Alright, we continue our sermon series. Now you may notice that, hang on, we were past
this last week and there were multiple reasons why, but as you'll see at the end of this,
that where we're going next week has to do with a very obscure number, 144,000, that's
been put in in chapter 7, it comes up again next week. And so part of it was a flip flop,
also to bring and lead into the faithful ones of God and what that means in the book of
Revelation. So let me ask a question this morning. What does it mean to be faithful?
Think about that word. There's probably a thousand different contexts that you could
have in that, all spanning all of life, but what does it truly mean to be faithful? To
not give up on something, absolutely, right? That I'm faithful to the cause, whether that
is helping someone learn how to bat, whether it's the musical newsies and they're all in
solidarity against those that own the newspaper, if you haven't seen it, watch it, thank me
later. Others, dedicated, absolutely, yeah, yeah, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, completely
trusting, good. To follow unconditionally, absolutely, yeah, that's a good one. Any others?
To be a servant, sure, to be faithful in the way we interpret something like scripture,
to interpret Jesus' words is to love God and love people, right, and to understand what
that actually means. There's the vertical relationship and we show that by a horizontal
relationship, getting that in the right order, obviously. Others? Constant, keep my word
and keep God's word, I'm going to flip that on you, keep God's word and then keep your
word, absolutely. Up in the balcony? Not to be swayed from the faith, interesting, okay.
So all good definitions and where the book of Revelation is going to take the understanding
of faithful, those that finished the race. And we think about, you know, one of the songs
we sung was talking about the heroes of the faith and I caught myself in my own narcissism
and piety in the moment and the Lord had to strike me, hopefully you guys didn't see it,
but I thought to myself, I wonder if I'll be a hero of the faith and then immediately
I heard the buzzer from Family Feud. Immediately it was ehhhh and the giant X and I got down.
This all happened right here, right, and it was the covering of Joe and Julie's prayers
that kept me from falling down. But understand that that's not the right desire. The desire
is not to be a hero of the faith, the desire is to be faithful in God because God is the
one that defines who the heroes are. But understand that it's walking this road, it's journeying
on this path, being faithful along the way, knowing that sin is in our life, knowing that
we are going to fall. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. That there isn't
a level of perfection, we don't believe like some Pentecostal denominations that one on
this earth can live a perfect life. Because if that was possible, we wouldn't need grace.
The beauty of grace is that it makes life not fair in the sense of when we fall, there
is a way back to whole, but we're going to fall. We all did this week, we all will next
week, we already talked about that. But what we're going to see in the book of Revelation
is jumping back to the scrolls, so you've got to go back two weeks, is that the judgments
between the sixth and seventh trumpet and the scrolls, a little scroll is introduced
and two witnesses symbolizing God's ongoing revelation for the church in this moment.
Now that got me very confused when I was reading this week that like this is it, this is the
grand drama, this is the end scene of life, yet God's revelation is continuing going back
to the very first sermon that we read that for then and now and to come. Interesting,
God is then and now and to come, He's everlasting upon everlasting, that there's still revelation
going on. I'm going to pick on the Wilchers because one of the areas where I sinned this
week is I coveted your trip. I saw all of those and we almost got a smile out of Jim
on some of those pictures. I know you enjoyed it because Jill was with you, but you got,
where did you guys go this past couple weeks? Utah, right? Not for the Mormons, but for
the beauty of God's creations, right? And like mind blown, like it's hard not to see
all of that and just be like, yeah, someone manufactured that, like, ah Disney. No, no,
it's like beautiful that the pictures that they showed or that they posted, it was, and
that's just creation. And that's not even creation in the image of God, that's just
creation, His created order of life. And so we see these things and the ongoing, I mean,
was it a spiritual experience, I'm sure? Yeah, and that is ongoing, what we call general
revelation, that there's revelation still going on in life today, revelation that God
is still at work. You have general revelation and then you have divine or specific revelation
when God speaks to you through His word, through a trusted friend. I don't think any one of
us has gotten a burning bush, you know, lately, but that would be seen as divine or special
revelation, that message was just for Moses. But God's revelation is ongoing. And really
the emphasis of these chapters is not only His sovereignty, but His sovereignty over
all the events and His determination to fulfill, that we see, hopefully you can get back enough
to see God continually fulfilling what He said He was going to do. This is the fulfillment
of Messianic prophecy. That yeah, there were little M messiahs all over the place, Jesus'
big M messiah is fulfilling what He said He's going to do, and that's a definition of faithful.
We can call God ultimately faithful. He is faithfulness and we see that tangibly, we
see the evidence of that, of what He said He's going to do, He is now doing. So the
challenge as we go through the mighty angel, the little scroll, the two witnesses is a
mirror on how are we going to be faithful. So let's pick it up. In Revelation 10, we
have 11 verses to break through. So Revelation chapter 10, starting with verse 1. Then I
saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow
over his head and his face was like the sun, and his legs like pillars of fire. He had
a little scroll in his hand and he set his right foot on the sea and his left foot on
the land and called out with a loud voice like a roaring lion. When he called out the
seven thunder sounded, and when the seven thunders had sounded, I was about to write,
but I heard a voice in heaven saying, seal up what the seven thunders have said and do
not write it down. And the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and the land raised his
right hand to heaven and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven
and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it, and there
would be no more delay. But that in the days of the trumpet call to be sounded by the seventh
angel. The mystery of God would be fulfilled just as he announced to his servants the prophets.
Then the voice that I heard from heaven spoke to me saying, go, take the scroll that is
open and in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land. So I went to the
angel and told him to give me the little scroll and he said to me, take and eat it. It will
make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey. And I took the
little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it. It was sweet as honey in my mouth.
When I had eaten it, my stomach was made bitter and I was told, you must again prophesy about
many peoples and nations and languages and kings. So very strange. We see for the first
time interaction between the one having the dream, the revelation, and the characters in
the revelation. We see this interaction and the angel first is described as mighty. There's
no other way to say it. One foot on all the sea, one foot on all the land symbolizing
God's sovereignty and his control and his faithfulness, remember that word, over all
creation. The rainbow around his head points to God's covenant. His covenant faithfulness
going all the way back. We see the rainbow as God's covenant in one story in the Old
Testament. Noah's Ark, right? And so we see the start of that covenant language with Noah
throughout the scriptures and we see that this represents Christ's ultimate control
over history even in the midst of judgment. What in the world does that look like? It
looks like if you are the parent not disciplining the child. You're the other parent. Sometimes
that's a hard place to be. That if you and your spouse, you are disciplining the child
whether time out or spanking or whatever and you're the other one. Sometimes it can be
heart wrenching. Because I remember we had one of our sons, we won't say it, and actually
our Dalmatian was good at it too where they tried to in conflict or discipline tried to
pin us against each other, my wife and I. Yes, the Dalmatian could do that too. But
understand that you have to remain faithful to your spouse in the midst of that. That
what would that look like if while, let's say I was disciplining, Carrie was saying
no everything is okay you don't deserve that. That would be undermining. There would be
a lack of faithfulness and you would be giving a very mixed message to your children. That
really could make a mess of things. But understand that Jesus while God is judging the world,
that there is this understanding that Jesus' God's sovereignty is over all of this. It's
a weird place for us to be. Like why can't God just fix everything? Why does there need
to be these judgments? We're a little over halfway and I know we're all like spent on
revelation and I get it, I'm one of them. But understand that these are judgments, these
are righteous judgments of the only faithful being ever in creation saying one thing and
doing the same thing. There's a consistency in this judgment. There is a love in this
judgment. It's hard to see but it's there and it's hard to see because we in some ways
believe ourselves not deserve it if something's so bad. My sin was little sins this week.
It wasn't big ones. Like I didn't kill people. Yeah I trolled people online and said some
really awful things but I didn't kill anybody. We don't hold the scales of sin. One person
does and we've already seen it in the beginning parts of the book of Revelation. So there's
this weird tension that Christ's ultimate control, love and sovereignty is present even
in the midst of judgment. So the little scroll, the little scroll that the angel gives to
John represents God's word. Specifically one thing and it's very specific to kind of slice
through the onion a little bit. What John is being commissioned to speak is very tasteful
and very wonderful to the lips but very sour in his stomach. For lunch and a conversation
with Pastor Jim, what do we think those are? What is sweet to the mouth but sour in the
stomach when it comes to what John now has to do with it? Anybody? Oh so we're in the
parking lot. That was good but we're not in the restaurant yet. Oh okay. We've left Matt
in the parking lot. Jeremiah and I are now at the host stand. Well now we're back in
the car. Let's start with what's sweet because you guys both went to what's sour in your
stomach. That's probably a conversation for both of us later but what? Yes honey. Okay
but that's what does honey represent? The sweetness of? Oh close. Closer. Thank you.
Salvation. Who got it? Very good. Salvation. So you got water or the drink of your choice.
You haven't gotten the food yet. Take it from the other side. So salvation is sweet. What
is sour? Where are we in the book of Revelation? The judgment. Close. Salvation. The sweetness
of salvation that God loves you. Put your faith in Christ. The sins of the past. The
sins that are. The sins that will be. Christ's blood shed for you and for me. You can have
everlasting life in the person of Jesus. Sweet like honey. Sour is if you don't. And there's
a void there. There's an emptiness. No wonder it's bitter. It's the dual nature of the gospel.
It's the message of salvation to all believers but the part that we really don't like or
we like too much the judgment of the unrepentant heart. There are some of us today that cannot
fathom that there are people that we know in hell. And so we struggle with it. I know
for a lot of you in this room you struggle with it specifically. And for some reason
you whip your back that you should have done more. And again you can't go back but you
can go forward with the fervor of the gospel in your life and the way you engage people.
But notice the dual nature of that. That the salvation is sweet but the judgment is bitter.
So what should that be? That should be a call for all of us. For all of the people we know
in our life that are unrepentant. The people that God puts in our path to give them the
sweet message of salvation. And so John is then commanded to prophesy again reinforcing
the call to the church to proclaim the gospel despite the opposition in history. Despite
the opposition of today or tomorrow or whatever opposition the church comes up with. We already
know the gates of hell cannot overtake the church but we are to proclaim the gospel.
And so what does this mean for us? How do we take these first 11 verses and apply it
to our heart? It's actually pretty simple. Kind of. We are called to proclaim God's word
even when it's difficult or bitter. The message of judgment and salvation is both urgent and
necessary. We cannot shy away from declaring the full counsel of God. And that counsel,
that love, right? That God is that person that hears you and sees you and knows you
and wants the best for your life. You, believer, you, Christian can speak that into somebody
else's life. And what do we call that? We call that witnessing. We call that evangelism.
Right? In our church today, in our little Ileana bubble, right? We can believe that,
well, we can evangelize and tell people about Jesus to people that already know Jesus. That's
not evangelism. That's discipleship. It was the very first sermon I gave at this church
January of 2018 that we do a real bad job of understanding what evangelism actually
is. Evangelism isn't me witnessing to Julie Robertson because I know Julie already believes
in Jesus. Not that it's a waste. We can have good discipleship. We can go deeper in Scripture
together. We can grow in the Lord. But she's already saved. It's finding the unrepented.
It's finding the lost and speaking words of hope. So we have these then two witnesses
on the scene. We're going to jump a little bit between two sets of verses. We're going
to go 3 to 7, then 11 through 13 of chapter 11. And I will grant authority to my two witnesses.
And they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees
and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. And if anyone would harm
them, fire pours out of their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this
is how he is doomed to be killed. They have the power to shut the sky that no rain may
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 kind of plague as often as desired.
And when they have finished their testimony, the beasts that rise from the bottomless pit
will make war on them and conquer them and kill them. Wow. Okay. But after the 3 1 2
days, a breath of life from God entered them and they stood up on their feet. The great
fear fell on those who saw them and they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, come
up here. And they went up to heaven in a cloud and their enemies watched them. And at the
hour there was a great earthquake and a tenth of the city fell. 7,000 people were killed
in the earthquake and the rest were terrified and gave glory to God of heaven, to the God
of heaven. So that's some intense witnessing, isn't it? I know I've gone on to kind of
evangelistic journeys. I've done some street evangelism. I remember my very first time
going to the parking lot of Larkin High School in Elgin, Illinois. My supervisor dropped
me off to witness about 10 feet from the group of kids. I was in my Judson Polo in my cargo
pants and they were not about that. And they pretty much cursed me out and said, go back
to the church. There was a part of me that wished I could breathe bowls of fire out of
my mouth and earthquakes and smite all of them. But that's not good ministry. That's
not a good pastorate, right? And I remember I sat on the stairs pretty dejected and my
supervisor who had peeled out of the parking lot after he pretty much pushed me out of
his car came back and said, do you want to know why that nothing happened there? And
I was like, because they're possessed. And he said no. He said because they smelled your
agenda from a mile away. And that opened my eyes to ministry. That opened my eyes to the
understanding that if we have this agenda to make people different than us, to be exactly
like us, to serve the Jesus that we serve, I think we're doing it wrong. That it's Jesus,
unadulterated, unfiltered Jesus, not Jim's version of Jesus. The power of testimony is
to show where God and Christ has worked in Jim's life. That's not going to be the same
as in someone else's life. That God is going to meet them and going to call them and going
to regenerate their heart in different ways. It's not the only prescribed formula of evangelism
is confessing that Jesus is Lord and believing in your heart that God raised him from the
dead. It's not. You better know, Lord, it's day 19. No. No, that's important. Don't get
me wrong, our confessions deepen our faith, but for salvation, it wasn't whatever polo
shirt cargo pants Jim had for them. There's a relational component to this. But understand
where we are is the end. You and I are in the here and now. We're not at the end. Oh,
I don't know. All these things in the political realm, all of the earthquakes, all of the
fires. You know, pastor, I think we're in the end times. And if that brings you to a
fervor in your evangelism and you want to be like McDonald's, 99 billion people evangelized
and served, fantastic. If you're doing that to pinpoint the day and time that you will
be gone and Christ will come down, I'm not going to follow that with you. I'll listen,
but I will challenge you. The fervor of that should lead to evangelism. Not sitting up
here perched going, yes, the unrepentant will get theirs. That is not what we see.
So these witnesses are at the end. Almost like the final attempt of evangelism and witness
has been given to John. John is now giving it to us. We need to carry that out. The two
witnesses symbolize the church. The church is a prophetic community. They are often compared
to Moses and Elijah who represent the law and the prophets. Their testimony period is
a 1260 days which refers symbolically to the church's witness in the world during the age
between Christ's ascension and his return. Now, symbolizes, not actual data. Okay? So,
Jeremiah, after Christ ascended, what was 1260 days? Ready, go. Exactly. Yeah, and so
understand we have no idea, though Jeremiah's guess is a lot closer than mine would be,
and you all know that. But understand it symbolizes that there is a time period. I liken that
to when you have to give your kids timeouts, when timeouts actually work. We're getting
to a point where we put our boys in timeout and they're like, cool. You're like, that
was a swing and a miss. How can I make this timeout hurt? You'll do timeout upside down.
No, you can't do that. But understand that there is a time period that we set. Have
Alexa set a timer for 20 minutes. You have been set for 20 minutes in your timeout. This
is a set time. There is a set time. When we get too caught up in, we're there, we're at
the day. You can't figure it out. There is no formula to figure it out. What is being
taught to us is that God has set a time. Belgian Confession, the last article, until the elect
is complete, Christ will come back. There's no numeric date. There's no numeric algorithm.
AI can't predict this, but there is a set time. Don't get caught up in the start or
the end. Be in the now. The fervor for evangelism is in the now. One thing we have to see from
the witnesses is they have power and they have power and persecution. They're given
divine power to perform miracles, but they also are killed by the beast from the abyss.
One of the things that this brings out to us is in our evangelism, friends, we will
have successes, we will have failures, and for some of us, we may actually pay the ultimate
price of our lives. What else we can pull from that symbol is that there is persecution
in the church, but the church endures. Even with a world hostile to the church, hostile
to the gospel, the church will endure. Three and a half days later, these witnesses are
resurrected symbolizing the vindication of God's people in the end times. Their ascension
into heaven foreshadows the final resurrection of believers, pointing to the ultimate victory
of Christ and His church. So what does it mean to be a faithful witness in a hostile
world? Our application should be we should be prepared to witness for Christ, knowing
that the world may oppose us, yet we take comfort in knowing that our suffering will
lead to triumph in Christ. Yet for a lot of us, we get hung up with, they're going to
reject my words. I hope you burn. We believe that. We struggle with that. That's a pride.
That is not our call. Clearly, it is not our call of when the burning is going to happen,
but understand that those that are unrepentant, that is where they will end. So what does
this mean? What does this mean as we go to the temple? We go to this understanding of
the temple, of the church, the body of Christ. The temple is going to be brought about, which
temple symbolizes the bride of Christ, the church, us. What does it mean in the beginning
of Revelation when it comes to the temple and the measuring of God's people? The first
two verses. Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff and was told, rise and measure
the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, but do not measure the
court outside the temple. Leave that out, for it is given over to the nations and they
will trample the holy city for 42 months. This is a weird little curve ball. Now we
have a tape measure or this rod. Now we have to measure all those that are really into
numbers. You guys love this, but understanding that measuring the temple means something.
It represents the spiritual protection of God's people. The inner sanctuary where the
true worshipers are, are measured and protected while the outer court is given over to the
nations for trampling, symbolizing the end, symbolizing the church's suffering in the
world, but God's ultimate preservation of the church. Guys, we've hit this almost every
week and we should be so comforted in the fact that he's gone above and beyond to protect
his church that it should cause that evangelistic thrust to really be there. That we should
be able to put that in high octane to evangelize the word of God. Though God's people face
trials they are spiritually secure in Christ. This is a promise of God's faithfulness to
his church even in the midst of tribulation. Now, pause two minutes. Over the last six,
seven years at Munster Church we've seen a lot of grace. We've seen a lot of God's
providing. He's not only provided people, he's providing funds, he's providing ideas,
he's providing visions for the future, he's providing a conversation that is very different
from what this church has gone through in the past of we may close. And that's all well
and good. That God is clearly doing the work. Three things I always remind you, stay excited,
stay humble, slightly terrified. Now you know why I say that. But understand that it's not
about that. We have been protected from the gates of hell that have tried from outside
forces to come in. And we will continue through prayer, supplication, fellowship, worship,
instruction, evangelism, all of those things to continue bringing the message outward.
But what can still decimate this church? Pride, gossip, talking, drawing lines in the sand,
divisions in the church. Let us not get so caught up in our own ideas, our own opinions,
our own desires, our own pound of flesh with brothers and sisters in the church. Free yourself
from that. Little sidebar for some of you, stay off Facebook for the next three weeks.
You may find joy and life in your soul instead of division and anger. Because one thing we
can do is we can decimate a church from the inside out. We are always one step away from
being whitewashed tombs in the church of God. So understand that God is preserving his people
inside and outside the church, but in the end the call is for salvation. The measuring
echoes of Ezekiel 40 where God measures the temple as a sign of his presence and his protection
over his people. It also anticipates Revelation 21 where the new Jerusalem is being measured,
signifying the eternal security of God's people. So even in times of trial and judgment,
how do we walk from this? Even in times of trial and judgment, God knows and protects
his people. He must trust in his sovereignty and his faithfulness even when facing persecution
or hardship. And here's the rub. For a lot of us we look at what is outside coming in.
Let me flip that this week as we come to the table next week. How many of you are doing
the persecuting and creating the hardship for other believers? Because it's all. Yeah,
we have God's sovereignty, his protection. Hallelujah, this is great, but how is Satan
working in your life? Pastor, who are you to ask me that question? Well, you just said
it, I'm your pastor. I also ask that of myself. That though I thank God for his divine protection
over this church, though sometimes it's hard, how are we bringing in the division, the evil,
the sin from the inside out? Because ultimately it will all be judged. Revelation 11, 13,
14, we started with faithfulness, we will end with faithfulness. And at the hour there
was a great earthquake and a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed
in the earthquake and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven. The second
woe has passed. Behold, the third woe is soon to come. The resurrection and the ascension
of the two witnesses followed by the earthquake is acknowledgement of something that we cannot
forget. And it's really hard in this sermon series that this, this, all of this is actually
for God's glory. Now, a bunch of you don't like that. A statistic I could easily make
up is that 17% of us go, this is for God's glory? What about the goodness of the honey?
What about the sweetness of salvation? What about all of the new life in Christ? What
about the baptisms and the professions and the ministry and the trunker treats and the
candy and all of these things? What about all the good things? How is this the glory
of God? Because this is exactly what he said he was going to do. You guys answered it in
the beginning. What is faithfulness? Faithfulness is staying the course. Faithfulness is being
faithful in the moment and being complete, being complete in the process, being complete
in whatever it is, being faithful to the team, faithful to the cause, faithful to the spouse,
faithful to the job, faithful to the whatever. This is God being faithful with his church.
This is God being faithful to the world. The seventh trumpet is about to sound, heralding
the final judgment and the full establishment of Christ's kingdom. Paul reminds us in 2
Corinthians 4, our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that
far outweighs them all. The suffering of the witnesses leads to the proclamation of God's
glory reminding us that our present suffering leads to future glory in Christ. So how do
we do that with the Rinesma family this morning? How do we do that with those families that
are hurting, with the churrillas, with whoever is coming to your mind that are going through
suffering and pain, maybe not persecution in a way that we think, but pain and suffering?
Friends we must hold fast to our faith knowing that our suffering is temporary and the results
will be eternal glory. This should motivate us to be bold witnesses and endure hardships
with hope as Christ's victory is assured. But in the church it's the power of presence.
It's the power of understanding that no matter what I got going on in my life, no matter
what conflicts I may have with another person in the church, another person in another row,
that in times of hardship we rally around our people. We shepherd our people, we love
our people, we come together in prayer and supplication. When someone is dying the divisions
of the world don't matter. All that matters is the peace and comfort of Christ. So friends
we're about to round third. That final judgment is coming so what are we going to do with
it? Let's take away with these because I think we've done enough today. The first is proclaim
the full counsel of God's word. As Munster Church we are called to proclaim both the sweetness
and bitterness of God's word, the message of salvation for the believer and the reality
of judgment for the unrepentant heart. Do not shrink back from sharing the gospel in
its fullness. Number two, be faithful witnesses despite opposition. Like the two witnesses
we are called to stand firm and are witness to Christ even in the face of persecution.
God will vindicate his people in his time. Let this truth embolden us to live as courageous
witnesses with the love of Christ my ad, my edit this morning. Third, trust in God's protection
amid suffering. Though we may experience hardship, persecution, and suffering in the world, God's
spiritual protection is always with his people. We are eternally secure in Christ. This should
bring peace and assurance even in life's most difficult moments. And finally, endure with
hope. Endure with the hope of Christ's final victory. The ultimate triumph of the witnesses
and the resurrection points us to the final victory we have in Christ. Whatever trials
we endure, they are temporary and Christ's kingdom will prevail. Let this hope strengthen
us in our evangelism and our Christian walk. Let's pray.