{"id":18980,"date":"2019-03-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-17T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/revelation-032-not-by-might-nor-power\/"},"modified":"2019-03-17T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-03-17T05:00:00","slug":"revelation-032-not-by-might-nor-power","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/revelation-032-not-by-might-nor-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Revelation 032 – Not By Might Nor Power"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[111],"series_event":[490],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18980","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-revelation","series_event-revelation","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Revelation 032 - Not By Might Nor Power","sermon_date":"20190317","sermon_month":"3","sermon_year":"2019","sermon_notes":6498,"sermon_slides":6499,"sermon_mp3":6506,"sermon_id":"317191419253343","series_or_event":490,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":111,"chapter_and_verse":"11:3-8","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nNot By Might Nor By Power\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 3-17-19\n\nRevelation 11:3-8\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 32\n\nLet\u2019s take our Bibles if we could and open them to the Book of Revelation, chapter 11.\u00a0 As time permits maybe making it through verse 10 today.\u00a0 The title of our message this morning is Not By Might Nor By Power.\u00a0 And if you have been tracking with us in our study through the Book of Revelation you know that we\u2019re in a section of the book where we are sort of in between trumpet six and trumpet seven judgments.\u00a0 You\u2019ll recall those six trumpets, those terrible judgments poured out upon the earth yet future.\u00a0 Yet before we get to trumpet number seven there is a break in the action and this typically happens every time you hit a six in a series.\u00a0 In between seal six and seal seven there was a break in the action, kind of giving us more information about things happening.\u00a0 And the same kind of thing is happening now in between trumpet six and trumpet seven.\n\nThis break in the action occurs, as we\u2019ll be studying in our study of the Book of Revelation, about five times.\u00a0 Generally the prophecies of the book I think are chronological except for five interrup\u00adtions.\u00a0 There was a break in the action between seal six and seal seven in Revelation 7 and that\u2019s where we got information about the 144,000 Jewish evangelists.\u00a0 And now in between trumpet six and trumpet seven we have a second break in the action, chapters 10 and 11.\n\nWe\u2019ve seen in that interlude chapter 10, the announcement of no more delay.\u00a0 We have seen last week in that interlude the final forty-two months of the end of the time period called the times of the Gentiles, chapter 11:1-2.\u00a0 And now we\u2019re moving into a part of the Book of Revelation which I personally find so very, very fascinating.\u00a0 It\u2019s the prophecy of the coming ministry, if you will, of the two witnesses, and we see that in verses 3-13.\u00a0 We have the description of their ministry described, verses 3-6, followed by their martyrdom or their murder, verses 7-10.\u00a0 And then what happens in verses 11-13 is their revival, their resuscitation from the dead leading to a further revival, not just physically but spiritually. And the Lord was showing me so many things in this chapter I don\u2019t know if I can do the whole thing in one sitting but whatever we don\u2019t complete this week we\u2019ll just jump right into next week.\n\nBut notice the ministry, if you will, of these two witnesses.\u00a0 We have its duration, it\u2019s empowerment and its activities.\u00a0 Notice, if you will, Revelation 11:3, notice how long their ministry lasts.\u00a0 It says, \u201cAnd I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for twelve hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.\u201d\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice here that it talks about how God is going to grant authority to these two witnesses.\u00a0 And you see, this is the type of spiritual leadership that you need to get behind, leadership that\u2019s not voted into power, leadership that is not the whim of a human being but leadership that you already see God working in.\n\nIt\u2019s concerning elders of the church at Ephesus, Paul says in Acts 20:28, \u201cBe on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers,\u201d that\u2019s the kind of a person that we want to lay hands on as an elder, someone who has already been made an elder by virtue of\u00a0 the Spirit\u2019s work already taking place in their lives. And that\u2019s how you recognize spiritual leaders, you don\u2019t make them into spiritual leaders, you recognize God\u2019s work already happening in them and you lay hands on those that God has already empowered and chosen.\u00a0 And that\u2019s who these two witnesses are, they are those that have been granted authority not based on themselves but by God and they have been appointed in this very difficult time in the tribulation period to stand in the gap for the Lord.\n\nYou\u2019ll notice there in verse 3 it says, \u201c\u2026and they will prophecy for twelve hundred and sixty days,\u201d what does that mean?\u00a0 It\u2019s a time period of how long?\u00a0 Three and a half years.\u00a0 Sometimes this increment of time is described as forty-two months.\u00a0 You\u2019ll see forty-two months in the prior verse, verse 2.\u00a0 [Revelation 11:2, \u201cLeave out the court which is outside the temple and do not measure it, for it has been given to the nations; and they will tread under foot the holy city for forty-two months.\u201d]\u00a0 Sometimes, like in Revelation 12:14 the next chapter, this time increment will be called \u201ca time, times and a half a time, a \u201ctime\u201d being a Jewish year, \u201ctimes\u201d two Jewish\u00a0 years, \u201chalf a time\u201d half a Jewish year, three and a half years total.\u00a0 [Revelation 12:14, \u201cBut the two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, so that she could fly into the wilderness to her place, where she was nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent.\u201d]\n\nSo in the Book of Revelation and in the Book of Daniel you\u2019ll see these expressions used as synonyms, forty-two months sometimes, verse 2.\u00a0 Sometimes it\u2019ll say one thousand two hundred and sixty days.\u00a0 Sometimes it\u2019ll say a time, times and a half a time, all speaking of the same increment of time of three and a half years.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Well we know from our studies in the Book of Daniel, Daniel 9:27, that the tribulation period is divided\u2026 or first of all it will last seven years and then something happens right in the middle called the desecration of the temple.\u00a0 [Daniel 9:27, \u201cAnd he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.\u201d]\n\nAnd so we know that the tribulation period, seven years total, is divided into two three and a half year time periods. Three and a half years before the desecration of the temple, three and a half years after the desecration of the temple.\u00a0 And sometimes the Scripture is calling our attention to different halves through these expressions, forty-two months, one thousand two hundred and sixty days, or a time, times and a half a time.\u00a0 And so what we\u2019re being exposed to here is a ministry of two witnesses empowered by God that will take place in one of these halves.\n\nNow there\u2019s sort of a debate on which half we\u2019re talking about here and are the two witnesses going to prophesy in the first half or the second half.\u00a0 I\u2019ve heard good arguments on both sides of that issue.\u00a0 I\u2019m sort of the leaning that this will take place in the first half; I don\u2019t know if I would go start a new denomination necessarily over that, but that\u2019s sort of my general leaning.\n\nProbably the guy that does the best job arguing that this will take place in the first half of the tribulation period is John Whitcomb, and you can find his paper if you\u2019re interested on the pre-trib study group website, www.pre-trib.org<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in the argument for that.\u00a0 It\u2019s a very complicated discussion which I think is interesting but I\u2019ll just kind of sum it up by saying I think Dr. Whitcomb is right and I think it\u2019ll probably be in the first half of the tribulation period.\n\nBut you\u2019ll notice that these witnesses are coming forward and they are prophesying during this very difficult time period in human history. And if you look at the end of verse 3 it says they are clothed in sackcloth.\u00a0 [Revelation 11:3, \u201cAnd I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for twelve hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.\u201d]\n\nWhat is sackcloth?\u00a0 Sackcloth is a symbol of mourning before God.\u00a0 In fact, remember the prophet Jonah who was told to preach to Nineveh in the east and what did Jonah do?\u00a0 He went west, the exact opposite way God told him to go and so God got his attention, you know the story, swallowed by the giant fish.\u00a0 Jonah had sort of a little attitude adjustment there in chapter 2, in the belly of the fish.\u00a0 He\u2019s vomited back onto dry land and he goes east where God told him to go.\u00a0 After all, he didn\u2019t want to see the grace of God go to those Ninevites of Assyria who were, by the way, some of the most blood thirsty diabolical people that we know of in human history.\u00a0 It would be like God telling you to go preach the grace of God to Isis.\u00a0 Would you do that or would you have some reservations?\u00a0 Grace for me but not for thee is sometimes our attitude.\n\nAnd so Jonah actually is probably the only prophet we have record of from the Bible that was actually successful and that\u2019s what he was worried about.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t want grace to go to THOSE people, and so he preached the message God gave him and what happened?\u00a0 The whole city of Nineveh repented.\u00a0 And what does it say there in Jonah 3:5, \u201cAnd the people of Nineveh believed in God and they called a fast and they put on\u201d what? \u201csackcloth from the greatest to the least of them.\u201d\u00a0 Why would they put on sackcloth?\u00a0 It\u2019s a symbol of mourning of their prior condition.\n\nAnd to be completely honest with you I think this idea of mourning over sins, sorrow over sin is something that has almost been erased from American culture.\u00a0 You know, in the old days, particularly in the south, they used to have what are called mourning benches in the front of the church where people had an opportunity to come forward and essentially kneel before God and express sorrow over their sin.\u00a0 When was the last time\u00a0 you were in a church that had such a mourning bench?\u00a0 It\u2019s almost unheard of today.\n\nSo what do we have today?\u00a0 We have the national day of prayer.\u00a0 Well, what is that?\u00a0 Well that\u2019s where Catholics and Mormons and Muslims and everybody that has some kind of belief in a higher being get together and pray to God.\u00a0 The national day of prayer is to my mind has become sort of very ecumenical.\u00a0 But if\u00a0 you go back to the origin of the national day of prayer the national day of prayer was never called the national day of prayer.\u00a0 Do you know what they used to call it?\u00a0 I found this on the internet: \u201cCongress issues a proclamation recognizing a day of public humiliation fasting in prayer observed by the English colonies Thursday, July 20, 1775.\u00a0 In his role as Commander in Chief of the Continental Army General George Washington acknowledged a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer, proclaimed by the Continental Congress to be held Thursday May 6, 1779.\u201d\u00a0 We today call it a National Day of Prayer and we\u2019ve thrown out a few of these descriptors.\u00a0 It used to be called a day of fasting and humiliation in prayer.\u00a0 I mean, when was the last time that we began to fast over our sins?\u00a0 I spend a lot more time feasting than I do fasting.\n\nAnd you\u2019ll notice it\u00a0 used to be called a day of humiliation where there was an open acknowledge\u00adment of sin before God and now we don\u2019t call it fasting, we don\u2019t call it humiliation, we just call it a national day of prayer and as long as everybody thinks they\u2019ve got some kind of pipeline to God everything is going to be okay, as long as you\u2019re sincere.\u00a0 Boy, things have changed in this country, haven\u2019t they?\u00a0 These two witnesses, when they show up are wearing sackcloth.\u00a0 This is mourning over the condition of the nation of Israel at this time in history.\u00a0 Why would Israel need to be mourned over?\u00a0 Well, if you drop down to verse 8, maybe we\u2019ll get there today, maybe not, it says, \u201cAnd their dead bodies,\u201d now that should give us a hint as to how well their ministry is going to go.\u00a0 \u201cAnd their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which mystically is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.\u201d\u00a0 [Revelation 11:8]\n\nThere\u2019s no doubt this is Jerusalem.\u00a0 And here the literal city of Jerusalem has been overtaken by a mentality that\u2019s similar to Sodom in Egypt; more on that later.\u00a0 But this is why they\u2019re in sackcloth, they\u2019re mourning over the condition of the city that God has sovereignly decreed or determined to abide in and live with Him forever.\u00a0 They\u2019re sorrowful over the condition of the Jewish people. They\u2019re sorrowful over the condition of the nation of Israel.\n\nAnd frankly that\u2019s why these two are outstanding prophets; we are told here that they will prophesy.\u00a0 That\u2019s what prophets did.\u00a0 I mean, prophets showed up during times of national disobedience and called the wayward nation back to the plumb line or the standard of God.\u00a0 And this is why the prophets weren\u2019t well received, Matthew 23:35.\u00a0 [Matthew 23:35, \u201cso that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.\u201d]\u00a0 Most of them were killed, including these two that will show up probably in the first half of the tribulation period.\n\nAnd how we need prophets like this today.\u00a0 How we need people to stand up and reveal the pathetic simple condition of these United States of America that murders babies around the clock through something called freedom of choice, abortion, and has turned aside every reasonable sexual standard that you can find in the Bible, overturned the whole thing, putting our kids in brainwashing\u00a0 [can't understand word] called public education, where they\u2019re taught to hate God and that we all came out from God, from the goo to the zoo to you, or from the goo to you by way of the zoo over billions of years when there\u2019s not a single shred of scientific evidence to back up any of it, just for the purpose of writing God out of the picture.\n\nI can\u2019t think of a time in history where we need prophets like this and yet people that want to do this as they feel led by God, you know who gets criticized?\u00a0 The prophet of God does.\u00a0 Oh, look at his tone, or he\u2019s too negative, or he\u2019s too critical.\u00a0 They never focus the spotlight on the evil that the prophet is pointing out, they all want to attack the prophet.\u00a0 And my goodness, this is what\u2019s happening here in the first half of this tribulation period.\u00a0\u00a0 And they\u2019re going to need some power, these two, and we have the source of their power revealed there in verse 4.\u00a0 Notice Revelation 11:4, \u201cThese are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.\u201d Notice that these two witnesses are given the designation \u201colive threes\u201d two of them, and \u201clampstands.\u201d\n\nNow you probably won\u2019t recognize what this imagery is unless you know something about the Old Testament, unless you know something about the Book of Zechariah.\u00a0\u00a0 You might hold your place in the Book of Revelation chapter 11 and go back to Zechariah chapter 4 for just a moment.\u00a0 What is happening in Zechariah 4?\u00a0 The Babylonian captivity is coming to an end, Nebuchadnezzar having destroyed the temple as that captivity started seventy years earlier, that was the Solomonic temple that was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar and now the seventy years are over and the children of Israel are coming back as returnees into the land of Israel.\u00a0 And one of the things that they\u2019re told is to get about the business of rebuilding the temple that had been destroyed seventy years earlier.\n\nAnd let me tell you, this was a tough job.\u00a0 You go through the postexilic literature in the Bible, whether it\u2019s the Book of Zechariah, the Book of Ezra, the Book of Nehemiah, the Book of Haggai, all of this was written around the same period and these people just faced one frustration after another.\u00a0 Have you ever felt like that in your Christian walk?\u00a0 One setback after another, one disappointment after another, and they were, to be honest with you, at the place where they were ready to just throw in the towel; it\u2019s not worth it anymore.\u00a0 And consequently God raised up two prophets, you\u2019ll find their names given in Ezra 5:1 called Haggai and Zechariah.\u00a0 [Ezra 5:1, \u201cWhen the prophets, Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, who was over the.,\u201d]\n\nAnd Zechariah is dealing with a very discouraged community.\u00a0 In fact, when they started to rebuild the temple it was so miniscule compared to what the Solomonic temple once was that the old men, when they looked at this new puny pathetic temple looked at it and they remembered the glory of the Solomonic temple and they just started to cry.\u00a0 You say where does it say that in the Bible? Ezra 3:12, Haggai 2:3.\u00a0 [Ezra 3:12, \u201cYet many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers' households, the old men who had seen the first temple, wept with a loud voice when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, while many shouted aloud for joy,\u201d Haggai 2:3, \u201c'Who is left among you who saw this temple in its former glory? And how do you see it now? Does it not seem to you like nothing in comparison?\u201d]\n\nNow the younger guys who had never seen the Solomonic temple, they thought this little thing was great; they had no frame of reference, but the old men, they remembered what it was like and they began to cry.\u00a0 And consequently the Lord is working through the prophet Zechariah to encourage this very discouraged postexilic community.\u00a0 And Zechariah says things like this in chapter 4:10, \u201cFor who has despised the day of small things?\u201d\u00a0 [Zechariah 4:10, \u201cFor who has despised the day of small things? But these seven will be glad when they see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel-- these are the eyes of the LORD which range to and fro throughout the earth.\u201d]\n\nAnother way of saying it is why are you despising the day of small beginnings.\u00a0 What has started here will turn into something great, you just don\u2019t see it yet.\u00a0 And I find that a lot of us were given assignments from the Lord when we don\u2019t want these assignments, too small, it\u2019s beneath me.\u00a0 Well, what you don\u2019t know, what we don\u2019t know is what the Lord is going to do with that small thing.\u00a0 He\u2019s going to turn it into something big that you can\u2019t necessarily see yet because God wants you to walk by faith.\u00a0 If God gave you an end product it wouldn\u2019t be faith anymore, would it?\u00a0 \u201cFor without faith it is\u201d what? \u201cimpossible to please God.\u201d Zechariah 4:10, \u201cWho is despised the day of small beginnings.\u201d\u00a0 And these people were so tired and frustrated and Zechariah says in verse 6 says, (and that\u2019s why I gave this title to this particular sermon,) \u201c[Then he said to me, \"This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel saying,] 'Not by might nor by power, but by My\u201d what? \u201cSpirit,\u2019 says the LORD of hosts.\u201d\u00a0 You\u2019re going to pull this off but it\u2019s not going to be through human strength; you\u2019re going to pull this off through the power of the Holy Spirit.\n\nAnd then you drop down to verse 9 and Zechariah makes the statement about Zerubbabel, the governor of that time, and he says this, \u201cThe hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of the house and his hands will finish it.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 In other words, the project will be started is actually going to be completed through God\u2019s power.\u00a0 And these are all words of encouragement given to this post-exilic community, who by the way, were being opposed on the outside and on the inside.\u00a0 Internally they got murmuring and complaining and things of that nature, discouragement.\u00a0 You know, discouragement is sort of contagious, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 You get discouraged and tell your discouraging words to someone else, they get discouraged and suddenly it spreads everywhere.\n\nAnd not only that, when we study the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah, they were being opposed, not just from the inside but from the outside by the people that were living in that land as the Jews had been evicted from the land for seventy years.\u00a0 Read the Book of Nehemiah, read of the difficulties that he went through trying to get the wall all around the city built.\u00a0 And you start to see the significance of Zechariah.\n\nNow what does this have to do with Revelation 11?\u00a0 Because in Zechariah 4:11-14 this is what Zechariah says.\u00a0 It\u2019s very interesting, he says: \u201cThen I said to him, \u2018What are these two olive trees\u201d\u2019 does that sound familiar, that\u2019s right in our passage, Revelation 11:14, \u201cWhat are these two olive trees on the right of the lampstand\u201d sounds familiar, that\u2019s in our passage, \u201cWhat are these two olive trees on the right of the lampstand and on its left?\u201d [12] And I answered the second time and said to him, \u201cWhat are the two olive branches which are beside the two golden pipes, which empty the golden oil<\/em> from themselves?\u201d [13] So he answered me, saying, \u201cDo you not know what these are?\u201d And I said, \u201cNo, my lord.\u201d [14] Then he said, \u201cThese are the two anointed ones who are standing by the Lord of the whole earth.\u201d\n\nNow he gives Zechariah a picture of something which really is an ingenious device.\u00a0 He sees a lampstand, we call that the Menorah, or the candlestick made of pure gold, and on top of that lampstand is a bowl and the seven lamps have connected to that bowl seven pipes and so obviously what\u2019s coming into the bowl is empowering the candlesticks.\u00a0 Do you see that?\u00a0 Now this was a structure that is found in the temple and the tabernacle without the two olive trees (which I\u2019ll talk about in just a minute) which meant that the only way that that candlestick could be empowered is if the priest put oil in the bowl. See that?\u00a0 If the priest were not putting oil in the bowl there was no power for the candlestick or the lampstand.\n\nAnd yet Zechariah sees something different here with this structure, he sees two olive trees.\u00a0 On either side of the lampstand are two olive trees (that\u2019s what is new here) from which gold pipes carried oil to the bowl on top of the lampstand.\u00a0\u00a0 Now what\u2019s interesting is those two olive trees are going to give automatic oil, without any priest\u2019s attending it. Whether a priest is there or not there with this device two olive trees are going to shed their olives in due season, they are going to go into the bowl, oil is created and the candlestick is going to be automatically empowered.\n\nAnd who are these two olive trees?\u00a0 One is Joshua, not the Joshua know of from the Book of Joshua, this is a different Joshua, a post-exilic Joshua, the high priest.\u00a0 The other one is the governor of the nation of Israel, Zerubbabel.\u00a0 One olive tree is the religious leadership of the nation; the other tree represents the political leadership of the nation.\n\nAnd what does oil in the Bible represent. Anybody know?\u00a0 The Holy Spirit.\u00a0 You say well where are you getting that from?\u00a0 A lot of places.\u00a0 Psalm 133:2, concerning the anointing of Aaron, the high priest, it says, \u201cIt is like the precious oil upon the head, coming down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard, coming down upon the edge of his robes.\u201d The high priest was anointed with oil and what does the oil represent?\u00a0 Isaiah 61:1, the Lord said unto Himself, \u00a0\u201cThe Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has\u201d what? \u201canointed me\u201d oil\u00a0 [can't understand word] depicted as the Spirit of God on Christ.\u00a0 And it\u2019s not just Christ, it\u2019s not just figures in the Old Testament that had this anointing from the Holy Spirit, you\u2019ve got it as well, as a church age saint.\n\n1 John 2:20, New Testament, \u201cBut you have an anointing,\u201d isn\u2019t that the whole oil imagery there? \u201cyou have an anointing from the Holy One, and\u00a0 you all know.\u201d\u00a0 1 John 2:27, \u201cAs for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and\u00a0 you have no need of anyone to teach you, but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, just as it has taught you, abide in Him.\u201d\n\nWhat is happening here?\u00a0 Just as these two olive trees are going to automatically produce the energy round the clock necessary for the candlestick to burn in the same way Joshua and Zerubbabel have an automatic around the clock anointing of the Holy Spirit whereby through that power they are going to be able to finish the job, the difficult job, if not the impossible job of reconstructing the second temple despite internal opposition and external opposition in the post exilic world.\u00a0 That\u2019s what this whole imagery is about.\u00a0 That\u2019s what it represents.\n\nAnd you\u2019ll notice that the two witnesses are not just called here, verse 4, two olive trees, they are also called two lampstands.\u00a0 [Revelation 11:4, \u201cThese are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.\u201d]\u00a0 Their ministry is going to be so powerful that it won\u2019t just be one lampstand, as we saw earlier with this device, but two lampstands.\n\nDavid Hocking who I went to with Israel, whose commentary on the Book of Revelation I very much enjoy, writes: \u201cIn Zechariah\u2019s vision and prophecy there was only one lampstand, whereas there are two lampstands in Revelation 11:4. This distinction reveals that we are not to make the two passages identical, but rather to see that the one illustrates the other.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 What is being revealed here in Revelation 11, when\u00a0 you understand Zechariah 4 is the complete and total empowerment of the Holy Spirit, just as the Holy Spirit around the clock automatically empowered Joshua and Zerubbabel to do an impossible task the Holy Spirit is going to be all over these two witnesses and automatically empower them, which will enable them to do something impossible\u2026 stand before a wicked nation and a wicked world and prophesy unto God.\n\nWhen you start to understand this background then you start to understand why Zechariah would say \u201cNot by might, not by power but by My Spirit says the Lord.\u201d\u00a0 [Zechariah 4:6, \u201cThen he said to me, \"This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel saying, 'Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' says the LORD of hosts.\u201d]\u00a0 The two olive trees revealing the automatic empowering of oil into the bowl without even having to be attended by the priests that will energize the lampstand in the same way the Holy Spirit will automatically empower these two witnesses to do their job that God has called them to do in the tribulation period.\u00a0 They\u2019re called \u201clampstands\u201d because they are shedding light in the midst of darkness.\n\nYou know a lot of people will say this: you know, the Christian life is hard.\u00a0 And that\u2019s a statement I usually like to correct.\u00a0 The Christian life is not hard, the Christian life is impossible.\u00a0 God has placed in front of his people impossible tasks.\u00a0 Just like there was an impossible task in the days of Zechariah concerning the rebuilding of the temple there will be an impossible task before these two witnesses who will prophesy to the point of martyrdom.\n\nAnd may I just say there\u2019s probably in your life right now an impossible task.\u00a0 It\u2019s bigger than you, wherever God has you.\u00a0 And the flesh wants you and Satan wants\u00a0 you to get out there and shoulder that burden through your own strength.\u00a0 And sometimes God will allow us to try to do that just to show us how badly we need the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 And when you reach a point of frustration, where you say I can\u2019t do it, then the Lord says okay, now\u00a0 you\u2019re ready to listen.\u00a0 You need to go back and study Zechariah 4, study Revelation 11, and you need to understand that I never called you to do the work of God through human power.\u00a0 The work of God is an impossibility; if it\u2019s God\u2019s work it requires God\u2019s power.\u00a0 \u201cNot by might nor by power, but by My Spirit says the Lord.\u201d\n\nAnd that is what is going to allow you to be the light God wants you to be in the midst of darkness, whether it\u2019s your family, even in your church, at your place of employment.\u00a0 God doesn\u2019t call you to go out there and do it on your own.\u00a0 He supplies around the clock this perpetual, continuous anointing of the Holy Spirit and that\u2019s their empowerment.\u00a0 And what do these guys do with the power of the Holy Spirit.\n\nLook at verses 5 and 6 where we see the activity of their ministry described.\u00a0 Look at verse 5, \u201cAnd if anyone wants to harm them,\u201d oh my goodness, \u201cfire flows out of their mouth and devours their enemies; so if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this way.\u201d\u00a0 You say well, who are these guys.\u00a0 Well, I would just submit to you Numbers 16:35 where fire was used to destroy life, Moses\u2019 enemies in the midst of\u00a0 Korah\u2019s rebellion, because a bunch of people got together and they didn\u2019t like their pastor for whatever reason.\u00a0 [Numbers 16:35, \u201cFire also came forth from the LORD and consumed the two hundred and fifty men who were offering the incense.\u201d] We got some disagreements here, we don\u2019t like the way you part your hair, we don\u2019t like the ties you wear.\u00a0 By the way, I did wear an interesting tie today just because it has green on it but it does contain the books of the Bible, Amen!\u00a0 Happy Saint Patrick\u2019s Day, Right.\u00a0 I want to make sure I didn\u2019t wear this tie for no reason.\n\nSo we don\u2019t like this, we don\u2019t like that, so they got their own little click together and they rose up against leadership and God says to Moses, don\u2019t worry Moses this one\u2019s on Me and the ground opened up and swallowed up all the disgruntled churchgoers, right into the ground.\u00a0\u00a0 And then there was a little faction of religious people that was still around and fire came and destroyed them.\u00a0 And so when you read this it looks an awful lot like Moses, and did\u00a0 you know the exact same thing happened with Elijah.\u00a0 In the Old Testament, 2 Kings 1:10-14.\n\n2 Kings 1:10-14, \u201cElijah replied to the captain of fifty, \u201cIf I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty.\u201d Then fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty.\u201d\u00a0 And it gets more interesting.\u00a0 [11] \u201cSo he again sent to him another captain of fifty with his fifty. And he said to him, \u201cO man of God, thus says the king, \u2018Come down quickly.\u2019\u201d [12] Elijah replied to them, \u201cIf I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty.\u201d \u00a0Then the fire of God came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty.\u201d\u00a0 Wow!\u00a0 Verse 13, \u201cSo he again sent the captain of a third fifty with his fifty. When the third captain of fifty went up, he came and bowed down on his knees before Elijah, and begged him and said to him, \u201cO man of God, please let my life and the lives of these fifty servants of yours be precious in your sight. [14] Behold fire came down from heaven and consumed the first two captains of fifty with their fifties; but now let my life be precious in your sight.\u201d\n\nIt sounds an awful lot like these two witnesses are Moses and Elijah.\u00a0 And I\u2019m going to have a lot more to say about this as we progress in this study but I think the evidence is overwhelming that Moses and Elijah are going to have sort of a reappearance one day, to fulfill the specific prophecies in God\u2019s Word.\n\nSo their activities\u00a0 under the Spirit\u2019s empowerment, number one involved fire.\u00a0 Number two, they involved drought, look if you will at verse 6.\u00a0 \u201cThese have the power to shut up the sky, so that rain will not fall during the days of their prophesying; and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to strike the earth with every plague, as often as they desire.\u201d\n\nSo\u00a0 you look at verse 6 and they have the power to create drought.\u00a0 Who did that in the Old Testament?\u00a0 Elijah, 1 Kings 17:1, \u201cNow Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, \u201cAs the LORD, the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, surely there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.\u201d\u00a0 By the way, do you know how long Elijah shut up the heavens so it wouldn\u2019t God\u2019s power?\u00a0 Exactly three and a half years.\u00a0 Where are you getting that from?\u00a0 Luke 4:25, \u201c\u2026 Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 James 5:17, \u201cElijah \u2026 he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months.\u201d\u00a0 Didn\u2019t we just run into that time figure, earlier in verse 3?\u00a0 One thousand two hundred and sixty days which is a synonym for three and a half years.\n\nAnd you continue reading on in verse 6 describing what these two witnesses do under the Spirit\u2019s empowerment and it talks about them having the ability to touch the water and it becomes red like blood.\u00a0 Does that sound like anybody in the Old Testament?\u00a0 It sounds an awful lot like Moses. Go home today and read Exodus 7:12-21 and you\u2019ll see it.\n\n[Exodus 7:12-21, \u201cFor each one threw down his staff and they turned into serpents. But Aaron\u2019s staff swallowed up their staffs. [13] Yet Pharaoh\u2019s heart was hardened, and he did not listen to them, as the LORD had said.\u00a0 [14] Then the LORD said to Moses, \u201cPharaoh\u2019s heart is stubborn; he refuses to let the people go. [15] \u201cGo to Pharaoh in the morning as he is going out to the water, and station yourself to meet him on the bank of the Nile; and you shall take in your hand the staff that was turned into a serpent. [16] \u201cYou shall say to him, \u2018The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, sent me to you, saying, \u201cLet My people go, that they may serve Me in the wilderness. But behold, you have not listened until now.\u201d [17] \u2018Thus says the LORD, \u201cBy this you shall know that I am the LORD: behold, I will strike the water that is in the Nile with the staff that is in my hand, and it will be turned to blood. [18] \u201cThe fish that are in the Nile will die, and the Nile will become foul, and the Egyptians will find difficulty in drinking water from the Nile.\u201d\u2019\u201d [19] Then the LORD said to Moses, \u201cSay to Aaron, \u2018Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, over their streams, and over their pools, and over all their reservoirs of water, that they may become blood; and there will be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of<\/em> wood and in vessels of<\/em> stone.\u2019\u201d [20] So Moses and Aaron did even as the LORD had commanded. And he lifted up the staff and struck the water that was<\/em> in the Nile, in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants, and all the water that was<\/em> in the Nile was turned to blood. [21] The fish that were<\/em> in the Nile died, and the Nile became foul, so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile. And the blood was through all the land of Egypt.\u201d]\n\nIn fact, Exodus 7:17 says, \u201c'Thus says the LORD, \u2018By this you shall know that I am the LORD: behold, I will strike the water that is in the Nile with the staff that is in my hand, and it will be turned to blood.\u201d\u2019\n\nWhat does it also say at the end of verse 6, \u201cthey can strike the earth with plagues.\u201d Revelation 11:6, \u201cThese have the power to shut up the sky, so that rain will not fall during the days of their prophesying; and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to strike the earth with every plague, as often as they desire.\u201d]\u00a0\u00a0 God, in Egypt, brought ten plagues, didn\u2019t He.\u00a0 And who did He use as an instrument?\u00a0 He\u00a0 used a man like Moses.\n\nSo this ministry that these two will have is very interesting.\u00a0 We\u2019re given, number one, the\u00a0 exact duration of the ministry, probably the first three and a half years of the tribulation period. Number two, we\u2019re told the source of power of this ministry, the equivalent of these two olive trees that perpetually kept the bowl full which would perpetually around the clock empower the candlesticks which is a description of the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 And number three, verses five and six we\u2019re told what these people are going to do to these two witnesses.\u00a0 It involves fire, it involves drought, it involves water, and it involves plagues.\n\nNever under estimate what God can do with your life when you\u2019re in His will.\u00a0 Maybe you\u2019re not going to breathe out fire; I know some people on radio that kind of do that anyway.\u00a0 But there is a reservoir of power available to you to do whatever it is\u00a0 you\u2019re in right now, no matter what it is.\u00a0 Valley, hospitalization, relationship problems, marriage issues, insubordinate children, problems with your boss, I mean, you can think of endless possibilities.\n\nAnd many times we\u2019re put in those circumstances because of forces beyond our control and we say to the Lord, Lord, I didn\u2019t bring this on myself, what am I doing here?\u00a0\u00a0 God doesn\u2019t give us an answer, what He reminds us of is the 24\/7 anointing of the Holy Spirit by which you can be sustained and even overcome in the midst of adversity.\u00a0 So these two witnesses, we have a description of their ministry.\u00a0 Now does the world just sit around and say this is really neat, I mean, I just love it when the prophets of God speak up and God backs up their message through signs and wonders.\n\nThis is interesting because a lot of people in Christendom today say you\u2019ve got to have signs and wonders because if you don\u2019t have signs and wonders you\u2019re not giving any proof to the unsaved world that God is real.\u00a0 They call this power evangelism\u2026 word plus works is what they say, words plus power, words plus the supernatural.\u00a0 Well, these folks from the world have been watching the supernatural and they\u2019re not persuaded at all.\u00a0 In fact, they\u2019re so angry at what happens that they rise up and they kill, verses 7-10, these two witnesses.\n\nWhat does your Bible say?\u00a0 \u201cFaith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ.\u201d\u00a0 [Romans 10:17]\u00a0 It\u2019s the Word which changes people\u2019s lives.\u00a0 It\u2019s not necessary for it to be accompanied with signs and wonders although God, as we\u2019re seeing here, sometimes accompanies it with signs and wonders.\u00a0 Do you remember what the rich man said when he died and went into Hades in Luke 16?\u00a0 Send someone back from the dead to warn my brothers.\u00a0 You remember what it says at the end of Luke 16?\u00a0 \u201cThey have Moses and the prophets,\u201d if they\u2019re not going to believe that they\u2019re not going to believe even if someone rises from the dead.\u00a0 [Luke 16:27, \u201cAnd he said, \u2018Then I beg you, father, that you send him to my father\u2019s house\u2014[28] for I have five brothers\u2014in order that he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.\u2019\u00a0 [29] \u201cBut Abraham said, \u2018They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.\u2019 [30] \u201cBut he said, \u2018No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!\u2019 [31] \u201cBut he said to him, \u2018If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.\u2019\u201d]\n\nAnd so these miracles apparently don\u2019t convince the world watching resulting in the martyrdom of these two witnesses.\n\nMoving down in verses 7-10, we have the causes of martyrdom, the place of the martyrdom, the contempt of the world and the detestable diabolical celebration that happens once the murder of God\u2019s two servants takes place here in verses 7-10.\u00a0 What causes the destruction of these two witnesses.\u00a0 Look at verse 7, Notice the beginning of verse 7 because it\u2019s very important, it says \u201cWhen they had finished their testimony,\u201d the world system is not going to be allowed to eradicate these two until their ministry under God is completed.\n\nI\u2019m reminded of this quote, usually attributed to George Whitfield, the great revivalist of early America.\u00a0 He said, quote, \u201cWe are immortal until our work on earth is done.\u201d\u00a0 If God has you here to do something I believe this, hell itself can try to stop it, even to the point of trying to take\u00a0 your life.\u00a0 But your life itself cannot be extinguished until you do what God calls you to do.\n\nVerse 7, \u201cWhen they had finished their testimony,\u201d you know what the word for \u201ctestimony\u201d there is in the Greek?\u00a0 It\u2019s where we get the word marturas<\/em>, where we get the word martyr.\u00a0 Sometimes it\u2019s\u00a0 your testimony, talking about the things\u00a0 the Lord has done for you that brings the wrath of the world system upon you, even to the point of martyrdom itself.\u00a0 And I want you to see the sovereignty of God in the whole thing.\u00a0 Yeah, evil it looks like gets the upper hand here for a moment, but only if God allows it.\n\nAnd who is the troublemaker? If you look towards the middle of verse 7 it talks about this entity, called \u201cthe beast\u201d this is the Greek noun th\u0113rion<\/em><\/a>, which is the first reference to the beast in the Book of Revelation.\u00a0 In fact, we\u2019re going to run into two beasts, antichrist and false prophet in Revelation 13.\u00a0 And this is the first reference to the beast in the Book of Revelation.\u00a0 Now we\u2019ve run into him before with different imageries.\u00a0 He was the rider on the white horse if you\u2019ll remember, who brought in temporary peace, Revelation 6:1-2, the one that goes out conquering and to conquer, the one with the bow riding on the white horse.\u00a0 [Revelation 6:1-2, \u201cThen I saw when the Lamb broke one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying as with a voice of thunder, \u201cCome.\u201d [2] I looked, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.\u201d]\n\nThat\u2019s the antichrist.\u00a0 The antichrist is the same entity as the beast here in verse 7, the same entity as the beast in Revelation 13.\u00a0 Why is he called \u201cthe beast\u201d?\u00a0 He\u2019s called the beast because of his character.\u00a0 His character is animalistic; it is without conscience, it is without really an awareness or a knowledge of anything that is holy and precious in the sight of God.\u00a0 That\u2019s who the antichrist is, he does the unthinkable in defying biblical norms and realities.\u00a0 That\u2019s why he\u2019s called here the beast.\u00a0 Where does he come from?\u00a0 Well, if you look very carefully at verse 7 he comes out of a place called the abyss.\u00a0\u00a0 [Verse 7, \u201cWhen they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the abyss will make war with them, and overcome them and kill them.\u201d]\n\nThis word \u201cabyss\u201d abusso<\/em>s in the Greek, we\u2019ve run into it, it\u2019s the bottomless pit where the demons came out of.\u00a0 Remember, Revelation 9:1, trumpet seven, to torture men for five months. [Revelation 9:1, \u201c[Revelation 9:1, \u201cThen the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth; and the key of the bottomless pit was given to him.\u201d]\u00a0 It\u2019s the same place that Satan is dethroned during the thousand year kingdom, in the abyss, same word in Greek.\u00a0 Revelation 20:1, Revelation 20:3.\u00a0 [Revelation 20:1, \u201cThen I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand.\u201d\u00a0 [Revelation 20:3] \u201cand he threw him into the abyss, and shut it<\/em> and sealed it<\/em> over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be released for a short time.\u201d\n\nIt\u2019s highlighting the demonic nature of the antichrist.\u00a0 You say well, is the antichrist a demon or is the antichrist a man?\u00a0 And I think my answer to that would probably be\u00a0 yes, he\u2019s clearly a man; Revelation 13:18 he\u2019s got the number of a man, he\u2019s a human being.\u00a0 [Revelation 13:18, \u201cHere is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six.\u201d]\n\nAnd 2 Thessalonians 2:3 calls him \u201cthe man of lawlessness.\u201d\u00a0 [2 Thessalonians 2:3, \u201cLet no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction.\u201d]\u00a0 He\u2019s clearly a person, he\u2019s clearly a human being and yet what does Revelation 13:4 say?\u00a0 \u201cthey worshiped the dragon\u201d who\u2019s the dragon? The devil, because he gave his authority to who?\u00a0 The beast.\u00a0 \u00a0[Revelation 13:4, \u201cthey worshiped the dragon because he gave his authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, \"Who is like the beast, and who is able to wage war with him?\u201d]\n\nThere\u2019s only two people in biblical history that are given the title \u201cson of perdition\u201d or \u201cson of destruction.\u00a0 Who was the first?\u00a0 A man named Judas.\u00a0 John 17:12.\u00a0 [John 17:12, \u201cWhile I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.\u201d]\u00a0 Who was the second?\u00a0 The antichrist, 2 Thessalonians 2:3.\u00a0 Both are called the son of perdition, the son of destruction.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 What do both have in common?\u00a0 They\u2019re probably the only two people in human history that are possessed by the devil himself.\u00a0 John 13:27 says Satan went into Judas so Judas could fulfill the deed of the betrayal of Christ.\u00a0 [John 13:27, \u201cAfter the morsel, Satan then entered into him. Therefore Jesus said to him, \u2018What you do, do quickly.\u2019\u201d]\n\nWhen it comes to the big jobs Satan himself gets involved in the action and actually goes into a person and the only other example that we have of it in the Bible will be the Antichrist himself.\u00a0 The text is not as clear as I would like it to be but I think there\u2019s a very strong case that when Satan is kicked out of heaven, Revelation 12, he will actually go into the Antichrist.\u00a0 And this mindset or description of him coming out of the abyss highlights his wicked demonic character.\u00a0 There are people in world history that are so debase that I am convinced that a demon is inside of them causing them to do what they do.\u00a0 Erwin Lutzer, a well-known pastor describes Adolf Hitler this way in his book Hitler's Cross: The Revealing Story of How the Cross of Christ Was Used As a Symbol of the Nazi Agenda<\/em>.\n\nAnd Lutzer says this on page 83.\u00a0 \u201cErnest [can't understand word]\u201d\u00a0 if I\u2019m pronouncing that right, \u201cintroduced him\u201d that\u2019s Hitler, \u201cto psychedelic drugs that produce clairvoyant visions and heighten spiritual perceptions.\u00a0 In this way he was empowered to perform the deeds that he believed fate had decreed.\u00a0 Even those who knew Hitler from his early days were well aware of his occult powers.\u00a0 August Kubizek, a friend, said, \u201cIt was if another being spoke out of his body.\u00a0 It was not a case of a speaker being carried away with his own words.\u00a0 I felt as though he himself\u201d that\u2019s Hitler, \u201clistened with astonishment and emotion to what broke forth from him.\u201d\n\nI mean, apparently according to this testimony Hitler himself was stunned by his own words.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because something greater than himself, in this case a demon, was inside of him.\u00a0 Now with the antichrist there\u2019s not going to be a demon, it\u2019s going to be the top dog, the devil himself, the very devil that indwelt Judas in John 13:27 and consequently what is this antichrist going to do to these two witnesses when God allows it, once their testimony is over, verse 7, will make war with them,\u201d that\u2019s the Greek word, polymos<\/em>, war, where we get the word polemical.\u00a0 It\u2019s the exact opposite of the Greek word Eirene<\/em> where we get the word irenic, peaceful.\n\nSee, when Satan gets an upper hand in any culture he goes to war with the people that are standing for God.\u00a0 That\u2019s why as our society flirts more and more with the occult and acts as if occultic phenomenon are okay you can expect the culture to turn more and more against\u00a0 two groups of people, A. Orthodox Jews (we\u2019ll see them in Revelation 12) and B, evangelical Christians.\u00a0 They call us the \u201cf\u201d word, fundamentalists, as if being a fundamentalist is the worst thing in the world.\u00a0 The fundamentalist today is a [can't understand word] , oh, you\u2019re a fundamentalist.\u00a0 Well, I guess I am a fundamentalist if you define it right.\u00a0 A fundamentalist is someone who believes in the fundamentals of the faith.\u00a0 If that\u2019s what you mean by a fundamentalist then I\u2019m a fundamentalist.\n\nBy the way, when I go out and do my\u00a0 flying I don\u2019t fly myself, I get on an airplane, I am very comforted by the fact that the pilot is a fundamentalist, that interprets numbers and gages and all that other stuff in a normal literal sense and that he understands the fundamentals of flying.\n\nToday fundamentalism is sort of looked at as the\u00a0 ultimate cussword you could hurl at somebody. And you can expect that in a culture that\u2019s turned its back on God.\u00a0 That\u2019s what happened in Nazi Germany.\n\nIt says, \u201cWhen they had finished their testimony the beast that has come up out of the abyss will make war with them and will overcome them and will kill them.\u201d\u00a0 [Revelation 11:7]\u00a0 So he is the cause, if you will, of the martyrdom.\u00a0 Well, this is all interesting; where is this going to take place?\u00a0 San Francisco?\u00a0 Washington D.C.\u00a0\u00a0 You have a very clear answer there in verse 8, notice what it says.\u00a0 \u201cAnd their dead bodies\u201d killed by the Jews, \u201cwill lie in the street of the great city\u201d what city would that be, \u201cwhich mystically is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.\u201d Where was Jesus crucified?\u00a0 Jerusalem.\u00a0\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice that these martyrs have made Jesus their Lord.\u00a0 These are not just people that have believed in the gospel to get their fire insurance paid up, these are people that have submitted to the call of discipleship, following Christ even to the point of martyrdom itself.\u00a0 And the whole thing happens right here in the great city, the city streets of Jerusalem.\n\nWell, Jerusalem is the holy city, right?\u00a0 What can be wrong with Jerusalem?\u00a0 I mean, it\u2019s on all our Christmas cards, right?\u00a0 Look at how Jerusalem is described.\u00a0 By the way, I take every single geographical reference in the Book of Revelation literally.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been trying to compile a list of geography as I\u2019ve gone through the Book of Revelation, I can\u2019t find an allegorical example anywhere of a geographical reference and you note all of them, and in this chart I tried to do that.\u00a0 Maybe that will help you.\n\nI\u00a0 think God means what He says and says what He means.\u00a0 Amen.\u00a0 It\u2019s going to happen in Jerusalem, that\u2019s what\u2019s going to take place.\u00a0 If it\u2019s going to happen to two witnesses it\u2019s not going to be five or ten, it\u2019s going to be two. If it says fire is going to come out of their mouth, I don\u2019t know how that\u2019s going to happen but that\u2019s what\u2019s going to happen.\u00a0 If the beast is going to murder them, possessed by Satan, if I\u2019m understanding this right then that\u2019s what will take place.\n\nWhat could be wrong with the city of Jerusalem during this time.\u00a0 Their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city\u2026 oh-oh, \u201cwhich is mystically called Sodom and Egypt\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 [Revelation 11:8] \u00a0\u00a0You say I thought we were supposed to take this literally.\u00a0 You are, unless the text uses the word like \u201cmystically.\u201d\u00a0 Once it uses a word like mystically it\u2019s taking the literal meaning and adding a layer of truth.\u00a0 And you\u2019re not allowed to interpret that layer of truth any way you want, \u00a0you have to pay attention to the interpretation.\u00a0 It\u2019s very similar to Galatians 4:24 where Paul begins to describe an allegory from two women, Sarah and Hagar.\u00a0 He says in Galatians 4:24, \u201cThis is allegorically speaking, for these women are two covenants: one proceeding from Mount Sinai bearing children who are to be slaves; she is Hagar.\u201d\n\nPaul never takes the Sarah and Hagar story and de-historicizes it and pretends like it never happened.\u00a0 The story is true, there were two women, one of them was named Sarah, one was named Hagar but what Paul does as an apostle is he adds to it a layer of understanding.\u00a0 Now I\u2019m not free to do this unless I see words in the Bible, like mystically or allegorically.\u00a0 And even when I see it I can\u2019t just make up any interpretation I want, I have to pay attention to the interpretation that the Holy Spirit has given.\n\nSo he talks about this great city, the city of Jerusalem, and then he says let me say what Jerusalem is like during this time period; it\u2019s just like Sodom and it\u2019s just like Egypt.\u00a0 Now within the nation of Israel today the vast majority of them are unbelievers, they don\u2019t believe anything, atheists you might even call them.\u00a0 And what are they like, even though they\u2019re God\u2019s people?\u00a0 They\u2019re just like Sodom, they\u2019ve just invented their own sexuality and did whatever they wanted.\u00a0 There are some within the nation of Israel, a minority, that we call the Orthodox and they are believers, not so much believers in Yeshua, not so much believers in Jesus but believers in the Old Testament Law.\u00a0 And you know what they\u2019re trying to do?\u00a0 They\u2019re trying to put people back under the Law.\n\n\u201cWell, the last time I checked the Law of itself is a place of bondage, it\u2019s a place of prison, and doesn\u2019t what that imagery of Egypt remind us of?\u00a0 Wasn\u2019t the nation of Israel in bondage in Egypt for 400 years?\u00a0 After all, Galatians 3:24 says, \u201cTherefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 The Law exists to show us that we can\u2019t measure up to God\u2019s righteousness through human performance.\u00a0 It\u2019s there to lead us to Jesus, He did it in our place.\u00a0 And once the Law has done its job in our life it\u2019s done its job.\u00a0 It\u2019s not meant to put people back under it, it\u2019s meant to lead us unto Christ.\u00a0 And if people are\u00a0 using the Law in any other way they\u2019re putting people in a state of bondage similar to Egypt.\n\nSo the nation of Israel, the city of Jerusalem here is in a terrible mess.\u00a0 That\u2019s why these prophets are prophesying in Jerusalem in sackcloth, because they\u2019re prophesying to a group of people in God\u2019s city that are either atheists, like Sodom and Gomorrah, inventing their own sexuality, or they\u2019re following the orthodox, putting people back under the Law, putting people in a state of bondage.\u00a0 And the reality of the situation is God is dealing with the nation of Israel here in their unbelief.\u00a0 I think sometimes in our Zionism and in our desire for Israel and our support for Israel and our support for them in their land which is a legitimate belief, I hold it myself, we\u2019ve forgotten the fact that those are unbelievers over there.\n\nB.B. Netanyahu, I love the man, he\u2019s not a Christian, he doesn\u2019t have the Holy Spirit inside of him, and there is a program for Israel in unbelief to make them into Israel into what?\u00a0 Belief!\u00a0 And that\u2019s how I look at the nation of Israel.\u00a0 I look at the nation of Israel the same way as I look at the Holy Spirit who worked in my life before I was saved.\u00a0 Did the Holy Spirit work in your life before you were saved?\u00a0 Of course He did, and that\u2019s what He\u2019s doing with the nation of Israel.\u00a0 that\u2019s why I can look at the nation of Israel today through a divine lens loving them, supporting them, yet at the same time acknowledging that they still need Christ as every single human being on planet earth needs.\u00a0 And they, in this state of Sodom and Egypt, are actually going to make a deal with the devil himself; it\u2019s called a covenant with Sheol, Isaiah 28.\u00a0 They are going to reach out to the antichrist who promises to give them security and safety and they\u2019re going to be grossly disappointed once they get three and a half years into this because the antichrist is going to go into that rebuilt Jewish temple and betray them.\n\nSo when we\u2019re dealing with Israel are we dealing with Israel in belief or unbelief?\u00a0 \u00a0One day belief, today unbelief.\u00a0 I like this chart compiled by Randall Price, who\u2019s spoken here, he compares present Israel with future Israel.\u00a0 The present Israel, they\u2019re returned to part of their land, future Israel they will return to all of their land.\u00a0 The present regathering is Israel in unbelief but once they are betrayed by the antichrist and the Holy Spirit begins to break the blinders off their eyes they\u2019ll return in faith.\u00a0 That\u2019s the end game.\u00a0 Currently they\u2019re restored to the land only, still Sodom and Egypt, but one day they\u2019re going to be in their land and restored not just to the land but to the Lord.\u00a0 Currently the stage is being set for the tribulation period.\u00a0 The stage is being set for what?\u00a0 Divine discipline which is the mechanism that God will use to bring them to Himself, for once it\u2019s all said and done the stage will be set, not for discipline but for millennial blessing.\u00a0 And the tool that God is going to use to move them from the left column to the right column is the events of the tribulation period.\u00a0 God knocks us down so we look up.\n\nJeremiah 30:7 says, \u201c'Alas! for that day is great, There is none like it; and it is the time of Jacob's distress,\u201d now whose name was changed from Jacob to Israel in the Old Testament?\u00a0 Jacob\u2019s name was.\u00a0 Jacob is a synonym for Israel. \u00a0, \u201c'Alas! for that day is great, There is none like it; and it is the time of Jacob's distress,\u00a0 but he\u201d who\u2019s that?\u00a0 Israel! \u201cwill be saved from it.\u201d\u00a0 That hasn\u2019t happened yet; we\u2019re still in Jerusalem as Sodom and Egypt.\u00a0 And these two witnesses show up to give the nation this message and they\u2019re not liked very much and as the demonically inspired beast himself does, he kills them right there in the city streets of Jerusalem.\u00a0 And what does the whole world do?\u00a0 My goodness, I\u2019m out of time, I can\u2019t even get into it.\u00a0 They have a Christmas party, that\u2019s next week.\u00a0 They even have an office gift exchange.\u00a0 And then it says, verse 10, the whole world is going to see this event happening, and is going to look at their corpses.\u00a0 [Revelation 11:10, \u201cAnd those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and celebrate; and they will send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth.\u201d]\n\nWell, how in the world could that happen?\u00a0 It\u2019s interesting, you go back to commentators trying to make any sense of that passage.\u00a0 You don\u2019t have to try really, the whole thing makes sense to us, we have Skype and cable TV and life streaming, I mean, you could get on your phone right now (I don\u2019t recommend you do that in a worship service) but you can get on your phone right now and push a button and see exactly what\u2019s happening in the city streets of Jerusalem.\u00a0 In fact, do you know what I saw in my recent trip to Jerusalem?\u00a0 Camera after camera after camera after camera after camera.\u00a0 Every block there\u2019s a camera; every store there\u2019s a camera, there\u2019s cameras on the Temple Mount, the Temple grounds, the Temple sight, the Wailing Wall, cameras, cameras, cameras everywhere.\u00a0 Do you think the Lord is getting ready for this event?\u00a0 How much further proof do you need?\n\nAnd so really the question becomes we\u2019re not Israel, we\u2019re the church, we\u2019re going to be raptured out before these things happen, just take my word for it.\u00a0 If you want to argue with me on it, that\u2019s fine, I\u2019ll explain it to you on the way up!\u00a0 [Laughter]\u00a0 \u00a0But we\u2019re kind of there by way of analogy, aren\u2019t we.\u00a0 God has a program of taking people from unbelief to belief.\u00a0 Well how do you, as a lost human being in the age of the church go from unbelieving to being a believer?\u00a0 How do you go from being on one side of the ledger, the left, to the right side of the ledger?\u00a0 It\u2019s always the same in all of human history.\u00a0 It\u2019s the gospel!\u00a0 Why do we call it the gospel?\u00a0 Because it means good news; it\u2019s good news because Jesus did everything in our place.\u00a0 Everything that has ever been necessary to bridge the gap between sinful man and a holy God has been accomplished through the work of Jesus Christ in the death, burial, resurrection and ascension.\u00a0 That\u2019s why His final words on the cross were \u201cIt is finished!\u201d\u00a0 Which is a Greek translation of tetelestai,<\/em> which in Greek means paid in full, well done, meaning you can\u2019t earn your way to God through self-righteousness, you have to receive what He has done in your place.\u00a0 And you receive what He has done in your place simply by exercising faith, which means trust in what Jesus has done.\u00a0 That\u2019s how you move from the left column to the right column.\u00a0 It\u2019s that simple.\n\nIsrael and its condition of Sodom in Egypt doesn\u2019t get it yet but it\u2019s going to be explained to them through life events very fully in the events of the tribulation period.\u00a0 But you know what, it\u2019s being explained to you right now; in fact, the Holy Spirit is right now convicting people of their need to do this.\u00a0 So we really don\u2019t have any excuse for not doing it, right?\u00a0 So if you want to get saved I would say this: the best you know how, in the quietness of your own heart as the Holy Spirit places you under conviction trust, which means place confidence in, rely upon what Jesus has done for you 2,000 years ago, because when He died on that cross He wasn\u2019t just thinking of the world (He was) but He\u2019s thinking of you!\u00a0 You were on His mind and the gift there which is free to receive.\n\nIsrael, in their darkness, spiritually thinks they\u2019re going to get there through Egypt which is going back to the Law.\u00a0 That won\u2019t get you there.\u00a0 Going to church won\u2019t get you there.\u00a0 A self-help program won\u2019t get you there.\u00a0 Having a religious enterprise won\u2019t get\u00a0 you there.\u00a0 Giving money won\u2019t get you there.\u00a0 Raising a hand won\u2019t get\u00a0 you there.\u00a0 Even walking an aisle, I can get myself stung to death here in Texas by saying stuff like that, won\u2019t get you there either.\u00a0 It\u2019s a one-step process, it\u2019s not even a process, it\u2019s a moment where you trust in Christ and His righteousness is transferred to you.\u00a0 I would encourage you to trust in Christ now, where you\u2019re seated, or anybody watching online you can trust in Christ right now.\u00a0 If it\u2019s something you need more explanation on I\u2019m available after the service to talk.\n\nShall we pray.\u00a0 Father, we\u2019re grateful for these prophecies that are destined to come to our planet very soon.\u00a0 Helps us to be yearning and watchful and waiting as we look for the soon return of our Lord Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Help us to understand the urgency of the times.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory.\u00a0 We ask these things in Jesus\u2019 name, and God\u2019s people said\u2026. Amen","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t