12 Here is the work of the Church: - 13 Here is the work of the Lord:
Here is the work of the Church:
And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, Praising God, and having favour with all the people....
Here is the work of the Lord:
And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. (Acts 2:46,47)
The duty of the saints is to gather together in fervent love for the Lord and for one another, ministering to each other, being built into Christ, the Head, by that which every member supplies.
When the members of the Body of Christ worship God in Spirit and in truth, and minister to one another in love, the Lord will add to the churches those whom He is saving.
. . . upon this rock I will build my church;.... (Matthew 16:18)
It is the Lord’s responsibility to save people and to add them to His Body. When we attempt to do the Lord’s part, placing our attention and efforts toward adding to the church, we gather numbers of people. The moment we take this approach, setting as our goal an ever-increasing number of believers, we may compromise the testimony of God.
Test this truth for yourself. Preach the demands of discipleship in your assembly. Those people who were added to the church by the church will flee. Those whom the Lord has added will shine as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father.
The Christian churches are full of illegitimate children. Their mother is the local church. Their father is the fleshly ambitions of people. They are half-Israelite, half-Egyptian so to speak. They are a "mixed multitude."
Whenever the truth of Christ is preached the "mixed multitude" will grumble, find fault with the elders and with one another, and finally will succeed in silencing the testimony or will leave the assembly. They never have been born of God, born from above. Rather, they were born of the good intentions of the churches as the churches attempted to perform the Lord’s work of adding people to the assembly of saints.
The churches bring in the "mixed multitude" by using fleshly, soulish techniques. In order to keep these members they must continue entertaining them and pampering their flesh. Such members never will tolerate the demands of Christ. They never will forsake all they possess and follow the Lord Jesus.
They are not of the Divine elect, they are not Christians, not saints of God. They are good people who never have been informed of what it means to be a member of the Body of Christ, only of what it means to be a member of the local assembly.
When the Spirit of God begins to move they will rise up in protest because the mixed multitude are children of the flesh, not of the Spirit.
Today’s churches are full of such churchgoers. They are not disciples of the Lord, not Christians. The Holy Spirit is calling to the Bride, to the true members of the Body of Christ. A pastor never has to compromise the demands of Christ in order to please a true saint of God, but he always must compromise the demands of Christ in order to please the mixed multitude in his church.
We see, then, the difference between the testimony of God and the religious efforts of the Christian churches.
The pastor of today, if he is wise, either will sue for peace with the crowd of worldly believers or else leave them and serve the Lord Jesus Christ. If he sues for peace with the worldly believers they will receive him into the eternal habitations after he and they die. If he serves Christ, Christ will receive him. If he cannot make up his mind, or attempts to please everyone, both Christ and the world will reject him.
Multitudes are in the valley of decision. The Day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. We must make up our mind to serve Christ or else become friends of the ungodly and join their ranks. The ungodly may allow us to carry on our church activities because our preaching is harmless and it covers the flesh with a cloak of religion.
Where do the two witnesses come from? Suddenly they are empowered to prophesy to the nations of the earth.
If the two witnesses are Old Testament prophets who are raised from the dead, or dropped down from Heaven, in order to perform the work of testifying that which Christ has assigned to His Body, wouldn’t the Scriptures tell us this is where they came from?
The Scripture appears to assume the witnesses already are present, that power is given to witnesses who are ready to testify as soon as the Lord enables them to do so. The emphasis is not on the sudden appearing of the witnesses nor is it suggested that they have come from any unusual source. The emphasis is on the commissioning of them to bear witness of God.
If the two witnesses were two saints from the Old Testament, the Old Testament would speak of their coming. But since the two witnesses are not from the Old Testament but are Christ and His Body, the Old Testament Scriptures (except for the fourth chapter of Zechariah) make no mention of them.
It seems reasonable that the two witnesses are the saints, God’s elect. In Chapter 10 of the Book of Revelation, which is the context of the description of the two witnesses, the saints are commanded (in the person of John) to take and eat the little book, because they will prophesy again "before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings."
Numerous believers of today are reading and studying the "book." This is a worthwhile practice, but it is not sufficient for the preparation of the saints who will bear the end-time testimony. We must eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ and learn to live by Him as He lives by the Father. Then we shall be built into the testimony and be able to bear witness of the atoning death and triumphant resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and also of the return to earth of Christ in His Kingdom.
The Body of Christ must be measured in order to determine how much more growth is necessary before the Body fits the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
The saints of today are being alerted by the Holy Spirit that a work of Kingdom preaching is on the way. We are praising Christ for that. Then the Holy Spirit points out the sins and rebellions in our lives that must be removed before we can be trusted with the end-time anointing. Truly, the Word of revival is sweet in our mouth but bitter in our stomach. As soon as we have been prepared by the Spirit we shall be ready for the anointing that will empower us to "prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings."
The two witnesses will receive a double portion of the power the Lord Jesus promised to His saints: But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. (Acts 1:8)
Compare: "Unto the uttermost part of the earth;" "Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings."
All the anointed prophets of God were and are part of God’s eternal witness, part of the Lampstand of God of which Christ is the central shaft. It was the Spirit of Christ who spoke in the Old Testament Prophets (I Peter 1:11). All of God’s witnesses are eternal, always standing before Him and always testifying. Noah and John the Baptist still are speaking to the peoples of the earth through the Scriptures.
Men and women of God of various ages have revealed in their lives and ministries some aspects of the glorious works that will materialize during the period just before the return of Christ, the period when the double portion of the Holy Spirit rests on God’s elect.
Note the expression in Revelation 11:4: "the two candlesticks [lampstands] standing before the God of the earth." Now compare I Kings 17:1: "As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand."
As far as we know, only Elijah and Elisha used the expression, "the Lord God before whom I stand." Elijah and Elisha may be the strongest of the Old Testament forerunners of the two witnesses of the last days.
The ministry of the two witnesses represents a change in the type of witness the Church of Christ is empowered to give. And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed. (Revelation 11:5)
This is a remarkable verse because it teaches us that in the last days, just before Jesus returns, those Christians who are bearing the double portion of the anointing of the Holy Spirit will be under Divine protection until their testimony has been completed. Then this protection will be taken out of the way (II Thessalonians 2:7) so the "tares," the kingdom of Antichrist, can come to maturity.
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