From Ballymunny in County Antrim we present Let the Bible Speak It's good to have you with us today as we spend 15 minutes around the Word of God preaching Christ in all his fullness. and this is Leslie Curran saying hello and welcome to the program in our Savior's name I'm glad to have you join us today and here to let the Bible speak is the Reverend Ivan Foster good morning to you all you're very welcome to our program today we include in our program a further extract from the sermon we are offering free on tape or CD to our listeners the sermon is called The Last Invitation and it is based upon Revelation chapter 22 in the verse 17. Do look up that text. After we listen to the extract I will play a gospel hymn before coming to today's study in the book of the Revelation. We've reached chapter 11 and we're considering the last two witnesses. I will come to that in just a moment. But let's first listen to today's extract from the last invitation. This fountain has been opened by the Lord Jesus In Genesis chapter 29 we read of Jacob meeting up with his mother's folks after he had been forced to leave his home through the quarrel that he had with his brother Esau. And he came and he met his future wife at a well. And it says he rolled away the stone from the well so that she could water the flock. The Lord Jesus is our Jacob. He has rolled away the stone and opened up the well of the water of life. that we can drink from to the saving of our souls. The death agonies of the Lord Jesus on the cross are the very source of the fountain of life. He opened up a fountain there. By the shedding of His precious blood on the cross, He opened up a fountain where men may quench their raging thirst. It's a well of great abundance. It has satisfied the needs of millions, and it will satisfy the needs of millions yet, and throughout eternity it will satisfy us. It's like that water that we read of in Ezekiel chapter 47. Do you remember it? The miraculous waters that flowed out again from the altar of God. And in the chapter 47 of Ezekiel we read about this water. It comes out a smallish little river. It was waters to the ankle verse. 3. But when he travels a little further along the bank, we find the waters have deepened. They're waters to the knees. And then a little further yet again, and it's waters to the loins, to the waist. And then in verse 5, it's waters to swim in. Waters that are bottomless, as it were. And the well from which the waters of life flow, men and women, is an inexhaustible supply. It's a strange thing. It increases the more it flows every time this book is opened. Every place this book is opened, whether it's in the open air, or in a regular church service like this, or in a children's meeting, perhaps on some village green in the summer months, or out in the depths of the jungle, or in the wastelands of a dark and heathen country, wherever a child of God opens the Bible, they open a well out of which there flows the water of life. Jesus, my Savior, to Bethlehem came, Born in our manger to sorrow and shame. Oh, it was wonderful, blessed be His name, Seeking for me, for me. me. Thinking for me. me. Oh, it was wonderful, blessed be His name, seeking for me, for me. Jesus, my Savior, on Calvary's He paid the great debt and my soul he set free. Oh, it was wonderful, how could it be? Dying for me, for me. for me. Dying for me, for me. Oh, it was wonderful. How could it be? Dying for me. Last week we commenced our study of Revelation chapter 14 and we're looking at the verses 1 to 14 in which we find a record of the last two witnesses who will exercise a marvelous ministry in the city of Jerusalem just before the return of Christ. We left off having considered the character of their ministry. I want us to come now to the topic of the rejection of their ministry. These men, these two witnesses, will be resisted by those to whom they witness. Men will seek to hurt them, it says in verse 5. The word hurt means to act wrongfully against. To suffer such has ever been the lot of God's suffering people throughout the centuries. These two servants, however, will be able and permitted by God to strike back at those who seek to afflict them. Striking back is something which God's suffering people have not been able or been allowed by God to do. As Matthew chapter 5 and the verse 39 says, But I say unto you that ye resist not evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." Such an attitude as this is one in keeping with the bearing of a patient and loving testimony with a view to winning souls to faith in Christ. However, the last two witnesses are primarily ministers of judgment. They are harbingers of that great and terrible day when despisers and rejecters of God's truth will suffer the consequences of their sin. All that is left to a people who reject the gospel of peace, as will be the case in Jerusalem in the days of these two men, is judgment. Therefore these men are hated. And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast, that's the Antichrist, that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them." Verse 7. Here is how all of God's people would be treated were it not for the restraint that God places upon the devil and his agencies. God has permitted that bitter hatred to break through at times. The occasions of the sufferings of the people of God are very numerous, but they are much less than would have been the case had not God subdued his enemies. Note that even then the Antichrist, for he is the beast that ascended out of the bottomless pit, will not be able to strike against the two witnesses until they shall have finished their testimony. These two men are considered tormentors by the people of the earth. 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." Verse 10. The word tormented is the same word used by Peter to describe the feelings of Lot in the city of Sodom. For that righteous man dwelling among them in seeing and hearing, vexed or tormented, his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds. 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 8. The vexation caused to the soul of Lot by the filthy living of the Sodomites is akin to what the world will feel under the ministry of the two witnesses. How contrary to man's nature are the holy things of God. Truly the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other." Galatians chapter 5 and the verse 17. The third thing I want you to notice about these men is the vindication of their ministry. And after three days and then 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. Verse 11. There is always an after with God. Let us comfort every one of God's weary saints. The two witnesses had a resurrection. They were invited up to glory. Their enemies beheld them ascend up to glory in a cloud. Dear Christian, So it shall be with all of God's children. There is a day of vindication. There is a day when the Lord shall own his people as his own dear ones. He shall call us forth from the grave. He shall invite us to join him in glory. And our enemies shall behold our vindication. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verses 16 and 17 The hour of the persecuted one's glory was the hour of the wicked city's judgments. 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. Verse 13 The glory given to God was not that of a humbled soul, but rather a mere acknowledging of the existence and the power of God. It was the honor that Ahab gave to God after Elijah pronounced God's judgments against him following his slaying of Naboth. And it came to pass when Ahab heard those words that he rent his clothes and put on sackcloth upon his flesh and fasted and lay in sackcloth and went softly. 1 Kings chapter 21 verses 17 to 27 there you can read the full story. Ahab was not graciously humbled in his heart but rather terrified and seeking to placate the anger of God by this show of humility. There is a Christ likeness seen in the two witnesses in the period of their ministry three and a half years in the rejection they suffer, in the period under death, three days and a half, in their public resurrection, in their ascension in a cloud. Surely we can see marks and references to our Savior's blessed ministry in the ministry of these two men. We will leave our study there. Thank you for listening. Do remember to send for the free sermon tape on the last invitation. God bless you. and goodbye. Ballymoney, County Antrim, BT 53 6PE. Let the Bible Speak. Ballymoney, County Antrim, BT 53 6PE. Thank you for listening today. Don't forget that we're on air here each weekday morning, Monday to Friday. So do remember to join us at this same time as we Let the Bible Speak.