Please be seated. Well today in our Revelation series we are beginning with Revelation chapter 11. This part of the vision has to do with the interval between the 6th and the 7th trumpets, trumpet judgments that are initiated by blowing trumpets. And you remember that there is a kind of an ominous pause between the 6th and the 7th seal when they were opened. We have the same thing between the 6th and the 7th trumpet judgment. And there's something that is very powerful that is going to happen here. Very, very significant with bringing the destruction of God's people. And so there is this kind of build up to that. And there's a kind of a foundation that is laid to prepare us for what's coming. Some of the things that we're told about that are going to come, that are going to happen. The judgment will be so terrible for God's holy city that there is almost a reluctance to get into it, you know, to get into the vision, the revelation of the vision of these future things. And so we come now looking for this information that is given to us before that hammer falls. Today I'm going to only look at the first six verses of chapter 11. I had thought to do more. But there is so much information about the way our Lord uses prophets that I thought that it would be good to spend a little more time on it. And we also have introductory verses that kind of set a summary for what is to come over the next seven years. We're given those in the first two verses. So we'll look at that, and then we'll look at the beginning of looking at the prophets or the two witnesses that are revealed to us here. So here is God's holy and infallible word, Revelation 11, verse 1 through 6. May he bless us as his people as we hear the word. Revelation 11, verse 1. Then I was given a reed like a measuring rod. And the angel stood, saying, rise and measure the temple of God, the altar, and those who worship there. But leave out the court which is outside the temple, and do not measure it, for it has been given to the Gentiles, and they will tread the holy city underfoot for 42 months. And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the God of the earth. And if anyone wants to harm them, fire proceeds from their mouth and devours their enemies. And if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this manner. These have power to shut heaven so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy, and they have power over waters to turn them to blood and to strike the earth with all plagues as often as they desire. Thus far, the reading of God's word. Let's consider it now. God's plans are here summarized by the Apostle John, for the forthcoming seven years. Okay, so probably John is right up close to this time when these things are about to begin to happen, the initial things in that seven-year war that we're told very plainly from we see very plainly in history that the Jewish war, that the Romans' war against them lasted for seven years. So look at Revelation 11, 1 and 2 again. As we just read it, I'll read it once again. Then I was given a reed like a measuring rod, John says, and the angels stood saying, rise and measure the temple of God, the altar, and those who worship there, but leave out the court which is outside the temple, and do not measure it, for it has been given to the Gentiles, and they will tread the holy city underfoot for 42 months." Notice that John is brought into the action again. This was done in chapter 10, where there was the little book, and he was told to eat that book. And he was told that he had a role to play, that he was going to be bringing prophecy about these times, that he himself was a prophet. And that we saw that the scroll was to him very sweet because it was telling of the vindication of the saints that had been martyred for Christ by these adversaries and things of the Jews and the Romans. They'd been killing Christians all over. And so there's a sweetness to it. But he also sees that these judgments that are going to be brought against his people for doing that are going to be very, very severe. And so it's a fearful thing to him, too. He shuns, draws back, looking at this terrible judgment that's going to come. It would be bitter to him. in his stomach, as it says. Well, this time he's given a reed, and he's instructed to measure the temple with it. So he's really getting into the action now. The word translated temple is naos. There's different words that are used for the temple in Greek. And this is the one that talks about the sanctuary itself. So not all the things in the court of the temple and the other buildings that were in the court of the temple, but the very temple itself, the sanctuary where the altar is and everything is, as you can see, rather than the entire temple complex. It appears that John is measuring the actual physical temple that was standing at Jerusalem at the time that John had the vision. Now, we've said all along there's different views of Revelation, super dogmatic about this. It's becoming more and more clear to me that this is about the first century. Because of the way the language speaks here, he's told, go and measure that temple. And he even is told to measure the people there. It talks about the court of the Gentiles, which he is not to measure. So it's very, very clear instructions, concrete instructions. It's not a visionary type of thing. Another pointer to this is that in chapter 10, we last saw John not in heaven, but having come down from heaven. And you remember the angel came down and had the foot in the water and on the land, which was, we said the land is the land of God's people, the earth, and one in the sea and one on the land. And the angel is said to have come down from heaven. And John didn't go back up yet. So he's on the earth, and yet further evidence that it was a literal temple is that when John measures, there are actually worshipers worshiping there. And he's told to take account of them as well. Also, it is said that it's located in a certain place. Where does it say that it's located? In the holy city. Where is the holy city? That's obviously Jerusalem. So it seems pretty clear. Now, it could be symbolic of a future holy city, you know, the people of God in general, that sort of thing. But again, we're moving in that direction here. What is the measuring about? Now here, one guy did an intensive study about this. He has a chart with all the different things. And I think it was, I can't remember, I think it was 38 views that he found about some of this stuff. And so there's just so many different ways you can look at this. And so, again, we're not looking at dogmatic interpretations of these things. We're looking to see what we learn from God about the things that are set forth to us here, which we can easily do. But things are measured in scripture. This is one of the things that you have to sort out for opposite purposes. Sometimes that they might be built. Sometimes they see a vision of a temple and they're to measure it to get how it is to be built. Sometimes it's that it might be preserved. In other words, measure this because I'm going to preserve this. This is the part I'm going to preserve. I'm going to destroy this part. Other times it's just the opposite. The part that's measured is the part that's going to be destroyed. So interpreters are divided about what it is here. Now, I would side with those who say that it's measured for destruction. Notice that it is not an ideal temple made up of people, okay? Not an ideal temple, but a physical temple because John is told to also to measure the people. I already mentioned that. But in 2 Kings 21, 12 through 15, we read that earlier, we have an example of God measuring for destruction. In case you say, well, I don't know about measuring for destruction. But we read it, therefore, this is verse 12, 2 Kings 21 verse 12. Therefore, thus says the Lord God of Israel, behold, I am bringing such calamity upon Jerusalem and Judah that whoever hears of it, both of his ears will tingle, and I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab. I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. So I will forsake the remnant of my inheritance and deliver them into the hand of their enemies, and they shall become victims of plunder to all their enemies, because they have done evil in my sight and have provoked me to anger since the day their fathers came out of Egypt, even to this day." And now, what do we have in our situation in the first century? We have the same people of God now that have rejected their own Messiah and crucified him and persecuted his apostles and prophets and God's vengeance is coming to fall upon them and he's measuring their temple. What did he do when he measured the temple in Kings? He brought the Babylonians and they destroyed the temple and they took the people captive. What does he do in 70 A.D.? We know from history what he did. He came and destroyed the temple. So there is good reason to think that it's measured for destruction. If this is what is happening here, then the chapter opens with the temple being measured for destruction. And this whole chapter, we didn't read this far, but at the end of the chapter, if you look at the last verse, it ends with the temple in heaven being opened. Isn't that wonderful? Okay, that is what happened one way or the other, whether this is what it's talking about, that's what happened at that time in 70 A.D., that the temple on earth was destroyed, and that was the final end of all the Old Testament shadows and ceremonies and sacrifices and everything, and now the temple in heaven was opened. Now we have access to heaven. We've been reading about that in Hebrews, of course. That was before 70 A.D. The change had already occurred with Jesus coming, but it was brought to its full closure and completion and very visually to everyone with God bringing this destruction to the temple. So the naos, the sanctuary with altar was the part to be destroyed. This is the part where not one stone, Jesus said, would be left upon another. It was utterly destroyed. They melted down, they wanted to get the gold that was in the temple, and they had burned the temple, so then it was melted and everything. They had to, they cleared out every single stone, literally. These huge stones, huge stones. And the Romans did that to get the gold that was there. But you see, it was not the outer courts. The outer courts that were not the part that had to do with the ritual worship. Like the court of the Gentiles, that was where they came and they would worship. They didn't do sacrifices there. The sacrifices were done in the naos. That's the part that's destroyed. The ritual part is destroyed. This shows that the shadows of the old covenant then are here given their final blow. And I say again, if it's not what it's talking about here in this part, that that's still what happened. And from now on, true worshipers will not worship in a temple made with man's hands. But what did Jesus say? They'll worship in spirit and truth. It doesn't mean that they were worshipping in the Old Testament with falsehood and lies, but in spirit means no longer with carnal ordinances, things you do with washing your body and all these kind of outward ceremonies that they had for cleansing. No, the cleansing has been taken care of spiritually now by Jesus Christ, and we draw near in spirit and in truth, truth as opposed to shadows. They had true representations of truth. They had shadows that represented what was true. It wasn't false, but it wasn't the real thing. Jesus did the real sacrifice in the real altar before God that truly takes away our sins. So the application for you here is very important. What does this mean for you? That's what we looked at this morning with the resurrection, isn't it? What does this mean with you that the temple is destroyed on earth? It means it is for you to enter into the worship that God has appointed for us today, which is not shadow worship. There is always an inclination for worshipers to shy away from the intimate heart-searching, direct approach to God that we have available to us now, and to hide under rituals and forms and ceremonies. In other words, I can go to God and I can get near to God by doing these things where I'm at a distance from him through shadows, rather than coming directly before the God with whom I have to do, who searches out my conscience, who does all these things. There's always a tendency. You see it all through history. You even see it in the Old Testament, that they added to the things that they had been given and put a distance between them and God with their own ceremonies. And you see it in the New Testament again and again and again. You see it start up in little ways, and it gets bigger and bigger and bigger. See, why should we do that though? Why should we put something between us and God, shadows between us and God? Because Jesus is our mediator. That's why we don't need to do that. Jesus has covered our sins. We have access to God. The reason we do that is because we know that we've got sin, and when we come before God, our sin is exposed, and we don't want it to be exposed. Come to him boldly in Jesus Christ and say, Lord, here I am, the mess that I am. You opened the way for me to come through Jesus Christ, and I want to know you, and I want to worship you in spirit and truth. I don't want to worship you in some kind of distant ceremonies. I can go and do some kind of little ritual thing and all that. That's not what we want today. God has given us something so much better. Yes, it calls for holiness, but we can draw near by the blood of Christ with full forgiveness and with grace for new obedience so that we can expect to change when we draw near to God, that he will transform us. Brothers and sisters, I have been trying in my own life to do this more lately, even in my own prayers and things like that, to truly come nearer to God, to truly come before Him. Because I tell you, I can so easily come here to worship, and I can be here leading worship and far away from God. not really dealing in my soul between me and God. And it's so easy to do that. And you see, we have the privilege in Christ to come boldly before his face. We don't have to run away. We don't have to hide somewhere. The temple courts, we're told. So let's learn to enjoy real communion with God. Now, the temple courts, we're told in these first two verses are to be given to the Gentiles. So the naos is going to be torn down, but the courts of the temple are going to be given to the Gentiles. Verse 2 says, but leave out the court which is outside the temple, and do not measure it, for it has been given to the Gentiles. And they will tread the holy city underfoot for 42 months. This was literally fulfilled. The Jewish war with Rome lasted, as I told you, for seven years. I mean, everybody says that that knows about the war. The Romans say that the Jews say that. And it was virtually all historical accounts agree about that. There were three and a half years before the fall of Jerusalem. And when the temple was completely destroyed, it's called in this passage, 1,260 days in our text, and then there are 3 1⁄2 years after the fall of Jerusalem, which is called in our text 42 months. Now, 42 months is also 3 1⁄2 years. Their months were all 30 days. They used a lunar calendar, and so they had 30-day months, and it comes to the exact numbers there. The Romans declared war in Vespasian in February, in the winter of AD 67. The Romans eventually, during that three and a half years, towards the latter part of it, they breached the walls and they burned the temple in August, AD 70, and took it apart to get the gold. As I said, that was a process, of course, that went on. It didn't happen in one day and not at all. So literally that not one stone was left upon another in the naos. Okay, the outer quartzo and some of its buildings, what were they used for? The Gentiles used it for, I mean, the Romans or the Gentiles occupied it for their armies and things. They remained in the city exactly 42 months after it was destroyed. Just like it says in the prophecy. This was from the fall of AD 70. until the winter of eighty seventy four. So they went the whole war started in the winter of sixty seven and it ended in the winter of seventy four. So our Lord does exactly what he says he will do. He is in control. He brings judgment upon his own people when they reject him. Nations that once knew him. See, we can say, oh, we're people that know God and we serve God. And a lot of people will say, oh, yeah, we're a Christian nation or whatever. And they think they're immune to judgment. These were God's people all through the Old Testament, the Israel, and he brought these severe judgments to them. Not only this time, but he also did it 500 or almost 600 years before this, when the temple was destroyed then. So our society cannot say, oh, we'll be exempt from this. We should never presume either that our walls of defense are somehow impermeable. that because we have a lot of military strength and things like that, just together with the US, I don't think we can say that necessarily here, but we have military strength and no one's gonna mess with us. We can see signs all around that the Lord is judging us in North America because of our apostasy. And we should know that it's because of our apostasy. Both Canada and the US used to say that we were under God and we meant it. You know, not everybody meant it. A lot of people didn't mean it, but a lot of people did. It was a general sentiment, and it isn't anymore. It destroys us for our, now we have civil strife, we have confusion, we have blindness, we have fear, we have idolatry. He's turned us over to immoral conduct. We see our foundations weakened and our enemies emboldened. But if he brings down our people, it does not mean, and this is very important, that he has stopped working. He is still working. When he brought down Jerusalem, he was still working. In fact, the gospel was going out and penetrating the world more than ever when that happened. And so we say, yes, we're ruined. Our city's ruined. Our nation is ruined, whatever, when this happens. But that doesn't mean that God has stopped working. We're not everything. We're just a part of his kingdom. There are places now in other parts of the world that are growing and flourishing and going to be blessed. So we see God continuing to do his work and advance his kingdom throughout the world as he always will. He always has and he always will. And you know, atheists and different people say, oh God, that's all gone now, that's all done now. It never is, it never has been. They always think it, they wanna think it, but it's always there, always there. But look at what God does in mercy during the first three and a half years of the Jewish war. The Lord raises up two witnesses to testify to his apostate people. So this is during the time when that destruction was going on, that first three and a half years. The second three and a half years, there were more that died in that than actually in the fall of Jerusalem, where there were 1.1 million that died. But there were a lot more after that, during that next three and a half years that died. But we're looking now at the three and a half years when Jerusalem was under siege and eventually the walls were breached. What do we see? Look at verse three. And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy 1,260 days, three and a half years, clothed with sackcloth. This is the last of the prophets. Perhaps it is the last two apostles. These two, whoever they were, were already witnesses for the Lord that were called to do this. They weren't made apostles or prophets, they were already such of our Lord. And now he says literally, I will give to my two witnesses and they shall prosper. It doesn't say give power actually, that's added by the translators, but this is a Hebraism that says I will commission them to prophesy. So sometimes you see it translated that way, or give authority to them, give power to them is the older way of talking about authority. And it is for 1,260 days, the three and a half years before the fall of the Holy City. It is clear that their ministry is to the Jews who hate them and who rejoice when the Romans destroy them. More about that in a future week. But note well that these witnesses are men. Not something that is symbolized like the Law and the Prophets. Some people say, oh, this is the Law and the Prophets, or this is the Old and the New Testaments, or these are kings and priests, you know, represent all the kings and priests. But if we read on, we see that they have personal attributes. like desires. They do this as often as they desire, it says. We see that they are killed. We see that they have corpses that lay in the street. And then they're raised up again after so many days, because they're not buried, that they're raised up from the dead. Hardly something fitting to say of the law and the prophets. The law and the prophets were dead for three days, and then they rose up, something that was symbolic of that. What does that mean? It doesn't make any sense. So, or the Old and New Testaments, that that happened to the Old and New Testament, that doesn't make sense. So the apostles were appointed to be God's 12 official witnesses. They're called my witnesses. And there is good reason to suppose that this was John with perhaps Peter or James, or perhaps Peter and James. Because I learned that there are various views of history, but several ancient accounts tell us actually that John was martyred at Jerusalem. It's not the majority view, but there are a fair number of solid accounts that testify of that, and recent studies have shown pretty plainly that Peter was not even in Rome. And there are ancient accounts that say Herod Agrippa, who was with Vespasian, the Roman, when they invaded, Herod was with the Romans, of course, had Peter crucified at Jerusalem upside down. That's a tradition that's sometimes cited. There are also records that James, though it says he was stoned in AD 62, some people think that he died then, but there are accounts in early church that he survived that stoning and that he was actually killed at Jerusalem. So it could be any three of these, we actually have records that say that perhaps, they're not conclusive at all, they're not conclusive at all, but that they're still alive. So it's very interesting looking into some of these things. Whatever the case, whatever the case, two men that are called my witnesses were appointed by the Lord to prophesy during this terrible time. That's the thing we know for sure. There are two witnesses, whatever they are. The Lord often brings prophets forward at times like this. He does it for his own glory. Why does God do it when there's going to be destruction? Why does he bring prophets at that time? I mean, they're going to be destroyed anyway. Well, the prophets declared to the people that God is judging them for their wickedness. In other words, they make it known that, hey, this stuff isn't just happening randomly. It's not like all of a sudden things went bad for Jerusalem because the Assyrians got a lot of power or the Babylonians got a lot of power or something like that. That's not what happened. God raised them up. God is the one that's doing this because of your wickedness. That's why it happened. We need to be told that because that's not where we go. We don't say, oh, it's because of my wickedness that this happened. See, when Jerusalem fell in 560 BC, he raised up and protected Jeremiah and Ezekiel as his witnesses, as they foretold Israel's coming destruction. So he wants to make it clear that these calamities are judgment. Remember Jeremiah and Ezekiel? They were the only prophets that were saying destruction was going to come. Everybody else was saying, oh, no, God would never destroy the city. Well, here we have again two witnesses God raised up and protects. He had to protect them because everybody wanted to kill them. They've made attempts at Jeremiah sometimes, and God would use his providence to defend them in various ways. So, he wants to make it clear that these calamities are his judgments. Prophecy ended in AD 70, but we are to continue this kind of witness in a way that is appropriate in our day. What do I mean by that? We don't have prophets that speak directly the word of God to us today. In fact, that was one of the things that terminated when the temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. We learn from scripture, though, how God works. So in our day, we bear witness for God by warning people about how God responds when a nation turns away from him. And when we see things happening, we can say, this is the hand of the Lord with relative confidence. We don't always know the details exactly, but really, if a nation is apostate like ours, and we start having troubles and judgments, where did it come from? You know, that was God's visitation of us. He always worked that way. We don't go, oh, I wonder, maybe God is working in a completely different way now. That's the way he operates. And also, as we see a nation like ours that is apostate and turning away and rejecting the living God, we can warn people, this is gonna be the outcome. It is not gonna go well. When we have a wicked nation, then we need to do this. We are to be, in other words, God's witnesses. We bring God into the purview of people that don't have God in their purview. They have pushed Him out of their view of things. And we come and say, no, this is the hand of the Lord. This is what He's going to do if we keep on like this and don't repent. And when He does it, this is what He has done. There is mercy in this. Because in doing that, what happens? There are people who hear and actually repent. We've seen that even with some of the judgments that fall upon us recently when we had COVID and all of those different things. What do we see in our city right now? I was praying about this earlier. We see people that are hungry for the truth. I keep meeting people that are like, I want to follow God. I want to know what he really says. We keep running into people like that. We weren't running into people like that before those things fell. God uses it, you see. And these are just preliminary things, aren't they, for what may be greater calamities in the time to come, unless we repent. God's very patient. Sometimes He'll go a long, long time, like He did with Jerusalem. But I want you to consider how faithful and courageous these men are. As we think about our bearing witness today, we have to be faithful and courageous. Look at these witnesses. Jesus had told his people, remember, to flee when they saw in their very own generation, that Jesus' generation, Jerusalem surrounded by their enemies. Remember that that happened? We're told in historical accounts there was a time when the Romans withdrew, and then the Christians did exactly what Jesus said. We saw how God preserved, marked out 144,000 to be saved of the Jews, and almost no Christians actually died at Jerusalem when it fell. People like Josephus note that. They were gone. They left. But these men were given, these two witnesses were given a special task. They were called to go right into the city that was going to be destroyed, proclaiming its destruction and abiding there in that city instead of running away. It doesn't mean the others were wrong for running away, Jesus told them to do that. Some people are to run, some people are to stay. And it was their task to stay. And they lost their lives doing so, as we're going to see. Obtaining a glorious resurrection, as we will see next week. What a privilege it was for them to bear witness to their God. What a privilege it is to you to bear witness to your God, even when things are difficult in doing so. We see something else about these witnesses. They're clothed with sackcloth. This was typical of prophets like Elijah or John. You know, they wore rough clothes and things like that. And because they were calling people to repent, the nation was in a really bad way. And I've seen new judgments coming. You need to repent. They wore garments of lamentation for for two reasons. because of their sorrow over their people's sins. that they had hardened their heart and turned away from God. That's a very bitter thing to see. And because of the visions that they had of the coming destruction, they saw this is not going to be a pretty picture. We're going in the wrong direction. And so they were they had clothes of lamentation and of sorrow. So my brothers and sisters, we should be we should not be able to look at the sins of our people and have biblical knowledge of the judgment that it can bring without lamentation. We should be moved with sorrow when we see these things. We should have tears in our prayers as we consider these things. We are to be tenderhearted and compassionate. We're not like to be like a stone that has no feelings and that just declares that God is doing this and this and this. No, we're people, we're flesh, we're warm. We're to care when we see people turning away from God. and we're to weep for them, we're to pray for them. It's not going to go well for them if they don't repent. It's not going to go well for our whole society as a society if we don't repent. Thus God's faithful witnesses are introduced to us. Now let's look at how the Lord further describes these two witnesses, just a few things here, we're not gonna go through all, just to the end of what we read. First, he shows that their words are his spirit-empowered words. Verse four, these are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the God of all the earth. This picture was used before in the Old Testament, from the imagery in Zechariah 4. And you had, in that vision, there were two olive trees that supply oil for the lamp stands in the temple that they might burn continuously. And God then testifies, he tells us what it is of ministry, that ministry for him is not by might or by power, by human might or power, but by my spirit. And so the oil represents God's Spirit feeding the lamps that shine for God. We're the light of the world, we're fueled by God's Spirit. These two prophets, they were the light in that dark place, fueled by the Spirit of God, anointed by the Spirit of God. This is how God brings His Word into a situation where it is not otherwise found. If you don't have the Holy Spirit, you won't be able to bring the Word into a situation where it is not found. You'll be just part of the problem. These prophets bring God and His truth to comfort, or to confront, sorry, to confront the falsehood, deception and lies that Jerusalem and the people worshiping at the temple were filled with at this time. They had all kinds of deception and lies, and they were confronting that head on by the Spirit of God. These witnesses stood before the Lord and brought him and his truth before the deluded, rebellious people, showing them that their calamities were God's hand of judgment before them by words spoken in the power of the Holy Spirit. So once again in our day, we need to be those who are God's lampstands. The church is his lampstand, fueled by the spirit of God, which is the only fuel that we have. You don't have any other fuel but God's spirit working in us. We need to pray for God's spirit to work through the preaching of the word. We need to pray for God's spirit to work in our lives as we live and witness and testify to other people. You are nothing, you can do nothing without God's spirit. It's our job to point to God in a day when he is ignored. It's our job to point to God in places where he is ignored. Second, the Lord shows how he protects his witnesses, often in marvelous ways. Those peoples who have formerly known God but have turned away are often the most vicious. to those who bear witness of the truth. They hate it because they know the truth and they've rejected and they've turned away. And when they hear the truth and it comes with the power of the spirit, they want to crush it. They want to get rid of it any way they can. They'll go to almost any lengths to silence it, opposing them with sanctions and even with violence and murder. This has been all through history as well, all through history, Old Testament, New Testament, again and again and again. But the Lord protects them in all sorts of different ways. sometimes radically different ways. Here are some examples of how God protects those who bear witness to him. we often see Jesus. How did God often protect Jesus? How was Jesus often protected from his enemies before the time for him to be crucified? He wasn't supposed to be crucified until the appointed time. He kept saying, that hour has not yet come. What did he often do? Well, people would be trying to push him off the cliff or something in his hometown, and Jesus would kind of, so he'd pass through the midst of them. We don't know quite how he did that. He just kind of walked through the crowd and got out of there, and they were all like, Where did he go? I don't know how it happened, but we see lots of times, or he'll avoid, like he won't go up to Jerusalem yet because people are trying to kill him there. It's interesting that with Jesus you would think that there might be a big fire coming down and striking people from heaven or something like that, but it wasn't that way with Jesus. It was often very, very mild and almost almost normal, you know, he would just slip away to safety and things would be okay. But then we see Elijah in the Old Testament and 50 men are sent to arrest him and, you know, let fire come down from heaven, boom, and they burned up and then the king sends another 50 men and they go and boom, he does it again. And then the other 50 men come and they say, don't, don't do this. we'll do what you want, you know, we were sitting here, we don't have a choice, and he's okay, I won't destroy you, and they go on. Dramatic ways. And then we have Elisha, when a whole army came against him with horses surrounded by And what did Elisha have? There was this whole angelic army that was surrounding him with chariots and horses of fire. And the enemies came and they saw that. And we're not going to mess with that. And they went away. So there was no actual burning of anyone that time. It was just like, OK, this guy is protected. I'm not going to go there. And then there was the account when Hezekiah stood up against the king of Assyria and he was out there boasting outside the walls and trying to entice the people to surrender and all this kind of stuff. And then in the night, just in the night, angel goes around, 185,000 soldiers dead in the morning. And the rest of the Assyrians say, I think it's time for us to go home. And they went home and then the king of Assyria was actually killed in his temple by his own sons after that. At other times, great power is given to fight valiantly and repel enemies in a normal way. Like when Jonathan was fighting with the Philistines, he was able to defeat a whole bunch of them. Or when Samson killed Philistines with a jawbone of a donkey or something. You know, God can, he's not limited in the way he protects his witnesses. He has ways of doing that. And we can trust Him. That's what you come away with. God can take care of you. You don't need to be afraid to testify of God. He can take care of whatever needs to be taken care of. Look at what God used to protect these two witnesses, because this is unique. Verse five, and if anyone wants to harm them, these two witnesses, fire proceeds from their mouth and devours their enemies. And if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this manner. Now, my assumption here, I have no reason to think that this isn't quite literal. These two prophets, think about how vulnerable these two guys were. I mean, here they are inside the walls of Jerusalem. The Romans are outside the walls wanting to kill, especially these prophets who had said stuff to them, and wanting to kill the people, all the people inside the city, wanting to overrun the city, and then The people inside the walls, the Jews, were also opposing these prophets because they were testifying of the truth and of Christ and of the judgment that was gonna come upon them for rejecting the Messiah. These guys were not in a comfortable position, trapped inside the walls with a bunch of people that wanted to kill them. How in the world would they be able to continue on with their witness? Well, somebody comes near and, like a dragon, I don't know how it worked, or was it what they spoke that fire came down from their mouth? I don't know. We don't know the details of exactly how it looked, but somehow, these guys were protected by God. And if you wanna take it figuratively somehow, you can do that too. It doesn't really matter in one way. God protected these men. But from the way God worked all through the Old Testament with his prophets, Elijah literally called fire down from heaven. and consume these 50 men. So there's no reason to think that he wasn't working in exactly the same way at this time when it was so much needed if these guys are going to be able to survive for three and a half years, almost three and a half years. They didn't quite make it to the end. God, we're going to see that next week, how they died. But this is how he protected them. He will protect us also however he wishes. Third, the Lord shows how he confirms them by giving them special powers similar to the powers that he gave to Moses and Elijah. Look at verse 6. Again, there's no reason, I see no reason not to take this literally. It was literal with Moses, it was literal with Elijah. These guys were prophets of the Lord during the time when prophecy was going on. See, we don't live in a time when prophecy is still going on because the prophecy is complete. And that's that ended at 70 AD. But before that, God gave signs and wonders to his apostles and prophets to confirm that they were speaking the word of God. And they needed to be very clear signs, not well, maybe they were maybe it was something maybe it was a miracle. It had to be. crystal clear so that there was no excuse. No one could say this isn't from God. That's how he confirmed his prophets and apostles in the Old Testament. So look at verse six. These these two witnesses have power, just like Moses and Elijah, to shut heaven so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy. Elijah did that, right? And they have power over waters to turn them to blood and to strike the earth with all plagues. Moses did that. as often as they desire. Now that prophecy is complete and we have the full revelation of God to us in the Holy Scriptures, he rarely gives men such powers as this. But all through history, this is how he worked. The holy scriptures are the prophetic word of God confirmed by signs and wonders. Hebrews teaches us that we should give the more earnest heed to the things that we have heard because they are clearly from God, from men that were confirmed by signs and wonders that he gave them to do in the midst of the people. That's why the word of God was received. We need then to take that word with confidence and to proclaim it with boldness to the people around us. Let us be identified with what Jesus said we ought to be identified with as well. How were they known? The prophets by signs and wonders. How did Jesus say in the new covenant that he wants his people to be known? What did he say? They will know that you know me by the love that you have for one another. That's the feature that we as people in the new covenant are to have to testify that we belong to God. Wow, we've had a lot today. What a challenge to think about that. You know, this is how God's people are to be known, loving their enemies, loving one another. In the early church, people looked on them and they said, see how they love one another. And that made an impression on them. that they then wanted to learn about the things of God or they at least knew that these people had God with them because their love was so extraordinary. And we'll see more about these two witnesses next week. As I say, there's so much here. I couldn't go beyond these six verses. Maybe it was too much today. Maybe it was drinking from a fire hose. Let's give thanks to God for what he reveals to us. Please stand. Gracious Heavenly Father, how we thank you for your holy and precious Word. How we thank you for when we think about how you brought the Word to us. You know, it has come, the Word of God has come to us, not in an easy way. It's not like some guy went in a cave and got it all dictated to him. The word of God came through all kinds of blood and sweat and hardships and agonizing prayers and lamentations and struggles and difficulties. We look back at all the apostles and prophets and we don't see any of them that did not suffer greatly in their ministries and have very many hardships and and threats that would have made most people run away in fear. But Lord, you kept them and you preserved them. And we thank you that your word has come to us with such power. It even is more powerful because even the fact that every single one of the apostles were persecuted greatly so that they had no earthly advantage in continuing a lie. If they were telling a lie, if they said that Jesus died and rose again and he didn't really rise again, they didn't really believe that, they made it up. They would have had no cause to do such a thing because they didn't get anything in this world. They got death, they got suffering and persecution. And we praise you, Lord, that it helps to also authenticate the reliability of their testimony. And even more than that, that in their day, that you gave them signs and wonders to perform that the people saw and feared them. And, you know, there were people from all different lands that woke up and believed. They couldn't deny it. Someone came and they healed people and did a bunch of things and they proclaimed this good news of Christ. When they heard the gospel and the Spirit opened their heart, then they came and trusted in you. We thank you, Lord, for your testimony that is so strong. We pray that you would help us to be faithful witnesses in our day in the way that you've called us to be. We pray that we would be able to bring you into the purview of people around us that don't have you in their purview. We pray, Lord, that you would help us to be able to speak clearly of your truth And Father, we pray also, we know that we really can't do that without the Spirit, and we know that we really won't be filled with the Spirit if we try to worship you in a kind of a distant way. Father, we need to come not through rituals anymore, but we need to come directly before your throne. in a spiritual way. We need to come and yes, have you search out all that's wrong with us, all that stinks in us. But Lord, more than that, we come rejoicing in the forgiveness that we have for all that's wrong with us. And in the hope that we have that you are working in us and that you will change us. And we pray, Lord, that you would work in us so that we will do that. away with all of our half-hearted, distant kind of worship. Father, may we draw near to You as our God. May we come very near and see You, O Lord, as You are, exalted and high on Your throne. We have no reason to draw away because we have access by our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is worthy and he has made us fit to come before you by his saving work for us. May we proclaim this to the people around us. We don't have to make up things about you, Lord, and to distort you and make you weaker or make you less holy or whatever it is we might want to do. We don't have to do that because we can come with great boldness. And we pray that you give us boldness to speak for you, Lord. We're so weak. We can talk strongly here at church, but when we're out there in the world, we melt. And so I pray, Lord, that you would be pleased to strengthen us and give us courage and wisdom and boldness as we learn to be your worshipers, that we would be also your witnesses. We have to know you if we're going to witness for you. So here we are, Lord, we're presenting ourselves before you. We're putting ourselves in your hands for your grace. It's grace that we don't have now that we need desperately, Lord, an abundant supply of more grace that we may be able to live for you in this world. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Our union with him. Receive now his blessing upon you. Now to him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began, but now made manifest, and by the prophetic scripture made known to all nations according to the commandment of the everlasting God for obedience to the faith. To God alone, wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. His grace be upon you all. Amen.