Revelation 11 By Charles Feinberg Charles Feinberg: Good morning radio friends and friends of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles. This isn't Dr. Talbot but this is Charles L. Feinberg, director of the Talbot Theological Seminary which is affiliated with the Bible Institute of Los Angeles Inc. I'm pinch hitting today for our beloved Chancellor Dr. Talbot, your regular Bible teacher, so that Dr. Talbot may rest his throat. His throat's a little better, but it's a wonder it is as good as it is in view of the many preaching appointments that devolve upon him. Please open your Bibles now to the Book of the Revelation, Chapter Eleven. We'll want to be taking up just exactly where Dr. Talbot left off yesterday. Incidentally, Dr. Talbot says nothing will help his throat so much as to have a large mail. So if you haven't written this month, please get a letter into the mail today. All radio preachers are sensitive to the response of the audience, the radio audience, and I know it would help Dr. Talbot immeasurably if you'd get a letter into the mail today. Now with your Bibles open, beloved, to the 11th chapter of the book of the revelation. You remember Dr. Talbot was indicating the Ministry of the two witnesses and we feel with him the identity of these two witnesses is Moses and Elijah. Feinberg: Revelation 11 After that material has been assimilated, and after that material has been covered by Dr. Talbot, we're not going to be going into it with great detail. But we do want to come now to the 14th verse. The second woe is passed. Behold, the third will come quickly. And the seventh angel sounded, there followed great voices in heaven and they said "the Kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ." it was always his by right, was always his by title, warrantedly his, but as Dr. Talbot pointed out, now that which is his by right will be his in actuality and reality. He will take over and rule. He shall reign for ever and ever, the investiture will take place. Now verse sixteen, the four and twenty elders who sit before God on the throne fell upon their faces and worshipped God saying, we give thee thanks, Oh Lord God the Almighty, who are and who was, because thou has taken thy great power and its reign, and the nations were wroth, and thy wrath came and the time of the dead to be judged, and the time to give the reward to thy servants, the Prophets and to the Saints, and to them that fear thy name, the small and the great, and to destroy them that destroy the earth. Now our parenthesis between the sixth trumpet judgment and the seventh trumpet judgment come to an end. The second one woe has passed, we've read, the third woe comes quickly. Now for verses 15 to 19, we have the last trumpet and the final regime, the final regime. From verse 19 to the end of the chapter belongs to the next chapter, chapter 12, on the woman and the man child and the dragon and the added details of the following chapter. Now verses 15 to 18 don't give us the particulars of the many events of the end of the tribulation period. They go over in a summary way, the seventh trumpet does not bring in the kingdom, it shows its proximity, it's sort Page 2 of 15 Feinberg: Revelation 11 of a preview, a pre-showing, because actually the kingdom itself comes in in the twentieth chapter. This is a preview of that kingdom. Kingdom of this world is going to become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ in actuality and in truth. How the earth groans. How the world of humanity longs for this hour of peace through the Great Prince of Peace. Thank God it will happen when our Lord Jesus Christ reigns. One universal, unified sovereignty and kingdom under the son of David on the throne of David in Jerusalem our Lord Jesus Christ, and remember, we redeemed ones, we who have been bought by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ are going to be there with him. Friend, will you be there? If you've never received Christ as savior, if you're not in the flock of Christ, you're not included in the bride but you can easily get in the bride. He died, the just, for us the unjust, that he might bring us to God. How did he do that? He bore in his own body our sins upon the tree. Why? Because all we like sheep have gone astray. We turned every one to his own way and the Lord has laid upon him the iniquity of us all. How did it all happen? Well, the one who knew no sin, God made to be sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in him. What the great impulse and motivator of it all? The love of God. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Well, you say "it's a rather complicated process isn't it, it's very complex." Not at all. God's made it very simple. What must Page 3 of 15 Feinberg: Revelation 11 I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, acquaint thyself with him and be at peace. Beloved, this one universal, unified sovereignty and kingdom will be the realized experience of the bride of Christ as Christ reigns gloriously. Wonderful then, that God gives us this preview at this particular point. And when you notice that the reigning of Christ is on the earth, yes it is, an important verse--covers it all--is the eighteenth verse. That includes the whole millennial period. That's a tremendously large verse, verse 18. Notice how many distinct features you have in that verse. Covers the whole millennial period to the judgment of the dead. There're going to be rewards differing according to distinct positions to be occupied in the kingdom. There will be differing rewards, ring degrees of glory, but all will be happy. Small vessels, yes, large vessels, yes, great capacities, small capacities, each will be filled according to its own position and condition, and God will be magnified and glorified in it all. The receiving of the reward is definitely the reigning with Christ. Notice verse 19, "And there was opened the temple of God that is in heaven. There was seen in his temple the ark of his covenant. There followed lightnings and voices and thunders and an earthquake and great hail." That resumes the whole history now from a different point, that of the chief actors in the coming event. These verses, I said, really belong to the following chapter. And remember, these events rapidly coming to pass may be on us before many have planned for them; the best thing is to trust Christ. Be saved and be safe forever more. Some say I've noticed in this book of the revelation, the mention of the Ark of the Covenant. Remember, this is not the Page 4 of 15 Feinberg: Revelation 11 Ark of the Covenant on earth, it's the Ark of the Covenant in heaven. We have questions sent into us on this hour and through our Bible Institute hour, which is heard three times a week to other stations. But some ask us, where is the Ark of the Covenant that was in the Temple of Solomon? And, was it in the temple of Zerubbabel? There's no indication that it was in the restoration temple, but it was, in the ark, the Ark of the Covenant was in the temple, in the holiest of all, in Solomon's day. Where is it now? No one knows where it is, a good thing because it would be like the manuscripts, the original manuscripts that came from the hands of the pen men of the word of God. Some folk would find it a thing to be worshipped, a thing to be put above our Lord Jesus Christ. So we don't know where the Ark of the Covenant is, but this is the Ark of the Covenant in heaven. And the mention of that, beloved, shows that we're moving in a realm that relates to Israel. Some folk wonder how we know so clearly that the church will not go into the tribulation, will not pass through a part of it or all of it. How do we know that? Because little telltale signs throughout the book of the Revelation connect these events with the people of Israel, God's earthly people. For instance, the mention of the Ark of the Covenant. The mention of the temple and the very way in which the Lord Jesus Christ appears in the revelation from time to time as an angel. That's Old Testament ground, where he appeared as the Angel of Jehovah, Malakh Adonai, the angel of the Lord. That was the way he appeared to them. We know him now as the Virgin-born one, as the crucified, risen, ascended, seated, coming one. This revolves in the area and in the Page 5 of 15 Feinberg: Revelation 11 field where Israel is expecting their Messiah.