Two Fearless, Future Witnesses, Part 2

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Coming up from Bible WORK_OF_ART teacher Chuck Swindall

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Not until God is through does a ministry cease. You didn't start it and you can't stop it. When God's hand is on a life and a ministry, that life and that ministry are invincible until God is finished. And when he's finished, it's over. It's curtains. The first book in the Bible, Genesis WORK_OF_ART, explains how the world began.

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The last book in the Bible, Revelation WORK_OF_ART, explains how the world will end. Both of these spirit-inspired books were written thousands of years ago, but they continue to inform the decisions we make every single day. Today, on Insight for Living ORG, Chuck Swindall continues his verse-by-verse study through Revelation. It's a series he titled Unveiling the End WORK_OF_ART. And we've come to a somewhat bewildering passage of scripture, Revelation Chapter 11, that requires lots of focus and clear thinking.Chuck PERSON begins with prayer. That is the word, our Father.

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That is the truth. That is, that is our only hope is that grace that is so amazing. Amazing that you would even care enough about folks like us to find us when we weren't looking for you. And love us when we weren't loving you. and love us when we weren't loving you and change us when we weren't asking you to do that and turning us around when we were stubbornly moving in our own direction without any any reason from us you demonstrated your great grace.As Paul writes, while we were yet sinning, Christ PERSON died for us. Thank you, Father. Thank you for your great grace in giving us life, giving us the family into which we were born, giving us relationships that we could never have cultivated on our own, giving us a reason to go on when everything around us screams to stop and give up. Thank you for your grace in finding purpose in the midst of all the chaos and challenges we call this earthly existence.We all thank you, Father, for the grace in bringing into our lives teachers who have changed us and coaches who have helped us and coaches who have helped us and parents who have loved us and children who have encouraged us and been for us such sources of magnificent joy. Thank you for the church that has endured through the ages against insuperable odds. Thank you for the work of the church. Across the street, across the states, across the seas, in distant and obscure and often dangerous places.And Father, thank you for your grace in your work that is profound, the work in our lives. As you, of all things, use us and speak through us and give encouragement. Thank you for this, your hand on our lives. We thank you for the privilege of an occupation and for the ability to make a living. I pray for those on a search for such today. Feel like they've been left behind.We pray that you'd bring encouragement and strength to them as they continue to walk with you. Pray for those today, too sick to be here. Those engaged in recovery help them as they are stronger. Teach us even in these few moments of quietness of the value of life and the pleasure of serving you. We do now worship our Father. We worship your Son as we give in his name and as we express these wordsfor his glory. And everyone said, amen. To dig deeper into the book of Revelation with Chuck Swindall PERSON,

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Insight for Living ORG has prepared a brand new Bible study workbook for our Searching the Scriptures Bible Studies on Revelation Act 1 WORK_OF_ART. To purchase this printed workbook, go to insight.org slash offer. And now the message from Chuck called Two Fearless Future Witnesses WORK_OF_ART.

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Think about the book of Revelation, Chuck PERSON full of contrasts. Here we have an insignificant, soon-to-be-forgotten follower of Jesus PERSON, exile to an island in the southern part of the Aegean LOC and forgotten. His name is John PERSON. How many? Hundreds must have been named John in the first century.But he is the one the Lord puts his finger on and has him write the book that becomes for us, the book of the revelation. The one who put him there was demissioned, the most powerful man in the world, or so he thought. Exiles John PERSON to be forgotten and silenced only to leave him with the time it would take for the revelation to emerge.And the people of the church never in great number, emerging triumphant through the book, faithful people who become martyrs. I think they're just two believers who emerge out of the ranks of other unknown faithful people whom the Lord says, I'm going to use you, stay faithful, walk with me, and I'll do some mighty works through you. Keep in mind, we're still in that interlude phase of the book. This book is full of judgments. There are 21 of them named for us. The first seven are called seal judgments. The next seven are called trumpet judgments. And the last seven are called bold judgments. They become increasingly more intense and deadly and frightening as time passes. All of it yet future. All of it yet to happen on this earth. Sandwiched between the sixth and seventh trumpet is a parenthesis, an interlude. And during this interlude, John PERSON is told totake the scroll from this strong, enormous angel and to eat it. And it will become sweet to his taste but bitter to his stomach how unusual and we looked at that last time to begin chapter 11 he's told to do something else very unusual John get a measuring rod we would say a slide tape get something you can measure with and verse one of chapter 11, take that staff, that measuring rod and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship in it. No one knows quite how to interpret this, no matter how scholarly they may be.You wonder why, and we're never told, we're left to assume, here's this, here's this, once again, underdog, this simple man following God's orders, and he measures the temple, and he measures the altar, and he measures, however you measure the congregation, those who worship in it. It's got to be small in number. The temple itself is relatively small and as it's rebuilt in the future, it will be authentic to the old temple, still small. But then notice what he's told not to do. Leave out, verse 2 begins. Leave out the court which is outside the temple. Do not to do. Leave out, verse two begins. Leave out the court which is outside the temple.Do not measure it. Only measure the temple and only measure the altar and the people who are worshipping their picture of the believers. Take note of them. Pay attention to them. Focus on them. But the outer court, which he describes as being given to the nations, they will tread underfoot the holy city for 42 months. Three and a half years of pressure and mistreatment and martyrdom of all kinds. John PERSON don't even measure that. In the days of Jesus, the outer court measured larger than 20 acres, enormous size compared tothe relatively small temple. You know what I think it's saying to us, practically speaking, during difficult times, which certainly this section of scripture has to do with, during difficult times, we are to focus deliberately on what God is doing, not what's happening around us. I'm going to say that again, because some of you are doing just the opposite. During difficult times, focus on what the Lord is doingrather than the obvious stuff that's happening to you. Remarkable things happen when we do that. Once again, the underdog sort of seeps through this context. You are in a very, very unique place right now. You see it as a place of testing and trial and virtual insignificance, but I want to tell you, the Lord has a way of working with insignificance and using it significantly. Here's a case in point. Look how calmly these two men come on the scene. men come on the scene. Lord says, I will grant authority to my two witnesses and they will prophesy for 1260 days clothed in sacraloc. These are my two martyrs. These are my two voice boxes.These are my two instruments lifted from the quiver and about to launch on the air. They're clothed in sackcloth. Now let me ask you something. If somebody showed up at church in sackcloth, would you notice? Probably. I mean, yeah, Louis Roth PERSON doesn't make sackcloth suits, okay? Heart Chaffner and Marks ORG doesn't have a line of sackcloth jackets. Sackcloth is crummy stuff. Sackcloth is the sign of grief. One man writes, the two witnesses will put on sackcloth as an object lesson to express their great sorrow for the wretched and unbelieving world, racked by God's judgment, overrun by demon hordes, and populated by wicked people who refuse to repent.They're like modern-day John the baptizers PERSON who show up out of nowhere. They're prophets. you know about prophets they comfort the afflicted and they afflict the comfortable they make you nervous while the world is saying peace peace is going to be great prophets say doom doom it, doom, doom. It's going to get worse. They tend not to be popular people. Folks don't like having lunch with prophets. You don't like sitting next to them.They don't believe all the pizzazz, all the hype. In fact, the word prophesy doesn't just mean foretelling, as in telling the future, but forth telling as in telling the truth. These men will appear and they will be on the earth for three and a half years, those tragic ending years of the tribulation, and they will stand like lightning boats in the storm of time. And they will be my flashpoints of truth.He's not true. He says in verse four, these are the two olive trees and the two lamp stands that stand before the Lord of the earth. What in the world does that mean? Well, if you check it, go back to lampstands and olive trees and the word two,you'll go back to Zechariah Four, one of the ancient prophets. Two people in Zechariah PERSON's day were used significantly. Joshua, not to be confused with the earlier Joshua in Moses PERSON' day, but a guy named Joshua PERSON was the religious leader, and Zerubabel PERSON was the political leader. And together they served their generation faithfully and courageously.And they were called the olive trees and the lamp stands. And these will be like they in that sense. Two people come out of the ranks who are suddenly emerging as the prophets for that time. Well, you say, those kind of folks certainly couldn't have lasted in a world like we've been reading about. You're right, unless, of course, God's hand is on them. And that's verse five.If anyone wants to harm them, fire flows out of their mouth and devours their enemies. So if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this way. I don't think that they open their mouths and fire poured out. I think it means they were able to call down fire on those who would harm them. They are invulnerable. They are protected. They live their lives in a remarkable, invisible shield that makes them invincible these prophets out of nowhere.So they've got this remarkable ministry. You want to know how extensive? Look at verse 6. They have the power to shut up the sky so that rain will not fall during the days of their prophesying. Who's that sound like? Silence. Sounds like Elijah, the prophet, who stood before Ahab PERSON and said it will not rain for this space of time until the Lord brings rain. And Ahab PERSON didn't know whether spit or wind his watch. He's standing there, listening to this prophet in sackcloth, thinking, what in the world am I going to?He could anymore take Elijah PERSON off the earth if he tried. This guy's going to be like that. These guys are. And they bring drought, terrible drought on top of everything else. Furthermore, read, they have power over the waters to turn them into blood. Who's, who's that sound like? Right. Moses. Moses in the days of the Egyptian plagues. Moses said to Pharaoh PERSON, let my people go. If you do not, then this plague. And he brings blood or he brings the water to blood, the condition of blood-like condition.And Moses PERSON is the one who does that. And that's why some say these are Elijah and Moses. But they're just doing similar works. But you haven't read the most significant. Look at the end of verse 6. And to strike the earth with every plague as often as they desire. You want to know something? That is a very unusual description. That's not said of anyone else.The only one else who could have done that was Christ PERSON himself, who came for the purpose of giving and dying. So his activities were under enormous restraint. These will not be. John Walvard PERSON writes, these two witnesses have a combination of the greatest power ever given prophets on earth.And this accounts for their ability to withstand their enemies for the entire period of 1260 days imagine that they can't stop them they can't silence them they can't bring rain they can't turn the water back all this source of drinking water is now polluted and whatever other plague they may desire. I'm telling you something, looking at it from the other side, they are hated men,especially to those who think they're in charge. I mean, these men aren't even politically correct. They don't wear the right kind of clothes. They don't look like the rest of us. They don't look like the rest of us. They don't do the things the rest of us say we ought to be doing as we follow the word of our leader. By the way, just in case you're wondering, there are five major periods on earth, according to the scriptures, when miracles became commonplace.Let me give them to you quickly. The first was the time of Moses and Joshua PERSON. That's first time in scripture when miracles happened rather regularly back to back. Second were the days of Elijah and Elijah. Miracles occurred that authenticated them as prophets of God. And then came the period of Daniel and his three friends when miracles occurred at the hands of these individuals, or to theseindividuals that could not be explained in any other way that a miracle. Fourth is in the days of Christ and the apostles. And fifth is in this period of time when these men can work miracles at will. Hey, this is a great time for me to warn you about talking too much about miracles. It really is inappropriate for us to do that. You know, we don't have a miracle a day to keep the devil away. Okay? You know, we don't have a miracle a day to keep the devil away, okay?We don't encounter miracles on a regular basis. If we did, we'd call them regulars. Okay, so they're miracles. And don't explain things that are unusual as miracles. Parking space at Nordstrom's and Christmas time. It's not a miracle. Okay. Battery almost dead and your carstarts, it's a miracle. It's not a miracle. Your kid making an A in math. Well, that may be close to them. It's not a miracle. There are all ways to explain. If you can explain it, it's not a miracle. If only God could do it, it's a miracle. Supernatural enough for us to sit here and scratch our heads and say, I wonder how in the world, then you're on to something. But just because a guy pulled out and you pull in, it doesn't qualify.These are miracles. So much so that the enemy is losing the attention of the people as these unknown underdogs take charge, at least with their prophesying and their plaguing. So you're not surprised, verse 7, when they have finished their testimony. There's a pretty tragic conclusion here, but I don't want you to jump past that statement. Don't you love that, ladies and gentlemen? When they have finished their, the word again ismartyr, their testimony, their witness. How intriguing. Not until God is through, does a ministry cease. You didn't start it and you can't stop it. You may try to hinder it. You may bring obstacles against it,but let me tell you, when God's hand is on a life and a ministry, that life and that ministry are invincible until God is finished. And when he's finished, it's over. It's curtains. These guys carry on their ministry and not until they have finished their ministry, which by the way is never premature. That's an earthly word. If you were to happen into heaven and listen as God is speaking about some event on earth, you'd never hear, I never, look at that. I mean, I never thought that was going to. Look how soon he died.How could I have ever let that happen? You will hear exactly as I planned it, precisely on target. Time table, right on the money. When they have finished their ministry, then please notice what happens. There's a beast that comes out of the abyss. Kind of gives you the willies, doesn't it?Yeah. First of all, I don't like the word beast, but it says that. An individual with a beast-like nature, with an unconscionable violence about him. I don't believe it's Satan PERSON because I don't think Satan lives in the abyss. He is free from the abyss.But there are demons in the abyss, and I believe this one qualifies as what would later be called the Antichrist. This is our first glimpse at the beast. There will be 35 other references to him in the book of Revelation WORK_OF_ART. But this is the first. First time you'll read about the beast that comes up out of the abyss. In chapter 13 he comes up out of the sea, probably meaning he's a Gentile NORP, since the seas seem to be a symbol of the nations.And then chapter 17 he appears again, chapter 19 he appears in chapter 20, he's thrown into the lake of fire. But for now, he's just coming into his own. This is a powerful earthly influence with a wicked kind of nature. He comes out of this abyss, which we were introduced to earlier, you recall. What does he do? He will make war with them.He will overcome them. He will kill them. With all these technical details and revelation, do you ever wish you had a place to jot down your thoughts and observations?

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Well, we have a brand new resource that allows you to do just that. I'll tell you more in a moment. First, if you joined us late in the program, you're listening to Insight for Living ORG. Chuck Swindall's study in Revelation Chapter 11 represents one portion of the much larger teaching series called Unvailing the End. The revelation given to John PERSON is filled with complicated imagery and dripping with meaning, but to understand Revelation requires focus and attention to detail. So today, we're pleased to offer you a brand new resource that comes as a printed workbook. These freshly designed Bible studies are called Searching the Scriptures WORK_OF_ART, and we're launchingthis new edition with Chuck's three-part study on Revelation. The first workbook is ready right now, and in this new format, you can open the pages on your lap and easily jot down your personal notes and observations. You can purchase this affordable Searching the Scriptures WORK_OF_ART workbook for the Book of Revelation Act 1 by giving us a call right now. Our number is 800-77288888. Or you can go online to insight.org slash offer. And then if you're looking to have a permanent record of Chuck PERSON's sermons,Insight for Living has CDs on hand ready to be sent to your home. The series is called Revelation Unveiling the End WORK_OF_ART. And you can purchase the entire collection on CD right now by calling us at 800-772-88888. Gratefully, Insight for Living ORG is blessed with generous partners who make these daily programs possible. As God prompts you to support the Bible teachings of Chuck Swindall PERSON,we boldly invite you to make a gift. To send a gift in the mail, write to us at Insight for Living, Post Office Box 5,000, Frisco, Texas, 75034. That's Post Office Box 5,000, Frisco, 75034. You can also give a donation online at Insight.org ORG. I'm Bill Meyer, inviting it to join us when Chuck Swindall presents another message in his series called Unveiling the End WORK_OF_ART. Tomorrow on Insight for Living ORG.The preceding message,

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Two Fearless Future Witnesses WORK_OF_ART, was copyrighted in 2003, 2006, and 2024, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2004 by Charles R. Swindall, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted materialfor commercial use is strictly prohibited.