No. 88 - THE TWO WITNESSES By: John J. Blanchard September 9, 2006 Good morning, brethren. Words, that is, speech, can only be uttered after inhaling air, that is, taking breath into the lungs. We can only talk after we take air into the lungs. That breath enters the lungs and expands them, and then when it is forcibly pushed out, we can speak by driving that air between our vocal chords and over the voice box. Air is essential in order to speak. Therefore, it is breath which makes speech possible. This understanding of physical breath and speech is going to help us understand who the two witnesses are, how they communicate and what they communicate. Let’s first talk for a few moments about God’s breath and the Holy Spirit. Turn, if you would, to II Timothy chapter 3:16. “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” This phrase here that all scripture is given by inspiration of God can also be translated, “all scripture is God-breathed.” That term inspiration is the Greek word theopneustos which means divinely breathed in. It comes from two words: theos which means the supreme deity and pneo to breath hard, as for example a breeze. We can see here that scripture is God’s word and it is inspired, but it is God breathed. It is His spiritual breath that forms the word. THE WORD OF GOD For more information concerning the word turn, if you would, to John chapter 1, verse 1. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” In these few scriptures we see that Christ is the Word, and He dwelled with God from time immemorial. We see that His word is also life and light, and it brings life and light to whatever that word exhales on, so to speak. We are going to see this as we go through today’s sermon. The word of God is also called the sword of God. Turn to Hebrews chapter 4, verse 12. “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” The Spirit of God, the word of God, is alive and sharper than any two-edged sword. It is a living, breathing word of God. When we hold the Book, the Bible, those are His words that are God-breathed and God-inspired. They are alive. They are alive to us and to whoever is receiving these words during their lifetime. It could have been five hundred years ago, a thousand years ago, or it could be today. These words are as if God is breathing the breath of life and the truth into our very minds and hearts. It is a living and powerful word. It is also the mind of God. Turn, if you would, to I Corinthians chapter 2. Read verses 9-16. In order to understand spiritual things, we must be led by the Spirit of God, the Spirit of truth, which is the mind power of God. When we have a bit of that Holy Spirit, we have a bit of God’s mind dwelling within us. It makes it possible for us to have the breath of life, the light of the truth and the sword to deal with the adversaries of the faith. This is the sword of God. All of these are alive in God’s word. We also understand that the word of God is truth. John chapter 17, verse 17 where Jesus Christ is speaking to the Father: “‘Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.’” The word that Jesus Christ spoke is the truth, and Jesus Christ is the Word, therefore, He embodies truth. That Holy Spirit leads us into all truth because it is a bit of the mind of God. Turn, if you would, back to chapter 16 of John where Jesus Christ is talking to His disciples. Verse 12: “‘I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.’” Jesus Christ was telling them ahead of time I have much to tell you, but I will tell you at a later time in the form of the Spirit, which is mine and the Father’s mind power. I will bring you God the Father’s word, which is truth. I am the Word, therefore, what I speak is truth. That is why the Bible is the truth. As we saw in II Timothy, the things that are written in the Bible are God-breathed and God-inspired. Therefore, it is the word of God and alive. Christ’s word is embodied in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. They are both God-breathed. A WITNESS OF THE TRUTH To be a witness, one must speak the truth by God’s word using God’s breath (His words). This is how one is a witness of the truth. Turn, if you would, to Acts chapter 1. Jesus Christ is talking to His disciples after His resurrection. Read verses 4-8. We can see that once an individual has received the Holy Spirit of God, they become a witness. Why? Because the truth therein dwells within them. The mind of God dwells within them, and the Holy Spirit leads them. If you notice, the 120 who were gathered and who were faithful were told you will be a witness for Me in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, which they were. But then He said, “‘…and to the end of the earth.’” They did not do that job. But they did give us their written words in the form of the New Testament, and other people who were part of the body of Christ later have taken it to the ends of the earth. Therefore, anyone who is speaking the truth of God is a witness, for the breath of God dwells within them. The truth came as a breeze as the breath of God on that first Pentecost. Turn to Acts chapter 2 for a recounting of this. This is the first Pentecost. Acts 2, verse 1: “When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Sprit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” Once the Spirit of God (His breath and His wind) filled their lungs with the spiritual air, they could then go and speak the utterances of the Holy Spirit. By giving them this breath, they could speak the utterances of Jesus Christ (the Word), and the word He would give them was from the Father. He said I will bring you the words from the Father that you shall say on Our behalf. This gave them the breath of life. It was the spiritual breath of life. THE OLD TESTAMENT AND NEW TESTAMENT WITNESSES Therefore, at that point forward the mind of Christ was dwelling in those who received the Holy Spirit. It was dwelling in the form of the word of God (the Bible which they had). It was the Old Testament, and they themselves were writing the New Testament during their lives. It dwelled in them in the form of the Bible, you might say, as it dwells in Christians who followed the twelve apostles and Paul. They could drink in those words and allow that breath into them. Therefore, at that point when they received the Holy Spirit, they had the living word of God dwelling within them. It is alive. It dwelled in them in the form of the Old Testament and the New Testament. It is two witnesses of the truth of God. When the living words proceed from the mouth of a Christian, the word of the two witnesses is being done. Both witnesses have lived in the Church since that first Pentecost. Prior to that first Pentecost in ancient Israel and the prophets, only one witness lived. That was the Old Testament that they were delivering to the people and writing and studying. So there was one witness until Jesus Christ came. Since the first Pentecost, there are two witnesses: the Old Testament and the New, and they are alive. Jesus Christ puts them within the individuals the Father leads to Him and causes them to receive this breath (this truth), which lives in the form of the word of God within them. This is a spiritual and physical parallel throughout the Bible. The entire Bible is actually the story of the two witnesses. SPIRITUAL BREATH OF LIFE Let’s go back to Genesis chapter 2. In verse 7 we will see that when God formed Adam of the dust of the ground, He had to breathe into him to give him life. “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” It took the breath of God in His nostrils to fill his lungs to bring this pile of dirt to life in the form of Adam. But it also made it possible for Adam to speak. Once he had the breath in his lungs, he could force the breath (the air) between his vocal chords and over his voice box and communicate. He could speak. There had to be a second Adam to bring us the spiritual breath so that we could speak the spiritual utterances of God. I Corinthians chapter 15 talks about the second Adam, Jesus Christ. We will read verse 22 first. “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.” So Christ is a type of Adam, and Adam is a type of Christ. Drop down to verse 45: “And so it is written, ‘The first man Adam became a living being.’ The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.” Jesus Christ became that life-giving spirit, that breath. Continuing in I Corinthians 15:46. “However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual.” We have to first be born physical in order to receive the spiritual breath. Verse 47: “The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.” Jesus Christ was the first physical being (once He emptied Himself of His divinity and became human) to become the first man with the Holy Spirit (the breath of life). He had the physical breath of life as a human being, but then also He had the spiritual breath of life, the Holy Spirit. He was, indeed, that Holy Spirit. He had part of the mind power of the God-head. Whoever has the Holy Spirit, therefore, has the breath of life. Whenever a person in the Church with the Holy Spirit speaks of spiritual things, they are using the breath of Christ (the word of God) over their physical vocal chords to preach the truth. This is what makes them a witness. The Old Testament prophets carried one witness, as I said, and they spoke the word of God which formed the Old Testament. Since Pentecost, we have the ability now in this generation (and all those who came after the apostles and Paul) to speak with two witnesses. These are the two sections or chunks or parts of the living word of God, the Old Testament and the New Testament. Once we have received the Holy Spirit and the breath of life, it is as if you could take the written words of the Bible and they are alive. But they only live to those who have the mind of God, as we saw in I Corinthians. It is as if we could put that in our brain, and as God reveals the truth to us, we can speak the word of God. It is His breath that spoke the word, and it is His breath that comes out through us spiritually. It uses physical air, but it is His breath of life. That is why II Timothy said that all scriptures is God-breathed. DO NOT STOP SPEAKING THE TRUTH When the breath and the truth leave an individual, they no longer have the witness. They no longer have the truth. They cannot speak the truth. If God takes His breath out, we may still have our physical breath, but we are not saying the truths of God. Therefore, we are no longer carrying the two witnesses (the two living words of God, the Old Testament and the New Testament). Isaiah 59 tells us what happens when we stop speaking the truth. In Isaiah chapter 59 we will first read verse 14, and then we will pick up more scriptures to catch the context. “Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands afar off; for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. So truth fails…” Truth is the living word of God. Thy word is truth, Jesus Christ said of the Father before His apostles. And the truth is alive! It is God’s breath. It is God-breathed. It is the living and powerful two-edged sword of God, the Bible. Let’s get some of the context by backing up to verse 1 of Isaiah 59. Verse 1: “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue has muttered perversity.” Let’s stop there for just a moment. It is when we speak untruth, whether by being deceived or willingly by knowing we speak the lies of Satan, that we stop carrying the truth of God. God tells us here in His word that when we speak, our hands can carry blood. When we judge the world harshly and condemn the world to a terrible death and do not stand in the gap to help intercede for the world, in God’s view our hands are bloody. When we speak iniquity, we are speaking lies. Continue reading in Isaiah 59:4. “No one calls for justice, nor does any plead for truth. They trust in empty words and speak lies; they conceive evil and bring forth iniquity. They hatch vipers’ eggs and weave the spider’s web; he who eats of their eggs dies, and from that which is crushed a viper breaks out.” We know that serpents represent Satan, so the lies are doing Satan a favor. He is using people who lie about God’s word for his own ends. God finds this reprehensible. Drop down to verse 9 where Christ says here through His servant Isaiah: “Therefore justice is far from us, nor does righteousness overtake us; we look for light, but there is darkness! For brightness, but we walk in blackness! We grope for the wall like the blind [that is groping for God’s spiritual temple], and we grope as if we had no eyes; we stumble at noonday as at twilight; we are as dead men in desolate places.” I want you to remember that scripture because we are going to go and look at another scripture that ties into that. Continue reading Isaiah 59:11-16. So many in God’s true Church, who have found themselves within the lies that are getting spoken of in God’s name and stand up for the truth, become persecuted. They become the prey when they stand up and say the Church should be standing in the gap for the poor in the world and for the oppressed in the world instead of condemning. We should be leading the world to Jesus Christ and not push them away by our hard attitudes and by portraying God’s truth in a horrible way. Instead we need to be bringing the beautiful truths of God. People are being pushed away from God and making God out to be like a horrible ogre about ready to destroy everyone. We need to bring hope. If we are not bringing hope to the world, God cannot use us as a witness. Jesus Christ was gentle with the poor people and the oppressed. But He was hard on those who should have known better. He was hard on those who had the possibility of studying the Old Testament, the first witness, and getting it right. But for those who were ignorant, he was very compassionate, even when they were killing Him. He knew they did not know their right hand from their left hand. His purpose was to save the world (John 3:16). To be a witness is a very important thing in God’s eyes because we are speaking for Him, speaking His words and using His breath that dwells in us to reach people with spiritual thoughts. That is a very, very important job. In the last days, the truth gets almost entirely extinguished! Turn to Amos chapter 5. Verse 1: “Hear this word which I take up against you, a lamentation, O house of Israel: the virgin of Israel has fallen [God’s Church is considered a virgin]; she will rise no more. She lies forsaken on her land; there is no one to raise her up. For thus says the Lord God: ‘The city that goes out by a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which goes out by a hundred shall have ten left to the house of Israel.’” God is speaking of His Church here. This had a former fulfillment in Old Testament times, and it is having a latter day fulfillment with the Church collapsing and going down. It appears that out of a city of many, many brethren in the Philadelphia era, a tenth are left by the time this whole thing is said and done. It is a very sad situation, but God says I will preserve and tithe. It is very important to Him. That tithe will be able to receive the breath of life and help reinvigorate the Church, at least those who have an ear to hear and those who still have oil in their vessels. We will read Amos 5:7 now and then go to Matthew 25. Amos 5, verse 7: “‘You who turn justice to wormwood, and lay righteousness to rest in the earth!’” We speak the perversities of Satan and terrify the world instead of bringing them to God. We terrify them that God is a harsh and very hard God who is going to destroy the world in a horrible conflagration at the end. When we do this, we are turning God’s beautiful scriptures into wormwood, bitterness and sadness. We are doing Satan a favor, spinning the spider’s web and hatching the viper’s eggs. We do not want to be caught in that situation. As we learn that we have been making a mistake, we need to repent. We need to eat crow and let the Holy Spirit lead us back to the truth. Then we can start telling the world the truth and help our brothers and sisters who have fallen. DO NOT LET THE WICK OF THE LAMP GO OUT Turn to Matthew 25 where it is speaking of the ten virgins. We have long known that this is portraying the Church in the latter days. We have come far enough now through history in the last twenty years to understand what God is talking about here. Read Matthew 25, verses 1-8. They had run out of the oil. They had run out of the righteous character that they should have been developing. They had turned hard and bitter. They had no oil to get their lamps going again. Continue reading in verses 9-13. That is why we so strongly say if we are looking for false signs and wonders, we are going to be unprepared for Christ’s return. We are looking for physical signs such as wars, rumors of wars, famine, pestilence and the Dome of the Rock to fall. Christ said do not look at physical things as signs. They are not the sign of My coming. If we do, we will stop preparing for the return of Jesus Christ, and we will stop filling our vessel with oil. If we run out of oil, we cannot shine with the truth of God. Remember the word is also the light. If we cannot speak the word of God, our wick is going dark. It is getting full of carbon, and it is starting to smoke. The wicks of oil lamps of the Old Testament times and, indeed, right up until modern times are usually made out of flax. It is a linen-type substance from a plant. This linen is what soaks up the oil in the vessel and allows a person to shine. It allows them to broadcast the truth and to be a witness. It allows them to be a light unto the world, as it says in Matthew 5. Turn back to Matthew 12. God knows His Church is in deep trouble. Jesus Christ is not going to let the wick go out for everyone. He is going to use the spark that is left to reignite those with ears to hear in the last days. Then they can be wise and fulfill their destiny. Matthew 12, verse 18: “‘Behold! My Servant whom I have chosen, My Beloved in whom My soul is well pleased! [The Father is speaking of Christ.] I will put My Spirit upon Him, and He will declare justice to the Gentiles. He will not quarrel nor cry out, nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets. A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench, till He sends forth justice to victory; and in His name Gentiles will trust.’” Leading right up to Jesus Christ’s return and the resurrection, God knew the Church would be in desperate straits, but He would not let the spark go completely out. Whoever has enough oil and if their wick still has a bit of the spark in it, God promises to not let that flax get completely extinguished. He won’t let that wick die. What does it take to get a spark in a fire or a spark on a wick to come back to life? It needs air. Don’t we blow on the leaves when we want to get a fire going? We watch that spark come to life. It needs air. That is physical, but in the spiritual realm we need God’s breath to get that spark burning brightly once again. THE BREATH ENTERS THE CHURCH Now let’s turn to Revelation chapter 11. I did not want to start in Revelation chapter 11 where it speaks of the two witnesses. I want to finish there, because we needed all of this other information in order to understand what Jesus Christ was telling us in Revelation chapter 11. We are not going to go through all of the information in chapter 11 about the two witnesses, for it is a huge subject. Let’s read verse 11: “Now after the three-and-a-half days the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them.” The King James Version says the spirit entered the two witnesses. It is one and the same, brethren. The breath, the truth, the word, the sharp sword which lives, the word of God, it is all the same. This is what comes back into the Church. These are not two physical people who have died and lay in the street without getting buried. This is the Church. Remember I told you to remember the verse in Amos where it referred to the walking dead? If we have the spiritual breath of God removed from us but we still have the physical breath of life, we can literally become the walking dead. We need that breath of life from God (the spiritual breeze, the wind from God) to once again reignite the spark to get our wicks burning brightly, so that we can preach the truth. Then we can be one who carries the two witnesses and one who has fought off the lies that allowed the truth to fall in the street. If you heard this message with understanding and you want to know more, I would urge you to get our five-tape set called “The Seasons of the Church”. In that set you will see that the entire Bible is really the story of the two witnesses. It is a huge subject with many details, more than we can put in one sermon, but I wanted to boil it down to one sermon in which you could grasp the main details of the two witnesses. Within that five-tape set there is a tape called “To Be a Witness”. If you want to know more, simply ask. We will be glad to send you this set. If we have ever had the Holy Spirit in our lives and if we still have oil in our vessel, it is very important at the end of the age to understand the subject of the two witnesses and prepare ourselves to receive once again the breath of life from Jesus Christ.