
the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and send
gifts one to another, because these two prophets tormented
them that dwell on the earth. Tormented them? These two witnesses
never laid a hand on them. How did they torment them? They
tormented their conscience. Isn't it strange that preaching
the grace of God torments men half to death? They get so mad. I remember and I told you about
this before and some of you remember this. I was preaching here one
Christmas day a few years ago and I was preaching on God shall
save His people from their sins. And I made the statement, do
you hate election? And this one woman looked up
and said, yes I do! Yes I do! And I noticed every
time she came here, she'd leave tormented. She'd get so upset
with a message. Why would anybody get upset with
you preaching forgiveness of sins? Because they say, I don't
have any of that. Why would anybody get mad at
you for insisting on a new birth except you be born again? Because
they say, I don't need that. I'm fine when I was born the
first time. Why do they get mad about preaching
a new creature in Christ and following the Lord and obedience
and holiness and godliness? Well, the world hates that, don't
they? They torment us. The church is a torment to this
world. The Lord said, don't marvel at that. Yet I did. I want the
world to love me, don't you? Bobby was telling me about a
Jehovah Witness. I think it was. He kept coming
to Bob's church and to Bob's house, and Bob was talking to
him about the Lord, and they become friends. I had that happen
to me with the Jehovah Witness, become friends with him. And
Bob said, finally, he told him one day, Bob asked him, said,
do you believe Do you believe I'm lost? Is that what he asked
you, Bob, believe I'm saved? And the man said, yeah, I believe
you're saved. And Bob said, I don't believe
you are. You give a reason for it. How
can a man be saved that don't believe that Jesus Christ is
God? And the fellow got upset, didn't he, Bob? Got upset. You
tormented him. You know he wouldn't sleep good
that night. if it's faithful to its Lord
and Master should be a prick in the conscience of this disobedient,
hell-deserving, rebellious world. It should hate us. And it should
be looking forward to the day that Satan finally stops the
churches now. But I tell you what, they shouldn't
rejoice too quick because because this death was short-lived. Look
what he says here in chapter 11, 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 that 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. three and a half days. And they were raised up. And
I don't know for sure exactly what that means. I don't know
if this is a literal resurrection or if the power of life entered
back into them. And boy, that's what happened.
The Holy Spirit left, didn't He? The Spirit of life left them.
No wonder they didn't have a witness. No wonder they were dead. But
it was short-lived for this rejoicing world. The Lord said, come up
hither, come up hither. Here's some comfort, three things
that should comfort the poor church in that day. If you and
I fall into that day, this may be some comfort for us, and we'll
sure need it. One is this, the witness won't
be finished until God set time. He's done set the time, 42 months,
1260 days. He's set the time and that time
will not come until that time. That's comforting, isn't it?
I'm glad that God sets all these times. That shows that He's reigning,
doesn't it? He's in control. Secondly is this, the duration
of the death of the church will be short-lived, only three and
one-half days. That's not very long, is it?
Boy, it'll be terrible. Oh my goodness, heart-wrenching
time. There'll be a heart-wrenching time. Jacob's troubled, I think
is the way the Bible describes it. Heart-wrenching. But it'll
be only three-and-a-half days. And it won't go one hour beyond
that, brothers and sisters. And thirdly is this. God will
quickly Give His church, even this poor church in the last
day, a complete and eternal victory. Come up, healer. And they ascended
to heaven in a cloud, and to be forever with the Lord. And you know what will take place
then? The last trumpet will sound, and they'll worship around the
throne. And they'll be saying, The Lord
our God reigneth. The nations were mad about that.
The church rejoiced and proclaimed it. And now it's all over, and
we're around the throne, worshiping our redeeming God.