[0:00] And we read the Word of God together. I'm going to read all of Revelation chapter 11. It's just 19 verses. And then we'll go from there. John records, 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.
[0:32] These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. And if anyone wants to harm them, fire flows out of their mouth and devours their enemies. So if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this way.
[0:45] These have the power to shut up the sky so that rain will not fall during the days of their prophesying. And they have the power of the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every plague as often as they desire.
[0:55] When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the abyss will make war with them and overcome them and kill them. And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which mystically is called Sodom in Egypt where also their Lord was crucified.
[1:09] Those from the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations will look at their dead bodies for three and a half days and will not permit their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb. And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and celebrate.
[1:20] And they will send gifts to one another because these two prophets tormented them or tormented those who dwell on the earth. But after the three and a half days, the breath of life from God came into them and they stood on their feet and great fear fell upon those who were watching them.
[1:35] And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, come up here. Then they went up into heaven in the cloud and their enemies watched them. And in that hour, there was a great earthquake and a tenth of the city fell.
[1:46] Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven. The second woe was passed. Behold, the third woe was coming quickly. Verse 15.
[1:57] Then the seventh angel sounded and there were loud voices in heaven saying, The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ and he will reign forever and ever.
[2:08] And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God saying, We give you thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty, who are and who were because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign.
[2:24] And the nations were enraged and your wrath came and the time came for the dead to be judged. And the time to reward your bondservants, the prophets and the saints and those who fear your name, the small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth.
[2:38] And the temple of God which is in heaven was opened and the ark of his covenant appeared in his temple. And there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder and an earthquake and a great hailstorm.
[2:48] Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for this day. And Lord, we rejoice in the opportunity we have of gathering together, reading your word. Lord, we pray that your word would be opened up to us.
[2:59] Lord, that we would understand it. Lord, give us fresh eyes and fresh ears. Lord, give us a willing heart and a desiring mind. Lord, not only to know of you, but also to follow you completely.
[3:10] Lord, we pray that you would continue to mold and shape each one of us for your glory and honor. And we give you the thanks in advance for it. And we ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. As we've been going through the book of Revelation, we have tried to be very pointed in the fact that this is not the revelation of things to come, but rather, as the word of God tells us, it is the revelation of Jesus Christ.
[3:32] As a matter of fact, it is a revelation of Jesus Christ in light of the things to come. So when we read the book of Revelation, we are not reading it, or we do partially read it as a record of future events.
[3:46] But we must not read it exclusively as a record of future events, because then we would have the tendency to check out. We would say, yes, that's what's going to happen, and thanks be to God, I'm not going to be here when it happens.
[3:59] And we would kind of read it with a passive nature. And we would sit here and try to gain information, but we would never gain application, because information without application is what we call useless.
[4:10] If the truth from Scripture does not move your feet and move your life, then really it is useless. And the Bible tells us that all Scripture is good for reproof, rebuking, and correction in sound doctrine.
[4:23] All Scripture is given to correct not only those who have not yet heard, but those who have already heard, and to move us to a greater sense of obedience and a greater sense of purpose.
[4:34] And what we see in Revelation really is who Jesus Christ is in the worst of times. Because we do not really test something or try something in the good times.
[4:46] We do not really find something's worth or its merit when things are going easy. Quite often we find its worth and its merit in the worst of times and in the hardest of times and in the most difficult of times.
[5:02] My mind goes to a book which I read once. And I know you guys say, well, that man reads a lot of books and quotes a lot of books. And I just want to tell you right here, I'm not a big reader, okay?
[5:12] I don't like to read. Well, that's okay. Neither do I. But reading is a discipline. And it is something that someone told me when I first entered the ministry to be called to preach is a call to prepare, and to call to prepare is a call to read.
[5:24] So I had to begin to discipline myself so that I could learn things outside of my circle. That's why I always push people to read a little bit. And I kind of read a pretty wide spectrum. But I was reading a book one time of a soldier who had come back from Iraq.
[5:37] And it's a phenomenal book. The book's title is Steel Will. And you need to read his testimony. It's really just his biography of what happened. And very early in the opening pages of that book, I want to tell you his whole story because I'm trusting you'll probably read it.
[5:51] And I have it in my office if you want to borrow it. He spent a lot of money on a pair of sunglasses. And he was talking about how he went into the armed force and went into the military. And he was assigned to ride in Humvees.
[6:02] He got sent to Iraq. And he spent a lot of money on a pair of sunglasses. And his dad gave him a lot of grief over that. He said, son, I can't believe you spent that much money on a pair of sunglasses. He said, sure, they look good.
[6:13] But that's a lot of money. I mean, the military issues you sunglasses. Why would you buy these? And he said, well, these I think will be better. And he spent all this money on these sunglasses. And his dad just kept kind of giving him a hard time.
[6:23] Dad, you know how it is. Your sons tend to spend spontaneously sometimes. And this kind of corrected me because I had sons that were doing that or still do that. And you're like, son, you don't need this. This is kind of an extravagant expense.
[6:35] And his son was like, dad, I just really think I need these sunglasses. Well, the story goes on not too very far into it. But he was riding along and they ran over an IED and there was a great explosion in Humvee. He's the only one who survived.
[6:46] But of all the injuries that he had, there was one part of his body that was not damaged. And that was his eyes. As a matter of fact, he lost all sense of smell. He lost his ears. He lost everything. And the only part of his body that was not damaged was his eyes because he had those sunglasses on.
[7:01] I'm not going to tell you what kind they are because I'm not here to endorse them. I'm just here to tell you the story. He asked his dad later on, said, dad, do you think I overpaid for the glasses now? His dad said, no, I think that was probably a good purchase.
[7:14] Why? Because when things got really bad, they worked really good. And at times we need to understand Christ. I'm going to take you back now to the gospel. Jesus does not just work in the good days.
[7:27] He is not just the Savior in the good days, right? He is this King of kings and Lord of lords and he is the Savior in the worst of days. And if he is this great when things are terrible, then think how much better he is now when things may seem bad, but they're not terrible.
[7:41] They're not anything in comparison to what we see in the book of Revelation. He is still merciful and kind and loving and he is still saving and redeeming all through the book of Revelation. He is extending a hand to a wayward man.
[7:52] He is extending a call to people who reject him, not only audibly, but by their very testimony of their life. They want nothing to do with him. But still we see his mercy calling out and we see his faithfulness reigning.
[8:05] And what we see in this interlude is really just who he is in the worst of times. Think about this. The seven seals have been opened. Six of the seven trumpets have been sounded. Everything but the final outpouring of God's wrath has come upon the face of the earth.
[8:19] The earth is literally scarred, both physically and even in nature they're scarred. The heavens declare the glory by the scars they bear. The judgment of God is falling and we still see Christ being true to himself.
[8:33] And we still see great truths as it applies to who he is, the revelation of who he is in light of this. And I want you to see four things. I'm gonna go ahead and tell you, Revelation 11 contains so much, there's no way we could ever get to it in one message.
[8:45] And you say, well, you probably should preach more than one message on it. And if I get into it and I feel like we need to stop, then we'll go another message on it. But I want you to see it all together. A lot of times I try to condense a lot of things there because I'm afraid if I break it up, then you may not see the whole picture.
[9:01] And that's how we need to see the whole picture. The first truth we see from Revelation 11 is number one, the people who are untouchable. The people who are untouchable.
[9:14] Corrie Ten Boom, the one who really worked so hard during Nazi occupation of her land, hiding the Jewish people and ended up suffering in a Nazi concentration camp, made this great quote.
[9:26] She said, I really believe that my life is untouchable until God is completely through with me. No one can harm me. No one can, I mean, think about what she went through.
[9:37] She saw that in the worst of times. Hiding Jews in her house, suffering along with a lot of her family in a concentration camp in which all of her family except for her died in that Nazi concentration camp.
[9:52] She made this great declaration. My life is untouchable until God is through with me. We see this application not only throughout history, but even in times to come.
[10:06] We see it here found in Revelation 11 where it says, John says, and then there was given to me a measuring rod. We seem to be entering into a strange time here, but I have to give you some historical events that Revelation doesn't record for us, but we find recorded for us in other portions of Scripture.
[10:21] These are truths that help us to put the whole picture together. John is giving a measuring rod, and he's told to go around and measure the temple. Now, the immediate question that you should be asking is, where did the temple come from?
[10:34] And I know you're asking that question because you're great Bible scholars, and you know that John is looking at the city of Jerusalem because this is the city where the Lord was crucified, so we know he's in Jerusalem. And I know you're asking yourself, where in the world did this temple come from?
[10:46] Because right now there is no temple in Jerusalem. As a matter of fact, in Jerusalem there is the Dome of the Golden Rock, right? There is the Golden Dome of the Rock, the great Muslim temple that is on Temple Mount.
[10:58] And it is considered a holy site from the Muslim people, which is a great desecration for the nation of Israel because it is considered to be the place where Muhammad was called up into heaven. And rather than there being a temple, there is the Dome of the Rock.
[11:11] Now, they have the welling wall that the Jewish people go to, but we see here that John is told to measure a temple. Now, I'm fully convinced that there will not be a temple when the heavens and the earth come together.
[11:22] Now, I'm not just fully convinced on that. I stand in biblical truth of that because later on we'll see in the book of Revelation it says there is no temple for Jesus is in their midst. And that's the last stage. That's when we're with him in glory.
[11:34] Stay with me. Get a little deep, but you can handle it, right? Daniel chapter 9 speaks of what is called in biblical chronology, the 70th week.
[11:45] Daniel chapter 9 speaks of this time which we refer to as the seven years of tribulation. And it says during that day that there will be a world leader who comes and makes a pact with the nation of Israel for a week.
[11:58] Now, a week stands for seven. And those seven are seven years. This is where we get the seven-year tribulation. Stay with me. All of this matters. But Daniel says that in the middle of that week he will break his covenant which puts us to three and a half years, right?
[12:15] So there will be three and a half years of peace, the foretaste of the tribulation, Matthew chapter 24. And then three and a half years of turmoil which would be what we call the great tribulation.
[12:28] Now, preceding this would have been the rapture of the church according to my understanding of eschatology and Bible doctrine. But we're not going to take time because I don't have time to take you there.
[12:40] But all I want you to see is this. Quite possibly, the best way for any world leader to make peace with the nation of Israel would be to rebuild its temple.
[12:53] We can reconstruct the temple. The nation of Israel will follow you completely. They'll make a pact and a covenant with you. We know that this is a Gentile man because he is referred to as non-Jewish and other parts of scripture.
[13:05] We will see later on that this is also the beast. Okay? So we'll see all those things in the weeks to come. So I'm kind of giving you a foretaste of what we're going to look at. But with the reconstruction of the temple, something amazing happens.
[13:17] God's people go back to worshiping him according to the Old Testament standard. Now, the Old Testament was given not to make man right. Agree with me? The Old Testament was not given so that man could be saved.
[13:29] The Old Testament is given so that man would know how to be saved, was pointing them to someone other than themselves. You're not going to find your salvation in the Old Testament. What you're going to find in the Old Testament is your need for salvation.
[13:42] When you open up the pages of the Old Testament, you read things like, if you have ever dishonored your mother and father, you should die. Anybody here done that? You read things like, if you've ever stolen, you should die.
[13:52] If you've ever taken something that didn't belong to you, you should die. You find a bunch of rules and regulations that if we open up the scripture, we look at that and we're like, there's no way that I can adhere to all of this. And that is the point.
[14:03] The Old Testament shows us the holiness of God. It also displays how God's people would offer sacrifices to appease the holiness of God. But it was never to take the place of the lamb slain before the foundation of the world.
[14:18] I'm telling you all of this because something amazing happens. The tribulation is God working on his people, the nation of Israel, right? He is calling them back to himself. Evidently, what goes on during the tribulation with the restored temple worship, people begin to realize, you know what?
[14:35] I do bad things. I go to the temple and I sacrifice this lamb and I walk out and I still feel guilty. I do bad things and I go to the temple and I sacrifice this bull and I leave and I still feel guilty.
[14:45] The conscience has a way of working on you. And the more people start going through the motions of religion, the more they realize they need something other than religion. And people begin to seek things.
[14:57] People begin to seek truth. And in the midst of that, there's 144,000 sealed witnesses. And then there's these two witnesses who begin to proclaim truth. So people are coming to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ simply because of this restored temple worship.
[15:15] Now I hope you understand why he who made the pact with the nation of Israel and rebuilt the temple gets upset about halfway through it because he wants to be their king. He wants to be their God.
[15:27] And they begin seeking out the true king and the true God and he gets mad. Now I'll tell you all that so that you can see this picture. In the middle of all that, John is told to take this measuring rod and go measure the temple.
[15:39] He says, measure the temple and those who are worshiping in it, but leave out the outer courts because I have given that to the Gentiles for three and a half years. I know it says 42 months, but that's three and a half years.
[15:53] What is God saying? God is claiming ownership to those who are worshiping him. We're talking about the people who are untouchable. To measure something in scripture has two things.
[16:04] It either is to count it to be judged or is to claim it as belonging to you. If I measured it out and I put my stakes at the corner, much like if you have a survey of your land, wherever those pens are, that is what belongs to you.
[16:18] God is measuring out his temple and he's measuring out those who are worshiping and seeking him. And he's saying, these are mine. He's working on his people, the Jewish nation. And what I want you to see is that when times are getting rough, times are at their worst, those who are seeking after God will not be turned back.
[16:37] They will not be forsaken. They will not be neglected. God will claim them as his own and they will come to him in faith and accept him as their Lord and Savior. And he will secure them for all of eternity, even in the worst days.
[16:50] You say, what difference does that matter? Friend, listen, if he can do it then, he's doing it now. Those who seek him, find him.
[17:01] Those who have a desire, this is how I know that God is still working. Man does not naturally have a desire for the things of God. The Bible says, no man comes to the Father unless he be drawn by the Father.
[17:12] No man comes to God unless he be drawn by the Spirit of God. And no one comes except for through Jesus Christ. But he does not turn away any. And those who seek and those who have a desire for him and those who are longing for him, this is the good news.
[17:28] He is faithful to bring them to himself. He is holy and he is perfect, but he is also gracious and he is kind. We see these people are untouchable. And it is good news to be untouchable because God says, these are my friend.
[17:44] Listen to me. You are untouchable in the world until God is through with you. Those who seek him and worship him and long for him are untouchable.
[17:56] You don't believe it, ask the two witnesses, which leads us to the second thing. Not only do we see the people who are untouchable, we see the witness that is undeniable. These two witnesses are given here and it says that these are the two olive trees which stand in the presence of the Lord.
[18:08] Again, a reference to an Old Testament text, which we're not going to take time to go to, but you see it in Old Testament words of the prophets there. And these are the two lampstands. These are not only a lampstand which burned olive oil, but they are the olive trees which provided the olives for the olive oil for the lampstand, which is really just a picture of saying that they have this ever glowing light, that they cannot be diminished because they have this endless supply of oil to fill their light.
[18:33] And we see here in Scripture that in verse 4, it says these are the two olive trees and the two lampstands. Well, let's go back to verse 3. It says, I will grant authority to my two witnesses and they will prophesy for 1260 days.
[18:45] By the way, that's three and a half years. So the same amount of time that he has allowed the city to be trodden underfoot for 42 months, three and a half years, now the witnesses are going to testify for 1260 days.
[18:57] You say, Well, that's not three and a half years because three and a half years has 365 days. Well, in a biblical calendar, there were 300 days in a year, so that's three and a half years, okay? So according to John's calendar that he was going by, 300 days in a year, this is three and a half year time span.
[19:11] You always take things in context. They were written at a specific time in history to a specific people and intended audience, but to have application to all of us. It says, These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands who stand before the Lord of the earth.
[19:23] And if anyone wants to harm them, fire flows out of their mouth and devours their enemies. So if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this way. We see that their witness is undeniable, first of all, that no one can harm them.
[19:34] Listen, this is the same truth that we just saw. They are literally untouchable because it says, If anyone wants to kill them, fire comes out of their mouth. Now, there's no reason for us to romanticize that. We can take that as literal speaking.
[19:45] I don't know how it's going to happen. I just know the word of God says it's going to happen, right? That they will be consumed by the fire that comes out of the mouth of these witnesses. It says, These have the power to shut up the sky so that the rain will not fall during the days of their prophesying.
[19:57] And they have the power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every plague as often as they desire. Look at the first part of verse 7. When they finished their testimony, then they end up dying, right?
[20:10] They did not die until they finished their testimony. So for three and a half years, there is this undeniable witness. Now, I will tell you that many biblical scholars go back and forth on who these two witnesses are.
[20:20] We don't have to take time here to split a lot of hairs, but kind of the predominant thought is that these witnesses are Moses and Elijah. Some people disagree with that because it says that it could be Enoch and Elijah.
[20:34] Now, it's kind of interesting to see why they think it would be Enoch and Elijah. The reason that many people think that it is those two is because the Bible says that appointed unto man wants to die. And Enoch and Elijah never died, right?
[20:46] So they see this as being the two witnesses, and then they would die. There's their appointed day. Some believe that it's Moses and Elijah, and they say, well, Moses already died. Well, we don't know that. We just know that God hid his body.
[20:57] No one knows where his body is, so there was no proof of his death. We see that recorded for us in Scripture. The Scripture says that he died. He was no more. The days were done. Some think that God just called him to himself until his appointed time.
[21:09] The reason they think that it's Moses and Elijah is because these two witnesses seem to display the same power of Moses and Elijah. Elijah had the power over the rains and could shut up the heavens for three and a half years, by the way, and it's the same thing that happens here.
[21:23] Moses had the power over the waters to turn them into blood. Same thing that happens here. Moses had the power to strike the earth. Same thing that happens here. I don't know if it's Moses and Elijah or not. All I know is that Revelation tells us it's two witnesses, and I think the Bible is very clear in the reason it gives us information and the reason it doesn't give us information.
[21:41] I don't think that we have to definitively say that it's Moses and Elijah because we know this. The same God who gave Moses his power is the same God that gives every witness power.
[21:52] And the same God that gave Elijah the power to shut up the heavens is the same God who gives every witness the power. And the Bible tells us that Elijah was a man of like nature like us, and he prayed and God did this, and he prayed and God did that.
[22:04] We see that recorded for us in the book of James. We don't need to confine ourselves to saying that this is Moses and Elijah, though it could possibly be. What I want you to see is that their witness is undeniable because God gave them authoritative power to not only proclaim but also display the kingdom of God to a watching world.
[22:25] And why does this matter? It's because God has still called people to be his witnesses. And the same God who fills these two witnesses is the same God who fills you and I and gives us authoritative power to proclaim and display to a watching world his kingdom.
[22:41] Do you understand something, friend? Listen to me. Your witness is undeniable. Your witness is undeniable. He said, there's no way. People don't believe what I tell them.
[22:53] What if your life matches with authoritative power the words you proclaim, there's no way anyone can deny it.
[23:04] The greatest defense for the gospel is love. To love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. You say, well, I don't really feel like loving anybody.
[23:15] That's fine. But when God gives you the spirit of love, and when we live according to the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, faithfulness, kindness, self-control, all of a sudden, these things become to be displayed in our life.
[23:26] And all of a sudden, the things that we are doing, friend, listen to me. It is not our nature to be godly, but God puts a godly nature inside of us. And when life and words begin to match, there is no denying the impact that it has on a watching world.
[23:41] People may argue with you about what you think, but they cannot argue with you about the convictions you have that have changed you. You can tell me you don't believe the same thing I do, but you cannot tell me that God didn't do something amazing in my life and take my heart of stone and turn it into a heart of flesh.
[23:59] You cannot tell me that I was going this way and he turned me that way. I don't care how much you argue with me. I don't care how much you disagree with me. There is an undeniable reality that God has saved me, forgiven me, redeemed me, and restored me.
[24:13] And he is using me for his glory. I can show you answered prayers. I can show you testimony after testimony after testimony. And these are a part of my story. What happens is that God's people believe the lie of Satan that nobody's going to care and nobody's going to listen.
[24:27] The reality is that anytime God calls a witness, he gives them an undeniable witness. Your story is powerful. Your story. This is why I like these baptism videos.
[24:39] You get a glimpse of the stories that I hear. But the way God draws you to himself, that is undeniable. People say, oh, well, it's just a thought or imagination.
[24:51] It's just a feeling or sensation. But when you hear the story of God working in an individual's life, time after time after time again, it is simply undeniable.
[25:04] And we need to understand that there is an undeniable witness, and we are that witness. And woe be upon us when we are silent.
[25:14] We see not only the people who are untouchable, we see the witness that is undeniable. Number three, you need to understand this one. We see the response that is unbelievable.
[25:26] And again, I don't have time to get into all the truths of Revelation 11. We'll see how the Lord leads us. But it says that when their testimony was through, when their time, when their set time was done after three and a half years, it tells us that something amazing happens.
[25:40] It says in verse seven, and when they had finished their testimony, the beast, by the way, this is the first mentioning of the beast in the book of Revelation, okay? The beast that comes up out of the abyss will make war with them and overcome them and kill them.
[25:52] If you ever want to set yourself up as a world ruler, you find those who are terrorizing the world for three and a half years and kill them, right? So the beast who comes up out of the abyss, this shows us that this is a man who is empowered by the forces of evil.
[26:04] We've already looked at that in other portions, but really has demonic forces working inside of him. No man can touch these witnesses. Anybody that gets near them dies from the fire that comes out of their mouth, and all of a sudden, one man, the beast, shows up, and he makes war with them, and he kills them, and the world rejoices.
[26:21] Why? Because for three and a half years, these two witnesses literally tormented the earth. If we think that the world was ravished because of the blowing of the trumpets, and then we see them for three and a half years, it doesn't rain, and for three and a half years, there's pestilence, and for three and a half years, there's all this judgment of God based upon their testimony, and if you're that person, look, the world's looking at you going, everything is your fault.
[26:43] This is why Elijah didn't want to go into the presence of the king, by the way. I don't want to show myself to the king because the king knows that I'm the one who said, do not let it rain, and there's this great famine on the land, but we see here that these witnesses have kind of become the hatred of everyone in the world, but the beast comes up, he makes war with them, and he kills them, and all of a sudden, now he is the hero.
[27:03] So we have the first mentioning of the beast that he is empowered by demonic forces coming up out of the abyss, and then we see this unbelievable response.
[27:14] It says in verse 8, and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which mystically is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. That is Jerusalem. That's where Jesus was crucified, so they don't even give them the right to be buried.
[27:27] If you want to completely disgrace an individual, you disgrace them after their death and just leave their body laying there. So the beast kills them, leaves their body there, and it says, and those from the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations will look on their dead bodies for three and a half days and will not permit their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb.
[27:43] Think about these things from scripture. When John wrote this, it would be almost unbelievable for someone to say that everybody in the world looked upon them. Friend, we live in a day and time where that is actually a reality, right?
[27:54] We're looking at things happening in real time all over the world. So these things are coming about where they can't happen. But it says that people everywhere, just as God calls to himself people from every people's tongues and tribes and nation, so also does people from every people's tongues and tribes and nation look upon their dead bodies and then something amazing happens.
[28:15] This is the only time this is mentioned in Revelation. So if you want to see the depravity and the disparity of man, if you want to see how wicked man really is, look at this. It says that, and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and celebrate.
[28:31] Some have titled this Happy Dead Witness Day. It says that some of those, but after three and a half days, well, let's go back, and those who dwell on the earth, wording there, dwell on the earth, means people who do not know God, people who deny the existence of God.
[28:45] Those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and celebrate and they will send gifts to one another because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth. This is the only mentioning in the book of Revelation of rejoicing and celebrating.
[29:00] The only time in Scripture in the book of Revelation where man rejoices and celebrates are when God's two witnesses are killed. If you ever thought that man was getting better, look at this.
[29:12] Their celebrating and their rejoicing is the fact that those who are telling us the truth, those who are displaying the truth, are now dead. This isn't Christmas.
[29:22] This is like, hey, the saints are dead, the witnesses are dead, let's give gifts to one another. So for three and a half days, they celebrate. This is the unbelievable response. Rather than weeping and mourning, they celebrate.
[29:34] Rather than being rebuked because of the truth they had heard for three and a half years, they rejoice. They give gifts to one another. And it says, and they looked upon their dead bodies for three and a half days and then something astounding happens.
[29:45] God told them to get up. That's great, right? When we see these truths in Scripture, that means we can rejoice. You know why? Because there's coming a day that if the rapture of the church doesn't happen, there's going to be a day where my body is laid in the ground and then God's going to tell me to get up.
[29:58] And guess what's going to happen? My body's going to get up. Because if he can do it then, he can do it now. And if he can do it now, he can do it for all of eternity. God is the same. It says they're laying there and then it says, and the spirit and the breath of life, which we see the breath of life which comes from God.
[30:13] So all life, by the way, those who were rejoicing in their death, those who were celebrating and giving gifts were alive and their breath of life came from where? From God.
[30:23] So they're rejecting the one who sustains them. The breath of life came back into them and they got up. After three and a half days, people looked at them and all of a sudden, their skin tone started changing and going from a pale death, ashen color, all of a sudden, you started getting, you know, a vigorous life color and they just stood up and they just stand there and everybody's looking at me and everybody's like, oh no, what's going to happen?
[30:44] This is why I say this is the last call for repentance because now these people have tormented us for three and a half years. We've just spent the last three and a half days celebrating their death and now they're back alive. Surely they're going to rebuke us and God does something even more.
[30:56] It's not that he says, guys, come up here. Why? Because their day of testimony is over. The world's opportunity of repentance is finished. God could have sent those two witnesses.
[31:08] You don't have anything else to say. You've said it all. Come up here, which means when your work is through, you go into his presence. So he calls them to himself. And then this earthquake happens.
[31:19] A tenth of the city falls. 7,000 individuals die in a moment. And it says, and the rest of the people give glory to God. That does not, in my mind, in my reading, does not mean that everybody all of a sudden began to be saved.
[31:31] Some people see this, even including John MacArthur, which I have a lot of respect for. John MacArthur sees this as that is the repentance of the nation of Israel. Those who were worshiping in the temple had been set apart, had heard the witnesses.
[31:44] Now the sons saw a visible representation of their ascension into heaven. They repent and they come to Christ. All we know is that a multitude of people die. Some people give God glory and the world stands ready for judgment.
[31:58] Which leads us to this fourth and final thing. And I'll get this one to you very quickly. There was the people who were untouchable. There was the witness that is undeniable. There is the response that is unbelievable.
[32:09] Rather than repent, man rejoices when these witnesses die. Number four, there is the trumpet that is unavoidable. Because it says, then, then, look at what the word of God says.
[32:23] They were called up into heaven. Verse 15, after this earthquake, after this time of repentance has passed, then the seventh angel sounded, then the seventh angel sounded, and there were loud voices in heaven saying, the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ and he will reign forever and ever.
[32:44] And the 24 elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God saying, we give you thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty, who are and who were because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign.
[32:55] And the nations were enraged and your wrath came and the time came for the dead to be judged and the time to reward your bondservants and the prophets and the saints and those who fear your name and the small and the great and to destroy those who destroy the earth.
[33:06] And the temple of God which is in heaven was opened and the ark of his covenant appeared in his temple and there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder and an earthquake and great hailstorm. Here it is, the trumpet that is unavoidable.
[33:18] Because man will not repent, that seventh trumpet is sounded. Three things happen and I'm not going to take time to go through all of them. I'm just going to give them to you. So if you're in the habit of writing them down, you can write them down.
[33:29] Three things happen when that trumpet sounds. Number one, there's the coronation of the king. He is king of kings now because that day has come. He is going to reign. He is already seen here as reigning even though he is literally not on the face of the earth yet.
[33:43] Those bowls will be poured out. We will not see the fullness of those bowls until Revelation 16 but he is coronated already. He is pronounced king. There is the celebration of the saints. There is the rejoicing in heaven.
[33:55] The immediate response of heaven to anything that God does is worship and celebration. Just as that song that was sung this morning, how shameful it is when we do not celebrate and worship and rejoice immediately in response to his greatness and his kingdom and his power.
[34:08] So there is the coronation of the king, there is the celebration and then there is the coming judgment. When that trumpet sounds, the bowls are going to be poured out and friend, listen to me, the time of repentance has passed. Man will pay the price for their rejection of who he is.
[34:21] God is patient. God is kind. God is faithful. God is long-suffering. God does not desire that any man should perish but that all should come to everlasting life through Jesus Christ, his Lord. But listen, God will not be mocked and his holy, righteous judgment will come someday.
[34:40] We don't know exactly when that final cry for repentance will be but here is the good news. Right now, we live in a day where we still call out begging and pleading with people, be reconciled to the Lord your God.
[34:58] He longs for you to walk in faithfulness with him. He longs for you to walk in sincerity and truth and to labor for his kingdom. Won't you be ambassadors for that kingdom along with me?
[35:09] Let's pray together. Lord, we thank you so much for this day. Lord, we thank you for the truths which we have been able to look at in scripture. Lord, we know that there are often very hard truths at times to swallow but we pray that you would take these truths and Lord, you would let them move our lives for your glory.
[35:24] May we be men and women who are sold out for you. May we be those who want to labor and love and live for the kingdom. May we be faithful about your work for your glory and we ask it in Christ's name.
[35:38] Amen. Amen.
[36:29] Amen. Amen.
[37:29] Amen. Amen.
[38:29] Amen. Thank you.
[39:29] Thank you.
[39:59] Thank you.
[40:29] Thank you.
[40:59] Thank you.