On the surface of it, this is a very complex passage. This morning's sermon is introductory to the greater part of the passage and we're going to be taking Really, in essence, only the first two verses of Revelation 11. It is that crucial to get the information here right, and we do so in conjunction with Matthew 13, the parable of the wheat and the weeds. And so, reading now the first three verses of Revelation 11, and then turning to the Gospel of Matthew chapter 13 at verse 24. Hear now the Word of God. Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there. But do not measure the court outside the temple. Leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for 42 months. And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days clothed in sackcloth." And now turning to the Gospel of Matthew chapter 13. There in the middle of the 13th chapter you see verse 24, the parable of the weeds. And then going to the explanation at verse 36 after. And Jesus put another parable before them, saying, The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds? And he said to them, An enemy has done this. So the servant said to him, Then do you want us to go and gather them? But he said, No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. And at harvest time, I will tell the reapers, gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn. And 36, the explanation. Then Jesus left the crowds and went into the house and his disciples came to him saying, explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field. He answered, the one who sows the good seed is the son of man. The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is at the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age, The son of man will send his angels and they will gather out of his kingdom all the causes of sin and all lawbreakers and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father. He who has ears, let him hear. including and excluding by divine measurement. First of all, the spiritual significance of the reed like a measuring rod. Secondly, the spiritual significance of the temple of God. And thirdly, the spiritual significance of the 42 months. Beloved of God in Christ Jesus, there are certain verses in the Holy Bible that are so key, so crucial, so pivotal in their meaning that if you get them wrong, it's nearly impossible to get anything else right. Or if you get them wrong, a huge body, a huge section of biblical content begins to drift away from you and will forever escape your grasp or understanding until you get these verses right. We have before us this morning just such verses from the book of Revelation. You get this wrong and you're going to get a lot wrong. a wrong interpretation of prophecy, a wrong view of history, a wrong definition of the church, and a wrong expectation of the future. And sadly, there are many people who, in fact, get it wrong. And yeah, I mean, it's pathetic. It's not necessary, it doesn't need to be this way, but we need to submit our hearts to the authority of Scripture and compare Scripture with Scripture. In theological terms, we would say a wrong exegesis, which is a wrong handling of Scripture, leads to a wrong A wrong ecclesiology, wrong ideas about the church, and a wrong eschatology. See, a wrong view of the future, expectations of things to come, particularly at the end of the age. And you notice in Jesus' parable of the weeds, he referenced the end of the age twice, right? If we don't have to get it wrong, then let's not. To be wrong about all those things is a lot of wrong. And that would leave a person pretty messed up when it comes to essential truths of the Christian faith. And yet, tragically, even our own tendency, and I can only point this really to our fallen nature, and also to kind of the natural laziness, right, of people who, and Christian people in particular, who say, well, you know, just the important thing is Jesus, and if you have Jesus as your Savior, God's just gonna take care of the rest. Yes, but what are you gonna do, right, with your Christian life? How are you gonna live it? That requires being right about a few things. And standing firmly on the Word of God. Let's remember that this morning as we seek to understand the key that unlocks an accurate understanding of, first of all, the Word of God. A proper understanding of the church of all ages. and a proper understanding of the end times. First of all then from our text, the spiritual significance of the reed like a measuring rod. The first verse of our text this morning reads, I was given a reed like a measuring rod and was told go and measure the temple of God and the altar and count the worshipers there. Revelation 1. Now, a reed is simply a measuring instrument like our yardstick, like a tape measure. It's used to measure length. But our text says this reed, this measuring stick, is like a rod. Now, the rod in Scripture is a symbol of royal dominion and power. It is equivalent to a royal scepter with this difference. Many scepters were so ornate, they were actually just for show. But a rod was meant to inflict real punishment. It was a real object of discipline. It was meant to remind subjects who actually had the physical power to execute authority. As the psalmist says in Psalm 2, you will rule them with an iron scepter. or another translation, you will rule them with a rod of iron, you will dash them to pieces like pottery. Christ promises the same dominion and power to victorious Christians who will reign with Christ, as we are told in Revelation, the second chapter, verses 26 and 27. To Him who overcomes and does my will, to the end, I will give authority over the nations, He will rule them with an iron scepter, He will dash them to pieces like pottery. Like Savior, like Saved, like Lord, like Disciple, like Master, like Servant, like Redeemer, like Redeemed. These are amazing, amazing truths. the spiritual significance of the reed like a measuring rod. Who is included within the spiritual dimensions of Christ's church, the temple of God, as these are measured out, and truly believes in the Savior and clings to the cross, which is the altar referred to here. And who sincerely submits to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, our text says, to count the worshipers there. You see, this is all a matter of inclusion and exclusion by divine measurement with this reed like a rod. This reed like a measuring rod used to measure the temple of God and the altar and to count the worshipers there. This measurement of dimension and dominion. This counting of who is in and who is out. This delineation of those included from those who are excluded is found in so many other passages of Scripture that this ought to be a very, very, do I need to say it again? A very familiar theme to every Christian. Like Jesus' parable of the weeds and the wheat, recorded in Matthew 13, where our Lord Jesus explains that though the two grow together in the same field, they will meet a very different end. As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. What time period is Revelation 11 describing? the end of the age. So it will be at the end of the age. And the Son of Man will send out His angels and they will weed out of His kingdom everything that causes sin and all that do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of the Father. He who has ears, let him hear. And also in 2 Timothy, the second chapter, verses 19 to 21, there are two kinds of items in one house. Items for honorable use, and items and articles for dishonorable use. God's solid foundation stands firm, and this is the truth underscored in Revelation 11, verses 1 and 2, the Lord knows who are His. and everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness. In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay. Some are for noble purpose and some for ignoble. If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the master, and prepared to do any good work. And again in Romans 9 the Apostle Paul is making the very same point when he says, For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel, nor because they are descendants are they all Abraham's children. On the contrary, it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. In other words, it is not the natural children who are God's children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham's offspring. Not all children of the covenant are going to be citizens of the kingdom. And we have known this, we know it from our Bibles from beginning to end. And beloved, how thankful we must be that our gracious God alerts us to all of these things. To awaken us out of our apathy, to shake us out of our complacency, to instruct us in spiritual realities that are even now factors in our own spiritual life and in the life of Christ Church, and will become increasingly important as history moves toward its God-appointed end, when the final measurement will be taken and the final determination will be made as to who are included and who is excluded. Now some of you who are listening really closely will say and probably would love to jump up out of your seats and say this final determination has in a very important sense been made before the creation of the world. Yes, amen. But at the end of the age, this determination will be made public. And that's the point, isn't it? That's the point of Revelation chapter 11, the first two verses. The second point, the spiritual significance of the temple of God. But exclude the outer court, do not measure it, because it has been given to the Gentiles." So John is told what to measure and what not to measure. He is told what to include in his measurement and what to exclude. The Gentiles here stand for unbelievers, right? It's a code word here. It's code for unbelievers. While in your Bibles, Gentile believers are considered in Scripture to be the actual true children of Abraham. Men and women of faith. The true Israel of God. And of course, unless we understand these things, we will always be completely confused. Those who misinterpret these verses do not see a spiritual significance here. They insist that all these things must be taken literally. They believe that by the time of events described here, the church will have been taken up into heaven, to escape the Great Tribulation. They believe Jerusalem will be rebuilt. The Temple of the Jews will be restored there in the capital city. They even anticipate that the Temple worship will be instituted with burnt offerings and incense. And then the Antichrist will come, they say, and take possession of the holy city and the outer courts of the temple. Only the sanctuary proper will be preserved as the stronghold of God and His faithful witnesses." You see what is happening here. Everything is being taken in the most literal sense possible. This is all completely a big mistake. a big mistake, a critical mistake, a tragic mishandling of Holy Scripture. We cannot possibly agree with this interpretation. And I'm going to tell you why very quickly here this morning. First of all, the idea that the church is no longer on earth at the time of Revelation 11, at the end of the age, That idea rests on a very flimsy and mistaken interpretation of Revelation 4, verse 1, where we read in the Bible, the voice I had at first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, come up here and I will show you what must take place after this. Come up. You hear people, oh, the rapture. From this verse, the premillennial dispensationalists The pre-tribulation rapture, people conclude that the church ascends into heaven with John and escapes all that the book of Revelation speaks of. Well, you and I should not accept this understanding, this interpretation for a second. For we know that John himself remained on earth. And he received the entire book of Revelation while he was in exile on the island of Patmos. John 1 verse 9. And the church of Christ remains on earth with John, you might say. John was taken to heaven in his spirit. Not physically. Secondly, let's not forget that the whole divine purpose of this revelation, of the book of Revelation, is the encouragement and comfort of the church. If these details about the measurement of the sanctuary are all about the Jewish temple, what significance, what comfort is there in that for the church? A church who is already in heaven. It doesn't make sense. Further on this point, our Lord has told us that in the latter days the church will endure hardship and tribulation like never before, and that these days will be shortened for the sake of the elect. These elect, then, are certainly not in heaven. Thirdly, nowhere in the New Testament do we find any mention of the fact that the temple in Jerusalem will be rebuilt in the last days. There's not one verse in the Bible. On the contrary, there is abundant evidence to prove that the temple in Jerusalem, with all its sacrifices and ceremony, has fulfilled its purpose in the redemptive plan of God. Christ Himself speaks of the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple. But our Lord Jesus never speaks of the restoration of Jerusalem or its temple. Fourthly and finally, the Apostle Paul repeatedly describes the New Testament church as the temple of God. And we read in passages like 1 Corinthians 3, 16 and 17, don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple? And that God's Spirit lives in you. If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is sacred and you are that temple. And again in 2 Corinthians 6, 15-16, the Bible says, what harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols for we are the temple of the living God as God has said I will live with them and walk among them and I will be their God and they will be my people and again in his epistle to the Ephesians Paul writes consequently you are no longer foreigners and aliens but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone. In Him, the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in Him, you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit." You see how crucial it is to have a spiritual understanding of what the temple is. The temple is you, your heart, your mind, your body, your redeemed life. In light of these and many other passages, we say with great confidence and great certainty that the temple of God and the altar mentioned here in Revelation 11, 1 and 2 really refer to the church of Christ. Together as living stones, together you are being built into a glorious temple. All of you little temples are being joined together under Christ's lordship and authority into a glorious temple. And the altar is the cross of Christ, which Jesus purchased, with which he purchased his church with his own precious blood. The instruction to measure that which includes the temple of God and the altar, and to count the worshippers there, together with the instruction to exclude the outer court, is a clear indication that God intends to make a distinction between the righteous and the wicked. A distinction between the institutional and the spiritual church. A distinction between the visible and the invisible church. A distinction now finally between the facade, the for show, and the for real church. The nominal Christian and the actual Christian. And this has always, always been the Reformed understanding of these verses of the whole counsel of God. As the Bible says, examine yourselves then to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you realize that Christ Jesus is in you? Unless, of course, you fail the test. You see inclusion or exclusion by divine measurement. Finally, this morning, the spiritual significance of the 42 months. The Gentiles, they, the unbelievers, will trample on the holy city for 42 months. I want to say it now so that I don't forget to say it. But this 42 months, really quickly, is a symbolic number that stands for the time between Jesus' great commission, you know, to go into all the world, preach the gospel, to baptize, to teach people to obey. It stands for the time from the great commission to the great consummation. This 42 months stands for the entire period of the gospel age between Christ's first and second coming virtually. What else could be meant here? What else is being taught? Well, at first, the mention of 42 months seems very mysterious to us. Very mysterious indeed. But as with so many other details in Revelation, just a little study, and might I say a little humility, and a little perseverance. No, well, a lot of perseverance. Okay? Sounds like life, doesn't it? Yeah. The Christian life is like that too. And just a little comparison of Scripture with Scripture, and all will be made plain. Please notice with me that 42 months is 1,260 days, which is exactly mentioned in the third verse here. For 42 times 30 is 1,260. 42 months is also three and a half years. The time, think one year, times with a S, which is time times two, two years, and a half a time, a half a year, that we read about in the book of Daniel. Right? The book of Daniel is always, we always read time, time, times, and a half a time. One year, plus two years, plus a half a year, three and a half years. And how much is that? That's 1,260 days. It's interesting. It's amazing. For those who like math, that reference, that three and a half years, stands for the entire span of history between Christ's first and second coming. That means then that, once again, these numbers are symbolic and have a deep spiritual significance. Seven is the number of perfection, and seven is God's completed kingdom. Six, in the Holy Bible, is the number of man, who, let's remember, left to himself always falls short of the glory of God. Six always falls short of seven. 6 x 7 is 42. From Christ's first coming to His second coming, man is always striving. Right? Always thinks he can save himself. Always thinks he can build utopia. Always thinks he can do without the Savior. 42 indicates the efforts of sinful man to accomplish. their own salvation, perfection, fulfillment of all our dreams and desires on our own. We do this as nation-states. But what is the sum total of all man's efforts? Forty-two. Six times the desire to be perfect. Seven. Mankind, the human race, can never reach perfection. Seven times seven is forty-nine people. Not forty-two. Forty-two falls short. For all his striving, man is left to himself. And he's going to fail. And even when man multiplies his effort, man's religion, six. Man's politics, six. Man's economic activity, six. All sixes. No sevens in sight. 666 being the number of the beast, or the Antichrist. They, the unbelieving, the Gentiles, will trample on the holy city for 42 months. And during the whole gospel age, what have unbelievers been doing? What have they been doing to Christians? What have they been doing to the church? You ever read Voice of the Martyrs material? Trampling on God's holy church. Trampling on the holy city. It's been going on from day one. Since the day Christ descended into heaven. And it will continue. In fact, it will even ramp up. toward the end. But for all the efforts of the evil one, and all those unbelievers allied with him, all the efforts of the false church, the for show church, the nominal church, the institutional church, the Lord has measured his temple and his altar. His true church and the cross of Christ in which they are redeemed, and the Lord knows those who are His and who belong to Him. O believer, take comfort and take courage in this gracious, glorious truth again today. Beloved, if by God's grace you get this right, by that same grace you'll get most everything else right too. May God, by His prevailing and preserving Spirit, enable us to understand and to live in the light of the blessed truth that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. In Christ alone, we are included in God's holy temple. Let us therefore commune with Christ at his holy table with holy confidence and holy joy that we may be nourished and equipped for every good work in his holy service through Christ our Lord. Amen. Let us pray. Lord God in heaven, we thank you for your word. We thank you for leading us. by your Spirit, the same Spirit that breathed the Word, and leading us by that Spirit into the way of all truth. We thank you for the spiritual significance of the measuring, the spiritual significance of your temple, who we are, built on Christ, the cornerstone, and the spiritual significance of the 42 months, the Gospel Age, in which the Good News shines like light in the darkness and rings with joy. in a world of sadness, Lord, and spreads your redeeming love in a world where there is always much hate. Preserve us for yourself and for your glory, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.