God's Two Witnesses

Now after the three and a half years, the breath of God would come into them. The Old and New Testaments stand on their feet. Great fear would fall on those who saw them. There would be a great, mighty revival that would go out to preach the gospel. This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all nations, then the end will come.
Guest (Male): This is HopeLives365 with Pastor Mark Finley. Today's message, God's Two Witnesses. Enjoy, and remember you can always catch up on past messages and stay up to date with HopeLives365 and Pastor Mark by going to hopelives365.com. Stay with us for a free Bible study offer later in this program. And now, Pastor Mark Finley.
Mark Finley: We are now at Revelation chapter 11. But to understand Revelation 11, we need to just summarize Revelation 10. In Revelation 10, John saw a mighty angel come down from heaven. That angel was iridescent with the glory of God. The angel had a universal message to go to the ends of the earth to prepare the world for the coming of Jesus. In fact, in Revelation 10:7, it says, "But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he has declared to his servants the prophets." What is the mystery of God? According to the book of Colossians, if you look at Colossians chapter one, for example, it defines what the mystery of God is. It says in Colossians 1:27, "To whom God would make known the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." So when the Bible talks about the mystery of God being finished, it talks about a group of people charmed by Christ's love, redeemed by Christ's grace, transformed by Christ's power, that reveal the mystery of God to a waiting world and a watching universe. In a world of selfishness, in a world of greed and arrogance and pride, the love of God is revealed through his people. The mystery of God is finished. But here, what is going to create that sense of this mystery of God being finished? It is a people who believe that Jesus is coming soon, and they want every sin confessed. They desire to live not nominal, not lukewarm, not complacent spiritual lives, but they desire to be transformed by God's grace. So in verse eight of Revelation 10, it says, "The voice which I heard from heaven spake to me and said, Go take the little book." Now you recall that there's only one book in the Bible that is called to be sealed in, and that's the book of Daniel that speaks about the end time. Daniel 12:4 says the angel says to Daniel, "Seal the book until the time of the end." So at the time of the end, when the mystery of God would be finished, the book of Daniel would be opened. And as people studied it, what would happen? The angel says, "Take it, eat it up. It'll be to your belly bitter, but it'll be in your mouth sweet as honey." So when they took this little book, these Baptists, Methodists, Episcopalians, Catholics, Pentecostals, when they took the little book of Daniel, they began to study it. And the more they studied, the more they felt that Jesus was coming soon. They read Daniel 8:14, "Unto 2,300 days, then shall the sanctuary be cleansed." They thought that the cleansing of the sanctuary was the cleansing of earth by fire. And as the result of that, they were just so excited. They went everywhere preaching the word. There was a mighty spiritual revival that swept across North America, swept across England, went through Europe, went into Asia and South America. People believed Jesus is coming and he's coming soon. They believed that based on the prophecies of the book of Daniel. It was sweet in their mouth, but when Christ didn't come, it was bitter in their belly. They were bitterly disappointed, similar to the disciples at the time of the cross. But then here in Revelation 11, we read in Revelation 11:1. "Then I was given a reed like a measuring rod, and the angel saying, Rise and measure the temple of God, the altar and those who worship therein." Now what happened in Revelation chapter 10? They thought that the sanctuary that Daniel 8:14 was speaking about was the sanctuary on earth, and it would be cleansed by fire. But they were looking at the wrong place. They were looking to earth rather than to heaven. So he says in Revelation 11:1, get your eyes off the earth that brought you disappointment and discouragement because you thought Jesus was coming to earth. Get your eyes on the heavenly temple. You're looking in the wrong place. Jesus is there. Then the scripture says, "Then I was given a reed like a measuring rod, and the angel said, Rise and measure the temple of God, and the altar and those that are worship therein." Get your eyes off earth. Look up into the heavenly temple. Measure it. Now every time in the Bible when we talk about measurement or measuring the temple, what's it associated with? What does it mean to measure the temple? Always in scripture, measuring is a form of judgment. So the word measure is one of the key words that points you to judgment. For example, Matthew 7:2, "For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with what measure you use, it'll be measured back to you again." So when you talk about measuring the temple, it's talking about the judgment in the temple. Before the whole universe, God's cosmic judgment sits. The devil has said that God is unfair and that God is unjust, that God is arbitrary. What happens in the judgment? In the judgment, God reveals that the way he's dealt with the universe through the cosmic controversy between good and evil has always been just. In the judgment, God's name is vindicated. In the judgment, God shows that those who are lost are lost because of their choices, not because of his arbitrary selection. He's done everything he could to save every human being. So the attention of men and women in Revelation 11 is focused from earth to heaven, where God is finishing his work on earth in judgment. The temple of God, the altar, and those who worship there are all references to the day of atonement and the judgment in Israel's ancient sanctuary. Now let me explain that to you. When you look at Revelation 11, it speaks about the temple of God, the altar, and those that worship therein, all at once. The only place in the Bible that has that sequence in that exact order—the temple of God, one; the altar, two; those that worship therein, three—is Leviticus 16. In Leviticus 16 and Leviticus 23, we have a discussion about the end of the Jewish year that was called the final Day of Atonement. Does anybody know what every Jew had to do on the Day of Atonement? They had to fast, afflict their soul. What does it mean to afflict your soul? It means to repent. It's the Day of Atonement, which is the last day of the Jewish year. It's the day of judgment. All Israel gathered around the sanctuary in repentance. So here in Revelation 11, it's talking about the final judgment, a final call to all humanity to repent, a final call for all humanity to come to Christ. In Revelation 11, John points us beyond the disappointment of God's people in Revelation 10 and the persecution of the Dark Ages to the final triumph of the kingdom of God in judgment. In Revelation 11:2, we read, "But leave out the court which is outside the temple. Do not measure it. Don't judge it, for it has been given to the Gentiles." What's this talking about, leave out the court that's outside the temple and measure it? In the ancient sanctuary, the Gentiles were required to remain in the outer court. They could not enter the temple. You see, there were some Gentiles that had become Jews, but there was an outer court that was always called the court of the Gentiles. They could not go in the temple. In this judgment, it's not the world that triumphs. But in this judgment, in God's sanctuary in heaven, God's people are secure in Jesus. If you don't enter into the sanctuary by faith, you're not secure in Jesus. You're outside in the court with the Gentiles. But if you enter into that sanctuary by faith, there's no way you can be lost. You see, in this passage, the Gentiles represent the unsaved. The believers enter by faith into the sanctuary of heaven, where we find Jesus as our salvation, Jesus as our high priest, Jesus as our refuge.
Guest (Male): We'll be right back with Pastor Mark Finley. We thank you for listening and hope you're enjoying today's message. Our mission is to attractively present the Christ-centered biblical truths of scripture in a practical, relevant way to people around the world so that they may experience the abundant life that Christ offers. If you want to learn more about the Bible, check out our free Bible series at globalbibleschool.org. That's globalbibleschool.org. Discover answers to your deepest questions straight from God's word. And now, back to Pastor Mark Finley.
Mark Finley: When I look at myself, there's no possibility I can be saved. But when I look at Jesus, there's no possibility I can be lost. In the temple of God by faith with Jesus, we are secure. In the temple of God by faith in Jesus, we know that his kingdom is going to triumph no matter what happens on earth. In the temple of God by faith in Jesus, we know that his plan is going to be victorious. So the Bible says look away from the court. Look away from the worldly, secular society we live in. Look away from the Gentiles that are trodding the nations underfoot. These unsaved have rebelled against God. But by faith, God says to you and me, enter into the heavenly temple. Israelites, the church, spiritual believers. Gentiles, infidels, unbelievers. All of you, God says, enter into the sanctuary by faith, understand the blessings of the atonement, the blessings of reconciliation, the blessings of the cross. What God is saying in this passage in Revelation 11 is this. Through history, the Gentiles, the infidels will try to destroy God's people. Through history, the Gentiles and infidels will trod underfoot God's truth. Through history, the Gentiles, the infidels, the unbelievers will try to destroy, try to crush, try to stamp out by faith God's people and God's truth. But by faith, you will be anchored in heaven's temple with Jesus. And if your life is locked in with Jesus in heaven's temple, all the destructions in the world can never take your life. Revelation 11:3 says I'll give power to my two witnesses. God's two witnesses are going to speak to the Gentiles that are unbelievers. They will prophesy for how long? Revelation 11:3 says I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy 1,260 days clothed in sackcloth. What's this mean? What's it all about? The New Testament church goes forth with power. Satan persecutes it. Then for 1,260 days, the two witnesses are in sackcloth. Now many people have tried to interpret the two witnesses. They said well, maybe they're Moses and Elijah. The two witnesses, who are they? When do we witness in this 1,260-day period? What's this talking about? How do they witness during this period? Who are these two witnesses? What can we discover about the two witnesses? How do the two witnesses speak? These are the two olive trees, the scripture says, and the two lampstands standing before the God of the earth. Wait a minute, two olive trees, two lampstands. Olive oil supplies the fuel or lights for the lampstand. When in the Bible we read about lampstands, what are we reading about? We'll see it shortly. Zechariah 4:2, "He said to me, What do you see? And I said, I'm looking, and there's a lampstand of solid gold with a bowl on top of it. And on the stand seven lamps with seven pipes to seven lampstands." Exactly the same prophecy as in Revelation. When you think of the lampstand, what do you think of? Thy word is what? A lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path, the scripture says. And what about the olive trees? Not by might or by power, but my spirit, says the Lord. So the Spirit of God represented by the oil in the olive trees illuminates the word of God to bring light. Now who are these two witnesses then? They are the Old and New Testament, communicating God's light to the Gentile world. Now let me prove that to you from the gospel and from Revelation itself. Who are the two witnesses? The Old and New Testament. Notice John 5:39, "You search the scriptures for in them you have eternal life." These are the words of Christ. "These are they that testify or these are they that witness of me." The Greek word is martyria in the Greek language, and it's the exact same word in the Greek language in the original text as the word for witness in Revelation 11. No difference in the words. They're exactly the same thing. So Christ says you're searching the scriptures. These are they that testify of me. Jesus says the scriptures are my witness. The Old and New Testament are my witnesses. He uses that symbolic language. Now look at Revelation 1:9. It tells you that. "I, John, both your brother and companion in tribulation and kingdom and the patience of Jesus Christ was on the island of Patmos." Why was John on the island of Patmos? Because he believed in and accepted the two witnesses. That's what he says. He says, I, John. What are these two witnesses? In John's day when he wrote in 100 AD, the New Testament wasn't written yet. It was just in the process of being written down, not compiled yet. They were writing it down. In John's day, the word of God was the Old Testament. The testimony of Jesus was the gospels in the New Testament. So both the Old and New Testament are the testimony of Jesus. So John says I was there for the witnesses. I was there because I believed in the word of God. I was there because I accepted the Old Testament, the word of God. I accepted the prophetic revelation in the New Testament. The Bible indeed is God's word. Revelation 11:5, the Old and New Testament, the two witnesses. The scripture says if anyone wants to harm them, fire proceeds from their mouth and devours their enemies. What does it mean that fire proceeds from the mouth of the Old and New Testament devours their enemies? Jeremiah 5:14 explains it. Let's read it together. "Behold, I'll make my words in your mouth like fire, and this people would fall down, and it would devour them." God's word pronounces judgment on all that reject it. His word is like fire in the mouth. So who are the two witnesses? As we've said, they're the Old and New Testament that pronounce judgment on those that reject it. They had power to shut up heaven so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy. So when Elijah preached the prophetic word of God, Elijah spoke the word of God, it shut up heaven. He goes on to say, and they have power over the waters to turn them to blood. When Moses preached the word of God, the plagues came upon Egypt to strike earth with plagues as often as they desire. If you want an illustration that my word can shut up heaven, if you want an illustration that my word can bring plagues, if you want an illustration that my word pronounces judgment, look at the word of God coming through Elijah. That illustrates clearly that my word is powerful and brought judgment upon the heathen in his day. If you want an illustration that my word can bring judgment, look at Moses in the days of the plagues. He says to you and to me tonight, God's word is witnessing to that generation during the 1,260 years, during the Dark Ages. But it will also witness to our generation, the two witnesses God's word powerfully proclaimed through his people speak to you, speak to me. Now let's go back to Revelation 11:2. But leave out the court which is outside the temple. Don't measure it. God's people are secure in him. His word judges the Gentiles. But the Gentiles are going to tread the holy city underfoot for 42 months. For 42 months, God's witnesses would be clothed in sackcloth as they spoke judgment against the Gentile world, against the infidel. He says I will give power to my witnesses, the Bible, and they shall prophesy 1,260 years clothed in sackcloth. So the 1,260-year period that we've seen before in our studies, that's the Dark Ages. So during the Dark Ages, church and state unite. God's word speaks judgment to the Gentile infidel world with this union of church and state that indeed has united. But at the end of this period of time of this Dark Ages for 1,260 years, that lasted from 538 AD to 1798 AD, during this entire period of time, God's people would be persecuted. There would be a union of church and state. But we read in Revelation 11:7, when they finished their testimony—that is when the two witnesses of the word of God finished testifying during the Dark Ages—the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit, that's Satan. But Satan always works through his powers. He worked through that church and state powers. The witnesses of God would be killed. How would that happen? How would Satan, the beast from the bottomless pit around 1798, in the 1790s, how would he kill the Bible of the word of God? Come with me to the French Revolution. We're right there. The 1,260 years of persecution end in the 1790s. Right there in the 1790s. Here is the life of Napoleon. What Sir Walter Scott says in volume one, chapter 17, so in his book, The Life of Napoleon, Scott says this. He's talking about the French Revolution. He's talking about atheism that is championed by the French Revolution. And Sir Walter Scott says, "The world for the first time heard an assembly of men born and educated in civilization, in assuming the right to govern one of the finest of the European nations, uplift their voice to deny the most solemn truth which man so receives and renounce unanimously the belief and worship of a deity." In the French Revolution, the French state declared for the first time an atheistic state by government. Here as well, Bibles were brought and burned in the streets. A French prostitute was taken and marched through the streets, and they bowed before her as the great goddess and worshipped her. Revelation 11:8 says, "Their dead bodies, that's the two witnesses of the Bible, will lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified." What does it mean Sodom and Egypt? What do you know about Sodom? Exodus 5:2, "Pharaoh said, Who is Lord that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? Pharaoh says I have nothing to do with God. I don't know him." When you think about it, Egypt, you think about a form of atheism that denies the true God. But it says Egypt and what other city beside Egypt? What city was that? Sodom. When you think about Sodom, what do you think about? Sodom you think about gross immorality, perversion. So in the French Revolution at the end of the 1790s when the 1,260 years were coming to an end, after God's two witnesses the Old and New Testament prophesied in sackcloth, after that, what would happen? A power would rise similar to Egypt that says I don't know God. A power would rise that would defy, that would glorify immorality like Sodom did. Indeed, that happened in the French Revolution. It was like Sodom and Gomorrah through the streets of immorality. The Bible says in Revelation 11:9, "Then those from the peoples, tribes, tongues, and nations will see their dead bodies three and a half days and not allow their bodies to be put into their graves." So the body of the witnesses, that is the word of God Old New Testament, would be trampled underfoot at this time through an atheistic immoral government. And it would lie there three and a half days. In Bible prophecy, one day represents what? A year. The reign of terror in France lasted exactly three and a half years. Did France make war on the Bible, the two witnesses? Let me read to you from what George Stores, the historian, says, page 47 of his book. He says, in 1793, a decree passed on the French Assembly forbidding the Bible, and under the decree, the historian says the Bibles were gathered and burned and every possible mark of contempt were heaped upon them. All the institutions of the Bible were abolished. Baptism and communion was abolished. The being of God was denied and a death pronounced to be eternal sleep. Death was pronounced, he says, as eternal sleep. No resurrection, of course, nothing beyond. The goddess of reason was set up and in the person of a vile woman and publicly worshipped. So here you have the goddess of reason. This is the seeds of communism and atheism. Here's Marxism, here's Darwinism. Darwinism was planted in the French Revolution that crucified the two witnesses of the Bible. So when you crucify the Bible, you lead to evolution, you lead to atheism. So here you have the seeds of communism. January 21, 1793, the Reign of Terror began. It ended exactly June 10, 1796, three and a half years later. My friends, ladies and gentlemen, the Bible is accurate in its predictions. The two witnesses, the Old and New Testament, would be witness in sackcloth through 1,260 years. Church and state would unite. At the end, a power would rise in the French Revolution. That would give rise to the greatest philosophical trends in a generation. That movement in the Reign of Terror would crucify the Bible for three and a half years. George Hegel, the father of modern atheism in philosophy and theology, lived from 1770 to 1831, precisely this period. He was the product of his time. Charles Darwin, 1809 to 1902, with the origin of species, evolution, the product of his time. His philosophy came out of the French Revolution. Karl Marx, 1818 to 1883, lived atheistic communism. He was a product of the French Revolution. And today we are still reaping the results of secular materialism, godless atheism, sex-centered, thrill-jaded, morally twisted society. The sexual revolution, the new morality by Sigmund Freud, look back to its humanistic roots and philosophy of life to the French Revolution. The Bible was crucified there. And anytime you crucify the word of God, you lead society into social and moral chaos. But what did the Bible predict? Revelation 11:11, "Now after the three and a half years the breath of God would come into them. The Old New Testament would stand on their feet. Great fear would fall on those who saw them." There would be a great mighty revival, and God's end-time movement, God's last-day people, would go out to preach the gospel. This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all nations, then the end will come.
Guest (Male): You've been listening to Pastor Mark Finley. We hope you enjoyed today's message and that it increased your faith in God and his word. If you'd like to learn more, Pastor Mark invites you to visit globalbibleschool.org for an inspiring interactive Bible study experience. That's globalbibleschool.org. And now, a final thought from Pastor Mark Finley.
Mark Finley: The kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Christ. And it says in Revelation 11:15 that God's word would triumph when you add that to Revelation chapter 14:7. This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world. Verse six, Revelation 14, this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all nations, then the end will come. In Revelation 18:1, the earth will be filled with the glory of God. God's people are going to triumph. God's truth is going to triumph. God's word is going to triumph. God's cause is going to triumph. God's people are going to triumph. And I praise his holy name. Let's pray together. Father in heaven, we thank you that your people will triumph. We thank you that your word will triumph. We thank you that your plan is going to triumph. And Lord, we open our hearts to you so we can triumph with it. In Christ's name, amen.